While most of the Council’s print estate is served via a central contract with Xerox, the Engineering Services office operates a standalone device leased directly from Ricoh. This arrangement is a legacy and sits outside the Xerox framework.
The current Ricoh printer has been in place since September 2012. Its original 36 month lease has long expired. We currently pay Ricoh £194.31 per quarter for the device lease and 0.004469p per black & white print and 0.03575p per colour print under the existing terms.
The printer is now beyond its useful life. It frequently malfunctions, and Ricoh engineers have advised that, due to age, parts are becoming obsolete and are not serviceable. In addition, the device cannot reliably handle the thin, budget white paper that we procure to keep costs low, resulting in a reliance on higher gsm paper stock which is more expensive.
Ricoh have provided a quotation to replace the current unit with a new, comparable model at both a lower quarterly rental and reduced cost per print than our existing agreement.
On rental alone, the proposal delivers a cost saving of £295 per annum, equating to £885 over a 36 month term. This is in addition to expected reductions in disruption and avoidable paper costs associated with the current printer’s inability to handle budget weight paper.