Guest Column | June 2, 2015

3 Business Challenges Solved By Managed Print Services

By Dan Troup, Vice President, WW Sales Enablement, Nuance Communications

As organizations move toward digital workflows and traditional printing continues to decline, resellers and dealers are promoting managed print services (MPS) as a way to drive growth. With MPS, businesses can simply turn the entire process of office printing over to a third-party service provider to reduce overall printing costs and optimize the entire print environment. For channel companies, the ongoing nature of MPS allows for recurring conversations and more touch points with the customer, which results in an improved, mutually beneficial relationship.

But while typical MPS engagements start with a focus on reducing print costs, the real value of MPS comes from helping customers drive productivity through improved business processes. Ultimately, the goal of any managed print engagement should be to create the most efficient and effective document workflow environment. Here are three major challenges your customers are facing that can be addressed by MPS:

  1. Runaway Printing Costs. Organizations are looking to gain control over their print equipment, consumables, replenishment, repair, and IT operating costs. MPS software provides activity tracking and analysis capabilities for all printing, photocopying, faxing, and scanning to identify improvement areas and cost savings.
  2. Data Security Vulnerabilities And Compliance Risk. MPS software can ensure the security of every print, copy, and scan job. For example, it can hold documents in a secure server until users authenticate at the printer so documents are never left unattended in an output tray. MPS also allows organizations to manage the lifecycle of documents across the enterprise, which is essential for compliance and information governance. By creating a useful audit trail of which people and documents were involved in printing and scanning, MPS can help organizations enforce company policies regarding the retention, destruction, and distribution of information.
  3. Counterproductive Workflows. A key part of any MPS strategy needs to be analyzing office and departmental workflows to identify where automation can streamline processes and enhance productivity. Scanning provides an on-ramp for adding paper-based information directly into business applications, such as a scanned receipt automatically entering the expense report stream. It creates searchable digital files which eliminate the labor required when users hunt for information manually, and can even convert to standard office file formats, like PDF or Microsoft Word.

When managed and implemented properly, MPS streamlines office document strategy, helping print and imaging dealers go beyond cost savings and turn customer printing resources into a source of productivity improvement. As a result, resellers and dealers can strengthen their customer relationships to become an indispensable partner. Driving value and profits for customers translates to repeatable, long-term business.

So, if you haven’t done so already, initiate the conversation with your customers about how they could benefit from MPS. Make sure that your approach begins with completely understanding your customers’ existing workflow processes and their balance between digital and paper-based content. Then, help them identify the right technology solutions to lead a more efficient and secure document strategy. Not only will this drive your business beyond printing into value-add services, but it will strengthen your customer relationships and increase profitability.