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Managed Print Services (MPS) is the big buzz word in the print service and repair industry today. Every trade magazine has at least one article discussing some aspect of MPS. Trade shows are adding seminars, symposiums, full day summits and focus groups. Most service companies (the ones that want to stay in business, anyway) have either implemented an MPS program or are actively exploring their options, resources, and go to market strategies.
MPS involves using some type of technology. There are a handful of solutions that are very well known, thanks to strategic partnerships with toner manufacturers, parts suppliers and/or OEM's. All the options out there perform many of the same basic functions; remotely monitor print devices, capture page counts, toner levels and service alerts. There's no great mystery to the process. So what are the key factors in determining which solution to use? What else is out there besides the big three?How about Miracom Network?
Miracom started as a managed print services provider in 1999. Although successful, questions arose. Can we be more proactive? Is there a way to anticipate supply and service needs? How can we increase our ticket to tech ratio? The answer was to develop technology to remotely monitor a print environment, gather page counts automatically and receive alerts in real time.
Miracom started as a managed print services provider in 1999. Although successful, questions arose. Can we be more proactive? Is there a way to anticipate supply and service needs? How can we increase our ticket to tech ratio? The answer was to develop technology to remotely monitor a print environment, gather page counts automatically and receive alerts in real time.
In 2002, Miracom completed development of both a hardware appliance to gather data and a web-based interface to manage the information captured. Used in-house for two years, Miracom slowly began to make the solution available to other service companies just getting into managed print. Over the years, we've released two major revisions and are constantly adding new features.
So how do you choose your technology? Remember, every solution will gather the basic information. What do they do with that information? Are you tied into a toner manufacturer, a part supplier, a service organization? Does it help you expand beyond your geographic boundaries? Will it bring you additional revenue?
Are these features important to you?
Agnostic Solution - Is the solution tied to a toner manufacturer, parts supplier or other organization that requires you to use their services? Does that provide an advantage or limit you in your offering.
Automated Ticketing - Does the solution generate tickets automatically as defined on a customer-by-customer basis? Can those needs be defined down to the individual print device.
Service Directory - Can you tap into other service companies across the country, leveraging the solution to assign and monitor the progress of service tickets through the same interface you manage your internal service organization? Is this all integrated into a customer view of the service activity that you want them to see.
Monitoring Options - Do they provide both hardware and software Data Collection Agent (DCA)remote monitoring options for gathering data? In many highly secured environments (hospitals, banks, government facilities), the installation of software that sends data out can be difficult if not impossible to get deployed; these "security centric" environments just prefer hardware based solutions.
More Than "Cost Per Page" - Can you efficiently manage your customers' print devices, even if you are not billing them on a per page basis? Remember, CPP is just a billing mechanism; it is not synonymous with MPS. Customers may want proactive print management but not necessarily want a CPP model; at least not across their entire fleet of devices.
Advanced Toner Management - Can you track when an end user changes a toner cartridge, capture the event and calculate the toner yield? This is one of your biggest areas of exposure. Are you provided real time predictions of toner empty dates?
Extensive Analytics - Can you track cost and profitability down to an individual device level? Do you have reporting that pinpoints over and underutilized print devices? What about data on how efficiently your service organization is performing?
Agnostic Solution - Is the solution tied to a toner manufacturer, parts supplier or other organization that requires you to use their services? Does that provide an advantage or limit you in your offering.
Automated Ticketing - Does the solution generate tickets automatically as defined on a customer-by-customer basis? Can those needs be defined down to the individual print device.
Service Directory - Can you tap into other service companies across the country, leveraging the solution to assign and monitor the progress of service tickets through the same interface you manage your internal service organization? Is this all integrated into a customer view of the service activity that you want them to see.
Monitoring Options - Do they provide both hardware and software Data Collection Agent (DCA)remote monitoring options for gathering data? In many highly secured environments (hospitals, banks, government facilities), the installation of software that sends data out can be difficult if not impossible to get deployed; these "security centric" environments just prefer hardware based solutions.
More Than "Cost Per Page" - Can you efficiently manage your customers' print devices, even if you are not billing them on a per page basis? Remember, CPP is just a billing mechanism; it is not synonymous with MPS. Customers may want proactive print management but not necessarily want a CPP model; at least not across their entire fleet of devices.
Advanced Toner Management - Can you track when an end user changes a toner cartridge, capture the event and calculate the toner yield? This is one of your biggest areas of exposure. Are you provided real time predictions of toner empty dates?
Extensive Analytics - Can you track cost and profitability down to an individual device level? Do you have reporting that pinpoints over and underutilized print devices? What about data on how efficiently your service organization is performing?
In future posts, we'll cover each of these topics individually. For now, we'd love to hear from you. What are the key features you look for in a managed print services technology solution? Have you implemented a solution or are you still investigating? What are your frustrations? Let us know!
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