MPS
PRINT
IT
RESELLER.UK
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The ability to offer managed print
services (MPS) is becoming ever
more important for printer resellers,
IT service providers and office
products suppliers.
For printer resellers, growing demand
for MPS and associated services is reason
enough to develop a services capability,
but there is also the risk that if you don’t
get involved you will be operating in a
rapidly shrinking market, locked out of
future MPS engagements by long contracts
and high renewal rates.
Telling resellers to get into MPS is
easy, but for them to acquire and develop
the skills needed to plan, sell and deliver
MPS takes time and resources that not all
resellers have. Resellers know they need to
get into MPS, but many don't know how
to do it.
The same is true of IT services
providers. Moving into MPS makes sense
from a business perspective, especially
the later stage involving business process
optimisation and transformation. However,
the idiosyncrasies of printer hardware and
the additional support requirements mean
many IT resellers have struggled to make
the transition.
So what is the solution? Short of taking
over a company specialising in MPS, what
can a reseller do to gain the necessary
skills to compete in managed services?
Expert help
One option is to draw on the expertise
of a third party like NewField IT. Its three
lines of business include consulting
services for end users and the channel; the
development of specialist MPS toolsets like
Asset DB, widely used in the industry; and
Systems Integration and Support.
The Systems Integration and Support
division sells, implements and supports
third party software, which it distributes
almost exclusively through the channel.
These include print management
systems (Equitrac, SafeCom, YSoft SafeQ);
scanning and workflow solutions to
streamline business processes (eCopy
ShareScan and Nuance Autostore); mobile
printing systems (EveryonePrint and Xerox
Mobile Print); and fax products (RightFax
and MPSfax).
As a Xerox company, NewField IT also
carries a number of products for Xerox
ConnectKey MFPs, including Xerox Secure
Access, Scan to Sharepoint and Scan to
Cloud.
Jack Enthoven, Systems Integration and
Support Director at NewField IT, says that
their services are particularly useful for
resellers entering unfamiliar territory.
“If an IT reseller is moving into the
print world, they run into quite a lot of
difficulties in dealing with devices and their
peculiarities,” he said.
“Unlike servers or workstations,
print devices don't all have nice well
behaved, well understood Microsoft
operating systems. All the manufacturers’
hardware is completely different: within a
manufacturer’s range, you will get product
families that are totally different and
even within a single model, each machine
can be quite different depending on its
firmware and what’s been installed on it
before. It's a more complex world than IT
resellers are used to, and they appreciate
help from a team that really understands
embedded software and all the different
MFD platforms that are out there.
“On the other side of the fence, a
traditional copier company moving into
the managed print world has a different
type of difficulty. They are very familiar
with the hardware and clicks and feeding
and watering these devices, but have
much less familiarity with the IT side. They
have difficulties talking to the customer
PITR discovers how NewField IT can help resellers sell, implement and support MPS
Expertise for hire
about infrastructure, architecture, planning
deployments for resilience/disaster recovery
and all the complexities of working with
databases and networks that are much
more familiar to an IT reseller. They benefit
from talking to a company like us that has
a strong IT pedigree and can help manage
those discussions with their customers.
They can remain focused on the devices
themselves while we look after the IT and
systems side of things.”
NewField IT’s seven-strong team of
UK technical consultants offers help with
both pre- and post-sales consulting.
Consultants will talk to the customer to
understand what they need and then
build a customised proposition based on
market-leading solutions that deliver value
for money and concrete savings. Post-sales,
they will implement the solutions and
integrate them tightly with a customer's
single- or multi-vendor environment.
Flexible engagement
Enthoven says that NewField IT is very
flexible in the services it offers and can
accommodate diverse needs.
“There are a lot of different sorts of
channel partner out there, so we have a
flexible engagement model. Some partners
are new to solutions or are trying to work
on a solutions opportunity with a piece of
software they don’t know and they want
us to do everything – all the pre-sales
type of work, scoping and specifying and
designing a solution; the implementation;
and the on-going support. We will very
happily do all of that.
“Other partners we work with have
skills in solutions; they have their own
technical team, their own help desk and
they just want to use us as a distributor;
they want to buy licensing and software
and that's it. That’s fine too. And we do
everything in between.”
Enthoven adds that NewField IT has
a well documented, ISO 9001-certified
methodology for doing deployments and
that responsibility for delivery can be
divided between its consultants and the
reseller.
“We have a very structured approach.
continued...
Short of
taking over
a company
specialising
in MPS,
what can a
reseller do
to gain the
necessary
skills to
compete in
managed
services?
