The world, as we know it, is full of fads. Some stick for a while, some fade rapidly. Pet rocks, lava lamps and The Backstreet Boys have all come and gone...some with great fanfare, some ever so quietly. The latest "fad" that may be here to stay is managed print services. We heard about this phenomenon about 10 years ago from one of our manufacturing reps, but never really questioned it until it began to take better shape in Corporate America. The world of standard copying and printing was about to change--drastically--and if you were a company that made its living dealing with copiers and printers, you either loaded up and got with the program or you moved over and got out of the way. Companies were being overcharged and overrun with technology, and the costs were rising. Customers were fed up with these rising costs and they needed a lifeline, a life preserver to help them float until a better process came along. Well, it finally did come along. Mangaged Print Services, or MPS for short, was going to finally pull the plug on the money machine and give everybody a level playing field, while reducing costs for customers. In theory, if done right, companies would save a ton of money while still allowing their copier/printer vendor the opportunity to reel in their costs and make them more streamlined and more profitable. Nice idea, but only if the vendor was willing to pony up the cash to create a whole new world within their four walls first. Specialists would have to be trained, new technology would have to be plugged in and new thoughts and theories on how printers were sold would have to be grown. Gone were the days of plugging in a copier or printer, writing up a contract and waiting for the profit to pour in. Customers were pleading for help, and help is what they got. MFP companies saddled up for the long process of tooling up and forged ahead. Some took the shortcut approach while some really took the time to learn the craft and understand what it was that they were doing for the customer base. The shortcut artists are really doing nothing but working some figures and re-packaging what they have been selling all along. You would be amazed at what a little smoke and mirrors does for you! But, companies like CBM took the time to travel to another city, spent days and evenings at a conference center, learning how to actually do a "managed print audit", how to expose pockets of money loss, revamping the customer's thoughts on what a print fleet should truly look like, and sell the new process to the customer. Unfortunately, in some places, it is a tough sell. You are often times changing the landscape of the office environment, forcing the customer to change their workflow in order to save large sums of money. And as you know, change is hard for some people. Harder, especially if they did not understand what it was you were trying to accomplish on their dime. Sometimes, customers were already thinking ahead and began the process of change, making the final goal an easy, quick and painless process. But at the end of the day, there is money savings to be had...but only if you do it right.At CBM Business Machines, we do it right via a complete and thorough process. We take the time to go to each installation site to understand the environment, to see the workflow and to listen to the end users. These are the people that make the company flow and their ideas truly do count, especially when it comes to what I like to call the "office epiphany"--seeing new ideas and understanding how they will make your life cheaper and easier upon implementation. Yes, it takes a little more time to get the process completed, but when you receive the final analysis report, you will know that the folks here at CBM took the time to understand your company, its workflows, its ebbs and flows, and that in the end, we have nothing but your company in mind. We make sure that we leave no stone unturned. It is the right way to do things, and we believe that if you cannot do it right, don't do it at all.So, if you are sitting there, reading this and wondering if there is a possibility that CBM may be able to reduce the costs that are bleeding you to death, and hopefully helping you to increase the bottom line, give us a shout to come out and do a print audit. They are free for us to do, and we truly love doing them. it allows us an ability to understand your company in ways that many vendors do not. We want to be a vendor "partner" with you and prove that there is truly money to be made inside those machines.. Rick ...
