You just gotta love technology when it works ....

.... but not completely hate it when it doesn't

I ordered a new ID card printer for the ID Card Production office about a month ago. It finally arrived today. With the whole purchase order process at the university, I'm surprised I got it this quickly. Since this type of printer is completely different than what we currently have in the office, I only ordered one. This will allow me some time to make system and procedural modifications prior to replacing all of our printers.

Let's just say today didn't go smoothly. So much so that I don't even have the printer in my officethis evening. Due to various "ribbon identification" issues, the vendor boxed it back up and took it to their repair site. All in all, the printer model is an absolute workhorse, and I figure mine got a little bit out of whack in the shipping (...hum, if it had worked, would it have been considered "in whack"?).

Due to the technology advancements since we last ordered printers, I will be able to lower the number of printers in the office from seven(7) to three(3) - with the third being a spare printer. I will also be able to reduce the number of card template blanks from five(5) to one(1). The new printer has the ability for duplex printing, so it can print the different back images as needed. Pre-printing card template backs costs me $0.10 per card, but the duplex printing ribbon averages $0.06 per card. This will allow an overall initial savings of $0.04 per card, which will add up considering the thousands of cards we print per semester!
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