Choosing the Right Managed Print Services Provider for Your Business

Should you or should you not use the expertise of a managed print services provider? That’s the key question that many businesses, including yours, must answer. Numerous businesses choose to manage their printing fleets and print infrastructure on-site and with in-house personnel. Others choose to outsource print solutions from a third-party MPS provider. 

The global managed print services market is currently worth around $45.67 billion. However, by 2029, it will reach $66.12 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.52%. This market growth highlights that numerous enterprises are choosing managed print services companies over in-house print management. Based on current adoption rates, it’s clear that most organizations with significant printing needs choose external print management services. 

Offloading printing responsibilities to a highly skilled MPS provider can benefit small, medium, and large enterprises from all sectors. MPS providers can radically optimize printing environments, which are amongst the most important pillars of an enterprise’s operations. When an MPS provider optimizes a company’s print assets and printing ecosystem, the ripple effect can be transformative, with advantages ranging from unparalleled performance and robust security to significant cost savings and improved productivity. And that’s just to name a few.  

This blog post will guide you in choosing the best managed print services provider for your organization. However, before we take a look at important factors to consider, let us revisit some basics about MPS providers. 

What Are Managed Print Services Providers?

An MPS provider (sometimes known as a managed printer service provider or managed-print-as-a-service provider) is an organization that provides a variety of products and services related to printer fleet management. 

The main objective of an MPS program is to optimize an enterprise's print fleet device functionality. A comprehensive MPS program begins with third-party print device management experts analyzing an organization's print usage and requirements to find areas for improvement. With a strong MPS partnership, an enterprise's print assets and printing ecosystem can thrive with new-found performance, security, productivity, and cost benefits. 

So let's say an enterprise decides to work with an MPS provider. How would that collaboration play out? Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how an organization typically works with an MPS provider.  

Consultation

The enterprise that wants to optimize its print environment would request a consultation with an MPS provider. The objectives of this consultation are for both parties to scope each other out and for the MPS provider to understand the printing activities and needs of the enterprise. 

Audit

The MPS provider will dispatch various experts to audit the enterprise's current printing infrastructure. By comprehensively assessing every aspect of an organization's print activities, the MPS provider can identify what kind of optimization the business requires.

Program Design and Proposal

Based on insights gathered during the audit, the MPS provider will put together a comprehensive and intricately customized program that addresses the enterprise's current printing challenges and short-, mid-, and long-term printing needs. 

Agreement and Implementation:

The organization will assess the MPS provider's program proposal. After evaluating a few different options, the organization will choose the optimal MPS program and formalize the deal. The provider will then begin implementation. 

Management of the Service and Optimization:

When the MPS provider begins implementing a program, they will take over the management of the enterprise’s print environments. Through the course of an MPS program, the provider will continuously analyze proceedings and identify areas for improvement and optimization. 

MPS providers can work with organizations of all sizes and from all sectors, ranging from healthcare and manufacturing to education and finance. By working with an MPS provider, enterprises can focus on their core skills and projects without having to worry about printer device management.

Pro tip: you should research managed print services software comparisons to get a better sense of the advantages and disadvantages of various document solutions and print products and services. 

What Benefits Can A Top Managed Print Provider Offer?

The following are some of the biggest advantages that MPS companies can provide organizations.

Cost Savings

Numerous case studies prove that MPS providers can significantly cut print costs for enterprises. Without an MPS provider, businesses may tend to indulge in practices like printing more documents than needed, using color instead of black and white, and persisting with overly complex printing workflows. By working with a top MPS provider with cost-effective pricing plans, businesses can save these expenses and more.

Improved productivity

Print environments with fractured workflows and unnecessary bottlenecks can have far-reaching consequences. Long waiting times and frequent printing errors can deeply frustrate employees and distract them from their primary duties. Over time, this can lead to an irrecoverable loss of morale and productivity. An MPS provider can introduce streamlined workflows and digital processes and address troublesome printing bottlenecks. By doing so, they will improve productivity and help nurture a culture of collaboration, an essential ingredient for success in a volatile world.  

Reduced Downtime

It’s easy to underestimate the consequences of malfunctioning office printers. From simple paper jams to more technical challenges with multifunction printers, printer errors can be a nightmare to deal with. MPS providers can streamline maintenance and repair services to ensure that businesses maintain uptime and don’t waste precious time and productivity on fixing office equipment.

Proactive Maintenance

Businesses that don’t use the services of MPS providers may have to find printer repair services or service technicians when things go wrong. By using an MPS provider, printer management solutions and maintenance becomes a smooth and pain-free experience. Certified technicians from the MPS company can help your organization by keeping an eye on the lifecycle of your printers and consumables and knowing when they need maintenance, replacement, or replenishment.

Strong Customer Support

Even in a single business day, employees may face multiple printer-related challenges. By commissioning third-party MPS services, enterprises can use their provider’s around-the-clock helpdesk to lodge complaints and receive assistance whenever required.

Boosted Sustainability

Most modern businesses focus on becoming greener, reducing their carbon footprint, and using fewer resources. An inefficient print environment can have a negative environmental impact. Therefore, using an MPS provider that focuses on the optimization of print environments via automation and better resource utilization can be a game-changer when it comes to sustainability. 

Robust Print Security

It’s difficult to imagine how simple office printers can cause cybersecurity or data privacy disasters. But the truth is that cybercriminals can use any device connected to your network as a gateway to sensitive documents and data. A couple of years ago, a team of security professionals deliberately hijacked 28,000 printers to create awareness about exploitable printer security vulnerabilities.  

