Managed Print Services: It’s More than Just Pages

“Everything as a service? Anything as a service.” – Valerie Alde-Hayman, Senior Analyst at gap Intelligence

Managed print services (MPS) is alive and well. Actually, unbelievably well. We’ve talked about this before, and the wave continues. While dealers and manufacturers report a reduction in page volumes, an increase in MPS contracts highlights an area that dealers should be leaning into.

Despite its limited name, MPS is more than about print. It isn’t just about cartridges or even cyber security, but it IS about supplies, purchasing, keeping data under lock and key, and even leasing. What’s more, with the move back to an office, cost reductions and increasing efficiencies hold a more prominent position. The work-from-home wave exposes what is important and what is frivolous. Not only that, but word on the street reports that as supply chains return to normal, customers are remembering the shortage of toner, sometimes a lack of communication, and paying for copies they never made (AKA, contract minimums).

As things are getting back to ‘normal,’ companies/prospects are open to changing who they work with. Given that hardly anybody is creating new ‘clicks,’ expansion typically entails converting someone else’s volumes into yours.

It is a good time to be prospecting and it is a great time to attract managed print services opportunities.

 “…if you could sell MPS because right then and there you have an opportunity to talk to the I.T people you got to remember we were talking to purchasing…”

– Greg Walters, Head Writer at The Office Tech Tap

Not only have things shifted on the demand side of the curve but there are also new provider tools hitting the market. Again, it’s hard to believe but new, agile software houses are bringing fresh data-collection and sales tools to the market. And the once unassailable customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) conglomerates face renewed competition.

Let’s say you’re thinking about getting into managed print services or improving upon a fledgling MPS practice. What should you be looking forward to discovering?

• Different Data Collection Agents – Will it track printers and copiers? Of course. Next-generation DCAs should also let you see devices not under contract. Also, if it hangs off a network, you should see it.
• New CRM and ERP systems – not a patchwork, something that can easily take you from Quickbooks or convert your legacy, patchworked software.

“…my advice to dealers, at least currently, is find ways to use it to improve your customer experience so that you can you uptick the satisfaction of your customers and maybe win some more deals as opposed to making a ton of money off AI…”

– West McDonald

– Greg Walters, Head Writer