Ingram Micro Simplifies Managed Print Services

Ingram Micro today announced it is making a tool available to providers of managed print services that make it simpler for them to monetize consumables such as paper and ink cartridges.

This expansion of the Ingram Managed Print Services (MPS) program is initially targeted at channel partners servicing printers from Hewlett-Packard Inc. and Xerox that eventually will be extended to all the printer manufacturers that Ingram supports, says Mike Erwin, executive director, for vendor management within the Business & Consumer Solutions group at Ingram Micro.

The goal is to make it simpler for partners to monetize add-on products and services by providing a tool that tracks the rate at which ink is being consumed by the end customer as well as providing a billing capability for those services managed by Ingram Micro on behalf of the partner, says Erwin.

If partners fail to take advantage of that opportunity they often leave the door open for rival partners to supplant them by providing the complete range of managed services, add Erwin.

“A lot of partners wind up missing the bigger part of the opportunity,” says Erwin.

Partners that want to provide managed print services will need to decide to what degree they need to standardize on a single vendor that often has their own managed print services offering. If the partners decide to standardize on a single vendor they then need to decide whether to resell the managed service or build their own.

Erwin notes that partnering with Ingram Micro makes it simpler to provide managed services across a range of customers that are not likely to standardize on a specific class of printers provided by a single vendor.

When it comes to generating recurring revenue managed print services is often one of the simplest services to set up. Most printer manufacturers have exposed an application programming interface (API) through which they manage devices as well as gather metrics. The challenge and the opportunity for channel partners are finding the best ways to tap into those APIs.