Finance committee to recommend Ricoh copier refresh and PaperCut migration after vendor offers savings

At the Oct. 13 finance committee meeting, staff recommended a Ricoh copier refresh and migration from the district’s Equitrack fleet-management software to PaperCut. The recommendation would replace 66 multifunction devices (MFDs) across the district in December 2025 and include five years of support, printing-service components, project management and PaperCut licensing.

Sean (presenting finance staff) said Equitrack will be at end-of-life on Dec. 31, 2025, and that leaving the current machines in place risks losing vendor support for the fleet if a failure occurs after Equitrack is no longer maintained: "If something happens to the Equitrack... there's nobody there's no support to bring it back up," he said. The district discussed two options: (1) add PaperCut to the existing fleet in December and replace machines under the existing lease schedule in July (which would duplicate implementation costs), or (2) refresh machines six months early and include PaperCut implementation on new machines, which the presenter said would avoid duplicative implementation charges.

Under the vendor offer presented, the current monthly equipment lease (~$9,520) would continue for six months and then drop to roughly $9,137 per month for the remaining 57 months of the five-year term; Ricoh’s first offer included a higher per-copy service price that staff negotiated down. Staff reported that overall estimated copy volume has fallen since the prior contract: projected five-year copy volume dropped from 112,000,000 in the earlier contract to an estimated 70,000,000 today, producing estimated copy-cost savings over five years. The district also reviewed options to right-size some machines (e.g., reduce drawer counts and remove internal staplers on specific models) for additional small monthly savings.

Staff said the Ricoh pricing was offered through the Pennsylvania CoStars cooperative contract and that Ricoh had further discounted state-contract pricing in negotiations with the district; Ricoh’s local representative told staff that tariffs on imported equipment could raise prices if an award were delayed past a near-term window. Diane Miller, the district’s technology director, was noted as a key implementation contact and will coordinate with Ricoh project staff through the planned implementation window; staff also said Ricoh would provide implementation training and a certified project manager.

Finance staff concluded with a recommendation to move the Ricoh refresh forward to the full board for approval; the committee concurred and the presenter said he would move the item to the board. No final board approval occurred during the committee meeting; the item was presented as a recommended board action.

Committee members asked staff to follow up with principals and building leaders to reduce unnecessary color printing and to confirm that default settings and device placement align with district goals to reduce paper usage and costs. Staff said they would provide building-level color-usage reports to principals.