Innovative printing press by four Universitas Indonesia (UI) students, namely Alif Hikmah Fikri (UI/FTUI Engineering Faculty), Joshua Alviando (FT UI), Ardanto Finkan Septa (UI Computer Science Faculty), and Yoga Dwi Adityaputra (FT UI), designed to produce safe and practical documents. They adopted the way vending machines work in creating Printbox, which is a document printing tool that can be accessed independently.
When data security is an important issue that is discussed by the public, then a tool like Printbox may be a necessity. Leakage of data, either due to theft or negligence of the data owner, is the cause of the emergence of criminal acts. This can happen, for example, because the data owner prints personal data, such as ID cards, family cards, and passbooks at the photocopy counter. Alif Hikmah and three of his colleagues were inspired by this in creating the Printbox machine.
“The way this machine works is very easy. Open the Inventing.id website, then select upload document. After that, a color or black and white print option will appear and the number of copies and pages to print. After selecting the document, the user is directed to make a payment using digital payment. Users will get a QR code to be scanned at the nearest Printbox. The process of uploading this document does not take long, only one minute,” said Alif as CEO of Inventing.id.
Printbox offers friendly prices for the average student size, because the print rate is only Rp. 500–Rp. 1,000 per sheet. This tool also addresses student concerns regarding data security. According to Alif, documents uploaded on the server will be locked, so no one can access them.
Once printed, the document will be automatically deleted so that the document remains safe. This is done as an effort to protect user data to prevent data leakage and theft.
Printbox is a product of Inventing.id—a startup engaged in the development of high-tech office products in Indonesia. This startup is a program fostered by the Directorate of Innovation and Science Techno Park, Universitas Indonesia (DISTP UI) and is supported by the Menristekdikti under the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).
As the Director of DISTP UI, Ahmad Gamal, S.Ars., M.Sc., MUP., Ph.D., expressed his appreciation for this achievement. “Printbox is a simple solution that hits the spot. Just like millennials who accept ride sharing instead of owning a private vehicle, Printbox eliminates the need for low-utilization printer investment,” said Gamal.
Printbox also eliminates the need to deal with customer service when printing documents. In addition to saving the company’s operational costs, technology-savvy millennial customers prefer simple and independent transaction processes. “This is a small part of the reason DISTP UI incubated Inventing.id as the owner of the Printbox product,” said Gamal.
At the Depok Campus, Printbox has ten machines, while at the UI Faculty of Medicine, Salemba, there is one machine. Since the MVP (minimum viable product) was launched in March 2020, there are currently around 30 transactions/day in each Printbox. Alif hopes that the partnership with other campuses will encourage the production of Printbox, so that it can be accessed by the general public in public spaces.
In accordance with its mission, Inventing.id collaborates and researches company needs in the most effective and efficient way. Therefore, apart from Printbox, this startup has also created Employee Face Recognition and Water Level Monitoring as their flagship product. In order to provide wider benefits, Inventing.id also provides internship programs for students who want to explore the world of startups and learn product development.
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Public Communication Bureau
Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia