Have You Jumped on the Managed Print Services Bandwagon?

By Michelle Giroud-Green, Services Marketing Manager, Xerox Enterprise Business Group

Managed Print Services has been a hot topic in the market for some time now and the number of MPS providers is constantly growing. As a result, the Managed Print Services (MPS) team at Xerox wanted an unbiased look at MPS from the customers’ perspective (Xerox and non-Xerox). Our objective was to find out what people thought about MPS – what’s their attitude and customer experience? To get the details we commissioned a study in October 2011 with Forrester Research, Inc., an industry market research firm.

We asked MPS customers that have had a contract for at least six months if the benefits they expected have exceeded, met or not met expectations.  Guess where they’ve found the biggest benefit?

• “We have reduced our spending on printing” – with only 3% not meeting expectations.
• “Fewer IT resources have been spent on printing issues”  – with only 6% not meeting expectations.
• “End user printing productivity has improved” – with only 6% not meeting expectations.

Clearly, MPS customers are loving MPS. So what’s the catch? Well, you do have to turn over the management of your print fleet to someone else.  Some organizations might not feel comfortable doing that.  But, when you do, that’s one more task taken off your plate.  You can reduce your printing costs, improve end user productivity, security, and sustainability. Take a look at what our customers are saying about MPS and how it has improved their business.  That’s a point of view you can trust – who’s going to give a testimonial that they don’t believe in, especially when they’re not getting paid?

It’s a win, win for MPS providers too.  I support our Xerox Partner Print Services offering where we enable our channel partners to sell MPS.  They’re benefiting too. Why? They get to capture more revenue than they used to by just selling equipment and they feel like they’re giving their customers a better service.  Now, they’re incented to make that customer happy over the long run – not just sell a “box” and “see you in two or three years.”

What has been your experience with MPS?