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Is MPS always the best route to go down or is there another way businesses can improve day-to-day device management? Could taking charge of consumables purchasing on its own be enough to bring big savings? Phil Matthews of Kanban believes so. Based on almost twenty years’ experience in the printer business, he has developed new software that allows customers to monitor mixed feets and, based on current usage patterns, forecast what consumables will need replacing in a given period. The web-based supplies portal doesn’t just provide information on the status of consumables: it also measures device/feet utilisation; energy consumption of individual devices; the cost per page; the reliability of devices; and depreciation. Established technology The software is based on established technology that has been around for more than a decade and is used by major MPS providers. However, this is the frst time that it has been used to build a hosted solution for small and medium-sized businesses, with a focus on reducing the time and cost of selling and buying supplies. Matthews says that Kanban is ideal for businesses that want to reduce print costs and ineffciencies but either don’t want to be tied to a contract

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If you like the idea of managed p want to retain the fexibility to d

suppliers on your own terms, the Kanban supplies portal might be just what you are looking for.

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or, because of their feet size, don’t warrant a fully fedged MPS solution. (It can also be used by larger feets to collect baseline data needed to make the transition to a full MPS.) “When I was at my previous company we spent $100,000 on research corroborating Gartner’s view that MPS will cover 30% of the market. This leaves 70% buying hardware, consumables and service outside MPS,” he said. “Furthermore, many copier vendor MPS implementations only cover MFDs, leaving the customer to manage its printers.”

Kanban provides such organisations with forecasts on their future consumables requirements, enabling them to purchase, say, a month’s supply in advance so that when a cartridge runs out there is a replacement in stock. In this way, it frees them from the expense and ineffciencies of reactionary, ad hoc consumables purchases, and gives them the potential to negotiate favourable pricing from a supplier. Better relationships

Currently, Kanban only supplies the portal to the trade as a hosted service, so the only way an end user can get hold of it is if a reseller provides it to them as part of their service. This begs the question, why would they want to do that if it gives the customer the power to

customers and empowering them to run their feet and purchase their supplies more effciently, a reseller makes it more likely that they will win repeat orders for consumables (the portal supports automatic consumables re-ordering for contract customers). Having information on the energy consumption, performance and running costs of devices will also enable a reseller to provide consultancy and develop deeper, longer-lasting relationships with customers. Forecasting for proft A key attribute of Kanban is its forecasting function, which allows a supplier to aggregate all the replacement supplies a customer will need in a given period in one delivery. Other solutions used by MPS providers respond to alerts from individual devices. Each order is fulflled and despatched within the contractual time-frame. “A lot of customers come to us because they are dissatisfed with alert-driven tools. If you only respond to alerts you have chaos and the cost to the reseller supplying the service is higher than it needs to be. Forecasts allow you to aggregate orders and ship at lower rates, which saves time and money,” Matthews explained.

It also gives supplies companies vital market intelligence that according to Matthews’ estimates can improve the performance of a telesales department by as much as 1000%. If you can

see how many cartridges a business is likely to need in the next four weeks, it makes selling to that business much easier as every call is a qualifed call.

Kanban will also forecast and supply multiple cartridges if the system determines that heavily used machines will need additional replenishments in the period. As Matthews says: “You can’t do that with alerts.”

Of course, Kanban will only be of value if a customer is happy to have its printer feet monitored in this way, but Matthews believes that the benefts to end users are so great that most are. He argues that supplies companies could even use the cloud-based portal as a selling point to attract new customers. “I believe that over the coming months customers are going to have far more choice in all areas of offce print procurement and management. The cloud isn’t about off-site hardware or alternative software licensing models; it’s about delivering the same specialised platforms and process effciency that has transformed procurement, processes and service delivery in other industries. These advances and customers’ economic constraints are already driving change across all areas of the imaging industry with progressive channel partners at all levels getting ready to up their game.” www.kanbanmps.com [email protected]