How a Barcelona school district consolidated two hundred printers into sixty

A municipal district in Barcelona covering 22 schools and 11,500 pupils had accumulated 203 print devices across its sites. After a 14 month consolidation programme, the district runs a fleet of 60 standardised MFPs, prints 18% more pages, and spends 41% less on print operations.

The district before consolidation

The 22 schools had each procured print equipment independently across a 12 year window. Some schools held district era HP LaserJets purchased in batch in the early 2010s. Others held a mix of consumer grade inkjets brought in by teachers, mid range Brother units bought during pandemic remote learning expansion, and a single ageing copier in each school office. The district IT team supported the network side but had no central inventory of print devices.

Why the saving and a higher volume coexist

The 18% volume increase against a 41% cost reduction looks counter intuitive at first. Three factors explain it. The first is that the previous estimated volume was understated; real meter reading after consolidation surfaced printing that had been invisible on consumer inkjets. The second is that the per page cost on the new managed print services contract sits roughly 60% below the average ad hoc cost of consumables on the old fleet. The third is that removing 143 devices eliminated their lease, service and electricity lines entirely.

The consolidation framework

The district adopted a three tier device policy. Each school received an A3 colour MFP in the main office, an A4 colour MFP per teaching wing or floor, and an A4 mono MFP per shared staff room. Personal printers in individual classrooms were removed entirely. The framework standardised on three device models across the entire district.

Phasing the rollout across 22 schools

The district could not afford a single weekend cutover across 22 sites. The rollout phased across 14 months, structured in four waves. Each wave allowed the lessons of the previous one to feed forward.

Wave 1 — Pilot at 3 schools

Three diverse schools (a primary, a secondary and a vocational) installed first. Three months of meter data and user feedback shaped the rollout pattern for the remainder.

Wave 2 — 7 schools

Refined approach applied to seven more sites. Adjustments included an additional A4 mono unit in larger staff rooms after pilot feedback.

Wave 3 — 8 schools

Full rollout pattern with no further design changes. Driver deployment automated via district MDM.

Wave 4 — Final 4 schools

Closing wave including two schools with unusual layouts requiring custom placement. Final decommissioning of legacy devices completed.

The pull printing rollout

Pull printing was the design choice that made shared devices acceptable across teaching staff. Teachers send jobs from any device on the network and release them with PIN entry at any MFP in the school. A teacher walking from one classroom to another can pick up a print job at the device on the way without revisiting their desktop.

Pull printing also produced an unexpected secondary benefit: prints sent but never collected expire after 24 hours and never reach paper. The district measured this at 11% of all print jobs in the first quarter, equivalent to roughly 156,000 sheets a year that disappeared without being printed.

Driver and software standardisation

One universal print driver replaced 47 model specific drivers. Group Policy deployment pushed the driver to every district managed laptop in a single weekend. Teachers no longer choose between 14 queue names; the universal driver presents a single nearest device option that resolves at print release time.

What the saving paid for

Of the 76,500 euros annual saving, roughly half went straight back to the schools as additional teaching budget. The remainder funded the managed print services contract premium for an enhanced SLA, a central support contract for the print management software, and a small reserve to absorb future device additions if pupil numbers grow.