How the Experts Rate MPS Vendors: Key Takeaways from the Latest Quocirca Report

Guest post by Kerry Sanders, Vice President, Global Marketing, Large Enterprise Operations, Xerox

For the seventh year in a row, Xerox earned a leadership spot in “Managed Print Services Landscape, 2016” by Louella Fernandes, Quocirca Ltd., July 2016, their latest vendor analysis of the global enterprise MPS market, but the thrill never gets old. In part, that’s because MPS is a dynamic strategy that’s changed quite a bit since its early days. Today you can and should expect more from your MPS partner.

If your business is renewing an existing MPS contract or considering a new vendor, reports like Quocirca’s make excellent advisors, and it’s easy to share the information with everyone on your buying team. In this blog, I’ll unpack some key takeaways from this particular report. Use these suggestions to navigate the competitive landscape and find a vendor who can successfully guide your journey through MPS maturity, workflow automation and digital transformation.

What the Best Look Like

By now most enterprises have experienced at least one MPS contract, with many on their second or even third agreement. The majority of organizations in Quocirca’s survey have been using MPS for over three years, with 45% reporting they’ve used MPS for over five years.

What do these organizations know about choosing wisely? This report identifies criteria for selecting the most appropriate vendor for your needs. It also goes into great detail about what makes a market leader. According to Quocirca, MPS Market Leaders are vendors that:

• Lead in both strategic vision and depth of service offering
• Invest in their service portfolio and infrastructure
• Have strong delivery capabilities

MPS Is a Complex Decision

Choosing an MPS vendor is a complex decision. Even if you’ve been through the RFP process, MPS and its value proposition constantly evolve to offer new opportunities for your organization. It’s not just about saving money anymore. It’s also about digitizing content, automating processes, improving security and increasing productivity.

Based on criteria used by Quocirca to measure MPS leadership, look for an MPS vendor with these strengths and abilities:

What matters: Market presence

• Positive reputation and credibility within the MPS market
• Established presence demonstrated by offerings maturity, enterprise experience, alliances and partnerships, investment in business, and dedicated resources
• Broad geographical reach

What matters: Offering portfolio

• Track record and strong portfolio of solutions for all kinds of organizations and industries
• Completeness of offering, including process automation, ECM and end-to-end document management
• Ability to provide and integrate production print services
• Sophisticated, flexible reporting and analytics platform

What matters: Service delivery

• Highly developed assessment skills
• Scalable MPS infrastructure and consistent global delivery
• Comfortable with large, complex organizations with diverse print infrastructure for both office and production printing
• Service excellence that goes beyond break/fix to include assessments, analytics, process automation, information security and more.
• Supports devices from other vendors
• End-to-end security focus
• Change management expertise

What matters: Automation and digital transformation

• Roadmap and innovation for digital and paper integration
• Workflow automation expertise to streamline processes and integrate paper and digital workflows
• Commitment to and investment in automation solutions for vertical markets

Deciding which MPS vendor to use is one of the most important projects an organization will undertake. You’ll need every bit of information to make the best choice for what can be a rewarding, long-term relationship. Download the 2016 Quocirca vendor analysis to make sure you cover everything.