Foothill-De Anza College Improves Student Printing with ePRINTit

The Challenge

FHDA has supported a strong environmental need to reduce their carbon footprint, provide new technology that would showcase their innovation, especially living in a community where innovation has ruled the world for the last decade globally both in PC, Mac, and Internet and hardware/software leaders such as Mac, Google and Microsoft right at their back door.

The school had an existing print system that required students to load funds to a cash card, also known as a pre-loaded funds card. Printing was sent through a file to print solution that sent the RAW, application file to the printer. Print orders were sent to printers immediately with little security or preview before print.

FHDA has some of the largest labs and libraries in the country, which are fully accessible by the public, across many large campuses located in Cupertino, Los Altos, and Palo Alto California. The College needed a new solution that addressed current BYOD and mobile needs as well as a cashless solution that the students could self-manage. The College was also using a legacy Catalyst student management solution and had an ambitious plan to move towards a modern Canvas solution advancing today to Banner 9.

“As one of the very first colleges in America to move student print and paid printing infrastructure to the cloud, we wanted a secure service that would eliminate print servers, manage student payments directly without payment devices, and provide us with a pay for use solution. We wanted mobile printing, along with secure authentication. We also wanted students to reduce their printing needs, supporting our environmental sustainability goals,” says Joseph Moreau, Vice Chancellor of Technology at FHDA.

The Solution

Through a strict public tender system involving months of testing, ePRINTit was chosen to develop a custom solution that allowed FHDA to eliminate print servers, print driver management, student document storage in a cashless environment that required the students to manage their own accounts. Most important was that students and visitors to the school could access all the features outside of the FHDA Network securely. No more print queue or print driver management. No more pre-loaded cash cards, complete self-management and student control, pay for use as you go with 24-hour online customer support direct to the student.

With the new ePRINTit solution, students were automatically registered through their LDAP. They could send files to their print locker from anywhere, at any time and had full use of the ePRINTit file-to-print driver, LDAP Integrated mobile APP with access to all Cloud and email accounts, web upload, email to print, as well as USB printing. Waste was almost eliminated with no print orders being printed until the student selected their print order and previewed the contents directly at the printer.

In further developments of the ePRINTit solution the technology team and staff at FHDA were instrumental to help design, create a new user interface and be the very first higher education facility in North America that moved their student print production to 100% in the Cloud.

None of this was done in a year, but through annual meetings and consultation with student committees and an academic body that contributed towards a complete change in the way students print today. ePRINTit was successful in helping FHDA reduce wasteful printing by more than 30%!

The solution grew over the next 5-years to become the most advanced cloud print solution globally, reaching millions of users and over 100 countries processing, storing and digitally delivering over 2-million orders per day. The ground work and thought leadership displayed by FHDA should be recognized as the leading foundation of cloud print technology well before any other higher educational institute. The solution grew to much more then student printing, but to a globally recognized Fintech first in the Uberization of print in a student environment.