Managed Print Services

With enterprises increasingly recognizing the inflated costs associated with

uncontrolled printing, there's been a shift to specialist managed print services

(MPS) providers over the last few years. Also, intricacies of having offices at

multiple geographical locations with printing devices, consumables (paper,

cartridge etc) and services from different vendors further necessitates a

solution like this. MPS like other managed services is offered by domain experts

to an organization that wants their printing infrastructure to be managed

outside.

This helps organization focus on their core business instead of waisting time

and money in maintaining printing infrastructure. Using MPS, organizations can

save up to 30-40% cost on printing related activities annually.

Getting started



Once you have decided to outsource your printing, the first step is to zero

down on a reliable vendor that can provide printing support across all

locations. Vendors in the printing domain that offer MPS include Cannon, HP,

Xerox, WeP etc. The vendor analyzes printing needs of your organization and

negotiates on service level agreement and sign. An organization can opt for

printing service in different modes. If you are starting a new branch, then

instead of buying new printer you can ask your MPS vendor to provide printers

inside your premises. This not only saves initial investment on printers but

also enables branches to be functional instantly. Organizations can also opt to

print inside vendor premises if information to be printed is not critical (this

model is not good for the BFSI segment).One more option is to get a new printing

unit installed inside your premises for fixed amount of time when printing

requirement is very high. However, you can also go for pay-per-print model,

where a fixed amount is charged per print.

Included services



Services that are provided by an MPS provider include: maintenance of

printing units across all locations that include managing and providing printing

paper and cartridges, replacement or repair of damaged unit, providing a

consolidated bill that gives visibility to top management about actual spending

on printing. Besides taking care of printing needs, MPS providers also include

number of different services. They provide consolidated reports like a dedicated

web page that keeps track of printing activities, few MPS vendors (like Canon )

also give facility of remote monitoring of printer units using advanced

software. This gives the MPS provider visibility, and so they can easily track

and resolve faults. Complete life cycle asset management service is also

provided, which includes providing support to any acquisition, movement and

changes to devices, as well as the disposal of unused devices provided by

different vendors. Through such managed service, device capacity can be scaled

to meet requirements. By measuring your usage of a device, an MPS provider can

either simply maintain or replace it with a larger or smaller device to match

your organizations demand. This enables customization of the services to meet

your unique business needs. With a choice of multiple financing options, there

is no need to lock up capital in the infrastructure.

An MPS can provide you comprehensive mobile print strategy, utilizing full

range of mobile printing solutions to your organization. Instead of having

disconnected set of mobile print solutions, an MPS will work with you to define

an integrated mobile print infrastructure to meet your specific business needs.

Employees gain seamless access to network printers, wired or wireless.

To streamline communication with a client, MPS providers assign dedicated

client service managers that acts as a single point of contact. Client manager

is responsible to keep track of device fleet and take preventive measures to

ensure hassle free services to a client. Regular audits are carried out by him

to keep track on changing demands of client and to provide appropriate



support.

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Managed IT on the Cloud