Five Lessons Learned from the Executive Summit
I hope that everyone who attended our first Executive Summit found the content to be refreshingly unique and actionable. If we did our job right, you learned something new that can be applied to your MPS program and made industry contacts that can help support your managed services initiatives.
There were a few points and topics that stood out to me during the event. If I could boil the lessons learned down to five points, these would be them:
MSPs Are Increasingly Offering MPS
In his keynote, Tom Gall, director of value channel marketing at Xerox, kicked off the event and talked about how managing print is a natural extension for managed service providers. I agree with him that MSPs may have an advantage over traditional office equipment dealers when trying to seal an MPS deal. From the client's perspective, it's not a stretch to hand over the management of printers to a company who already manages their network, e-mail, desktops, etc. An MSP is already the client's partner and is entrusted with sensitive information. It's a bigger stretch for a client to trust their office equipment dealer to install monitoring software on their network, because the existing relationship is based on commodity sales and break-fix service. Right now, there's still room for both in the market. Tom shared the statistic that one in four MSPs provide MPS, but that 26.1 percent said they will begin offering it within the year (Source: IPED / Everything Channel, 2009; Managed Services Study). At the same time, there is still only a small fraction of the market under an MPS contract: although 93 percent of solutions providers offer or will soon offer managed services, only 52 percent of their install bases are under managed contracts, and less than 5 percent are under managed print services contracts (Source: IPED, Managed Services Study, 2010). I think the takeaway is that to stay competitive in the long run, MPS companies will need to expand the types of managed services they offer, or partner with MSPs that can offer complementary services.
Support All Brands of Devices
This point came up a few times, but maybe surprisingly in the presentations given by Xerox and Océ. Even the OEMs recognize that MPS cannot be about swapping out all of a customer's existing devices with their own models. What customers need is for you to manage their existing devices when it makes sense, and only bring in new devices when there is true value in doing so—replacing really old devices, bringing in a machine that has additional features that they need, or consolidating several expensive machines (and even then, maybe there's an existing device that can be used to consolidate). The bottom line is that you need to be able to service a wide variety of machines from several manufacturers—at the very least, the most popular ones.
Cost Savings Don't Make the Deal
Another point made a couple of times, but particularly by Michael Greenberg of Océ MPS during the session focused on the end-user's perspective of MPS, is that cost savings should not be the top priority when making an MPS deal. In fact, maybe cost savings shouldn't be a priority at all. Clients just need to be able to print without hassle. MPS is about managing the client's printing devices (regardless of brand) and minimizing downtime by making sure they get supplies and service when needed. In many cases, substantial cost savings will only be realized by removing, reallocating, or replacing devices. To do this overhaul upfront could be scary for the client and make for a longer sales process. But if you go in with the value proposition of relieving their IT department from managing printers, making sure they receive the right supplies and service when they need it, and consolidating all of their printing costs into one invoice from one vendor, it's hard to go wrong. Most companies have no idea what they are spending on printing anyways, so simply having a consolidated invoice is a great improvement. Cost savings can come over time, as you build the client's trust and learn what can and can't be changed in their printing environment. MPS is a valuable service, not a commodity, and should be presented as such.
Partnerships Make Life Easier
It's something that is often heard from early adopters of MPS: if the programs available now were available when I first started, the transition would have been much easier. This was reiterated several times during the panels at the Executive Summit, as well as during the partnership-focused session presented by Tim Brien of OKI Data Americas and Kathy Cauldren of KT's Office Services. The lesson is important whether you are seasoned in MPS or are just getting started: the right partners will make your life easier and help grow your MPS program in a faster, more efficient manner than you could do on your own. Software vendors, supplies and parts distributors, leasing companies, service organizations, trainers, consultants and industry associations all have something to offer. Maybe you don't need all of these, but evaluate potential partners thoroughly and choose the ones that are right for your business. With so many choices out there, you're bound to find a good fit.
Human Resources, Human Resources, Human Resources
In the end, it's all about the people you have to drive your managed services programs. It was clear that executives recognize this, because we heard more discussion and feedback about the presentation from Sally Brause, director of human resources consulting at GreatAmerica Leasing, than any other at the event. There have always been debates over whether or not the people who drove transactional sales could also be successful in a solutions-driven business. Sally gave us some insight into the personality traits that drive success under the two models; in short, she said there are differences between the ideal candidates for transactional versus managed services sales, and that using methods such as behavioral-based interviews and job shadowing will help filter potential candidates. With so much interest in this topic, stay tuned for The Imaging Channel to cover this in other mediums soon.
Thank you to our sponsors and speakers who made this first Executive Summit possible. The feedback we have received so far has been great, and the 2011 Executive Summit should be even bigger and better. Whether or not you attended this year's event, we would love to hear your ideas and suggestions for future events. Contact us at any time with your thoughts.
Posted by Emily Offshack on 10/13/2010