Discovering Fire: Tailored Solutions Enable MPS Dealers to Serve Clients and Maintain Profits

For the last 40,000 years, dating back to the Neanderthal period when Grok sold his stone “wheels” to the masses for the very low price of two saber-toothed tiger pelts, mankind has attempted to attach a value to goods and services that was roundly regarded as equitable. Then Zood came along and discovered he could bargain Grok down to one pelt and one club in exchange for the wheel.

Most historians say this was the birth of the race to the bottom—the fixation on finding a merchant who’s willing to sell for less than the cave across the dirt path. As competition grew, Grok needed to conduct business profitably and soon discovered that he could offer more value (and increase profitability) via smoother wheels, personalized delivery and a service plan. In fact, if he did all these things well, he could even charge more than the competition.

Fast forward to 2025, when managed print services (MPS) continues to find itself in a struggle to demonstrate profitable differentiation. As the MPS tools embraced by dealers increasingly become more homogenous, those dealers must devise a value proposition that prompts prospects to ignore a higher price tag. In this month’s State of the Industry report on MPS, we’ve collected a sampling of dealers that have developed platforms that serve the needs of clients while also ensuring profitability continues to scale.

Defying Adversity

Continuous improvement is an operational staple embraced across all industries. Mistakes come with the territory, but they must be learning moments. Otherwise, they’ll be repeated. For Chris Gallagher—a co-owner alongside brother Todd at Green Office Partner (GOP) in Chicago—that means embracing the “failing forward” term coined by John C. Maxwell in his 2007 book “Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success.” In it, Maxwell illustrates how the highest performing individuals are defined by their “perception of and response to failure.”

When it comes to GOP’s MPS program, Todd Gallagher studies both his wins and losses in prospect engagements. But what really helped GOP gain clarity was appreciating that the dealership’s best opportunities were regional, national and even international accounts. The overly contested up-and-down-the-street business was always the proverbial “price race to zero,” and frankly, those clients had zero interest in the nuances of value propositions.

“You can’t win in the scenarios where there are five other dealers in line with you,” he noted. “There’s not enough complexity to truly provide our value proposition; therefore, we’ve wasted a ton of time. It’s easier for us to win a 32-location auto dealership than it is a church that needs a copier.”

In dealing with more sophisticated enterprise clients, GOP focuses on business issues as opposed to speeds and feeds. For example, one cruise ship line GOP ultimately landed issued an RFP for all its mainland U.S. locations that focused on primarily MFPs. But the Gallaghers dug deep, studied the prospect’s annual reports and used AI to “research the hell out of their business” to devise a proposal that was unlike those of their competitors. The Gallaghers sent the proposal to its graphic design department to make it look ultra-professional, adding style to a substance that addressed the prospect’s top five business challenges and illustrated ways in which they could address pain points.

You can’t win in the scenarios where there are five other dealers in line with you. There’s not enough complexity to truly provide our value proposition; therefore, we’ve wasted a ton of time. It’s easier for us to win a 32-location auto dealership than it is a church that needs a copier.

– Todd Gallagher, Green Office Partner

So while GOP didn’t set out to be a provider that has reach into 49 states and Canada, identifying clients with whom they could be most impactful had the effect of a business GPS with the shortest path to success. “When you can provide solutions that impact their P&L in a positive way, it eliminates the race to the bottom cost that no one ultimately wins,” Gallagher said.

So we’re seeing people returning [to offices], but even as the client shifts to more efficient, smaller footprint boxes, we’re also seeing the strongest growth in color printing. Post-COVID, our color volumes have continued to explode.

– Chris Gallagher, Green Office Partner

The post-COVID period of distributive workforces has opened the door for an MPS program that’s more flexible and scalable. Features that facilitate seamless integration with digital workflows and enhance collaboration, such as mobile printing and secure document sharing, are in greater demand. Clients are more cognizant of the cost effectiveness offered by A4 units. As a Xerox dealer, the recent acquisition of A4 specialist Lexmark was music to their ears.

