Working as an associate lecturer for a well-known and successful online university, you use your own home as your office. Periodically, you teach residential courses and short, locally based workshops that require printing of material to support the teaching and learning process.

You are allowed to claim costs for use of your own equipment and consumable materials at agreed-upon rates. You are one of a number of lecturers who work under these circumstances, and you discover that all are concerned that reimbursement rates are often insufficient to cover costs because of increasing local prices.

Your task: You know of a company that rents out printing equipment and supplies consumables at rates that, added together, will save your university a minimal amount of money over their current costs. The benefit to you and your colleagues is that you will save time and avoid having to source your own materials to prevent costs rising above agreed-upon rates. Write a letter to your employer making a persuasive business case for signing a yearly, fixed-cost contract with the rental company.