To get a better sense of just how viable MPS remains and the assistance available to dealers and resellers starting out, or those struggling, we spoke with various industry players with a legacy of providing MPS education, programs, and services.<\/p>\n
The Tipping Point<\/strong><\/p>\n For dealers and resellers only now getting into MPS, what\u2019s the tipping point that finally inspired them to follow a path that was blazed long ago by so many others?<\/p>\n Doug Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cBecause they\u2019re losing key accounts,\u201d responds Doug Johnson, president of RedSage Group and formerly SVP, Managed Print Services for Supplies Network. \u201cMost dealers have 10 or 20 signature accounts that not only offer great visibility, but provide a significant portion of their revenue. When they lose any of them to a competitor due to MPS that\u2019s when they realize they need help.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDealers that are just now launching an MPS program have typically lost a big customer to a competitor with an MPS program, or have lost business to competitors with MPS programs over time and it\u2019s adding up,\u201d adds Ray Loisel, senior vice president MPS, West Point Products. \u201cFor dealers with existing programs that come to Axess for support, the tipping point is usually one of two key things; the first is pricing pressure and a need for assistance when calculating TCO. The second tipping point comes from a frustration with processes related to supply fulfillment or management of contracts.\u00a0Regardless of the dealer\u2019s need, it\u2019s my goal to understand their entire MPS program, because solving all the issues is where we can add the most value.\u201d<\/p>\n Mike Lamothe<\/p><\/div>\n Mike Lamothe, founder of Office Document Consulting, an organization that provides dealers and OEMs with strategic support in MPS\/MDS, continues to see new dealers embrace MPS. \u201cWe\u2019ve had more questions in the last five to six months about \u2018how do we do this\u2019 or \u2018we have a customer that wants this,\u2019\u201d reports Lamothe.<\/p>\n He attributes this trend to a greater awareness of customers about MPS and dealers not being able to answer their MPS-related questions.<\/p>\n Another tipping point is meter collection.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest struggles dealers have,\u201d says Jennie Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the Office Equipment Group at GreatAmerica Financial Services Corp<\/em>. \u201cMaking sure they have a process to do it in a timely manner and do it correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n West McDonald<\/p><\/div>\n For West McDonald, vice president of business development, Print Audit, the tipping point that brings dealers to Print Audit for extra MPS help is when customers start asking them for \u2018Print Governance\u2019 products. \u201cThere are some that are sold directly to the customer. The dealer makes some margin on it and the customer then owns the entire Print Governance portion of managed print,\u201d explains McDonald. \u201cThey start losing revenues because waste print starts to disappear and they start printing fewer e-mails in color, and they turn their arms up and say, \u2018Good grief, we\u2019re losing revenue because they\u2019ve become more efficient.\u2019 The tipping point is when they\u2019ve had some pain in that spectrum and they want to have control and profit on it instead of losing revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n The most compelling reason why dealers seek help from Toshiba and its Encompass MPS program according to Chief Marketing Executive Bill Melo, is its PageSmart offering where Toshiba provides them with a cost per page, which they can then mark up and provide to their customer.<\/p>\n Bill Melo<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThat\u2019s appealing because among the other benefits they get is automated toner fulfillment,\u201d says Melo. \u201cPricing on MPS is a complicated matter because of all the different kinds of printers you might be managing. They\u2019re all individual CPCs. This takes a lot of the guess work out of pricing. We make it easy for a dealer, and take a lot of the risks out for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year was a record year for its Encompass program in terms of growth. Some of those taking advantage of it are large well-known dealerships looking to enhance their existing programs or decided it would be more efficient to have Toshiba administer their entire MPS program for them.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think any dealer is 100 percent happy with their program from start to finish,\u201d concedes Gary Willert, president of LMI. \u201cDealers are looking for some type of best practice to take their program to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n Help is Still on the Way<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s hone in on some of the ways these players are helping dealers either get started with MPS or enhance their existing programs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re certainly not the only deal in town, but for us and others like us, 2015-2016 is going to become the year of the user and \u2018Print Governance,\u2019\u201d says McDonald. \u201cThat\u2019s where we can help. Since 1999 we have a pedigree of monitoring and managing user printer behavior. We call it \u2018Print Governance\u2019. If you\u2019re trying to get out of commoditization, you have to do more for end users than manage their print. Once you get past toner and service, workflow is the next natural progression and the only way to do that is a stronger focus on user print behavior. We can go into the print stream and help save customers an additional 30-40 percent over what they were probably saving on their traditional MPS program through Print Governance.