How does a dealer/managed service provider best leverage its managed print services (MPS) program in arguably the most challenging era of the concept’s existence? Fleet management, break-fix, supplies fulfillment, security enhancement, cost certainty—these and numerous other considerations have long been hallmarks of MPS. But has the talk track changed considerably in the past five years?
Dealers/MSPs have struggled in recent years, on the back end of COVID, to maintain and protect profitability. It’s a fine line to walk in an age of increasing prices and decreasing volume outputs. Fortunately, it’s not a journey that requires the MPS provider to fly solo.
We asked a number of industry manufacturers/technology providers to share their views on the current state of MPS. These snippets include overviews of their programs, the current trends driving the needs of end-users and an outlook on how dealers/managed service providers can best optimize their own strategies to deliver a full-fledged platform that optimizes workflow environments, enhances productivity and, as always, generates optimum cost savings for the client. Not to mention, generating profits for the provider.
Bob Burnett
Director, B2B Solutions Deployment and Planning
Brother International
Controlling costs, increasing printing device efficiency and reducing a customer’s environmental impact while securing a consistent revenue stream are a few of the benefits channel partners can enjoy with managed print services. But let’s not forget about the companies—such as Brother—that enable channel partners to provide various programs and tools for success, including the ability to offer managed services themselves and help expand contractual business.
Brother offers devices under the Workhorse umbrella for hybrid working needs, catering to both enterprises and SMBs working from home. The Brother Workhorse series provides a range of products to meet the changing needs of document workflow, from home-friendly devices to those suited for the new office environment. The series offers the highest capacity toners, so customers aren’t exchanging toners at a high rate, and Brother’s exchange program is a game changer for MPS. This is especially a greater value for devices sitting at home. People don’t want the added stress of having technicians in their homes to replace their machines. Brother deployment capabilities make it easy for the devices to be reconfigured no matter where they’re installed.
Security continues to be a top priority for customers, but due to limited time and expertise, many IT professionals seek assistance implementing print security measures. It’s crucial to have highly secure devices with updated firmware and settings aligned with their security schema. Security needs to be part of an MPS service, ensuring the print devices are up to date and configured with the necessary settings based on customer needs.
During the pandemic, channel partners experienced a decline in print volume and overall click rate, thus signaling the importance of a flat rate. Today, flat-rate billing is gaining momentum; it makes sense when considering costs. A flat rate guarantees revenue and a fixed amount of costs per month, allowing the customer to know what they’re spending, and it simplifies back-end processes for the dealers, a benefit on both sides of the equation. Similarly, subscription services and programs such as the Value Subscription Program (VSP) are increasing in popularity, and instead of replacing the traditional MPS, these offerings augment and adds additional flexibility and capabilities to current programs. A win-win for all.
Jason Moore
MPS Sales and Business Development Manager
Distribution Management
MPS has reached a level of service maturity, but we’re seeing many factors that contribute to its evolution, especially as we come out of the COVID era.
More and more companies are bringing their teams back into the office in a hybrid or full-time capacity, resulting in print volumes returning to pre-pandemic levels. However, in some cases, those companies are now short-staffed and managing tighter budgets due to inflation and current market conditions. In an effort to do more with less, they’re leaning on services such as MPS to run more efficiently. Adopting a service model that’s contractual versus transactional offers more visibility into identifying where money is being spent—and lost. In MPS engagements, we’re seeing supplies growth coming from fewer devices. Companies are realizing the need to clear out lower-volume, less-efficient devices and drive pages through fewer, more cost-effective machines.
Sustainability initiatives have also become a greater focus over the past few years. As a distributor, our goal is to reduce the number of shipments while maintaining our just-in-time delivery model. Through predictive analytics, our MPS program can aggregate orders within a given window of time to send multiple toners in one shipment versus single toners in multiple shipments. This not only reduces our carbon footprint, it helps our resellers (and ultimately the end-users) combat rising costs from freight and packaging, and it reduces admin burden with fewer POs to process.
For many, the pandemic shone a light on the need to diversify. As traditional print volumes were declining or abruptly coming to a halt, our reseller partners were scrambling to find new ways to generate revenue. One way DM was able to step in was through thermal supplies. It’s an adjacent product line to the print space, and companies such as Zebra are developing smarter thermal devices that report more data and are visible to data collection software. This opened the door for our MPS dealers to begin discussing thermal sales within existing accounts. Meanwhile, using its existing MPS infrastructure, DM developed a program making it possible to manage those thermal devices in a similar fashion to traditional office print devices.
The good news for the future of MPS is that resellers and end-users are paying more attention to efficiencies in how they manage their environments. Couple that with DM’s strengths in order aggregation and growth within the thermal category and it’s clear DM’s MPS resellers have a competitive advantage.
Dino Pagliarello
Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management and Planning
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.
