According to a national research firm, the average K12 school district produces 15 to 25 pages per student per day - including documents produced onsite and through commercial means. Anyone curious as to what these pages cost? Well, most analysts would agree the average-cost-per-page in an education environments is somewhere around $0.02 to $0.04 cents per page, depending whether it is produced on a copier or printer. The figure is based on total operating cost, which includes expense such as electricity, real estate space, acquisition cost, bank financing, supply consumables, service and paper.

Although a few cents doesn’t seem like much, copier and printer costs quickly add up. A district with a 10,000 student population will spend $540,000 (15 pages per student) to $900,000 (25 pages per student) annually, just to provide copying and printer services.

The good news is there are multitude steps administrators can take, simple or complex, to reduce document output. In fact, reducing total output by just one page-per-student-per-day equals an annual savings of $36,000 to $72,000 - a target that can be easily attained in most districts.

So look around your school district and determine what steps you can take to reduce excess copies and prints. Chances are very real you could save tens of thousands of dollars. We suggest you read Hannah Recla’s post titled 14 Ideas for Reducing Paper Usage in Copiers and Printers. It offers several, east to implement suggestions to will help your district reduce the number of pages-per-student-per-day to achieve real savings.

Here are 14 ideas for reducing paper usage in copiers, printers and faxes. When used together, these suggestions can have a significant impact on the number of documents an organization produces.

1. Design documents effectively
   
   Before you hit the “GO” button, ask the following questions to determine if the document you need to communicate needs to go back to the “drawing board”.
   
   - What is the purpose of the document?
   - Who is my intended audience?
   - Why do I need to communicate this information to that audience?
   - What action or behavior am I expecting from the recipient?
   
   
2. Communicate information electronically
   
   Can the information be e-mailed?
   
   Determine if the document you’re about to copy can be communicated electronically. Do you have the document in an electronic format already? If so, can you e-mail the document to the intended recipients? If the document is not already available in an electronic format, can you scan the document and then e-mail it to your intended recipients?
   
   Can the information be posted online?
   
   Some teachers are beginning to post and receive homework assignments online. Also, school administrators are beginning to post board packets, teacher handbooks, student handbooks, student curriculum and various district documents online.
   
   
3. Don’t print multiple pages you don’t need
   
   Determine whether or not the information you need to communicate can be copied or printed on both sides of the paper using the device’s “duplex” feature. If so, make two-sided copies or prints. If the device you’re printing to cannot duplex, print the odd pages first and then put the pages you printed in the paper feed tray and then print the even pages on the blank side of the paper.
   
   
4. Shrink documents to half their size and print/copy 2-up
   
   Determine whether or not it is feasible to shrink your original down to 50% size and put two copies on one sheet of paper or to print two pages per sheet. Use this along with the duplex feature. (Check to make sure there is a paper cutter nearby.)
   
   
5. Don’t make copies you don’t need right now
   
   Are you planning on printing extra copies for future use? If possible, print only what you know you’ll use in the short-term so that if plans change in the coming weeks (or if the document undergoes a revision) there are not wasted copies.
   
   
6. Don’t print documents to send as faxes
   
   Determine whether or not the intended recipient has an email address you can send the document to. Additionally, there is software available for sending and receiving faxes through email which won’t use any paper at all on your end.
   
   
7. Don’t use fax cover sheets
   
   Determine if you can use a small sticky-note designed to communicate the recipient’s information or add the recipient’s name to the first page of the document you need to fax.
   
   
8. Eliminate junk faxes
   
   Call the number listed on the bottom of the page that is provided for removing yourself from the company’s fax list.
   
   
9. Preview the document before printing it
   
   Do a “print preview” before printing each document. If possible, increase the margins or change the formatting so that the document takes fewer pages. If you are printing from a web page, print to PDF (if possible) first, and then eliminate any unneeded pages.
   
   
10. Eliminate unneeded space when printing emails
    
    If it is necessary to print an email, copy and paste the email to another document that you can edit to remove unnecessary space and all but the relevant portions of the thread.
    
