Managed Print Services and World Domination

It has been a long time since I have had any desire or perhaps any reason to write about MPS. I have felt that talking about the subject is beyond the dead horse.

I have always believed there are those who do it right and those who do it wrong.

That it is essentially simple.

For months now I have not chimed in about this industry or the players within it and for the most part, I had no intentions of doing so.

In light of reflecting on the past year, this has changed.

I can not ignore the fact that chaos is breaking out across political, military and social dynamics in many of the worlds super powers and smaller countries alike. Terrorist attacks and the horrors of gun related tragedy are commonly found in the headlines of both mainstream and alternative news networks daily content.

Need a Managed Print Services Program?

The world is burning...

So what does this all have to do with managed print services?

Control and dominance.

As MPS evolves, the enterprise level players push BPO, print volume caps, excessive monitoring and auditing and various other dynamics on end users so that the share holders and CEOs of massive corporations can squeeze every last cent out of a previously ignored element of these companies expenditures.

While this is not always the case, nor is it always done with an iron fist, I can not help but to notice how some of these tactics have a very "police state" feel to them.

Treating end-users like commodities that can be regulated like products tends to create a tense work environment...

I for one have quoted a few software's that allow end users weekly printing volumes to be capped or limited to monochrome only. When I quote such a product I ask the decision maker how comfortable they will be as the point of contact to the angered and frustrated end users who's jobs have been complicated by their actions.

This always tends to prevent a purchase of said software because all the clients who asked for the quote quickly back pedal after this question is asked.

Buy Recycled Toner Cartridges 

As an MPS provider who's foundation are built upon high quality re-manufactured toner cartridges, my company's CPC rates are enough to save large accounts thousands of dollars.

The aformentioned surveillance state like elements that create a dictator out of a CEO or VP of IT tend to strike the heart of my clients and so far, none have gone so far as to place these restrictions on their end users but I wonder about the enterprise accounts of some of the OEMs...

It is clear that large corporations are largely in control of various elements of the united states government and that money above all else (including people) is the driving force for these problems.

It is the same force that leads the hand of men and women in powerful positions of corporations who would become the gestapo of the printing environment in their company.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand that end users occasional printing of full color photos of their kids birthday to post in their cubicle, coupons, emails, etc. is something that should be brought under some control...

That being said, I personally think a company wide proclamation from the president via email (or other form of communication) to the employee base as a whole (the content of which puts emphasis on environmental sustainability and financial effect) would be more effective and less likely to cause strife.

Some may think these ideas are extreme and that it is nonsense to assume this is happening on any level of concern what so ever. This is not what I have found...

What I have learned from watching humanity from my perspective as a human being is that once a tendency for a dynamic is enacted in one part of a system, you can expect the same dynamic to appear else-ware. Now, should the motivation of that dynamic be the all mighty dollar, you will most certainly find that dynamic spreading across the system as a whole should the decision maker in charge of said system be primarily concerned with profit over all else.

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The managed print industry has been a catalyst for many things. I am under the opinion that it can be used as a lens to view the world...

From where I sit I will say this, If the elite of both the world and the MPS industry take control of the majority of either...

Endgame...

This is why I would implore customers more than ever to do business with small providers as much as possible. Choose the local companies who care more about people than pennies. Support small business even if it must be multiple small businesses to cover your fleet across states or countries. Even if it means some logistical challenges.

At the end of the day if all you are doing is saving is money, your not really saving anything. In this respect, I would suggest a revolution in dividing the MPS market across smaller providers rather than consolidating them through larger corporations.

There is enough opportunity for everyone and there needs to be change in the system otherwise it will collapse.

In closing I will repeat my sentiment...

MPS can be used as a lens, what do you see when you look through it?

Music for Healing?

More info > HERE.

Believe It Or Not, MPS Is Hip...

As I have watched the MPS industry over the past five years I have noticed a peculiar (and much to my enjoyment) interesting fact.

The MPS industry is ripe with subtle hipsters...