For cloud-based businesses and those at any stage of a digital transformation process,  secure print environments are a must. MPS providers can help implement robust security measures such as multiple authentication steps to optimize document security and safety. 

Remember that these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to MPS benefits. Now that you have a good understanding of what MPS providers are and what advantages they bring, let’s focus on how to choose the best provider. 

How To Choose The Right MPS Provider For Your Business Needs? 

In the last two sections, we spotlit the importance of a robust managed print services program. Now let’s look at some critical factors and recommendations to consider when choosing a provider that suits your business needs. 

Assess your printing requirements 

It’s impossible to find the right MPS provider without knowing what your exact printing requirements are. That’s why it’s important to conduct a thorough assessment of your printing ecosystem, objectives, and needs. 

Luckily, your business doesn’t have to conduct this assessment on its own. Most MPS providers will offer assessments to understand your printing needs better before suggesting a print services package. 

Therefore, step 1: identify an MPS provider and request an assessment. 

Look At Your Scalability Plans 

To choose the right third-party print services provider, you need to know how your organization will scale in the future and whether the MPS company can keep up. Therefore, it’s important to assess your long-term goals and share your scalability objectives with potential MPS providers. 

Some critical information you need to get from MPS companies is whether your print services contract allows for any flexibility and what kind of scaling-related costs and complexities may arise. In short, find an MPS provider who can scale alongside your business instead of lagging behind. 

Gauge the MPS Provider's Document Management Software Solutions

The era of stuffing countless filing cabinets with thousands of documents is long gone. That approach is expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating to manage. Most businesses are trying to evolve to a paperless approach to document management, which is why it's vital to choose an MPS provider with robust and scalable document management systems and software. 

With a strong and centralized document management software suite, an MPS provider can help businesses store, manage, and retrieve documents with ease and without the costs and hassles of managing physical documents. Top document management software can also make mobile printing straightforward and simple and can automate previously convoluted workflows. Furthermore, it can ensure that businesses harmonize their cloud-based document management with their printing environments. 

All in all, top-quality document management systems and software are one of the most important benefits of third-party MPS programs. 

Evaluate Your Security Risks 

The global threat landscape is more dangerous than ever before so businesses need to treat printer security as a topmost priority. By looking at organization-, region-, and sector-specific security threats that you face, you can assess whether potential MPS providers have the cybersecurity and printer security capabilities to secure your company. 

You’ll know when you find the right MPS provider because they will have advanced security acumen and skill sets to keep your printing software and firmware patched, your critical data encrypted, your most sensitive documents protected, and your compliance posture healthy. 

Choose MPS Providers With The Right Services 

It would be wrong to think that all MPS providers offer the same services. Some MPS providers offer only print management, whereas others may offer a full spectrum of print security or custom solutions. Similarly, some MPS providers may specialize in printer hardware whereas others may focus more on software. 

With such a diverse variety of MPS providers available in the market, you need to ensure that you select the MPS provider who specializes in what you need the most. Choosing the wrong provider can actually increase costs and further complicate your print environments. 

Focus On Cutting-Edge Print Solutions 

Like every other modern enterprise, your company needs to distance itself from legacy printing solutions and embrace cutting-edge tools and capabilities. Therefore, identify whether potential MPS providers use the latest technologies and proactively upgrade their printers and copiers as well as their backend infrastructure and tech stack. 

What are the advantages of choosing an MPS provider with the latest printing technologies? Streamlined and seamless printing services, real-time monitoring and reporting, robust security, and enhanced predictive maintenance. 

Find Optimal Managed Print Services Pricing Plans 

One of the main reasons to use an MPS provider is to cut down printing costs. Therefore, it would be counterproductive and even dangerous to choose MPS providers with suboptimal or extremely rigid pricing plans. 

Assess the MPS provider’s solutions and packages and get a sense of the total cost of ownership. Learn about specific managed print services' average cost per page. Make sure that there are no hidden printing-related costs. When it comes to pricing plans, transparency is of utmost importance. 

It’s also critical to choose MPS providers that have flexible pricing plans because your business may need to make strategic pivots in the future that may demand different kinds of print services. 

Work With Well-Reputed Mps Providers

There’s a huge pool of MPS providers for you to choose from. But how do you make the right choice that aligns with your business needs? One of the sure-fire ways of finding the right MPS provider is looking at their track record, especially with companies in similar sectors or on similar growth trajectories. 

Other factors to assess an MPS provider’s reputation include their net promoter score (NPS), print manufacturing and management awards, and recognition in print services vendor assessments, landscape reports, and sustainability shortlists.

An MPS provider with successful case studies and satisfied clients is an obvious green flag. In a crowded and fiercely competitive market, focus on MPS providers with experience, skills, and reputation that specifically relate to what your organization requires.

Conclusion

Choosing an MPS provider that suits your specific needs can be a challenge. In this article, we explained what MPS providers are and what transformative benefits they can bring to your print environments. These benefits include cost savings, reduced downtime, proactive maintenance, customer support, boosted sustainability, and robust print security.  

We then moved on to some tips and recommendations on how to choose the right MPS provider. Critical recommendations included assessing your printing requirements, analyzing your future scalability plans, evaluating security risks, identifying the right printing services, choosing cutting-edge print technologies and solutions, finding the right pricing plans, and analyzing the reputation and track records of potential MPS providers. 

By following these recommendations, you can easily find an MPS provider that aligns with your objectives and business needs and benefit from streamlined and seamless printing environments.