An Outsourcing Debacle
According to the article, the contract called for Kinko's (not then part of FedEx) to analyze how DISD's schools could improve productivity. Its recommendations (surprise!) called for leasing new equipment from Kinko's and letting Kinko's stores handle large jobs.
There it is: the root cause of this situation. Upper management made the mistake of letting a vendor act as a consultant and analyze its current printing capabilities. (If a fox says he's a "Hen Consultant" should you let him assess your hen house?) Sadly, this happens all the time. Just last month a different school district contacted me and revealed it was about to allow a vendor to scrutinize its in-plant and offer an "unbiased" opinion of whether or not it was operating efficiently. I quickly recommended a more neutral consultant.