Is anybody else using PageTrac. Our company is getting into it in order to get accurate and timely meter reads. Just getting more involved with it and it looks like a good system. If anybody else is using it maybe a forum area for issues that come up with installations or managing problems. Just a thought.

elheather,

It doesn't look like many people have responed to your post. Could you provide us some ideas how you've implamented it into your customer accounts

It's a third party program that needs to be installed at the customer site on 1 PC, on the same network as the printing/MFP type device is on. The printer must have SNMP enabled in order for the DCA program to collect information and then pushes it out to a web site where, we the service provider, can obtain meter readings that are updated hourly. We have been using it for over a month now and have learned more about it. The customers like it mainly because we don't have to bother them each month to get a meter reading from them. There still is the need for manual input of the meter reads from the web site to our billing system, but we are working on a way to automatically transfer the meter readings into the billing system so there will be no chance for human error in transposing numbers. It beats estimating meters reads and also can be used for print/usage studies if customer have a large fleet of networked printers. Check out www.pagetrac.com, more information can be found there.

I don't know if they are any better, but there are several other options. I have been shopping for the same sort of product. Other possible products:

Imaging Portals
Print Fleet printerRx

To me, printer Rx sounded the best, because it has a local utility to forward counts from local printers, and exports the cumulative report results in CSV format for importing into your favorite database.

I will check out pagetrac, though. Thanks. =^..^=

PageTrac also has a program for printers connected to PCs locally, a local beacon program gets installed on that PC to gather the print counts that get generated through the print que, then the DCA program, either installed on the same PC or another PC on the network, collects that info and transmits it out. All these programs probably do pretty much them same thing, it will probably be a decision based on the best deal you can get from the company that hosts/supports the webpage where the meter reads can be accessed.

This is great infomation. What about the price of the these products? I am assuming there is a base fee + subscription that is associated to it.

Yes, there is an initial fee and a per device management fee. I, as a lowly tech, don't know the exact amounts involved with this, however our company must think that this is worth it. They are pushing getting it installed every where we can. Print studies can be done on connected devices and the customers usually like it if you can show them where printers are either under used or over used.

Works great, as long as the customer has service pack 3, (XP), and .net framework installed. How may PC's have I had to upgrade??MANY! but worth it. The program costs under 50 cents per machine,per month, so you have to weed out the stuff that isn't yours. You do this remotely from Pagetrac website. Plus you can set it up to generate reports to your email, so if u got an intermittent jammer out there, you can know if its even having problems before they call you. It even tells you the average density of the prints, good stuff!

Glad to hear some others using it. We have over 300 of our customers reporting on it. We have learned alot along the way also, don't install the local beacon if the copier/MFP device is connected via the USB port or Parallel port, all you will get is the "Printer" counts since the local beacon program uses the printer que as the source for "clicks". If you have any Muratec devices on the network that you wish to capture you must update the NGP firmware to the most current version and then make sure that SNMP is started. You must also change the default scan timeout to 5000ms. You will know if the NGP is not up to date because the 2030/1430 models will reboot themselves every time the DCA runs and the 2050/1450 models will just lock up and will need to be powered off then back on. We are also using PageTrac for print studies at customer locations in an attempt to get customers with HPs and other printers under some sort of maintenance agreement and generate more cash flow. The installation is pretty easy, unless you have to install the .netframework, then plan on an extra 30minutes of your time taken up, depending on the computer. Hey Drewsup we may just be talking amongst ourselves if you're who I think you are. If you are, is it pretty smokey up your way, I heard that around 13,000 acres have been burnt and quite a few houses lost also. How's Mr. Dorman doin, I hope to get some more training classes with some other tech's from the other branches to put faces with names.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: elheather,

Is that you Eric??? thanks for the Muratec insight, I have a 1450 that has locked up since PT was installed, I must go there NOW!!! Yes, very smokey, all major roads closed every night till 10 am. Poor Jason lives right in the thick of it! Every time I see his truck, its covered in ash!