– By Antonio Sánchez Navarro –
Thinking about the conversations we are having with Office Dealers & MPS Providers, many, if not all, indicate some degree of frustration. This feeling has brought me back to an article of Greg Walters, published in February 2010 (The Death of the Copier), that is still in full force.
As Greg explains in his article, MPS is much more than selling equipment and supplies and provide service for a specified period, however, it should not be forgotten that the only living tasks during the life of a MPS contract, day by day, are those related to keep the devices full operative, providing them the right service and consumables.
All the MPS programs I have seen are focused on selling more, but not to better serve, forgetting in all cases the difficult position of the Dealer/MPS provider, who will have to meet the contract requirements during its lifetime.
All MPS Programs talk about customer satisfaction and customer BPO to reduce printing costs. None of them talk about the optimization of the service processes to make the Dealer more efficient and profitable.
Customer satisfaction is the result of good service for the contract lifetime, not the sale of goods, and if the service is not profitable, the provider will be forced to lower the quality or raise its costs, resulting in a dissatisfied customer, non-renewal, etc..
Printing environment cannot be “managed” by any “event monitoring tool”. Printing devices are not designed to be reliable in the information they provide about them, as all other elements in a network are (storage, routers, computers, firewalls, etc.). Printing devices are designed to print.
However, using specialized technology that knows how the devices work, and even better, how they work individually, in each one of the clients or clients departments, the ability to forecast their behavior grows exponentially and its management becomes more efficient and profitable for the Dealer/MPS provider. (MPS Compliance Report)
Another added value of this is the creation of detailed accurate information to be incorporated into any specialized tool for assessment and/or quotation purposes. This allows independent MPS providers to generate offers much more adapted to the real needs of their clients, and not only based on the device features that Vendors provides.
My conclusion is that the frustration we mentioned is based on the “execution” of the MPS project, when the result does not meet the objectives defined during the sales process. Do not forget that once sold, the only thing that remains alive in contract during the following years is its “execution” and, in this case, “execution” is to serve and service the customer printing equipment, in full satisfaction and with a healthy margin.
This is the arena where Nubeprint brings technology and expertise to be used as the “ENGINE” of any MPS Program. As of today, its value added is unbeatable making Dealers/MPS providers more efficient and profitable.