Everything old is new again. Managed print services (MPS) was the darling of the document imaging industry over a decade ago, holding out the promise of a steady, predictable revenue stream for OEMs and office equipment dealers amid declining print volumes and shrinking hardware margins. As the years progressed, however, the bloom came off the rose as a “race to the bottom” mindset among some providers pushed per-page prices so low that dealers could not turn a profit on contracts where margins were literally in the tenths-of-a-cent—or even hundredths-of-a cent—per page.
But a funny thing happened on the journey between then and now. Office equipment manufacturers continued to tweak their programs, incorporating new offerings and capabilities that add value to an MPS contract while, at the same time, the as-a-Service model began to gain favor among IT purchasers. The result: MPS is again a leading engine for growth and profitability in the office equipment market.
Beyond Break/Fix
Mind you, these are not the MPS contracts of yore, where a customer paid a set amount per page (or per “click” in industry parlance) for monochrome and color pages and got the device, consumables, service—and not much else. While those simple MPS contracts still exist, today’s more comprehensive MPS programs weave in print management, document services, and cloud infrastructure. So, earlier this year Keypoint Intelligence fielded a proprietary study to ascertain what the major players are offering in this space.
For this study, we invited the leading document imaging OEMs to answer an in-depth questionnaire and optionally provide a briefing to our analysts focused on the advanced MPS programs they offer directly and through their dealer partners. (It’s worth noting that some vendors refer to it as Managed Print-as-a-Service (MPaaS); when pressed, no participant indicated they made a distinction between MPS and MPaaS.) The study assumed that each vendor’s program included the “table stakes” MPS inclusions of meter collection, consumables replenishment, as well as remote and on-site service of devices. Instead, we focused on advanced offerings such as a program’s ability to support home-based workers, print management features (such as secure pull print and mobile printing), document workflow capabilities, and suitability for “zero trust” network environments. Also note that we did not address any managed IT services (MITS) an OEM might offer under a separate contract, as that will be the topic of a future study; this current study focused on services available under the auspices of an MPS contract.
Xerox Stands Out for Its Comprehensive MPS Offering
In evaluating each vendor’s submission, Keypoint Intelligence analysts applied a scoring rubric to determine the relative rankings for each participant. When the math was done, Xerox stood out from a strong field. The company is now being honored with a BLI 2022-2023 Pacesetter Award in Comprehensive MPS Programs. Myriad factors contributed to the company’s strong showing, chief among them being:
- A full complement of advanced offerings that span from traditional MPS to cloud print management as well as content and document workflow solutions
- A cloud-first development path that allows for flexible deployment models and supports zero-trust IT initiatives
- Pivoting to include home-based workers in the MPS ecosystem, including the ability to track at-home prints even from non-Xerox devices
- Full inclusion of office equipment dealer channel partners, who have access to the full suite of Xerox tools, programs, abilities, and marketing support
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Xerox MPS Advanced Analytics delivers an intuitive dashboard that uses AI to let
customers drill down into the details of their print and scan infrastructure data. |
“MPS is not a ‘one size fits all’ proposition as customers have differing needs at the onset and evolving requirements as an engagement matures,” said Jamie Bsales, Principal Analyst of Smart Workplace Solutions at Keypoint Intelligence. “Our MPS Market Insights study showed that Xerox offers a continuum of services, from traditional MPS to capture and content services to customer engagement services, that match the needs of enterprises and small- to mid-market companies alike.”
A Market Insights Report on this study will be published in the InfoCenter. Subscribers can log in to view it very soon, while others can send us an email at sales@keypointintelligence.com for more details.
