Requirements Document for ROI Print Assessment/Print Manager

Transcription

1 Requirements Document for ROI Print Assessment/Print Manager Print Manager Pre-requisites for a successful deployment Contents 1. What is - a. Print Assessment? b. Print Manager? c. ROI Analytics? 2. About the Software - Network Consideration 3. Network Architecture Diagram 4. Recommended Hardware 5. Contact Details: a. Dealer b. Customer c. ROI 6. Network Checklist 7. Test Criteria & Sign-off Last updated December P a g e

2 What is ROI Print Assessment? ROI Print Assessment is a proven software application used by small and large organizations globally that is essential to understanding your print environment and is the first step of a Managed Print Services (MPS) program. Most print assessments are one dimensional and only show printer volumes. ROI Print Assessment gives a multi-dimensional view of your print environment, outlining printer activity along with detailed user level and workflow information. ROI Print Assessment provides a 30-day window into your print environment by collecting information at the workstation level, tracking local printers and network print devices. At the end of the assessment period, a comprehensive report will detail user s page volumes, job costs, applications used, most expensive printers, most expensive users and associated volumes. ROI Print Assessment highlights waste and inefficiencies that can produce immediate savings. The information is vital to guide printer consolidation programs, selecting the right equipment based on actual usage and helps align equipment placement with users workflow. What is ROI Print Manager? ROI Print Manager is a software tool for on-going tracking of users printing activity. It provides a unique customizable pop-up to encourage or direct users to the most cost effective printer, reduce color printing, encourage or force duplex, move large print volume to a production print center, and provide education on advanced print features or alternative paperless workflow. The ROI pop-up message can provide users with instant access to support resources and print drivers. The possibilities of user management with ROI Print Manager goes beyond least cost printing. Additional features include: User Quotas by application, volume, color or black & white printing. Limit printing from certain applications like Internet Explorer or Outlook. What is ROI Analytics? ROI Analytics is a complete reporting package that provides detailed reports to analyze and understand your print environment. Easy to view reports provide an executive summary of the overall operation including printers, users, print volumes and paper consumption. Template based report software allows you to build simple or comprehensive cost models that may include: capital equipment cost, consumables, maintenance kits and toner coverage. Printers can be grouped by class for easier identification. The report identifies high-volume users, most expensive users, most expensive printers, least used printers and users who are not adhering to the print strategy. ROI Analytics can import groups for individual reports that can be used for print billing. 2 P a g e

3 About the Software - Network Considerations ROI Print Manager is designed to have minimal impact on your network environment. It consists of agents that are remotely installed onto client machines that report back to a central database via a web service. The information is collected when a user prints a job and the information is sent to the web service which is located on a server hosting the ROI Software (the ROI Admin Console). The format of the data is XML and is sent using SOAP to the web service which is then handled by the web service and sent to the database. The default database that comes with ROI Print Manager is SQL 2005 Express. ROI recommends using a full version of SQL if you are deploying agents to 2000 workstations or more and are deploying in Print Management or Print Reporter Mode. For larger networks, Load Balancing within the software allows the agents to update within a scheduled time. This reduces both traffic on the network and load on the ROI server. Very large networks of over 5000 workstations may require more than one ROI Admin Console. ROI Admin Console software resides on a server within your domain provided it meets required hardware specifications based on the size of the network. It can be installed on a virtual machine. Data is collected from the Windows Print Spooler on the client workstation, so non-networked (local) print info can be collected and there is no effect on print server queues. The data is then sent to the ROI Print Admin Console. Server Services must be switched on and Admin $ must be enabled on the client workstations to be able to use ROI s built in push technology. Alternatively, an MSI package can be created for deployment via SMS or most third party push utilities. Size of installed Applications: ROI Print Manager Application 27 MB - ROI Agent 4 MB Size of the MSI package for deployment: 8 MB Installation of ROI Print Admin Software: 1 hour Agent deployment per workstation (Using ROI push) sec A typical deployment to 300 workstations at 15 seconds each would take approximately 1 hr and 15 min. Network Traffic: Data is transmitted back to the ROI Print Admin Console in small XML packets each time a job is printed from a client workstation keeping network traffic minimal. The packets are no more than 1KB in size. 3 P a g e

4 Notes: The ROI Print Manager agents should be deployed to client workstations only. Agents are not to be deployed onto servers. Domain Administrator rights are required for deploying client agents. The installer will need Domain access rights on the Admin Console machine to be able to push the agent across the network if using ROI s internal push technology. ROI Agents use HTTP and XML over port 80 to communicate to the ROI Print Admin Console. The ROI Print Admin console should not have other applications that utilize Port 80 loaded. Antivirus: Antivirus software can be installed on the printer management console and Clients and should not affect the operation of ROI. ROI software works fine with Antivirus software in most configurations. If the Antivirus software is at its most restrictive settings, it may try to block the Client Agent from installing. In this case, an exception can be created within the antivirus software if needed. The specific files that should be excluded in a restrictive AV environment are: actrl.exe, tca.exe, and xcmd.exe. In very restrictive environments xcmdsvc.exe and tcalog.exe may need to be excluded as well. Firewalls: The ROI Print Admin console cannot have a personal firewall on until all agents are installed and reporting in. Client Workstations must have their personal firewalls disabled if using ROI s internal push technology to deploy the agents. Once the agent is deployed and communicating, the firewall can then be raised and it will communicate through it fine. If there are personal firewalls up throughout the network and they don t want to disable them, an.msi package can be created using ROI s Agent Packager and the agent can be deployed via login script, SMS, group policy or most 3rd party push utilities. These methods install the agent before the firewall is activated. Permissions: When deploying the agent, write permissions to the registry are required. To deploy via ROI s built in push technology, domain admin rights are required on the ROI Admin Console for deployment. 4 P a g e

