Regent’s University London Reduces Printer Fleet by 60% with Toshiba

Regent’s University London is an independent university with two campus locations — its main site in the heart of Regent’s Park and a smaller campus on Marylebone High Street. The university offers a wide range of programmes including fashion, business, and the arts, and requires printing capabilities spanning standard A4 and A3 output through to wide-format A1 and A0 for fashion course work.

The Challenge

The university’s existing printer contract was considered uncompetitive, and the fleet had grown larger than necessary over successive renewal cycles. Reliability was inconsistent, placing a burden on the onsite maintenance team and disrupting staff and student workflows. The institution needed to consolidate its fleet, improve reliability, reduce costs, and support its environmental commitments — all without any disruption to teaching or administration.

Several printing solutions vendors were invited to submit proposals for a new printer fleet as part of a competitive selection process.

The Solution

Toshiba began with a detailed audit of both campus sites, carefully assessing the requirements of staff and students at each location. The resulting proposal was tailored to the university’s specific needs: a standardised fleet of Toshiba e-STUDIO MFPs and wide-format printers, configured for resilience so that any device failure could be absorbed without affecting the wider print service.

The entire deployment — covering 63 MFPs and four wide-format printers — was completed over just five days during the August summer vacation. The Toshiba team managed the removal of old machines and the installation and commissioning of new devices simultaneously, achieving a seamless transition with zero disruption to university operations.

The Results

The fleet was reduced by 60%, yet reliability and user convenience both improved significantly. The university projects annual savings of hundreds of thousands of pounds, driven by competitive cost-per-copy pricing and the elimination of excess hardware.

Standardising on Toshiba devices brought a consistency that simplified IT support and improved the user experience for both staff and students. The wide-format capability continues to serve the fashion department’s requirements for large-scale printing, while the A3 and A4 MFPs handle the day-to-day output of every other department.

The university also enhanced its green credentials through Toshiba’s Carbon Zero scheme, which offsets the carbon footprint of every device in the fleet.

Nicola Kelly, OCIO Business Manager, was impressed from the outset with Toshiba’s clear and unbiased assessment of the existing systems. She highlighted the company’s ability to consolidate the university’s requirements effectively, delivering a significantly smaller fleet without any compromise on capability.