\u201d<\/p>\n Ray Loisel<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cWe can offer them a team of experts with a combined 40 years of experience helping dealers create successful MPS programs; we have seen it all,\u201d explains West Point\u2019s Loisel. \u201cFurthermore, we have a robust suite of comprehensive and flexible MPS solutions that is comprised of the leading remote monitoring software platforms, a TCO pricing calculator and proposal generator for CPP, in-depth sales training, and auto toner fulfillment supplies replenishment. We also offer a full service option for dealers that prefer our team to manage their CPP contracts for them.\u00a0Within our family of companies, we are partnered with the leading imaging supplies remanufacturers, a broad printer part distribution solution and free recycling programs. Needless to say, we have something for everybody, in all different stages of MPS.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDepending on the size of the dealership and the infrastructure they have in place, we have various ideas for them,\u201d says LMI\u2019s Willert. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a program for smaller dealers where we do everything for them. All they have to do is sell and we have a complete infrastructure to support them from start to finish. Even larger dealers are looking at that model. It\u2019s become popular because they know exactly how much to charge, how much they\u2019re making, and no headaches. We see everything that\u2019s going on in the country and can get certain nuggets from dealers who have been successful and we have many different plans, structures, and best practices that have worked for other dealers to share with them.\u201d<\/p>\n After spending the past few years with Supplies Network and continuing that relationship as a consultant to the company, Johnson is well versed in how a third-party organization such as a Supplies Network and its mpsSelect program can assist dealers looking to enhance or build a Managed Print Services business through training, follow-up support, and ongoing consulting.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have a good handle on the assets and competencies needed for success in executing the sales and operations needed in a managed print services model in a customer\u2019s account,\u201d explains Johnson. \u00a0\u201cTheir strength is around saying you don\u2019t have to develop most of those competencies, particularly the care and feeding of those fleets once you\u2019ve got them under contract.\u201d<\/p>\n Jennie Fisher<\/p><\/div>\n GreatAmerica\u2019s Fisher is quick to tout GreatAmerica\u2019s strengths at helping dealers with MPS, even if the company no longer offers its Navigator educational program. A big part of that was around crafting the deal around a finance product and administering the deal. \u00a0\u201cWe have the most knowledgeable people in the industry; we put our sales people through professional training, the leaders of the company educate our people and the value MPS brings to the dealer, what the process looks like at a high level, all the areas to do analysis, what techniques they can use to secure the appointment, steps to go through on the analysis and putting the deal together.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinpointing the value that a GreatAmerica brings to the MPS process, Fisher cites the administration piece, the meter collection, and the education. \u201cAdministration and how we help them gain the efficiencies,\u201d says Fisher, adding that GreatAmerica has the MPS Trustmark, which gives them a certain amount of credibility in the MPS space.<\/p>\n Dealers who come to ODC can take advantage of a process that integrates with FMAudit to provide an automated QVR (Query View Reporting). \u201cThe more sophisticated we get with processing that data and using that data, it becomes a significant benefit,\u201d says Lamothe.<\/p>\n What ODC can do is help dealers who already have some basic knowledge of MPS learn how to leverage managed print software to provide consumables and service alerts, and assist them in moving up the ladder to workflow and process improvement.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause we work with FMAudit we\u2019ve developed an approach where once we\u2019ve done an assessment we strategize and build an approach for sales and take that data and completely focus on unmanaged devices inside their base,\u201d explains Lamothe. \u201cThat\u2019s where [we often find] 40-60 percent of devices in a dealer base are unmanaged. When I talk to dealers and I say if we can increase your base by 25 percent over the next couple of years what would that mean to you, their eyes light up.\u201d<\/p>\n The Onus is on the Dealer<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to take this education, training, and\/or tools to help improve the dealership\u2019s approach to MPS, but after the smoke clears, what is it that dealers need to do to ensure ongoing success?