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BUSINESS INKJETS
Business inkjets, offering high speed,
low cost, energy-efficient printing,
have been making significant inroads
into the office printing space. Already,
25% of business printer installations
are business inkjet. With the launch
of its new Print 365 managed print
service, Epson is making them even
more attractive for small and medium-
sized businesses, as well as resellers
that previously might not have had
the expertise to deliver MPS. James
Goulding finds out more from Daniel
Wogan, Epson Europe's Product
Manager for Market Development.
PITR:
What is Print 365?
Daniel Wogan:
It's like a mobile phone
contract wrapped around a printer, giving
the end customer a very easy, manageable
print fleet (or single machine) with one
single monthly payment. We see it as
an ideal proposition for SMBs or any
organisation that could be considered to be
a small business, like a GP practice, a school
or potentially even a home office, as a way
of supporting a managed print service for a
dispersed workforce.
It wraps everything into a single monthly
payment: hardware, consumables, service,
delivery – all are covered by that single
monthly payment. There's no capital cost, no
upfront payment – just an operational cost.
The reseller doesn’t have to buy
anything. In effect, a facilitator purchases
products from distribution on behalf of
the reseller and leases them to the end
customer. The reseller doesn't have to invest
anything in the hardware. We recognise
the whole value of the margin on the
consumables and the hardware across the
36 months of the contract and pay that to
the reseller up-front.
PITR:
What products can be acquired
under the Print 365 scheme?
Wogan:
It applies to all Epson Workforce
Pro business inkjet products, starting with
the Workforce 5, which incorporates mono
and colour, single function and multi-
function desktop products, including a RIPS
variant [with extra-large ink tanks that last
for the lifetime of the machine]; then the
Workforce 6, our heavier duty, A4 product,
available in desktop or freestanding versions
configured with multiple trays and a cabinet;
up to the Workforce 8, which is our A3
product with single function and MFP,
desktop and floor-standing versions, and a
RIPS variant.
PITR:
When would you recommend a
RIPS variant?
Wogan:
When the customer has heavier
print volumes. On the higher end A3
packages, we offer an 'an all you can eat'
bundle, subject to a Fair Use policy to
make sure everything is kept within the
parameters of what the engine is capable
of. For £155 per month, this lets you print
up to 300,000 pages over the lifetime of
the device. Broken down across a 36 month
contract, this works out at 8,300 pages a
month, which can be split any way between
colour and mono, A4 and A3.
PITR:
How can customers work out
which package they should be on?
Wogan:
There are a couple of different
ways. There's a very simple iframe on
Epson's website, also available for resellers
Epson has launched a basic managed print service (MPS) for its
business inkjet devices, wrapping hardware, consumables and
servicing costs into an all-inclusive monthly payment.
A big step for
business inkjets
to embed on their own websites, which
gives a break-down of the range, letting
the customer choose a print volume and a
page size.
We also have a print assessment tool
that can sit on a customer's network for 1-3
months and analyse their printer activity,
showing the cost of running their fleet
and its electricity consumption and carbon
emissions. This enables resellers to have a
conversation not only about print costs but
also about how to make their print fleet
more sustainable.
The Print 365 portal uses this data to
create a 12-page assessment, giving a full
breakdown of what the customer is currently
doing and how much money and electricity
could be saved by switching to Epson
business inkjets under a Print 365 contract.
The workflow in the portal allows a reseller
to move a customer very quickly from
assessment to quotation to contract. It's all
managed through the portal, with visibility
at every stage.
We are giving our resellers a set of tools
that enables a consultative sell, making it
very easy for an IT reseller and VAR to add
that layer of service around managed print.
PITR:
Are there any penalties for
customers who exceed the monthly
page allowance for their chosen
package?
Wogan:
There are over-printing costs,
but they are ridiculously competitive. For
example, with a big A3 RIPS device, the
£119 per month package buys 4,000 mono
pages and 2,000 colour pages per month.
If you exceed that volume you pay only
one third of a penny per mono page and
2.26p per colour page colour. That pricing
is published and transparent – nothing is
hidden from the customer.
Moreover, the print volume is aggregated
It wraps
everything
into a single
monthly
payment:
hardware,
consumables,
service,
delivery – all
are covered
by that single
monthly
payment
continued...
EPSON :
Print365
