Mobile & BYOD printing

BYOD (Bring Your Own) Mobile devices are now accepted as playing an essential role in many organizations and are here to stay. However, providing printing support across the varied devices available is challenging as there are many competing technologies with no standardization. Current mobile printing solutions are problematic because:

• There are lots of choices

• They might not be compatible with your printing infrastructure or are difficult to integrate

• They keep changing

There is no current "standout" mobile printing solution that is the best for all platforms. Rather, each platform has its own native or preferred option. PaperCut harnesses each of the native printing solutions to create a unified solution for your organization. PaperCut's approach is to:

• Integrate with the native printing solutions on each platform,

• Ensure that all of PaperCut's core print management features are available,

• Provide a natural print experience across all devices,

• Allow organizations to re-use their existing print infrastructure (no need for special printers),

• Ensure that all users can be accommodated by providing simple options, such as, Email to PrintEmail to Print allows any device to print documents by sending an email to your network's print devices. and Web PrintWeb Print enables printing from user-owned devices without the need to install printer drivers and manage server authentication..

This section describes the various tools that PaperCut provides for mobile users and how they can map to your organization's needs, no matter how many users you are supporting. In addition it provides some guidance on how to approach deployment and troubleshooting.

The Process:

• Step 1 - Understand the tools

• Step 2 - Understand your users

• Step 3 - Develop your strategy and deployment plan

Step 1 - Understanding the tools

Before planning your deployment, you need to have a good understanding of the tools and technologies. A number of these technologies might already be in place in your organization, while others are made possible with PaperCut. The key technologies are:

• Native mobile print technologies

  • iOS printing (iPad & iPhone)

  • Google Cloud Print

  • Windows 8 tablets & Windows RT printing

• PaperCut-provided technologies

  • Email to Print

  • Web Print (driver-less printing via a web browser)

PaperCut integrates with existing systems to complement native print technologies with print management functionality. Additionally, PaperCut technologies such as Email to Print provide alternatives on platforms where a native approach is not available or practical.

Table 51: Technology benefits

Technology	Benefit
iOS printing (iPad & iPhone)	iOS provides users with a native and mature print experience on iPhones and iPads. Users can select various printing options, such as, copies and grayscale, and can print from many applications without the need for additional software. Users can use PaperCut via the Mobile Client app.
Google Cloud Print (GCP)	GCP is Google's preferred mobile and Chromebook (Chrome OS) printing experience. It is the native printing experience for Android, Chromebooks, and Google applications on iOS. GCP is also an option for laptop users (when using the Chrome browser or a custom driver/service). All of PaperCut's print management features integrate with GCP.
Email to Print	A lowest common denominator, and simplest solution that works on any device that's able to send email attachments. PDF, picture files or Microsoft Office document attachments are converted to print jobs.
	A simple web based experience suitable for any BYOD laptop or Netbook users. End-users upload their document via a standard browser form. No special or client print driver setup required.

The remaining parts of this section cover each of these technologies in detail. Ultimately hands-on experience is the best way to understand the approaches and technologies. Your deployment plan, discussed below, will likely have a testing period to help you understand and assess the technologies before committing to them. This is discussed more in the following steps.

Step 2 - Understand your users

Every organization has a different mobile & BYOD strategy. Small organizations might implement one technology, while larger organizations with dedicated IT departments might have a multi-faceted approach. Your strategy is driven by your particular environment and user needs. The range of end user drivers is diverse - some examples:

• Many education organizations are now allowing students to bring their own laptops, or are considering supplying Chromebooks or iPads.

• In business it's no longer 'one person - one device'. It's now desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile. Some have standard operating environments, while others support a broader spectrum or even a BYOD policy.

• And then there are the unexpected needs, such as Joe Exec turning up with his new Christmas present (a tablet) expecting to print.

After reviewing the user needs for your organization you'll know your device profile. Each device platform has preferred and supported approaches to printing. Use your device profile and the priorities of your user base to help determine the best technologies:

Table 52: Technology options

	iOS Printing	Web Print	Google Cloud Print	Email to Print
Android	N/A	N/A	Preferred	Supported
iPhone/iPad	Preferred	N/A	Preferred in Google iOS Apps	Supported
Chromebooks (Chrome OS)	N/A	Supported	Preferred	Supported
Netbooks	N/A	Preferred	Supported	Supported
BYOD Laptops	N/A	Preferred	Supported	Supported
Windows RT & Windows 8 tablets	Use standard Windows Printing with Mobile Client	Supported	Supported	Supported
Google Mobile Apps (many devices)	N/A	N/A	Preferred	Supported
Other (e.g. Smart Phone)	N/A	N/A	N/A	Supported

Step 3 - Develop your strategy and deployment plan

As with most IT projects keeping the solution simple as possible but satisfying the majority of users is the preferred approach.

