Dam IT policies. - Printers

[thefatdx]

Originally Posted by Alfonzo

From a desktop support perspective...

Enjoy supporting your own PC. We have a similar policy on printers here in this building, only each of our floors is set up with its own copier. I remember back when we started it up, there was one unit manager who tried to circumvent this policy and went and bought his own little inkjet, only to call up and try and get me to look at "this strange printing problem" he's having.

Walked up, saw the actual problem was with his inkjet, said "sorry, out of scope" and walked off. Entirely not my problem.

As for the issue of printing sensitive documents, we have secure print set up as a default setting on everyone's computer.

This

Although, if systems were designed properly in the perfect world. End users would not be able to install their own printer

[MR CHILLED]

I tried added a hub and printer to the network a few years ago.....unknown device was detected and I was told it had to be removed

Same went for all the other NAS devices that people had accumulated over the years too.

[scrantic]

No individual printers here except for accounts department which have their own for cheque/invoicing.

The rest of the MFP are controlled by...

www.papercut.com

[HumbleBum]

BYOD policy ftw..

[gords]

Originally Posted by HumbleBum

BYOD policy ftw..

Yep, so what are people that BTOD going to print to? Lug in a printer from home? Who pays for the toner, servicing and support?

OP, the problem is not the concept of having centralised printers. In this case, it sounds like the needs of your users haven't been taken into account when providing print services. That's what sucks, not an IT policy.

[Miff88]

buy a real business printer which supports locked jobs. That will solve your confidential printing issue

[chip]

I'll bet the lifetime CPP* of that $37 brother is bit higher than the 0.055 cents per A4 impression we're paying for the last couple of MFDs we got.


*maintenance and consumables only

[Phido]

The irony is that our on site IT people had been buying inkjet printers for people ???! They also had a swag of older Hp printers from sites that had been closed. God knows what an old HP 6 toner costs now. And inkjets for a business environment? Some had to be taken back because they needed to be able to print on water proof labels...

Which is what I think really prompted this policy. Unfortunately it seems to be a bit late in the piece. They should actually go out and do an audit and get a strategy together and phase out old pieces of junk. Of course what would I know, I'm just an academic manager.

Yes, I did a formal case, we have 25 staff with no printer access on this floor who really do need it. It kept going around in circles, ironically because I didn't ask for an individual printer initially (which I would have gotten).

My total outlay was $37. I've printed 10 pages so far so good. I looked at the $40 printers at office works, they seemed like toys, no permanent paper tray etc. 8Mb ram will limit the type of documents it can print (no high res stuff). I bet I would be lucky to do 500 pages a year off this printer, its just the stuff I print needs to be in confidence or needs to be done regardless.

Don't speak about bring your own desk, you will give them ideas.

[darth_wolf]

Originally Posted by Phido

Don't speak about bring your own desktop, you will give them ideas.

Desktop, not desk.

[Combatants]

Originally Posted by Phido

My total outlay was $37. I've printed 10 pages so far so good. I looked at the $40 printers at office works, they seemed like toys, no permanent paper tray etc. 8Mb ram will limit the type of documents it can print (no high res stuff). I bet I would be lucky to do 500 pages a year off this printer, its just the stuff I print needs to be in confidence or needs to be done regardless.

Don't speak about bring your own desk, you will give them ideas.

8mb ram to limit the documents you can print... ive NEVER EVER EVER! seen a single A4 page be even CLOSE to 8mb, and your talking about a cheap mono laser... facepalm.jpg

simply put, if you want a new printer have a look at your floors total prints and suggest to your manager/higher power that your brother which costs around 6-8c a pages could be replaced with an A3 MFD at 0.7c a page with service included add onto that high quality + faster print speeds.
If that fails tell him walking up and down stairs is affecting your health :P
had a customer by a machine purely because the end users (teachers) complained they had to walk an extra 40m down a corridor....

[HumbleBum]

Originally Posted by gords

Yep, so what are people that BTOD going to print to? Lug in a printer from home? Who pays for the toner, servicing and support?

OP, the problem is not the concept of having centralised printers. In this case, it sounds like the needs of your users haven't been taken into account when providing print services. That's what sucks, not an IT policy.

If its so important, and fits into your allocated budget for the year, then I really dont see a problem.

We are allocated a pool of funds, if a $37 printer and $60 cartridge is important to you, knock yourself out.

We have people now solely running on ipads in the work environment. No desktop required. The next stage will be.. do you even need a desk now or will a meeting room suffice?

See where I am going here?

[Alfonzo]

Originally Posted by thefatdx

This

Although, if systems were designed properly in the perfect world. End users would not be able to install their own printer

This would be the out of scope problem I was talking about.

Originally Posted by Phido

Don't speak about bring your own desk, you will give them ideas.

Oh god I'd love that! I'd bring my own leather high back chair that's actually comfortable!

[chip]

Originally Posted by Phido

The irony is that our on site IT people had been buying inkjet printers for people

Suddenly, personal laser printers don't seem so bad...
It does sound like your workplace isn't run that well.

[Phido]

Last workplace I did bring in my own desktop. It raised hell, (desktops were a status item, we were meant to used a desktop pool if we needed a computer) then they made me in charge of IT (+ my existing duties), so I left got a whopping promotion and now I'm back to head butting policies. Its so much easier if they just let me write them all. I even took to a company desk with a drill and a power saw to accept and secure it.

Honestly I'm not cut up about spending a few dollars every year to make my job much easier. I try official channels, if it doesn't work I just do it anyway. I betting I will never change the toner in this printer. $37, it will save me an hour a week (at least!) waiting at the network printers/copiers for my stuff to come out or being taken and me having to go downstairs print it again and race up stairs. This printer will pay for itself in the first week, I will go home 1 hr earlier that week and all is good.

8Mb ram can be an issue for some stuff (images, ppt, pdf) but I will see how I go.

Also policy is only 1 type of printer can be acquired. (Colour MFD a3 laser with 2000 paper ). If you need a printer you can only acquire this type. It is impractical to fit into an office.

Guys we have big commercial printers. But locks are off because ~50% of our staff are casual.

As for bringing your own desk.. Big bang theory? bring in a massive desk..

[SNip3D]

1 printer for each floor. end of story.

Boom!