The 1-2-3’s of Managed Print Services (MPS)

MPS, which is an acronym that stands Managed Print Services. That one little acronym is perhaps being uttered by more so-called “industry experts” and newly minted “MPS consultants.” How intriguing is this concept?

Not really very intriguing, except to say that manufacturers, channel providers, dealers, and even some customers seem to be figuring out for the first time they can apply an age-old technique that IT has been applying for nearly two decades, and manufacturing has been applying for perhaps a century or more…

What is this tried and true concept, you ask? Why, it’s simple: consolidation, standardization, and governance – also known as paying attention to your business’s operational costs. Sorry to deflate your ego, folks.

When I left the US Marine Corps in 2001, I took a position at a manufacturing division of a global corporation. When I arrived, I saw printers everywhere. It was like someone had instituted a printer breeding program. I went to work, under the mandate to contribute what I could to the manufacturing floor’s goals to rollout Lean-Sigma (a combination of Lean and Six Sigma manufacturing techniques).

In 9 months I sold a package past our management team (for the partner of choice) that entailed 20 desktop laser printers, 20 network attached devices of varying sizes, in-sourcing most on-demand color needs, and deploying e-forms to replace aging line printers for a legacy ERP system.

I estimated we saved $56,000 in the first year, alone – even though it was hard to get exact numbers because of such poor records of the “before” landscape.

The 3 Steps:

While you might want to argue this was a standard cost-per-copy (CPC) arrangement, I might beg to differ. But in the critic’s defense – there just weren’t nearly as many technology tools then as there are today, so some of the real time monitoring and just-in-time (JIT) options were just hard to integrate.

But I adhered to the 3 steps: consolidation, standardization, and governance.

1. Consolidation:

We were paying to many vendors, and had no real idea of our costs. I called in several so-called experts, and to my surprise only one returned for a second visit. That’s when the work began. I wasn’t an executive, but I was hired to manage their IT resources and I found this was one of the quickest ways to bring costs back in line.

2. Standardization:

I followed the recommendation of the consultant who worked with me and moved to a few model families based upon needs. The devices were not as modular across lines as they are today, so I knew finding common ground was the only way I could maintain sanity as a single-person IT shop. However, I was the one that forced the issue of a single driver across the enterprise. This made training easier, and kept everyone on the same page.

3. Governance:

I had to ensure both me and my partner of choice managed the solution, and so it was my job to hold them accountable and their job to keep me on track. Additionally, I received the dubious honor of watching all billing activity, and boy do I wish some of the tools available today were available back then. This was the one Achilles heel in my entire strategy, if I must be candid. But how was I to hold anyone accountable and ensure results if I did not manage and measure our baselines consistently.

The Take-Away:

So you see, managed print services is not such a new concept. Look back, and you will see IT and  manufacturing have been looking at ways to streamline platform support and production techniques for years. Neither are strangers to these ideas, but for some reason this is novel for this industry as if they have the corner on the market of driving down business costs.

But set aside the marketing hoopla for just a moment, and turn your attention to the clients… When I look back towards the management team I supported in 2001-2003, I noticed they weren’t paying attention to this area of their business. Why was that?

In a single word – Education.

That’s where we are at folks. You aren’t creating something revolutionary here, but you are educating your clients on the evolution occurring and how to drill out unseen costs in their organizations. Now the question is whether you can be prescriptive to your client’s needs when they don’t even think they are sick?

Imaged courtesy of on1stsite.

Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.