{"id":2430,"date":"2012-06-20T12:54:41","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T12:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2012-06-20T12:54:41","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T12:54:41","slug":"a-measure-of-success-photizos-hybrid-provider-benchmarking-service-looks-to-quantify-mps-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2012\/06\/a-measure-of-success-photizos-hybrid-provider-benchmarking-service-looks-to-quantify-mps-success\/","title":{"rendered":"A Measure of Success: Photizo\u2019s Hybrid Provider Benchmarking Service Looks to Quantify MPS Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Ken Stewart<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway you look at it managed print services is a numbers game. One of the challenges facing MPS providers is ensuring that the numbers add up and they\u2019re winning deals and making margins. While the copier industry has proven metrics and guidelines in place, metrics are still being developed to indicate just how effective a provider is at providing managed print services.<\/p>\n

At the forefront of this research is Photizo Group, who is compiling metrics that will serve as prime indicators of MPS success. You may already be familiar with Photizo\u2019s Hyrbrid Provider Development Model. While that model is more focused on companies making a transition from product-led to services-led business models, these new metrics are designed from a cross section of legacy copier dealers, IT VARs, reprgraphics companies, and pure play MPS providers.<\/p>\n

Ken Stewart, director channel analysis for Photizo, has been gathering information from successful MPS providers around the world and creating metrics somewhat similar to but not the same as what traditional copier industry consultants have done and continue to do. \u201cI have a lot of respect for what Hey & Hanson and Johnson are doing but when we looked at that we felt that was still very focused on legacy copier dealership. People can approach MPS from a lot of different ways. How do we serve a set of common criteria where people are really seeing success?\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart explains this is an educational framework for providers. \u201cWe grade them on how ready they are to get into MPS and then we give them a roadmap of the paths they can take to improve their operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The information that\u2019s been gathered has come from leading MPS providers around the world. Stewart says they\u2019ve been excited to participate and are glad someone is creating an industry specific MPS model versus these other models that don\u2019t really work for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at hybrid providers that are coming from different backgrounds or heritages where 25-50 percent their revenues are from managed services,\u201d reports Stewart. \u201cSome folks are pure play MPS providers only, generating well over 90 percent MPS revenue. These guys are killing it and don\u2019t want to be lumped in with hybrid providers; they\u2019re services providers focused on the category of managed print.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The index has more than 450 metrics and provides a comparison against a median, an average, a high and a low. Questions focus on how did you build your existing customer base, where revenue has come from in the last six months, and are they targeting existing customers versus net new customers? Ultimately it\u2019s about how these providers are approaching the market, how they\u2019re servicing the market, what the differentiators are, and what the sales cycle looks like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting is there\u2019s a strong mix between those that go after existing customers by optimizing them and those going into new customers, establishing a beachhead and moving in and optimizing later,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cBut all are apex predators in their marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The services information derived from the study has been particularly illuminating to Stewart and the providers supplying this information. \u201cWhere I see interest is the questions around services offered, showing what services they provide customers as well as what they don\u2019t provide,\u201d notes Stewart. \u201cWe\u2019re beginning to show these service offerings, the service levels associated with those, and how they are monetized. The end goal for this index is to create a picture for providers of what you want to be when you grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another important element of the study is an itemized individual profit model. \u201cThat was interesting and [many] didn\u2019t realize where the revenue was coming from\u2014supplies, service, hardware, etc.,\u201d adds Stewart. \u201cWhat we found is that clients want to understand how other companies are doing with this kind of profit model.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as surprises in the original data collection, Stewart says one surprise was how willing providers were to provide this information. \u201cThere\u2019s a real hunger for it,\u201d he says. Another surprise was that many providers weren\u2019t surfacing as many service metrics as he thought they would so there\u2019s some paths for opportunity there.<\/p>\n

At this point Stewart is looking to create awareness for an independent model of best practices and metrics. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say benchmark just yet because it\u2019s not there. But people are seeing valuable information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plans are to offer providers this service where they would run it once or twice a year and then have access to Photizo\u2019s industry metrics. The assessment is not a burdensome process and Stewart says it takes about an hour for a provider to fill out the information. The results are then compared to the results of other providers so the provider can benchmark their performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you listen to us or not you need an internal way to measure these things,\u201d contends Stewart.<\/p>\n

