Shorter College had four older interactive flat panel displays (IFPDs) on campus, but three of them were inoperable and beyond repair. They could be used by instructors as glorified monitors hooked up to laptops, but they remained idle due to the limited number of laptops available on campus. In addition, the IFPDs weren't large enough for students to easily see what was being displayed. To enhance classroom visual communications, Shorter needed larger, truly functional IFPDs that didn't have to be connected to external devices — technology that could also be used for video conferencing down the road.
Along with its visual communications shortcomings, Shorter College's printing fleet no longer made fiscal sense. Through the years, printers had been purchased randomly, resulting in a fleet of various makes and models, disparate lease pricing terms and contract durations — and a stable of different vendors routinely making time-consuming inquiries. If a printer needed service, the college first had to determine which vendor to contact and what the service plan entailed, which led to increased downtime and administrative consternation.
In addition, Shorter College had no visibility into the use of their printing fleet and they couldn't track costs to specific areas of campus or students. Although students and staff had mobile devices, there was no way to conveniently print from their phones or tablets directly to a networked printer.