MPS Promotes Environment Responsibility

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MPS Promotes Environment Responsibility

The move toward greener business practices is a major motivator for many organizations, and migrating to MPS to save paper and reduce carbon emissions is an important part of their environmental commitment.

Ninety percent of manufactured paper is made from trees that are not sustainably harvested. In fact, the United States is the biggest consumer of paper, using 30 percent the world’s paper products although we have less than 5 percent of the world’s population.

And it takes more than trees to make paper. In fact, it takes 2.6 gallons of water to make a single sheet of paper. Even recycling paper requires energy and bleaching agents that have a negative environmental impact.

Being able to demonstrate a reduction in paper use and toxic consumables sends a positive message to stockholders and customers and is generally good for business.

Companies under Pressure to Go Green Organizations are painfully cognizant of their contribution to the world’s pollution including greenhouse gasses. Whether a company maintains manufacturing operations or merely consumes office paper and supplies, they understand they are contributing to the growing environmental crisis.

That’s why many organizations are seeking different ways to promote and publicize their green business practices. We have already touched on many of the cost incentives for reducing paper consumption. Other motivators for green business practices include tax credits from being able to demonstrate ways the companies saves paper, energy, and consumables.

A greener workplace is also a healthier workplace. Statistics from the Green Business Bureau show that promoting a greener work environment reduces employee sick days by as much as 20 percent.

Greener businesses that can demonstrate environmental responsibility reap marketing rewards as well. Not only can organizations tout their green corporate citizenship; greener businesses tend to attract better job candidates and more environmentally conscious customers.

Promoting a Sustainable Office More corporations are disclosing their Corporate Social Responsibility performance, offering metrics to demonstrate how they are reducing carbon emissions and using green business practices. Some of the ways they are proving environmental responsibility include:

1. Reducing paper consumption using MPS and paperless office strategies. 

2. Printing double-sided documents whenever possible. 

3. Buying greener paper, using recycled paper or paper from sustainable suppliers.

4. Printing green using environmentally friendly inks and materials. 5. Recycling ink and toner cartridges as well as paper. 6. Using Energy StarTM equipment to reduce energy consumption.

Companies are actively looking for ways to promote green practices within the office and deliver measurable savings in toxic waste and greenhouse gas generation. Creating a green office action plan that delivers measurable results can serve as an added incentive for adopting MPS.

Managed Print Services offer a winning combination for value- added resellers and their customers. The potential saving from implementing MPS are easy to demonstrate and will more than justify the cost of centralizing print services. And the environmental benefits are appealing to most customers as well. At the same time MPS can provide an ongoing revenue source for VARs, and a means to learn more about customers’ operations and how you can offer additional reseller services.

MPS is truly a win-win for both VARs and their customers. Contact Action Printer Repair today to learn more about MPS and how you can get started.

ROI from Managed Print Services

The ROI from Managed Print Services is well documented and you can make a strong argument for rapid ROI returns on MPS whether you are only doing limited, in-house print management or handling outsourcing for all printing, electronic document conversion, and archiving.

Savings on Material Costs MPS consolidates materials ordering and management which yields savings in a number of ways:

• Less wasted paper – Companies can reduce their hard copy costs by as much as 30 percent by consolidating copiers, multifunction printers, and paper. Most of the savings comes from wasted paper and unnecessary copies. In fact, 50 percent of printed paperwork is never actually read.

• Fewer print supplies – Consolidating print services means fewer machines, which means fewer types of toner, ink cartridges, and machine-specific supplies to stock.

• Fewer copies – By eliminating departmental printers you will change employees’ printing habits. They will be less likely to make paper copies of email messages for paper files, or printouts of their resumes or favorite recipes using MPS equipment.

• More cost-effective purchasing processes – By centralizing print services companies centralize ordering. This means stocking enough print materials, rather than duplicating paper, toner, ink cartridges, and other supplies in each department.

