When Should You Use A Data Collection Agent (DCA) As A Prospecting Tool?

Short Answer: as often as you can! Prospecting is a wonderful way to initially engage a potential customer or to expand the service offerings within your existing customer base through deeper automated data collection and analysis including print device over and under utilization reporting. Whether you’re looking to gather data on a print environment in support of a proposal that you are looking to put forth, or just looking to add value to your current offering, it always makes sense to prospect with your DCA. Additionally, just about any account size can make sense to prospect in. It all really depends on just what you’re looking to accomplish. If your DCA is tied to an efficient MPS software solution, it will undoubtedly make you, the Service Provider, more strategic to your customers and prospects. And do remember that every one of your customers is someone else’s prospect! Your DCS should be tied to an MPS software solution that can manage and support any program type; whether that’s a All inclusive Cost Per Page, a toner only cost per page, a service only cost per page, a cost per device, a time and material (break fix) or any combination of the above. Flexibility in billing mechanisms is a key component if your want to reap high rewards from your prospecting efforts. If your end goal is to demonstrate that you can be more proactive and better equipped to understand and respond to devices needs, then prospecting will demonstrate that you have a strategic tool to accomplish this. If your goal is a continuation of traditional services to an account, (toner, service, or a combination of the two), the right MPS application can be configured to accommodate that need. If you are looking to provide an even more proactive, Cost Management offering, then prospecting with the right DCA can position and present your strategic capabilities. Prospecting will almost always lead to additional service within an account and is, therefore, a great sales generation tool.

Selecting the Right Managed Print Services Solution - Part Six

This series discusses some of the key factors in selecting the right MPS solution for your organization.  As an independent, time is precious.  Having fewer resources than national service organizations and the OEM's, you need to quickly assess your options, make your selection and implement it.  Hopefully, the questions we are posing help you in this process.

In previous posts, we discussed how autonomous you wish to be, the need for flexibility in a solution, hardware versus software DCA's and finding a solution to meet all your customers' requirements. Our next factor is:


What's the financial investment in getting started?

There are a few things to consider:

1.  Are you required to make a long term commitment? 
2.  Is there a lower price point available for your initial engagement or must you commit to one flat rate?
3.  Can you easily transition from a lower program option as your needs change?
4.  Does the company offer different levels of support and training that can be customized to your budget and requirements?
5.  Do the marketing options (training tools, websites, etc.) incur a one time fee or are billed on an ongoing basis?  If ongoing, can you cancel at any time or are you locked in?

These are just a few factors to think about when selecting your MPS solution.  What others can you think of?  Let us know!

Latest Business Solution Series Movie On YouTube

The next movie in Miracom Network's Business Solutions Series has been uploaded to YouTube.

How to Determine Toner Quality discusses the importance of understanding first what an acceptable yield is and then how to know if the toners being supplied by your vendor are meeting your standards.

How does the Business Solution Series promote an independent managed print service initiative?  First, it highlights the fact that as an independent, you aren't tied to a specific toner source.  You can provide the best option for your customer.  It also positions you as the expert when it comes to their print needs.

Corporate Benefits Of Managed Print Services Programs

Managed Print Services Approach to Managing Your Print Environment:

 Managed Print Services (MPS) is an outsourcing service by which a service provider takes on full responsibility for a company’s print environment. It requires knowing how to analyze print data in order to drive efficiencies and cost savings!

 An information management tool that not only allows you to track important data relative to your print devices and the services you receive, but it allows you to track bottom line data that impacts your very business, such as costs and device utilization.

 Empowers and supports your business print needs while streamlining your business processes.

What Message Should You Deliver To CFO's About Your Managed Print Services Program?

• Research shows that companies spend approximately $1,000 per employee per year just on the variable costs of printing.

• Over the life of a print device, supply expenditures can total three to five times the actual acquisition cost of the device.

