MPS Reaching New Frontiers

MPS Reaching New Frontiers

This week I have had the opportunity to speak at two very interesting, but very different events on two different coasts.  The first event was speaking to over 600 Ricoh/IKON staff members at the 2010 IKON Solutions Conference in Daytona Beach Florida. This was a bit like preaching to the choir. The audience definitely got it, and in fact, are leading the way in bringing some Stage 3 engagements to customers through their strong professional services group. This was a fun event to speak at and it was gratifying to see a group who has whole heartedly embraced MPS.

From IKON’s event, I jogged (not literally) across the country to Palm Springs California to speak at the IRgA Convention. Now, if you aren’t familiar with the IRgA convention it’s of no surprise. This group consists of firms like KIP, ReproMAX and Estefold who sell into the wide format reprographics market. These are the guys that sell systems to architectural or construction offices for printing blueprints, diagrams, schematics and the like.

So what the heck am I doing speaking to this group of independent IRgA resellers about MPS and hybrid dealers? Well, these guys are actually starting to see the impact of MPS into their market space. Customers are beginning to ask their MPS vendors to not only manage the distributed fleet, but also the centralized printing center devices which can include these devices. In essence, the game for MPS is moving from the distributed to also capture the centralized printing and document capabilities.

So for the IRgA dealers MPS represents both a threat (an MPS provider could ‘take-away’ their business as part of an MPS contract) and an opportunity (they could reach out and grab the distributed fleet if they develop MPS capabilities).  In fact, one IRgA member, American Reprographics Company, actually has a rather well developed MPS program for their enterprise accounts. They are actually moving in the direction of becoming a hybrid dealership (and they are actually a publically traded stock, that would be a new twist in the MPS reseller space wouldn’t it!).

I proposed that these resellers have the option of either building their own program (organic growth), merging with or acquiring existing hybrid dealers, or, partnering with hybrid dealers to expand the hybrid dealers offering. It was very interesting watching their reactions. Based on the response, I think I have hit a nerve with this audience and they clearly see the threat and the opportunity.

It was interesting, I even spoke to resellers over lunch who have joined the BTA  or who have attended our MPS conferences just to try and learn more about MPS because they see this trend coming. When I read the MPSA’s definition of MPS, you could see the light bulbs going on in the audience.

All in all I thought this was a very interesting event and I was more than a little surprised at how well the message was received. This group may be a year or two behind the office products dealer who is now chasing MPS, but I would expect them to catch up very quickly!

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