October 28, 2016
Printing is an important piece of the day-to-day operations in nearly all retail environments, but needing to supply, repair and maintain those printers isn’t. With Managed Print Services (MPS), retailers are no longer alone in their responsibility for managing their print environment. While the reasons why retailers choose Managed Print Services differs widely, many of them share a similar hesitancy: implementation. New and potential customers often picture a long, drawn out process, which is not what they will experience from Marco managed services.
Can MPS Implementation Be Easy?
Yes. Implementing a Managed Print Services program is not nearly as complicated as some may think. Oftentimes, our customers are surprised by the speed and efficiency Marco brings to MPS implementation. After hearing some form of “If I’d known it would go that smoothly I would’ve signed up sooner” from multiple customers, I figure it’s time to explain just how simple MPS implementation can be.
Implementing Managed Print Services
When we implement MPS for retail, the process is different from other areas of industry, mostly due to the geographical nature of retail print environments. It’s standard for print devices to be scattered across various states and geographical regions. We even have customers with global print environments.
From the beginning, retail businesses already have their own printers and print devices, so we focus on the necessary steps to take over the responsibility and management of an already functioning print environment. Each MPS implementation has a dedicated project coordinator who oversees the process from beginning to end. The project coordinator begins by:
- Identifying the location of all individual retail locations
- Selecting a single site contact at each retail location
- Coordinating the process of labeling each print device
The devices are labeled either by the project coordinator or by a Marco-contracted individual. The label includes location-specific identification so that when toner is automatically ordered or repairs and maintenance are requested, there is no confusion about which device is in need of supplies of service.
The labeling process captures all relevant, printer-related information. Once all the data is in our system, your project coordinator will contact their primary contact at corporate as well as the site contact at each individual location to inform everyone on what the strategy is moving forward for support and supplies.
Estimated Time Frame for MPS Implementation
To give you an estimate for how long this process can take, we can onboard a 100-store retailer within a 30-day window. That means from start to finish, you’re looking at 30 days of data gathering and labeling devices. During that time frame, your devices continue to function and your business will continue to operate as normal.
