“Since using UniPrint, administrators field 80% – 90% fewer calls. They have provided an efficient method of eliminating issues that plague Citrix’s own printing solution.”

– Jeff Winters, Infrastructure Services Team Leader, Carter’s Inc.

UniPrint Provides Tailor-made Printing Solution for Carter’s Inc

The Company

Carter’s began in 1865, when William Carter decided to knit mittens in his kitchen.

From those humble beginnings, the Atlanta-based company has since grown into Carter’s Inc. – the number one clothing brand for babies and young children in the United States.

Traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Carter’s sells over 10 products on average for every child born in America, and its OshKosh B’Gosh brand is a household name in over 30 countries.

The Challenge

Carter’s operates over 400 retail stores across the U.S. While the company’s Citrix environment is perfect for administration, it presented the stores with critical printing functionality issues.

“The retail stores depend on our ‘Connected Retailer’ application to provide real-time access to such critical information as purchasing and inventory reports,” explained Jeff Winters, Infrastructure Services Team Leader for Carter’s Inc.

“Our Citrix environment is ideal for managing Connected Retailer in a highly-dispersed network, but stores were often unable to correctly print the reports because Citrix’s integrated printing solution couldn’t handle multiple printer drivers. Inaccurate printing of customized barcode fonts was also an issue.”

In addition, with so many users on its network, Carter’s found itself dealing with hundreds of printer drivers, which not only caused printing management problems, but also slowed down the company’s network.

Carter’s needed a better fit.

On Demand Webinar: 5 Real Printing Benefits You Can Reap by Adding UniPrint to Citrix

The Solution

After looking closely at the competition, Carter’s chose UniPrint based on its functionality, flexibility, and price.

Designed to seamlessly integrate with Citrix and/or Microsoft Terminal Services environments, UniPrint solves printer incompatibility issues by utilizing a single universal Portable Document Format (PDF)-based printer driver recognized by all printers.

This makes it simple for staff at Carter’s Atlanta headquarters and the dispersed retail stores to print any document on any printer, and easy for administrators to centrally manage printing.

UniPrint also sped up the company’s network because the system no longer needed to auto-create and manage an unmanageable number of different printer drivers.

The UniPrint team even developed a unique patch so Carter’s could accurately print customized barcode fonts.

The company found it easy to add new users and locations to the network by simply installing the UniPrint Client on the new client device.

Installation was so simple that Carter’s rolled the new system out across its entire network in just two weeks.

The company also found upgrading of the printing application easy.

“We knew that upgrading our servers to 64-bit would provide a significant performance boost as one 64-bit server could handle the same workload as fifteen 32-bit servers,” Winters said.

“Printing was the easiest application to upgrade. It simply required us to purchase the 64-bit UniPrint licenses. The switch was so seamless that users were unaware that it happened. They just knew that print speeds had significantly increased.”

The Benefits

Carter’s needed a solution that would enable fast and accurate printing, and also simplify printing management. The benefits speak for themselves.

Key benefits include:

• More efficient printing with one universal printer driver
• Reduced number of printing-related support issues
• Dramatically reduced bandwidth utilization
• Significantly improved network speed
• Easy installation; simple to add new users and locations
• Virtually no printing-related maintenance required
• Ease of use at store level
• Converts files into PDF for e-mailing, archiving, and printing
• Allows for custom barcode fonts and unique symbols
• Support from UniPrint’s knowledgeable service team
• Cost-effective solution