Secular, paradigm shifting, and a defining moment inhabited by both players and posers - there is plenty of room.
Who in the world would NOT get into this?
How could anybody rationalize not having a Managed Print Service offering with a statement like, "...I don't think we can be that bullish, I think we have to react to what the market wants..."
Who could do this?
Epson, that's who.
Before I sold my first HP LaserJet Series II, there was the Epson MX-80. Nine-pin, impact printer. Before toner, there were ribbons. Before "digital" there was multi-part forms. (oh, for God's sake, Googlitize it)
And Epson was there. There from the beginning, and now, all the way to the end.
Managed Print Services is difficult.
I am beginning to think, if you manufacture hardware, MPS Purity is alot more problematic.
Source here.
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I think Epson is doing the right thing. My own company has held off on getting involved despite all the industry hype. I think time has proven our decision to be right. MPS is fading away just like all fads and buzzwords do.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I have only ever lost one client to an MPS contract offered by a competitor. Just last week I got the client back after the MPS provider failed miserably in its attempt to maintain the customer's existing fleet of equipment properly.
Xerox had promised my customer they would give the same level of service they were accustomed to even though the fleet of equipment was all relatively new Ricoh and HP. I had warned the customer that all Xerox was after was to replace their fleet with Xerox units. Sure enough six months in when the Ricoh equipment started to need things other than just toner Xerox could not come up with the parts.
When Xerox was failing to perform they tried to blame the equipment to the customer and plant the seed that the fleet neded to be replaced. The customer wasn't buying it! I now have a very strong reference to use if I ever run up against Xerox MPS again.
As far as I see MPS is no different than the copier salesmen of 10 years ago pushing "3/5 Leases". Out there promising the world that they can maintain equipment they are not qualified to work on and peddling inferior consumables in the hopes that they can sell the customer a fleet of new printers and copiers in the near future.
Hate to burst anyone's bubble.
I think that it is going to be especially difficult for the manufacuters to provide level of service that is required to execute a successful MPS offering. Epson is probably making the right move.
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