3.947 charging for network printing (75)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Fri, 19 Jan 90 22:31:25 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 947. Friday, 19 Jan 1990.
(1) Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 18:14:47 GMT (33 lines)
From: Donald Spaeth 041 339-8855 x6336 <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>
Subject: Charging for Laser printing
(2) Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 17:55:01 GMT (22 lines)
From: "Michael E. Walsh" <WALSH@IRLEARN>
Subject: Charging for print (originally network charging)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 18:14:47 GMT
From: Donald Spaeth 041 339-8855 x6336 <GKHA13@CMS.GLASGOW.AC.UK>
Subject: Charging for Laser printing
This is a real problem, and I'd love to hear of a software solution.
I've been at two universities which have solved the problem differently.
At one, where the laser printer was attached to a mini, an operator
removed printed paper and weighed each print "job". At the second,
a charge device was wired into each laser printer. Users bought
"charge" cards with magnetic strips which recorded how much
money they had left. When they printed they inserted their
card and the device debited it one unit for each page printed.
If no card was inserted the printer behaved as if it was out of paper.
The latter system has the advantage that users can control their own
printing, and no operator staff is needed to run it. But there
are logistical problems, e.g. what if someone prints a page by
accident (possibly without even knowing they've done so) or
has no card or money on it--everyone else must wait. It also
does not integrate well with print spooling, although it can work
if people are watchful. One small helpful utility would one which
told a user when their job was ready to print so that they could
then insert their card.
Some of you may be wondering what the fuss is; why not just count
the pages in software? But there is no necessarily relationship
between the length of a document (either in number of pages or
amount of toner used) and the number of bytes/records sent to
a printer. Newpage is a character like any other, which tells the
printer to eject the current sheet. And clever techniques
can probably be circumvented by clever users.
Donald Spaeth
University of Glasgow
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 17:55:01 GMT
From: "Michael E. Walsh" <WALSH@IRLEARN>
Subject: Charging for print (originally network charging)
There is no neat solution. Our approach is to minimise staffing overhead
and not to try to recover costs for resources already consumed.
Our current approach is to attach a magnetic stripe card control unit to the
laser printers, costing about $500, and to sell the cards. The cards are
good for 50 or 100 pages and the cost per card is set to establish your
desired page print cost.
This is working very satisfactorily at a number of Colleges in Ireland. It
is even possible to recover your capital costs in the first days card sales.
Remember that the cost of running a real accounting and invoicing operation
can be much greater than the revenue would justify. Avoid it if at
all possible.
Michael Walsh
University College Dublin
Ireland