Work with routing groups

As you configure devices in Web System Manager, you can create and manage routing groups that group similar devices together. The groups should reflect the needs of your organization. For example, you can group compatible devices by physical location, by faculty, by manufacturer, etc.

The primary purpose for routing groups is to print to the most cost effective printer in a group. An interactive rule gives the option of selecting any device in the group. A non-interactive rule automatically routes the print job to the least cost printer. In the event that there are multiple printers that share the same lowest cost, one of them is selected at random.

Unlike pull groups, devices in routing groups must be on the same print server.

The key to creating routing groups is to ensure that all MFP drivers within the group are technologically compatible. If you want a print job generated for one printer to output successfully on another printer, you must ensure that the other printer can understand all of the print commands included in the datastream from the driver.

If the user specifies stapling for the print job, but the target device does not support staples, Equitrac charges for the staples if the associated price list specifies a finishing cost. Similarly, if the user specifies the print job as full color, but releases the job on a machine that supports black and white only, the output is black and white, but Equitrac charges for color, depending on the price list on the release machine, and color attributes that are recorded in the database.

Unlike pull groups, a device can only reside on one routing group.