While I am not suggesting that you will find a group of us hanging out in an incense-smoke filled room, drinking absinthe and endlessly discussing the Grateful Dead as a metaphor for MPS, I would note the following...

1. The Death Of The Copier Blog, clearly the most well know and infamous blog in the industry is a veritable pantheon of liberal and even counter-culturally bent perspectives on what many would consider a drab, boring and very much so "un-sexy" corporate industry.

2. Just this week Adventures In Office Imaging fan and guest post author, Amanda Rogerson writes to me in an e-mail "As I see it, here are some of the basic questions to ask as you dive into the deep end of the MPS pool, or drink the Kool-Aid."

3. In a true showing of synchronicity, both myself and Rob Sethre unknowingly wrote articles expounding upon fractals as metaphorical devices to explain various dynamics of the managed print services ecosystem (within a few days of each other none the less).

4. The managed print services association actually has a Karma rating for its users and even Ken Stewart has commented on the actual presence of Karma within managed print services itself.

In the end all I can say is that the managed print services industry has some very creative and "colorful" minds within it's ranks and I am proud to consider myself one of the "in-crowd" in this respect.

MPS Contract Via Social Media

I believe that I have accomplished a unique acheivement this week.

Yesterday I signed a managed print services contract that was garnered through social media.

Let me explain...

A few months ago David Morrow (a friend of mine which I had not seen in over 10 years) reconnected with me through Facebook after stumbling across my profile. In addition to listening to some music I had posted to my wall, he also took the time to check out my company's Facebook page and read a couple of blog posts I had shared there.

I guess he liked what he read.

Dave works at a company called Tech Cavalry as part of a team of IT professionals who offer services ranging from computer installations and repair to network design and implementation.

I guess you could say that they love computers and technology. Printers on the other hand, well...

Let's just say that said hardware is not their cup of tea. That being said, printers are not only our cup of tea but the very foundation of our company.

Dave felt that we are a company who share the same kind of passion for quality customer service that Tech Cavalry has and since he and his boss Michael had been looking to find a company with said qualities who would be able to take the reigns in regards to their customers printer needs, I was asked to come and meet with Michael to speak about the possibility of doing business together.

While my conversation with Michael spanned everything from cigars and coffee to VARs and MSPs and every dynamic in between, the conversation ended with a referral.

I was given information about a company not far from where I worked.

Thanks to that information I was able to perform an analysis, present an MPS solution and sign a contract for said solution with the aforementioned company in record timing.

Had I not been actively involved in social media, this opportunity would most likely not have occurred and even if it had, the lack of a reference to the gentleman I was able to get the referral from would have almost certainly made the process move much slower.

The point I would like make here is that if your working in a B2B environment and your not involved in social media then you are falling behind.

Social media is here to stay and chances are, your competitors are already ahead of the game.

Assessment Overkill?

Today, while checking Google alerts for "managed print services" my supervisor stumbled upon and forwarded this article to me. Below is a excerpt that got me thinking.

"BMI Systems conducted more than 1,200 interviews with University personnel and reviewed the existing print process thoroughly. Once complete, BMI Systems was able to develop print management programs that helped to digitize much of the process and cut costs. As a result, most of the University’s departments are now using multi-functional technologies and eCopy scan stations. By using these new systems, the higher cost printers, faxes and hard copy distribution have been eliminated."

1,200 interviews with University personnel? Really? I mean... REALLY?

Running over this scenario in my head I had to ask, is this kind of approach worth it? Sure the company did score a contract with The University of Oklahoma, but lets say some one else had beat them out. Talk about hours upon hours wasted. I wonder how many of these nephilim sized assessments have lead to failure and if such endeavors are worth the risk in the long run.

While my company believes in the true value of a precise assessment, it can also be said that from our point of view the above is simply unnecessary and at worse a waste of the customers (not to mention the mps providers) time.

Even worse is that some folks are actually paying their MPS providers ludicrous amounts of money for assessments like this which is absolutely absurd considering some of the best mps providers provide this service for FREE!