<\/p>\n \u201cThey need to be committed to doing it,\u201d says Fisher. \u201cThey get into it, don\u2019t understand it and don\u2019t understand what it takes or they\u2019re not getting the support from the owners of the company. If you don\u2019t have buy in from the top and somebody being a champion of that, there\u2019s going to be confusion and they\u2019re going to struggle. That\u2019s one of the biggest things we see. It comes down to investing in the tools and resources to do it efficiently. Sometimes when they see dollar signs and what it takes, they\u2019re not willing to go in 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n Gary Willert<\/p><\/div>\n Willert concurs with Fisher. \u201cIf the commitment is not there, everybody has their jobs to do and they gravitate towards what they\u2019ve been doing for years. It\u2019s making a conscious effort to change that environment and that dealership into thinking differently. That\u2019s the biggest message we try to share\u2014we can give you every tool, and all these marketing materials and videos, but it\u2019s got to come from the top down. You have to be committed to making it successful. It\u2019s not an easy thing to do. The presidents of these companies are under a lot of pressure from the OEMs to make quotas. How do they find time to make sure their MPS program is successful? That\u2019s probably the biggest dilemma most dealers face.\u201d<\/p>\n While Toshiba can manage the entire MPS process for its dealers, including selling it on their behalf, Melo says most BTA dealers in the program prefer to service the product themselves even though Toshiba can do that too. \u201cA big part of the value proposition is being able to service the fleet with the same level of responsiveness and professionalism as they do with the MFPs.\u201d<\/p>\n Another typical dealer must do is the billing. \u201cAgain we offer that, but most dealers want to keep control of the billing so being able to capture the meters, create a billing format that\u2019s clear and concise and meets the customer expectations is definitely a dealer responsibility,\u201d adds Melo.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we take a dealer on, it takes 18-24 months to get systems in place, speaking to each other, etc.\u201d notes Lamothe who feels that sales reps still need to be able to go out into the field and present MPS in an intelligent manner. ODC has MPS in a tablet, an app they developed because sales reps were having a difficult time describing what MPS was to the customer and how to differentiate their offering from their competitors.<\/p>\n Print Audit has a 90-day program to make sure its dealers are successful. \u201cWe hand hold them to make sure they\u2019re closing print governance and managed print deals,\u201d says McDonald. \u201cAfter that because they\u2019re shadowing us and it\u2019s more of a mentor-based program, they\u2019re quite happy to run on their own and do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n As long as dealers follow that lead they\u2019ll be successful. In fact McDonald claims Print Audit has a 100 percent success rate with its Premiere Member dealers ever since they first signed them up for that program. \u201cWe have to do our best every month to ensure they\u2019re happy Print Audit customers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cAs much as we would like, we can\u2019t improve an MPS program if a dealer is not committed to the business model and doesn\u2019t implement a sales process and manage their metrics,\u201d adds Loisel.\u00a0\u201cIn addition, if dealers do not extend recommended changes into the \u2018back of the house\u2019 processes within service and administration, it is very difficult for an MPS program to be successful.\u00a0 On the bright side, if a dealer is committed and willing to \u2018champion\u2019 their MPS program within a dealership, with our guidance, sales training and tools, they can become extremely successful.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You\u2019d think by now there wouldn\u2019t be much left to say about MPS. How much more can we beat that horse? Turns out, plenty more, especially when you speak with folks in the document imaging industry who are still doing their part to help dealers and resellers get a grip on MPS and be profitable with it. Tons of companies offer MPS programs and education or are rolling out new programs, indicating there\u2019s still a market, even if some segments of the industry are doing their best to commoditize it. (See the article \u201cHow to Combat the Commoditization of MPS in Your Marketplace\u201d in ENX\/The Week in Imaging at www.enxmag.com). \u00a0A second article, \u201cFaltered States\u201d that looks at common areas dealers and resellers falter with MPS will also appear this month in ENX\/The Week in Imaging. To get a better sense of just how viable MPS remains and the assistance available to dealers and resellers starting out, or those struggling, we spoke with various industry players with a legacy of providing MPS education, programs, and services. The Tipping Point For dealers and resellers only now getting into MPS, what\u2019s the tipping point that finally inspired them to follow a path that was blazed long ago by so many others? \u201cBecause they\u2019re losing key accounts,\u201d responds Doug Johnson, president of RedSage Group and formerly SVP, Managed Print Services for Supplies Network. \u201cMost dealers have 10 or 20 signature accounts that not only offer great visibility, but provide a significant portion of their revenue. When they lose any of them to a competitor due to MPS that\u2019s when they realize they need help.