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Print.IT Reseller
01732 759725
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Everyone’s a winner
PITR: How does the Print Audit Premier
model work?
Dunsmore:
Resellers subscribe to a set
number of licenses that go into a pot which
they can use as they wish. There are various
thresholds depending on the quantity they
want, but the initial threshold is generally
300. Resellers can use 300 licences in 300
customers, all in one customer, or in any
combination. Not only that. Licences can be
used for things like meter readings and toner
alerts – what we would term remote device
management – or they can be user licences
that control things like rules-based printing
and follow me secure print applications. The
pot of licences is very flexible in terms of
what it is and how it is deployed.
PITR: What are the benefits to the
reseller?
Dunsmore:
The main benefit is that it
encompasses a whole MPS programme, from
one software supplier, under one subscription
model. As a reseller, I don’t have to buy a
solution like Equitrac and sell it in one lump.
Instead, I can effectively rent a solution to
customers on a monthly or quarterly basis
and I can keep it on my own finance book.
I can create my own network software
agreement and finance that internally and
be much more fluid and flexible in how I
create deals with my customers. It’s also
good for the customer because he gets all
his upgrades and can cancel at any time. If
he does, I can take back his licences and use
them elsewhere for something else.
PITR: Does a subscription model help
with customer loyalty? Does it make
it easier for a reseller to retain a
customer?
Dunsmore:
I think so, because the reseller
can be as flexible with his customers as we
are with him. They can give him exactly the
choice that we give him: have this for three
months or six months and see how it goes. If
you don’t like it, we can pull it out because
there are no cost implications: you are just
pulling licences from a pool they already
have. The customer can almost ‘try-and-buy’
without being overly committed. Loyalty
Winner of the Managed Print Services Association’s 2013 MPSA Leadership Award
for Best MPS Innovation, Print Audit Premier gives resellers a new way to acquire
the company’s full suite of MPS solutions.
PrintIT Reseller
caught up with Print
Audit Europe director Ian Dunsmore at Photizo’s Transform Europe MPS conference
and asked him how resellers benefited from the subscription model.
is helped, too, by the reseller’s ability to
put together different financial packages.
The customer doesn’t have to suddenly
find a sum of money to buy the software
and he doesn’t have to get involved in
lease agreements. It can all be based on a
relationship with the reseller. The reseller can
also start to bundle things in, so he could,
for example, bundle secure and follow me
printing with a Ricoh device, say. The relative
cost is so small on a monthly basis that it
can always be bundled in with a deal.
PITR: What has the take-up been like
so far?
Dunsmore:
Phenomenal. A lot of the
dealers we had before, in fact the vast
majority, have moved over to the Premier
programme over the last 18 months. We’ve
also recruited a lot of dealers in the last 12
months. They like the idea of being able to
get all our services in one simple cost model,
from one supplier. As part of the package,
we throw in an audit licence that enables
dealers to capture usage details from any
printer – local or networked – so that they
can do a full MPS analysis for their customer.
We give them a set number of audit licences
depending on the threshold they agree to
in a year, so they also get a very specialist,
high grade auditing tool. We are soon
going to be adding an alternative to Asset
DB and In-Map that we have developed
with one of our partners. We plan to bring
the audit mapping tool to the UK in the
next six weeks and we will wrap that up
into the subscription at some point. That
will give added value to the whole Premier
programme.
PITR: Is this programme popular with
resellers who are moving into MPS for
the first time?
Dunsmore:
It is. They might just be looking
at device management to start with, but
they see that they get all these other things
as well and that Print Audit is going to
help them move through the various stages
of MPS. It’s also great for a dealer who’s
already involved in MPS who wants more of
a wraparound solution.
PITR: Has it been profitable for Print
Audit?
Dunsmore:
Before, if we sold software
for £5,000, say, we would have £5,000
revenue instantly. Now, we are selling it on
a monthly basis, so there is a bit of a hit
because we are not taking the £5,000 lump
sum. Instead, we are getting £200 or £300
per month. What we have done is to create a
nice recurring revenue stream, which enables
a dealer to create a recurring revenue
stream with his customers. One of the key
things they like about Premier is that as the
recurring revenue on print declines and as
the margins on print get thinner and thinner,
they can replace some of that through
recurring revenue on software.
Print Audit Premier covers the company’s
entire suite of products including
Print
Audit Facilities Manager
– remote meter
reading, supplies and service management,
TCO analysis;
Print Audit 6
– user and
workflow analysis, print rules, cost
recovery;
Print Audit Assessor
– print
assessment down to job-level detail;
Print
Audit Secure
– secure release printing,
‘follow me’ pull printing; and
Print
Audit Embedded
– copy, scan and fax
tracking directly from the control panel of
supported MFPs.
www.printauditeurope.com
q&a
The
customer
doesn't
have to
suddenly
find a sum
of money
to buy the
software...
Ian Dunsmore, Director,
Print Audit Europe