The Managed Print Services industry is in urgent need of international standards
The Global Managed Print Services conference took place in Orlando, Florida from 2 – 4 May 2011. During the conference I listened with great interest how presenters bombarded the attendees with all the ever changing buzzwords to the likes of “assessments, convergence of software, MPS, Stage 1 to 4, partnerships, cloud computing, MPS strategy, trends, SMBs, enablers, channel partners, market leaders, chasms, early adopters,” etc., etc.
I realised that there was still a lot of confusion surrounding MPS. Most of the providers of this service have either just arrived at the starting line or had to turn around and start again because they got away before the shot was fired and ran in the wrong direction. Being in the MPS game myself, I regularly read the Linkedin MPS forums. Some of the questions make one think that some of the members are in the wrong group.
Nine years ago, when we set our company to do MPS, I tirelessly attempted to define MPS as simply as possible without sounding like a consultant. In time I discovered Photizo Group (www.photizogroup.com) and an analogy of what I think MPS really is. I call it the Crowley Analogy.
The analogy formed by Ed Crowley (President and CEO of the Photizo Group) was based on a comparison between a vehicle lease (the traditional hardware agreements called by any name) and a limousine service (MPS). Today I still use this analogy to explain what MPS is really about. As this is the basis of the rest of my discussion, I will summarise it shortly.
The lease includes the rental, the maintenance and the vehicle, but you as the owner still has to fill it with gas, check the level of oil and water (paper), insure it, make sure it is clean and replace the tires – this is the typical hardware contracts that were established over the last few decades. The limousine service, on the other hand, provides the user with a complete transport solution without any risk or additional costs or effort.
Most hardware vendors and their end users define the service they deliver or receive as MPS, but it is very clear that they are referring to the traditional hardware agreement with a bit of management. It seems that a lot of ‘MPS suppliers’ believe that if they have software deployed at the client and they do a bit more intelligent deployment of assets, it makes it an MPS solution.
It also became very apparent that there is a huge need for end users to understand what true MPS is and what it’s not. As long as they are not educated (and some definitely aren’t) they will continue to ask for the old and keep on calling it MPS. This will be detrimental to the industry and the client will not get the full benefits of what true MPS can provide.
Let me refer to the accounting and auditing industry as an example, as this is where I gave my first steps in business. If you ask any person in the audit profession for an audit/limited review report/factual report etc., they will explain exactly what it is, which steps are to be followed, and what the outcome (report) will be.
If you take any Trainee Accountant in the world and put him or her in a team in another country to do any of the functions listed above, they will immediately know what to do and will be able to constructively contribute to the final product – it is called a shared methodology driven by rules/regulations and standards.
This is definitely not the case in MPS. In fact, I am of the opinion that we will get as many descriptions of MPS as we have people in the room.
The MPSA has indicated that they want to set standards and best practices. Let’s start by defining what we do before we continue with anything else. Once we have defined and agreed on the limousine service we will be able to set standards, determine best practices and generate methodology documentation that will ensure a high standard of MPS world-wide and end users will see the real benefits which will result in exponential growth.
If this is not done, we will have an unorganised industry that continues to carry the legacy of the traditional hardware vendor; pulling the wool over the users’ eyes.
Let’s accept the Crowley Analogy as MPS and call the rest … MPS light, a Bulldog with lipstick, or just plain Managed services.
Jannes Du Plooy is the owner and co-founder of Solution WorX, which is headquartered in Pretoria, South Africa with site office across the country as well as Namibia, Botswana and Canada. Under Du Plooy’s management the company has seen revenue grow by 400 percent from four employees to more than 40 in a single year.
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