014: Are Assessments Real?

Originally posted, 3/14

"Wait...you want to stick your USB, in my what? I don't know where that thing has been!"

"Oh, okay, so I simply download a zip file, unzip and follow the installation procedure. Then off it goes, traipsing through my firewalls and jumping networks, reporting up to your cloud.  Do I have that right?"

"Yes, I will install your DCA.  And yes, I will indulge you by reviewing your proposal. I have just a few questions:"

"How long will you need to interview my end users?  Oh, you don't interview anybody?  But you said you know the workflow."

"How long will you be observing the way we do business?  Oh, you don't look at our existing processes?  But you said you were going to compare current and future states."

"How much will my costs relate to printing decrease year, over year, over, year? Oh, you can't guess?  But you said you conduct quarterly reviews.  What are we going to discuss during these meetings?" 

Why shouldn’t you allow your print/copier vendor to do assessments? Because their assessments are not for you, the customer - their assessments are for them, the providers.

Having performed assessments, in one fashion or another, from the network, storage, workflow, print, data, and systems analysis perspectives for over 25 years,  we’ve seen an awful lot of environments and know clients (end users, not providers) who roll their eyes as soon as they hear the word “assessment” - it's pavlovian.

How many times do those on the provider side conduct assessments with the intent to sell more stuff, gain more ’share of wallet’, and increase margin? Often.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that - but let us be very clear: intent is everything and the true intent is sustainable - performing assessments to land more equipment is short-cycled (30 days) and disingenuous.

NOT EVERYONE PERFORMS ASSESSMENTS TO THIS END.

But here are some common styles of assessments:

Assessments coming from mal-intent - 

Once a vendor knows your toner volume, they know what flexibility they have in terms of profit.  Everybody has the opportunity to turn a profit, it's part and parcel of this free enterprise experiment.  But to the "Trojan Horse" one's way into a prospect's kingdom is malevolent.

Shallow assessments - 

Again, when a vendor simply counts "clicks" and the number of devices over a certain age, hunting for upgrades and new placements, they do you a disservice and contribute to the not-so-stellar reputation the niche seems to wallow. (see toner pirate and flexing leases)

I've implemented software to look at the fleet in as deep a fashion as possible, contributing to a holistic approach to managed services, not automatically generating a stock proposal or price sheet.

Assessments that are nothing more than a sales tool - 

In the olden days, I evangelized the data collection agent (DCA) as a qualification tool: if a prospect was unwilling to install my DCA, he or she was not qualified to be one of my clients - I moved on. But that was because I was looking beyond the toner and service delivery and could not afford to invest time into a ‘transactional’ relationship - I was looking to move across the WS Relationship Spectrum ©, becoming a 'partner' not a vendor.

Today, getting a piece of software installed or inquiring about the number of toner cartridges you purchase each month is like reading your dates diary the night before Prom. Wait for it...wait...there!

Bottom line, just as it was in 2009, the idea of an ‘assessment’ is not flawed, camouflaging simple sales techniques as an ‘impartial assessment of your print environment is insidious.

Beware, dear reader, there be skullduggery about.

Purchasing Managed print Services from a copier dealer? Three Things To Consider in Your Agreement

There was a time in my life when I provided managed print services to customers ranging in size from as few as 10 devices to as many as 1,100.  The MpS practice was one of five different practices within a VAR.  Managed print services was not a focus - indeed, some of my engagements generated revenue that was a fraction of the rebates generated on one transaction from HP or CISCO deals.

But after crashing and burning two times, ultimately, we became profitable, cohesive and well run, if I do say so myself.

Along the way, I added years of experience to an already varied past and volumes of seemingly disparate knowledge.  Today, working with end-users more than providers, I find many of the techniques I once thought gone and forgotten, implemented with abandon.

Here's a list of three such tactics to look out for when buying managed print services.  There are many more we'll address as the days flow through 2014.