    
11. Re-use “half-used” paper
    
    Create a place to store “half-used” paper, i.e. paper that has a copy or print on one side, but not the other. Use this paper when printing rough drafts or internal memos.
    
    
12. Establish access codes for making copies or prints
    
    If not, ask your administrators if access controls can be set up. Access controls are an excellent means of holding everyone equally accountable for reducing waste.
    
    
13. Limited access to paper
    
    Another idea for potentially reducing paper usage is to control the amount of paper that each user has access to, perhaps on a monthly basis. Again, this could be an excellent means of holding everyone equally accountable for reducing waste.
    
    
14. Set a goal to reduce your paper use by 20%
    
    Many government agencies are setting a goal of reducing their paper usage by 20%. Track your own paper usage and see if you can reach this goal. Your great example will influence those around you!

Have you seen, heard about, or implemented other paper reduction suggestions or strategies? Please leave a comment and let me know about them!

Hannah Recla
Analysis Services

Best value for document output systems is a great goal, but most administrators don’t have a clear definition of what it is. Furthermore, most administrators don’t have the necessary contracting and management practices in place within a highly defined document output strategy to achieve best value.

This video explores nine contracting and management steps that administrators can use to achieve best value.

To get the white paper titled Optimizing Your Copier/Printer Fleet - First Five Steps To A Document Strategy, please visit our homepage at www.optimizon.com.

When you are ready to receive bids from suppliers or vendors for copiers/printers, there are a number of options.

Companies can put out a Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Quotation (RFQ). Each has its place, depending on the organization’s level of expertise surrounding the copier/printer industry and their overall document output strategy.

The choice is also based on the level of understanding the organization has about its standards, needs, and desires. Let’s take a look at each one, and then I’ll give you our advice after being involved in over $100,000,000 in copier and printer acquisitions over the last 17 years.

The Request for Information (RFI)

A Request for Information (RFI) is used to collect information from suppliers related to their capabilities, and is usually used as an information gathering process to identify suppliers and build a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quotation (RFQ).

The Request for Proposal (RFP)

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is used to gather proposals on specific commodities or services. It invites creativity and innovation from the suppliers regarding their response, which may be used in the analysis to select the winning supplier. The risk is that the RFP may fail to capture consistant information from suppliers,hampering the decision making process.

The Request for Quotation (RFQ)

A Request for Quotation (RFQ) is used to gather proposals on specific products or services. It typically involves price per item, payment terms, quality level per item and contract length. The RFQ includes detailed specifications of the items/services to force suppliers to provide more accurate quotes that are directly comparable. One main component of the Request for Quotation is that the specifications can be used as legal binding documentation for the suppliers.

What should you use to acquire copiers and printers?

Experience suggests that the more specific you can be in the initial bidding process, the more likely the supplier will provide their best offer first, reducing the need for re-bidding and nearly eliminate the need for end-of-procurement negotiation. This points directly to the use of an RFQ.

Five tips for creating a Request for Quotation for Copiers/Printers.

1. Do a complete objective assessment every time. Without complete, objective information, you won’t know your true needs and won’t be able to be specific enough in writing your RFQ to fully take advantage of its benefits.
2. Set your strategic, operational, and device-level standards yourself. Knowing what your organization wants and needs from your document output system will allow you to set quality levels and expectations, which suppliers will respond to in your RFQ. If suppliers are asked to help set standards, 10 times out of 10 the standards will help that supplier win the bidding process in some way. Set these yourself!
3. Issue your RFQ in a format that forces comparable supplier responses. The more you are able to ask questions and get responses in a yes/no/no, but manner, the easier the analysis of the responses will be.
4. Make the winning supplier’s bid legally binding. BUYER BEWARE: Supplier contracts are structured to eliminate your ability to make their responses legally binding — they also include clauses to negate most of what you negotiated with them through the buying process. DON’T SIGN THEIR CONTRACT! Write your own, and make sure you tie their RFQ response into the final documentation!
5. Manage your copier/printer environment to the quality levels the supplier agreed to. A legally binding Request for Quote (RFQ) is the number one way to achieve control over your suppliers and your document output system. If you don’t pay attention, there’s a good chance that you won’t get what the supplier agreed to. Equipment and supplier performance will slip, costs will increase, and a whole host of other issues may arise that are easily avoidable if you are paying attention.

