Get Wise Centralize

Creating a centralized copier management program will save your organization money while boosting your in-plant's credibility.

By Carol Brzozowski

Before Kris Davis took over the copier management program at West Virginia University five years ago, six different vendors were providing 80 copiers for departments on the Morgantown campus. Each vendor pushed machines with capabilities departments didn't need, pricing varied between customers and the multiple invoices were an accounting imbroglio.

The situation was, quite frankly, not in the school's best interest. So Davis and his team took action.

"We consolidated everything we had, when we wrote a new request for proposal, into one vendor with one bill," says Davis, manager of the university's Copy Centers.

Today, Davis oversees 220 of the 390 machines on campus. Since the copier program isn't mandatory at WVU, his group calls on departments that use equipment from other vendors and tries to educate them on the advantages of coming on board. Those advantages include: eliminating the hassles of multiple invoices, giving the university more leverage and stopping vendors from pushing those unnecessary features.

"You have different vendors selling features and types and overselling functions the institution doesn't need," he says. His goal is to stop this practice, saving money for the university at the same time.

This should be the mission of every in-plant manager. No one in any organization is more qualified than the in-plant manager to consolidate copier contracts and select the most appropriate machines for each department. Those who have spearheaded such projects have brought new respect to their in-plants and strengthened their own positions.

"There are a lot of advantages for us doing this because now it shows how we add value other than just printing," remarks Patrick O'Donnell, manager of Document Production Services for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, in New Hudson.

150 New MFDs

In August, as the contract on 150 copiers was about to expire, O'Donnell took the opportunity to replace those machines with multifunctional devices (MFDs). Installed in the health insurance company's many offices scattered throughout Michigan, they helped the company eliminate redundant fax machines and printers.

One of the largest Blue Cross plans in the country, Michigan's BCBS has two main campuses: one in Detroit and one in the suburbs, with regional and district offices scattered throughout the state.

O'Donnell oversees the 27-employee in-plant, which boasts a Xerox iGen3, a five-color Heidelberg and lots of other digital and offset printing equipment. Because he also manages the copier program (which includes 55 additional copiers that were not replaced) O'Donnell can make sure departments aren't getting devices with more capabilities than they need.

"We can...do a document analysis to see how many prints and copies they need, and figure out they only need one printer and one MFD, or maybe three printers and one MFD," O'Donnell says. "You can really reduce your assets on that."

Getting the Most Appropriate Devices

WVU's Davis agrees that it's better for a knowledgeable person at the organization to decide which equipment is best than to let the vendors do it.

"A lot of vendors pushed a 55-page-a-minute copy machine," he says. "People running 500 copies a month don't need 55-page-a-minute copy machines.

"Depending on how educated outside vendors think your customer is will [determine] the pricing they give," Davis continues. "A vendor may give Department A a 55-page-a-minute machine for $700 but then give it to Department B for $300, whereas with our contract under a single vendor, our prices are standard. We've cut out the fluff because we're not selling on commission. We're trying to compile a program that best suits the needs of the university."

Davis knows from experience what a hassle it can be having multiple suppliers.

"When we dealt with the six different vendors on those 80 machines, we had 160 payable invoices because you have invoices for the equipment and invoices for the leases, so imagine how much time and money it takes to process 160 different invoices," Davis points out.

"When we consolidated with our single-vendor Minolta contractor, we only got one payable invoice every month. We only have one call to make for service and billing errors."

O'Donnell agrees.

"I know companies that have a million dollars worth of toner in their warehouses because they have different kinds of printers that use different kinds of toners," says O'Donnell. "We only have one type of MFD, we only use one type of supplies, so we can consolidate the ordering of all those supplies in our warehouse and ship them and distribute them as required."

Multiple Vendors: More of a Choice

Despite these advantages, though, not every in-plant favors the single-vendor contract. Printing Services at Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio, has been overseeing the university copier program for 25 years, buying or leasing machines for students, faculty and staff.

