{"id":43861,"date":"2021-02-11T12:03:18","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T20:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=43861"},"modified":"2021-02-11T12:03:20","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T20:03:20","slug":"a-deep-dive-into-data-collection-agents-why-should-dealers-and-their-customers-care-about-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/editors-blog\/2021\/02\/a-deep-dive-into-data-collection-agents-why-should-dealers-and-their-customers-care-about-them\/","title":{"rendered":"A Deep Dive into Data Collection Agents: Why Should Dealers and their Customers Care About Them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Although we talk a lot about managed print service (MPS) solutions, it\u2019s relatively rare to look under the bonnet and explore their actual mechanics. But data collection agents (DCAs) are pivotal to the success of any MPS solution. Their reliability, redundancy, and the quality of information delivered distinguish a market-leading MPS from an also-ran. They also impact dealers in terms of their ability to save costs, improve efficiency, boost customer satisfaction levels and retain clients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dealing with DCA Redundancy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a dealer, you will probably have installed a fair few DCAs on customer premises. Perhaps it\u2019s not something you\u2019ve given much thought to, but the DCAs for many device management solutions have no built-in redundancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This may not be a problem for larger customers as the DCA is probably on a virtual server in a dedicated server room or data center. In these instances, your DCA gets the enterprise IT treatment. It is backed up and replicated as part of your customer\u2019s disaster recovery and business continuity program. But you\u2019re relying on the redundancy in their IT network rather than the redundancy in your MPS solution. And that should trouble you if you\u2019re looking to deliver the very best quality of customer service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DCA redundancy becomes a real issue for dealers across their smaller and mid-sized clients. There may not be a central server or reliable backup and recovery procedures in place. Without an on-site server, dealers have no choice but to install a single DCA on a single networked PC. If that PC fails, becomes corrupted, or doesn\u2019t get switched on one morning, the DCA doesn\u2019t gather its data, and the MPS solution stops functioning. The problem is somewhat lessened if the PC with the DCA is backed up regularly. But it still won\u2019t help if the actual machine isn\u2019t switched on or can\u2019t connect to the network for any reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DCAs could also be removed during automated OS or software. Other scenarios include DCA removal by IT admins because they don\u2019t recognize it or the DCA is not on the officially-approved software list. In some instances, DCAs are also removed by IT admins \u2014 or even the actual machine users \u2014 in the belief that they\u2019re slowing down processing speeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reinstalling DCAs \u2014 A Thankless Task<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a DCA with no in-built resilience fails, then the MPS solution grinds to a halt. Most MPS solutions will alert dealers and end-users. MPS Monitor\u2019s dashboard, for example, clearly shows when DCAs have failed or have become disconnected. Users can then drill down into the DCA page and find out probable causes. Dealers and customers have the option to receive automated emails when DCAs fail \u2014 these can be delivered immediately or after a pre-configured time-lag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once a DCA failure is identified, it\u2019s a case of ascertaining if your customer can carry out the reinstallation themselves, whether you could guide them through the process over the phone or if you have to set up remote access to their network and carry out the reinstallation that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, there are no good options here. DCA reinstallation is a time-consuming job, and \u2014 even though failures aren\u2019t usually the dealer\u2019s fault \u2014 they typically get the blame. Unfair as it sounds, they\u2019re the organization that installed the software, so \u2014 as far as the customer is concerned \u2014 the buck stops right there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, unfortunately, the dealer\u2019s customer service and satisfaction rating start to fall. Therefore, dealers would be wise to give some serious thought to the amount of redundancy in the MPS solutions they\u2019re installing on client networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not just about damaged customer relations. One of the principal goals of device management software is to streamline dealer operations and improve profitability. If you\u2019re forced to carry out regular DCA reinstallations, then your MPS solution is contributing to inefficiencies and costing you money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building Redundancy and Flexibility into DCAs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, there is an answer. Companies like MPS Monitor have developed a device management solution with in-built redundancy in its DCAs and more flexibility regarding where DCAs can be deployed. These device management solutions support several DCAs across multiple machines using clustering technology and nodes to create redundancy across an IT network. Clustering has been used for many years at a server level to strengthen IT system resiliency, but the same principle can protect software from failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setup is still very straight-forward. Clustered DCA nodes are installed on several devices and connected to the MPS solution. Once activated, the MPS solution reaches out to establish contact with the primary DCA node. If it cannot make contact, the software has sufficient intelligence to reach out to a secondary DCA node to gather the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each active node holds current system data and has the capability \u2014 if called on to do so \u2014 to deliver up-to-date information to the MPS software, even if one of the DCAs has failed. There\u2019s no need for the immediate manual reinstallation of the faulty DCA. Customer operations can continue to run without the risk of running out of critical consumables, and the software will continue to function until all the nodes fail. Unresponsive nodes rejoin the cluster when the machine they\u2019re on reconnects to the IT network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A clear description of how DCA Clustering works is in this video tutorial:<\/p>\n\n\n\n