Mark Your Territory As a secondary OEM in the imaging industry, Muratec has a unique perspective on the market. We have dealers of all sizes, with annual revenues ranging from under $500K to over $180 million, and we’ve seen almost all of them struggle when implementing a Managed Print Services (MPS) program. The dealerships that have succeeded in MPS have invested in the right people and partners to develop a comprehensive program that covers everything from printer assessment to full document workflow solutions. However, it’s been our experience that a majority of dealerships are still struggling with the development of an MPS program and are trying to figure out where they should start. Now, I don’t pretend to have all of the answers, and I’m certainly not clairvoyant; however, I do believe that managed print services is changing how our industry delivers document solutions to our customers and has become a significant growth engine for the dealerships that have built a complete offering. So to those dealers that are still looking for an on-ramp into managed print services I have a very simple solution: mark your territory. You heard me right. Your customer’s office environment is your territory and every device that prints, copies, scans, and faxes is within your territory. You should do everything in your power to protect these devices from your competition, both traditional copier-dealers and OEM direct branches, as well as a new breed of competition – printer-centric VARs and network services providers. So how do you “mark” these devices? Simple. Attach your dealership’s service sticker to each printer / MFP device throughout your customer’s office. This includes both networked and stand-alone devices; basically any device that produces a printed page should be your target. Sounds simple, right? It is. And, it’s the easiest, most risk-free method of positioning your dealership as a managed print services provider. But what about all of the other “stuff” you keep hearing about? Fleet assessment tools, OEM-compatible imaging supplies, printer parts, document workflow software, etc. All those components are essential to a successful, all-encompassing MPS program; however, they are components that can be acquired and deployed over time. So what’s required in order to mark your territory? Three things: 1. An active customer base. 2. Service stickers with your dealership name and contact information (you probably already own these if you offer service on your copier fleet). 3. A customer “fleet” sheet that includes the customer name (and/or number), printer model(s), serial number(s), office location and condition (based on a visual inspection – excellent, good, fair, poor). The next time your service technician is dispatched on a service call make sure they take service stickers and the fleet sheet with them. After they complete service on the copier they can identify printers throughout the office, complete the “fleet” sheet and add the service sticker to each printing device. While this process does add to the service call time, thus increasing your immediate service cost, the long-term benefit provided by printer supply sales, fleet optimization and the protection of your copier base will more than offset this cost. Marking your territory is also a process that your sales team should be very active in. In addition to their daily cold calling schedules, reps should be actively visiting their current customers to mark their territory. So now that we’ve got the service and sales team actively marking our territory, the next question is how (and why) does the customer buy in to this concept? There are multiple ways a dealership can approach it. 1. The dealer can offer to provide complimentary service for (90) days, provided the customer agrees to purchase supplies from the dealer. This 90-day window can be treated as an assessment period and provides the dealer with a solid snapshot of the customer’s print habits, identifies trouble devices that need to be replaced and helps establish a current cost-per-page for each device. This information can then be utilized to build a more complete managed print services proposal, while capturing new supply revenue during the process. To optimize margins, and to set the customer’s expectation level, the dealer should introduce OEM-compatible imaging supplies into the fleet during this period. 2. After the 90-day assessment period the dealer and customer can: a. Agree to a traditional managed print services agreement that offers a static cost-per-page that includes service, supplies and fleet optimization. b. Agree to a time & materials contract, at a negotiated rate, as long as the customer continues to buy supplies from the dealer. c. Determine a managed print services agreement is not in the best interest of one, or both, parties and dissolve the arraignment. Through this process your customer will realize benefits such as enabling management to gain visibility into the print environment (including fleet size, device utilization, end user burden, and cost), realize immediate savings through the use of OEM-compatible imaging supplies, and the ability to reduce end user burden by outsourcing all printing related issues to a single supplier. At this point I believe a few readers may be discouraged at the thought of giving away free service, or at providing service for printers/MFP’s that they’re not authorized to service. To help alleviate these concerns dealers may add a small inventory of low-cost, refurbished printers that can be deployed to a customer location in the event of a printer failure (something that cannot be easily resolved on a service call). Another option is to use a third-party service organization that will bill the dealership a time & material charge each time they are dispatched. These organizations are certified on a wide variety of printer models, can eliminate the need to stock parts or obtain service certifications, and only bill the dealer when dispatched (no retainer required). If you look at the big picture the greater risk is losing your customer’s printer fleet to a VAR, competing dealership or manufacturer direct branch, which will mean the loss of your copier placements in the long run. By marking your territory you’re able to successfully begin the MPS engagement process with your customer, add a new source of revenue to your bottom-line (through OEM-compatible cartridges) and discourage the competition from soliciting your customer’s fleet (your service sticker can act as an “engagement ring” – back off mister!). Furthermore, you now have the option to upgrade printers to an MFP, since the company that controls the print fleet controls the potential upgrade process. Sometimes all the user is needs is a standalone printer; however, after your sales rep evaluates the needs of each individual workstation they may determine the upgrade path should include scanning, faxing and/or copying. Again, this is a simple concept designed to ease dealers into a managed print services model. We strongly encourage dealers to take advantage of the training courses offered by the Business Technology Association (BTA), as well as other independent consultants, to gain deeper insight into building an all-encompassing MPS program. Jim D'Emidio currently serves as president of Muratec America, Inc. Jim has been involved in the document imaging industry for over 25 years serving in a variety of sales, marketing and management roles. Jim is a frequent panelist and presenter at industry conferences and was recently named one of the "40 Most Influential People in the Imaging Industry" by The Week in Imaging.