If you’re looking to cut operating spend in your business, printing costs is a great starting point.

The key lies in doing so strategically and in a way that leaves you with a future-proof printing environment.

For that, you’ll need a great managed print services (MPS) provider.

Here’s ten characteristics they’ll need:

1. The ability to look beyond your printers

Printing costs extend far beyond the printers themselves, and the initial hardware investment is soon outstripped by the cost of printing.

Your MPS provider should be able to assess both the printer fleet and how it’s used, enabling them to suggest a range of innovations around devices, consumables and processes.

2. A desire to unite physical and digital

Good MPS providers know that transitioning to a digital-only environment takes time, money and a significant change in business culture.

This is why they’ll only implement technologies that help smooth the transition, and aren’t afraid to focus just as much on hard-copy devices as digital solutions.

3. A keen eye on employee workflows

Your ideal MPS partner will be able to suggest processes that are faster and less painful for staff and which produce more accurate, efficient results.

Their ability to identify productivity bottlenecks in paper-based workflows is therefore vital.

4. An appreciation of the TCO of printing

The best MPS providers known that the total cost of ownership (TCO) of printing isn’t purely defined by the cost of printers.

They’ll look at human labour, consumables, waste and the cost of downtime in order to find innovative ways to reduce your physical printer fleet and measure the cost savings on an ongoing basis.

5. A love of analytics

Continual innovation in print requires access to analytics that reveal where addressable inefficiencies lie.

Modern printing hardware and software tools provide this data, but in order to make the best use of it, you’ll need an MPS provider who loves analytics and who can use them to implement policy adjustments and create new savings.

6. An understanding of the modern workforce

Modern businesses are always-on and available globally. A great MPS provider will understand this and help you deliver printing solutions that use new technologies and workplace trends to bolster security.

They also know that maintaining the current status quo won’t create a platform or environment from which your business can innovate.

7. Deep industry expertise and an eye on the horizon

If you bring on board an MPS provider, you have every right to expect a high level of expertise and knowledge of ‘the next big thing’.

The best MPS providers are acutely aware of emerging technologies and how they could potentially be used in your company.

8. An appreciation of social responsibility

Beyond cost savings, your MPS provider should show a willingness to also help you meet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) targets.

The efficiencies they help you create should also feed into your CSR targets, thus improving the business and reducing its carbon footprint simultaneously.

9. A desire to promote your success

The right MPS provider will recognise that the solutions they implement are often delicate processes that require the confidence of employees to be successful.

This means they need to be prepared to help your business communicate and promote the success that results from their work to ensure everyone is aware of the benefits.

10. A willingness to share

Without shared knowledge, your printing infrastructure will see limited use and fail to deliver a measurable return on investment.

The ideal MPS partner will be willing to share all of their knowledge to help the entire company make the most of the print environment by offering guidance, training and creating a strategically-valuable relationship.

Finding the best MPS partner for your business isn’t easy, but with our ten-point checklist, you should be able to narrow the field and find a provider who can help you create efficiencies that are fully future-proofed.