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mps
A couple of weeks ago I attended
an end-user meeting with an MPS
provider that I do some consulting for.
I was invited because their customer,
a large Oil and Gas producer, made
it clear that a new person was going
to attend the meeting. That person: a
‘Mobility Specialist’. My MPS Partner
called me in because the customer
requested a meeting to discuss MPS
AND Mobility. The first question:
“Why on earth is a Mobility Specialist
attending an MPS meeting?!”
The second: “What is a Mobility
Specialist?!”
First, let’s answer the second question
(hint: it has nothing to do with the art of
moving around). Don’t bother searching
Wikipedia, you won’t find it. In the world
of technology, a Mobility Specialist is
somebody who specialises in helping
companies to build a BYOD (Bring Your Own
Device) and Mobility practice.
This new Mobility role has been brought
about by the flood of ‘Gen Y’ now entering
the workforce. As more and more tablets
and smartphones are brought into offices, a
plethora of questions and concerns around
support, security and costs has arisen.
There is no field manual for companies
or IT Directors to go to where Mobility
is concerned and they fully expect their
partners to help them out. The modern
business environment is being inundated
with ‘tablification’ and customers are
looking for help anywhere they can get
it (which gives us the answer to question
number one!).
You might be wondering what on
earth we talked about at this meeting. In a
nutshell, we had a round-table discussion
about the effects of Mobility, specifically
related to mobile printing on Tablets and
Smartphones. Some of the things we
discussed: How do we make it easier for
users to print from their mobile devices?
How do we control and track what they
are printing? How can Mobility offer an
alternative to printing in the first place?
And can the MPS provider take over
responsibility for managing all of this?
The meeting with my client and their Oil
and Gas customer ended well. The Mobility
Specialist stated: “You are the first MPS
provider to understand the relationship
between our Mobility concerns and print.”
That led them to agreeing to a single-source
MPS and Mobility Assessment from my
partner (Translation: No competitors!).
We left the meeting rather proud of
ourselves. But that didn’t last long. We
soon had to do the hard work of rolling up
our sleeves and investing a bunch of hours
investigating commercial solutions that we
could provide for the customer. The good
news: there is no shortage of options for
enabling, tracking, and controlling mobile
print. The bad news: same as the good
news.
To date there is no single-source
solution that provides a cohesive mobile
printing strategy. Some software providers
handle iOS seamlessly whilst having limited
or no support for Android. Other solutions
have the same problem only in reverse.
Some solutions make the customer send
the document out over the Internet only
to come back into the office again at the
printer. Some solutions offer user-level
tracking. Others do not. Some offer secure-
release capabilities out of the box but not
for every O/S. In short, a minefield is putting
it mildly.
Introducing a whole new line of
software services might be scary on the
surface but I had a chance to speak with
Managed Service Providers at Comptia’s
ChannelCon 2013 and many of them said
things like “If the MPS guys figure out how
easy it is to do what we do we could be
in trouble.” And they have zero interest in
MPS: too many moving parts and physical
things that need fixing. The opportunity to
add Managed Services to your MPS practice
is ripe and easier than you might think.
Beyond the printed page
As the expression goes, “Where there's
mystery there’s margin”. And nowhere is
this more true than in helping customers
navigate the ocean of Mobility and printing
options. We should really step back a little
further and look at the opportunity that
Mobility offers beyond the printed page.
Customers are debating BYOD and a
standardised approach with a single tablet
O/S to support. They are going to buy their
tablets from somebody, why not you as the
MPS provider? And if they get their tablets
from you, what other software solutions
related to workflow can you provide? And if
you are helping them with workflow, what
kinds of paid consulting opportunities exist?
Let’s face facts: traditional MPS is only
part of the customer's pain when it comes
to managing how and what they print or
share on glass. The MPS dealers that begin
to develop expertise beyond the printed
page will reap the rewards. Welcome to the
... a plethora
of questions
and concerns
around
support,
security and
costs has
arisen.
The Mobility Specialist and MPS
(And Why MPS Providers Should Care)
By West McDonald, FocusMPS
Fact: Tablet sales in 2012 were over 126 Million units, up 85% from 2011
(source: Iowendmac.com/inews/12ios/0521.html)
Fact: Apple sold 21 million units in Q2 of 2012
(source: Canalys estimates, Canalys 2012)
Fact: 65% of CEO/Presidents/Owners are using tablets in the office today
(source: http://bitpipe.computerweekly.com/detail/RES/1340794282_727.html)
Fact: Tablet Sales in Australia for the first six months of 2013 surpassed total sales for the
entire year of 2012
(source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/tablet-growth-
exponential-this-year/story-fni0xqi4-1226710565417)