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PRINT.IT 15 www.binfo.co.uk
then devotes one whole day to
processing them: ‘Did you know
we have printers and software
solutions that can automatically
scan in a claim and also extract
metadata so that you can
process that automatically? All
you need to do is take a claim
put it in the scanner, select scan
and press a button to initiate
a workfow’; or ‘Did you know
you can add additional offers
to invoices to generate more
business?’. These are just two
examples based on where we
have experience with other
clients. And that’s what clients
pick up on and makes them
ready to accept the next layer –
where you can add innovation,”
he said.
A mature offering
Phil Pate, enterprise sales
director at Lexmark, believes
that as the MPS market has
matured organisations have
become more open to BPO
projects.
“Organisations are now in
their second and third contract
term. I see it becoming more of
a mature offering. Previously – 3
or 4 years ago – MPS was very
focused on printers and printing.
It now includes workfow and
addresses process improvement.
Before, lots of companies talked
about process improvement but
very few companies acted upon
it. We now work with customers
to identify cost savings in
printing – the volume and shape
of that – but we also look at
the whole workfow and provide
services around how a document
fows through a business.”
He adds that the focus on
business processes has the
potential to achieve even greater
savings than feet optimisation,
though they might be harder to
measure.
“We normally provide savings
of 40% – our highest ever
saving is 52% – but this is in
Year One. Get three years down
the line to the next contract
and customers say ‘Where’s
my next 40%?’ and we say ‘You
are running leaner now so cost
savings have to come from the
workfow component’. Hopefully,
soft costs, such as people and
process times, will dwarf print
savings. If you are working
with a bank that has to retain
documents for compliance or
face fnes if they fail to meet
targets, then the value of cost
savings and cost avoidance are
potentially huge.”
Print services
Nor is this transformation
limited to enterprise customers.
Jonathan Wilson, market
development manager at Konica
Minolta Business Solutions,
believes there is huge potential
in the SMB market too.
“This is where a lot of cost
pressures come from – to start
implementing print services. It’s
going beyond hardware and into
the document lifecycle piece. In
this space, there’s the potential
to rationalise equipment but
we are going beyond that to
business process outsourcing:
we take a document in any form
and carry it all the way through a
process,” he said.
“We know that an
organisation spends 2-5% on
print and 15% on document
management and ineffcient
processes. This is a signifcant
sum of money that can be
returned to the bottom line. You
can cut costs in many ways: IT
hardware and print hardware
will get you so far, but the client
will ask where am I going to get
further savings from.”
Better margins
This point is echoed by Nuance’s
Simon Hill. “There is only so
much you can reduce the cost
per page by. Once you have
made savings through right-
sizing, how do you continue to
show an improvement? Over the
next year or two customers that
implemented MPS three years
ago will be re-tendering and so
the big hit – we can save you
30% – may not work. We need
to move resellers from looking at
print and copy and get them into
selling added value solutions.
“Everyone is interested
in business effciency and
saving money, from SMBs to
enterprises. The real question
is can resellers keep up and are
they equipped to sell MPS?
“Today most go and sell
around print and copy. We are
encouraging them to identify
additional costs in customers’
environments – to look at
document storage, document
distribution, different workfow
processes. What forms are
used? What are the workfows
around that? We are trying to get
pre-sales consultants to focus
more on document workfows
rather than just print and copy.
They can add more value to
customers by building solutions
on MFPs and creating workfows
for devices. For the reseller, it
means more revenue, better
margins, and because the MFPs
will become more important
to customers, it will help them
protect their MIF (machines in
feld) from the competition.”
Gone electric
This transformation is necessary
not just to meet customers’
demand for on-going cost
savings in their second and
third MPS engagements, but
also because it refects the
changing nature of information
delivery, storage, processing and
management.
“Paper used to be a storage
medium,” explains Lexmark’s
Phil Pate. “In the ‘80s you
would write or type information
on the page and stick it in a
fling cabinet. Then it would
be copied or reproduced as
required. Now all storage has
gone electronic. Everything is
stored electronically so paper
has become a transient medium
for viewing and reviewing
documents. Once fnished with,
it is scanned back into electronic
storage.
“People still print loads but
they don’t store it. There are
fewer fling cabinets and people
have smaller work spaces. They
print documents because it’s
easier than doing everything on
one screen: they print it, work on
it and then dispose of it.”
Today, it is no longer good
enough to address just one
part of the document lifecycle.
Instead MPS providers must
tackle it in its entirety. This will
extend the scope for customers
to make savings whilst also
opening new revenue streams
for resellers. If done well, it
should lead to deeper, longer-
lasting relationships from which
both the reseller and customer
beneft.
Phil Pate, enterprise sales
director at Lexmark
“There is only so much
you can reduce the
cost per page by. Once
you have made savings
through right-sizing, how
do you continue to show
an improvement?”
Jonathan Wilson, KonicaMinolta Business Solutions: “MPS is going
beyond hardware and into the document lifecycle piece.”