Reader's Digest Association, Inc.

Success Story

Novell iPrint brings self-service printing to the Reader's Digest global network.

Overview

Based in Pleasantville, New York, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., is an international leader in publishing and direct marketing creating and delivering products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and cultures. Its flagship magazine, Reader's Digest, is published in 48 editions and 19 languages, and is sold in more than 60 countries.

Challenge

At Reader's Digest, network printing has periodically been a source of user frustration, particularly with the organization's roaming users. When mobile users and visitors needed to print while at remote sites, an account often had to be created on that network, and the local helpdesk need to get involved.

The IT staff began searching for a solution that would provide self-service network printing based on a list or map. The technology needed to allow point-and-click printing, allowing users to locate and install printers themselves. Reader's Digest also wanted to eliminate the complexities of locating and installing the right printer drivers and downloading them to the user's computer, enabling everyone, including roaming users, to print to any printer on the network without assistance from the helpdesk.

During PC rollouts, technicians needed to identify the user's printer types and find and install the proper printer drivers for each desktop. With Reader's Digest's 4,000 PC users and a global image deployment underway, this process was time consuming, slowing the deployment and adding to deployment costs. The organization's search led it to Novell iPrint.

Novell solution

"Our users like iPrint because it makes them more self-sufficient. This is particularly important for our roaming users who will be able to print from any RD location to any printer without helpdesk assistance. They just click on the desired printer and it installs."

Matthew Krieger
Associate Director of Global Network Architecture Services
Reader's Digest

As part of a global effort involving the deployment of Novell eDirectory and other Novell Net services, Reader's Digest introduced iPrint, Novell's printing solution based on the industry-standard Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), to its user community. Novell eDirectory forms the backbone for network logon and user identity while iPrint simplifies network printing.

iPrint offers browser-based printer setup to the organization's network users. To print, users navigate to a Web page with a list of available printers, sorted by location. Users simply click on the desired printers and iPrint automatically downloads the appropriate printer drivers to the workstation without intervention from the IT staff. Moreover, for Reader's Digest, the ability to print without first authenticating to the network was particularly compelling, as was the ability to add iPrint simply by adding it to our existing NetWare print infrastructure.

"With the Novell solution there's no need to rip and replace our existing print infrastructure," said Matthew Krieger, Reader's Digest associate director of global network architecture services. "Novell's component-based approach allows us to deploy individual services such as iPrint and Novell iFolder in our existing NetWare environment without a wholesale upgrade."

iPrint is proving to be a highly effective tool for Reader's Digest-not only for network users but also for the IT staff who installs and manages user desktops. Although users may still call the helpdesk to guide them through the initial stages of adding a network printer, helpdesk agents can quickly walk them through the process and, thanks to the simplicity of iPrint, avoid support calls the second time around.

"A major driver for implementing this type of technology is to provide user self-service-enabling people to do things for themselves," said Krieger. "Our users like iPrint because it makes them self-sufficient, particularly our roaming users who can now print from any location to any printer without authenticating to the network. They don't need to know anything about drivers, they just click on the desired printer."

Reader's Digest is also using eDirectory and Novell ZENworks for Desktops to roll out and manage standard Windows 2000 desktop configurations worldwide.

Results

Reader's Digest found iPrint to be the ideal solution for simplifying network printing, speeding new PC deployments and reducing support costs. iPrint is much easier to set up and maintain than queue-based printing, saving time from the PC deployment process. In the long term, Novell's technologies will help Reader's Digest reduce overall IT costs.

With iPrint, Reader's Digest is expanding the level of self-service on the network, enhancing productivity, increasing user satisfaction and reducing administration costs. Users now have ready access to a variety of network printers in a variety of locations, allowing them to work more effectively and productively.