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Executive Debrief
The MSP Trio
Hardware, service & supplies: You need all 3 components to succeed in Managed Print Services.
Some resellers want the revenues from managing print, but they do not have break-fix technicians. They sell boxes & collect clicks, but cannot meet the 4 hour service level agreements.
These technicians also need to have access to a parts van that is ready for any service call.
To manage the devices, the technicians, and the parts & consumables, the MSP needs a management software that integrates these 3 components. This management software should include meter collection for billing,
asset inventory to track the hardware & its service/uptime history, Vendor & Technician tracking to make optimal technician decisions, and a Service Center to schedule service. It goes without saying, to decrease your cost of delivery of this service
many of the processes should be automated within this software.
If you would like more information concerning Managing
Print Services please
contact us.
Interesting Facts
Did you know in the average office?
19 copies are made of each document
30% of the workday is spent searching for documents
$20 is spent on labor filing each document
$120 is spent on labor searching for a misfiled document
$250 is spent on labor to recreate a lost document.
15% of all documents are misplaced
7.5% are lost completely
Grant's Tech Tip
Sneak peak of upcoming release
PrinterRx Version 2.27 is scheduled for release in October. A sneak peak of this major release follow:
New Service Ticket Module:
With this module vendors, technicians, companies and printing devices are brought together to provide a complete service management system. Service tickets are generated manually by the operator, remotely by rXpress or automatically via printer alerts.
Other enhancements include:
Over/under utilization statistics
Enhanced grouping of customers
Extensive changes to the interface relating to subgroups
Enhanced algorithm to handle false toner low/out alerts
Tracking of oversized pages
And MUCH MORE...
For more answers to your questions refer to:
PrinterRx Support portal
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The Value of Managed Print Services
In our last newsletter
we identified potential leaks in profit from your service network. This month we discuss the Value Proposition for "true" Managed Print Services.
Managed Services has become a general purpose term used for virtually any type of outsourced IT service, from break-fix to SLA agreements. Many believe that an MSP is any service organization that provides remote monitoring capabilities to complement more traditional break-fix agreements.
But in fact from your customers perspective, monitoring is a low-value service, and when it is limited to meter collection, its value is only to assist with the billing process. Why would a customer pay when there is no added value to him?
True managed service is much more that remote monitoring. Managed service can be defined as the delivery of IT services where your customer receives a greater value than its internal IT department can deliver. IT is used to enable
a corporation's business processes to increase corporate productivity and business value. Rightly or wrongly, your customer expects that once technology is deployed it will continue to work without failure.
Managed services that are value based comprise of services that mitigate the business impacts that arise from IT failure (device downtime) as much as possible and at an acceptable cost. So how can you as an MSP provide value to your customer that is scalable and cost effective?
Because of this inherently incorrect belief by corporations that IT should not break, your customer views managed services comprising solely of monitoring & break-fix as one of the lowest valued service. So what value proposition
would appeal to your customers for managed services beyond break-fix? For true managed services, your deliverables should be comprised of awareness activities and reports that provide the following:
Total Corporate device & Critical device Uptime
Service level commitments analysis
Recommendations of Strategic direction
At this point, managed service goes beyond break-fix to true added value for your customer. YOU are providing him a service of greater value than he can get from his internal IT department.
The Move from Extended Warranty to Service
Along with the printer purchase, service & supplies are integral components of the printer market. Without question, supplies are the dominant cost paid during the lifetime of any
printer. The cost of supplies accounts for a whopping 74% of the revenue generated by printers & MFPs in the US.
On the other hand, service has historically been an insignificant component of revenue, especially for the lower cost/lower PPM printers. In fact, inkjets have been designed NOT TO BE SERVICED, rather
simply thrown out if they fail. Similarly, workgroup & personal laser printers have been designed to be service free to the extent that they can. With the purchase of a cartridge or maintenance kit, most problems or possible problems
are resolved. Many of the laser printer's moving parts are replaced with the installation of a new toner cartridge.
At the lower end, service has simply become Extended Warranty. For the very low end, this simply means a replacement of the defective printer. For higher end printers, on-site service may be required.
This disposable service model is demonstrated with a mere 7% of the total revenue generated by printers in the US going towards the cost of service.
For workgroup printers this warranty service model may be changing, resulting in a requirement for additional service. Consider what has been happening to office lasers. Lasers have increased in speed and throughput.
Printers are becoming more complex with added paper handling & finishing options. MFPs have considerably increased the complexity & cost. This results in a higher
degree of importance of a workgroup printer. Today's workgroup printer is servicing more users & more applications, and as a result is more critical to the organization. The
printer cannot go down, at least not for very long. In corporate-critical environments, the service provider may temporarily replace the broken printer with a loaner to ensure continued service. The cost of downtime is real
and hidden. As the workgroup printer becomes more complex, it will go down more frequently; As the printer becomes more expensive & critical, an increased level of service & maintenance results.
Increases in printer speeds, MFPs & the focus on controlling printing costs by right-sizing printer fleets
are influencing in the replacement of the low end personal printers
with more workgroup printers & MFPs strategically placed in the organization. This focus on the printer fleet also places emphasis on the full cost of a corporate printing environment.
As the expense and criticality of the printer to the corporation increases, so too, does the need for service. There is an increasing requirement for additional service in the workgroup printer market.
Get more information on a printerRx solution for managed print services
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