If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: The wrong strategy for your Managed Print Services (MPS)

Managed Print Services (MPS)

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the thinking that if something is performing or functioning well enough, there’s no need to change or interfere with it.

If you find yourself (or your peers) saying, “We’ve done it this way forever, or, “We have used them for years,” or, “To change will take too much time,” you’re a believer. It’s not surprising. After all, with all of us going 100mph, 24/7, why change what seems to be working?

The answer is hiding in plain sight: What if what seems to be working, isn’t? Even if something’s working 99% of the time, the 1% that’s broken can make the difference between success and failure.

Consider these 99% effective/1% ineffective statistics and decide whether they’re acceptable:

• 107 incorrect medical procedures will be performed by the end of the day today
• Two million documents will be lost by the IRS this year
• 22,000 transactions will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next 60 minutes
• 14,208 defective PCs will be shipped this year
• 103,260 income tax returns will be processed incorrectly this year
• 3,065 copies of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal will be missing one of the three sections

We all realize it’s impossible to “fix” everything that isn’t functioning perfectly, but it’s always wise to evaluate elements that are key to the success of your business.

For example, when was the last time you looked at the real cost of printing for your company?

If you’re like the thousands of business professionals we’ve met over the years, your answer probably falls somewhere between “it’s been a while” and “never.” Business printing often seems like something that can’t be “broken,” so why fix it, right?

The decline in office printing has been happening for years, but the pandemic accelerated it almost overnight. When assessing the impact of the global work-from-home movement, office printing shrunk by 40% in the first half of 2020, according to Gartner data.

If you’re engaged in a traditional managed print services program, office printing started costing a lot more right around March since you’re likely still paying for equipment that’s sitting idle. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Even the most diligent business administrators can overlook total print spend because costs are distributed in most organizations and difficult to see.

Most dealers and manufacturers will tell you the cost of an image contains the lease or purchase amount of the equipment plus service costs, divided by the number of images made, but that’s too simplistic. Print expenses are often found in different departments of your company, each having their own specific needs for managing documents in both hard copy and digital. And when you add them all up, it’s not uncommon to find they cost more than 1% of a company’s overall revenue!

So maybe office printing is broken after all. What’s the fix?

There are three key components to a well-run MPS program: on-site services, off-site services, and virtual services.

1. On-site services encompass the equipment inside your offices – small format printers, wide format printers and that is associated with them: consumables, maintenance, service.
2. Off-site services encompass the work that either cannot or should not be done onsite and are sent off-site to a professional print provider.
3. Software services to keep the document in its digital environment, organizing and storing it so it’s accessible for current or future use.

A true MPS solution ties all three of those components together by maximizing cost reduction on your print expenses. If you manage and take control of only 75% of your documents, you are managing only 75% of your costs.  If you’re spending a million dollars a year across an enterprise, that’s $250,000.

A true MPS solution will give you the insight and control to manage 100% of your documents whether they are on-site, off-site, or virtual, and that means you’re managing 100% of your costs.

How do we fix it?

ARC isn’t incentivized to sell you equipment; after all, we’re not a manufacturer of printing equipment. We’re service providers, so we make money when you print smarter.

Approximately 90% of manufacturers revenue comes from selling hardware, with 8% coming

from selling consumables, and just 2% from providing services. By contrast, we make most of our money from providing great service, and we do that by helping you manage ALL of your print services.

ARC’s needs analysis provides visibility into all departments that carry print costs, and its the first step in taking control of your printing. We’ll help you:

• Reduce active print management tasks.
• Audit all devices that produce a print across your whole organization
• Reducing the amount of printing equipment, including large and small format, and black & white, and color.
• Reduce multiple invoices from various vendors to one monthly bill, saving hours of accounting time.
• Reduce service disruptions so your people can keep working.
• Re-focus employees on profit-driven activity.

It’s fixed.

As our clients take control of the direct costs associated with their printing, they see time and cost savings in the indirect category as well.

• One vendor with a customized solution provided all across the US.
• A single point of contact.
• Consolidated electronic billing synced to your ERP system.
• ARC’s proprietary technology applications to reduce waste and streamline print management.
• Intelligent fleet, equipment and document tracking with Abacus.
• Increased document security.
• Best environmental practices. ARC’s technology systems focus on eliminating print waste and use of environmentally friendly practices.

Curious about a “fix” for your printing solutions? Explore them with us and find out why some of the largest construction, engineering, energy, and design companies in the world are working with us.

Learn more about https://www.e-arc.com/enterprise-customer-solutions/