RapidPrint™ - The rapid growth of a distributed printing and copyright compliance system

Karey Patterson, Director, NTech Media, Lismore, NSW, Australia, 2480 . Email: karey@ntechmedia.com

Keywords

Distributed printing, Online Education, Web Site Management, Agile Project development, User Stories, copyright compliance, Online reporting, Print On Demand (POD), Best practice, Educational Web Site resources .

Abstract

This paper describes the process of development of the distributed printing software system known as RapidPrint(TM).   In mid 2004 representatives of Southern Cross University Printery, a commercial arm of the university, outlined their needs for a distributed printing and resource management system, and compiled a detailed project brief.   There are useful lessons from the software development experience that will prove useful insight to other Web application development projects and the teams involved.

Southern Cross University was concerned that large amounts of wastage of hard copy study guides and print resources, was unsure if students wanted or needed all of the materials bundled in hard copy study materials and wanted to implement a system that would enable significant cost savings in printing costs to students, cost centres and the university as well as a massive reduction in wastage (returned or unused hard copy study guides are destroyed at the end of a semester or trimester).   The proposed system would enable students to select and print off as they wished the specific materials as individual items or make up a custom print bundle for their study materials.   All of the existing materials that made up a hard copy study guide would be made available as individual components that students could search and select as they wished.  

This paper outlines the key issues and details the process for developing the system from initial brief to complete commercial product, which is now in use at a variety of campuses and by many thousands of users.