Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd has enjoyed a successful 15-year partnership with the Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC). In fact, the company recently won Best Large Supplier of the Year and Outstanding Equality, Diversity & Inclusion of the Year at the CPC Supplier Excellence Awards 2025.
During this time, both organisations have helped countless schools and Trusts to deploy more than 11,000 print devices, made simpler through CPC’s Procurement Framework. Eager to help others to reap the rewards, they invited the Creative Education Trust to share its experience during a jointly hosted webinar.
The Creative Education Trust has a mission to transform lives through education. Its growing estate includes 17 schools across England, with more than 1,700 staff and over 13,500 students. Ash Mudalier, Director of IT and EdTec at the Trust explained that with so many sites, spread across a wide area, the Trust relies heavily on its technology infrastructure to keep everything running smoothly. Its print ecosystem was beginning to show signs of age, with reliability issues. These growing problems were compounded by the fact that supplier contracts varied from school to school, making support and maintenance a real headache. What’s more, each site was responsible for managing its own systems and there was no centralised reporting, making monitoring of usage, performance and costs difficult.
The Trust needed a new approach that would deliver reliability and consistency across all schools, as well as being more financially sustainable, secure, and aligned with its wider IT standards. When Ash and his team began exploring procurement options, they reviewed several frameworks and options, weighing up compliance requirements, timelines, and internal processes. CPC’s Framework stood out because it offered the right balance of compliance, speed, and simplicity — exactly what the Trust needed.
Once the procurement path was chosen, the Trust began shaping its strategy. Ash highlighted the importance of engaging the Executive Team and school leaders early in the process to build awareness and buy‑in. The team carried out a comprehensive review of the existing print estate and agreed on a Trust‑wide print strategy. This included defining standard device types for primary and secondary schools, implementing secure print release via card readers, and introducing centralised print management.
Working alongside Ash on this important project was Tom Brown, Head of IT Operations at the Trust. He explained how the strategy was translated into a detailed, procurement‑ready specification, emphasising the importance of working closely with each school to ensure the specification reflected real operational needs, while still maintaining the benefits of standardisation.
The specification was then issued through the CPC Framework and suppliers began submitting their proposals. These were evaluated centrally, with the team considering cost, value, solution quality, alignment with the Trust’s strategy, and the service and support model. Upon completion of this rigorous process the Trust awarded the contract to Konica Minolta.
Tom explained how the rollout was carefully phased to minimise disruption, with installations scheduled outside of term time. Device numbers and locations were agreed collaboratively with each school, and site‑specific requirements were factored into the implementation plan.
Reflecting on the journey, Tom advised other organisations to start with a clear strategy rather than simply replacing devices like‑for‑like. He also stressed the importance of early engagement with leaders, the value of standardisation, and the benefits of using CPC frameworks to stay compliant and focused on outcomes.
Tom added that having a central Konica Minolta contact has been extremely helpful, and that secure printing from any device has been a major time‑saver for staff. Standardised print controls and mono‑color settings have delivered significant cost savings, while the reduction in print servers and the visibility provided by dashboards (provided by Intuitive for PaperCut MF) have helped the Trust identify issues quickly and manage its fleet more effectively. For example, data from a single MFD can now be viewed in context with Trust‑wide trends to provide a crystal-clear picture of usage, sustainability metrics, and costs.
The event offered a clear, honest and practical roadmap for any Trust wanting to modernise its print environment. With real‑world insights from Creative Education Trust and expert guidance from CPC, Konica Minolta, and Intuitive, attendees came away with a strong understanding of how to reduce costs, improve visibility, and deliver better value for staff and students.