The School District of Altoona (Wisconsin) has a student population of just over 1,600 students spread across four schools.
Technically progressive, the schools were early adopters of Google’s G Suite tools and Chromebooks. However problems with printing were a constant issue, with the existing cloud print solution causing printers to go offline every few days. Even installing PaperCut MF didn’t solve the problem completely.
That’s when the schools’ network specialist found a solution.
One of the four School District of Altoona schools with disappearing printers
Printers going offline with existing cloud print system
The district’s four schools had been using G Suite successfully since 2011. When Chromebooks were introduced in 2012, everything worked well except when it came to printing.
“The printers went offline every few days, and I dealt with it,” says network specialist Andrew Lierman. “I’d have to restore the services every so often.”
Even installing PaperCut MF failed to solve the problem: “We got PaperCut in 2014, and started doing cloud print through there,” Andrew continues. “But we still had problems with printers going offline.”
Network specialist Andrew Lierman
PaperCut Mobility Print introduced
It was a conversation with printer vendor EO Johnson that changed everything for Andrew and the school district’s printing problems.
EO Johnson recommended PaperCut’s Mobility Print feature to Andrew, with bring your own device (BYOD) technology solving the puzzle straight away.
“Since Mobility Print’s been around, everything’s just been rock solid and smooth,” says Andrew.
Released in 2018, Mobility Print makes printing from portable devices like Chromebooks, iPads, laptops, and mobile phones incredibly simple to implement and use.
“It’s been really great and very easy for kids and staff to print anywhere they need to.”
Altoona, home of the railroaders
No more printing problems
With G Suite, PaperCut MF, and Mobility Print working perfectly together, there’s not much keeping Andrew up at night anymore. “When I leave work, I leave and I don’t think about anything,” Andrew says with a smile.
“I know it’s going to work, and I know it’s going to make life easier for everyone else.”
Speaking of easier, Altoona recently introduced Google’s Secure LDAP technology into their print environment, which means users can now authenticate at the printer using their Google credentials.
“As soon as I saw Secure LDAP was released I turned that on,” Andrew says. “Makes it even easier for printing because they don’t have to type in their credentials now. They’re already logged in on their Chromebook, they can just click the button and away they go.”