• Budgets for supplies are growing by 20-40% per year; Dataquest, IDC and CAP Ventures have all concluded that page volumes are growing at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 8%.

• The average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of copy paper per year.

• It is estimated that 30-50% of print assets in office environments are underutilized, while 20-30% are over-utilized.

• It is estimated that 20-30% of print assets in office environments are over-utilized.

• The cost of printing is equivalent to 2‐3% of a company’s gross revenue.

While the growing cost of print can be controlled, long‐term cost savings requires consistent and meaningful data. This data will enable you to make strategic and analytical decisions that will lead to cost containment, cost savings, and even more importantly, cost avoidance.

Print Management is the last un‐audited business expense. Few companies track printing costs at all. But an accurate assessment of costs is essential to reducing them. This is what we do; and our services and solutions will cost you no more than any other Service Provider in the market.

We manage print as a business process, making it more efficient and cost effective. We’re not just interested in cost savings; we’re also interested in your being able to verify those savings. We are adamant about open communication and data transparency; it’s what helps define the value of our Managed Print Services Solution.

What Message Should I Be Delivering To The CPO Or Procurement Director About My Managed Print Services Program?

According to a survey by the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies, print purchase requisitions are too often “spread throughout an organization among employees unfamiliar with the print industry, blind to true costs, quality, and the cumulative effect of over‐ordering.”

The survey also shows that manual procedures contribute to higher than necessary processing costs, premium prices, and vendor performance and service quality issues.

This is but one of the areas that our managed Print Services program looks to address. For us, it’s all about helping to identify and lower costs; in many cases, this begins with automating procedures and processes. Next, we track performance and provide you with the very data needed to effectively quantify your cost savings and identify how the process improvements have lead to greater efficiencies.

While most Service Providers in the market fail to track the kind of data necessary to manage your print environment more effectively, efficiently, and strategically, at best, reactive to your equipment and business needs, we track, manage, and provide you 24‐hour, web‐based access to real‐time and historical data on your print environments, and ALL the costs behind the management of that environment.

We manage print as a business process, making it more efficient and cost effective. We’re not just interested in cost savings; we’re also interested in your being able to verify those savings. We are adamant about open communication and data transparency; it’s what helps define the value of our Managed Print Services Solution.

We’re a partner you can trust because we provide you access to the very data we use to make decisions and manage your print environment. We want you as informed as we are. Our objective is to transition your role from day‐to‐day management of supplies, service, and vendors to an audit and oversight role in which we provide you with the data you need to audit your costs and our performance.

What Message Should I Be Delivering To The CIO, CTO, or IT Director About My Managed Print Services Program?

Network printers are growing at a rate of 20% annually, and the amount of information printed by network users is increasing accordingly; over 50% of network traffic is printer traffic; Dataquest, IDC and CAP Ventures have all concluded that page volumes are growing at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 8%; help desk support studies have shown that 30‐60% of the calls to help desks are print related; it is widely accepted that 20% of IT support time is spent in addressing printer problems in one form or another; and printers, the supplies associated with them and the support required to keep them operating represent 5‐10 percent of the typical IT budget.

Few network managers and IT departments track printing costs at all. But an accurate assessment of costs is essential to reducing them. This is what we do. In fact we’re even able to audit the performance of your current Service Provider!

Selecting the Right Managed Print Services Solution - Part Five

This series discusses some of the key factors in selecting the right MPS solution for your organization.  As an independent, time is precious.  Having fewer resources than national service organizations and the OEM's, you need to quickly assess your options, make your selection and implement it.  Hopefully, the questions we are posing help you in this process.

In previous posts, we discussed how autonomous you wish to be, the need for flexibility in a solution, hardware versus software DCA's and finding a solution to meet all your customers' requirements. Our next factor is:


Where does the solution and data reside?


There are basically two options when selecting an MPS solution:  The application and data either resides on the service provider's own network or the data is accessed by accessing remote servers, also called an ASP model.