Savings in Staff Costs and Operating Overhead By its very nature, MPS makes more time available to staff members and promotes more efficient use of paper processes:

• Saving in staff time – How much employee time wasted running to the printer, filing papers, and reprinting misplaced paperwork?

• Savings in IT resources – The savings in IT resources is dramatic. On average, 10 percent of IT staff time is spent managing printers and print services. When you consider the average IT employee makes $80,000 per year or more, that’s more than $8,000 per IT staff member for printer support.

• Fewer help desk calls – More than 50 percent of help desk calls are for printer problems according to Gartner.

• Better business process management – Contracting an MPS provider means better business organization. It formalizes paper flow in a way that naturally increases efficiency and reduces waste. Employees will think more carefully about processing the paper they generate.

Call us now to schedule a free assessment. 650-241-2344

Who is the Ideal MPS Client?

Virtually any organization that deals with paper would benefit from outsourcing their printing services. Gartner research shows that actively managing office printing can reduce operating expenses by between 10 and 30 percent. Reducing the density of ink or toner alone by 10 to 20 percent would result in per-page savings of 5 to 10 percent, or up to $10 per user per month. A 1,000-person organization would cut up to 1.6 million printed pages from their operation with MPS, a saving of $33,500 or more. However, there are some types of companies that would see immediate returns and are the most likely candidates to buy Managed Print Services.

Target Paper and Paperless Processes Logically, organizations that consume more paper are better candidates for MPS savings. Paper-intensive professional service businesses such as law offices, accounting firms, ad agencies, and marketing firms are prime candidates for MPS. And then there are manufacturing and other companies that deal with paper invoices and paper processes. And what about offering managed printing for operations with business-critical paperwork, such as financial institutions, investment firms, and health-care organizations?

Any organization can be a candidate for MPS, especially if they:

a) Operate with paper-driven workflow processes; b) Need to file and track large amounts of paper documents; and c) Are concerned with security and regulatory compliance.

The more critical paper is to business processes, the more valuable MPS can be. For example, organizations that have to maintain secure paper documents and deal with regulatory issues, such as HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley, can benefit from MPS in multiple ways:

• Secure paper processing using MPS.

• Secure document storage on-premises of off-premises.

• Digitization of sensitive documents for archiving and eDiscovery.

Performing a needs-assessment for the prospective customers is a good way to understand their business challenges and how MPS can be of benefit.

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The Need for C-Level Support In most organizations, print operations and budgets are managed at the departmental level. Printer hardware, paper, toner, and ink are included in the departmental budget, although it often falls to the IT department to deal with maintenance and out of-the-ordinary issues. Managed Print Services are typically purchased on a corporate level, spanning an entire organization to realize economies of scale. To successfully sell MPS benefits you need to find an executive advocate.

A study by Aberdeen Group shows that even though MPS can save the organization as much as 30 percent of its operating budget, only 38 percent of organizations see MPS as “high value.” With senior management support, it will be easier to get the organization to embrace MPS as a business-critical service that has a direct positive impact on every department’s budget.

Keeping It Green And then there are the environmental benefits. Adopting MPS is ideal for companies concerned about their environmental impact. The ability to demonstrate waste reduction and a reduction in the company’s carbon footprint are compelling arguments for executives who want to show environmental responsibility.

With MPS customers can monitor company-wide device usage and supply consumption. They also can see metrics that demonstrate energy savings, the resources conserved, reduction in wasted paper and materials, and responsible disposal and recycling of supplies and outdated equipment.

Of course, there is nothing like a good argument for return on investment to justify making a positive environmental impact.

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Action Vidio 4 13 16

“Managed print services (MPS) are services offered by an external provider to optimize or manage a company’s document output. The main components provided are needs assessment, selective or general replacement of hardware, and the service, parts and supplies needed to operate the new and/or existing hardware (including existing third-party equipment if this is required by the customer). The provider also tracks how the printer, fax, copier, and MFP fleet is being used, the problems, and the user’s satisfaction.”

