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Your organization’s MPS could be misaligned to your needs if you have not had a recent assessment
If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed that situations change, often rapidly. Organizations worldwide have had to adjust to evolving requirements, changing demands and a transforming workforce.
Where we were before the pandemic is not where we are now, or where we will be. New circumstances might require different solutions. To adapt, we must regularly reassess ourselves and our organizations.
The same goes for your managed print services (MPS). Is everything the same as it was a year ago? Unlikely. Staffing levels have probably changed. You might have opened, shifted or closed locations. Perhaps you’re using new processes or technologies.
Bottom line: Your previously completed MPS assessment is probably no longer valid. Your MPS setup most likely is not calibrated to your organization’s current reality. Ongoing assessment is vital to maintain an optimized printing and scanning ecosystem.
Don’t skip ongoing assessments
You might not spend much time thinking about assessment, especially after an initial implementation—but it should be a vital part of every MPS engagement. A sound MPS strategy includes ongoing comprehensive assessments of your evolving print operations.
Optimizing your printing and scanning ecosystem—including the appropriate placement of MFPs, cloud versus on-premises infrastructure, and more—is a significant step to reducing paper usage and improving business processes.
We understand that it might be tempting to skip the assessment and move on to implementation. You shouldn’t.
Assessments also often reveal over- or underused assets and usage patterns that have changed without you noticing.
This lack of visibility can lead to unnecessary expense and effort. A professional assessment creates alignment between the customer and the provider, motivates decision making, and establishes priorities.
It also ensures the fastest path to implementation. If you make plans based on what you think you know about your fleet only to learn your information is inaccurate, you risk a slow, difficult implementation. If you use data from an old assessment, your implementation does not meet your current needs. And that costs you time and money.
10 questions to ask about assessment
To get the most out of MPS, ensure your provider has solid assessment experience by asking these questions:
- Who will be conducting the assessment? Are they experts in your industry?
- How many assessments has the vendor completed, overall and in your industry?
- Are the assessment deliverables specific to your organization? Do they reflect industry insights and trends?
- How thorough is the assessment? Does it cover your entire ecosystem? Does it assess cloud versus on-premises print infrastructure (servers, queue management, etc.)?
- How does their assessment process uncover the unique requirements of each part of your organization?
- How does the vendor support modern workplace environments and remote employees?
- What types of data collection tools and databases are used?
- Will the vendor use data and analytics to drive continuous improvement throughout the life of your engagement?
- How are consultants assigned to your organization? Are they providing truly expert insight?
- Can the vendor quickly scale to take on a project at your organization, regardless of size or complexity?
Are you ready for an MPS assessment?
Lexmark offer a great range of A4 products specifically to help you grow your business with efficiency, expertise and security with an excellent range of embedded solutions.