Print Manager Plus

Manage Users, User Groups, Organisational Units, Printers, and Print Traffic over your network and have full control of your printing resources with Print Manager Plus Network Enterprise Edition.  Corporations have many department budgetary needs.  One of these is printing, which includes monies dispersed for Toner, Paper, Printers, and Maintenance.  Now with Print Manager Plus you can Control and Manage that budget with precision.  You can use Print Manager Plus to audit user printing across a department or your entire organisation.

Monitor all printing with over 130 detailed premade reports and Graphs that allow you to see who are printing, what they are printing, and the cost of that printing.  Bill back department budgets or just examine overall print traffic.  View Printer inventory, usage, and printer infrastructure.

Dissuade employees from printing personal documents, pictures, and emails.  Implement Data Loss Prevention with over 10 permission based restrictions or even hard quotas.  Irresponsible printing puts a strain on your company’s budget and Print Manager Plus can eliminate wasted printing by up to 50% or more on a single network.

Print Manager Plus also fully compliments Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA compliancy by affording you a complete print traffic audit of all documents printed and an enabled release station/kiosk for confidential printing.

If you’re printing environment is a network using Active Directory/LDAP setup Print Manager Plus is the product for you.  The efficiency and speed of the product is transparent to the user.  The product can track any Operating System and uses Windows Server.  Whether your enterprise has 1 print server or 1000 print servers Print Manager plus is truly an enterprise product which allows for full remote administration, and its Ease of Use has made it the #1 Print Management software on the market today.

Track and Audit Printing

Network Data Audited

Print Jobs being routed through a print server will all be audited no matter what operating system the print job is originating from.  Once the print job has spooled through the print driver Print Manager Plus will audit data from Network Sources such as Workgroups, Active Directory, and LDAP.

Network data collected is: User, User Group, Organisational Unit, Printer Name, Printer IP, Server, Printer Group, Workstation Name, Workstation IP, Custom Active Directory fields.

Print Job Data Audited

Print Job data is translated into specific datasets which can be used for full featured auditing and cost analysis.

Print Job data collected is: Pages, Copies, Color, Duplex, Nup, Page Size, Document Title, Bandwidth, Cost, Square Unit and Linear Job Length, for Large Format Printers.

Printers Audited

Printers supported by Print Manager Plus are in the hundreds.  Listing them would be lengthy and not show the actual technical quality of the product functionality without some background data.

Print Manager Plus was created by request from the IT industry at the inception of Microsoft’s Windows NT server release.  Software Shelf took on the challenge of surveying and developing a simple, and easy to use software based product, and it did in 1998 releasing our 1.0 version of Print Manager Plus.  We found that tracking print jobs from operating systems was not as easy as we thought it would be.  The development route we took required that we audit the actual spooled print job file that the printer hardware deciphers to actually print the job.  This required us to be able to look at separate print languages that the printer manufactures write for their hardware.  Since then we have deciphered and audit hundreds of print languages.  This allows Print Manager Plus to track the data needed for a complete audit of all printing traffic over any size network and any printer type.

Printers Audited includes: Dot Matrix, Inkjets, LaserJets, Multifunctional devices, Large Format Printers, and Plotters.

Collecting this data and putting it into a standard database format allows customers to easily set printing Quotas, Restrictions, Rules, Messaging, and create over 129 fully detailed Reports and Graphs of all print traffic.

Control Printing

Print Manager Plus can set Quotas and Restrictions.  Quotas and Restrictions can be set on a single or multiple users, user groups, and organisational units.  Restrictions can be set directly on a printer or group of printers.  Default settings can be turned on for new Users, and Printers added to the Active Directory.

If a print job has been denied because of a restriction or a quota has been met, Print Manager Plus can automatically be set to Pause the print job or Delete the print job.  Pop-Up messages can then be automatically sent to the user’s workstation explaining why the print job was denied.  Low balance pop up messages can also be sent when a user gets close to his quota.

Hard Quotas

• Set printing account balance by all printers.
• Set multiple printing balances per a group of printers.
• Supports all currencies.
• Set page balance.
• Balances can be deducted by set page costs and deductions with factors such as; B/W, Color, Page Size, Duplex, and N-Up printing.
• Set Quotas to reset by day, week, month, or year.
• Set Quotas to accumulate by day, week, month, or year.
• Supports Negative balances.
• Supports separate Cash Balances.

Restrictions

• Set multiple restrictions on a User, User Group, Organisation Unit, and Printer.
• Deny printing for print jobs over X number of pages.
• Deny printing if document size is over X amount of Bytes, Kilobytes, or Megabytes.
• Only Deny or Only Allow printing based on strings or words in the document title.
• Deny printing if the print job is color.
• Deny printing if the print job contains only Black and White.
• Deny printing if the number of copies of a print job exceeds X amount.
• Deny printing if the document is reprinted within so many seconds.  This handles accidental duplicate printing.
• Deny printing based on time of day.  This allows you to set a Black Out time when all printing is denied.
• Only Deny or Only Allow printing if the document is set to print Duplex.
• Deny printing based of the maximum Job Cost allowed per printer, user, group or organisational unit.

