From enterprise to small business, use of managed print services has caught on, but not everyone has had the same experience. If you’ve only had an average managed print services experience, you might wonder what a good MPS engagement should look like. This blog has guidelines for selecting a managed print services provider who can deliver what you want. That includes the three steps every managed print services relationship needs. The piece appeared previously on the Xerox Small Business Solutions blog, but its advice on how to find a managed print services provider scales across the board.
What Does a Good MPS Offering Look Like?
If you’ve yet to engage with a managed print services (MPS) provider, you may be wondering what to look for.
Equally, if you’ve had a bad experience with a partner, you may be wondering what qualities they were missing.
What Every Business Wants from Managed Print Services
Printers and scanning devices still play a major role in businesses of all sizes.
Whether you use them for internal documentation or for heavy-duty promotional work, the devices you rely on day-in, day-out need to deliver on quality and cost savings. And for that, you’ll need help from an MPS partner.
When you consider your print environment as a whole, there are three key challenges an MPS provider should be able to help you with:
- Reducing costs of hardware purchases, consumables, and stationery
- Raising productivity throughout the organization
- Obtaining a single invoice and the ability to recharge business units
If you run a multi-site operation, the above challenges are multiplied, but even if you’re a single-site SME, you’ll benefit significantly from an MPS provider that has a proven track record in building strategies, achieving cost savings and basing their work on solid industry experience.
3-Step Managed Print Services Methodology
In order to solve the challenges notes above, Xenith works with a three-step methodology:
- Understand: A Business Analyst works with the Account Manager to understand your people, processes and business requirements before designing a print strategy.
- Execute: Any changes to your existing system must be introduced carefully with user buy-in. Our Business Transformation Team works with you to accomplish this.
- Improve: We continually improve your infrastructure during the lifetime of your contract and stay responsive to changing business requirements.
MPS: No More Sweating the Small Stuff
The closer an MPS partner works with you, the more their efforts will benefit all areas of your business.
For instance, by implementing analytical solutions and data-driven analysis of your print environment, they help put an end to guesswork.
By acting as the conduit between your business and suppliers, an MPS partner also ensures you benefit from transparent billing, consolidated invoices and clear contracts.
The job of an MPS partner is essentially a streamlining exercise. This results in:
- Simplified machine servicing
- More efficient fleet of multi-function devices
- Automated processes
Results You Can Expect from Managed Print Services
It’s not uncommon to see cost savings in excess of 40% per year when you engage with a great MPS partner. Despite this, there are other, intangible benefits to be enjoyed, too. Beyond the direct cost savings, new ways of printing and automated processes offer significant time savings and reductions in human error.
Finding the right MPS provider is relatively straightforward when you know what to look for, and the pointers above will make the beauty parade far easier to undertake.
Interested in leveraging the benefits of MPS for your business? Visit www.xenith.co.uk to find out how Xenith Document Solutions can help.
This post originally appeared on Xenith’s blog.
Xenith Document Systems is a leading provider of Managed Print Services, Document Solutions, and Workflow Automation in London, United Kingdom. Xenith is a Xerox Platinum Partner, winner of the Xerox MPS Partner of the Year award in the UK, and winner of the DocuShare Gold Partner award.