If you have any questions, or need any help implementing any of these tips or deciding which option you will use to get bids from copier or printer suppliers, feel free to give us a call. We’ve been helping companies all across the United States for 17 years achieve lower costs, better equipment and supplier performance, and reduce the risk of copying and printing contracts. We’ll be glad to help!

NOTE: The descriptions of Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP), and Request for Quotation (RFQ) are based on descriptions found in Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com).

Today, Rod Davis, President and Founder of Optimizon presented a webinar about five well-known, but poorly-understood factors that block companies from achieving millions of dollars in savings on copying and printing.

This webinar explores management issues driving these factors, the real value you should expect from your copier/printer environment and secret strategies for reducing costs your vendors would rather you not know.

You’ll not only learn how to save a great deal of unnecessary costs, but you’ll be motivated and inspired to go make the necessary changes that Rod will share to immediately begin reducing your copying and printing costs.

Here’s the link to view the webinar: http://www.optimizon.com/resources/webinar5reasons.asp

If you know someone that would benefit from reducing their copying and printing costs, please forward this link on to them!

In a time when all purchasing decisions are difficult at best, Hallsville I.S.D. found the process of going out for Copier proposals almost painless, thanks to Rod Davis and Optimizon. Optimizon made the task so much easier by providing the expertise and the online proposal process.

Optimizon, a professional services firm, provided expertise for copier acquisition. Their professional staff helped HISD create, execute, and manage the process, while ensuring that we were asking the right questions and getting the right answers.

The district discovered that Optimizon’s easy-to-use services eliminated the risk and time-constraint issues associated with our copier project. Here was a professional organization - on our side! Mike Stanfield, technology director stated, “I was impressed that here was someone who did not sell copiers, someone who is vendor neutral, who had only our best interests at heart.”

Read the rest of this post here: http://www.hisdtech.org/opt.html

Today I came across an interesting blog post by a MPS firm titled “Managed Print Services Assessments - They Do Not Work, Stop Doing Them” (http://tinyurl.com/mgmzed). The basis for the article was that doing an assessment reduced a Managed Print Services vendor’s chance of doing business with a customer by 44% when compared to doing no assessment whatsoever. I can only wonder if this 44% difference is because of the customer’s experience of working with the vendor through the assessment - seeing their approach and the difficulties they have with collecting and delivering information in an environment/industry where they “should” be the experts. Contracting for copiers and/or printers without knowing where you are currently at (no assessment) is the equivalent of jumping off a 50 foot cliff without knowing how deep the water is. Feeling brave? Be my guest. But if you’re truly focused on improving your copying and printing operations, a complete and objective assessment is the only way to go — and the assessment process should build your confidence in the organization delivering it, not erode it!

In your office, does it seem like there is a printer on every desk and a copier at every street corner? Do you ever wonder to yourself where all this equipment came from? Read the rest of this entry »

Optimizon President discusses printer/copier improvements on popular podcast Boise, Idaho – January 7, 2009: Optimizon, an independent and vendor-neutral professional services firm that helps organizations create, execute, and manage ideal contracts for printer and copier fleets, announced to day that Optimizon President, Rod Davis, is featured on the January 2009 edition of the Document Strategy Podcast. Davis was the guest for the entire episode and discussed ways companies can improve the performance and return on investment of their workgroup printers and copiers. The company recently released a white paper, “Optimizing Printer/Copier Fleets,” available on their website. Read the rest of this entry »

After a contract is signed, many times it is filed away never to be seen again. From our experience, we know that YOU know that your vendor promised some things to you at the time you signed the contract. However, the specifics of the promises have faded from memory. If you are interested in taking charge to make sure you are getting the most out of your contract, please read the tips below. Read the rest of this entry »