Ruth Johnson, Director of Auxiliary Services at St. Norbert College had a problem, but it was not a new problem. It’s the problem most college administrators face: how to cut costs and maximize budgets for the benefit of the students.
Sometimes the demand for new technology in higher education can be a burden. How do you keep up with all the new stuff and where are you going to find the budget for it. Johnson looked in an unconventional direction to both improve the college’s technology and cut costs. She looked at the college’s printers.
It might be an understatement to say colleges still use printers quite a bit—coursework, notes, student papers, assignments, and more. So Johnson took a look at the college’s centralized approach to printing and thought they could do better. She contacted Marco to talk about a Managed Print Solution.
Marco helps schools get the equipment they need, at prices they can afford. Here are four lessons St. Norbert learned on the way to a better printing system for the college.
Lesson 1: We needed to rethink our centralized approach
This approach can create several potential headaches for schools and other businesses. First and foremost, a single print server located in a central location can unleash an avalanche of complaints from faculty and students when it goes down. It also places heavy demand on your network. When an individual sends a large print project to the central printer—and that happens quite often--it ties up both the bandwidth and the printer, which can add new levels of frustration to staff and students.
Lesson 2: We can afford new printers
“The College was at a crossroads with its printer fleet,” said Johnson. “We had numerous aging print devices spread out across the campus, many of which were becoming very costly to run and maintain.” With a managed print solution, Marco gave St. Norbert the ability to upgrade the printer fleet while still controlling costs. It also gave each department greater control over its everyday print needs.
Lesson 3: We don’t have to sacrifice quality for cost-effective printing
The managed print service is a solution that gives your printing functions over to a well-trained team of printing professionals that will keep you printers running. For St. Norbert, said Johnson, “it allowed the school to control costs while maintaining quality and end-user experience. Once the print solution was in place, the college saw more than 10% savings in our total cost of operations for print.”
First, the Marco team set all the print devices on campus to black-and-white and duplex (back-to-back) print by default. The tracking and reporting that is part of the managed print service made it possible for the administration to track the output of individual students--and that helped them eliminate wasteful printing. “The school not only saved money through managed print, but the program also facilitated a flexible print environment,” said Johnson.
Lesson 4: Our printing needs continually evolve
Taking a hard look at your school’s printing environment can make it both more productive, more flexible, and cost effective. A managed print service will also help your school react to new print technology as well as your organization’s changing needs. “It is important to select managed print services from a vendor that is willing to evolve with your school,” says Johnson. “Working with Marco has truly been a partnership. When we have a challenge, they work with us to get it done.”
Marco’s Managed Print Services have helped many schools and businesses find the print solution they need to control costs, improve efficiency and adopt a sustainable approach to printing. Following our 4-step assessment process, we can create a plan to help you better manage your printing output. The partnership doesn’t end there. Our monitoring, support and reporting services help you maintain excellent print performance and manage your fleet of printers and copiers.
