Saving Money on Print for the State of Washington

Scott North, a reporter for the Everett Washington Herald newspaper takes a look at how much the State of Washington is spending on in-house printing and related services, in an interesting article. Seems the state is interested in saving some dough by bringing in Managed Print Services (MPS) vendors.

How much does it cost to print, collate and bind Washington's documents?

State Auditor Brian Sonntag has the answer: $77.3 million per year. In a performance audit released in late April, he suggested some steps to make printing more efficient and perhaps $13.6 million a year cheaper.

By allowing private industry to compete for the state's in-house print jobs, up to $1.1 million a year could be saved, the auditor calculated. Consolidating print shops, meanwhile, could save another $2 million.

But the biggest savings -- an estimated $10 million a year – could come from tackling office-based printing costs, the audit suggests. The state now spends $38.8 million a year on desktop publishing. That's a lot of ink cartridges.

Looks like the state is in the market for some managed print services, particularly for the state's colleges and universities, which accounted for $30.7 million of the office-based printing costs. Doc smells a big opportunity for someone.