Managed Print Services vs. Managed Services
What’s the difference between managed print services and managed services? Better yet, what is the difference between the run of the mill copier dealership and the everyday VAR? In a word – Mutation.
As in some warped Darwinian tale, managed print services and managed services are branches of the same tree. The MPS limb rising from the dirt, clawing through cold-calls and purchasing agents. The managed services bough magically sprouting from the traditional IT/VAR trunk.
Imagine this: IT solutions, the forerunner of managed services, were designed and installed by “really smart” people under the approving gaze of executive management. Copiers and printers, on the other hand, were acquired through the Purchasing or Facilities department after an exhaustive bid process vetted dozens of alternatives. Managed services as a practice grew under the executive branch; managed print services rose up and flourished from the ground.
Same tree, different limbs mutated into the same species: Managed Services.
So what does this all mean? Three things:
This mutation attracts the same customers and prospects
Both destinies are parallel
The agile and adaptive will prevail through natural selection.
Our customers and prospects are similar because each customer base is rooted in business process and each utilizes technology within a changing environment, whether that’s an enterprise or an SMB. Both the managed services and managed print services prospect are technologically savvy. Both are under pressure to do more with less and both are reacting to historic change. The prospects world is changing almost as much as ours.
Destinies are parallel because MPS contributes to the shift away from print and the managed services (aka, the cloud) pulls companies away from internal IT departments and assets. As we in MPS reconcile the management of our destruction, so too, do they. The “cloud” is to IT departments and “MPS” is to images as matter is to anti-matter – annihilation into pure energy. We are both contributing to our own transformation.
Finally, natural selection comes about as consolidation and partnerships are occurring daily, inside our industry and others. Like the overweight dinosaurs, some will fight for every last leaf, unaware of the falling sky. The strong will survive. Mutation will occur, there will be a day after with a new batch of players rising from the ashes. It’s only natural.
Today, the circle is complete as print meets content, meets infrastructure, meets applications. We’re all colliding on the same page. Evolution tells us that the most adaptable is the predominant strain – the survivor.
The question isn’t which branch will survive, it’s who remains standing after the entire tree comes down
As in some warped Darwinian tale, managed print services and managed services are branches of the same tree. The MPS limb rising from the dirt, clawing through cold-calls and purchasing agents. The managed services bough magically sprouting from the traditional IT/VAR trunk.
Imagine this: IT solutions, the forerunner of managed services, were designed and installed by “really smart” people under the approving gaze of executive management. Copiers and printers, on the other hand, were acquired through the Purchasing or Facilities department after an exhaustive bid process vetted dozens of alternatives. Managed services as a practice grew under the executive branch; managed print services rose up and flourished from the ground.
Same tree, different limbs mutated into the same species: Managed Services.
So what does this all mean? Three things:
This mutation attracts the same customers and prospects
Both destinies are parallel
The agile and adaptive will prevail through natural selection.
Our customers and prospects are similar because each customer base is rooted in business process and each utilizes technology within a changing environment, whether that’s an enterprise or an SMB. Both the managed services and managed print services prospect are technologically savvy. Both are under pressure to do more with less and both are reacting to historic change. The prospects world is changing almost as much as ours.
Destinies are parallel because MPS contributes to the shift away from print and the managed services (aka, the cloud) pulls companies away from internal IT departments and assets. As we in MPS reconcile the management of our destruction, so too, do they. The “cloud” is to IT departments and “MPS” is to images as matter is to anti-matter – annihilation into pure energy. We are both contributing to our own transformation.
Finally, natural selection comes about as consolidation and partnerships are occurring daily, inside our industry and others. Like the overweight dinosaurs, some will fight for every last leaf, unaware of the falling sky. The strong will survive. Mutation will occur, there will be a day after with a new batch of players rising from the ashes. It’s only natural.
Today, the circle is complete as print meets content, meets infrastructure, meets applications. We’re all colliding on the same page. Evolution tells us that the most adaptable is the predominant strain – the survivor.
The question isn’t which branch will survive, it’s who remains standing after the entire tree comes down
