Pharos

What do you like best?

Enables us to have users print from any of the computers in our lab and holds the print job until they swipe a student ID that has enough stored value to pay for the job. Low overhead cost lets us charge just a couple of cents per page to cover supplies.

What do you dislike?

Complex setup means only 2 of our staff know all of the nuts and bolts required to set it up if we deploy a new image to the computers in the lab. Also, very different setup process for Macs vs PCs means that there are two different systems to learn. Because we don't reconfigure it often, we have to go back to the setup instructions every time. And keeping track of them is a pain. (We got better at this a couple of years ago, when we did a "Business Continuity" review. I would recommend that for any users of this system.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

It's been the leader in its field for several years - for good reason

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

For us, it solves the problem that "free printing" leads to overuse / abuse. Charging just a few pennies per double-sided page isn't a financial burden for users, but makes them stop and think. Also, the process of authorizing the job to print via Pharos stops accidental printing.

Also solves the problem of administrators not wanting us to provide printing. Allows us to recover the costs of allowing users to print, without making a profit on them.