Security

• Deny or Allow printing by users who are not recognised by Active Directory.
• Enforce Print Job Verification at Workstation.
• Enforce Print Job Verification at Release Station (optional).
• Supports Sarbanes-Oxley compliancy.
• Supports HIPAA compliancy.
• Supports Data Protection Acts compliancy.

Print Job Verification at Workstation

Print Manager Plus comes with a Print Job Verification application.  The Print Job Verification tool can be installed locally on a workstation running Windows or remotely through Active Directory.  The functionality allows an Administrator to turn this on by printer.

When a user prints, their print job is paused on the print server in the print queue.  Print Manager Plus sends a message to the user and the Print Job Verification tool pops up on the computer screen.  It supplies the user with the exact print job data, such as: Document Name, # of Pages, Page Size, B/W, Color, Print Job Cost, and the new user account balance, if he then decides to print the job.  The user then has a set amount of time to either allow the job to print, or delete the job.  If neither is done the print job is automatically deleted from the print queue on the server.

The set amount of time the user has is set by the Administrator in the Print Manager Plus interface.  The time can be set for any amount.

Print Job Verification with WebAdvantage Suite Option

Built as an Add-on Option to Print Manager Plus, this product redefines print security and simplicity in the same sentence.  Using already existing network resources, with robust and secure login features.  The WebAdvantage Suite Option allows for easy installation into an already existing Windows Active Directory infrastructure.

Using IIS to run from, the WebAdvantage Suite working with Print Manager Plus will allow many different scenarios for Schools, Libraries, Healthcare, Insurance, and Corporate customers.  Integrated with all of your print queues it can be placed anywhere there is a web based or intranet connection.  Users will be prompted for their Username and Password.  Once logged in they can view there print job, and choose to Print it or Delete it, or even pay for it!

Allowing Administrators to display sets of data for when users login, allows full control over printing in public labs, pay for print kiosks, and HIPAA regulation compliancy for confidential document release.

PayPal features have fully been integrated into the product, allowing for full pay for print kiosks or an attendant to charge for printing in any environment.

Messaging

Print Manager Plus uses two different ways to send messages back to end users when a quota, restriction, or security rule has been met.  First the product will try to use the Windows Messenger service.  If this is unavailable then messaging can be used in conjunction with the Print Manager Plus End User Inquiry Tool.

Print Manager Plus comes with an End User Inquiry Tool application.  The End User Inquiry Tool can be installed locally on a workstation running Windows or remotely through Active Directory.  This program sits in the Windows tray and is started whenever a user logs into Windows.  When the user places there mouse pointer over the trey icon it will tell them their current print quota balance and the number of pages they have printed.  The product also has a dual purpose which is, it will display any messages coming from the Print Manager Plus Service when a user has met a quota, restriction, or security rule.

Features include:

• Automatically Delete a Print Job when a Quota, Restriction, or Security rule has been met.
• Automatically Pause a Print Job when a Quota, Restriction, or Security rule has been met.
• Quota low balance warning message
• Quota has been met message.
• Individual Restrictions have been met message.
• User not recognised by Active Directory message.

Reports and Graphs

Print Manager Plus uses a built in Crystal Reports viewer, with over 129 built in pre-made reports and graphs.

Features include:

• Over 129 pre-made reports and graphs.
• Date and Time Value Range.
• Reports by String Search.
• Add Report Title.
• Detailed and Summary Reports with drill down capabilities.
• Print Reports or Graphs
• Zoom In or Out of Reports and Graphs.
• Over 17 export options including: PDF, Html, Rpt, Word, Excel, RTF, CSV, TXT.
• File destinations include: Disk File, Application, Lotus Domino, Exchange, MAPI.

Reports

Reporting includes detailed and summarised data displaying all aspects of printing on your network.  Reporting can be done on these categories:

• User
• User Groups
• Organisational Units
• Workstations
• Servers
• Printers
• Bandwidth
• Savings
• Administration

Graphs

Graphs are pre-made and show detailed data including, Top 10 lists, Most Active, and many other detailed print traffic activity.

• Graphs by Date and Time
• Graphs of Most Active
• Graphs of Bandwidth
• Graphs for Savings
• Graphs by Color, Duplex, and Page Size.

Export Formats

Once a report or graph has been produced there are many export options and destinations you can send the data.  Printing is also an option.

• Over 17 export options including: PDF, Html, Rpt, Word, Excel, RTF, CSV, TXT.
• File destinations include: Disk File, Application, Lotus Domino, Exchange, MAPI.

Product Interface and Usability

The Print Manager Plus interface has been designed over the years but has not changed much.  The style and design has always been in line with Windows and also keeping the product eye pleasing, but most of all easy to use and simple to navigate for any size customer.

As you can see the product is divided up by tabs.  These tabs are Users, User Group Defaults, Organisational Units, Printers, Print Servers, and Reports.

