Smarter Printing for Smarter Schools

Cotswold Mātāhae School is a public co‑educational primary school located in Bishopdale, Christchurch, educating more than 550 students from new entrants to Year 6. With over 50 teaching and administrative staff, the school operates in a busy, collaborative environment where printing continues to play a critical role in lesson preparation, administration, and student communication.

As with many schools across New Zealand, the leadership at Cotswold Mātāhae School delivers high‑quality education while balancing tight budgets, limited IT resources, growing sustainability expectations, and the need to protect sensitive information. These pressures prompted the school to review its existing print environment and explore a more modern, controlled, and cloud‑aligned approach.

The Challenge: Gaining Control Without Adding Complexity

Prior to engaging Canon, the school’s print environment lacked the visibility and controls required to manage costs, security, and sustainability effectively. Printing was decentralised, with limited insight into who was printing, how frequently colour was being used, or where overall print spend was being generated.

“We didn’t really have a system of tracking and control - it was more of a free-for-all. When teachers are busy, mistakes happen, like printing in colour without any way to pull it back.”

Chris Smith, Principal of Cotswold Mātāhae School

As a result, print-related costs were difficult to forecast or allocate, making budgeting challenging at both school-wide and departmental levels. From an operational perspective, printing also placed a burden on limited IT resources. Individual device management, networking, and scanning functionality required ongoing attention, while user management was constrained by the absence of integration with Google Workspace. This made onboarding, offboarding, and tracking individual usage inefficient and largely manual.

The Solution: A Cloud‑First, Education‑Ready Print Environment

Canon implemented a print management solution that delivers control while supporting long‑term flexibility. At the centre of the solution was Canon uniFLOW Online, a cloud‑based print management platform built for secure, modern workplaces, including education environments with limited IT capacity.

To address cost control and sustainability, Canon implemented tenant‑level print defaults across all users. This ensured duplex and mono printing were applied automatically, while unreleased print jobs were deleted after a defined timeframe. These settings removed reliance on staff making manual choices and delivered consistent reductions in paper and toner usage from day one.

“I can easily track and understand why we might have increases and more spend in some months, then I can give that feedback to staff, and that might be able to help change some habits.”

Chris Smith

Instead of sending jobs to individual devices, all users printed to a single secure queue and released documents only when physically present at a device. This removed unattended printouts, reduced wasted jobs, and improved accountability while maintaining convenience for staff moving between classrooms and offices. Seamless integration with Google Workspace was also a key component of the solution for a Google-based school like Cotswold Mātāhae School.

“We are a largely Google-based school, between Google and uniFLOW Online, the conversation has been seamless, and we've found that it is far better for us to be in the cloud. It’s also very easy for us to onboard new staff, getting them set up was as simple as it possibly could be.”

Chris Smith

The Results: Improved Visibility, Efficiency, and Sustainability

Following the implementation of uniFLOW Online, Cotswold Mātāhae School experienced immediate and ongoing improvements across its print environment. Comprehensive reporting within uniFLOW Online also provides administrators with clearer insight into usage patterns, colour consumption, and high‑volume users. This data supported better budget planning, increased transparency, and the ability to manage departmental cost centres more effectively.

“Small savings add up over time - and from an environmental perspective, that’s hundreds of sheets of paper not going in the bin. With uniFLOW Online, you can quickly see trends and understand where printing is happening, without needing spreadsheets or manual tracking. Unreleased jobs are automatically deleted after a set time, which helps reduce waste and unnecessary printing.”

Elton McAleer, Canon Application Specialist

Automated print rules and secure job release contributed to tangible reductions in paper waste, while centralised cloud management significantly reduced the IT effort previously required to maintain the print environment. Fleet reliability also improved, helping to ensure staff access printing services consistently when needed.

“Being able to support staff printing from anywhere, while gaining visibility into usage and sustainability, has been huge for us. Since moving to Canon and uniFLOW Online, we’ve seen a significant improvement in costs.”

Chris Smith

Looking Ahead

With a modern, cloud‑based print management platform now in place, Cotswold Mātāhae School is well positioned to continue refining its print strategy. Ongoing use of reporting insights will enable further optimisation of printing policies, while the flexibility of uniFLOW Online supports future growth and evolving education requirements.

Canon is proud to present itself as a trusted partner to help schools that aim to balance educational outcomes with cost controls, sustainability, and operational efficiency.