The Ideal MPS Product
Excerpt from: Consultant’s View of an Ideal MPS Product
Managed print services (MPS) has caused travail among manufacturers, resellers, and even end users. It is likely the most significant event the printing and imaging industry has ever experienced. The business model change from hardware (and transactional-based) to service-based is an area in which OEMs and resellers continue to struggle. Training of MPS sales reps, technical personnel and, in effect, the whole dealer/reseller firm has moved beyond the basics to a real transformation of the attitude and thinking of that company. MPS has become as much a part of ‘putting marks on paper’ as texting has become for smartphones.
Despite this movement to MPS most printers and MFPs have been designed for transactional sales and not for MPS. Manufacturers by nature have a device focus. OEMs want to provide the best device for end users and their distribution partners that will enable the factory to manufacture and sell more of their portfolio. There is nothing inherently wrong with this picture; however, the best device in the past does not necessarily make it the best device for MPS going forward.
So far, printing and imaging devices have been designed to minimize shipping costs, encourage early supplies replenishment (low SWE toners) and minimize break/fix service. From a consultant’s viewpoint the new MPS-ready devices should be designed to be services-centric and incorporate some, if not all, of the components shown below. These have been grouped in three major component groups: physical, networking and application components. This loosely follows part of the 7-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and is descriptive in name only, not true function. In the description shown below only three of the seven layers are used…
Read more from a Consultant’s View of an Ideal MPS Product, authored by Photizo Group Vice President of Production Mike Huster, when you become an MPS Insights PRO Member, $399/year.
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