All in all I would advise those who are thinking of implementing a managed print services program for their business to take these things into consideration when shopping for the best program for their company. What may seem like a valuable component of a potential mps program may be little more than a glorified waste of time and money.

Copiers, Printers and Feng shui.

Feng Shui The Chinese art or practice of positioning objects, especially graves, buildings, and furniture, based on a belief in patterns of yin and yang and the flow of chi that have positive and negative effects. Definition from answers.com

Ok, set aside the mystical aspect of this concept and your left with a principle that is most useful in managed print services. How so? Well one of the most important aspects of managing an offices printers and or copiers is the location of a centralized printer as well as the location of smaller desktop laser printers or MFPs. If Chuck from accounting is printing on a machine that has a higher CPC and is doing a thousand prints a month while Susie from sales is using a machine with a lower CPC and does one hundred prints a month then you can see where the principle of said ancient Taoist art comes into play. Such a situation needs some business grade Feng Shui.

Arranging, adding or removing your printers and copiers in a way that is going to maximize productivity and keep your document output costs down is a huge part of MPS and regardless of how much better your positive "qi" energy is flowing when your MPS provider makes said arrangements, additions or removals you will be saving money. One could argue that by making your CEO happy you may very well bring about such positive energy.

Fried chicken should be sold in a box, not an MPS Program

I would say that in the next few years we are going to be seeing the puppets of the MPS industry crashing and burning in one respect or another. When a company like Office Max offers a "MPS program" which is little more than supplying toner in a way that vaguely resembles that one aspect of a real MPS program these poor folk who hoped that by jumping on the band wagon of the next big thing and cashing in are going to get a call for printer repair, a new machine or some other element of the industry that only the "big boys" offer as part of their program and then they are going to call one of them for help.

Like the child who's mother told them not to play with matches, indeed they will be calling for burn relief from the experts when their "MPS program" shows its true colors. If you need to outsource many facets of your MPS program, you are not offering a solid MPS program.

Indeed The hotwheels version of a corvette will not win the race against the car of which it is modeled after. So if you are going to buy something in a box, stick with fried chicken and be sure to get your MPS program from a professional company who truly provides what they claim to offer.

Is this your boss? Are you this boss?

We can help.

Songs in the key of MPS

I recently read an article about "copier" tweets on twitter at the Death of the Copier Blog. It is as most of Greg's articles are, relevant, humorous and informative. All of the thoughts in the article remind me of my own thoughts in regards to how twitter has been quite useful in respect to the twitter search engine and the relevant and useful information of which can be mined from said resource.

I noticed Greg has been retweeting some very funny tweets about copiers, copier repair guys, laser printers, toner cartridges and the such. So I did a search of my own and found and retweeted this tweet which Greg later retweeted.

RT @DubiousMonk: RT @AgileRoxy: 1989: Leo Kottke records "Why Can't You Fix My Car?"2009: Jim Hutchins cries "Why Can't You Fix My Printer?"

Jim Hutchins cries "Why Can't You Fix My Printer?" - Being a Kottke fan, notably of his work with Mike Gordon I gota chuckle out of this.

Being a musician, I got proactive...

Please click HERE - to listen to this song about office printer woes and the repair men who are supposed to fix the problem as well as an all around solution.

All instruments and vocals by yours truly.

New England Landfills Thank ELS!

What did our customers ever do for New England’s landfills?

Expert Laser Services customers have directly contributed to the duration of the landfills, not only in their own local towns, but also in Expert Laser’s home town of Southbridge as well. Within the decade the Southbridge landfill is expected to be one of only 8 active in Massachusetts receiving municipal solid waste! The town is quite proud of that fact, and Expert Laser’s customers can share in that pride. Each customer does their part to reclaim reusable materials, lessoning the impact on our landfill. Folks often wonder whether they really make any difference. Well ...

Their efforts made a difference.

The issue is laser toner cartridges. Hundreds of millions of cartridges go into dumps every year ... and the total is growing by about 12% annually! Imagine literal mountains of black, non-biodegradable, hard plastic cartridges. Well, over the past 19 years our managed print services customers are directly responsible for keeping between 100,000 and a quarter million cartridges out of our respective landfills! Since they require literally hundreds of years to decompose, even our great grandkids will appreciate it!

