Troy School District
The Company
Troy School District comprises 12 elementary, four middle schools and three high schools in Michigan’s Oakland County. The district has a student population of more than 12,000 students and is regularly recognized at a local and national level for excellence in education.
The Challenge
More than a decade ago, Troy School District was part of a consortium with four other Michigan school districts. At the time, the other districts did not have purchasing departments or ample warehouse facilities to fulfill their own office supply requirements. Troy School District filled that void by operating and maintaining a warehouse with crucial supplies, such as pens, pencils, highlighters and markers, and handled the procurement for each district. This process proved to be time-intensive and inefficient and, therefore, Troy School District issued a request for proposal (RFP) and decided to use two office supply vendors – Boise Cascade and Staples – to expedite purchasing and fulfillment processes.
By outsourcing to two office supply partners, Troy School District was hoping to eliminate the internal headaches associated with office supply procurement, but quickly found that the new program only created more. District employees’ experience with Staples was positive from day one – supplies were delivered as promised, on time and as ordered. On the other hand, shipments from the other company were often delayed and incomplete, as critical items were unavailable or backordered. With numerous complaints from the other districts about the poor quality of service a unanimous decision was made to exclusively use Staples moving forward.
The Solution
The Staples team evaluated Troy School District’s existing procurement processes and made recommendations about how to maximize cost savings and further improve efficiencies. Rather than continuing to warehouse small supplies, Troy School District decided to purchase the majority of its products from Staples and benefit from next-day delivery and a single source for ordering and shipping.
Troy School District also decided to take advantage of Staples Print Solutions in order to yield better savings on customized materials such as letterhead,envelopes and business cards. Overall, the district is striving to reduce paper consumption in order to be more environmentally friendly, and so relies on Staples for key printed items to support ongoing student, parent, staff and community communications.
With dozens of employees ordering supplies from different locations, Troy School District wanted to minimize the time and effort involved, allowing staff to focus on important school-related activities. Through Staples’ award-winning Web site, StaplesAdvantage.com®, staff members have immediate access to more than 80,000 items, contract pricing, detailed product information and delivery dates. By making office supply and print requests online, each school has the flexibility to place orders as needed, while Staples’ in-depth reporting gives Troy School District visibility into procurement activities district-wide.
The Results
As a result of partnering with Staples, Troy School District reduced its office supply and print spending by 23 percent. Also, by shrinking the amount of inventory warehoused on site, the district was able to reduce its warehouse headcount by 65 percent, saving an additional $140,000 per year.
The feedback from Staples users has been overwhelmingly positive, with the convenience of online ordering and next-day delivery cited as the leading benefits. Troy School District orders supplies on a daily basis, a testament to the ease of use of StaplesAdvantage.com and the reliable product fulfillment.
The Future
Troy School District is always looking to extend the Staples partnership in order to deliver additional ROI to its schools. One potential area for expansion is school furnishings, as Staples provides an extensive selection of high-quality, competitively priced desks, chairs, filing systems and other furniture.
