Opportunities To Sell Managed Print Services In The Education Vertical

By Jackie Paralis and Michael Garofola, OKI Data Americas

Customers in the education vertical are challenged consistently to provide access to leading-edge technologies for their teachers and students within constrained budgets. Managed print services (MPS) provides an opportunity for those within the channel to provide valuable and cost-effective services and solutions to their education customers. Following is an example of how MPS allowed for the integration of new technology into a mid-western school district and how this delivered a win-win for the dealer and the school district alike.

CUSTOMER BACKGROUND

This mid-western school district serves a population of nearly 2,700 students in its four schools — a primary, intermediate, middle, and high school — overseen by a single administrative body and employing nearly 200 teachers. The district’s aging print fleet included a number of different vendors’ devices — among them, A3/tabloid units, color units, and placement of devices in every classroom with no output control mechanism in place. The IT staff found it difficult to maintain this aging print fleet and effectively manage needed supporting drivers and firmware updates. Furthermore, the fleet’s downtime adversely affected staff productivity. After receiving a series of federal grants, the city had the opportunity to rebuild its school district and employ state-of-the-art technologies.

THE CHALLENGE

The district’s assorted fleet and lack of centralized purchasing caused the district to incur unnecessary printing and supplies costs as well as procurement inefficiencies. Devices were deployed inefficiently and printing-related costs were too high.

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