The Swedish municipality of Solna is home to one of the largest libraries in the Stockholm region, employing 20 staff members. For its 1,000 visitors a day, the library, besides providing access to knowledge, also functions as a place to meet, study and learn. Based on the idea that a city resident should always be able to go somewhere to print, copy and scan important documents, the Solna stadsbibliotek also had a multifunctional printer. However, the device was difficult for users to operate and the printer's payment system did not always work smoothly either. As a result, librarians ended up being asked for help so often that supporting visitors with printer problems almost became a day job.
Where can I print?
According to Isak Kullman, development manager at the Solna stadsbibliotek, "Where can I print?" is in the top three of most frequently asked questions addressed to his colleagues. "Many visitors come here to print, copy and scan tickets, financial papers or other important (government) documents. This consumed a huge amount of our time because the solution we were using before did not always work well. Users had to install a special app first to use the printer. Not everyone was skilful enough to download the app or some had forgotten their apple-id password. The result: people walked away out of frustration and assisting other visitors to use the printer took a lot of time.”
Implementation KUARIO
"After our manager, during a visit to another library, was introduced to KUARIO and talked about it, we became interested. With this solution, not only could we offer cloud printing via a mobile device and easy payment with all common methods via the included payment terminal, but also the use of the multifunctional printer would, in our opinion, become a lot easier and more accessible."
Earlier this year, the KUARIO printing solution was installed by EA Copy, part of Qlosr Group, at the Solna stadsbibliotek. "The implementation went very smoothly. In addition, the whole team completed a training course provided by Anders Gunnarsson from EA Copy, part of Qlosr Group. Should we still need assistance with unique situations, such as the other day with not being able to print a seemingly blank Mac document, we can always count on support through EA Copy, part of Qlosr Group. This allows us to resolve issues quickly. We then share our (new) learnings from this with each other through our internal channels, so that if it happens again, we know exactly how to solve it."
We can do our job again
"Visitors can now print directly via our KUARIO solution without having to install anything. In addition, the user interface of the multifunction printer is very intuitive. With an average of around 5,500 printouts per month, we can conclude that the majority of our visitors print via the cloud. A fairly logical development as almost everyone has their mobile phone with them these days. Contactless payment is very easy via the payment terminal with a debit card, credit card, app or Swish. The few who still want to pay in cash do so via our counter.
So, in terms of user-friendliness we have really taken a giant leap forward and in my opinion, it really is 'next level printing'. Still, for me the biggest advantage of the new solution is that my colleagues and I can finally focus fully on our comprehensive and important tasks as librarians again!", says Isak Kullman.
