Will managed IT services and managed print services converge? During CompTIA’s Managed Print Services Community meeting at ChannelCon, West McDonald of Focus MPS weighed in on the question.
McDonald started off on why MSPs won’t adopt managed print services — because it was a pain to start and they’re resistant to change. He added that MSPs have a lack of trust with managed print dealers. “You can’t often overcome the lack of trust, but you have to learn to live with it because the money potential is significant,” he said.
Moderator Barney Kister of Supplies Networks, offered these sage words of advice, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. By not partnering, are you putting yourself at more risk?”
McDonald warned that MSPs may have a lack of time to add more to their plate like managed print services, but if you don’t offer MPS, then you might lose business and thus have more time on your hands.
David Ramos, director, channel strategy services, InfoTrends, then gave attendees a quick overview of some top level managed print stats. InfoTrend’s research shows that 60 percent of end-users said printing have remainwed the same or gone up over the last two years. Why you ask? Ramos said, “More employees, business was up and there was more access to information.”
Why might the other 40 percent print less? Because of more IT, mobility and automation.
Which market segments are print more or less? Printing in the education market has decreased 2 percent, but printing in the public administration market has increased 2 percent. The #1 reason for printing more was for compliance and regulation.
The Managed Print Services Community meeting closed out with a brief recap of their initiatives. It recently formed strategic partnerships with Photizo, BTA and MPSA to increase the overall community and the number of Managed Print Trustmark holders. The community is in the vetting stage of creating a value proposition video for Managed Print Trustmark holder to use with clients. It also is exploring ideas for a Managed Print Trustmark mentoring program. IT channel professionals who’d like to get involved with the initiatives should contact Lisa Person at lperson@comptia.org.
Lisa Fasold is CompTIA's senior communications director.
