Today, I was copied on an email that was sent to all Jordan Creek Elementary staff from their building administrators updating the staff on a quick comparison of building printing.
In 2010 – Building Laser Printer Costs (Oct. 31-Nov.13) was $746.90
This year, 2011 – Building Laser Printer Costs (Oct. 30-Nov.12) was $177.95
Total savings for two weeks of Fall conferences on building printers = $568.95
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Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean they went paperless. It’s likely that much of the printing was shifted to more cost efficient printers – which are not included in the costs, but the end point is this – they are more aware of costs and usage.
What the secret to making this happen?
We setup our print server to send out 2 automated reports once a week to each building administrator. The first report shows printer usage at their site, including total pages and cost. The second report shows how their building printers compare to printers at other schools. Sending this information is part of the secret. It doesn’t show who is printing what or highlight any specific user – instead, it shows general trends and gives schools an idea of whether they are printing more or less than others. In prior years, we would send things to the printer as if we didn’t know whether it cost money or not – because we really didn’t know what the cost was or how much we were using.
West Des Moines Community Schools Technology 