01732 759725
14
INTERVIEW
upload customers’ meter readings direct
to our system and our invoices are much
more user-friendly and easier to understand,
with actual and excess copies clearly
documented. This transparency and clarity is
reducing invoice queries and helping speed
up the payment cycle.
In addition, TVP is easy to sell because
the customer benefits are significant. With
TVP, partners are offering a very attractive,
easy to digest solution: there’s no upfront
costs or complex contract; customers simply
pay an agreed cost per print with one
invoice per quarter, which makes budgeting
a breeze.
Because TVP requires dealers to
regularly assess customers’ print volumes,
it helps them to develop a deeper
understanding of their evolving print
requirements. This places partners in a
strong position to win more business
and can help them build better customer
relationships that last longer.
PITR:
We recently featured
another of your managed print
solutions, We Manage Print.
How does TVP differ?
CC:
Whereas TVP is designed to fund new
print fleets, We Manage Print is a solution
that will support dealers who are looking to
take over a customer’s legacy equipment.
As a leasing company, it’s contractually
challenging to include equipment we
don’t own on a leasing agreement.
We can’t include it on a volume-based
product, such as TVP, as the customer
owns the kit. However, we know that many
manufacturers offer a ‘walk in, take over’
proposition where they take over service
responsibility for the customer’s entire print
fleet, not just those devices that they had
initially supplied, and we recognised that
we needed to offer our dealer partners
something that would help them to
compete.
So we developed We Manage Print,
which allows vendor partners to offer a
similar capability. It’s simple. Not only can
a dealer deploy a new total print solution
for customers, but under the same finance
contract they can assess the customer’s pre-
existing print equipment fleet and assume
the service and maintenance for this too, on
the same agreement.
For the dealer, this helps them to win
new business and to build and maintain
deeper customer relationships and secure
extra service revenues. Additionally, the
improved relationship places them in a
strong position to upgrade any device
that has reached the end of its optimum
working life, simultaneously locking out the
competition.
This innovative product perfectly
complements TVP and is a great unique
selling point for us.
PITR:
What, if any, are the
challenges for dealers leading
with a TVP offer?
CC:
We’ve redesigned the product and
developed it so that it accurately meets
current market demands and product
changes.
For example, we have two meters,
one for colour and one for mono, and
we’re investigating a third to differentiate
business/professional colour in line with
recent changes to some OEMs’ product
capabilities and pricing structures.
We have to keep on top of continuous
advances in software, and realistically
consider how much can we do. And we
continue to invest so that the product
supports the needs of the users it’s
designed to serve. When we first launched,
adding software to the agreement was not
even considered, now it’s almost a given.
Warranties remain a challenge. We
have to consider all scenarios, but if the
dealer shows that they have purchased a
manufacturer’s warranty we will add that in.
We’re prominent in the industry and
we stay close to our customers. Plus, we
attend all industry conferences and events,
a strategy that ensures we keep abreast
of change and see where the market is
heading, which helps us to stay ahead of
the curve.
PITR:
How have you enhanced
your TVP offer since its original
launch?
CC:
As I mentioned earlier, we invested
heavily in technology to improve our billing
process and that’s now working as it
should.
We are very confident in our product
and its position in the marketplace. TVP
(and the company) has been around
since 2001 and this product is absolutely
integral to our offer. In the same way that
technology has continued to change, we,
too, have had to rethink and evolve our
offer and how we address ever-changing
market challenges.
Simply standing still with only the
standard minimum term rental in our
portfolio was not an option. Our ethos is
to differentiate and offer something that’s
quite unique and we’re confident we’ve
achieved that with TVP.
adding that to the cost of a contract for
new equipment; or they risk business
downtime and expensive maintenance fees
by sticking with their ageing kit until the
end of the contract term to avoid paying
high early exit fees.
Neither solution is ideal for the
customer or the dealer, as it’s highly likely a
dissatisfied customer will go out to tender
and that the dealer will subsequently lose
that business to a competitor.
This is where TVP provides a real value-
add. The customer pays one transparent
cost for an agreed total volume of prints
and once that agreed volume is achieved,
the equipment can quite simply be returned.
With a Total Volume Plan, the customer
can budget ahead, enjoy better cost control
and cross charge usage internally. The
contracted volume is billed in advance and
any excess usage is billed and itemised
separately so total costs are always
transparent. The customer benefits from
a known cost per machine and a single
billing source for all equipment and service
charges, which can dramatically reduce the
amount of time they need to spend on print
fleet administration. This in itself is often
incentive enough to run with TVP.
As the contract is based on volume not
time, the customer is less likely to be stuck
with a print fleet that needs heavy servicing
and they have access to new technology
quicker. As soon as their total print volume
is achieved, they can upgrade to the latest
technology without having to carry over any
outstanding finance costs.
In addition to avoiding hefty settlement
costs, any overuse of the print fleet during
the course of the contract will result in a
lower settlement figure with TVP than a
standard lease.
PITR:
What’s the uptake/
response been from the market
and what are the benefits to
dealers?
CC:
TVP is much more relevant to
print providers today and as such the
uptake from the market is really positive.
For dealers it’s a low risk and low
administration finance solution. We manage
the billing, collect the service charge and
pay it to partners quarterly. With TVP, service
revenue comes in much quicker: dealers’
normal billing cycle is quarterly in arrears,
but we invoice quarterly in advance and this
can help improve partners’ cashflow.
We rolled out a new system in April last
year, following a significant investment,
and whilst the process was not without
pain, we’ve got there now. We’ve made the
billing process much slicker: dealers can
...continued
Warranties
remain a
challenge.
We have to
consider all
scenarios, but
if the dealer
shows that
they have
purchased a
manufacturer’s
warranty we
will add it in.
