p.36 OKI 11:Page 6 02/11/2009 12:24 Page 36
ICT - Networking and Communications
How Schools
Can Achieve
Cost-Effective,
Efficient Printing
by Graham Lowes, marketing
director, OKI Printing Solutions
U
K schools face a familiar challenge every year: how do
they get the most out of limited resources? And this
challenge is never greater than when investing in IT solutions.
So, when schools ask: “How can I finance my new printer?”,
vendors increasingly need to look at offering flexible payment
options such as a ‘pay as you go’ model, where schools just pay for
the printing that they use, or finance packages which allow them
to spread costs over an extended period.
OKI’s innovative new Flatrate printing package, for example,
offers a fixed monthly cost with fully inclusive print/copy volumes
and visible fixed costs per page for additional pages, helping
schools achieve predictable budgeting and cost control.
Of course, making a cost-effective printer acquisition is as much
about the type of printer chosen as the payment method. With tight
budgetary restrictions, schools cannot afford to buy just ‘any old
printing solution’ – they need to buy the right one – one that is
precisely tailored to their needs and that delivers the flexibility and
versatility to meet their full range of printing requirements.
After all, the overall cost-effectiveness of any printer is as much
about the value it brings as the expense it incurs. Printers can add value
simply by enabling schools to customise their documents more easily.
Here, flexibility is the key.
At OKI, we have pioneered the development of free ‘in-the-box’
utilities, which enable schools and colleges to customise material. This
type of software can have a multitude of applications within schools. It
can help, for example, to manage regular events such as sports days
and parents evenings by providing the ability to produce colourful
signage, tickets and brochures in-house.
In addition, it can support teachers in their lesson preparation by
enabling them to create and modify templates for frequently required
documents including presentation boards, posters, banners,
wristbands, stickers and labels on a broad range of different sizes and
types of paper.
The ability of schools to use this approach to tailor material to their
precise needs also reduces wastage by enabling more print jobs to be
brought in-house, by reducing the over-runs typical of outsourced
printing and by raising the level of print-outs that are ‘right first time’.
Schools can use integrated print management software to help
further reduce wastage and control costs. This type of solution gives
administrators a ‘helicopter view’ of their printing resources, enabling
them to see who is printing what around the school. They can identify,
for example, where colour is being used unnecessarily, or if a printer is
being used for purposes unrelated to the school, enabling them to
achieve significant savings on the overall print budget.
In summary, there are a broad range of choices schools can make
and techniques they can adopt in order to optimise their print
resources. At the same time, they get the added benefit of knowing
that by helping to cut costs and conserve resources, these techniques
all play a key role in limiting the impact of printing processes on the
environment.
uwww.www.oki.co.uk u01753 819856
36
www.education-today.co.uk November 2009
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