Managing for results

Whereas an ideal situation for a company that has more than a handful of office equipment devices would be to have all that equipment from a single supplier, the reality is usually far different.

Most companies find themselves working with various makes and types of equipment, often installed in different timeframes and having varying levels of technological advancement.

This becomes a problem in terms of internal resources. Somebody has to manage all this disparate equipment or, at the very least, manage the various teams that have to be called in to do servicing.

The solution that many customers look for is to go out to tender and find a single service provider who can take responsibility for managing the equipment in the broadest possible terms, including servicing, spares and consumables supply, integration with IT networks and so on. This becomes the managed print services engagement.

There are a number of companies that can offer this sort of service across a comprehensive range of different manufacturers' devices.

The prerequisite, however, is to have a software solution in place that can manage the equipment and report on its usage and operational status. All manufacturers have such solutions for their own machines, but to get one that can “talk” to a whole range of different makes of equipment, it is usually best to look at third-party software that really can interface with everything.

There are 10 or more solutions available that can do the job. Five or six of them are premium products that offer many features, solid reliability and great flexibility in terms of the range of products they can manage.

It is important to note where managed print services differ from typical outsourcing. Most outsourcing agreements are based on the assumption that all the devices will be from a single vendor. Managed print services deals with the more common situation where various vendors' products are in use.

Ultimately, the service provider might recommend customising, optimising or rationalising the fleet of equipment that was originally in place - typically by limiting the equipment range to one or two manufacturers' products. There are often strong arguments in favour of this on the basis of increasing efficiency and reducing cost of ownership - not to mention the need to keep up with the latest technology. But the managed print services engagement begins with the commitment to take over whatever equipment is already installed.

To get the best results, it often means the service provider will recommend going digital. This is a bit of a paradox, because most service providers charge on a per-page basis. However, the customer's interest in reducing costs and switching from paper to electronic documents wherever possible can be very helpful in this area. Consequently, the pricing structure will tend to move in the direction of charging for scans, rather than hardcopy output.

Once you make the move in this direction, working with electronic documents can offer significant savings, but it is essential to have a solid document management solution in place and transparent integration between the office equipment and the IT network.

Again, it is worth looking at third-party specialists for this sort of solution. Office equipment manufacturers do not focus on software, and third-party solutions often offer the ability to work on many different makes.

Of course, you can put managed print services in place without considering the document management angle, but it will, almost inevitably, lead in this direction.

Managed print services have some obvious and immediate benefits. It can save enormously on the time and cost of trying to manage and synchronise servicing performed by multiple service providers.

What is more important is that, in the longer term, the service provider can review how efficiently the office equipment network is running and offer consulting input on how to improve the processes and equipment to get even better results.

In the long-term, this saves far more than the immediate savings the customer achieves - and puts in place the foundations needed for the individual business to keep up with modern trends in business models and processes.

As with any other major project, equipment deployment or contract decision, the first step is for the customer to know and analyse their business needs.

Once you have this benchmark and a clear vision of what goals you need to achieve, you can set out the criteria that the managed print services agreement must cover. This might well include the adoption of new business processes, such as working more with softcopy as opposed to hardcopy.

What it will include is improved efficiency and cost savings that make it worthwhile for any business with more than a handful of devices.