The Facilities Management, together with the Procurement Office of Kiel University, conducted a Europe-wide tender for a scanning, printing and copying infrastructure in the fall of 2021. After evaluating the bids, the contract was awarded to Ricoh Deutschland GmbH.

The following explains how the rollout of the new systems will happen, what changes will occur in usage, but also where there will be no changes.

Please pay particular attention to the information on the

Using the new multi-purpose printers starting December 2021.

Which components of the previous system will be replaced?

In the course of commissioning the application servers managed by the provider will be replaced with the functions

• Print server
• 'Userdashboard' and 'Everyoneprint' web applications
• Server for communication with mobile platforms (mobile phones, tablets)

The printer drivers will also change, as well as the server addresses that must be used when setting up the printer queues and calling the corresponding web applications. Details follow below.

In addition, all multi-purpose printers integrated into the multi-purpose printers system will be replaced with new, more powerful devices.

No changes in the management and use of billing codes

The existing system of billing codes with authorized user accounts will not change. The web application used by the representatives in the facilities to manage the authorizations also remains unchanged in its usual location.

All billing codes and authorizations that were previously synchronized in the Ricoh system are also transferred to the new system. As a result, all billing codes and authorizations will exist in the same way in the new system. There will be no changes for the persons responsible for the administration of billing codes.

New registrations of cards necessary

The card registrations used at the multi-purpose printers for easier registration (of copy cards, dining hall cards, campus cards) will not be transferred. However, the existing cards can also be used in the new system and only need to be re-registered there once. This is done in the usual way by placing the card on the card reader and then logging in. See also

the corresponding entry in the FAQ of the Facilities Management (in german)

Changes to the printer queues

Since the old and new systems must be operated in parallel during the rollout phase of the multi-purpose printers and since other printer drivers are also recommended for the new system, new printer queues must be set up on the client systems, i.e. the workstation computers and notebooks. It is advisable to initially leave the old printers configured and usable during the rollout phase in order to continue to be able to use locations that still have old devices.

It is unproblematic and even recommended to configure the new printer queues in addition to the existing ones before replacing the devices in your own facility and then to check via the new user dashboard whether print jobs can basically be sent.

The details are explained in the following section.

Phases during the transition

In the following, the phases in the course of the transition and rollout are explained and the necessary steps in the facilities are explained. This information is primarily intended for administrators who configure desktop devices at the facilities and for users of self-managed PCs.

Phase 0: Use of the previous system

This is the previous state. Only the legacy system exists. The decentralized workstations in the facilities have set up printer queues that print via the previous servers of the service provider. Only the previous used multifunction devices are installed via which the print jobs can be triggered.

Phase 1: Parallel installation of the new central servers

In the next phase, the central new print and application servers will be set up. The sync with the management system of the billing codes and authorizations is configured exactly as in the legacy system. Changes will continue to be made via the billing code application and will be transferred from there to both systems.

This phase was completed at the end of November 2021.

Phase 2: Configuration of the new printer queues

Even if no new devices are set up in the facility yet, the new printer queues can already be set up on the end devices in the facilities. Although it is not yet possible to print productively, it is possible to check whether the queues have been set up successfully by sending a test job and checking in the new user dashboard whether this job arrives in the system. If this is the case, printing can be started immediately later when the new multi-purpose printers are delivered.

Information on how to set up the new printer cues can be found at

Using the new multi-purpose printers starting December 2021

The control of the print jobs is explained in the

Description of the user dashboard (in german)

Phase 3: Delivery of the new multi-purpose printers and mixed operation

In the next phase, the new devices are delivered. This is done device by device, so that there is a mixed operation of old and new systems for a while.

Authorizations and logins with password are the same as in the old system. Users of the systems must re-register their copy cards once on the new system and can then use them in both systems. The scan and copy functions can be used locally as usual after authentication. People who want to use the print function must distinguish in this phase whether they want to trigger output on an old or new device and use the old or the new queues configured in the previous phase accordingly.

Phase 4: All new multifunction devices delivered

When all devices have been replaced by new systems, the previous printer queues on the workstations can be removed and only the new devices will be used from then on.

Phase 5: Dismantling the old application and print servers

In the end, the old systems are also dismantled centrally

Other changes due to the transition

Changed system for uploading print files via WWW

The interface as well as the address for uploading documents to be printed via browser has changed, please refer to the  documentation (in german).

Use by mobile clients not yet possible

At the time of rollout (December 2021), use by mobile clients (Android, IOS, IpadOS) is not yet possible. This functionality will be added at the beginning of 2022.