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What is Print and Imaging as-a-Service?

Print and Imaging as-a-Service (PlaaS) is an all-inclusive service including the provision of hardware and print management services without Customers having to own or lease any of the equipment or associated software.


PlaaS moves operational accountability and responsibility for the device fleet (including overall configuration, location, age of devices, timing of device replacement, etc.) to the Contractor.

 

K, so the first time I read this I thought, WHAT?  Along with this is the first I've every read about PIaaS. I don't know much more than you know from reading the above link.  Thus, I'm not sure if the equipment is new used, used or refurbished.

 

Maybe this is something similar to MFP seat licensing?  My pals over at Print Audit brought up an interesting scenario for Managed Print Services and billing the customer by the seat and not by the click.  Of course this got me thinking about many what if scenarios and why can't the same be done with MFP's? Of course you would have to have some buy in from the leasing companies, right?

 

I don't have all of the answers or logistics worked out, but it would be an interesting discussion to have.  Of course you would have users (seats) that would print many pages and then you'd have users that would print very little. 

 

Could we charge one dollar per page per minute for the device?  Thus a forty page per minute device would be billed at forty dollars per seat.  Ten seats would generate a revenue of $400 per month. Like I stated I don't have it worked out,  but I believe you could build an excellent marketing plan around the per seat cost model.

 

Would love to hear comments from others on this!

 

-=Good Selling=-

 

 

 

 

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Comments (6)

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I definitely see per-seat billing for MPS in the near future for the more progressive dealers with one huge benefit being that under such a program the goals of the dealer and client agree a aligned, because both benefit from less printing. It will make sense for dealers that have successfully transitioned from a transactional business model dependent upon hardware placements to a services business model where the priority is growing recurring revenue. I could even see hardware being bundled for an additional fee per user that is essentially a rental. As the hardware becomes less important, & inexpensive A4 devices become more durable & feature rich, it becomes increasingly more feasible. This radical departure from the status quo, however, will likely require a changing of the guard at the executive level in most dealers, because the old school simply doesn't understand capturing revenue & greater margins over time by choosing a rental model for device deployment over traditional leases that provide more immediate top line revenue.  

I've heard of dealers doing seat licensing on smaller tabletop printers for MPS accts but not for larger MFP's. I've heard this being done in the Chicago Metro market place. Chicagoland adopted the MPS programs real early & the BTA dealers have really penetrated the market in a big way by now. The dealers are now fighting to differentiate themselves & offer something different & this seat licensing seems to be the new buzz. I never heard of it being done in any other geographic markets. But obviously the software tracking/monitoring companies are aware of it.

From my understanding, "per seat" billing isn't designed to overcome leasing objectives. It's designed to add additional revenue in deals through Managed IT Services, which uses per seat billing.

 

Both products get amalgamated under a single solution with a single invoice based solely on the amount of employees that require the service. 

 

For me, the big question is who pays for the equipment? Can a dealer really support financing/purchasing a large volume of MFP's and putting them out on 1 or 2 year "per seat" billing contracts?

 

It's a neat concept, perhaps a little too creative for dealer owners. Are there any dealerships currently selling per seat billing? Would love to hear from them.

This just sounds to me like Facilities Management under a different name. Facilities Management is the practice of setting up a printing operation within a company as a service to the company. The people operating the equipment are employees of the Facilities Management company not the corporation. It is buying the apples, not the tree taken to the extreme. It's not uncommon that all postal services are packaged in as well.

As far as MFP seat licensing...I don't see it ever coming to pass.

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