BUSINESS SERVICE CENTER

Weekly Business Center Report – Week 1

Introduction

Business Center is the fastest growing sections within the University. It has been launched in three
campuses namely; Kibos main Campus, Milimani, Campus and Nairobi Centro house Campus. We
offer services ranging from reprographic and book selling. Services to be implemented includes M-
pesa and bank agent services, branding exercise books, pens, notebooks, mugs, shirts etc. and selling
them with an aim of diversification.The operations of the Center are coordinated by the Coordinator –
Business Center with the help of two work-study students and the reception desk team.

Challenges that we face as a section

The business Service Center despite being a successful department is faced with several challenges. In
our day to day activities we encounter a variety of challenges as illustrated below.

i. Unavailability of enough Resources:-The Center does not have enough resources to

facilitate its operations. Mostly the Center requires plain papers for printing and
photocopying services, the papers are usually not availed to us on time thus slowing our
operations. On other occasions it forces us to lend from other departments. We also do not
have other stationery materials such as stapler, staple pins, staple remover, and pens
making it difficult for us to provide quality service.
ii. Contractual problems:-the contract that bonded us with the MFI professional printing
solutions group team was not well structured. For instance in the billing part where they
require us to pay for a minimum volume of 300,000 copies except on the months which
the university is on recess. We need to get further clarification on this or it might be a
problem for us in the near future.
iii. Billing of Departments:- Our attendants always have a hard time in distinguishing
departmental services and staff personal services thus billing of departments has been a
hard task for us whereby some staff take advantage of the departmental payment to do
their own personal services.
iv. Security:-Security has also been a concern at the station. In some circumstances their
have reports of students accessing the area when the station has been closed. This poses a
risk to the machines as they can be vandalised.
 v. Fewer Services at the Center: - The Business Center has the capability of conducting
several services to the people but currently it only conducts printing services and book
selling. These are only but a few of the services that can be carried out such as selling of
University branded products, stationery among others

Achievements of the Business Service Center

The Business Service Center has number of achievements for the little time it has been into existence.
Theseachievements include:-

Summary: Reprographic Services since Business Center has been in operation. (both Cash and
Departmental credit)

Service Copies Unit Price Total

Photocopying Black large 37 3 Ksh.111
Black small 25979 3 Ksh.77937
Printing Black Print 6457 10 Ksh.64,570
Colored print 6219 25 Ksh.155,475
Scanning
Grand Total Ksh.298,093

Summary: Book sales and Audio tapes for Entrepreneurship Scholarship Fund.
Book Title Unit Price No of copies Total
Business Planning in 5 simple steps 590 15 KSH.8,850
Five Simple Steps to Business Planning 2nd Edition 700 11 KSH.7,700
st
Five Simple Steps to Business Planning 1 Edition 350 14 KSH. 4,900
Audio tapes – Old Testament 100 8 KSH. 800
GRAND TOTAL 48 Ksh. 22,250

i. Generation of capital from printing, photocopying and scanning services: -Through

the printing operations the Center has been able togenerate income for the university from
students and some staff as shown above. See table 1. With continued existence the Center
will be able to generate more income due to more awareness and capturing of more
customers with our better services.
ii. Simplifying departmental operations in the University- Earlier departments had a hard
task in carrying different services such as photocopying, bulk printing and scanning
services. With the introduction of the business service Center departments have able to
get a place to do these services at faster and quality output
 iii. Provision of cheaper and quality services to students – Earlier students had a difficult
time in submitting of assignments, printing of notes, and other personal documents but
since we started operations we have been able to serve more than half the student
population with these services at a very cheaper cost that can be managed by all of them.
iv. Selling of Books – One of our greatest achievements is the selling of books. We have
been able to sell a total of 48 books through different forums such as conferences, and
talks and group sessions. Through the sale we have been able to generate income that can
be used for scholarship purposes to the needy students who have excellence performance.
v. Reduced University expenditure on marketing tools and initiatives: - before the
Center came into being, management was spending a chunk of money on designing and
printing posters, fliers and brochures for marketing purposes. All this expenses have been
eliminated because we have been offering the listed services even at cheaper prices.

Our daily operations in the Business Service Center

The Business Service Center was created for several operations but currently our day constitutes the
following:-

i. Photocopying- This is one of the major operations carried out at the Center. We carry out
normal, bulk, colour and special documents such as ID cards, credit cards photocopying.
ii. Printing – We also conduct printing in our daily operations. The different types of printing
carried out include colourprinting, black& white printing, glossy printing and hard paper
printing (certificates). All include either small number or bulk printing.
iii. Scanning – This is also our daily operation where we scan all documents of different sizes
which are either coloured or black and white.
iv. Book Selling – We also sell books under the entrepreneurship program which are in three
volumes.
v. Bible Sermon CD selling – The Business Center is responsible for marketing and sale of
audio sermon CDs.
vi. In the absence of reception desk team, we do take over to greet the visitors and offer advice
and directions as needed.
vii. Enlightening students and visitors on Entrepreneurship Scholarship Fund: who benefits and
various ways in which we source for funds into the Fund.

Prepared by;

Oliver Wekesa Simiyu

Coordinator – Business Center