Because of ongoing budget constraints, District #834 needed to review their costs of current copier contracts and more effectively track their copy usage and manage printing costs. They also wanted to track the number of copies made on smaller machines by departments/individuals.

With their largest copy volume being produced at the high school, District #834 needed to replace an older unit in the copy room, which was becoming costly to operate. In addition, they wanted to upgrade two other main units at the high school, a junior high, and two elementary schools. They knew the timing was right to develop a print management solution across the District that would save costs.

Ann Evenson, Project Coordinator - Finance for District #834, and Dan Parker, Assistant to the Superintendent for Finance and Operations, worked with Marco's account representatives to develop a print management solution to fit their needs. Ann developed an overall summary of their current contracts to help streamline printing for targeted schools and take a more centralized approach to their printing needs.

Marco replaced smaller units with connected Sharp AR-M280s to help the District create a tracking system to analyze their costs more efficiently. “We used to track copies by department manually,” said Ann. “With our copier upgrades, we are now able to utilize software to automatically track our copies by department.”

Marco replaced the older copier at the high school with two high volume copiers and upgraded two of their current Konica 7075 copiers to 7085s, which offered them additional features and faster output speed to handle their copy volume. Marco also recommended moving their current Konica 7075s to a junior high and elementary school. Dan said, “I think one of the ways Marco was able to help us with a larger solution was by recommending we relocate some of our units to another school. They worked with us to determine we didn't need to have brand new units at every school. Marco helped us look at the 'big picture' solution and found a solution that was both economical and fit our needs.” The solution resulted in a decrease in monthly/annual costs at all of the four schools involved.

Dan said, “The main reason we chose Marco is because of their response and presentation of a solution to address our printing needs. They are proactive and willing to look at things a little differently. They are willing to sit down with us to help determine how we can reduce our costs on some current leases.”

Ann and Dan worked directly with Marco to coordinate their copier installations and training. “Marco was really good at communicating the details to us throughout the process,” said Ann. “Their communication and preparation for meetings to discuss recommendations is excellent! Marco also offered timely user training. they worked with our principals and secretaries to coordinate the training sessions for our support staff and developed a system for training our teachers. Marco showed our teachers how to scan files, use the files electronically, and use other networking capabilities to save them time.”

The District definitely feels Marco's print management solutions are well worth their investment and provides them with the following benefits:

Independent School District #834 serves over 9,300 students, which makes it the 17th largest in size among 343 public school districts in Minnesota. District #834 consists of 15 school sites—ten elementary schools, two junior high schools, one high school, one alternative learning center, one location that provides early childhood special education and family education, and one charter school.