We have Andreas Duthel in the interview. The Director Global Services DACH at Lexmark Deutschland GmbH will be discussing Managed Print Services (MPS) in companies.
Business & IT: What should companies look for at the beginning of an MPS project?
Andreas Duthel: First of all, they must recognize and determine that they are striving for standardization and consolidation in the area of output. To this end, the status quo is first recorded and a new strategy developed. They should then define the rules for the application and implementation of the new MPS concept within the various divisions. In the next step, the company deals with the support processes for the procurement of consumables, as well as maintenance and repair.
How can managed business services optimize business processes?
Subsequently, the measures can be defined which will reduce the amount of produced documents in the future. Finally, it is necessary to clarify how to handle data that is available to the company in the form of documents of any kind. An important question is: How can these data be converted into useful information? Lexmark supports its customers comprehensively - both during the initial phase of the project and later in operation.
What are the most important prerequisites for a successful MPS project besides the analysis?
Andreas Duthel: The change already starts with the provision of consumables. As part of an MPS project, this process is normally automated, so employees no longer have to think about how the new consumables are coming to the printer. The same applies to maintenance processes.
Which security requirements can be covered by an MPS concept?
They can also be largely automated: the technician reports his visit to preventive maintenance, without the printer displaying a fault message. In addition, users can access solutions that automate document-based processes via the touchscreen of the multifunction devices. For example, there are solutions that read business-relevant information from digitized paper documents that classify documents and automatically transfer them to business applications. Even more complex workflows can be represented in the same way as, for example, the travel expense accounting.
Andreas Duthel: An important prerequisite for the success of an MPS project is to involve the employees from the outset and to convince them of the project. Consolidation projects also depend on the acceptance of the employees: They decide to a high degree on the success or failure of the project.
An understanding can be gained, for example, by the employees knowing how much costs a workplace printer has to save and the positive effects this has on the environment as well as on one's own productivity. We support and support our customers in this change management process.
Andreas Duthel: Multifunction devices from Lexmark offer various security functions, such as secure remote management, network interface protection, and disk encryption. In addition, they enable print jobs to be encrypted and released, for example, by a badge card or PIN code only after the user is authenticated.
The data is then sent directly to the device, but the print is initially saved. Only after successful authentication does printing start. Even confidential documents remain protected from unwanted glare. The latest trend is solutions that allow you to encrypt print jobs and issue them after authentication, while at the same time eliminating the print servers. This creates security and provides further savings by consolidating the print servers.
Andreas Duthel: Lexmark offers its customers numerous possibilities for continuous optimization. A well-founded MPS offer not only consists of the provision of data but rather the analysis of this data by specialists with the aim of providing the customer with information rather than data.
Thus, as a general rule, we agree on a clear-cut governance model with our customers, within the framework of which the jointly defined tactical and strategic measures are defined. This is done through a continuous analysis of the output environment.
It is continually checked whether the output environment still meets the changing requirements of the company or has to be adapted if necessary. At the management level, we regularly meet with our customers to discuss what document-intensive processes we can analyze and optimize.
How can the continuous use of MPS be improved?
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