Print.IT Reseller - issue 75

01732 759725 ONE-TO-ONE 20 Over 1,500 dealers in 55 countries are leveraging MPS Monitor to manage their devices in a simple efficient way, improving customer service levels and drastically reducing costs. Michelle Ryder spoke to CEO Nicola De Blasi, to find out more about the company’s plans to partner with more dealers in the UK MPS Monitor to expand presence in the UK Platinum rating Recently, MPS Monitor 2.0 was awarded a Platinum Rating by BLI in five main categories: features and productivity; usability; IT admin and security; support and training; and value. In its report, BLI stated: “MPS Monitor is a full- featured MPS solution that lets dealers monitor print fleets dispersed among many customers, proactively manage consumables replenishment and use powerful and sophisticated tools to analyse data.” The 2020 BLI testing assessed the new features that version 2.0 brings to users. The report highlighted: n Clustered DCA technology provides maximum reliability and security in data collection; n Off-the-shelf integrations with most standard ERP platforms and a full API/ SDK developer’s toolkit make it easier than ever to integrate with dealers’ IT systems; n Security and privacy of data are managed within an ISO27001-certified environment; n MS PowerBI Embedded Analytics and the new Supplies Intelligence module allow dealers to optimise their operational processes and analyse critical data through the most advanced AI and BI technologies. “BLI’s Platinum seal is an excellent achievement for us, that rewards the incredible job that the whole MPS Monitor team has done to create version 2.0,” De Blasi said. “Our clear objective since we started the design and implementation of the new version, was to position the platform way above the market in terms of feature richness, usability, security, integration and business value. The 2020 BLI report and the Platinum evaluation make us feel that this task was fully accomplished, and the excellent feedback that we get every day from the thousands of dealers using MPS Monitor 2.0, are fully confirming this.” MPS Monitor is available to dealers in over 55 countries worldwide. The company manages EMEA customers from Italy and has a presence in Korea which covers the APAC region and in the US, looking after US, Canada and Latin America. Additionally it has distribution partners across EMEA, South Africa, India and Latin America. De Blasi says the company is looking to partner directly with dealers in the UK but expansion will also be assisted through its partnerships with companies including Katun and Asolvi. The Asolvi relationship is pertinent in that it provides seamless integration between MPS Monitor and the ERP platforms used by dealers in the field. HP Smart Device Services Notably, MPS Monitor has full integration of all the functions available on the HP Smart Device Services (SDS) platform and is the platform of choice for HP to provide HP SDS, in selected countries, particularly in the US. New functionalities within the MPS Monitor SDS platform allow HP partners and dealers to provide a superior level of service - printer fleet managers have advanced and innovative tools for remote hardware management, diagnosis and problem solving, thus reducing effort and costs for maintenance operations, In 2010, De Blasi spotted an opportunity to provide a platform that would enable dealers to automate the manual processes associated with installed printing devices. MPS Monitor was developed and launched in Italy and within five years, had become the leading platform in the Italian market. Version 1.0 of the platform was first tested by Buyers Laboratory/Keypoint Intelligence in 2016 and achieved a Gold rating – an accolade that positioned it among the best platforms on the market at that time. “We didn’t look outside our home market for some time,” De Blasi explained. “However, we realised there was an opportunity to roll out the solution globally and so we invested heavily in a multi-language major technology refresh, building a new cloud- based, pay-per use platform which would deliver even more process automation, security and stability in data collection.” This investment resulted in the launch of MPS Monitor 2.0 in 2019. According to De Blasi, the new SaaS cloud platform is completely different in terms of usability and stability compared to the earlier version and provides everything that a dealer needs. Nicola De Blasi