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Print Management Program

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Northwestern University is partnering with Ricoh as the single provider for multi-functional devices (MFD) to implement a Managed Print Service (MPS) across both the Evanston and Chicago campuses. The new service will be branded Northwestern Print and will provide unified print services across both campuses for faculty, staff, and students. By implementing a Managed Print Service, Northwestern will reduce costs, improve printing, and copy services across both campuses and offer a consistent, user-friendly experience for all users for faculty, staff, and students. Ricoh has been working with schools and departments for the past two years replacing equipment as leases expire in preparation for this new service. The replacement of MFDs across campus will finish up in 2024.

Northwestern Print is a comprehensive print management program across both the Evanston and Chicago campuses for the use of faculty, staff, and students. Rioch will manage hardware (multi-functional devices (MFD) and Single-functional devices (SFDs) as well as the software, repairs, maintenance, installation, consumables (excludes paper), and related management & support services for the Northwestern University print output environment.


Benefits to the Northwestern Community

A campus-wide Managed Print Service will improve print and copying services across campus. Implementing Northwestern Print will provide:

Project Objectives

Project Status

May 2023: Work has progressed steadily over the winter and spring with Northwestern Print. Ricoh is building out the solution in the cloud and configuring PaperCut to function as how outlined in the various technical and functional planning documents. We expect to have a fully functioning Managed Print Environment by very early June. The final hurdle will be the testing phase to confirm the solution is functioning as required. This will cover all aspects of the printing, copying, scanning functions for faculty, staff, and students. It will review back-end processes and procedures necessary to maintain the services. The testing phase will provide a working environment to finalize training documentation, campus communications, and necessary support documentation.

 A great deal of other work is occurring at the same time. Ricoh continues to install new equipment across campus and to work with units when their current devices need to be replaced.  Teams are working on finalizing training documentation and options. The communications group has developed a communications plan and communications for campus. Support processes and procedures are being finalized. Ricoh is planning out how their deployment process will onboard schools and units into Northwestern Print.

We now expect that the faculty and staff from the Pritzker School of Law and the University Libraries will join Northwestern Print in late June. NU Print, the current solution for student printing at the libraries will migrate over in early July, followed by other schools, departments, and non-academic units through the rest of the summer. We expect the onboarding into Northwestern Print to continue well into the fall.

Project Timeline

The target dates on the following timeline are subject to change as the project progresses. The table shows a list of phased of the project from March 2021 through August 2023 and their status.

Project timeline table
Phase Target Date Status
Kellogg Early Deployment June 2021 Completed
Planning and Design phase:
  • Hardware Discovery
  • Solutions Requirements
March 2021 – October 2022 Completed
Solutions Design January 2022 - February 2023 Completed
MFD Hardware Replacements June 2021 - August 2023 Ongoing

Communications Plan/Communications templated messages

March 2023 - May 2023 Completed
Developing Training Material January 2023 - June 2023 Started
Support Process - Ricoh/NU January 2023 - June 2023 Started
Implementation of Solution - Ricoh May 2023 - June 2023 Started
Deployment Planning - Ricoh/NU April 2023 - June 2023 Started
User Acceptance Testing/Completion of training and support documentation, and communication messaging. May 2023 - June 2023 Not Started
Pilot at University Library/Law School June 2023 - early July 2023 Not Started
Training  (To coincide with onboarding into Northwestern Print) June 2023 - Not Started
Migration off NUPrint - student printing July 2023 - Not Started
Deployment to schools, departments and non-academic units June 2023 - December 2023 Not Started
Replacement of devices with leases expiring during FY24 September 2023 - August 2024 Not Started
Deployment to schools and departments April 2023 - August 2023 Not Started
Onboarding of devices with FY24 replacements September 2023 - August 2024 Not Started