Client Profile:

The Shasta County Office of Education located in Redding has a responsibility to their community to be fiscally responsible, providing financial oversight, accounting and other tools and services to maintain financial stability. Their mission statement shows their dedication towards, “providing leadership and assistance to the districts and community partners in Shasta County to ensure all students have equal access to a quality education that prepares them to graduate from high school and obtain a high-skilled, high-wage career.”
Whether it’s accessing professional development opportunities from our Instructional Services Department or finding appropriate Preschool and child care for the 0-5 population, the SCOE is dedicated to promoting the education of its youth. The SCOE serves as a vital hub of support to local schools.

Background:

Shasta County Office of Education had accounts with Ray Morgan Company, Xerox, and Konica Minolta. In March of 2012, Brad Berryman and Paul Cavagnaro met with Mari Moore, IT Analyst for SCOE whose task was to update the current copier fleet, decrease expense and increase efficiencies across their 8 physical locations. Her task was to review the 3 technology providers and determine the best fit for the SCOE.
SCOE’s current fleet of printers was outdated with a limited scope of capabilities. Mari expressed the need for simplicity with the ability to print from PDA’s, scan to digital and leverage internal IT infrastructure. Every department from small to large was equipped with excess equipment that was draining the budget and the IT departments’ resources. A consistent theme throughout the SCOE offices was the excess use of printers, stand-alone fax machines and outdated devices.
The next step took place in May of 2012 when Paul Cavagnaro, Brad Berryman, Chris Scarff, and Erick Miller went over the different ways we could help SCOE accomplish their tasks. Following this meeting an RFP was issued and three of the five vendors were selected to demonstrate their solutions.

Assessment:

The assessment of vendors started in August of 2012 which lasted for 30 days. The criteria the SCOE was looking for was based on variety factors including controlling costs, ease of use, reducing paper consumption, simplified billing practices, leverage existing IT infrastructure in a mixed PC and MAC environment. RMC also provided a solution for BYOD (Bring your own Device) for external customer using their onsite facility which impressed SCOE employees.
The key players from the SCOE IT Team consisted of:

  • Mari Moore (IT Analyst)
  • Dan Ostroski (Director of IT)
  • James Alspach (IT Supervisor)
  • Bill Everson (IT Analyst)
  • Bob Good (System Administrator)
  • Zackary Baker (IT Analyst II)
  • Kendall Kilborn (IT Analyst II MAC Administrator)

Each party played a valuable role in determining the solutions viability. Bob had addressed the solution from a database administrator position and was concerned how Cost Management Solution (CMS) played with their active directory structure. Kendall evaluated how the MFD’s performed in the MAC environment used by all of the executive level employees. James evaluated the security protocols and how the device would work with a new HID Security System that would be implemented in a year. Bob and Zach tested set-up printer queues and evaluated the solutions performance levels. Mari was our point person bringing together her team and all of the information to evaluate all proposed solutions. Dan Ostroski led the charge in picking the solution he felt would best address the organization’s needs.
The RMC team knows the importance of taking care of our customers throughout the entire project and beyond implementation of the equipment. We followed a these steps to insure our delivery went smoothly and addressed all of their concerns.

RMC Solution:

Our goal was to assist SCOE in not only creating a more productive environment, but also in controlling current costs. We provided a multi-pronged solution incorporating Canon MFD’s and UniFLOW.

Implementation:

  • Site survey of all locations with facilities personnel to identify space, power & data capabilities. Delivery team will simultaneously identify viable access routes for staging and placement of equipment to develop a coordinated plan for install by grid designation. Special requirements such as stair climbers, sensitive areas, or any other areas requiring special handling will be noted and incorporated into final plan.
  • Identification and inventory of all assets within the scope of the agreement.
  • Meeting between RMC and SCOE IT staff to discuss network installation. This would include determination of static IP or DHCP, overall network topology, integration of accounting software and additional network hardware as appropriate, determination of desired approach to providing temporary administrative privileges for network configuration. Development of timeline and sequential steps for installation of all components to eliminate gaps in end-user service. Establishment of process for IT support for both SCOE IT and end-users as determined prior to contract award. Any other issues as identified.
  • Coordination with either SCOE designee to provide site specific plan for removal of old equipment and immediate installation to locations requiring new equipment. RMC IT staff will prefer to pre-configure devices to further eliminate downtime.
  • Coordination of training to occur prior to physical deployment of new systems.
  • Communication of service request procedures to all appropriate personnel and labeling of all assets incorporated in the scope of agreement. Installation of network support hardware and SCOE testing with Canon equipment to ensure completion and accuracy of user and account codes.
  • Complete staff training of the Canon equipment and access code procedures.
  • Post installation and follow up and additional training as required to ensure comfort level by all users.
  • Post install meeting with key departmental employees to evaluate success of implementation and identify any additional requirements.
  • Ongoing quarterly meetings between Client staff and RMC staff should occur to discuss technical issues, meters and position usage, redeployment, service issues, response time reports and any additional agenda requirements.

Summary:

The RMC team was able to accomplish the following:

  • Reduction of MFD’s (by 5).
  • 1 Invoice versus 5 before.
  • Eliminate the need for entering GL entries savings accounting over 40+ hours per month by uploaded invoices directly into their Account System.
  • Print/Copy Volumes decreased by over 25% with the incorporation of the new devices and management tools.
  • B/W and Color Printing savings of over 6K a month.
  • Removal of 45 printers within the first 60 days of inception.
  • Removal of 25 additional printers after 6 months.
  • Driving new processes with their existing Document Management Solution using our Canon MFD’s as the capture point.

In closing, Dan Ostroski Director of IT said, “Ray Morgan was far superior with product, presentation, and the level of service showcased this.”