5 Citrix: ROI Print Manager is a Citrix certified application. For Citrix installs, careful note should be taken for the hardware specs of the Citrix servers. I.E. HD space, processor, RAM and number of users logged into the server at one time (Load). Large Networks: In networks of 2,000 workstations or greater, a full version of MS SQL is required. In networks of over 5,000 workstations, multiple ROI Admin Consoles may be required. Large networks can utilize multiple ROI admin consoles as needed (I.E. multiple sites/cities). The data can be recombined into one report as needed. Alternatively, one ROI Admin Console can be used for multiple sites / Cities dependent on the hardware specification and network load. Network Architecture Diagram 5 P a g e

6 Recommended Hardware ROI Admin Console Minimum Hardware Specifications: Intel Celeron 3.0GHz 2GB RAM 60GB HD with 20GB Free space Larger networks may require more robust hardware for the Admin Console machine. ROI Admin Console Requirements: Microsoft Windows 2003, 2008 (32 and 64bit) SQL Server 2005 or newer (SQL 2005 Express is packaged with ROI software) NET Framework v2.0 minimum ROI Print Manager Server Software downloaded (from Internet Information Server (IIS) with the following components: 1. Common Files 2. FrontPage 2000 Extensions (Print Management Mode only) 3. Internet Information Services Snap-In 4. World Wide Web Server SERVER 2003 IIS Components: Install IIS along with ASPNET Make sure Active Server Pages and ASP are allowed under the Web Server Extensions in IIS Manager. Worker Processes should be limited to 5 ASP.NET state service should be started and set to automatic. SERVER 2008 IIS Components: Make sure IIS6 Compatibility components are fully installed. Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is fully installed. Ensure the ROI Webserver Application pool is set to integrated See Screen shot for Web Server Components. 6 P a g e

7 Client Agent Software Requirements: OS support: Windows NT, 2000, 2003, 2008, XP Pro, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OSX 10.4 and above (Home versions not supported) (32 and 64 bit versions are supported) Agent is 7.49MB installed Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher is required. Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 or higher is required. To guarantee accuracy of data recorded by the Agents, monitored applications must use the Standard Microsoft Windows printing subsystem. ROI Print Manager utilizes TCP/IP port 80 by default. 7 P a g e

8 Contact Details To be completed and returned to Print Control Software prior to deployment: Dealer Name: Address: City: State: Rep Name: Phone: Analyst s Name: Phone: Customer Name: Address: City: State: Site Contact Name: Position Phone: Other Site Contacts- Name: Address: City: State: Name: Address: City: State: Site Contact Name: Position Phone: ROI Support Phone: support@roiprintmanager.com 8 P a g e

9 Network Checklist To be completed by the Customer and returned to Print Control Software prior to deployment: What date and time do you plan to install? Date: Time Who is the IT contact on-site? Name: Phone: Hardware / Software Specs for ROI Admin target Machine Proc Speed: Ram: HD size: OS: Number of computers to be deployed to? #: Installing rep sign here: How are they to be licensed? PA, PR or PM? Print Assess (30 day) Print Reporter Print Management Are personal firewalls active in the Network? Yes No How is software currently deployed? SMS Zenwk Login Script Group Policy Other Do you have Laptop users? Yes No Are any apps using the Webservice on the target ROI Admin Console box?(port 80) Yes No Explain: Will you collect data from multiple domains? Yes No Will you collect data from multiple sites / buildings / Cities? Yes No Will your network allow ROI to dial in remotely for support? Yes No Are you printing from apps that don't use Windows Printing? Yes No Explain: Is any job tracking software currently running on the network? Yes No Do you have a mixed OS environment? Yes No # IPP # MAC # OTHER: Are you running a VM environment? Yes No Are you running Citrix in your environment? Yes No Can you ping computers by Name? Yes No # of Users per server Server Specs Can you access computers shares at \\computername? Yes No Are you running AV in your environment? What type? Yes No Type: Version of Mac OS on Client Workstations Do you agree to assist with possible troubleshooting if required? Yes No Signature: 9 P a g e

10 Testing Criteria & Sign-off Suggested process for software testing and network deployment. INSTALL STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 Target Action Approx. Completed Customer Date Time Yes/No Sign-off Requirements Document completed and returned to PCS to start installation Pre-Installation call to discuss and set install date Install/License/Configure ROI Admin Console 1 hr 30 mins 1 hr STEP 4 Deploy Agents to 5-10 Workstations 10 mins CONFIRM STEP 5 Verify Agent Communication 30 mins STEP 6 Verify Data Collection (ROI Data Manager) 30 mins FINISH STEP 7 IT Department Sign-Off ASAP STEP 8 Send completed Software Certification sheet to PCS 5 mins 10 P a g e