\u201d \u201cDealers that are just now launching an MPS program have typically lost a big customer to a competitor with an MPS program, or have lost business to competitors with MPS programs over time and it\u2019s adding up,\u201d adds Ray Loisel, senior vice president MPS, West Point Products. \u201cFor dealers with existing programs that come to Axess for support, the tipping point is usually one of two key things; the first is pricing pressure and a need for assistance when calculating TCO. The second tipping point comes from a frustration with processes related to supply fulfillment or management of contracts.\u00a0Regardless of the dealer\u2019s need, it\u2019s my goal to understand their entire MPS program, because solving all the issues is where we can add the most value.\u201d Mike Lamothe, founder of Office Document Consulting, an organization that provides dealers and OEMs with strategic support in MPS\/MDS, continues to see new dealers embrace MPS. \u201cWe\u2019ve had more questions in the last five to six months about \u2018how do we do this\u2019 or \u2018we have a customer that wants this,\u2019\u201d reports Lamothe. He attributes this trend to a greater awareness of customers about MPS and dealers not being able to answer their MPS-related questions. Another tipping point is meter collection. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest struggles dealers have,\u201d says Jennie Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the Office Equipment Group at GreatAmerica Financial Services Corp. \u201cMaking sure they have a process to do it in a timely manner and do it correctly.\u201d For West McDonald, vice president of business development, Print Audit, the tipping point that brings dealers to Print Audit for extra MPS help is when customers start asking them for \u2018Print Governance\u2019 products. \u201cThere are some that are sold directly to the customer. The dealer makes some margin on it and the customer then owns the entire Print Governance portion of managed print,\u201d explains McDonald. \u201cThey start losing revenues because waste print starts to disappear and they start printing fewer e-mails in color, and they turn their arms up and say, \u2018Good grief, we\u2019re losing revenue because they\u2019ve become more efficient.\u2019 The tipping point is when they\u2019ve had some pain in that spectrum and they want to have control and profit on it instead of losing revenue.\u201d The most compelling reason why dealers seek help from Toshiba and its Encompass MPS program according to Chief Marketing Executive Bill Melo, is its PageSmart offering where Toshiba provides them with a cost per page, which they can then mark up and provide to their customer. \u201cThat\u2019s appealing because among the other benefits they get is automated toner fulfillment,\u201d says Melo. \u201cPricing on MPS is a complicated matter because of all the different kinds of printers you might be managing. They\u2019re all individual CPCs. This takes a lot of the guess work out of pricing. We make it easy for a dealer, and take a lot of the risks out for them.\u201d Last year was a record year for its Encompass program in terms of growth. Some of those taking advantage of it are large well-known dealerships looking to enhance their existing programs or decided it would be more efficient to have Toshiba administer their entire MPS program for them. \u201cI don\u2019t think any dealer is 100 percent happy with their program from start to finish,\u201d concedes Gary Willert, president of LMI. \u201cDealers are looking for some type of best practice to take their program to the next level.\u201d Help is Still on the Way Let\u2019s hone in on some of the ways these players are helping dealers either get started with MPS or enhance their existing programs. \u201cWe\u2019re certainly not the only deal in town, but for us and others like us, 2015-2016 is going to become the year of the user and \u2018Print Governance,\u2019\u201d says McDonald. \u201cThat\u2019s where we can help. Since 1999 we have a pedigree of monitoring and managing user printer behavior. We call it \u2018Print Governance\u2019. If you\u2019re trying to get out of commoditization, you have to do more for end users than manage their print. Once you get past toner and service, workflow is the next natural progression and the only way to do that is a stronger focus on user print behavior. We can go into the print stream and help save customers an additional 30-40 percent over what they were probably saving on their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1641],"tags":[543,389,405,503,1671,2409,1039,303,2109,2110,348,546,357],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11438"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11445,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11438\/revisions\/11445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Doug](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Doug-Johnson-150x150.jpg\")
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