When every MPS provider claims to be the best, how can you be expected to choose the right one?
Choosing the best MPS provider for your business can be tough, but the following sixteen critical questions will help you narrow down the candidates:
- Can you support efforts to communicate change through the business?
Does the provider have the experience and capability to gain buy-in from every department?
- What tools will you use to assess our current infrastructure?
Do they have software and methodologies that enable them to perform a comprehensive assessment?
- How will cost reductions be measured?
Can the provider easily identify and report on the savings they help you make?
- Can you manage marketing, production and office services?
More importantly, can they do so across the entire enterprise?
- Do you have solutions that address environmental sustainability goals?
What technology and strategies can they offer to help with efforts such as print reduction and energy efficiency?
- How well can you integrate with our IT infrastructure?
How do they ensure a smooth transition to your new print environment?
- Do you work with best-in-class security?
Security is a major concern today. Does the provider know how to protect your data and intellectual property?
- How will you support our mobile workforce?
Will there be a solution offered that integrates with the cloud to help workers with mobile printing?
- Will you optimise our business processes?
Equally, can they improve your existing workflows via automation? What role will automation play?
- Will continuous improvement and performance be quantified?
How? What analytics, insight tools or reporting methods will be used to increase visibility?
- Do you have a proven track record?
Words are just words; do they have any third party industry recognition or client case studies?
- Do you have the strategic vision to grow with our needs?
As your business grows, how will the provider support your long term goals and look beyond cost savings?
- How do you define managed print?
What does MPS mean to them? Is it just about printers and consumables, or do they go as far as the print server, driver and queue management?
- Will you manage devices regardless of manufacturer?
Find out what manufacturers they support and what percentage of the equipment they currently manage is from competing companies.
- Can you scale to offer global delivery?
If your business is set to expand across the globe, what strategies does the provider have to help you scale? Are they flexible enough?
- Do you want to help us print less?
This might sound odd, but it’s worth checking that the provider has digital alternatives available that will help you print less and be more effective with digital documents.
Investing in MPS is a big step forward for any business. Ask these tough questions now, and you’ll find a provider who can help accelerate your business and take it to another level.