Most dumps quickly begin looking like ... well, dumps.

But the photo on the front panel is an actual picture of the Town Landfill in Southbridge, so you know that someone’s making a difference. At Expert Laser’s Southbridge plant we remanufacture about 1,000 cartridges per month. All parts are reused first and remanufactured as needed. Boxes, cardboard, packaging materials—everything is reclaimed as much as possible.

How “green” are we, really?

With O.E.M. manufacturers the routine is that cartridge cores are never brokendown completely. They are re-used most often just once, then discarded. Think about that: they are reused once only; it’s all done overseas saving THEIR landfills, with the work done by their workers driving THEIR economy. With Expert Laser your toner might actually rival the 9 lives of your favorite tabby! Cartridges will be remanufactured up to 8 or 10 times before finally reaching our “junkpile.” Of course, with Expert Laser even then the plastic is not just “dumped!” We have identified recycling resources for even the base cores and “non-recyclable” plastic tubes. The work is done right here in Massachusetts at our plant, bolstering our own economy. What’s more, the bottom line environmentally is that with your help we are keeping at least ...

12,000 toner cartridges per year out of our landfills!

One final shocker: Each cartridge equates chemically to two quarts of oil. So our customers are enabling us to keep the equivalent of 6,000 gallons of oil per year out of our precious landfills!

6,000 gallons of oil in our dumps is not a pretty sight.

Think about the difference that simply reusing cores makes: • Each and every new laser toner cartridge requires about two quarts of oil to manufacture! • Worldwide about 70% of used cartridges are simply trashed. • Every discarded cartridge adds about 3-1/2 pounds of solid waste to our dumps! • Every cartridge takes up to 450 years to decompose! • Reusing cores and remanufacturing cartridges cuts these numbers by up to 80%!

Can you imagine a mountain of 100,000 toner cartridges!?

Expert Laser Services is doing even more to make those mountains of cartridges into environmentally-friendly “molehills.” In co-operation with a regional environmental leader, Expert Laser Services has developed a system whereby we recycle virtually every piece of a toner cartridge.

Doesn’t “environment-friendly” imply “poor quality”?

In the early days of the recycling movement, businesses often had to settle for lesser quality if they wanted to use “green” products. That was never the case with Expert Laser Services. From our inception, top quality has been the top priority. The result was the development of a detailed and unique remanufacturing process. At our Southbridge plant every cartridge we receive undergoes a rigorous 7-step process of remanufacture before being boxed and loaded out to our trucks for another round of business productivity:

1. Our technicians do a complete disassembly of each cartridge.

2. Our eyes and hands examine each component—removing, inspecting, and either cleaning or replacing parts as necessary.

3. Left-over toner is completely purged (never re-used) in our state-of-the-art suction workstations, pulling the spent toner not into the air but into secure disposal units.

4. The cartridge’s toner hopper is refilled, matching original equipment manufacturer (O.E.M.) specifications.

5. Each refilled cartridge is professionally reassembled.

6. The exterior of each cartridge is wiped clean and relabeled as needed.
7. Every cartridge is print-tested for quality then repackaged (we even utilize reused or recycled packing materials).

Ultimately every customer using our cartridges benefits from fewer defects, and, at the same time, we all benefit! We even save money! That’s a rare bonus—dramatically cutting overall expenses while doing the right thing. It’s the reality for Expert Laser’s customers. Our managed print services customers routinely pay less than 2¢ per print including toner, routine maintenance, emergency service—everything. Sound like the best of both worlds to you? Well, that’s exactly what we offer.

Do we have a cartridge for that printer??

Happy Friday folks! Here is a funny little video for the purchasing department at your company.

Be careful with that axe Eugene...

Someday I am going to cut this printer into little pieces.