“The A4 environment allows for more redundancy, allows for more hot swaps,” Todd Gallagher observed. “It simply makes supporting these large enterprise accounts way more efficient. Our print volumes continue to grow year by year. So we’re seeing people returning [to offices], but even as the client shifts to more efficient, smaller footprint boxes, we’re also seeing the strongest growth in color printing. Post-COVID, our color volumes have continued to explode.”

Chris Gallagher feels serving client needs while continuing to boost profitability lies in developing tailored solutions based on a deep understanding of their business goals and challenges. “Our strategy has always been to identify and quantify business pains on the front line and then aggregate the financial impact across the enterprise,” he said. “For example, a school district agreed to our assessment report, which identified over $16,000 monthly in ‘related costs.’ Solving this problem is a win-win for the client and GOP because the newfound efficiencies improve their bottom line while justifying our slightly higher profit margin.”

Disciplined Approach

Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, the pride of the Big Apple, boasts an MPS program featuring a robust device management platform that’s the heart for managing customer environments. According to Kia Robinson, an industry veteran and vice president of sales, managed services for Atlantic, the platform furnishes real-time visibility into device performance, usage and supply levels, providing the dealer’s internal teams and customers the tools they need to make proactive, informed decisions.

Some of the more recent feature enhancements provide for enhanced transparency, self-service capabilities and simplified reporting. Customers can access their account dashboards, track service requests, monitor print volumes and receive alerts from a single interface. From an Atlantic-facing viewpoint, the platform bolsters its service and support teams by streamlining workflows, enabling faster response times and improving overall account management.

“These enhancements not only improve operational efficiency but also strengthen communication and alignment between our teams and the customer, ensuring a seamless, value-driven partnership,” Robinson said.

As the pandemic was the unofficial (though not the first) trigger in the remote/hybrid revolution, Robinson notes that data and device security are priorities for clients. Gone is the time when print devices were viewed as endpoints requiring basic attention; they’re now seen as potential data vulnerabilities if not properly managed.

“There’s a growing focus on the ability to track, audit and control what’s being printed, by whom and from where,” Robinson said. “The need for clearly defined internal processes and procedures around print-related data handling is more critical than ever as organizations seek to close security gaps and ensure compliance with evolving data protection standards.”

The need for clearly defined internal processes and procedures around print-related data handling is more critical than ever as organizations seek to close security gaps and ensure compliance with evolving data protection standards.

– Kia Robinson, Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office

A mixture of open communication and strategic collaboration are key to both serving the dealer’s need for profitability and meeting client expectations. Helping customers reduce their costs sans a deleterious impact on productivity or compromised service delivery is an overarching priority for Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office.

“As an organization, we embrace a QBR cadence that provides our customers with clear, data-driven insights to empower them to make informed decisions,” Robinson noted. “It’s about enabling smarter printing through education and alignment, benefiting both the customer and the provider.”

Early Adopter

Being an early adopter can be a hit-or-miss proposition, but Dawn Abbuhl—never one to shy away from the next big thing—gleaned much of the info she needed to pull the trigger from the Copier Dealers Association (CDA). The president of Albany, New York-based Repeat Business Systems actually called it MTS to denote management of all technology, so she was clearly on the proper track.

The initial flavor of the dealer’s MPS cast a wide net—reducing costs and paper usage, reclaiming space, moving images to the most cost-effective and convenient location, addressing critical areas for redundancy, reducing color usage, adding duplex when appropriate, and improving the user experience. Abbuhl also led the way in being among the first practitioners to identify where each printer was located within the client environment. While it seems obvious now, larger clients often had no idea about where they sat. Meanwhile, staff were purchasing printers online. It was out of control.

“We added our DCA and made sure everything was reporting so we could accurately identify trends and volumes,” Abbuhl noted. “We offered a trend analysis and status on usage for all devices during quarterly meetings and made recommendations for a continual improvement process.

“We also had to address the users’ perception that they were getting their own printers ripped away with the education and knowledge that they would be able to accomplish tasks more effectively, and any cost savings would enhance their organization. It could also potentially funnel down to their work environment and benefit them in many ways.”

If we truly focus on a real partnership and work with the customers’ best interests as the driving factor, there are usually ways to have a mutually beneficial situation such as relocating a machine, shortening a rental term, maintaining a machine as a backup and the like.

