When you do real Print/ PM on high stakes projects you get to try to manage real life. Envy, fear, creativity, intelligence, generosity, the joy of victory, The agony of defeat. The downside is that only other printers/PMs appreciate it. The only time you get noticed is when something screws up. It's like the copier everybody takes for granted until the paper jams. Then it's the “damn the copier.”

Everybody else thinks it's just printing. Since I lived in commercial print I don't know MPS. But if they could focus organizing print, all of print, they're in the best possible position for organizing communications.

My own passion is fixing high school education at the bottom of the high school pyramid. I'm positive that the key to it is replacing textbooks with customized print. That would crack open education to MPS and fix a lot the education problem at the same time in real time. I know this sounds like bull, but I'll do a post about how it works so you can see how I think it plays out.

I love how you contrast the opinions from vendor/partner and victim/client That's why I do what I do. When I came to work for my current employer almost 6 years ago now, I hated printing. I knew the position could be elevated and even though I still get called “the printer guy” or the “the copier guy” I now know this shows a lack of education on my clients' behalf as I bring PM methodologies to the table and help to focus the sales group during the delicate phase of delivering upon their promises.

It's a similar story with print any organization produces. The real hard part is getting into the “document management” of the to be printed document. That's where the savings are.

Let me give what might seem a self serving example but I think it makes the point. Years ago I did a gig with Met Life. We used the same vendor they have been using for years. With the same team that produced the product. The bill for the previous year's project was about $900K. By just managing the approval process to eliminate a gezillion unnecesary proofs and dumb meetings and a couple of common sense (to a professional) design adjustments the same job was purchased for $600K.

All it needed was a little project management.

Print for many organizations is high drama, lots of overtime and unnecessary stress that can turn into big bucks. Buying print is not sending out for lowest bid. It's putting the systems in place to collaborate and process manage.

I would assume that on a conceptual level it must be very similar to MPS. Only the document to be managed is produced on an output device called a commercial printer.

And again, MPS IS a program or process, not a concept

To effectively run programs you must have human resources and apply technology smartly.

Managed services is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations. The person or organization who owns or has direct oversight of the organization or system being managed is referred to as the offerer, client, or customer. The person or organization that accepts and provides the managed service is regarded as the service provider.

So instead of taking on IT directly, go for the print piece. it's very visible, it's a pain in the butt for almost every organization. Lots of pain to taken away. Given that the software is only going to get easier and easier, and therefore cheaper and cheaper, the margins are going to have to be small. Plus the IT people will make your life miserable.

So manage the print piece. Bring in Google Apps and other SaaS offerings and keep printing stuff at the workgroup, the CRD or the commercial pay for print folks.