Ok, so he's got a shovel not an axe but lets face it this guy is not happy with this copier. It should not be your office staffs responsibility to fix a piece of office equipment if it goes down. However if said office staff needs to have that report on the CEO's desk in the next few hours and they come to that equipment and it is not working, they may feel the need to try to fix it, or smash it into little pieces.

Now what about calling a copier repair guy?

Do you know for sure they will be able to help you in time before that report is due?

Which repair service should you call?

How long will it take for them to get there?

Could this have been prevented?

Expert Laser Services Partnership Program (our MPS program, now known as PrintDOME) is the answer to these and many other questions regarding this stressful scenario. Please see the video below.

MPS, Headache Medicine for IT professionals

In your office chances are there is one person who would be even more happy than the CEO should your company plan to implement an MPS program. Your IT professional. Check out this funny video above!

This is the first part of a series of video posts about the benefits of MPS, namely our MPS.

Everyone and their Cousin?

I just finished reading an article at business transformation resource center (here) entitled "Four Keys to Selling MPS In Tough Economic Times" within the first couple of paragraphs I came across this unsettling comment "In the last six to eight months, managed print services has become extremely hot, so much so we are seeing everybody and his cousin get involved."

I must say that to me this translates to the idea that within the realm of managed print services there is going to be a slew of "jacks of all trades" who are masters of none, well not MPS anyway. With that in mind I would like to draw attention to the following bit of information from the same article "According to MPS research and analysis firm Photizo Group, MPS contracts could grow at a 22 percent compound annual growth rate through 2012." If you are a business owner who is considering an MPS program for your business I would like to ask you, does everybody and his cousin really have the experience and expertise to successfully run an MPS program for your company and truly save you the most money while providing you with the best service? I think not...

Point: When looking for an MPS company to manage your printer fleet, do your homework! Find a company who has the experience, and references to show that they truly are MPS experts.

Rookies in the major league of MPS

Photo by Rafael Amado Deras'

I recently commented at the Photizo Group's Managed Print Services blog about a point made in this post regarding the growth of MPS and the necessary evolution of hardware centric business models to professional service business models based on delivering Managed Print Services of traditional vendors. See below.

11:02 AM
Nathan Dube said...
In your opinion what makes a great MPS company? You mentioned that traditional resellers will be out of business within the next five years if they fail to make the transition to the new business model. So assuming some of these businesses see the changes ahead and create their own MPS programs, what would you say a customer should look for in a great MPS company? When so many companies will be scrambling to offer their own MPS product how does a customer separate the true MPS professionals from old school vendors who are throwing up a new sign and trying to sell you MPS in a box?

12:02 PM
Photizo Group said...
Nathan, you have a good question. The answer is, from my point of view, that there is no 'single' best dealer program. I guess the closest I could define is the Hybrid dealer. This is the dealer that has transitioned from a hardware centric sales focus to a professional services delivery focus. Check out our web site (www.managed-print-services.com) for more information.

While the MPS industry may seem fairly new and while the Photizo Group has made a point that traditional vendors will have to adjust to the demands of the MPS industry if they wish to survive, I must say that while there may be no single best dealer program there is in fact (not unlike the realm of baseball) rookies and major league veterans in this industry and the big name vendors who are transitioning to this industry are not always the later. Expert Laser Services for example (of whom I am biased), has been providing a top notch MPS program for more than 19 years. We are in comparison to some companies a small company. However compared to some of the new "Hybrid Dealers" we are one of the true veterans of the MPS world while some of these larger companies have just been called up from the minors so to speak.

No matter how big the name, or how many millions of dollars some of these larger companies make on a global scale, compared to us they are but newbies. The list on this post at Photizos blog are excellent points about what one should know about MPS. Surely many traditional vendors are scrambling to meet these expectations and ready them selves to make the transition spoken of at Photizo's blog. However even when a giant "old school" vendor with no prior MPS experience takes the time to study, organize, and eventually launch an MPS program and enter the MPS industry, they lack the one thing that we have. Expertise. No matter how you look at it, regardless of the preparations the rookies have made... the major league is a whole other ballgame and in the world of MPS there are smaller MPS companies like Expert Laser Services who are the true veterans of the game. Visit us here and compare our program and years of experience to some of these new "Hybrid Dealers" and decide for your self. Who do you want on your team?

