The Managed Print Services Renaissance is here.

"Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge..."

The die was cast a decade ago; the rise, fall, and rise again of managed print services was foreseen. Even as office printing wanes, and withers, we are amid a Managed Print Services (MpS) Renaissance and age of enlightenment.

"Remote work is accelerating the A4 shift at lightning speed, ransomware and bad actors heighten the need for analog backups (paper), user authentication and print tracking/control are becoming normal, and that all adds up to new ways of doing business and new opportunities to manage that print."

Those survivors stand at yet another precipice:

Do we move forward with managed print services, or do we leave it in the dustpan of history?  

This is a valid question.  

Output will never return to the 1999 levels.  Covid shifted workers to the countryside, miles away from our big scanners, printers, fax boards, 3-hole punches, and embedded applications.  

So, what now, sell vacuum cleaners?  Maybe?  Look into EV Charging stations? Yup.  Pivot into managed IT?  You haven’t made that move, yet? 

Oh boy.

Before you make that investment into water services or vending machines – consider revisiting managed print services.  

I know the MpS movement appears to be running on fumes and I know there are anti-MpS prognosticators filling the cyber-sphere with emotional appeals to reject managing output devices and business processes associated with print.  They are shills criticizing the old definition all while they bemoan the status quo, they’ve become the status quo.

Ignore the naysayers and managed print services haters – let not their poison find your ear.  Put aside the fact that fewer people are printing and copying. 

“As long as there are documents being printed there will be a need to manage the output.  Whether it be insourced or outsourced, small or large, efficient, 

or not. The question has never been about MPS 'existence now or later; it's about who does it and why. 

Virtualization has not removed printing it's just added an inefficient wrinkle that this industry hasn't yet efficiently scaled to. High-cost-per-print renewable solutions from OEMs for the remote worker will ultimately get replaced by indirect providers as long as there is an efficiently developed model to monitor on a decentralized scale. Rinse and repeat.” 

– Kevin DeYoung

MpS is not dead, but it is NOT a panacea.

"Managed Print isn't dead, it's never been even close. Yes, people are printing differently, yes, digital workflows are replacing more and more paper-based ones. 

Yes, print is not the growth engine it once was, it hasn't been so in like, forever.  BUT print is persistent. Ever pervasive. Almost part of our DNA. 

Remote work is accelerating the A4 shift at lightning speed, ransomware and bad actors heighten the need for analog backups (paper), user authentication and print tracking/control are becoming normal, and that all adds up to new ways of doing business and new opportunities to manage that print.”

– West McDonald

Now is the time to double or triple down on managed print services. Sound crazy?  It is crazy. I'll give some reasons to stay the course, but first, how do YOU define managed print services?  

1. Delivery of service and supplies, for A4 devices, billed on one, monthly invoice
2. The management and reduction of the costs associated with printers and copiers
3. The proactive management of output devices and surrounding business processes

Also, what are the goals of your MpS program?

1. Customer retention
2. Account Control
3. Equipment placements

More importantly, what do prospects say about managed print services?

1. “What's MpS?” - Which is more important?  Your view or your customer's?
2. “We already have our copiers on a service contract.” - Who educated your prospect? Not you?
3. “We are managing printout of the process.” - Join them on the digitization path.
4. “We don't print anymore.” - Find another way to help through business acumen for Sales.

Once you define MpS as more than supplies and services on a monthly invoice and get your head out of the empty toner box, you’ll see a vista of opportunity. MpS is a launchpad, an on-ramp into managed IT services and workflow optimization. 

But it doesn’t stop here: cloud print, remote monitoring, and asset management are the building blocks of a greater foundation.

Defining MpS larger in scope allows:

1. Exposes more opportunities - IT, security, workflow, communications, document destruction...
2. Opens the door to the IT realm - The DCA, network probes, servers, backup, security
3. Builds trust - Shoulder-to-shoulder with clients

I shouldn’t need to say this, inefficiencies occur when workflows include paper and processes are duplicated.  Look at your business.  Do you put your offerings into silos?  Of course, we do, and looking at MpS holistically, dissolves boundaries between print and IT assets.  The end-users.

“To be, or not to be?  That is the question.”

“It’s 2022.  The global reaction to the Covid-19 virus has exposed many weaknesses in the business environment in the U.S.

 

While the hybrid workplace and remote workforce movement began showing signs as early as 2010, the total lockdown in America’s largest cities forced the issue of the need to digitize all the paper document workflow of any viable organization.  Just as the terrorist attack devastation on 9/11 in NYC briefly caused large organizations to consider their contingency plans in case of another terrorist account or catastrophic natural disaster.

 

Yet, with all the trends and preaching by the manufacturers of hardware and software as far back as 1991, most “copier” dealers are still not prepared to assist their clients or even their own organization.  

Why? 

The status quo is hard to change, even when the writing is on the wall – thrice now. 

There are numerous other variables to contribute to the lack of change by traditional copier dealers.

At the end of the day, it is up to the ownership and leadership of each organization to make some hard strategic decisions NOW.”

22 years and 3 major economic events to encourage change have passed (9/11, Great Recession, Global Covid-19 Pandemic)

Joe Barganier –

Five reasons the time is right to triple-down on MpS:

1. Work from anywhere. Remote workers won't print even a ream of paper a year, but they'll still request on-site support.  Bolster your IT position by advocating the work-from-anywhere movement with bundled technology packages and onsite support calls.  We've done this before.  Just don't call your team the "Geek Squad".
2. Lower volumes. Companies continue an accelerated journey toward digital nirvana.  Don't fight it. Help them get there with less friction. Examine why and how print jobs are created and look for ways to remove paper out of the workflows.  Remember your clients are eliminating waste and removing print on their own, guide your customers along the journey. Become what said we would be, but never did.  Be The trusted colleague.
3. Low competition. Lots of dealers are shuffling MpS to the back burners of their line, seemingly ignoring print. We know that isn't completely true, but the Covid shock has made some of your competitors pull back to their core offerings.  Fill that void.
4. Reduced IT staff.  This is a great opportunity.  The ones who didn't allow your DCA on the network are gone. The ones remaining have had their priorities shifted to remote workers.  They do not want to handle printers. Fill that void.
5. Cooperation.  To compete with large, national dealerships, the independent dealers are sticking together to support each other’s installations and service contracts. Now more than ever, reaching out to a colleague across the country is easier and more fruitful.

 “…as page volume declines the only way to survive is to capture what remains then pivot…”

 – GW

Timing is everything

Print volume will never reach zero – the printed page will survive.  

But for those of us who earn a living off of output, we need to capture as many images as possible, right now because the window of opportunity is closing. 

This is it.

Grab whatever clicks you can now.  Build relationships with dealers of like minds and sizes in markets across this country - help them service their customers in your area. Look at EVERY opportunity, charging stations, audio-visual, closed-circuit cameras, IT assets, and yes, even vacuum cleaners.

"I'm cautiously optimistic.  Covid presented us with great challenges but for those of us who were nimble and quick to respond, the worst, I hope, is over.  We will see improvement as some return to the office but we will never see the volumes at pre-Covid levels.  It just isn't going to happen."  

- Kevin Morris

The MPS Renaissance is more than a bounce in sales, it is a period of enlightenment.  

Our customers demand more from us now - and now, finally, we can deliver. It is time to be serious about solving instead of selling a box of promises wrapped with speeds and feeds.

We are living in a time when technology is bringing magic to life, the first time in the history of mankind where data, facts, and information about the world around us literally exist at our fingertips.  

Enlightenment is at hand.

During this time, snap up as many images as you possibly can learning as much as you can.