The Single Most Important Tool In Managed Print Services

6/15/08

- A Game of Six Inches –

And by “Six Inches” I mean the space between your ears.

Anyone can take a set of pre-written interview questions, read them out, and write down the response. Anybody can get meter reads and divide by total months in the field and get an average monthly volume. And anybody can attend one of a plethora of newly created “How to sell/implement/create/invest in/market/make a profit in Managed Print Services” courses.

And I recommend every single course. As a matter of fact, I recommend that all my competitors take continuous courses, read thousands of articles, plan, strategize, forge partnerships with vendors and distributors, test all the meter reading tools, attend all the manufacturers’ “How To” seminars, develop hundred-page spreadsheets to determine CPC – please, by all means, you can never learn too much. You study, I'll "do".

All the books, all the courses, all the Powerpoint presentations in the world will only give you “book smarts” and as Springsteen says, “…we learned more from a three-minute record than we ever did is school…”

It isn’t all about facts and numbers, it’s about people. It’s not about first copy out time or the fact that duplexing can save trees and the Chewbaccas , it’s about the CEO’s assistant not needing to babysit the color copier on a Saturday afternoon, missing her kid’s ballet recital.

The sad news is this – I am talking about wisdom and true wisdom comes over time, not on slide 82 of 150. And fortunately for some, we’ve been in the business long enough to remember the look on people’s faces when they saw the very first letter printed on a laser printer – and we were witness to all the changes in business due to technology.

And if you have always been selling with high intent, doing what is best for your customers and yourself, learning about each business you have been fortunate to visit - taking all that in over the years then you are in a very fortunate position. Celebrating the successes and learning from the failures.

If you are one of those, you know this Wisdom is Platinum, and it is the acumen that corporate leaders will pay greatly to be in the company of. All that needs to be done is effectively communicate the results of your study through the prism of your wisdom. (I hope somebody is writing this down, these are priceless drops of gold)

If you are new to MPS or to sales or to helping customers solve problems, let not your heart be troubled, start today. Start engaging your prospects to learn more about their business, their personal challenges, their ups, and their downs - talk and learn more than just CPC, FCOT, fuser, toner, supplies, and jams.

That's right - Six Inches.

The Second Most Important Tool in Managed Print Services

MPS is all I talk about...I have been performing MPS assessments pretty heavily over the past few weeks and I find that although we have many tools, I am still making things up as I go along. After reading Ken’s post I knew I had to complete my current article. Ken’s post resonated with me regarding the Tools of MPS.----

Current MPS tools consist of spreadsheets, interview forms, data collection sheets, automated data collection devices/software, supplies cost matrixes, etc. All geared around collecting the Technical data, i.e. volumes, lease end dates, lease payments, overages, 11x17, first copy out speed, duplex...blah blah blah...this data is mundane and acquiring it is fatiguing but necessary.

The collected data is one-dimensional and any “monkey” can collect it. Unfortunately to some providers and many customers, this is the extent of the information used in the analysis.

The Second Most Important MPS Tool: The Interview -

When interviewing, many issues are exposed, some that may not at first seem to be MPS-related.

The idea here is simple - the End User interview, the Director interview, and the C-Level interview are all treasure-laden conversations. Corporate directives, cultural issues, political hurdles, and decision-making processes all become apparent as progression is made through the organization.

As an example, I am currently working on 3 separate assessments for 3 clients - one is what I call a "Mini-Assessment"; which means we are only looking at 25 devices out of a fleet of 220. The idea is to analyze these units for fiscal '08, get the refresh approved, and continue the study into year's end for fiscal '09 upgrades. The goal of this study is to form a Standard Requirements List for all future hardware/copier acquisitions.

In this particular case, the overall organizational goals are:

1. Reduce operational costs by 5% without “Reductions In Field”
2. Increase employee job satisfaction
3. Improve Customer Service

Now, the above three goals are not revealed when you plug in your "nonobtrusive" Print Audit tool into a USB port, are they? Nor do these three goals fall out of the bottom of a spreadsheet after entering all the machine types, volume levels, and power consumption, do they? No, no, no.

Ask questions.

Talk to everyone, make it your process - if your contact doesn't allow you access - fire them.

Covering All the Bases – Strategic Approach

When interviewing the questions asked are important but the people you ask are much more important. This is my personal application of a strategic approach. I see four types of interviewees:

1. Your Coach
2. The Technicals
3. The End-User
4. Project’s Economic Influencer

• Your Coach
• This person is convinced that MPS is the way to go. And he wants to see the project (and you) succeed. And your success is tied to his perception within the organization. You must make him look great, if you fail, he loses credibility.
• The Technicals
• These folks hold “go/no go” over the final recommendations. Their perspective is on the functional issues of the program. They are focused on issues like network compatibility, end-user support functions, invoicing and billing procedures, and maybe all the way down to duplex capabilities of the hardware.
• The End-User
• The End User must be satisfied. When interviewing and speaking with the End User you must have a clear idea of what direction the organization wants to move. For instance, if one of the basic goals is to reduce all the locally connected, desktop inkjet printers, check with IT to insure how they want to approach the subject.
• The End User has a wealth of “everyday issues” that cause workflow bottlenecks. Their visibility into the organization is restricted but at the local level the information obtained can be very illuminating.
• Economic Influencer(s)
• This entity releases the funds necessary to move forward with the project. Interested in cost reduction and R.O.I.
• These interviews are most likely C-Level players. I do not recommend asking the CEO if “duplexing is important…”

Every successful project includes covering ALL these bases with relevant (from their perspective) questions.

Imagine – when you contact ALL the above types - your picture of the organization’s output fleet would be detailed to the nth degree. You would be aware of the business culture and how it will react to change. And hopefully, this insight will allow making a solid, agreeable recommendation proven to positively impact the organization’s overall goals.

This brings me to the most important tool in the MPS shed - to be found in a later post.

Konica over Océ, could this be the next big acquisition?

AMSTERDAM (Thomson Financial) - Oce N.V. shares rose in late morning trade amid speculation Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. is interested in building up a stake in the company, if their recent technology partnership bears fruit. Article here.

At 11.37 a.m., Oce was up 2.43 percent to 9.28 while the AEX was trading 1.41 percent lower to 478.69.

Abn Amro Wim Gille said that if Konica buys a stake in Oce, the move will trigger further speculation of a full take over of the Dutch company.

The analyst said a combination between the two is 'very logical' and would be able to challenge Xerox head on in all of its markets.

I am not sure how the Dutch government plays into all this but it doesn't sound like the government will be an impedement to some sort of deal.