The first Nubeprint MPS Compliance Report was published July 2011. For the first time, a company tested printers and copiers to verify to which extent a third party could adequately manage a device’s needs remotely with no onsite dedicated human resources. Indeed, the intent of the report was to ensure the success of this new business category that has grown dramatically since 2007 and to automate tasks that copier dealers have been performing manually for the ages, as well as a way to make the cost per page a global option, accessible to all end-customers and dealers.
The Report is the result of deep testing of printer and copier models installed at customers, and under the assumption that the device has to be managed remotely using a data collection agent (DCA). Because the devices are tested for compliance in a working environment, the test takes place under the same conditions that any service company faces when operating its managed print service contracts.
The primary goal of an MPS contract is to free the user from the hassle of needing to identify the requirements of the printer such as toner, drums, other supplies and even service requests. The reason end-user adopts MPS is the belief that the contractor must be able to do it better such as controlling costs, anticipating the needs and eliminating any waste during the replenishment process. Thus, such economy is then shared by both the end-user company and the service provider under a win-win approach.
The complexity of such task is important. We are not just talking about refilling a tank. We are talking about refilling multiple tanks (4 different toner or ink cartridges, multiple drums, photoconductors, fuser, waste bottle…) making sure that this is done after the old one is fully emptied. As a consequence, the data that the printing device provides is very important, but never enough. The service provider must be constantly vigilant of the level of each one of the cartridges for each one of the devices, and decide when it is the right moment to ship has come. To get an idea of the size of this task, let’s imagine that you are managing 1,000 devices. In average each one has 5 cartridges, meaning that your contract specialist would be verifying 5,000 levels… every 2 hours! Every working hour your team will verify the status of 3,750 cartridges, decide whether to ship of not and remember those shipped previously in order not to duplicate the delivery (nor your costs). This is simply impossible; no matter how good your monitoring tool is.
Therefore, the MPS compliance tests that Nubeprint performs are always under the assumption that the printer or copier would properly facilitate the task of managing them, but a management tool (not just a monitoring tool) must be used by the service provider to accomplish his responsibilities.
Differentiating Monitoring from Managing is therefore critical. Monitoring comes from the word “monitor”, which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “A device used for observing, checking, or keeping a continuous record of something”. The number of decisions that the service provider must take is such (3,750 per working hour in an installed base of 1,000 devices) that a monitoring tool is never enough. Some endcustomers reading this text may now realize that their MPS dealer is asking them to proactively call when they need something different other than a toner cartridge. Indeed, this is a real problem that is causing large losses and customer’s satisfaction issues. Something I have learned over almost 20 years in MPS is that this business is not suitable for every dealer. It requires the understanding of a complex process management situation, and though most business owners easily get it, in too many cases their team is not prepared. In those cases, some distributors and independent companies have built a platform that they “rent” to all dealers not willing or not being able to implement it with their own resources.
To all of them, this new release of the Nubeprint MPS Compliance Report should be of interest to value how complex it is to manage the install base of printers and copiers. Information about the compliance per individual model is available to Nubeprint customers.
Nubeprint is the only technology in MPS that ensures business process automation which guaranties full control of costs, including measuring and reducing waste, and a precise, accurate control of extended yield cartridge usage resulting in positive profits for each contract signed.
The Nubeprint Report is issued bi-annually (January and July) to facilitate the most updated information and market trends.
You can download it from here.