What is Managed Print Services?
There is no other terminology in the printing world that is more discussed and debated than the term (MPS) Managed Print Services. Would it not be better to eliminate this word out of the vocabulary in our industry? There is no consensus on the actual definition, Wikipedia has removed it from their website as our industry is not able to align on the actual definition and it almost seems that customers are getting tired of being bombarded with the term MPS.
Where does the confusion come from?
Instead of looking at the customer needs, different players in our industry have positioned MPS in such a way that it would fit their own needs and offerings. So this is why some players talk about MPS where actually other terms would be more appropriate. Some players tend to call their service MPS whereas they actually only offer a pay-per-page concept.
Considering the confusion and different opinions it would be very arrogant to say: "well here is the one and only correct definition of MPS" Instead of giving a definition from our side, we would like to change our perspective and look through the eyes of our customer. What would "the customer" see as key elements for his ideal MPS solution.
Firstly the customer would look at the abbreviation and see three core words MANAGED , PRINT and SERVICES. How far would "the customer" like to be taken to please his satisfaction level. In other words, what does he want?
The customer does not want to worry about his printer- and multifunctional fleet. So that's over the years our business is more and more service oriented instead of product driven. But the service often stops after a one-time optimization. What happens after the optimization during the entire contract period? A part which is often missing in the offering is a certain form of fleet management. The impact of fleet management over the life of the contract is often much more than a one-of optimization.
Fleet Management.
Fleet management is looking at all aspects which are fleet related during the contract period. This includes toner replenishment, service alert handling, cost management and volume management. This all to
- Ensuring that the right machines keeps on the right location
- Ensuring that someone is continuously monitoring usage and behavior and steer where necessary in order to maintain cost level or ensuring extra savings
- Taking a away the time consuming and costly tasks of toner replenishment
- Minimizing the costs for service alert management
- Continuously monitoring income vs costs.
This is where PrinterCare comes in. We have developed a platform to monitor all the aspects above in a easy and effective way. Please ask for a demo account.
Is there more?
Yes, the customer does not want to limit himself when it comes to optimization and servicing the fleet. That's why also MPS should not have any limitations. Whatever the customer believes is important in MPS should be offered as part of the solutions, whether this is a PPP concept, solutions or Fleet Management.