– Dawn Abbuhl, Repeat Business Systems

In the post-COVID era, the MPS standard now includes the ability to print securely to any device and release it when needed. While black-and-white print volumes continue to wane, production and color printing have been picking up some of the slack.

To maintain profitability for her dealership while continuing to serve the evolving needs of clients, Abbuhl feels it’s important to address the end-of-life issue in the initial contract with a clear, mutually agreed upon refreshment plan. That walks hand in hand with maintaining open lines of communication during quarterly reviews.

“If we truly focus on a real partnership and work with the customers’ best interests as the driving factor, there are usually ways to have a mutually beneficial situation such as relocating a machine, shortening a rental term, maintaining a machine as a backup and the like,” she said. “We’ll always find a way to meet the clients’ needs.”

Pivoting Power

With an eye toward flexibility and client centricity, Pearson-Kelly Technology of Springfield, Missouri, devised an MPS program that was tailored toward a client’s specific workflow as opposed to just their printer fleet. Taylor Wells, director of service and operations, notes it required moving beyond service delivery to emphasize transparency, proactive management and a true partnership model.

Ongoing optimization has helped the dealer evade stagnation. The company regularly reviews usage data, reassesses needs and suggests tech and workflow options that often reduce cost and improve efficiency.

“We differentiate in our market by being highly agile,” she said. “Larger providers often have rigid programs, but ours adapts fast. Want us to take over service on your current printer? Perfect, we can have it done the same day you sign. We also lead with a consultative mindset: our team doesn’t sell boxes; we solve business problems.”

The decentralized workforce post-COVID required a reimagining of device strategy, print policies and support systems, according to Wells. Cloud printing and remote management became must-haves instead of value-adds. Clients demand secure print access anywhere, remote usage analytics and seamless device provisioning—all addressed via cloud print management platforms and mobile print integrations.

“What used to be a hardware-centric conversation is now a workflow and data-centric one,” she said.

We also educate clients on the total cost of ownership and help them move from print-heavy to digital workflows when it makes sense. This not only helps their bottom line but also preserves our margin through value-added services.

– Taylor Wells, Pearson-Kelly Technology

Serving the clients while preserving profitability calls for a serving of technology that’s free of empty calories. Cookie-cutter packages are eschewed in favor of precisely managed programs, which helps to avoid “bloat.” Standardizing where appropriate—automating supply fulfillment, remote support and fleet monitoring—enables Pearson-Kelly Technology to scale profitably.

“We also educate clients on the total cost of ownership and help them move from print-heavy to digital workflows when it makes sense. This not only helps their bottom line but also preserves our margin through value-added services,” Wells noted.

Core Objectives

Like fashion, MPS elements tend to evolve and change over the years, driven by market trends. At Fraser Advanced Information Systems of West Reading, Pennsylvania, the common denominator remains helping clients create smarter, more strategic print environments that align with their business objectives. Where the differentiation fully flowers is the focus on deriving a strategy specific to the account, with the payoff being savings in time, cost and resources, notes DeAnna Phillips, manager of strategic accounts.

“We continuously refine the program, adding tools such as proactive maintenance analytics to prevent issues before they impact operations,” she said. “What truly sets us apart is this strategic approach. We go beyond managing printers to help businesses make data-driven decisions that support their broader goals.”

The 2020s and COVID-19 ushered in the cloud-based MPS solutions era—no small consideration, according to Phillips. The accompanying remote and hybrid work arrangements brought into focus the need for anywhere access to print and document workflows.

“Solutions such as remote device management help IT teams optimize performance and minimize downtime,” she added. “The key is blending security and flexibility, enabling access without compromising protection.”

Solutions such as remote device management help IT teams optimize performance and minimize downtime. The key is blending security and flexibility, enabling access without compromising protection.

– DeAnna Phillips, Fraser Advanced Information Systems

Walking the fine line between dealer profitability and customer satisfaction, Phillips stresses, comes down to being a good listener. “When we truly understand a client’s challenges, we can tailor solutions that meet their needs while driving value,” she said. “We use automation, proactive maintenance and right-sizing strategies to control costs on both sides. Our focus on measurable ROI means clients see the savings, and we sustain profitability without sacrificing quality or service.”