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Ricoh move set to save Croydon College £500,000
Croydon College, in South East London, is one of the largest providers of Further and Higher Education to students in the South East of England. Based on savings made since entering into the relationship with Ricoh in August 2010, the college has revealed it expects the total figure saved to reach £500,000 over the next three years.
Following a competitive tender, Ricoh replaced the college print room’s ageing equipment with a Ricoh Pro C751S colour device and two Pro 1357EX high-volume mono machines. The effect has been to improve value for money across the college’s print services by reducing the cost-per-click and centralising the printing of class handouts and information booklets used to support teaching.
Ricoh’s ability to integrate its production printing solution with the college’s existing print management software was critical to securing the deal as the college aims to direct as much printing as possible away from multifunctional and desktop printers.
Mark Watson, print services manager, Croydon College says: “Integrating software from one manufacturer with another manufacturer’s equipment isn’t always that easy. I’m part of a national forum on printing in education and so it was quite nice to go along there and tell colleagues that we had managed to integrate successfully the Ricoh presses with our existing systems. I don’t know of many other colleges that have managed to do this.
“Although information is going digital, having a physical handout in a classroom does supplement the learning process. Pupils have different styles of learning – some visual, some hands on and some need paper-based information. So the value for money and efficiencies we've achieved with the Ricoh print solution play a key role in education at Croydon College. In fact, lecturers often make the print room their first port of call in the morning to collect their handouts for the day.”
Croydon College’s policy dictates that jobs comprising 20 copies or more are directed to the print room and each member of staff has a £50 print allowance to encourage them, wherever practical, to use the most cost effective printing method. This is invariably the print room’s Ricoh presses at 1p per click compared to 4p per click for desktop or MFP devices. To promote this way of working, the college has run a communications programme, with leaflets in pay packets and videos on the intranet, informing staff about how to improve the way they use print resources. Ultimately, the print room aims to become more of a shop front and open up print services to students.
The college is also keen to reduce the amount of human intervention required when printing. In this respect, integrated finishing functions on the Ricoh presses, such as dual staple, two-hold punch and card covers, makes printing more efficient. The Ricoh presses are also able to handle a wide range of paper stock and sizes down to A5 and up to 300gsm, allowing the college to pre-print post cards ready for mail merge printing and produce forms on thin NCR (non-carbon copy) paper. The presses are fitted with scanners that enable documents to be digitised for filing, copying or posting in virtual learning environments.
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