Smooth transition to cloud printing
Bookers Group Oy is a domestic sales service group employing over 250 top professionals. The company’s IT Director Juha Tikkanen explains that the need to clarify and simplify the company’s IT infrastructure was a key reason for implementing a cloud-based printing solution. The previous solution required a separate print server for secure print management, and its operating system support was ending. Additionally, as the company was increasingly moving towards cloud-based solutions, it was natural that printing would also move to the cloud. At the same time, the old printers were nearing the end of their service life and were updated as part of the renewal.
Solution selection and implementation
With the assistance of Above IT, Bookers decided to implement cloud printing using Microsoft Universal Print service and Printix print management solution. Universal Print enables printer management from the cloud, and Printix brings secure printing features that ensure documents are printed only to the right individuals. Universal Print itself includes a secure printing mechanism, but not quite as advanced security features, which is why Printix was chosen to complement the solution.
“Our starting point was to maintain the user experience as similar as possible to the previous system, but without a local server,” Tikkanen says.
The implementation went mostly smoothly, although challenges were encountered along the way, such as device compatibility issues. At Bookers’ offices in Helsinki and Kuopio, the implementation was ultimately successful, with the system being fully remotely manageable.
Bookers’ cloud-based printing is based on the following elements:
- Microsoft Universal Print: Enables printer management from the cloud, without the need for local servers. Printix complements this with its management features, also connecting older printers as part of Universal Print management.
- Printix secure printing: User authentication and print release are done using an ID card. Bookers also evaluated Microsoft Universal Print’s QR code-based secure printing, but it was perceived as more complex for users than using an RFID card.
- Azure Entra ID and Intune: For user identity and device management.
- HP’s cloud-compatible printers: Directly support cloud printing and enable easy management. HP devices also support automatic maintenance and ink delivery systems, which optimize resource use and reduce manual management.
Benefits and impacts
The transition to cloud printing has brought several significant advantages to Bookers:
- Cost savings: Removing local servers reduces maintenance costs and hardware purchases.
- Reduced IT department workload: Management is done centrally through the cloud service, which reduces manual work.
- Security: Secure printing ensures that sensitive documents are not left lying around printers.
- Ease of use: Users hardly notice the change, as the printing process remained almost identical to the previous solution.
- Reporting and monitoring: Universal Print offers usage and print reporting features, which Bookers is not yet actively utilizing, but it could be a future development area.
The future of cloud-based printing at Bookers
Bookers is moving towards a fully cloud-based IT infrastructure, and taking printing to the cloud was one step in this process. “The goal was to make printing as simple and effortless as possible, and we have succeeded in that,” Tikkanen states.
The collaboration between Above IT and Bookers continues, and future development areas could include, for example, even better monitoring of printing and environmental friendliness. One possible direction for development could be optimizing print volumes and monitoring environmental impacts using reporting tools.
“We wanted to simplify our IT infrastructure and reduce unnecessary maintenance, and the cloud-based printing solution has helped us with this. Now we don’t have to worry about maintaining our own servers, but we can manage the printing environment centrally and efficiently. For users, the change was almost unnoticeable, but from an IT perspective, this is a clear improvement,” Tikkanen summarizes.