Case Study: Rider University
How Rider University Athletics improved print and mail operations with Ricoh as a managed services provider
About our customer
Rider University is a private institution located in New Jersey. Serving a student body of over 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, the university is committed to providing students with a world-class education and an inclusive community to develop into “responsible citizens who embrace diversity, support the common good, and contribute meaningfully to the changing world in which they live and work.” With this mission in mind, university leaders wished to restructure their print and mail services to better serve their faculty and students.
“The turnaround time with our previous vendor was scattered and their capabilities were limited. With Ricoh, I’m astonished at how quickly we can produce all sorts of print projects with our on-site team, and communicating with them is a breeze.”
–Karin Torchia
Senior Associate Director of Athletics
Rider University
Challenges
30-year relationship with previous vendor caused stagnancy
Dated print technology
Needed print capabilities to produce wide variety of media
Mail centre lacked effective means of delivery across campus for faculty and staff and an efficient means for the student body to retrieve their mail and packages from the mail centre
After 30 years with their previous vendor, Rider’s athletics department assessed whether to continue their contract or seek other vendors. They realized their print centre was relying on the same technology throughout their decades-long partnership, and their devices had rarely been refreshed in those years. The athletics department was eager to expand their printing capabilities to produce a wider variety of media. Furthermore, the school’s mail centre was also eager to expand their capabilities to better reach students and faculty, while also improving their delivery process. The university realized that the answer to delivering better service was an evergreen print and mail operation.
Solution
“The Ricoh team is detail-oriented and attentive. Working with them over the years has been terrific.”
–Karin Torchia, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Rider University
On-site service team of 6 people: 2 for print, 3 for mail, and an on-site manager
Fleet of MFDs for walk-up capabilities
1 production print colour unit, 1 production black and white unit and a wide format printer
Student workforce of 5-6 people to help manage packages
68 Rider-branded intelligent lockers
Ricoh became an Official Partner of Rider University Athletics in 2019 after gauging their needs and showcasing the possibilities for their print and mail centre. In addition to the on-site service team, there is now an operations area director, managed services point person, and local manager working in partnership with campus leadership to provide leading-edge improvements for print and mail.
When the print volume was reassessed, the print team implemented a second production print colour unit to better support the print centre. Furthermore, faculty and staff now have 35 MFPs for their use alone, freeing up the print centre for big print projects for the athletics department such as mailers, displays, banners, foamboards, reproductions, lawn signs, etc.
We discovered the mail centre needed more hands on deck to be as efficient as possible, so mail operations now have a workforce of up to six rotating, paid student workers to help with processing incoming mail and signing out packages.
We also brought on 68 Rider-branded intelligent lockers to make mail retrieval easily accessible for on-campus students that had difficulty retrieving packages from the mail centre during hours of operation.
Results
Print centre generates an average of $27,000 monthly
Mail package retrieval made easy
Capable of printing all types of projects on-site
Contractual obligations exceeded by 300%
Rider University’s partnership with Ricoh has made print production and mail delivery simple and seamless, allowing students and faculty to comfortably rely on their school to meet their needs. Print volume has shifted from primarily black and white output to advanced colour projects now that the school has two production colour units and a wide format printer in the print centre.
The athletic department is now empowered to print everything on their own which reduces outsourced print costs.
The Ricoh team provides Rider with a monthly operations review to show metrics, successes, and areas of improvement, continuously adding value through our close relationship and focus on modernization. Over time, Ricoh has earned the trust of Rider University and looks forward to assisting with their needs for many more years to come.