We continue our three part series on Managed Print Services: the Theory, the Tools, and the Targets. Today we will focus upon the tools at a dealers disposal.

Managed Print Services, or MPS as it is referred to, is as much art as it is science. As of yet, customers do not fully understand it, and the scary thing is that there are very few solutions providers that do either. Moreover, we will discuss some of the pro’s and con’s present in the vendor, partner, and consultant spaces today.

With over 4.6 trillion pages printed per year by U.S. offices alone (source), pundits and neophytes alike believe MPS to be the next ‘big thing’. Dealers are pinning their hopes that MPS success will restore gross profit to the balance sheet in an industry marked with year over year declines in margins.

The Consultants:

Is it snake-oil or success their selling? Truth be told these folks are the proverbial sales person’s sales person. Each has their varying techniques and slick talk-tracks, but the consultant selling MPS is a special breed, indeed. At present there are only a handful whose names are synonymous in the industry with MPS.

To be entirely fair, consultants - well, savvy consultants - listen to the desires of their clients. As such, I have the impression their customer bases are clamoring for advice on how to rollout MPS strategies. However, I’m not entirely sure if most of the hype is fueled by the consultation industry, the manufacturers or the dealers.

As a customer of these consultants, a dealer principal must be aware of reputation and a proven track record. The consultant is selling knowledge and observations accumulated through working with other dealers - so you are essentially paying for the distilled do’s and do not’s.

Be careful here because the rubber only meets the road if you are willing to understand the concepts and theories behind selling MPS, as well as adapt those theories to 1) your culture and 2) your marketplace. Without this willingness to commit, you are dead before you leave the gate.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The Programs:

I have been contacted by just about every company out there trying to sell me and my company the essential toolkit to tackle MPS.

1. Manufactures and Value-Added Resellers (VARs) try to push their angle so you will sell more of their product.
2. Software companies try to sell you the analysis and sales training necessary to win the assessment and place your desired hardware.
3. Toner manufactures are either underwriting some program through co-op funding or outright selling their solution to help you sell their toner.
4. … and even the consultants have their favorites.

While this is all natural here is what you have to remember when thinking about doing business with one or many of these types of providers:

1. Be honest with what kind of company and culture you have: Can  you sell applications or are you slinging boxes?
2. Have a vision of where you want to be in 5 years: This is not a short hitch if you are to make money.
3. Know whether you want a franchise or a steakhouse: Do you want the whole package gift wrapped and put in your lap or are you willing to build a quality organization?
4. What returns and resources can your providers provide and promise?
5. Talk to references you trust before the handshake.

Have the right tools for the job at hand.

The Software:

The software centered around MPS comes in 2 distinct flavors these days: sales data gathering/fleet management and proposal generation/total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis.

First, the data gathering tools are a critical piece of the much talked-around document assessment or print management study. These come in various flavors from a small USB key that quickly captures an inventory and equipment volume count to the much more elaborate full deployment model of server and client based assessment packages.

The fleet management tools are quickly becoming essential to cost-effectively maintain the growing number of fleets. There is a land grab under place in this industry, and every vector is angling to find a way to protect their core business by rolling out fleet management strategies. Your choice in partners here will dictate long-term success or failure as consolidation in this space is inevitable.

Second, The sales proposal generation and TCO analysis tools come in a variety of flavors. Most work well for their intended purposes, but I will share with you from personal experience that the main obstacle is your account management team’s resistance to adopt a different working pattern.

While all of these are valuable in various instances, the critical mistake you should make is that the software tools will magically show you the path to enlightenment and how to make an obscene amount of money while saving the customer 70% of their operating costs in the next 6 months. They won’t.

Imagine the document assessment being the surveying and architectural process, whereby the outocome is to build a house of strategy for your customer. In essence, these tools simply frame windows in the customer’s house. It is up to your account management team to determine how the house should best be furnished in accordance with the customer’s strategic desires and needs.

The Resources:

Having trusted resources is important, for dealer and customer alike. Outside of finding those industry colleagues you can bug and consultants have to pay, there are a few resources online to help with Managed Print Services. Additionally, if you sign-up with various MPS providers, you should ensure their information is relevant and can be used for both internal sales awareness as well as sales literature for your customer base.

Past this, there are some other resources like Gartner and Photizo Group that can useful in attempting to compile information. Additionally, various industry organizations like IBPI, BTA, and CDA can be of service if you are a member.

Opportunity Abounds but Success can be Elusive:

True success is hard to come by in the MPS space. The competition is coming at you from everywhere:

• Manufacturers, VARs, the Internet, and even the two-man operation down the street can compete.
• Margins are extremely thin on supplies if you do not have the proper relationships or partnership-levels established.
• Customers are becoming more educated with each successive generation of renewals.

The success of your company can depend on whether you embrace this fleet-centric (and almost device agnostic) opportunity as a core component of your mainstay business. With over 4.6 trillion pages being printed by U.S. companies alone, only an estimated 3% are considered covered by a fleet management strategy.

Opportunities abound, but make no mistake about it, there is a land grab going on and if you don’t position properly you’ll be left out in the wind without a stake in the ground.

Up Next: We discuss what targets are popular and which are profit-suckers.

Update: Greg over at Death of the Copier wrote two great follow-up articles to some crucial tools I had misclassified - The Interview and The Six Inches

Update: Read the entire series.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Tags: fleet management, Managed Print Services, MPS, printers