Hidden costs in office imaging

Hidden supply costs are HUGE!

New IDC research tries to quantify the actual cost of the printed page. A blog post last week at Docusense's Cost Per Page Solutions blog pointed to the enormous impact of administration and IT costs. But there are big hidden expenses in every aspect of the printer page.

Whenever stats like these come out, the specifics are always hard to pin down in an "across the board" way. I am certain that the hidden costs far outweigh the obvious expenses of buying, supply and servicing equipment; however, I am just as sure that the percentages change when you move the survey from large corporate settings (i.e. where they would have full-scale IT support, doc management, etc.) down to an SMB.

That's our typical printer fleet management customer and we see the supply costs routinely as both very substantial and completely unmanaged. Of course, as mentioned above, the devil's in the details. Are they more than "Admin and IT"? Who knows, but consider these "Supply Costs" categories:

1. Purchasing -- Purchase order expenses; pre-purchase due diligence by buyers; monitoring of consummables' yield; returning defectives; tracking MRA credits; etc.

2. Inventory Management -- Receiving; warehousing; end-user distribution; etc.

3. Recycling -- Those who desire to be responsible environmentally will need to collect, warehouse and dispose of empties, usually involving shipping/handling expenses (or live with a 400-year decomposition period for toners in your town dump).

4. Obsolescence -- This is enormous. All the initial costs were already spent, years ago. The consummables were bought in bulk to get end-column pricing. The printers themselves are long gone. Yet all these toner cartridges are still being stored and counted in inventory and will eventually need to be disposed of. Every penny of associated expense is a complete waste!

We added three managed print services clients recently where the sales rep's found literally thousands of dollars of new O.E.M. cartridges unopened in storage rooms all around the facilities. The only problem? -- The customers no longer have those models anywhere in their organizations!

(Be watching for "toner cartridge bargain" on eBay sometime soon.)

Seriously, though, the "soft costs" hidden in every printed page are simply amazing. There are real savings within reach of any company that will simply begin managing this typically unmanaged area of their business.

MPS-in-a-Box? Think Again!

"Do you offer managed print services?"

"Of course ... Doesn't everyone?"

Remember the old Midas commercial when a roaring, back-firing car rolls into a local service station for a tail-pipe and muffler? The customer asks, "Are you sure you have one that will fit my car?" Then the "mechanic" with a sledge hammer resting on his shoulder answers, "No problem. I can make it fit."

Off-the-shelf managed print services are like that. Someone hangs up a shingle and "Bingo!" -- they're a professional.

Today every national distributor sells its own MPS solution, office supply superstores sell theirs over-the-counter, and every manufacturer in the Business Technology Association throws their hat into the ring. Consider this post yesterday by Louella Fernandes http://www.it-director.com/business/content.php?cid=11256 ... manufacturers are trying to simplify their channel propositions to make MPS more accessible for resellers so that they do not need to invest in a costly infrastructure. In effect, instead of building their own service infrastructure, they can resell an MPS as a "white-label" service provided by a manufacturer."

Since nobody is selling office imaging equipment right now, everyone and his uncle is pumping their unique document-output-control, cost-containment, imaging-fleet-management solution.

Even if they don't know a thing about it.

"No problem. I can make it fit."

It blows my mind. Expert Laser Services is a long-established MPS company with a mature product we've been developing and implementing for 15 years, with thousands of devices already under contract. We've already made all those "costly investments in infrastructure" that Louella's talking about -- a fleet of tech vans and technicians, a trademarked MPS product, a couple of successful, growing offices.

Yet we are in competition with everyone from Xerox all the way down to the local one-man PC repair shop who bought MPS-in-a-Box?!

"No problem. I can make it fit."

Naw, I guess I'll quit whining. Now that I think of it, their MPS product really doesn't compete with ours.