Case Study: Patchogue-Medford School District Gains Efficiency With Standardized Print Services

CUSTOMER BACKGROUND
Patchogue-Medford School District operates seven elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school in Long Island, N.Y. The OKI Printing Solutions sales representative had a previous working relationship with the IT director at Patchogue- Medford from another district location in Long Island. At that time, OKI Printing Solutions had performed a Managed Service assessment that resulted in the customer's former district transitioning its existing printer fleet from another vendor. When the contact took the current position as IT director for Patchogue-Medford School District, one of his first tasks was to improve the current cost of the district's printing operation. OKI Printing Solutions, along with a handful of competitive print vendors, was called in to compete for the business of improving operational costs.

THE CHALLENGE
Patchogue-Medford School District was using a variety of printer brands and technologies, and each department was responsible for its own technology purchases. There was no standardization across the district, making it extremely difficult to cost-effectively manage the district-wide fleet, resulting in unnecessary consumables spending. With the print vendors competing for the business, the IT Director set the following goals: reduce consumables costs; incorporate color capabilities with color controls to manage costs; and increase media flexibility in order to enhance students' creativity. Controlling costs was the number one priority, in addition to reducing the downtime incurred with obsolete products, as the district had trouble keeping inventory on consumables because the fleet was so varied.