The leaders in MPS in Africa

Solution WorX was founded in 2002 as a brand independent Managed Print Services company. The company is currently managing more than 12 000 devices, with over 20 000 users in four countries. Our clients include multi-national companies like JD Group, Glenrand MIB, Investec, GijimaAST, Debswana and Old Mutual (Namibia).

Three important elements must be identified that distinguish Solution WorX from all the hybrid vendors and service providers in the market that claim that they provide MPS services. These elements are:

1. Brand independence

2. Managed Print Services (or more encompassing – Document Output Management)

3. Methodology

Brand independence

A company can only be brand independent if it has no hardware sales targets or minimum reseller targets to attain. The main aim of the company must be the protection of the current investment (irrespective of the brands) and to satisfy the user requirements rather than do fleet management that makes up a small portion of a total MPS solution. Another factor that we have found impacts severely on brand independence, is the payment of commissions on hardware sales. This drives the wrong behaviour and is not conducive to a successful MPS solution.

Managed Print Services

The term MPS is loosely used by everyone remotely involved in the document output device, software and /or related consumables business including the traditional ICT companies that have realised that there is an opportunity but has very little understanding of the concept.

Traditional hardware companies will call every device they have on a cost per copy basis, “an MPS solution” and in many cases it will be called a “HP/Canon/Minolta/Xerox” solution.

MPS is the total management of the document output environment without exceptions i.e. all hardware devices (irrespective of brand, printers, copiers, facsimile and scanners) within an organisation, all consumables (cartridges, paper, spare parts, etc), all rentals and maintenance irrespective who it is with at the moment, with no minimum bill – consumption billing only. It is about total outsourcing – the Service Provider taking the full risk and not hiding behind “tricky rental agreements” – i.e. escalations, minimum billing, early settlements, “ever greens”. An MPS solution is a solution that protects the customer against the traditional cannibalistic approach of hardware vendors and finance companies and allows the customer to only pay what they print for at a clearly defined, all inclusive, price per print.

Hybrid Solutions

Everyone in the Output hardware and consumable industry (and even now in the software arena) claim to be doing MPS. If we look carefully at the model, they have excluded several elements (i.e. certain range of devices are excluded (traditional copier companies often exclude printers and vice versa), paper are almost always excluded, minimum billing on all devices are built into the contract and software is seldom offered as a Service (SaaS)). A traditional cost per copy model is now often called an MPS solution – a bulldog with lipstick on is still a bulldog!!

If you do what you did, you get what you’ve got

Methodology

Solution WorX has developed and documented a detailed methodology to provide an end to end MPS solution. As far as we can establish we have the only standard documented MPS methodology globally (not a hybrid adapted pay per page or cost per copy methodology).

Undisputed leaders

With more than 110 people full time employed focussing exclusively on MPS, more than 2,400 printer support specialists in its channel network across 60 service centres in Southern Africa, coupled with the unique MPS co-opetition / collaboration approach that Solution WorX created, we have established ourselves as the first choice in several industries with very large / prestige clients that include several Financial Services, Retail and Mining companies. Our clients appointed us as their MPS partners where document output devices were not merely a peripheral add on to some other outsourcing contract and support / break fix is the main aim of the appointment. Our clients entrusted us with the total cost of printing which make us the undisputed leader in MPS in Africa.