This new system has been designed to improve toner management by monitoring real time usage in order to provide true Just In Time (JIT) consumable delivery.
M2 revealed that its customer service team have been devising this new system over the past few months in order to improve its service delivery standards for its customers. Its Proactive solution has been evolved to “improve toner management so it dynamically moves with you”, creating “a more robust system” that monitors customers’ real time usage of toner to ensure genuine Just In Time delivery. This system is a first in the automated toner replenishment (ATR) industry.
Vikki Smith, Customer Experience & People Director at M2 commented:
“Our M2 Intelligence platform has led the way in customer accessibility to information on their fleet and assets including proactive consumables. We constantly look at ways to improve our service to customers and this has seen the development of Dynamic Triggering Consumable Dispatch.”
“Rather than setting the trigger level at a fixed percentage, we work out on a daily basis based on variable usage when we should dispatch. This means consumables arrive when they are really needed, making the whole service far more seamless, leading to a better customer experience.”
In order to improve its Proactive service, M2 “has made a fundamental change” to its monitoring and ordering of toner on an automatic basis, transitioning from a “static industry setting prompt” to a dynamic rules-based, customer usage-led trigger.
Gareth Monk, Customer Service Consumables Efficiency Manager, explained:
“We’ve added more science to the process by implementing a dynamic trigger that intelligently interprets fluctuating device usage, previous toner deliveries and consumables yields.”
“The system is no longer reliant on a ‘one size fits all’ static setting governed by the device and toner type to trigger replenishment on a just in time basis.”
As M2 describes, it’s new dynamic system “reacts in real-time to customers’ current usage on an individual device and per toner basis (CYMK). It uses historic device information, such as previous order and delivery dates and how long previous toners lasted, rather than basing usage on static industry set yields.”
Because the solution poles more than one metric (meter readings, toner levels, device status reports) it can provide “a robust trigger system” with “inbuilt resilience” – this means, according to M2, that “should one fail, another will pick up on a first past the post system.” The solution evaluates and adjusts each trigger on every automatic reading received from the device in line with customer usage.
This new algorithm “has extended compatibility to mono devices that were not previously compatible with M2’s Proactive due to technical OEM constraints and also enables each colour (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta) to be individually read.”
Gareth continued:
“I’m excited that we’ve technically developed Proactive to apply intelligence to automatic toner replenishment.”
“Customers no longer need to worry about seeking an early replacement or getting on the phone when they want to print a larger volume than usual or experience peak volumes unexpectedly.”
“It constantly adapts to usage – adjusting to deliver toner sooner if it identifies peak or increased volumes or to reconfigure delivery if usage drops.”
“To our knowledge no other industry ATR solution is capable of this. I don’t know of any other system that manipulates at such a granular level while giving full simultaneously visibility which is why we are proud to be the first to go-live with such a fantastic product to the market.”
M2 has announced that the new solution will be fully integrated into the M2 Intelligence customer portal at the end of November 2017 and will be rolled out to M2’s Proactive user base from December this year, “following a successful pilot with 20+ customers.”