OVERVIEW

Customer Need
The City of Arlington, TX has over 3,000 employees across 16 departments working to provide and manage city services for its approximately 365,000 residents. Faced with an unwieldy and aging fleet of over 900 printers and copiers, multiple vendors and rising costs, the city required a managed print services program that would deliver a modern, multifunction printer fleet together with standardization, expanded capabilities and cost-efficiencies.

Samsung Solution
As part of a consolidated managed print solution, Samsung provided a lineup of multifunction printers that uniquely met the city’s requirements, including: high-performance printing, scanning and copying; document tracking; high-speed network support; and cost efficiency. The city’s new fleet included full-size models from Samsung’s MultiXpress line of printers featuring Samsung’s XOA (eXtensible Open Architecture) platform, which enables integration with applications for document management, secure printing and cost-tracking.

Results
The City of Arlington’s managed print program featuring Samsung multifunction devices has resulted in significant cost savings, greater ability to monitor and optimize printer usage citywide, as well as high satisfaction ratings among employees. Key performance metrics achieved by the new printer program include reducing the overall size of the city’s printer and copier fleet by 56 percent, cutting the number of pages printed each month by 21 percent, and increasing the use of black and white toner to 85  percent of all printed pages.

THE CUSTOMER

City of Arlington, TX

The City of Arlington, TX, serves the approximately 365,000 residents of a bustling city that spans 99.5 square miles and ranks as the third largest municipality in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The city government has about 3,000 employees across 16 departments located in 75 buildings. With an annual budget of $400 million, the city’s wide scope of services range from economic development and public safety to the housing authority, libraries and workforce services.

To fulfill its mission of providing services in a high-quality, cost-effective manner, the City of Arlington focuses on investing in innovative IT solutions and maximizes electronic and technology-based communication tools. It also underscores carefully planned actions and measurable results in delivering excellence in both day-to-day operations and core services.

THE CUSTOMER NEED
Managed print service delivering standardization, modern multifunction printers and cost-efficiencies The City of Arlington recognized that its printer fleet had to be modernized and streamlined under an integrated, costeffective plan. As in many large organizations, over the years a picture of confusion had emerged in the city’s offices, with no standardization across the board for printers and service providers, leading to difficulty in managing printer costs and productivity. The printer fleet had grown to more than 930 printers and copiers – equivalent to nearly one for every three employees – ranging from individual desk printers to area network devices. Monthly print volume had climbed to 1.2 million pages. In addition, with six printer vendors and the city’s various departments independently purchasing toners, the city was contending with disparate printing budgets, rising printing costs and a lack of controls.

“We had been looking for ways to better manage the printer fleet,” said Darrell Strange, Knowledge Services Supervisor at the City of Arlington. “The equipment was getting old, and we had an opportunity not only to modernize and streamline the fleet, but also to save on printing costs. We wanted to provide a full range of printing capabilities and services, but make them cost-effective.”

The solution was to develop an innovative print strategy and implement a managed print services program. This involved outsourcing the city’s printer fleet management under a consolidated plan with at most two vendors. The IT staff’s first step was to work with the City Council in putting an administrative policy in place to utilize area printing as much as possible and lay a foundation for the success of the project.

The project’s objectives were to trim the fleet and reduce costs by providing modern multifunction printers with expanded capabilities. The new printer fleet would also enable tracking and transparency in reporting printing volume and costs. Standard requirements for the fleet included black-and-white printing, duplex printing and security features.

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