1. Price escalations - why would you agree to allow anyone to arbitrarily raise your price?
2. No 30 day out - things change and real managed print services programs are designed to manage the naturally occurring reduction in the number of devices and prints.  A thirty day out is not much to demand.
3. Capital investments tied to a service agreement - Never combine a service agreement with a hardware lease/rental. 

Why are these considerations typical? Just for fun, let's look at these five points from the providers vantage point, shall we?  What does a provider expect:

1. Price escalations - This doesn't require the firing of too many neurons.  Bid a low cost per page and get the margin back in 12 months, after the price increase.
2. 30 day out - Again, it isn't too much of a strain to see why a provider would want to "lock you into an extended agreement.  You represent a guaranteed revenue stream
3. Capital investments tied to a service agreement - The mother of all facts is this: you can never get out of a lease early, without paying for the remainder of term. Yes, there are provisions for government-type accounts, but for commercial businesses, getting out of any lease is near impossible. So if I, as a provider, can attach or 'roll' service charges into a equipment lease, that stream is guaranteed for the life of the lease.  No matter what.

Not every MpS practitioner utilizes these techniques and is some cases, any one of the above stipulations may make sense.  The point is to see it coming.

My MpS practice was successful and sustainable - we didn't use entrapment, we implemented real managed print services at times under a Master Service Agreement that could include RMM and Unified Communications (UC) - that was in 2009.

Not "managed toner delivery" or "CPI invoicing on printers" or simply "managed print".  

MpS Purity.  Demand it.

This is not a plant stand.  It is an optimized device from an MpS engagement.

This is Why MSPs (and their customers) Don't Like MpS

Originally posted, 3/2014

A while back  I was with an MSP/IT specialist at one of our clients.  He knew us as the "printing consultants" hired to help them with their print policy, cost reduction processes, etc., and was our guide for the day.  For him, we did not fit into the salesperson model and he was unaware of our copier heritage - in other words, he was candid and open about his feelings around printers and copiers - from the IT side of the yard.

Well, as with most conversations, we started talking about service calls, toner delivery, managing user behavior, and his observations of the decreasing need for print.

I ask if he's ever looked at managed print services.

Without hesitation, he groaned,

"Everybody is trying to force MPS into the MSP environment.  The guys from Kaseya and Connectwise are always pushing MpS and to tell you the truth, the biggest reason we don't want to get into MpS is the pushy salespeople.  We don't conduct business like that with our clients.  We're not salesy like those copier guys and our clients don't want to be sold."

Okay then.

Know this, we did not coax him into a response nor did we agree or disagree until he was done venting.  He confirmed printing and printers really aren't all that important or carry that much interest in the eyes of most IT people - nobody likes copiers - and besides, "they are all going away anyway."

Yikes.

Look at it a different way:  this client is currently working with two major OEMs - there are thousands of devices and hundreds of sku's.   Both OEMs have formidable managed print services offerings and vertical industry solutions: the account generates millions of dollars in revenue for both, yet the customer holds each in only the slightest regard.

"...and our clients don't like to be sold..."

The imaging industry is known for its sales prowess.  For whatever it's worth, copier folks are defter at managing the selling cycle than managing services.  The ability to bury cost in the lease, lock the customer, increase the share of wallet and automatically increase pricing has been part and parcel of the industry's selling playbook. Thousands of copier zombies inhabit the landscape regurgitating the "same cost, better, faster, newer technology" value proposition.

Yet given enough time, one's strengths evolve into weaknesses: IBM was the mightiest server manufacturer at one time, no longer; Microsoft determined the world's desktop computing experience, not anymore; HP's printer division was the cash cow, now it's an anchor.

So perhaps this is where we are today.  The talents of yesterday align more with the needs of our masters, and less with those of our clients.  You are paid to move a box, NOT solve a problem.  Customers want solutions to their problems.

Unfortunately, customers understand copiers don't solve all that many business problems anymore if they ever did.

Think about that...