Greg with "Death of the Copier" give some great questions for an end-user to ask a Managed Print Service Vendor. So when a MPS vendor is coming to pitch their product and service, ask them these questions, and it should be an interesting conversation. 1. How do you (the client) define Managed Print Services? Have your prospective provider define MPS.
2. What is his Process? Leave it at that, let him further define your question. You want to see the detail of his process, if he has one.
3. Tell me about your assessment. Get the gist of the assessment, the mechanics. You are trying to see if the proposal is the assessment - is that all he's got.
4. Clearly define your goals of an Managed Print Service engagement and have him respond to them. This means you need to actually think before you meet with the provider. You do not need to have solid goals, just a direction.
5. What goals does your prospective MPS provider have? Is their goal to ultimately replace all your existing equipment or supply source(s) with his?
6. How important is the assessment? Again, is the assessment the only tool in the shed?
7. How many units has the prospective Managed Print Service provider assessed in the last 6 months? This is simple and the numbers really don't matter, it's how he answers that matters. Does he make excuses or does he make wild claims.
8. How many units does the Managed Print Service provider currently manage? How? Same as above.
9. What percentage of savings has the prospective MPS provider achieved with clients and from what area's of cost? This is a great one, don't let him get away with quoting Gartner, All or InfoTrend or even Photizo, make him get specific. Again, the numbers don't matter as much as how he responds.
10. What was the Core business of your provider before Managed Print Services? The best question. This will tell you were he is going with your account and exactly how much infrastructure he has to support your fleet. Did they just sell boxes, service, toner supplies or a combination of the three.
Hey Bruce, this is an excellent top ten list. Wish I would have done this when we were searching out our MPS, we had a terrible experience the first go around, much of which could have been avoided if we did the research and preparation ahead of time. You can cross-post this to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/ and link back to your site. We are trying to create a directory for top ten lists where people can find your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.
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