The first day of school will be here before you know it. While students enjoy their final weeks of summer, school administrators, IT managers, and print center leaders know it’s time to get organized. Whether you’re supporting a K-12 district or a college campus, proactive planning now can help eliminate printing headaches coming in August.

At SumnerOne, we work closely with schools across the Midwest to ensure their document management infrastructure runs smoothly year-round. Here’s our quick and actionable School Summer Checklist to prepare your print and document environment for a successful new year. 

Now it’s the perfect time for in-plant print managers in higher education to assess how their operations are performing. From admissions brochures to course packets, athletics programs to alum outreach materials, your shop plays a mission-critical role across departments. But how do you measure success? 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provide a data-driven approach to understanding your in-plant’s effectiveness, identifying areas for improvement, and showcasing your value to stakeholders. Whether you’re reporting to procurement, administration, or IT, these metrics can help secure future funding, justify equipment upgrades, and align your shop’s services with campus needs. 

Here are five essential KPIs every higher ed in-plant should be tracking—and why they matter. 

As July rolls around, educators and administrators across K-12 and higher education are deep into preparation mode for the upcoming academic year. From student registration packets to course syllabi, school directories to promotional materials, summer is a critical window for aligning print infrastructure and processes. 

But too often, poor print planning can lead to costly bottlenecks, missed deadlines, and operational inefficiencies that impact the first weeks of school. Whether you're managing an in-plant print shop or coordinating with an outside vendor, here are six common back-to-school print mistakes to avoid — and how to get ahead of them. 

For every organization, managing office costs is always essential, and sometimes the biggest culprits are hiding in plain sight.

Copiers can become quite costly without an efficient management strategy. Users may not notice, but simple print jobs can inflate maintenance costs by demanding more toner cartridge replacements at a time.

In this article, we share easy tips to keep your copier costs in check. 

When students leave campus and administrative demands slow down, higher ed in-plant print shops have a golden opportunity: summer. This often-overlooked off-season is the ideal time to step back, reassess operations, and make improvements that will pay dividends throughout the academic year.

Whether you're looking to optimize workflows, upskill your team, expand into new services, or modernize your fleet, summer provides the time and space to make strategic moves. Here are four key areas where your in-plant can gain an edge before fall rush begins. 

As spring semesters wrap up and mortarboards take flight, one often-overlooked team is working overtime to make sure higher ed institutions shine: the in-plant print shop.

May marks one of the busiest and most critical times of year for campus print teams — with a flurry of commencement activities, end-of-year reports, and a full slate of summer prep already underway. From diplomas to orientation packets, in-plant printing departments are the behind-the-scenes champions in keeping higher education running smoothly.

Contrary to common misconceptions, using paper does not inherently harm the environment. In fact, when sourced from sustainably managed forests—just like cash crops such as soy or wheat—paper is part of a renewable, circular system that plays a valuable role in reducing carbon emissions and supporting biodiversity.

With that in mind, schools can still take smart steps to make their printing practices even more sustainable—without discrediting paper use. It’s not about printing less; it’s about printing smarter.