Xerox: Xippa.net says "It's Copiers v Education. $9,000 per month for 5 years is a lot of teaching"

The monetizable value of a trusted brand is risk of failure insurance. People will pay to protect themselves from that risk. It's the truth behind that old saw about "Nobody got fired for hiring IBM."

As technology matures the risk of failure is less and less, the money can be better spent in other ways. The risk of failure in public education has always been huge and therefore the trusted brand, in this case Xerox, is worth the premium.

But that was in a value chain economy. The user network economy is now getting to the education sector. Risk of failure is managed by competition, not the Brand. The independents are going to make the more obvious every day.

First this tweet

@KBOI670: It's #xerox X vs Fisher's Dcmnt Systm in Idaho. Fisher''s = $32+K/mo. #xerox $45+/mo. http://tinyurl.com/mg3nlx

Then at the click:

Boise-based company, Fisher's Document Systems Inc., bid about $32,417 per month to provide copiers to Meridian schools in southwest Idaho for 60 months. Mahn says the district instead picked the Conn.-based Xerox Corp., which bid about $43,758 a month.

Fisher's Document Systems filed a notice of objection with the district Wednesday, saying administrators should have been more fiscally responsible with public money. District spokesman Eric Exline says cost was 1 of several factors that were considered.

Then this from Xippa.net

“The School District needs to take a step back and put existing relationships with their current vendors in perspective.

Its great that Ma X was the incumbent and must have had strong relationships with the school district, but those strong relationships also exist between students and teachers who now might need to be let go, if fiscal obstacles can not be overcome. $9,000 per month for 5 years is a lot of teaching.

Lets look at it a different way – one without the relationships with a current vendor.

It is very doubtful the school district would have said, we have a current vendor who is doing an adequate job but we want to go with a different vendor. It is very doubtful they would justify costing the community at least two teachers a year for the next five years to change vendors.

Copiers vs. Education - A simple decision when you put the relationships in perspective and do what is right for the community. The $9,000 more a month that the District is willing to spend will become more than $11,000 over the term of the contract if they do not accurately evaluate the copier contract structure and negotiate the proper terms and conditions. That is why Xippa provides the services it does to end users. www.Xippa.net.”

The irony is that is that Xerox is uniquely positioned to to turn Copiers v Education into Copiers 4 Education. PARC + Xerox Foundation + Clickable Print + MPS = Science Education that is simpler and better than what is going on out there today.