Gold Mine: Samsung, NWN Team On California State Printer Deal

Samsung this week unveiled a partnership with solution provider NWN on a printer recycling program for local government segments, schools and other public agencies across California.

NWN, a national IT solution provider based in Waltham, Mass., was awarded the printer contract by the State of California Department of General Services and will work with Samsung over the next three years to help replace old, power-intensive printers with more energy-efficient ones in state agencies. The program beat out 14 other competing bids for the state’s approval, Samsung said.

"At Samsung, we pride ourselves on developing products and solutions that enhance the usability and performance of technology while being cost-effective and environmentally friendly," said Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America, in a statement. "We feel very fortunate to be able to work with NWN to help deliver on our mutual promise of environmental and fiscal responsibility to the State of California."

NWN has more than 10 locations in the U.S. and offers a range of solutions for cloud computing, data centers and virtualization, networking and security. Managed services also account for a portion of NWN’s offerings, but President and CEO Mont Phelps noted the new print program’s potential to broaden NWN offerings even more, specifically within the managed print space.

“That [managed print] is going to grow,” Phelps told CRN. “It’s relatively new [to NWN] but is one of our offerings that has good traction and is definitely growing.”

What’s more, the new program aligns with NWN’s aim to provide energy-efficient solutions in addition to cost-saving ones. Through the program, NWN will remove, recycle and replace old printers in California state agencies and replace them with more energy-efficient Samsung printers, such as the monochrome laser 3712ND and the color laser CLP-775ND.

The program also will ensure environmentally conscious removal and dissembling processes for all printers being replaced. The majority of raw materials will then be recycled through a de-manufacturing process and sold back into the raw material market, Samsung said. Any parts or equipment that can be salvaged will be credited toward new equipment or resold through the channel.

For Phelps, more energy-efficient processes, printing or not, is something all solution providers should encourage. “It’s an obvious trend and opportunity that we all should be addressing and working toward,” he said.

All newly installed printers also will come equipped with “smart solutions,” such as built-in security features, remote monitoring and Samsung’s Mobile Print App, which allows users to print on-the-go from mobile devices.

Phelps said that NWN’s January 2010 acquisition of Western Blue, a Sacramento, Calif.-based VAR specializing in public sector, has helped facilitate the company’s growth within both the public sector and the West Coast -- the two primary groups being targeted by the new print program.

“It was the relationship they [Western Blue] had with the State of California and our relationship with Samsung” that helped NWN win the contract, he told CRN.