By Ken Presti
March 05, 2013 7:10 PM ET
Page 1 of 2
It may not be the "sexiest" discussion in the world of information technologies, but relatively new developments in the stalwart world of printing have launched profitable opportunities for MSPs and also for traditional VARs looking to explore their options in the managed services arena.
"If you go back five or six years, managed print services emerged as a way to consolidate print and aggregate your spend under a common platform that can manage print related assets," said Sam Errigo, senior vice president of Business Intelligence Services for San Francisco-based Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA, Inc. "It's more than providing printers and toner. It's about collecting data from every printer on the network in order to capture volume information [and] cost information and track consumables. We can use the data to drive very intelligent business decisions and processes, as opposed to guessing about what is going to work well, and then hope for the best."
Errigo concedes that the number of units being purchased is on the decline. But, Konica Minolta's strategy is focused on share shift that is driven by efficiency, expense reduction and a thorough understanding of how printing is used within the specific customer organization. "We can tell you overall cost, we can tell you utilization, we can tell you who prints what, when, where by application type," he said. "And then we aggregate all of that data into a centralized repository and can advise customers on everything that relates to their print spend. So when we go see a customer, it's a very data-driven conversation."
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Currently, Konica Minolta is working with approximately 385 channel partners that can leverage the vendor's print management capabilities towards effective management of printer "fleets." These efforts extend beyond dealing with paper jams and supplying toner cartridges. It's also about eliminating low usage devices and making sure that the devices in use reflect the actual traffic patterns.
Although Errigo stated that partners can be profitable immediately, he also added that volume plays an important role in helping to ensure success.
"The number of devices at a minimum needs to be 50 to 75 units, in my opinion," he said. "If it's much less than that, you'll never be able to optimize and really drive exponential cost savings. If you can gather the data and drive sustainable cost savings, then you are providing high value to the customer and truly managing the print service."
Since the channel has long built its reputation based on technical capabilities and the ability to understand and influence the customer, many vendors in the MPS space recognize the inherent value of strong channel relationships as a prerequisite to building strong customer relationships.
"We are trying to build a practice that enables our partners to be competitive and build a long-term strategy around us," said Mike Johnson, vice president of SMB channels at Lexmark. "That means moving the transaction from a commodity sale to a value sale. We have a toolset that can do the analysis and figure out the volumes of printing, who does the printing, and similar aspects that can help the partner determine how best to meet their printing needs on a managed services basis.
"It's mostly about rightsizing the fleet," Johnson said. "That's the source of the big savings in MPS. Very often companies have more printers than they really need. And as you look at the fleet and how it is used, you get a sense of what the volumes of consumables should look like."
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