By Emily Rachelle Russell | Contributor
An email from Taylor University's Post Office this summer announced new PaperCut software along with the personal identification numbers this software requires to make copies.
Though the announcement caused initial confusion, students who have learned how the new process works feel it will ultimately benefit everyone. "I think that with anything new, most people are probably confused," junior Alyssa Henrikson said. "I think the point of it is to save money with paper, which makes sense . . . it will make it easier on staff."
Taylor University installed PaperCut, a tracking software for copies made on departmental printers, during the summer. This move was part of a nine-month process toward streamlining printer reports intended to make printing and copying easier for student employees and staff.
Using the old software, student workers couldn't print to department printers. Print jobs from members of different departments using the same machine required reinstalling the software between print jobs. But the new program allows students to print directly to Konica Minolta staff printers and enables different departments to print to the same machine using department codes.
According to Steve Neideck, director of University Press, Taylor signed a new contract with Perry Corporation, a long-time partner, in December 2015. The printers in use by departments at that time were replaced with Perry Corporation's newKonicaMinolta models over winter break. In early August 2016, Taylor's IT staff worked together with Perry Corporation to install PaperCut software.
"We were trying to find a way to more accurately and efficiently keep track of the number of copies being made across campus-and also to bill them all," Neideck said.
Students need the personal identification number emailed this summer if they're making copies for a Taylor department but not for personal printing done at the library. Billing is then charged to the department, not the student.
This software is a transition from a manual system previously used to track copies. Before PaperCut, copies were tracked by individuals referred to as "key users." Those key users would then send reports to the post office staff. Neideck's team sorted and organized reports by department to send to the business department for billing.
Now, reports are tracked, sorted and submitted to the post office by the software. Neideck's only responsibility is forwarding the information to the business department. This means less work for the post office staff but does not change any current job titles or positions on campus.
Nick Corduan works for Taylor's IT department and played a large part in the transition between softwares. He said Taylor had a previous version of PaperCut installed, which is the same program still in use to track students' personal print jobs in the library. The changes made only affect department printers.
"It's a new way of accounting for what's always been accounted (for)," Corduan said.
