Who Gains with Manage Print Services (MPS)?

Why is every printer manufacturers knocking on your door claiming MPS is your last frontier to reduce company expenses?  Is this a win win proposition for both the printer manufacturer and the customer? When should a company consider MPS? What is the single most important factor needed to make a MPS solution work?

 First, lets define Manage Print Services as a term that refers to providing all planning, service, consumables , workflow of a company’ printers, faxes, copiers and multifunction devices in a collective contract. This contract is usually outsourced to a company that specializes in this area.

Why is every printer manufacturer knocking on your door claiming MPS is your last frontier to reduce company expenses?  Studies from The Gartner Group and IDC, indicate “firms are spending between 1-3% of their entire revenue on document output; and 90% of those same companies have no true picture of what they are spending. According to industry analysts, document output costs offer one of the greatest opportunities for companies to save money, but still remains one of least understood areas as to how to effectively manage costs” .  Because most companies do not even track how much is spent on printer consumables or even when they need to add output devices, it is very easy for a vendor to show how to decrease the expenditure. A small decrease in that 3% represents a very large number. The motivation for the manufactures (i.e. Xerox, HP, Konica, Ricoh, ICON, etc) is profit and control.

Is this a win win proposition for both the printer manufacturer and the customer?

The win for supplier:

·         Profit: A per page model allows for higher built in profit with a higher risk factor based on equipment age, anticipated service calls, % ink coverage per page, MTBF.

·        Guaranteed Contract: Locks out competition for a fix period and guaranteed revenue stream.

·        Future Growth Potential within contract Term: Additional equipment changes bring potential increased profits.

The win for customer:

·        Fix cost for a contract term: In many cases for a company (experience for the first time) a known fixed cost expense, which eases budget and planning. In most cases, the company will realize a decrease in output device expenditures directly affecting the company’s bottom line. In a multi device environment, a savings of 20-30% will be realized if both the hard and soft cost are considered.

·        Major advantage: relieves the overworked company’s IT staff from a large workload of printer support and services. Some studies have shown that an IT group spends over 60% of their time with password and printer issues.

·        Supplier’s assessment study: Provides a company a road map for future input/output requirements and implementation schedule for increased efficiency with workflow change. If your company has no handle on what you spend on data input or printing, then at least have an outside vendor provide an input/output assessment study. You can’t set a savings target if you don’t know what you are spending. Simple, right! You can’t believe how many companies have no idea what they are spending for printer toners or how many of those little $100.00 InkJet printers (the highest cost per page device) have mysteriously appeared in the office or plant.

What is the single most important factor to make a MPS solution to work?

Ownership & Accountability:  Guarantee, a MPS solution will fail (with no hope) without the company’s upper management direct commitment to hold managers through out the organization accountable to make the solution happen and deliver results. As well, the MPS provider must be accountable for managing the service and deliver the agreed upon service levels.

If you would like further information or discussion on MPS at any level, please give me a call or email: Dave Brownlee Sr.  810-231-2883 or dave@camcorusa.com