The remanufacturer and MPS provider has provided a “rebuttal” to a recent article on MPS.
The company’s response is to the PurchasingB2B article recently written by Phil Downe, called Pitfalls and pointers on print, with Expert Laser Services (ELS) stating that the piece, “while well meaning and well written […] fails to understand” both MPS “outside the realm of corporate power associated with OEMs and non-remanufactured toner production companies”.
ELS aimed to “dissect” the article and “employ some perspective management to correct some of the assumptions made”, and also help readers “better understand some of the dynamics of MPS and how they can leverage the service”. Downe first notes that buying “fewer devices” and printing less is preferable to MPS as a “smart-print technology with [a] panopoly of print management features”, to which ELS states this is “certainly not MPS”, with software “one small piece of the puzzle”.
ELS added that many companies including itself offer data collection agent software “at no charge” even though OEMs will “attempt to charge you absurd amounts” for analysis and software. On his point about buying fewer and printing less, ELS notes this is “impossible” in light of total cost of ownership”, and is “skewed by expectations” by vendors selling MPS “without actually knowing what their product is”.
It adds that you “cannot” buy cheap machines and manage them “at a low cost per print” as they have “planned obsolescence”, a “high cost per print due to extremely small toner cartridges” and a service cost “that equals or exceeds the price of replacing the machine itself”. ELS believes Down “seems to miss entirely” that MPS doesn’t “require the purchase of software” nor “of new equipment”, with ELS mostly selling one to three during the first six to 12 months of a contract.
Downe next claims there “isn’t much room to improve” on cost per page, with ELS refuting this and noting he is “overlooking one very large sector” in remanufacturing, which allows you to “cut the cost” of MPS “by 20 to 40 percent”. Next, he reflected that high costs and the need to change companies is necessary, and indicated all MPS providers “promote their software and steer away from the simple device sale combined with” cost per page” to cover services.
ELS again states that he is “assuming that all managed print vendors are relying on the same protocols and dynamics, which cannot be further from the truth”, with his claim “misleading” and casting “an unfairly negative perception over the MPS industry as a whole”, because many independent MPS providers whoa re “doing the exact opposite” to what he claims.
Downe next claims that companies should “ever-green” their fleets, ELS responding that you should “not want to ever” do this, as it means “failing to alert the lessor at least 90 days in advance of your last lease payment that you would like to make your final payment”, so the leasing company “can legally continue to charge you the monthly leasing cost even after you have already paid it off in full”, though it notes it is unsure if he meant this “as a metaphor for refreshing a printer fleet”.
His next statement claims if changing vendors or providers “they are all quite adept at maintaining one another’s equipment”, which ELS warns is “a totally false statement” and is “simply not true”, with the company stating that despite the last section of his article being “sound and quality advice” on buying, his understanding of MPS “is flawed at best”, ELS imploring users to “do your own research and simply know that not all managed print services programmes are created equal”.