Andy Hargreaves,
Regional Sales
Manager,
Altodigital
As those working in the
education sector will know, a
school’s printing and document
management requirements are
often considerable – teaching staff
and students need to produce a
high volume of documents on a
fast turnaround, placing a great
deal of pressure on their printing
devices. Being aware of some of
the costly mistakes that can be
made regarding print infrastructure
is the first step towards ensuring
your establishment doesn’t end up
wasting time and money as you
search for the right solution.
MISTAKE 1:
DESKTOP DISASTERS
One of the fundamental issues
driving up print costs across the
education sector is the large number
of ineffective desktop printers still
in place across many organisations.
In addition, many schools are still
using a variety of different suppliers
for their multi-functional devices
(MFDs), which may not represent
best value for money or the best
service. This can result in large
fleets of devices producing high
volumes of wasted documents, hard
to manage networks and very little
transparency. Carrying out a detailed
print audit and reviewing your print
as a whole can increase efficiency
and dramatically improve costs.
Using one uniform supplier often
allows schools to significantly reduce
their fleet size and simplify the
management of their print estate.
MISTAKE 2:
UNPREPARED PRINT POLICY
Despite the ever increasing pressure
on educational institutions to
cut costs from many angles, it’s
surprising how few schools have
a dedicated print policy in place
providing clear guidelines and setting
rules around print procedures across
the school, college or university.
One of the main aspects of this is
communicating the policy amongst
staff and pupils to ensure everyone
is aware of the organisation’s print
targets and the long term benefits of
cutting down printing.
MISTAKE 3:
STALE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS
Thousands of schools across the
UK are still not using any type of
output print management software,
resulting in very little control and
ever increasing waste and costs.
By introducing a print management
solution – which can be linked to
existing bio-metrics systems such
as cashless catering – schools can
save money and improve productivity.
By enabling ‘pull print’ functionality
from within the print management
software, teachers and students can
send documents to print to a variety
of secure devices across a number
of different buildings, resulting
in confidential print collections
and driving down wastage. Print
management software targeted
specifically at schools such as
‘Papercut’ also allows the schools
Andy Hargreaves, regional sales manager at Altodigital, points out 5 key mistakes
educational institutions can make when it comes to document and print technology
– and crucially, explains how to avoid them
Learning the hard way!
PRINT.IT
29
PROCUREMENT
management team to put ‘rules’ in
place to ensure best practice printing
is carried out at all times – ultimately
driving down costs and reducing the
school’s carbon footprint.
MISTAKE 4:
CONFUSING CONTRACTS
When reviewing their print
infrastructure and going through
the procurement process, schools
and colleges should be looking at
negotiating operating leases rather
than standard leases with suppliers.
These contracts usually offer a much
lower rate of lending as well as
prohibiting suppliers from carrying
out costly mid-contract upgrades and
providing hardware that is a certain
percentage (usually 70%) over the RRP.
MISTAKE 5:
AVOIDING FRAMEWORKS
Many schools we come into
contact with at Altodigital don’t
have the resources for an in-house
procurement expert and when they
require new or replacement printing
solutions they will often go to local
or peer-recommended suppliers.
Though these suppliers often have
first class knowledge and large
product ranges, we would always
advise going through an industry
recognised framework. The Crescent
Purchasing Consortium (CPC) is
one of the largest education sector
frameworks and it offers a lot of
additional expertise and benefits for
those looking to expand or adapt
their print fleet. By going through the
framework, they offer to draft the
tender document on the school’s
behalf, issue it to all suppliers on
the framework and co-ordinate
the responses – streamlining the
process and saving time.
0845 504 5353
