Whether you are looking to begin providing managed print services to your customers because of a need to stay ahead of the competition or a way to provide value-added services to your current client roster, to ensure retention it is important to know the benefits of managed print services and how they can help with your client's needs. When you manage print services for your customers you can provide them with the benefits below while making it easier to retain them as customers. 

10 Benefits of Managed Print Services

There are many advantages to both you and your customers when you offer managed print services. Managed print services will allow you to:

Eliminate Unnecessary or Inefficient Printers From Your Fleet

When assessing your client's needs for a managed print service implementation, you will be able to provide them with reporting that will give them a picture of the total cost of ownership of each of their printers. You will also be provided information on which printers are down the most and not performing efficiently as possible. With this information, you can recommend to you clients printing functions that can be consolidated and which devices should be removed or repurposed. 

Reduce Their Print Volume

During the assessment phase of your MPS implementation, you will be able to gather an in-depth report of your customer's printing use. Once you have this data, you can find ways where your customer can reduce any unnecessary printing. This will help them save on consumables such as toner and paper as well as maintenance supplies.

Provide Additional Security

With the ability to record scanning activity and printer activity you can help your customers keep their print fleet secure from unauthorized access and unauthorized use.  If employees use is monitored, they are less likely to use the company printers for non-business items, and your clients will also be able to see which employees are accessing each printing or scanning device.

The Ability to Manage Remotely

You will not only be able to properly monitor your customer's print fleet, advise them of when they need supplies and services, and provide them with reporting on use, but you be able to perform all these functions remotely. This includes the ability to remotely monitor to check when supplies are low, perform meter collection, invoicing, and remote troubleshooting.

Lessen Their Environmental Impact

Reducing their carbon footprint is a growing concern for most business owners. With managed print services you can help your customers to reduce waste through device consolidation and eliminating unnecessary printing. That means less paper, less toner, and less electrical consumption for your customers. 

Increase Efficiency in Their Print Fleet

All business owners are looking to be able to do more with less cost and manpower which is what efficiency is all about. You will be able to more efficiently manage your customer's print environment by employing the use of managed print services. You will save both time and money by reducing the number of onsite customer visits. This includes being able to diagnose possible service needs ahead of time to help prepare your service technicians with the information they need to make the call go as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Increased Cost Savings

Most business will operate with a budget for each department, but often the true cost of printing in a department is overlooked. With managed print services you will be able to let your customer know exactly what each printer is costing them, even hidden expenses such as unaccounted for downtime due to clearing jams or other necessary maintenance.  You will be able to identify areas in which your customers can eliminate printers that are costing them additional money and reduce the amount of printing that the print fleet outputs. 

Reduce Downtime

A hidden expense that poor printer management can cost companies is the amount of downtime they incur when having employees deal with malfunctions, wait for problems to be repaired, or waiting for toner or other supplies to arrive. Additionally, those few minutes extra each older machine takes to print while the employee is waiting can add up to a significant amount of time throughout the year. Through an MPS program and remote monitoring, your company will be able to provide your customer with a reduction in downtime by anticipating their supply and service needs and providing them with the insight they need to have the most efficient fleet possible. 

Maintain Security Updates

Printers require a variety of software and firmware updates to make sure they are secure and function as needed. This can make older devices that are out of date possible security risks for your customers. With users printing from multiple types of devices such as desktops and mobile options, security becomes even more important as printing can be sent from anywhere remotely. Through your managed print services program, you can offer your clients peace of mind by ensuring that their fleet receives all necessary updates and software needed to function optimally.

Free Up IT Professionals

When printers go down, it often falls on a company's IT department to diagnose and rectify the problem. Unfortunately, this can result in a significant amount of wasted time that they could spend performing more important functions to do things such as clear jams, install updates, and replace toner. With an MPS system, you can provide your customer with the support they need by monitoring their printer fleet for low supplies and possible service problems freeing up the company's IT department to handle more pressing matters.

Keeping your customer informed of all the benefits that a managed print service can provide them will not only help you to provide them with additional value-added service but also help to make you an indispensable part of their print environment. By managing all of their print needs, you can make sure they are utilizing the products and service you provide for all their print imaging needs.