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Campus photocopiers – help is on the way!

• A $630,000 program to replace and improve the 82 photocopiers on campus and the two high-production machines in Printing Services will get under way in December this year.

The campus copiers – all those not operated by the University of Regina Students’ Union, and excluding the machines located in Printing Services, Campion College and Luther College – will be replaced with new Kyocera /Mita digital multi-function machines between Dec. 6 and mid-January, 2005, at a cost of about $325,000.

The two high-production copiers in Printing Services will be replaced with new Xerox machines, each capable of producing 1.2 million copies per month, at a cost of about $240,000. 

A new high speed full colour printer, at a cost of about $65,000, will greatly improve Printing Service’s ability to meet the growing demand for colour printing across campus.

Between them, the purchases will improve the quality and reliability of photocopiers on campus, and will also install the potential for up-to-date copying features.

Initially, the new machines will function as stand-alone photocopiers. However, while the purchase price is no higher than that of single-function machines, they are also capable of functioning as printers, scanners and fax machines, and can be networked. These additional capabilities will be installed if future assessments of a department’s needs indicate it would be appropriate and cost effective.

The replacement program is inspired partly by rising maintenance costs for the old machines, and partly by the findings of a customer satisfaction survey carried out in February this year. Of the 82 existing campus machines 49 are older than 10 years, and 64 are at or near obsolescence. Campus copiers have been producing 5.3 million copies per year, and the Printing Services machines have been pumping out a further 9.7 million copies. They have become unreliable and expensive to maintain.

In the February survey users – students, faculty and administrative staff – expressed growing dissatisfaction with the deteriorating quality of copies, and the increasing unreliability of the machines. Usage was declining.

The new machines will be less costly to operate and maintain (savings could come to as much as $80,000/year once the capital costs are retired, in about five years) and will deliver a much better photocopy, more reliably.

The transition to the new fleet of copiers is expected to go smoothly. Operators will be trained by the vendor.

Users can be certain the new machines offer value for money. The U of R joined forces with the University of Saskatchewan, which is also replacing its photocopier fleet. That brought the number of machines up from 82 for the U of R, to 300 for both universities, significantly improving the universities’ bargaining power.

 

• Visit our Digital Print and Copy Centre in the Education Building for all your colour copying and printing needs - Colour copies as low as 29 cents each!!

• Printing Services' Customer Account Representative (Printing Services new internal sales person) Neil Schroeder 585-5094 will assist with your design, format, production, finishing, and mailing needs.