[WinMac] Re: Experiences with Print Manager Plus?

Daniel L. Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Wed, 18 Aug 1999 14:50:26 -0500

        This issue goes back almost 20 years, with Xerox introducing mechanical
"copier key" counters so that the bean counters could "account" for copies
made.

        Guess what?

        It cost more to round up the keys, record the numbers, and bill the
appropriate departments than it did to run the copiers themselves!

        Yes, these Xerox printer/copier machines may cost a lot up
front; but the
"per print" cost is extremely low due to the better (hence more expensive)
hardware.

        My thumbnail analysis:

        1) The print accounting package only measures prints through the NT
spooler, and not copies from the platen itself;

        2) Just "let it fly" and average out the cost among the
departments that
use these devices on a monthly or quarterly basis. This way, it simply
becomes a line item in everyone's budget... It can be on a student
enrollment basis, for example. The key is to make it a *fixed* cost, but a
cost that varies by the quarter (or semester).

        Just remember one key point: As you expand outward the
budget, eventually
it encompasses everything... Just don't get bogged down in administrivia
trying to spend dollars chasing down pennies...

        Just my own two pennies worth,
        Dan

At 02:14 PM 8/18/99 -0500, you wrote:
>We're looking for something to do accounting on our network printers, as
>we've gotten two (expensive) new Xerox printer/copiers and the business
>manager wants to recover costs in a fair fashion.
>
>Xeroxes solution only worked with their printers, only on Wintel
>systems, and besides it was ungodly expensive.
>
>We've found a program called Print Manager Plus
>(http://www.printmanagerplus.com)that _claims_ to support _everything_,
>Mac, Unix, Windows, any printer so long as the printing goes through the
>NT printer queue.
>
>It's also relatively cheap and licensed by the server (the others are on
>a per user basis) so we would only need to buy one copy.
>
>Frankly it sounds too good to be true...does anyone have any experience
>with this software?
>
>--
>Bruce Johnson
>University of Arizona
>College of Pharmacy
>Information Technology Group

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