Vendors bid for expired printing leases on campus; no decisions made
Talya Flowers , News Writer
August 27, 2013 Filed under News
Several major companies have begun bidding to offer their services to replace expired printing equipment leases on the campus—a project that could possibly save Wright State University an estimated $400,000 a year and $2 million over the course of 5 years, according to Director of Printing Services Patrick Bruchs.
The leases for the Fleet Printers and Xerox equipment on campus are set to expire this summer.“When these leases expire there will be new contracts executed here in the next few months to replace those expiring leases,” said Bruchs, who has worked for the department for over 4 years.
Vendors pitching for their services to be utilized are Xerox, Woodhull, Donnellon Mccarthy and Modern Office Method Computers.
Bruchs said the chosen company will order important information for the desktops, provide the equipment, toner and maintenance for the Fleet Printers and provide all of the consumables and equipment for production.
“These companies are pitching to install the printers, maintain, and supply each department with a toner and the consumables to run those printers. [This does not] include paper,” Bruchs said.
Xerox was one of two companies that made a pitch to completely take over Printing Services, a decision that Bruchs said is a possibility. “If Xerox takes over, we don’t know what would happen. We would probably be employees of Xerox and not of Wright State,” Bruchs said.
Bruchs said that he is uncertain if Xerox would allow the student workers or 12 full-time staff members to continue working at Printing Services.“Our biggest concern is if we get [a company] like Xerox, then ‘how will that change our relationship with our customers?’ We have the same vision as Wright State, but that changes when a for-profit entity takes over the business—if they do. That is really the crux of the whole thing,” Bruchs said.Negotiations are still ongoing. T
There is the possibility that within a month, a contract proposal could be drawn up by the vendors. By the end of October, Bruchs said that a concrete decision could be made about who the vender would be. “Every three to five years, we have to look at all the costs for the consumables and the equipment that was purchased. But because of the digital world, the cost keeps coming down,” Bruchs said. “We have to look at this and say, ‘how much money can we save, if we enter into a new lease agreement with these vendors for equipments and consumables?’” The contract that could be finalized in October would be a five-year agreement without any equipment leases. Within that contract, Wright State would need a volume of 25 million clicks a year. “Clicks” are the number of single-sided, 8.5″ X 11″ images that are printed on a sheet of paper. There are “color” clicks (more expensive) and “black & white” clicks (less expensive), Bruchs said. The college has about 2,000 printers located throughout the campus. Printing Services offers an array of services for internal students, faculty and staff as well as external organizations. These services range from printing, typesetting, bindery and posters to T-****s, hats and mugs. “Regardless of what happens, everyone is in agreement that we will support whatever decision is made as long as it is in the best interest of the university and our customers,” Bruchs said. -