Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007 - (Page 10)

Cost-Per-Copy Contract and Site-Based Funding at a K-12 School District But more importantly… why you should know how to bake cookies! by Andrea Alexander, A.P.P., C.P.M. Saddleback Valley Uniﬁed School District I was recently tasked with creating a PowerPoint presentation for a workshop on our district-wide cost-per-copy contracts and site-based funding. This turned out to be very educational and enlightening for me, and after receiving feedback from the workshop attendees, it appeared to be educational and enlightening to them as well. Given this newfound “enlightenment,” I decided it might be prudent to share the information from this presentation with others. So here goes: Our K-12 school district copier and duplicator functions have evolved over a number of years. We began with a system in which we had no idea which machines were out at the various school sites, let alone how many copies were being processed, to a more controlled environment where copiers are leased and funding is predicated on number of students, number of school days, number of copies per student, etc., etc., which I will detail more elaborately later in this article. Between the years 1990 and 1999, the district owned copiers that were a variety of makes and models, had various maintenance contracts, were funded by the purchasing budget, and had relatively no cost controls in place. We needed to change. The change process began by ﬁrst establishing which machines were at the different sites and then consolidating them into various master maintenance contract/agreements (all Xerox on one maintenance contract, all Canons on another maintenance contract, etc.). As these contracts expired, we determined that, given the rapid changes in technology and the extreme usage of our copiers, it was in the best interest of the district to enter into lease agreements rather than to own the equipment outright. By 2004/2005, we had prepared a bid for copiers and digital duplicators that included rental of the equipment, site-based budgets with annual funding, and site control of that funding. In 1999/2000, the district had 34,400 students, 38 school sites plus the district ofﬁce, and we made approximately 38,860,412 copies per year with 200 copiers and duplicators. In 2004/2005, we had grown to 34,800 students. The number of sites remained the same but the copies increased to 49,870,855 per year with 265 machines servicing those sites. The bid that ultimately became our copier contract includes rental and maintenance of the machine and consumables, but excludes paper, staples, and digital masters. Some additional features of our copier contract are 1) new digital equipment that has a Buyers’ Lab Recommendation and is an Editor’s Choice from Better Buys for Business; 2) a 60-month equipment lease that is renewable for new equipment and has a price adjustment annually based on the consumer price index; and 3) 100-percent payment and performance bonds. Yes, bonds. I know you are asking, “Why bonds?” and I will explain. In our school environment, and probably in yours as well, it is imperative that our machinery be operational all the time. The most common complaints are “When will the air conditioner be working again?” and “When will that @#% copier be up and running?” If we can eliminate these problems and keep just those two service areas running smoothly, we will have half the battle won and we can move on to devote our time to more pressing issues. Furthermore, teachers and staff cannot function without copiers and duplicators, and essentially their needs outweigh the costs of this added insurance. Our contract features two copier choices. They are based on copies per minute as that seemed to be the key factor presented by the sites when determining what was most important to them. So essentially we offered the sites a 31-copy-per-minute machine and a 60-copy-per-minute maDecember 2007 10 EDUCATIONAL PROCUREMENT JOURNAL

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007

Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007 Contents Letter From the CEO: Sustainability in Higher Education Heard On the Streets Calculating Procurement's Value Cost-Per-Copy Contract and Site-Based Funding At a K-12 School District Bargain-Basement Solutions to Automate and Streamline Procurement Processes LEED & Leadership Certification Roamin' with Yeoman Best and Final

Educational Procurement Journal - December 2007

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