By Andrew Morrison, senior vice president, Xerox Managed Print Services Business
Only Rod Laver (1962, 1969) and Steffi Graf (1988) each battled to the top of four separate championship tournaments to earn professional tennis’ exalted Grand Slam title. They rose above the best of the best at Wimbledon, The French, Australian, and US Opens in those years to achieve this rare honor.
This year Xerox won its own Grand Slam in the very competitive Managed Print Services (MPS) arena – earning the top scores and recognition as a market leader in four separate MPS reports from major industry analyst firms in the past six months.
What does this mean?
It means global enterprises, small businesses, states, cities, universities, healthcare organizations and more – think our MPS strategy is a winning one. It means, that like many a tennis champion, Xerox spent over a decade focused on continuous improvement, dedicated to innovating and defining what most businesses consider MPS today. These industry analysts point out that our geographical depth, breadth and consistency is unrivaled. Across the board, the reports recognize that Xerox has an advanced MPS offering. We earned the Grand Slam by staying ahead of the game (and the competition) – integrating MPS with our strengths in business process and IT outsourcing, and expanding services for global channel partners to help small and mid-sized businesses adopt MPS at a faster rate.
But just like a winning tennis strategy, MPS programs must be well executed to achieve desired results. Thinking about MPS for your business? Use this checklist to ensure you are picking the best supplier:
- Improved user experience: Do they monitor all devices, and proactively solve problems to avoid unnecessary downtime and keep employees productive?
- Customer service focus: Will they help employees adapt to the new technology and work processes with change management programs?
- Ongoing cost management and accountability: Is there a formal reporting process to show business objectives (cost, environmental sustainability, security, and risk compliance) are being met?
- Multi-vendor approach: Do they support equipment from other vendors so clients don’t have to replace existing devices with the supplier’s brand?
- Comprehensive offering: Is the offering limited to printers within corporate offices, or can it be extended to include in-house print center and virtual/home worker requirements?
- Sales and distribution flexibility: Is there a single point of contact and a consistent approach to MPS for businesses that span different geographies?
- Commitment to innovation: Will they collaborate to understand the business and provide innovative ways for employees to work more effectively – beyond simply managing print?
- Track record: Can they provide quality references that demonstrate measurable and sustainable results? Have they been evaluated positively by Forrester, Gartner, IDC and/or Quocirca?
