Written by: Lee Tucker; Market Research Manager, Photizo Group

One of the first actions of any successful managed print service engagement involves the initial assessment of the fleet for potential cost savings and productivity improvements. For a company to successfully implement an MPS program to manage its document output fleet, it must first measure and benchmark that fleet.

MPS engagements tend to be long-term contracts and will likely impact every aspect of an organization, making assessment and planning critical to realizing the potential benefits associated and avoiding the potential pitfalls.

In addition to planning for implementation of the MPS program, assessments can also help to define the procedures, policies and long-term deployment plans associated with the MPS engagement.

For these and many other reasons assessments play a significant role in the successful MPS engagement.

The 2011 and previous MPS Decision Maker Tracking Studies explored companies assessments; here’s a look inside the results.

Figure 1: Did an MPS vendor provide an assessment of your device fleet?

Most firms have an assessment done prior to an MPS engagement. This makes sense since it is difficult at best to success- fully implement a program without this key service. However, fully a third of respondents said they did not receive an assessment or did not know if they had received one prior to their MPS engagement. Most who received an assessment got at least two assessments.

Figure 2: Prior to making your last contract decision, how many assessments from different vendor were performed for the MPS contract?

Companies who received an assessment reported being more satisfied with their vendor’s overall performance then those who did not receive an assessment. This is irrespective of whether they used the vendor who did the assessment for the engagement or not.

Figure 3: How satisfied are you with your vendor in terms of overall vendor performance?

Respondents overwhelmingly do not pay for their assessments. However, more respondents are obtaining assessments than previous years and companies were more likely to pay for their assessments in 2011 compared to the same period in 2010 and before.

Figure 4: Did you pay for any of the assessments of your device fleet by an MPS vendor?

Smaller companies were unlikely to pay for an assessment. Under a quarter of firms with fewer than 500 employees paid for assessments. Conversely larger firms were significantly more likely to pay for an assessment. Two thirds of companies with 10,000 or more employees said they paid for their assessment.

Figure 5: Did you pay for any of the assessments of your device fleet performed by an MPS vendor?