Overview 

The Dispatcher Paragon Payment System is a standalone system that integrates with Dispatcher Paragon. The Dispatcher Paragon Payment System contains information about money accounts, acting as a payment gateway to charge users for print services.

The Dispatcher Paragon Payment System can help reduce costs and increase revenue in two ways:

  • It enables users to pay for print/copy/scan services using the Dispatcher Paragon Payment System.
  • It automatically blocks excessive usage using quotas.

Paying for Print/Copy/Scan Services

Support for pay-for-print services gives control for managing and recovering costs. The Dispatcher Paragon Payment System enables users to purchase personal credit and use it to pay for services. The Dispatcher Paragon Payment System supports two types of credit:

  • Personal credit—represents real money, which can be deposited into the system via the Dispatcher Paragon Payment System Cash Desk interface, payment gateways such as PayPal, YSoft Payment Machines or vouchers. A personal balance can also be withdrawn from the system through the Cash Desk application.
  • Virtual credit—free credit bound to a Merchant (an API user with a merchant role), which can be granted on a regular or ad-hoc basis. It cannot be withdrawn from the system. Virtual credit is accessible only through the Merchant who granted it (i.e. virtual credit granted by one API account is not visible for another API account).

Quotas

Quotas limits a user's consumption of print and copy services. Every user has a limit, and the Dispatcher Paragon Payment System prevents the user from higher-than-allowed consumption. The quota is defined for a specific period (e.g. monthly) and is automatically refreshed. The primary benefit of quotas is to save costs by preventing the misuse of print and copy services by employees. Consumption is limited in an understandable form—in the number of pages. Specific organizations, such as Universities, benefit from combining quotas and payment. Typically, employees are limited by page quotas, and students or visitors have to purchase their own credit.

How Quotas Work

The administrator defines the quotas that apply for different groups of users. It is possible to define:

  • The maximum number of pages in a defined period (e.g. max 100 pages).
  • The period for the quota (e.g. monthly). The quota is automatically refreshed after this period.
  • Specifics (e.g. applies for color pages only or applies for print services only).

The administrator assigns specific quotas to cost centers. For example:

  • The Japan HQ employees cost center is limited by the quota Color Copy and by the quota Print BW.
  • The Germany TOP management cost center  is limited by a different quota, Color Print.

All users in an affected cost center are bound by the quota. If a user's action (print or copy) on an Embedded Terminal exceeds the quota, the action is rejected, and the user is informed about the reason.

It is possible to combine limiting users by quotas and by credit. For example:

  • The Professors cost center is limited by a quota.
  • The Students cost center is limited by credit and has to recharge when printing.

It is possible to have certain users limited by quotas and others by the Dispatcher Paragon Payment System. The differentiation is done on a cost-center level.