The Concept and Design of an Open Integrated Print Charging System

Print management solutions are necessary for organizations that need to monitor, report and charge printing or photocopying usage, especially in large domains where business goals require streamlined procedures. High-end print management systems offer integrated credit reception and efficient, parametrized accounting for the use of resources. The usage of printers and photocopy machines is controlled and monitored, and, through the latter, waste elimination is achieved. Print management inherently conforms with the rationale and mentality of green and eco-friendly technologies that also relate with the ethos of the open source movement in IT. One would expect that open source print management solutions would thrive; however, the vast majority of integrated management systems are commercial. There is only a small number of valuable open source print accounting solutions, but there are none that integrate accounting with a form of credit reception. This paper presents the design of an open system that integrates the provision of automated credit reception with accounting services in order to produce an open solution that fully automates the business process of print charging. The objective is to design the necessary automations for credit reception so that it can be realized without any human intervention, to plan the integration with a suitable open print accounting system and to specify any complementary utilities and tools necessary for production installations.