Faritec`s managed print service reduces costs while driving up efficiency

While traditionally catering for the printing needs of a large employee base classically required dedicated IT resources, procurement processes and a host of suppliers on call to replace consumables and repair faulty equipment, enterprise printing has undergone a substantial shift over the past five years.

John Brannigan, HP business unit executive at Faritec, says the more innovative organisations in the print market have started to make managed print services available to their customers - with an extremely positive response.

"Customers not making use of managed print services could be paying as much as 4% of their company`s turnover out on print, and simply because the majority of the customers in this position are having to deal with a number of different consumables and break/fix suppliers that don`t truly understanding the differences between ink and laser-based print devices," he says. "More importantly, these suppliers don`t understand how to manage a print fleet for increased efficiency."

Brannigan says managed print services solve all of those issues by centralising the spend on print assets, consumables, repairs and print fleet management, and entrusting the management of these services to an expert in the field of print, such as Faritec.

"By drawing on a managed print service, companies can see their print costs drop by as much as 30% per annum, a figure that represents demonstrable value," he adds.

Talking briefly about Faritec`s engagement model, Brannigan says the company tries to shift its customers` mindset away from printers, consumables, paper and warranties and towards `printing` as a service.

"We take over the management and to some extent, ownership of the customer`s print fleet, so at the outset of a managed print service deal, it`s not uncommon for us to recommend that certain devices are removed form the customer`s print ecosystem and replaced with more modern, cost-effective devices that can satisfy the needs of multiple employees at the same time," he says. "We then set up policies and procedures to ensure the devices within the print fleet are kept healthy, stocked with consumables and repaired as a matter of urgency if any form of breakdown occurs. In exchange, our customers simply pay us for the number of pages they`ve printed across their enterprise each month."

Outside of the clear benefit of entrusting this relatively complex task to a set of experts, Brannigan says external parties are generally far more capable of curbing print abuse in the enterprise than their employers are.

"Because our end of month reporting is so granular, our customers are able to see where the majority of their print cost is taking place in the business, gauge whether or not this is justified and put measures in place, if required, to reduce the print cost of a certain division or department, or even curb abuse if there is any taking place.

"The net effect is a substantial reduction in print cost," he says. "And because the model we`ve built is so flexible, we`re able to tailor it to any size of business - right from SMBs with between two and three networked printers, through to large enterprises with thousands of networked printers across their fleet. We`re also one of the providers of this service that are able to manage a heterogeneous fleet from a brand perspective."

Brannigan say that although Faritec only provides HP printing equipment as a replacement to legacy equipment removed from the customer`s print fleet, the company is able to manage a fleet that consists of a mix of brands, providing of course the equipment is still relatively current and networkable.

"Our flexibility in this regard, as well as the dedicated focus we apply to this area bodes extremely well for our offering over the coming years. We`re extremely bullish about the success we`re able to achieve in this relatively new market space," he concludes.