If you run a small to medium sized business, you don’t need us telling you it’s hard work. From the sleepless nights and long working days, to the office headaches and stresses that come with running a business, SME owners truly put in the hard work. As a small business owner, you most likely have a vision for your company. And, whatever your vision might be, chances are it doesn’t involve spending your hard-earned profits on printing costs.
The truth is, the humble printer is still an essential office device. From printing sensitive documents and client work, to marketing collateral such as posters and brochures – every small business needs a printer if they want to run as efficiently and productively as possible. What small businesses don’t need is to pay a hefty price tag to get the most out of their printer.
The good news? There are many ways to reign in and control office printing costs, yet perhaps the best solution is a MPS solution. MPS stands for Managed Print Service and involves entering into an agreement with a third party for the management, maintenance and support of your printer and its consumables. Not only does your business save on printing costs, but a MPS solution takes the hassle and stress out of any technical issues that may occur with your printer. It’s a win-win!
Subcontracting non-vital business tasks is a growing trend for many SMEs. Savvy company owners are handing over non-core business activities to have more time to focus on delivering better value to their clients and cut costs and improve efficiency. MPS is one form of business outsourcing and is particularly popular in the SME sector. It focuses on outsourcing the maintenance, management and support of your printers to a professional third-party company for a monthly price based on your paper usage. This is a great solution for SMEs as it means you only pay for the pages you are actually printing. In order for MPS to be of benefit to your business, it is important you take a look at your company’s current output situation. Once you have a clearer picture of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your office devices, you can then begin optimising them to provide your business short and long-term savings. An MPS service provider can help you with these calculations for your current-state, and with your projected savings.
Setting up a MPS agreement is simple. At the beginning, you or your IT team will work together with your MPS service provider to create a printing environment that meets the needs of your business. From then on, your MPS service provider will carry out recurrent maintenance of your office devices and automatically replenish consumables. Your MPS service provider will also be available to help with any trouble-shooting or repair your devices as needed.