If using Active Directory or LDAP Print Manager Plus will automatically display Users, User Groups, Organisational Units, and Printers.  If using a Work Group Print Manager Plus will display Users and Printers.

All Administration of Print Manager Plus is done from this interface and it can be used for one print server or thousands of print servers over any size enterprise.

Administrative Views and Rights:

Because Print Manager Plus has been fully integrated with Active Directory and LDAP the product can be setup to have multiple views of the interface.  Our Admin Rights allows for a master Administrator to assign lower lever Administrators rights to the viewing and editing of Specified Users, Groups, Organisational Units, and Printers.

When the lower level Administrator attempts to open the Print Manager Plus interface he will be prompted for a Username and Password.  Once he logs in he will only be able to view and edit his specified Users, Groups, Organisational Units, and Printers.

The interface is for viewing, editing, and managing Quotas, Restrictions, Printers Cost, and Updating the software.  The interface is not meant to collect data from; this is done through the Reports tab.

Interface Feature Summary

• Work Group Integration
• Active Directory Integration
• LDAP Integration
• Administrator Rights and Security
• View and Edit Print Manager Plus functions for Users, Groups, Organisational Units, Print Servers, and Printers.

Users Tab

The user display allows the Administrator to view and edit user properties and set quotas and restrictions.

Features include:

• View User Name, Full Name, Domain Name, Account Balance, Pages Printed, Printing Restrictions, Account Update Schedule, Group Membership.
• Search User and Strings.
• Set an account with unlimited printing, Quotas, and Restrictions.
• Set an account with multiple balances per printer groups.
• Change a user’s primary user group membership for print reporting.
• Import a user list for a Work Group setup.
• Adjust Account Balance.
• Add Credit to Account.
• Reset Pages Printed.
• Delete User Account.

User Group Defaults Tab:

The user group defaults display allows the Administrator to view and edit user group’s properties and set quotas and restrictions.  This also sets a default value for any new users added to that group.

Features include:

• View Group Name, Domain Name, Default Account Balance, Default Restrictions, Default Update Schedule, Group Type.
• Search User Group name and Strings.
• Set an account with unlimited printing, Quotas, and Restrictions.
• Set an account with multiple balances per printer groups.
• Create an internal Print Manager Plus User Group for reporting purposes.
• Adjust Account Balance.
• Add Credit to Account.
• Delete User Group Account.

Organisational Units Tab

The Organisational Units display allows the Administrator to view and edit Organisational Unit’s properties and set quotas and restrictions.  This also sets a default value for any new users added to that Unit.

Features include:

• View Organisation Unit Name, Domain Name, Default Account Balance, Default Restrictions, Default Update Schedule.
• Search Organisation Unit name and strings.
• Set an account with unlimited printing, Quotas, and Restrictions.
• Set an account with multiple balances per printer groups.

Printers Tab

The Printers display allows the Administrator to view and edit printer properties and set page costs and restrictions.

Features include:

• View Printer Name, Domain Name, Printer type, Cost per page/inch, Pages printed, Operating Expense, Restrictions, Printer group.
• Search Printer name and strings.
• Set Default printer page costs.
• Assign printer type as Standard (LaserJets, InkJets) or Large Format Printers.
• Assign individual page cost.
• Assign advanced page cost by paper size, B/W, Color, Duplex discounts.
• Supports any paper size by inch and metric.
• Assign Printer Groups.
• Assign Printer Restrictions.
• Assign Print Job Verification.

Print Servers Tab

The Print Servers display allows the Administrator to view all print servers and workstation connected printer agents remotely across an entire enterprise.

Features include:

• View Print Server Name, Domain Name, Type, Status, Master/Slave, and License Information.
• Search Print Server name and strings.
• Stop, Start, and Restart the Print Manager Plus service remotely.
• Edit license key remotely.

Reporting Tab

Print Manager Plus uses a built in Crystal Reports viewer, with over 129 built in pre-made reports and graphs.  The reports interface is laid out by reports categories and can easily be navigated.

Features include:

• Over 129 pre-made reports and graphs.
• Date and Time Value Range.
• Reports by String Search.
• Add Report Title.
• Detailed and Summary Reports with drill down capabilities.
• Print Reports or Graphs
• Zoom In or Out of Reports and Graphs.
• Over 17 export options including: PDF, Html, Rpt, Word, Excel, RTF, CSV, TXT.
• File destinations include: Disk File, Application, Lotus Domino, Exchange, MAPI.

Advanced Features

Print Manager Plus offers other advanced administrative features and shortcuts for database administration and product utilisation.

Features include:

Database Maintenance:

• List and purge orphaned Users.
• List and Purge orphaned Groups.
• List and Purge orphaned Servers.
• Purge all print transactions.
• Purge all print transactions by date.

Advanced Settings:

• Set maximum database log records.
• Database refresh timer.
• Allow Negative balances.
• Print Job cleanup timer.  Deletes print jobs left in the print queue.
• Add, Remove, or Modify Paper Types for all printers.
• Turn on/off Citrix or Terminal Services support.