Managed print services traditionally involves active monitoring of customer print environments and providing supply fulfillment and device break-fix services to simplify the management and support of print devices. Value is enhanced via a detailed assessment of customer fleets and business requirements, which helps in building a customized solution that may include software and additional services to further improve operational efficiencies. This strategy consists of taking a deep look at the entire ecosystem of content, people, business workflows and more to generate streamlined processes that result in optimization. Fact is, true management of print has a direct impact on the bottom line of every business.
Today, cloud migration of critical applications and systems such as MPS continues due in part to traditional print infrastructure becoming costly to maintain and increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats. Print environments can be complex—with print devices from various manufacturers placed in different locations—and can benefit significantly from cloud migration. Through this, organizations can gain enhanced productivity, scalability, security, insights and mobility. Over time, many more organizations will migrate their print infrastructure into the cloud.
Some of the key trends driving MPS programs today and looking into the future include:
1. Transitioning to a pure cloud environment.
2. Presenting data and metrics in visually compelling ways.
3. Expanding the types of devices that can be monitored (MFPs, printers, scanners, label printers, wide-format, etc.).
4. Device security, from access to device vulnerabilities that may be present in any current configuration (certification status, open ports, authentication, encryption settings, etc.).
5. Sustainability tracking and reporting; ways to mitigate carbon footprint.
6. Flat-rate pricing including print and security-as-a-service.
Managed print services have long been an intrinsic part of the print industry and the wider business environment. The various offerings provide dealers with an array of opportunities—from print monitoring and fulfillment to scan/capture/workflow and secure release opportunities—to address the needs of all customers and prospects and result in healthy profitability.
Clark Bugg
Director of North America Channel Sales
Lexmark International
In the ever-evolving world of print, Lexmark has emerged as a leader in MPS. And as technology continues to advance, the company is harnessing the power of Lexmark Cloud Fleet Manager (CFM) and artificial intelligence (AI) to reshape the future of MPS. By proactively monitoring service levels and enhancing security, Lexmark is not only transforming its own offerings but also empowering partners to deliver exceptional services to their customers.
Cloud Fleet Management
This is revolutionizing the way print environments are managed. Lexmark MPS now provides real-time visibility and control over the entire print fleet through a centralized cloud-based platform. This allows for seamless integration, remote monitoring and enhanced analytics. By leveraging the power of the cloud, Lexmark MPS empowers enterprises to optimize their printing infrastructure, reduce costs and improve overall efficiency.
Harnessing AI for proactive monitoring
Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in Lexmark’s forward-thinking approach to MPS. Through AI-powered analytics and predictive modeling, Lexmark can proactively monitor service levels, identifying issues before they arise. This enables businesses to achieve maximum uptime and productivity, minimize disruptions and reduce the need for immediate intervention. By leveraging AI, Lexmark is setting a new standard for proactive support and maintenance in the MPS industry.
Enhanced security measures
Lexmark recognizes that security is paramount in today’s digital landscape. With Lexmark CFM, security features are integrated at every level, from device authentication to encrypted data transmission and print job protection. Leveraging AI, Lexmark can also identify potential security threats and take proactive measures to help prevent breaches. This ensures that sensitive documents remain safe and businesses can maintain peace of mind in an era of increased cybersecurity risks.
Lexmark aims to empower its partners to provide customers with the same level of service by leveraging its enterprise offerings. By sharing the power of CFM and AI-driven analytics, Lexmark helps partners effectively manage print fleets, anticipate customer needs and deliver optimal performance. This collaborative approach allows partners to enhance their own service offerings and strengthen customer relationships. It also enables them to be in control of the evolving needs of the end-users.
Jim Joyce
Vice President, U.S. Channels Innovation and Managed Print Services
Xerox Corp.
The MPS market is more strategically demanding than ever before. Clients have for years been moving away from a mere focus on impression volume, type of impressions made, simple supplies replenishment and technical service as their primary interests. They expect a next-generation strategy that focuses on cloud, zero-trust security and dynamic analytics. Our partners are also experiencing significant interest and expansion in global deployment, as many of their customers have acquired, expanded or formed partnerships internationally.
MPS delivered via secure cloud is relieving the partner and its clients of legacy administrative duties that remain costly and time-consuming. Clients are embracing it because it offers even greater flexibility and further reduces their internal infrastructure expenses and obsolescence risk. Cloud is blending with “as-a-service” models very effectively in the MPS arena, and these cloud-enabled strategies allow Xerox partners and their customers to be more agile, especially as they expand into new markets and internationally.
Many organizations are being audited internally or by external entities (which can be part of their supplier network or client base) and are failing to meet the expanding requirements of today’s IT security. Requirements that emerged in the large enterprise space over the past several years have quickly materialized in the SMB market—dynamic certificate management as well as security in the device, around the device and of the content. Market conditions are driving them to adjust quickly to remain relevant and to hold on to their most critical customers.
Standard monthly or quarterly business reviews are no longer focused on simple SLAs, nor will the market dynamics allow detailed reporting and analysis to wait a full 30-90 days. Clients want real-time analytics at their fingertips in business intelligence form.
Partners who’ve embraced these next-generation elements and are leveraging them proactively with their clients are benefiting financially and strategically.
