What is a Managed Print Service (MPS)?

What are Managed Print Services?

In short, MPS is the active management of an organizations print and imaging infrastructure. 

Many organizations that decide to actively manage their printing infrastructure choose to seek an external service provider to streamline their output management. 

What does MPS really mean?

What this really comes down to is making your printing costs visible, and controlling your print output; it’s all about awareness and managing costs. Many organizations do not know how much they're actually spending on printing, and in many cases if asked to estimate the costs, perceive them to be significantly lower than they really are. Implementing MPS generates savings on capital and operational costs, greater productivity and a more consistent user experience. Simply consolidating and replacing old inefficient devices can deliver significant savings. Improving operational processes such as supplies and maintenance will also deliver further savings & enhance productivity. 

When you choose to implement a MPS solution you should expect your MPS provider to:

1. Gain a thorough understanding of your organizations current state. This typically will include identifying print device numbers, locations, output volumes and associated costs but should also include understanding the current printing issues.

2. After your goals and current document workflow situation is calculated, a rough proposal will be drafted. This will indicate the ideal combination of hardware, software and process development to generate the maximum return on investment.

3. Once you’ve had time to review the proposal with management, coworkers, and other team members, you’ll meet with your MPS expert. This gives you the opportunity to discuss questions and suggested changes. The goal with MPS is to create a solution that works for you. From there you will work out a contract, sign off, and begin utilizing the extra help and efficiency.

Five Features of MPS :

• Devices (Printers/MFPs): This does not mean setting up all new printers. MPS manages your current print fleet, along with new devices, and of course has options for upgrading your current fleet.
• Supplies: A MPS provider will manage the ordering and distribution of your devices’ supplies centrally, such as toner, to save hassle & downtime.
• Dedicated Support: This ensures that you have a technical support team available either remotely or on-site to maximize performance and reliability.
• Fleet Maintenance: A big part of MPS is continued tracking of the status of your printers and/or the page volume produced on each device.
• Regular Performance Reviews: It is incredibly important that your MPS provider reviews with you, on regular basis, your cost analysis, savings, and overall experience in case something needs to be adjusted.

Implementing an MPS can deliver significant benefits both in terms of direct cash releasing savings and indirect productivity benefits. It's important to remember though that the key to delivering benefits is active on-going management of the printing infrastructure and this is what defines a true Managed Service.