Smaller teams need to balance the needs of their users against the complexity of implementing multiple technologies.

Larger organizations with dedicated IT teams have the benefit of scale. Offering choice to support the widest range of devices might be the project goal.

Each organization differs in terms of rollout strategy. Here's a few checkpoints to work through to make sure everything is in place:

• Setup - Can this be done without impacting current users? Are there network or hardware requirements such as purchasing a Mac, or managing user accounts in Google to use GCP?

• Test - Before advertising any new feature, can you test it with a small group of users? Maybe you have a small group that's been requesting the feature. They will be eager to test it, and will hopefully come back with fresh feedback.

• Communicate - Before you roll out functionality, think about how you can most effectively communicate this to your users. Maybe a step-by-step guide via email is a good place to start.

• Rollout - Execute your plan. Larger organizations implementing a multi-platform/technology plan will conduct the rollout in phases.

• Manage - Don't forget to keep management in the loop with the different stages of the project. PaperCut has in-built reports on mobile print usage. These are useful tools.

• Evaluate - Continue to monitor usage and user requirements. If you introduce new device types in the future, it might be time to consider introducing different methods to print.

At a technical level, it's also important to understand IT infrastructure requirements and the impact your choices have on your data and security policies. The table below hightights some of these considerations.

Table 53: Technology Options

Technology	Data Flow	Print Options	Basic Requirements	Other Limitations
iOS Printing	Internal	Basic options, provided by iOS. Usually: Page Size Color	iOS devices. Mac print serverA print server is a system responsible for hosting print queues and sharing printer resources to desktops. Users submit print jobs to a print server rather then directly to the printer itself. A print server can be a dedicated server but on many networks this server also performs other tasks, such as, file serving with PaperCut, or 3rd party Windows app.	Multiple subnet configuration can be challenging without 3rd party utilities.
Google Cloud Print	Internal / external	All options, provided by Google Cloud Print. Usually at least: Page Size Duplex Color	Users must have a Google Account.	Depending on configuration, users might not be able to print from all applications. Exporting to PDF and printing from a browser is a common workaround.
Email to Print	Internal (maybe external depending on mail server configuration)	OS print queueA print queue displays information about documents that are waiting to be printed, such as, the printing status, document owner, and number of pages to print. You can use the print queue to view, pause, resume, restart, and cancel print jobs. defaults only (currently theree are no options selected by the user). You can create multiple OS print queues with different defaults e.g. a 'duplex queue'.	POP3 or IMAP email server. Optional sandbox machine / VM running Microsoft Office apps.	PDF and picture files only or PDF, picture files and Microsoft Office documents if a sandbox is configured.
Web Print	Internal Possible to make external by exposing the PaperCut user web interface to the internet.	Number of copies only, other settings use OS print queue defaults. You can create multiple OS print queues with different defaults e.g. a 'duplex queue'.	Optional sandbox machine / VM running Microsoft Office apps.	PDF and picture files only or PDF, picture files, Microsoft Office and XPS documents if a sandbox is configured.

Detailed information on each technology is provided in subsequent sections.

Common questions that come up during planning

Do I have to turn on all of these mobile solutions at once?

No. It's best to pick the ones that are suitable for your environment, and perform a controlled rollout of the new feature.

Email to Print works with all platforms. Why would I not just implement this?

This is a viable option and one that many organizations adopt. Our recommendation is to look at native print options first where possible. The benefit for native print options is that they offer a richer and more familiar end user experience.

What does it cost to add BYOD features to my PaperCut installation?

All BYOD features are included in the standard PaperCut license. There are no additional licensing costs.

I want to allow printing, but I don't allow mobile devices to connect to our network. Is there an option?

Google Cloud Print and Email to Print work without requiring users to connect to your network.

I want to use Google Cloud Print, but don't want users sending documents via Google's servers. Is there a version that I can run on my own server?

Although Google Cloud Print uses open protocols (and upcoming standards), Google is the only server provider we're aware of at the time of writing. By contrast, Email to Print involves documents routing via your email server, and iOS Printing (if you are supporting mainly Apple devices) is network-internal.