The enemy of great is good. We have been doing good things in our businesses for so long. They have prevented us from doing great things – like making more profits. Take a look at this actual customer fleet to understand the business logic.
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The traditional MPS strategy would have you manage device models that you are capable of repairing. This ignores the obvious issue that many of these devices are old and have very low page volumes. You will never recover the money you “invest” in repairs from these devices. In addition, they are single function monochrome printers that (based on an example of 200 pages per month) will generate less than $5 per month in revenue. If you consider monitoring fees, invoicing and tracking, that’s really not interesting business at all.
If you truly want to cut your service costs (and department!) in half, here are three things you need to stop doing right now.
1. Repairing old devices. Anything under 200 pages per month and older than 10 years old should be quarantined and designated as do not repair. These devices need to be replaced when they break down, or the customer can decide in cases where volumes are exceptionally low, to migrate pages. Your MPS Contract must reference these benchmarks and specify which devices do not qualify.
2. Replacing Single Function Mono Devices with Single Function Mono Devices. Stop doing this. Just stop! Replace Single Function Mono devices with color MFPs instead. This is a much easier sale in 2015 than it has ever been. Why repair any 10 year old mono device when you can get a new color MFP that is 5/50/500/5000? What does that mean?
• It costs less than 5 cents per page;
• It can print 50 pages per minute;
• Hardware costs are less than $500;
• It can print 5,000 pages per month.
If you are selling to IT, the one thing we know is that they like new toys. The new generation of desktop color MFPs has arrived. Embrace it!
3. Resisting Centralized Printing. Migrate customer fleets to central color MFPs. Page volumes are declining - but not uniformly. Some departments are seeing rapid decreases in monthly volumes, while others are showing a more gradual decline. The logic of having workgroup printers nearby users may no longer hold. Centralized printing can open the door for greater control over information and workflow. If anything, the scatter diagram above indicates that there is a definite need for rationalization. Seize the opportunity to centralize pages into a central print station. While you’re at it, install walk-up/pin code/swipe printing as well.
Repairing devices is good, but not great. If you think you can get to great incrementally, you are wrong. You need to get serious about cutting your service departments in half. MPS Toolbox can show you how. Click here to book a demo today.