Copy coordinator Chuck Fahnestock says his program utilizes four vendors. He prefers it this way because he has found single-vendor contracts to be restrictive.

"It ties you down to a single type of machine, where we are able to select specific applications where we need to. While there is a lot of continuity across everybody's product line, there still are some unique products we place in certain positions that, if we had a single vendor contract, we wouldn't have access to."

Case in point: Wright State's library has Xerox digital BookMark multifunctional copier/printers.

"Xerox is the only company that makes something that resembles a true library copier with a library edge adapted to the library environment," he says. "If you go with any other company, then you've excluded yourself from those specialized types of products."

Another drawback Fahnestock sees to having a single vendor is that "at some point if you have everything with one vendor on a single lease, you may run into the position of trying to switch out all of your equipment at one time, where we typically rotate it through at about roughly 20 percent to 25 percent per year."

One Vendor, More Leverage

O'Donnell doesn't see this as a problem, though. He says BCBS of Michigan has used a single vendor for a long time and it has given them some leverage. For instance, BCBS negotiated for an on-site technician at its two main campuses.

"The reason we can do that is because we use one vendor and we have a lot of machines at those two campuses," O'Donnell says.

Another advantage of sticking with a single vendor is that once employees learn the features of one machine, they can run any of them.

"When you have a single source, you can put different speeds and different machines in your building, but the panel for operation is always the same," says O'Donnell. "When we train our people, we can train them on one machine and then they are able to operate any machine within the state."

Fahnestock stands firm, though.

"Some schools have 20 vendors on campus. We have four and four is enough," he says. "Having more than one is typically good and having it [managed] centrally—if everything is working well—allows you to make better use of the machines."

Cost Savings

The most visible benefit to consolidating copier contracts and upgrading to MFDs is the cost savings. Fahnestock estimates Wright State saves up to $300,000 a year by consolidating, adding that other universities of a comparable size have four times as much equipment.

BCBS of Michigan figures it is saving more than $100,000 by eliminating 200 fax machines and not replacing 200 printers that were scheduled to be upgraded. An MFD can replace two or three printers, O'Donnell notes, adding that at BCBS, copying volume is decreasing while printing volume is increasing.

At WVU, Davis' division spent approximately $350,000 for equipment and services, as opposed to the rest of the campus, which paid nearly triple that for fewer machines.

Davis says it's a "huge" cost savings to update old technology copiers with modern MFDs. Additionally, his division wrote the contract to include toner and other supplies. The bottom line: per-copy costs are lower.

Set Vendor Criteria

O'Donnell says there need not be headaches involved with managing all of the copiers, maintenance, billing and ordering of supplies if the vendor criteria is properly set.

BCBS' vendor criteria stipulates supplies must be delivered within 72 hours; a list of MFDs with a lower rating of 95 percent up time must be submitted quarterly, sample billing reports must be submitted so the company can make adjustments prior to vendors sending them.

While the end result of consolidating copying efforts through MFDs is to produce an efficient, streamlined operation at low operating costs, there can be speed bumps on the road there.

"We've had some problems," Fahnestock says. "Very little of our equipment is networked for multiple users because we have found that when there is a printer on every desk, people are reluctant to use a centralized printing application unless you can show them it is going to give them better performance."

Coordinating Installation

The biggest roadblock Davis faced in writing an RFP for MFDs was making the leap from analog to digital and getting into networking.

"Although we have a standard information technology group, other individual departments also have their own IT sets, so you have to work with different individuals to make sure everybody is installing them the same way, everything is working the same way and you have the right drivers for the operating system," he says. "Once we got over that, after about a year, everything worked out pretty well."

Looking back at the consolidation decision of five years ago, Davis says he is pleased with the results.

"Going the route we've gone has completely streamlined our process," Davis says. "We've become far more efficient and more cost effective and as a result of that, it's been a much greater benefit to our department."