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MPS
Leading players in the MPS ecosystem are
working together to make it easier for MPS
providers to analyse end user data. So far,
the results are only available in the US, but
the initiative does set a precedent that could
inspire players on this side of the Atlantic.
James Goulding reports
The whole picture
Robert Newry, co-founder
of NewField IT, is a great
advocate of end user data in
MPS engagements involving
fleet optimisation.
“Eight times out of 10,
looking only at device data and
the location of printers will be
sufficient to make savings and
efficiencies. But two times out
of 10, you will end up getting
it wrong and that will impact
suppliers’ profits and the
efficiency of users,” he said.
Newry argues that any
analysis based purely on printer
page counts has to make
assumptions about end user
printing habits that in some
cases will be flawed.
“MPS is all about providing a
more efficient and value added
service around printing. The way
this has been achieved to date
is to look at data from devices.
You see a hardware device doing
5,000 pages a month, you look
at where it is located and you
assess whether you can get rid of
it and consolidate it with another
device nearby. That approach
delivers savings, but it has
limitations.
“If you see a heavily used
device, the tendency is to
assume that everyone is
printing to that device and that
if you move it and change the
configuration of the fleet, the
print volume will simply move
to the next nearest device and
people’s printing habits will stay
the same. The reality is people’s
printing choices aren’t based
on where the nearest device is;
they’re based on their needs –
does it have A4 or A3?; does it
have letterhead paper?; does it
have stapling?.
“When you overlay user data
on a floor plan, and not just
device data, you see the other
half of the picture: you see where
people really are doing their
printing. If a machine is doing
40,000 prints, the assumption is
that it is being used by the whole
floor, but that volume could be
coming from just two users,” he
said.
Better decision-making
At the beginning of last year,
NewField IT introduced a new
module for its AssetDB printer
fleet visualisation software
that allows users to view end
user and device data on office
floorplans. The new feature lets
an MPS consultant drop a person
onto an office floor plan to see
what machines they print to,
when and in what volumes. It can
also be used to show how many
people use a particular device.
The potential of this software
to improve decision-making is
obvious, but so far its take-up
has been disappointing. This,
Newry explains, is due to the
complexity of combining data
sets from end users and devices.
“There hasn’t been an easy
way to link the two up,” he said.
“An SNMP tool is used to retrieve
page counts from devices, while
end user data comes from an
agent on the user’s PC or server.
The reason you can’t pull data
together is that one set comes
from a device with a serial
number and IP address and
the other from a print queue. If
you have 100 devices, you get
100 page counts. But assuming
you have a user to device ratio
of 5:1, those devices will serve
500 users, and if they print 100
pages a month, you suddenly
have 50,000 lines in a .csv file.
That’s a massive challenge in
terms of data and to date no one
has really tackled that.”
In order to overcome this
limitation, four leading MPS
players – FM Audit (SNMP
device management); Preo
Software (end user monitoring);
NewField IT (fleet visualisation);
and Supplies Network (MPS
programmes for the channel) –
have formed a coalition to put
end user data alongside device
data at the heart of every MPS.
Already, this has made it
easier and cheaper for the
channel to integrate and make
use of both data sets:
1. Preo has unbundled its
product set and is now offering
a data-only SKU that gives
MPS providers end user
data and reporting at price
levels comparable to device
management software;
2. FMAudit is using Deployer
software to enable resellers to
install both FMAudit and Preo
in customer environments
via a single user interface,
making device and end
user data more accessible
for fleet assessment and
management. For ease of
deployment, a single install
process pushes the dealers’
suite of MPS tools to the end
users’ desktops; and
3. Supplies Network has
integrated its 360 Plus
Database with NewField IT’s
AssetDB solution so that
device and end user data
from FM Audit and Preo
applications can be imported
in one .csv file. This will enable
resellers to monitor network
and local devices, end user
printing behaviour and the
relationship between the two
in a visually compelling way.
So far, these developments are
only available to resellers in the
US, but by demonstrating how
the channel can cost-effectively
make better use of both data
sets, they make it more likely
that MPS providers on this side
of the Atlantic will soon be given
the tools they need to gain a
complete view of customers’
printing activities.
Screenshot taken from Asset DB displaying a visual representation
of user/device data