|
Executive Debrief
All Aboard the MSP train!
Manufacturers and other service organizations are offering or expanding their Managed Print Services business.
With corporations knocking on the doors of their service providers looking for innovative solutions to manage their printer fleets & reduce costs of printing.
In particular, Print Solutions & Services Divisions of the major printer manufacturers are jumping head first into the Managed
Service Provider arena.
To offer managed print services in the most profitable & cost effective way, the MSP requires a tool to centrally & continuously monitor/manage all devices under their contracts.
The customer does not care what tool is used, as long as their printers are managed and their printing costs are under control. The MSP could use a spreadsheet.
But as a prudent business entity, the tool should gather all aspects of the print environment and automate tasks to be cost effective.
In addition, this data collection system that gathers valuable information about each networked printing device. That information can be used to automate consumables management, uncover areas for cost savings opportunities or simply just give customers more awareness to what, how
much, & where the majority of the printing takes place.
Still the TCO of printers are overlooked with more than 80% of companies not monitoring or analyzing the running costs of a printer once it has been installed and is being used. According to Gartner, this constitutes 3 to 5% of an organization’s operational cost. The opportunity awaits - Don't miss the train!
Grant's Tech Tip
Understanding Networks 101
If you are moving from managing photocopiers to managing networked devices, obtaining a basic understanding of networks is the most important education you can do.
Two basic firewall concepts follow:
If your customer has a proxy server or firewall, an outbound port is required to be opened by the company's IT department in order to send the data from the printer management too to the MSP server.
And on the receiving end (usually inside the MSP firewall) the destination port needs to be opened by the IT department to allow the data to be received and forwarded to the receiving computer.
For more
answers to your questions refer to:
PrinterRx
Support portal
|
Manufacturer Independent Print Service Solutions
In our last
newsletter
we identified the threats to your Managed Print Service business. This month we
will discuss Print Service Solutions and the price of dependence.
Without fail, the majority of printer manufacturers are offering, entering or expanding their Managed Print Services. They are offering a
variety of solutions which are designed to critically evaluate the customer's output needs and develop an output strategy to specifically address problem areas and help increase productivity while reducing costs.
Each is offering its own flavor, whether it's total print management, cost per page print solutions, or smart printing services. These printer manufacturers are encouraging Print Service Providers & Dealers to
join their program. BUT beware the contract you sign!
Many Manufacturer Contracts require you to only utilize OEM supplies, parts, or maintenance kits. There are clauses in some contracts that actually hold you the service provider responsible on cost per page models if your client defaults. This is true in bulk purchase service agreements as well. Managed Service Providers realize that there are some cases where it is necessary to utilize OEM supplies, parts and maintenance, however there are many quality Third Party compatible’s and supplies, parts and third party maintenance providers that provide better cost structure and more profitability opportunities for the MSP or VAR channel. Smart business people know where they can increase profits and maintain Service Levels to their clients by utilizing different supplies, parts, or labor when needed.
Let’s face it standardization to the point where buyers have no leverage is not good business. So even though it sounds great, many organizations realize competition is good for business. Henry Ford said “Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs”, I wonder if he ever thought Ford would have to move manufacturing offshore to compete?
Managed Service Providers recognize giving up flexibility or ability to accommodate buyer’s needs is recipe for disaster.
Let’s look at the two Equations:
Your Business: NO Flexibility + Low Margins = Bad Business Deal
Your Customer's Business: No Alternatives + No Value Add = No Deal
Printer fleet management solutions offered by the printer
manufacturers all claim to support all vendor solutions equally. But watch out
for any premiums charged to manage non-manufactured equipment! And as an added bonus to the manufacturer, you are providing your supplier valuable competitive
information on Your business. Imagine what this does to your buying leverage. If your customer does not want a particular make/model
or simply wants more variety, will you & your MSP contract terms limit his choice? Or should your customer go elsewhere?
Swapping printers during break-fix
Printers are identified and tracked by serial numbers. Therefore, printer serial numbers must be accessible to the network if you wish to use current technology for manage your printers.
Best Practice Procedure for swapping network printers during break-fix
1. Pull out internal network card from the printer being replaced
2. Put network card into replacement printer
Using the same network card ensures that the printer for repair is being replaced with a similar printer. The print drivers remain the same, and the end user experiences no differences in the way he prints. The entire break-fix swap is transparent to the user. Accessibility remains high and no unnecessary calls to help desk result.
Behind the scenes during break-fix swap, printerRx auto-detects the replaced printer and auto-retires the removed printer, preserving all the historical data. This would occur whether or not the internal network card is swapped.
In this case, the swap is automatically handled with printerRx.
Problems arise for network printer management tools when the printer serial number is not accessible to the network. This may occur when a network has external print servers. Some external print servers do not collect or provide from the printer important printer management information such as the
printer serial number, meters and other metrics. With current technology, more printing devices (though not all) have internal print servers. According to best practices for printer fleet management in corporations, external print servers are not recommended because of the
potential screening of fleet management information.
Get more information on a printerRx solution
Recommend This Newsletter To A Friend Do you have a friend or colleague who might enjoy this newsletter? Please forward it to him or her and point out the
subscription page
|
