Selecting the Right Managed Print Services Solution - Part Fifteen

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.



The goal of this series is to present a list of potential requirements you would have for a complete MPS solution. Some of the items on this list may not pertain to you at the start, but you should still consider them when evaluating and selecting the right solution. Our next item on the list is:

Is it a scalable solution, both in terms of managing print environments and the costs associated with using it?We have spoken to many dealers getting started with MPS.  What are many of them looking for in a solution? For the most part, page counts.  Supply levels are great and if they can get e-mail notification, that's a bonus.

The first instinct for these dealers is to find the simplest, easiest-to-deploy solution.  They want a small learning curve and something they can use to hit the ground running.

And if you're dealing with a few customers with relatively small environments (20-50 devices per customer), this could seem like the best solution.  But what if that customer base grows to 50, 100?  What if larger environments and multiple locations need to be managed?  How many additional staff would you need to employ to manage all the e-mail alerts?  Who is going to track all the supply levels? 

For an application to be scalable, it must have features that streamline the process.  Here are a few things to consider:

1. Can you select what alerts/tickets you receive for a customer down to a device level?  
2. Does the solution have logic to prevent multiple notifications of the same issue?
3. Are you able to track all toner and service needs through the system, even if a third party vendor is used?
4. Can you separate your customers and/or locations into separate units?  This is extremely important if there is more than one dispatcher managing the process.
5. Do you have real time reporting that will help track service history, print volume, device utilization, costs and profitability? 

These are just a few of the variables to consider.  What other factors related to your selecting an MPS solution should be considered?  Are the benefits of using a solution that provides toner and service outweighed by the restrictions that are often in place?  What has your experience been?