VOX POP
PRINT.IT
21
Mark Smyth, Operations Director,
Vision PLC:
“Personally and
professionally, I dislike the word
copier, and there’s a very good
reason for this. Every device we
promote as part of a solution has
more than one function. Even
the most compact and entry-level
products can copy, print, fax or
scan, and the latest technology
that enables embedded cloud
applications and capabilities does
so much more than that. In essence,
copier is a descriptive term for old
technology and, in my opinion, it
does our industry a disservice –
that’s where we were 20 years ago.
“Yes, we use a lot of jargon: we
talk about applications and MFPs,
and internally we use acronyms
and abbreviations daily. But as
for confusing or even alienating
customers, every single proposal,
bid or tender we prepare is written
in such a way that it overcomes this
challenge for the client.”
Gary Downey, Group Marketing
Director, Balreed:
“I agree that there
are a few terms bandied around
that are used by people looking to
differentiate themselves, and, yes,
these are causing confusion.
“The launch of the first
multifunctional device back in 1992
meant that as an industry we had
to adopt a new term that accurately
reflected what the kit did; describing
it as a copier didn’t get across the
additional functions. As a provider,
it’s our job to ensure that the buyer
knows they are dealing with a
technologically savvy business, and
talking about MFPs as opposed to
copiers is integral to that. The term
also reinforces in the buyer’s mind
that the device is multi-function as
opposed to single-function.
“I suppose it’s ironic that today
the most widely used function
of an MFP is print, so printer is a
more accurate term than copier.
But the perception of a printer is a
small desktop device, again not an
accurate description of an MFP.
“Regarding industry acronyms
such as MPS and MDS: there seems
to be much more confusion in
this area both within and outside
the industry. There are multiple
definitions and each vendor uses
these terms as a differentiator,
when in reality their meaning can
be summed up simply by stating
that you manage a client’s print
infrastructure.”
Paul Strout, Key Account Director,
ZenOffice Managed Print Services:
“The print solutions industry is often
ahead of our customers in terms
of knowledge and understanding
of what business benefits can be
delivered through the technology
we provide, and we do have too
much jargon, which is open to
misinterpretation.
“We should remind ourselves
where our industry came from.
If we look back to the turn of the
millennium, copiers were just that;
they did nothing more than copy.
Typically they were bought by office
managers and facilities managers.
Printers, on the other hand, were
on most people’s desks and were
purchased and managed by the
organisation’s IT function.
“Life was simple. Office and
facilities managers didn’t need
to know anything about IT and,
just as importantly, neither did
their suppliers. Then everything
changed. Copiers became digital
devices connected to the client’s
network and capable of printing
and scanning. As an industry we
experienced a massive upheaval to
transform our skillsets so that we
could sell and manage relationships
with IT decision-makers.
“We should now be a community
of highly skilled document
consultants, IT sales consultants
who are focussed on the capture,
workflow and production of
documents. This works well within
a typical corporate environment,
and we win business by showing the
value of our proposition. However, it’s
probably fair to say that we have left
some parts of the SME sector behind.
“A typical SME has fairly limited
IT knowledge and might even have
outsourced their IT function and,
in doing so, will have effectively
stopped trying to keep up to speed
with how IT technology can deliver
strategic change within their core
business. For these people, the
MFD is still ‘the copier’, and they
talk to their suppliers in the same
way they have done for the last 20
years, focusing on lease and copy
costs. If their account manager is
lazy, then they will just meet the
stated requirements and the cycle
continues anew. However, the
rewards to be had from challenging
the customer to go a little deeper
and work with their supplier to
see how gains in productivity and
efficiency could be realised from a
more solutions-focused approach
are significant, with huge gains for
customer and supplier alike.
The print industry is full of jargon, abbreviations and acronyms.
Resellers love to talk about MFPs, MPS, MSP and MDS. Yet, the one
term that all customers understand and are familiar with, copier, has
become almost taboo. Why is this? And who is right: the customer or
the reseller? We asked leading copier, sorry, MFP suppliers for their
thoughts on the etymology of that big box down the corridor.
You say copier,
they say MFP
Mark Smyth,
Operations
Director,
Vision PLC
Gary Downey,
Group Marketing
Director,
Balreed
Paul Strout,
Key Account
Director,
ZenOffice
Managed Print
Services
That was then: A second
generation Xerox copier from 1970
Continued...
