Rationalisation of the University's Printing Services

Members will have noted the message in the weekly email for staff indicating that that the University wishes to move from individual desk top printers to ‘centralised’ printers.  In general we welcome this: centralising the service should save the university money overall, and lead to less paper consumption, less power consumption, and is therefore a  greener printing solution.

However, there were some issues raised by members and these were raised, in turn, with Information Services. Our questions are below in black, and I.S. response is in red. Comments are welcome. Email any comments to ucu-aber@aber.ac.uk or comment below.

The confidentiality of data: 

Can you confirm or explain:

a)      if the University plan to install ‘swipe’ cards for all central printers in all departments?  This would seem to be the only way to protect confidential information being accessed by all users. 

Yes, plan is to use either swipe cards or proximity cards for all printers – so confidential print outs will be protected.

b)      that there will be a centralised shredder available beside the printer 

There are currently no plans for this but it certainly could be explored.

c)      that staff who habitually handle personal or sensitive data would be made exceptions and will be permitted to keep their desktop printer 

One aim of the project is to reduce the cost and environmental impact of desktop printing. However, where strong business cases can be made to retain desktop printing this will be considered

Staff with disabilities:

This issue is a genuine consideration and there should be exceptions made for staff who have mobility issues. 

This is an important point that needs to be addressed when buildings are surveyed to ensure that all staff are able to access the service.

Disposal of equipment
 Can you explain how the University would phase out the current photocopying machines given that individual departments may have their own contracts in place with different suppliers?
Departments with their own contracts will move over to the University contract once theirs terminates. Terminating these contracts early will probably be too costly. There may be scope to integrate these existing MFPs into the central system.

Centralising scanning facilities

            It would be particularly useful if there was a centralised scanner on each photocopier / central printer as not all staff have access to a scanner. 

       It is our intention that many (if not all) of these devices will also offer scanning features.