Print management for schools that pays for itself
Managed print services and PaperCut-style print management for schools and trusts across the UK. We supply, install and support your print fleet, put secure release on every device, and show you exactly what printing really costs — all included with our service, not sold on top.
Trusted by schools nationwide since 2000.
The true cost of unmanaged printing
Printing is one of the last unmanaged budgets in most schools. Devices are bought ad hoc, toner is ordered in a panic the week before reports go home, and nobody can say what a single printed page actually costs. When we run a print audit, the same problems come up in school after school:
Nobody owns the number
Print spend is scattered across capitation budgets, department orders and emergency toner purchases, so the total cost is invisible until year end.
Too many devices, in the wrong places
A desktop inkjet in every office is the most expensive way to print there is — often several times the per-page cost of a shared multifunction device.
Uncollected printing
Trays full of abandoned printouts are wasted paper and toner, and when those pages include pupil data, they are a safeguarding and GDPR problem too.
Downtime at the worst moments
Report season, mock exams and Ofsted week are exactly when an unsupported copier chooses to fail — and when a four-day manufacturer callback is unacceptable.
A managed print service fixes all four: one fleet, one contract, one predictable cost per page, and one support team who already know your school.
Managed print, done the way schools need it
We are a schools-only IT support provider, not a photocopier salesroom. Print management sits inside the same service that runs your network, your devices and your helpdesk — which is exactly where it belongs, because almost every "printer problem" is really a network, driver or server problem underneath.
Our managed print service for schools includes:
Free print audit
We map every device on site, meter real usage, and give you a clear picture of current cost per page — before you commit to anything.
Right-sized fleet design
Shared multifunction devices where they earn their keep, smaller devices only where genuinely needed, and a plan for retiring the expensive outliers.
Supply and installation
We source, deliver, install and network every device, working around the school day and using holiday windows for larger rollouts.
Automatic consumables
Toner is monitored remotely and despatched before it runs out. No stock cupboard full of the wrong cartridges, no emergency purchases at retail prices.
Break-fix support and maintenance
Print issues go to the same helpdesk as everything else. One number, one team, no arguing with a third-party copier company about whose fault it is.
Transparent per-page billing
A single cost per mono page and per colour page, agreed up front, covering service, parts and toner. Illustrative example: a typical two-form-entry primary printing around 40,000 mono pages a month can budget the whole year from one line on one invoice.
PaperCut-style print management software
Hardware is only half the answer. The software layer is what turns a pile of copiers into a managed, measurable, safeguarded print environment. We deploy and support PaperCut and equivalent print management platforms across school and trust sites, configured for the way schools actually work:
- Secure print release. Jobs are held on the server until a member of staff releases them at the device with a card tap or PIN. Nothing sensitive sits in an output tray, and abandoned jobs are automatically purged instead of printed.
- Follow-me printing. Staff print once and collect from any device on site — or on any site across the trust. If the staffroom copier is busy, collect at the office instead. No re-sending, no duplicates.
- Quotas and rules by user or group. Sensible defaults such as duplex-by-default and mono-by-default, colour restricted to the users who need it, and optional page quotas for pupils. Small rules, large savings.
- Departmental and cost-centre reporting. See printing by user, department, device and site, so leaders can put real numbers against curriculum printing decisions. All reporting on this page is static and illustrative — your own reports come from your own environment.
- Simple onboarding. Accounts sync from your existing directory, so print follows the same joiners-and-leavers process as everything else we manage for you.
Safeguarding, GDPR and exam security
Print is a data protection surface that most schools overlook. Every safeguarding referral, SEND report, staff contract and mock exam paper passes through a print queue at some point.
No documents left on trays
Secure release means confidential material only prints when the right person is standing at the device.
Auditable print history
If a document goes missing, the print log shows who printed what, where and when.
Hard drive hygiene
Multifunction devices store copies of what they scan and print. When we refresh or remove a device, its storage is securely wiped or destroyed — it never leaves site with pupil data on it.
Exam-season confidence
Restricted release groups for exams officers keep papers locked to named staff and named devices.
This sits alongside the wider work we do on safeguarding and filtering — print is simply another place where pupil data has to be kept safe, and it is treated with the same seriousness.
Cut cost and waste without cutting what teachers need
Schools do not print for fun; they print because the curriculum demands it. Good print management does not ration teaching — it removes the waste around it. Typical results we design for (illustrative figures, not live data):
Every figure above is an illustration of what a well-run print environment achieves; your audit gives you your own numbers before you spend a penny.
How we roll it out
Most single-school rollouts complete inside a half-term, with the install itself done in a day or two around teaching.
Audit
We survey every device, meter usage for a representative period and benchmark your real cost per page. Free, and yours to keep whatever you decide.
Design
A right-sized fleet plan with clear per-page pricing, a software design for secure release and reporting, and a phased timetable that respects term dates.
Install
Devices delivered, networked and tested; print management software deployed; staff cards enrolled; old devices removed and data-wiped.
Support
Consumables managed automatically, faults handled by our helpdesk, and a scheduled review of usage and spend so the fleet keeps fitting the school as it changes.
Part of a complete school IT service
Print management works best when the people running it also run everything it depends on. Because we already manage the network, the servers and the devices in 249 schools, print becomes one less contract, one less supplier and one less finger-pointing exercise.
IT support for schools
the helpdesk your print faults go to, alongside everything else
Broadband for schools
the connectivity that cloud print platforms depend on
VoIP for schools
the other half of the comms picture: telephony run the same managed way
Network and data cabling
the infrastructure that puts a device exactly where the school needs it
Device procurement and leasing
the same disciplined buying approach, applied to the rest of your hardware
Existing clients can log print faults and consumables requests the usual way through the Customer Portal or by calling 0115 9170 197.
Frequently asked questions
No. The audit looks at what you already own and lease. Devices that are modern, efficient and in the right place stay and are brought under management; only the genuinely expensive outliers are scheduled for replacement, usually as existing leases end. The aim is the lowest whole-life cost, not the largest possible hardware order.
Yes. We regularly design around existing lease end dates, take on the software and support layer first, and phase hardware changes as contracts expire. The audit will show whether early settlement ever makes financial sense — in most cases a phased transition is cheaper and less disruptive.
We deploy and support PaperCut and comparable print management platforms, and we recommend whichever fits your environment and budget — including what your trust may already own. You get the outcomes — secure release, follow-me printing, quotas and reporting — without being locked to a single vendor's pricing.
Staff print from their laptop or desktop as normal. The job waits on the server until they tap their ID card (or enter a PIN) at any managed device, which then prints it there and then. It typically adds two or three seconds at the device and removes every document from every output tray in school.
Yes — this is where print management earns its keep fastest. One software platform across every site gives the trust a single view of print cost by school and department, common rules and quotas, staff who can print at any school they work in, and consolidated per-page billing. We support 20 trusts and can phase a trust-wide rollout school by school.
Find out what printing really costs your school
Start with a free, no-obligation print audit. We'll meter your current fleet, show you your true cost per page, and give you a clear plan — whether or not you take it any further with us.