An Assessment is Not an Intersect
On NBC's "Chuck," the title character has the entire database of CIA intelligence embedded in his brain. When he sees an object or person that is in the database, it triggers a "flash" and he immediately understands everything that needs to be known about that object or person. This conglomeration of data is known as the intersect.
Wouldn't it be nice if, in the managed print world, you could collect printer data using an MPS software tool, look at the data, and immediately understand exactly what needs to be done to optimize the client's print environment? Unfortunately, it's almost never that easy. So the question becomes, how much information do you need to develop recommendations that are close enough to creating an optimized environment? When is software data enough, and when is it critical to have more?
Here's a quick summary of information you might want for an assessment, broken down by software data vs. supplementary information that could be obtained in a variety of ways, including interviews, office walk-throughs, questionnaires, etc.
| Software Data |
Supplementary Information |
|
- Number of printing devices |
- Number of employees
- Dispersion of users and printers (a map) |
|
- Printing devices that are too old to be managed with an MPS program |
- Functionality that users need to have in their printing equipment |
|
- Number of pages being printed to networked printing devices |
- Number of pages being printed to locally connected devices (arguably, some software applications can provide this)
- Number of pages that actually need to be printed (what documents are currently being printed and is there a better way to distribute the information) |
|
- Number of different models and supply types being used |
- Quantity of supplies inventory actually being held
- Internal IT time spent supporting printing devices |
|
- Current cost of hardware and supplies (using page volumes, model information, and pricing information you have on hand) |
- Current cost of service, internal IT support and administration |
When developing an assessment, you have to consider the traditional tradeoffs of time vs. cost vs. quality. With software data alone, you can develop an assessment quickly and at a low cost, but it's not going to be perfect. To get a more accurate assessment, you may spend one or more days making phone calls and conducting costly office walk-throughs that will delay the delivery of your recommendations—even then, it's not going to be perfect. The more variables you take into consideration, the more you have to consider the relationships between them, and at some point you just might need an intersect to figure it out.
For the most part, the complexity of an assessment comes down to prospect size. I think most small to medium businesses will welcome a simple, concise proposal that can be developed primarily with software data. You can ask a few questions that are easy to answer and give your analysis more substance: how many employees do you have? How many or what percentage of your users have desktop printers? Enterprise accounts are a different story. It's a longer sales cycle to begin with, and since so many factors could impact the profitability of the account, it makes sense to put more work into additional analysis.
As usual, one size does not fit all. Luckily, an implemented MPS program is not an end state, so the important thing is to get your foot in the client's door, provide them with excellent service, and be flexible with their program over time. Keep the assessment as simple as possible out of the gate and adjust as needed. If your pricing hinges on what's discovered in the assessment, you might lose money in some accounts by ignoring a few variables—that's why you should take more time with enterprise assessments—but by using a one-size-fits-most model for SMB accounts, your margins will average out.
On a side note, one variable I haven't mentioned at all is page coverage, which previously warranted its own blog entry on whether or not having specific data was critical.
Ideally, MPS is less about the initial assessment and implementation and more about the ongoing management and partner relationship. Of course, you need to win the accounts first. I would love to hear about different approaches to assessments. Please feel free to share your approach in the comments!
Posted by Emily Offshack on 03/30/2011