Budget board approves exploratory RFI to assess consolidating county copier contracts

A board member told the Oklahoma County Budget Board that the county currently has more than 20 copier contracts across departments and three main vendors and proposed consolidating those agreements to reduce costs.

Purchasing staff said the state contract landscape and differing departmental needs (plotters/large format, DA office confidentiality requirements, varied usage patterns) meant the right approach was to issue an RFI first, gather department‑level requirements, and then, if viable, proceed to a targeted RFP. The board approved proceeding with an exploratory RFI to collect information from departments; one member abstained from the vote pending more specifics about specialized departmental needs.

Finance staff provided a countywide spending figure (approximately $371,008.89) for copier contracts as the baseline for potential savings estimates; board members noted that modest percentage savings would need to be weighed against staff time and transition costs.

Next steps: Purchasing will reach out to each department to document needs, issue an RFI describing exploratory intent, and return with cost and feasibility information ahead of final budget decisions.