Who Has My Print Job?
If you find yourself on a quest or in a race to get your printed, documents, then you could benefit from follow me printing.
You start out by selecting the printer believed to be the most efficient for your business. Then, after you hit print and you walk to the printer you realize your printed material is missing. You begin to ask everybody in the office “Did you pick up my report on project X.” After a few trips around the office, still empty-handed, you decide it would be faster to simply print it again.
I will print it and sprint to the printer to ensure that I get my print job, you think to yourself. So you go back to your computer, hit print, lace up your running shoes and take off in a sprint to the printer.
Your phone rings as you get to edge of your office. It stops you in your tracks because you have been playing phone tag with a big prospect for days now. You whirl around and grab the call. Congratulations, you won at phone tag. However, while you were celebrating victory connecting with your big prospect, your printed documents were left unattended.
It’s ok. Everybody knows you were just looking for a print job. Everyone, except Betty. Betty just printed her church bulletin on the same office printer, and you guessed it, your freshly printed documents found their way in the middle of Betty’s good deed.
Freshly off your phone tag celebration with the best prospect in the world, you realize you still have on your running shoes. Oh yea, I was running to the printer to pick up my report on project X. So you head over to the printer to pick up your second victory, your document. Aaargh! It is not there for the second time in 30 minutes. Before you pull out the remaining hair on your head, take a deep breath, there are ways to avoid participating in the document scavenger hunt.
The first solution is simple. Place a table beside your printer and train every one of your employees to place abandoned print jobs on it. Easy as pie, right? Yes, as long as everyone participates and your job does not come out in the middle of Betty’s church bulletin prints again. If the content of your print job is sensitive the table is not going to remedy the issue of curious eyes in your organization, leaving your documents unsecure.
The second solution is what we refer to as follow me printing. Following me printing requires authentication for your printed documents to be released at the print device, protecting your documents from being lost or unsecured. This is how it works. After you have printed your document a printer server holds your print jobs in a queue. The queue in the print server knows who you are and what you are printing. Now when you walk up to the printer, you need to authenticate yourself to retrieve your personal and secure print queue. Once you have authenticated yourself at the print device, your queue is available. This allows you to print your job and take the important prospect phone call without worrying if Betty is going to get your print job.
We do take your print efficiency, productivity and security seriously. We want to help you secure printed content no matter if you are printing project x report, patient records, employee information or top secret content, while at the same time ensure you are not spending time and dollars on lost documents. Your productivity is our mission. And, we can design a printing environment that is secure and efficient – saving your running shoes for the weekends.
Ben Clark
Software Sales Specialist
Ben is a software specialist with RJ Young and works with businesses to design solutions to realize efficiencies while boosting productivity. Prior to joining RJ Young he worked in information technology support and account management for business-to-business companies. Ben is originally from Fort Worth, TX and works out of our Memphis, TN office. In his spare time he volunteers for his church, the Bartlett Basketball Club and can be found cheering on one of his many favorite sports teams.