The Imaging Channel

What Is Your TPO? Is It Just MPS?

This guest blog was contributed by Mike Stramaglio.

How long has it been since we all started talking to our customers about the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the equipment we sell? What a compelling way to help customers understand that it’s not just the cost of the equipment they need to consider; they also need to look at the cost of consumables and maintenance as well as the reliability of their devices. What if you apply similar thinking in evaluating your business and your TPO (total profit opportunity) by looking beyond the profit you make by selling devices and solutions to your customers?

Similar to the TCO pitch you give to your customers, you need to assess all aspects of your business with a keen eye on profitability. In last month’s blog, I recommended that you consider the information exchange that your business does outside of your MPS practice and contemplate how you link your service fleet, customer communications, industry knowledge and sales data into an integrated architecture that will empower your business to be more efficient and profitable and will enhance the value of your core product offerings while enabling expansion into new markets and opportunities. Those considerations are key elements in understanding your TPO and understanding that automation of your people, processes and technology will dramatically increase your revenue per customer and drive profitability to your bottom line.

Obviously, one way to increase your TPO is to expand your product offerings beyond MPS and move to more of a managed services focus on solutions you can provide your customers that are not print-related. Some of the key areas outside of the traditional MPS box are security, document management, “green” solutions and IT services.

With a managed services approach to security, you can increase your TPO with solutions that make customer devices, documents and workflows more secure. By the way, security is always in the top three priorities for any savvy corporate IT department. Where do you think MPS falls on that list of priorities? Corporations are also very focused on green initiatives. While it’s always great to do whatever we can to protect the environment, when I talk with CEOs, the green that they are focused on is money. With that in mind, is it any wonder that corporations are focusing on major print/paper reductions by implementing increased use of tablets and other technologies that greatly reduce the need to print? How will that trend impact your business? A great way to increase your TPO, help your customers be green and save green all at the same time is to help customers manage power consumption with solutions that can monitor and reduce usage.

We all know that one way to grow your business is to increase your company’s market share by beating your competition and adding new customers. But what about growing your TPO by increasing your footprint with your current customers? Have you ever considered helping your customers manage all of their connected technologies instead of just their printers? You already have the relationship, and you also have the core competencies required to manage assets. Why not extend your services practice to help them manage PCs, servers and cloud-based solutions? After all, the deeper you get into their business, the tighter the relationship.

Another way to dramatically increase your overall TPO is by fully automating your people, processes and the technologies you use to run your business. With the right automation in place, you can increase the efficiencies of your service techs. By providing them with tools that will allow them to receive direct communications from MFPs, such as alerts, your techs will be able to diagnose problems and take steps to resolve issues before your customer even knows there is a problem. Think of how that could significantly reduce the number of callbacks for your service techs. As you may know, 30 percent of the MFP service problems reported by customers can be resolved by simply turning the device off and restarting it. How many service calls could you avoid if you could restart the device remotely without ever having to roll a truck?

Similarly, what would it mean to your total profit opportunity if you had the ability to automatically drop-ship consumables to your customers by utilizing machine-to-machine technology that lets the MFP order consumables with no human interaction? Would that reduce your inventory either at your customer locations or your warehouse and increase your inventory turns?

With the skyrocketing cost of gas today – and they say it’s only going to get worse – managing your service fleet should be one of your highest priorities. Reducing the miles that you put on your trucks is another way to seriously impact your TPO. By implementing GPS technology with your service fleet, you’ll always be able to dispatch the closest qualified service technician and know exactly where your trucks are at all times. How much would it increase your overall TPO if you simply reduced fuel usage by 5 to 10 percent?

With all of the dramatic changes and increased costs happening in our industry, it’s no longer enough to look at ways to increase profits and revenues through the products and solutions that you sell. It’s now imperative to clearly understand where the hidden costs are in your operation while moving to increase your footprint with your current customer base by stepping outside of the MPS box and focusing on your total profit opportunity!

Contact Mike Stramaglio at mike.stramaglio@mwaintel.com.

Posted on 02/21/2012