There are three primary service areas within Managed Print Services:

1. Assessment of a company’s existing print and document creation environment,including tracking printing costs across all budgets. 

2. Optimization of the print environment, including managing the number of printers peruser and printing policies.

3. Ongoing management of printer work flow, including replenishing consumables and

equipment maintenance.

Most successful VARs embrace two or more of these areas as part of an MPS offering. Much of the offering depends on what their customer demand.

What MPS Services to Offer When considering which of these services to offer, consider the specific needs of SMBs. According to market research conducted by analyst firm IDC, the overwhelming reason companies adopt MPS is to reduce printing costs.

Beyond cost savings, reasons cited for MPS adoption include:

• Changing user habits to reduce waste;

• Short-term cost savings;

• Fleet rationalization or equipment consolidation or optimization;

• Streamlining document work flows;

• Environmental sustainability; and

• Improving security.

Print processing assessment: When you consider the demands cited by companies that have adopted MPS, it’s clear that being able to assess how and where to manage printing for real savings is the first place to start.

Aberdeen Group estimates that SMBs spend typically 10 percent of their overall budget on office printing. Being able to demonstrate how centralizing and managing office printing will result in immediate savings is a compelling sales pitch.

Optimizing the print environment: One of the biggest expenses to result from office printing is waste. Not only is there waste paper and materials, there also is waste in terms of time spent running to and from the printer, the space taken up by printing hardware, etc. By optimizing the print environment SMBs can realize savings in a variety of ways:

• Reducing the number of printers needed to support the office;

• Saving staff and IT time with printer management;

• Reducing user output and materials waste;

• Improving efficiency and facilitating document work flow; and

• Improved efficiency for stocking paper and consumables.

These are just a few of the ways that MPS can optimize office printing and save operating overhead. All of these benefits have costs associated with them that can be easily calculated and incorporated into the savings formula.

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Benefits of Remanufactured Toners:

Remanufactured, refurbished, compatible, refilled... call it what you want. It all ends up meaning the same thing. There are millions of second hand toner cartridges out there that are quite a bit cheaper than buying from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM.)

Cost

Remanufactured toner is significantly less expensive than OEM toner. While your savings vary based on the type of cartridge and the vendor you choose, you can expect to save 30 to 60 percent. Usually the saving are 1/3 to 1/2 less than OEM, but can be even more. This can equate to some pretty big numbers if you are buying thousands of dollars’ worth of cartridges every month or every year.

Quality

A good quality remanufactured cartridge should provide the same print quality and life as as OEM product. Typically, remanufacturers dismantle cartridges, replace moving and wearable parts, and refill them. In some cases, the toner they use is exactly the same as what the manufacturer uses in its cartridges.

Environmental Impact

Every cartridge that you buy from a remanufacturer is one that didn’t originally end up in a landfill. The same applies to cartridges that you return or, in some cases, sell back. The environmental savings from remanufactured toners are meaningful.

Why you should by from a local vendor?

Remember, you are trying to save money with rebuilt cartridges and its all for nothing if you get stuck with cartridges that do not work, or worse yet blow up in your printer.

Try to buy locally when possible. Customer service is much easier when the person you are talking to is down the street instead of across the country. Most local dealers can replace defective cartridges much more quickly than from the web. My company also guarantees to fix any problem incurred by a cartridge that has dumped toner. Before you buy, make sure you know the companies return policy and ask what they will do if the cartridge wrecks your machine.

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Summer 2012: Thank You Card

Enjoy our latest Thank You card template.  This note lets your favorite clients know how much you appreciate their business. Download both the front and back files.  The pdf files are ready to print on 8.5x11 cardstock paper. Fold and mail in a 8.5x5.5 envelope.


Thank-You-Card-2012-FRONT.pdf
Thank-You-Card-2012-BACK.pdf

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