Print Management Program
December 10, 2020
Procurement and Payment Services recently issued a Request for Proposals to select a single vendor to implement a campus-wide print management solution. After an extensive evaluation and considerable collaboration with several other schools and departments, a new contract will be awarded to Ricoh.
This was a lengthy, comprehensive, thoughtful, and fair process. Ricoh best demonstrated their capabilities and ability to successfully implement this program. The award recommendation was based on a best value assessment of the following key aspects of each vendor’s proposal:
- Quality of proposed brand of equipment
- Experience of the leadership team and key personnel
- Proposed implementation plan
- Service and support
- Technology (to support maintenance, accurate billing, ‘follow me print’ infrastructure, identity management, etc.)
- Experience implementing similar programs elsewhere
- Commitment to sustainability
- Past performance at Northwestern
- Pricing
There are two primary goals to this project: first, to standardize the copier fleet across Northwestern on one brand, which will achieve a greater economy of scale and significant ‘cost per click’ savings over the current three-vendor model; and second, to leverage the single-vendor relationship to implement universal printing infrastructure across campus, with a single chargeback per page. Universal printing will allow any Northwestern employee or student to print and release jobs at any copier on campus. This ultimately allows us to dramatically improve the overall print landscape on campus, decrease the amount of staff time needed to manage fleets of copiers, and ultimately save the University several hundred thousand dollars annually.
Therefore, we will be working with all departments and schools on campus that currently have copiers from our three current preferred vendors (Ricoh, Gordon Flesch, and Regal) to transition them to the new campus wide contract when their current leases expire. The implementation of the entire program will likely take 1-2 years.
Senior leadership is fully supportive of this transition (both the Provost’s Office as well as Business and Finance). Internal meetings will begin immediately to establish an implementation team, plan, and timeline. We will be in touch with each department that currently has Ricoh copiers to transition their units into the program as soon as possible. For those that have copiers from Gordon Flesch and Regal, we will be in touch prior to the expiration of those leases or as soon as possible if those leases are expired or expiring shortly.
If you have questions, please contact Sheila Watkins, Procurement Administrator, at s-watkins@northwestern.edu or 1.8125.