Solving the printing dilemma in co-working space

Co-working spaces are popping up all over the globe. From Wellington to Morocco you can pull yourself up a chair and get working at a hot desk. The co-working space industry is predicted to continue growing rapidly as demand increases to have a flexible workspace.

There’s one teeny tiny thing that’s frustrating users, though – printing.

Today, we are going to solve that teeny tiny problem once and for all. But first, some background. 

Co-working spaces are everywhere

According to coworker.com there are 1,794 different co-working spaces to choose from in the United States. Over 500 in the United Kingdom and 300 in Australia. There’s a large variety of spaces from casual drop-ins to long term and laid back to super corporate spaces.

Many individuals have never used a printer at the co-working space as it was just too scary for security reasons. Something as simple as printing out meeting minutes could turn into a nightmare, for both the person printing and the people managing the printing system. Those poor IT department/sys admins!

Solving printing in co-working spaces

Luckily PaperCut works in co-working environments. Here’s how PaperCut can make everyones life easier in co-working spaces.

Cost Recovery

Managing printing is a must in these environments for cost recovery. There are a few different ways to charge people/businesses for the printing they do.

One example, you could allocate a quota per user/business and wrap the charge up with their monthly fees. If they reach their limit you can charge for their extra printing. With 50+ one click reports, you’ll have full visibility of all printing in your environment.

There’s also the option to integrate PaperCut with co-working space management software, to make billing users and receiving money even easier, which leads us to…

Integrations

Integrate PaperCut with third party billing systems or payment gateways, such as PayPal.

For example, you may have heard of Nexudus, a common platform to manage coworking spaces. They’ve done the heavy lifting for their customers and built an integration to PaperCut software. You can allow users to go into a negative balance on their PaperCut account and it’ll pull that data to automate invoicing customers, not only printing but also renting the space. So no need to manually work out print costs via PaperCut.

Officially, there are more than 50 PaperCut integrations available (unofficially it’s hundreds).

Mobile and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) printing

Mobility Print – Papercut's BYOD solution – is an absolute lifesaver in a co-working environment. You can literally print from whatever device you bring to the co-working space. Smartphones, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks you name it.

By following a few simple steps, users can quickly discover and print to any printer, without requiring the assistance of a techie. No finding drivers, no joining domains and the best part is each user will have to verify who they are before they can print – ensuring all printing is accurately tracked and charged, making reporting and cost recovery a breeze. Too easy.

Embedded solution and secure print release

Ever hit CRL+P and sprint to the printer so no one sees what you’re printing? Those days are long gone with PaperCut MF and secure print release. You can securely release your print job when you’re standing at the printer via password, pin, or swipe card. This is key when sharing a building with other businesses and hiding secret start up ideas.

The embedded solution also tracks copying jobs and unlocks the world of scanning. Easy scanning to email, folder or cloud storage and turning document scans into text-searchable and editable smart documents to retrieve information easier than ever.

PaperCut for co-working spaces just makes sense. Less time worrying about printing, more time working. PrinterWorks West is proud to partner with such an established software solution company and are fully trained in all things Papercut. Contact our sales team today to start the process. Contact us here.