A Future-Ready Print Environment for Modern Education

As one of New Zealand's leading Christian schools, providing education to approximately 2,075 students from Years 1- 13, KingsWay School has spent several years modernising its technology environment to better support students, staff, and future growth.

When Yoshen Fernando joined KingsWay School as Director of IT in 2022, he embarked on a mission to transform the school's technology landscape through a cloud-first strategy. Over time, the school successfully migrated the majority of its technology services to cloud-based platforms. However, one critical system remained on-premises: print management.

While the school's existing PaperCut environment continued to perform reliably, it still relied on local server infrastructure that required ongoing maintenance, updates, and security management. Completing the final stage of the school's cloud transformation meant finding a modern print management solution that aligned with its long-term technology vision.

Enabling a Cloud-First Vision

Having partnered with KingsWay School for more than six years, Canon understood the school's technology roadmap and broader strategic goals. The Canon team of specialists identified uniFLOW Online as the ideal solution and worked closely with KingsWay School to support a smooth transition to a fully cloud-managed print environment.

Initially, Yoshen was cautious about changing print platforms due to previous experiences with print management software. However, after evaluating uniFLOW Online and seeing a live demonstration, he recognised the opportunity and presented it to the leadership team.

With printing deeply embedded in everyday school operations, any change needed to deliver tangible benefits while maintaining a seamless experience for both staff and students.

“It wasn't easy because it was trying to remove a foundation piece and everyone was scared about the printing. PaperCut was great, but it limited us from doing certain things. For example, when teachers work from home they have no access to printing, but with uniFLOW Online, they can print from anywhere.”

Yoshen Fernando, Director of IT, KingsWay School

Delivering Practical Benefits Across the School

Today, KingsWay School operates a fully cloud-managed print environment that supports staff, students, and IT administrators.

For teachers, printing is now more flexible and convenient. Staff can securely submit print jobs from different locations and release documents when needed, supporting modern and flexible ways of working. The easy-to-use uniFLOW Online dashboard also provides clear visibility into the printing activities for all staff members.

For students, particularly those using personal devices, printing is easier to access with less reliance on IT support. Self-service print credit top-ups have also reduced administrative workload, creating a smoother experience for both students and support staff.

For the IT team, the benefits have been even more significant. New staff onboarding is faster, while the removal of print servers and associated infrastructure has reduced the time and effort required to manage the print environment. With updates delivered automatically through the cloud, there is no longer a need to maintain software versions, apply patches, or manage dedicated print server hardware.

The move also supports KingsWay School's broader objective of reducing infrastructure costs by eliminating server hardware, software licensing, and ongoing maintenance expenses across its three campuses.

“We no longer need dedicated print servers because everything is now managed in the cloud. That's a huge step forward for us and aligns perfectly with our cloud-first strategy.”

Yoshen Fernando

uniFLOW Online has also simplified printer deployment across both Windows and Mac environments. Using existing device management platforms, the IT team can automatically deploy print services without manually configuring printers on individual devices.

“Previously, we had to manually map printers to user computers, but with uniFLOW Online being cloud-based, we can do it automatically. That's another step that we don't have to do manually.”

Yoshen Fernando

Beyond operational efficiencies, KingsWay School has strengthened security and visibility through uniFLOW Online features such as secure print release, user authentication, and centralised reporting. These capabilities help ensure documents are collected only by authorised users while providing greater transparency into printing activity across the school.

Looking Ahead

As a cloud-native platform, uniFLOW Online continues to evolve, with new features and enhancements delivered automatically over time. This enables KingsWay School to benefit from ongoing innovation without investing in additional infrastructure or managing complex upgrades.

“Because the platform updates automatically, we're regularly discovering new features and improvements without having to manage upgrades ourselves.”

Yoshen Fernando

Today, KingsWay School operates a fully cloud-first print environment that aligns with its long-term technology strategy. Canon is proud to continue supporting the school as a trusted technology partner, helping identify new opportunities to improve efficiency, security, and user experience across its growing digital ecosystem.