Case Study: California school district

How a budget-strapped school district implemented Ricoh Managed Document Services without increasing costs.

About California school district

The school district, located in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, was founded in 1907 and educates close to 10,000 pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students in the community. District leaders manage seven elementary schools, three middle schools and a charter high school that offers a rigorous college preparatory program.

Challenge

A Southern California school district found themselves buried in challenges with no solution in sight:

Following budget cuts and major staff reductions, the district closed their manned copy center. The printing load shifted to a fleet of multifunction printers (MFPs) scattered throughout 16 buildings.
Equipment was overburdened, breakdowns were frequent and costs escalated.
Records weren’t fully digitized, so providing enrollment transcripts within 4 days for students seeking financial aid (required by California law) was a productivity and financial drain.
The district struggled to track and control the influx of boxes of paper documents.
Schools in the district weren’t connected with a cohesive system or workflow for document imaging and copying.

Solution

Ricoh implemented Managed Document Services and production center management — without the district incurring additional costs.

The total document management solution delivered tight processes for asset management, managed print services, production center management and scanning. We implemented:

A fully integrated scanning solution.
Customized workflow solutions for key departments such as accounts payable and accounts receivable.
Ricoh’s TRAC Solution® for online print job submissions, instant quotes and authorization to the district’s production center.
Equitrac® print management and cost recovery software, behavioral management tools to help the district track usage.
Centralized administration tools for fleet and online supply and service management, to give the district control over their print functions.
“Google button” capability that enables users to upload and print directly from shared drives, to exchange and repurpose educational materials.

Result

Operational processes and management tools have been put in place to drive the district’s document management strategy and realize their investment.

The district’s overall spend has been reduced by five percent, which gives the district the ability to fund all the backfile scanning needed to accommodate their internal paper backlog.
We are now in the process of scanning more than 2,000 boxes of back files for the district.
Every classroom has its own printer to meet safety concerns, but the district has the ability to monitor and enforce print policies when necessary.
Behavior management software is in place district-wide. By shifting 10 sheets per day to the staff MFP, the district saves the equivalent of one full-time teacher’s salary per year.
The district has gained a cutting-edge technology platform without incurring additional costs.

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