School District Gains Printer Peace of Mind

About the Client

The Gibraltar School District, located in Woodhaven, Michigan, includes a high school, middle school and five elementary schools serving some 3,600 students. It strives to provide the best educational experience and equip students with opportunities for success.

Case study overview

The Gibraltar School District’s goal is to be fiscally strong, take pride in its facility facilities, and provide a modern learning experience. It depends on its technology partner to provide, implement, and support the latest technology for students and staff, all within budget.

Like most school districts, Gibraltar has high volume of print and copy demands daily that require reliable and robust equipment. However, its contracted print provider was not keeping pace with that demand. The district’s printers were continually breaking down, disrupting its staff’s ability to prepare needed documents for classes and requiring the district to outsource some copying needs to a local printer at its own expense.

It needed reliable office equipment and a partner that would provide prompt and efficient maintenance at a cost the district could afford.

The district reached out to Xerox^™ Business Solutions, which performed a 360 Assessment to explore not only its printer needs but also its overall technology requirements overall.

To address the district’s most pressing pain point, the Xerox team implemented a plan that included installing a fleet of Xerox multifunction office printers, along with a maintenance program that included servicing its desktop printers. Xerox has also provided a series of print and document management upgrades going forward to address the district’s modernization needs.

The district now uses reliable equipment to meet its print needs, and has digitized student documents and upgraded its fax system as well. Administrators were able to regain time spent fixing printers and have increased efficiency by 20 percent.

The Challenge

Continued printer meltdown, unreliable vendor support

The Gibraltar School District was struggling to find a vendor able to provide quality, versatile, and dependable printer technology within their budget. The equipment and maintenance services supplied by its contracted provider were not keeping pace with the district’s printing and copying needs.

Without sufficient resources, IT and administrative staff had to cope with a steady stream of printer breakdowns within its office. Each time printers malfunctioned, particularly during key morning hours before class, teacher print projects became backed up. The district had to go to the expense of having local print shops handle crucial print jobs to meet class needs.

The contracted vendor was also failing to provide adequate service and supplies to the 120 desktop printers distributed across the schools, leading to inconsistent maintenance and added expenses.

While resolving its printer issues was a key priority, the district was also struggling with fax phone line issues.

The Solution

A needs analysis and customized technology solutions

Gibraltar turned to Xerox^™ Business Solutions, which conducted a six-month 360 Assessment of the district’s technology needs.

The team found that the vendor-supplied printers were not suitable to handle the intense volume of use the schools required. As with most school districts, most of the print and copy activity for Gibraltar takes place in a short amount of time, generally during a narrow window in the morning when teachers are not yet in class. Under such demands, the machines were overheating, causing jams and malfunctions.

The Xerox team implemented a plan to install 30 Xerox multifunction printers that could handle the daily demand, along with a maintenance and print management program to address any repair needs going forward. It also took over the maintenance of the existing desktop printers.

The Xerox assessment also identified the need to upgrade the district’s fax system and proposed a plan to digitize Gibraltar’s paper student records dating back to the 1950s.

The Results

Machines that work, improved overall technology

The new fleet of robust multifunction printers reliably handles the district’s daily printing needs, freeing IT and administrative staff to focus on more important education efforts.

Several years into the contract with Xerox, the district replaced its desktop printers with Xerox equipment.

Xerox helped the district upgrade its fax capabilities, converting the system from analog lines to a cloud-based digital fax solution operated by a third-party vendor.

Gibraltar also used Xerox to digitize the district’s backlog of student documents and is continuing the process to digitize eligible new records—which must remain paper until each class graduates under school regulations. And it is in the process of digitizing records for a special education consortium affiliated with the district.

The school system continues to rely on Xerox as its longstanding partner to evaluate ongoing technology innovations and provide upgrades as needed. For example, Xerox recently helped the district implemented a print release software that requires printer users to swipe a card in order to pick up their printed documents, improving security and preventing document mix ups and backups.

James M. Neal, Major Account Manager for Xerox^™ Business Solutions, Midwest, notes that his team continues to work with district administrators to look for solid solutions that will truly impact Gibraltar’s bottom line and save them time and money in the long run. “We listened and we give them the information they need to make good decisions,” he says.