As a business owner you’re bombarded with choices day in and day out. Some are small (order in for lunch or go out? What shall we give Nancy for Professional Admin Day?), but some are much bigger – and carry much more weight.
The decision to improve your workflow with Managed Print Services (MPS) is one of those big ones. But just when you think the battle is over you realize that there’s an even bigger decision looming behind it. How will you choose a provider?
The right MPS provider can play a critical role in the success of your business, improving information flow that runs your business, while helping to reduce costs. But choosing one isn’t as simple as it seems. The MPS landscape is littered with terms like systems integration, sustainability, security, and scalability, important factors that can help you save time and money if executed properly – or cause serious damage if not.
Plenty of providers can talk a good game, and many stand behind recognizable brands, making it difficult to know who is actually an MPS expert, and who just wants to add you to their customer database.
With so much at stake, it’s important to choose the right provider. Here are some factors you may not have considered.
- MPS is about more than cost savings. The right partner will get to know your business, ask the right questions and apply the right tools to understand your environment and identify opportunities to save you both time AND money.
- A whopping 82% of companies have indicated that they’ve had a paper-related data loss. That translates to a loss of time and money – not to mention some unhappy customers. Does your MPS provider have the right tools and experience to keep this from happening to you?
- Are they prepared to integrate your solutions with your current IT infrastructure? What can they do to improve your document workflow?
- Work is no longer happening exclusively at the office. What will happen when your employees are in the field or working remotely and they need to print? Enabling mobile printing and connections to cloud applications are essential to employee productivity.
- You’re looking to move beyond where you are today. Is this provider prepared to help your business grow – or to grow with you?
In addition to these red-letter questions, important issues like sustainability and security need to be addressed, along with information on how you’ll be able to track the success of your MPS program so you’ll know you’re getting a return on your investment.
Sound overwhelming? It doesn’t have to be. We’ve broken the process down into 8 easy steps that will help you choose the right MPS provider for your business, so you can get back to all those other decisions that need your input (Grande or Venti?)(Venti. Always Venti).
Download our short ebook on 8 Steps to Choosing the Right MPS Company, and take the first steps toward a better, faster, leaner print environment for your business.
Need help finding a partner? Contact us.
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