Just outside London, Brentwood School operates as one of the UK’s most celebrated institutions, preparing 1,500+ students for everything around life’s many corners.
The amazing part? It’s done so since 1557.
What it hasn’t done for so long is maximize its printing setup – but that was before IT Manager Sarb brought his PaperCut-powered skills and Job Ticketing to the party 🎉
Old school, new-school thinking
With not quite as many years under his belt, Sarbjeet “Sarb” Singh is Brentwood School’s ex-pupil turned exceptional IT Manager – and he’s hugely proud of the school’s astonishing tenure, and deserved reputation.
“We’re unique in that we focus on being a great all-rounder, and encourage our students to succeed at what they’re best at… It’s what we’re known for,” Sarb remarks with a smile.
As someone who relishes in tech rollouts, he’s also proud of how – even after 461 years – his beloved school doesn’t sit on its infrastructure and tech laurels.
“Brentwood’s constantly redeveloping, whether it’s through building projects or technological developments – we actually just implemented a one-to-one iPad program for all staff and pupils in the senior school.”
So when they were looking to do their pupils and print management justice, we knew we’d be a great fit. Turns out Sarb did, too.
Print maestro Sarb looking the part
Brentwood School and PaperCut get together
Out with the old
“We had a printing software solution up and running, which was good at the time, but it was really expensive – particularly for the Education Sector."
With hundreds of printers (and counting) in the mix, Brentwood School’s printing costs were “spiraling out of control”, as Sarb so delicately puts it.
And to make things worse, they had nothing set up to monitor the crucial ‘who’, ‘what’, and ‘how much’ of printing.
“We needed to put some rules in place so that we could control our spending and have better visibility on our printing behavior.”
Better visibility, you say? Fewer costs, you say? It was meant to be!
Simple, transparent printing loved by all
“I still remember the [PaperCut] demo to this day. The simplicity of it, and how easy it was to use really stood out – even in that first meeting.”
But winning over the IT manager’s only half the battle, as Sarb very well knew. Users had to be on board, first and foremost.
“Initially, like with any change, users asked, ‘Why do we need to do this?’ We made sure everything was set up to be really simple for them – we didn’t want to overcomplicate things, or add additional work.”
Fortunately for him (and for Brentwood), the benefits were immediately appreciable, justifying the rollout and then some.
“We showed them the raw cost of printing each time they printed. People realized it was coming off their virtual allowance, so they began adopting a real ‘think before you print’ mentality.”
It’s also been a real hit with department heads, thanks to intuitive and detailed reporting. Not to mention, it’s made Sarb’s job a whole lot easier.
“People can login themselves and take control of their area. PaperCut’s just really easy to get around – even for a novice. I think the last time I logged in myself was about a month ago!”
One of Brentwood’s beautiful PaperCut-ready labs
Job Ticketing seals the deal
It wasn’t just printing visibility and accountability that Brentwood wanted to improve upon – they had something a bit more specific to solve: managing print-related tasks that aren’t printing.
“There was no way of keeping a log of secondary printing tasks, like laminating and binding… It was the one big piece that was missing for us.”
To Sarb’s delight, Job Ticketing – PaperCut’s solution for unifying every task across every type of print room – slotted in wonderfully.
“Everyone’s finding it [Job Ticketing] super easy to use. They can upload files and select what needs to be done from a predefined list, just like a shopping cart.”
Outside the print room, Job Ticketing’s notifications functionality is also a huge boon for convenience, especially in light of Brentwood’s campus size.
“The school is huge, so if a teacher from the nursery needs to go to the print room, it’d be a 15-minute walk – and Job Ticketing notifies that teacher when their job’s ready for collection.”
Brentwood School today
Nowadays, the ever-generous Sarb has nothing but good things to say about PaperCut’s impact on Brentwood.
“I was after a ‘one-stop shop’ printing solution, and I really haven’t looked back after implementing PaperCut. It keeps getting better and better.”
What a gentleman. Here’s to the next 461 years together!
