Background
Central Bucks school district is located in the heart of Bucks County, Pennsylvania—one of Pennsylvania’s largest counties. The school district has fourteen elementary schools, five middle schools, and two high schools, with more schools scheduled to open in 2004. Workbooks, reports, and other classroom materials are printed at the Central Bucks district headquarters. For several years, the district used a Docutech with inline binding to handle the district’s copying and publishing needs.

Challenge
When it came time to upgrade the equipment, the district decided that school funds would be better utilized if they found economical alternatives to the inline binding. As with most school districts, a tight budget meant that every dollar on new equipment had to be spent as wisely as possible.

 “We decided to change the way we ran jobs,” Janet Greico, the district’s Coordinator of Graphic Services explained. “For jobs of 60 pages or less, the district decided to switch to saddle-stitching, but for anything over that, we still needed a solution that was quick and strong.” They also decided that it was cheaper to move to a copier with an offline binder.

Solution
To replace the Docutech, the district decided to purchase three Canon imageRUNNER 105 copiers. But that meant that they needed to find an offline binding system that was comparable to or better than the inline system on the Docutech. When they asked about binding solutions, the Canon sales representative recommended the Fastback^® binding system. Ed Horne of E. Thomas Brett had discussed the Fastback binding system with Janet previously, but at that time, the school district had no plans to get rid of their Docutech.  Now that the time was right, the Fastback binding solution seemed like the perfect solution.

Ed is keenly aware of the advantages that the Fastback binding systems hold for companies that do not offer inline binding on their copiers. “The Fastback binders are great sales tools for Canon and Ikon,” Ed explained. “With them, Canon and Ikon can present a reasonably priced binding solution that offers faster throughput and is more versatile than inline systems.” Ed also realizes that representatives for these companies change from time to time, and it is important to keep a welcome mat out for them.  “I keep in touch with the Canon and Ikon representatives on a regular basis,” Ed said. “It helps keep the Fastback binding systems fresh in their minds.”

After Janet contacted him, Ed paid her a visit and demonstrated the Fastback^® Model 15xs. “He gave us a demo, then let us test it out,” she said. “We were sold.” The district purchased a Model 15xs binder.

Results
In the first year of its use, the school district used the Fastback Model 15xs to bind over 20,000 documents. This year, they expect to bind even more, and have ordered 30,000 strips in anticipation. “The Fastback binder has given us more versatility in the workflow,” Janet explained. “There are so many advantages to using a Fastback binder offline. It is reliable, and convenient, and you can bind thicker documents.” In some cases, it is also faster. The online binding on the Docutech slowed down the workflow, turning an expensive copier into an expensive binder. “Now, when we have a big job that does not require binding,” Janet said. “We can continue working. It also gives us a greater choice of cover materials to work with, including clear. It’s a great binder.”

August 2003