Dealers interested in learning more about the Partner Transformation program can visit\u00a0http:\/\/photizogroup.com\/<\/a><\/strong> or contact Ken Stewart at Kstewart@photizogroup.com or Hannah Smith at Photizo at hsmith@photizogroup.com. The cost is $995 but Photizo is currently running a special service pricing of $499 for 1-time to incent awareness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyway you look at it managed print services is a numbers game. One of the challenges facing MPS providers is ensuring that the numbers add up and they\u2019re winning deals and making margins. While the copier industry has proven metrics and guidelines in place, metrics are still being developed to indicate just how effective a provider is at providing managed print services. At the forefront of this research is Photizo Group, who is compiling metrics that will serve as prime indicators of MPS success. You may already be familiar with Photizo\u2019s Hyrbrid Provider Development Model. While that model is more focused on companies making a transition from product-led to services-led business models, these new metrics are designed from a cross section of legacy copier dealers, IT VARs, reprgraphics companies, and pure play MPS providers. Ken Stewart, director channel analysis for Photizo, has been gathering information from successful MPS providers around the world and creating metrics somewhat similar to but not the same as what traditional copier industry consultants have done and continue to do. \u201cI have a lot of respect for what Hey & Hanson and Johnson are doing but when we looked at that we felt that was still very focused on legacy copier dealership. People can approach MPS from a lot of different ways. How do we serve a set of common criteria where people are really seeing success?\u201d Stewart explains this is an educational framework for providers. \u201cWe grade them on how ready they are to get into MPS and then we give them a roadmap of the paths they can take to improve their operations.\u201d The information that\u2019s been gathered has come from leading MPS providers around the world. Stewart says they\u2019ve been excited to participate and are glad someone is creating an industry specific MPS model versus these other models that don\u2019t really work for them. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at hybrid providers that are coming from different backgrounds or heritages where 25-50 percent their revenues are from managed services,\u201d reports Stewart. \u201cSome folks are pure play MPS providers only, generating well over 90 percent MPS revenue. These guys are killing it and don\u2019t want to be lumped in with hybrid providers; they\u2019re services providers focused on the category of managed print.\u201d The index has more than 450 metrics and provides a comparison against a median, an average, a high and a low. Questions focus on how did you build your existing customer base, where revenue has come from in the last six months, and are they targeting existing customers versus net new customers? Ultimately it\u2019s about how these providers are approaching the market, how they\u2019re servicing the market, what the differentiators are, and what the sales cycle looks like. \u201cWhat\u2019s interesting is there\u2019s a strong mix between those that go after existing customers by optimizing them and those going into new customers, establishing a beachhead and moving in and optimizing later,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cBut all are apex predators in their marketplace.\u201d The services information derived from the study has been particularly illuminating to Stewart and the providers supplying this information. \u201cWhere I see interest is the questions around services offered, showing what services they provide customers as well as what they don\u2019t provide,\u201d notes Stewart. \u201cWe\u2019re beginning to show these service offerings, the service levels associated with those, and how they are monetized. The end goal for this index is to create a picture for providers of what you want to be when you grow up.\u201d Another important element of the study is an itemized individual profit model. \u201cThat was interesting and [many] didn\u2019t realize where the revenue was coming from\u2014supplies, service, hardware, etc.,\u201d adds Stewart. \u201cWhat we found is that clients want to understand how other companies are doing with this kind of profit model.\u201d As far as surprises in the original data collection, Stewart says one surprise was how willing providers were to provide this information. \u201cThere\u2019s a real hunger for it,\u201d he says. Another surprise was that many providers weren\u2019t surfacing as many service metrics as he thought they would so there\u2019s some paths for opportunity there. At this point Stewart is looking to create awareness for an independent model of best practices and metrics. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say benchmark just yet because it\u2019s not there. But people are seeing valuable information.\u201d The plans are to offer providers this service where they would run it once or twice a year and then have access to Photizo\u2019s industry metrics. The assessment is not a burdensome process and Stewart says it takes about an hour for a provider to fill out the information. The results are then compared to the results of other providers so the provider can benchmark their performance. \u201cWhether you listen to us or not you need an internal way to measure these things,\u201d contends Stewart. Dealers interested in learning more about the Partner Transformation program can visit\u00a0http:\/\/photizogroup.com\/ or contact Ken Stewart at Kstewart@photizogroup.com or Hannah Smith at Photizo at hsmith@photizogroup.com. The cost is $995 but Photizo is currently running a special service pricing of $499 for 1-time to incent awareness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}