{"id":3180,"date":"2012-11-14T13:42:13","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T13:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=3172"},"modified":"2012-11-14T13:42:13","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T13:42:13","slug":"seal-of-mps-approval-comptias-managed-print-services-trustmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2012\/11\/seal-of-mps-approval-comptias-managed-print-services-trustmark\/","title":{"rendered":"Seal of MPS Approval: CompTIA\u2019s Managed Print Services Trustmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Earlier this month CompTIA<\/a>, the non-profit association for the IT industry, introduced a new business-level credential for providers of managed print services who commit to a code of conduct, industry-accepted best practices, and high levels of customer service and support. The\u00a0CompTIA Managed Print Trustmark<\/a> is designed to qualify and differentiate organizations providing on-premise print services via a managed services business model while at the same time accelerating the adoption of managed print services.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Corey Simpson<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe talked about ways to accelerate adoption of MPS and two themes came to the top and one was the training and accreditation of solutions providers and the other was the education of end users,\u201d explains Corey Simpson, CompTIA\u2019s staff leader for the [partner] community. \u201cThe first way we wanted to address that was have a team focus on credentials and something that would identify the business\u2019s practices, and then on the training side, something that would help them do it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Companies seeking the CompTIA Managed Print Trustmark are evaluated in several areas including the internal practices and procedures they use to run their business along with the external activities and operations they engage in with customers and prospects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this does is separate you if you have a Trustmark from your other competitors,\u201d says Ian Berger of Parts Now!, a member of the CompTIA managed print services community. \u201cWhat you\u2019re going to see in the industry is companies, and especially state governments and schools, place this in bids and you\u2019ll see an MPS Trustmark-accredited company. They\u2019re going to understand that if you\u2019re going to come in and touch my stuff you need to follow these best practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before they can go through the online training and answer the various questions and become accredited, a dealer needs to upload a copy of their master services agreement as well as a copy of their operating procedures.<\/p>\n

Although service is a key component of a managed print services program, organizations that don\u2019t have a service tech for managed print can still receive credit from CompTIA if the third-party service provider they\u2019re working with has an approved program. For example, a provider who uses an organization such as Logical Maintenance Solutions (LMS), as their service provider will receive credit since LMS already has that Trustmark.<\/p>\n

CompTIA is spreading the word to its members and through its partnerships with key industry players, including Parts Now!, Xerox, HP, Supplies Network, and GreatAmerica Leasing who in turn will encourage many of their dealer and reseller customers to participate.<\/p>\n

The price to become accredited is a modest $199. \u201cFor us it\u2019s more about getting it out in the industry and making things better,\u201d says\u00a0 Simpson. \u201cThe clich\u00e9 that goes around CompTIA is \u2018high tide raises all boats\u2019. What we want to do is get the adoption, get it out there, and make a difference. If we can create a standard that says this is what managed print is, we think that through the accreditation of solutions providers, we can in an indirect way address the education of end users.\u201d<\/p>\n

CompTIA has found that end users either don\u2019t know what managed print is or they tried it once and had a terrible experience and never want to go back to it. \u201cIf we can create a standard and say this is managed print, we can hopefully adjust that for them so there is at least an option out there that\u2019s been reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trustmark program is off to a running start and Simpson expects as many as 200 MPS providers will earn the Trustmark by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

What do those 200 organizations have in common?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey already have an understanding [of MPS] and what\u2019s expected of them,\u201d says Simpson. \u201cIf they\u2019ve already gone through a [MPS] sales and organizational program like a Parts Now!, Supplies Network or Photizo and retained it, they should be able to go through the process and get the Trustmark pretty quickly. Companies who have not done the training or retained it will have some issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month CompTIA, the non-profit association for the IT industry, introduced a new business-level credential for providers of managed print services who commit to a code of conduct, industry-accepted best practices, and high levels of customer service and support. The\u00a0CompTIA Managed Print Trustmark is designed to qualify and differentiate organizations providing on-premise print services via a managed services business model while at the same time accelerating the adoption of managed print services. \u201cWe talked about ways to accelerate adoption of MPS and two themes came to the top and one was the training and accreditation of solutions providers and the other was the education of end users,\u201d explains Corey Simpson, CompTIA\u2019s staff leader for the [partner] community. \u201cThe first way we wanted to address that was have a team focus on credentials and something that would identify the business\u2019s practices, and then on the training side, something that would help them do it better.\u201d Companies seeking the CompTIA Managed Print Trustmark are evaluated in several areas including the internal practices and procedures they use to run their business along with the external activities and operations they engage in with customers and prospects. \u201cWhat this does is separate you if you have a Trustmark from your other competitors,\u201d says Ian Berger of Parts Now!, a member of the CompTIA managed print services community. \u201cWhat you\u2019re going to see in the industry is companies, and especially state governments and schools, place this in bids and you\u2019ll see an MPS Trustmark-accredited company. They\u2019re going to understand that if you\u2019re going to come in and touch my stuff you need to follow these best practices.\u201d Before they can go through the online training and answer the various questions and become accredited, a dealer needs to upload a copy of their master services agreement as well as a copy of their operating procedures. Although service is a key component of a managed print services program, organizations that don\u2019t have a service tech for managed print can still receive credit from CompTIA if the third-party service provider they\u2019re working with has an approved program. For example, a provider who uses an organization such as Logical Maintenance Solutions (LMS), as their service provider will receive credit since LMS already has that Trustmark. CompTIA is spreading the word to its members and through its partnerships with key industry players, including Parts Now!, Xerox, HP, Supplies Network, and GreatAmerica Leasing who in turn will encourage many of their dealer and reseller customers to participate. The price to become accredited is a modest $199. \u201cFor us it\u2019s more about getting it out in the industry and making things better,\u201d says\u00a0 Simpson. \u201cThe clich\u00e9 that goes around CompTIA is \u2018high tide raises all boats\u2019. What we want to do is get the adoption, get it out there, and make a difference. If we can create a standard that says this is what managed print is, we think that through the accreditation of solutions providers, we can in an indirect way address the education of end users.\u201d CompTIA has found that end users either don\u2019t know what managed print is or they tried it once and had a terrible experience and never want to go back to it. \u201cIf we can create a standard and say this is managed print, we can hopefully adjust that for them so there is at least an option out there that\u2019s been reviewed.\u201d The Trustmark program is off to a running start and Simpson expects as many as 200 MPS providers will earn the Trustmark by the end of this year. What do those 200 organizations have in common? \u201cThey already have an understanding [of MPS] and what\u2019s expected of them,\u201d says Simpson. \u201cIf they\u2019ve already gone through a [MPS] sales and organizational program like a Parts Now!, Supplies Network or Photizo and retained it, they should be able to go through the process and get the Trustmark pretty quickly. Companies who have not done the training or retained it will have some issues.\u201d  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[146,2409,289],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180"}],"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=3180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}