With longtime confusion surrounding the very definition of MPS, some sought a vendor-neutral organization to promote, educate and help establish guidelines for a more unified approach to this often misunderstood service offering. The MPSA was created in 2009 to help fill that niche.
The Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) consists of MPS providers, manufacturers, software companies, trade organizations, marketers, consultants and individuals, all of whom contribute their time and resources to provide community, education and research to the industry as it relates to managed print services.
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The MPSA is a volunteer-led organization with oversight from an executive board and five subcommittees. The current MPSA President is Kevin DeYoung, President and CEO of Qualpath, a solution provider out of Florida. MPSA executive board members are elected to their position every two years. The next election will take place in February of 2017.
One of the key aims of the MPSA is to deliver content and guidelines that help set standards by which the industry can follow.
“A case in point is our recent update of the managed print services definition,” explains MPSA board member, Lou Stricklin of Muratec. “The amount of research, discussion and collaboration that went into this update was significant and the resulting deliverable will have a far-reaching impact on our industry as a whole.”
Stricklin says that the primary goal of the MPSA is to deliver membership value. Over the past year, he notes, their subcommittees have been hard at work to deliver this value through educational programs, networking functions, webinars, promotional opportunities and more.
“Expanding our membership base has also been a key goal of the MPSA and we’ve seen positive achievements on this front,” adds Stricklin. “It’s vital as new members often provide fresh ideas, perspectives, processes and solutions that deliver value to the entire membership.”
Most of the MPSA events are conducted through a series of webinars. Subcommittees, such as Education and Standards and Best Practices, collaborate and develop content that is then presented to the general membership. They allow their corporate members to produce webinar content that is educational, while highlighting some of the tools and solutions they are providing to the MPS community.
MPSA Leadership Awards Now Accepting Nominations
In addition, the MPSA holds networking events to enable face-to-face communication and engagement. They recently hosted a cocktail party for members during the ITEX conference and they plan to present their leadership awards during a networking event at the upcoming CompTIA ChannelCon event in Hollywood, Florida.
Stricklin says that the leadership awards are intended to recognize the organizations that are making a difference in managed print services.
“The awards are exclusive to current MPSA members and recognize outstanding performance in the areas of MPS fulfillment, professional services, software, innovation and more,” he says. “The application and judging processes for the awards are extremely thorough and to receive an MPSA leadership award is a truly special landmark for an organization.”
Companies that are not current members yet wish to nominate themselves for one of the 10 awards can join the MPSA and nominate themselves. http://www.yourmpsa.org/awards
Those interested in joining the MPSA can visit http://www.yourmpsa.org/join for more information. Stricklin emphasizes that the key benefits to an MPSA membership include networking with some of the industry’s brightest minds, access to whitepapers and best practices, insightful webinars and the ability to gain knowledge that will have a positive impact on your business.
