01732759725
Print.ITReseller
20
q&a
Winning at a
canter: learn from
the bestMPS
practitioners at
TransformGlobal
Photo credit:
kentuckytourism.
com
Crowley:
We are seeing all those
approaches being tried. In Europe, IT
providers still have a pretty small share,
but here’swhat I think is going to happen
becausewe have seen it happen inNorth
America.About two years ago, a lot of
OEMs started saying ‘Hey, you’ve got to
get intomanaged services’.At that time,
many dealers had agreementswith IT
service providers to go in to a customer
together: onewould provideMPS and the
other would provide IT services.After that,
dealers started offeringmanaged services.
Now I havemore andmore IT resellers
coming up tome and saying ‘You know
what, I used to partner with a dealer until I
found out I was competingwith him.Now
I actually offerMPS because I have to. It’s
defensive – it leaves a door open if I don’t’.
In theUS, IT resellers are starting to come
intoMPS in amuch bigger way, if nothing
else for defensive reasons. I think that will
happen in Europe – probably in theUK
first – but I don’t think it’s happening yet.
We are a year ormaybe a littlemore away
from it yet, but youwill see that shift start
to occur.
PrintIT Reseller:
Why should an IT
director trust the guywhomanages
their printerswithbusiness process
optimisation?
Crowley:
Because inmany cases that
person has been dealingwith documents
that are part of the core business process.
However, you can’t go in as ‘the printer guy
who is now going to helpwith business
processes’: that doesn’t have credibility.
What you have to do is say ‘I understand
your business processes, these are the
issues you are having and here is howwe
can help youmake those processes better’.
That’s very credible.You need a significant
upgrade in sales ability and delivery
capability in order to be able to do that.
PrintIT Reseller:
If resellers are to
prosper,will they have to change the
way they charge for services?
Crowley:
We are seeing a change in
businessmodels. Fleetmanagement will
become a pure utilitymodel where the
customer says ‘You put the equipment in
and you own it and I am just going to pay
for usage’.That utilitymodel is going to be
very common.You are also going to see
modelswhere a lot of the contract revenue
comes from software fees and professional
service fees. Companieswill say ‘Wewill
implement this system for you;wewill
manage it;wewill store your documents
securely and remotely;wewill provide all
theworkflow elements.We are not going
to charge you anything upfront,we are
just going to take one hundredth of a cent
per page to handle document repositories,
tomove documents around etc.’.That
model is relatively new but it has a lot of
attraction for customers, as they don’t have
to buy andmanage a lot of infrastructure
and assets. Look at salesforce.com.
A company can go out and buy CRM
databases formuch less than they pay
salesforce.com, but they don’t do that.
Why is that? It’s because salesforce.com
gives them scalability and flexibility: you
add a seat, you drop a seat; your data's
there, it’s secure and it works.That’s the
model I thinkwewill move to.
PrintIT Reseller:
With initiatives like
HP Instant Ink are resellers also
facing increased competition from
vendors?
Crowley:
Absolutely they are.Think about
what HP Instant Ink does: essentially it’s a
managed print service for the individual,
so in that kind of model it’s all about how
you deliver themost cost-effective, efficient
service possible. It’s like cellphones: it
takes a lot of upfront investment – huge
technology investment – to be able to do.
But once you'vemade that investment you
have a very scalable offering.A vendor that
has invested in the infrastructure needed
for that kind of model should see a real
competitive advantage in having anMPS
deliverymechanism for anything from one
person to an organisation of 100,000
people. HP still does a lot of business
through its channel, andwill continue to
do so, but you have to look at that and say
‘Wow, if I was a reseller I would be a little
concerned about what that says about the
future of service delivery’.
PrintIT Reseller:
Finally, beforemy
readers turn todrink, are there any
reasons for resellers tobe cheerful?
If so,what are they?
Crowley:
I don’t think it’s a case of drink
and despair. If youmake the transition to
a service-centred businessmodel, you are
going to deliver value to the end customer;
you are going to be closer to the end
customer than anOEM ormanufacturer is;
and you are always going to be faster and
more flexible.The guys that really embrace
this and develop a services-led business
model might find that they can bring value
to the customer in amore responsive,
customisedway than anOEMwith a big
mass of programmes can.That’s a huge
competitive advantage. I think they have
a fantastic opportunity. However, there is
one caveat: if you don'tmake that change,
if you continue to do business theway
you’ve always done it, then business is
going to get tough.Youwill be at a huge
disadvantage.That said, the guyswho I
have spoken towho are going through this
transformation are excited.They are having
fun and are building really profitable
businesses.
Tofindoutmore aboutmanaged
print services, book a place at
PhotizoGroup’sTransformGlobal
2014 conference, takingplace
in Louisville, Kentucky on June
2-42014.Visit
.
photizogroup.com
formore details.
...continued
A company
cangoout
andbuy CRM
databases
formuch less
than they pay
salesforce.
com, but they
don’t do that.
Why is that?
