In December, Océ Business Services (OBS) introduced Océ PrintExpress, an online print and distribution service, to augment its Managed Print Services offerings. I spoke with Chris Bucher, Operations Manager, Tri-State Region, for Océ Business Services, to gain more insight into the offering and discovered that Océ PrintExpress is the result of a partnership between Océ Business Services and online print service provider Mimeo.

The best way to explain this offering is to use a real customer example Bucher described for me. A pharmaceutical client was putting together materials for a conference and needed to get a facilitator’s guide out next day to 18 presenters distributed around the country so they could have materials to prep with while traveling. The job was submitted at 9:30 PM and in the hands of intended recipients the next morning.

Bucher believes customers will use this solution with a combination of ad hoc printing and printing from a catalog of items available in a customized portal. In some cases, the print work may be work that otherwise might have been outsourced to a local print provider. In other cases, it may allow an organization to shift work off-site, reducing the overall footprint of their on-site printing capacity. It also allows customers to leverage corporate volume for favorable pricing, and to ensure consistent quality, preserving brand integrity.

I also spoke with Ted Ardelean, Director of Marketing for OBS. I asked him what he is seeing in terms of outsourcing trends, and he identified two that I found quite interesting. First, he indicated that in the internal copy center or CRD, companies seem to be stepping down the equipment size one level as they invest in new equipment. “If a company had a 110 ppm black & white printer,” he explains, “they are looking to replace that with an 85 or 95 ppm device.” Ardelean points out that this trend applies primarily to black & white, signaling a decline in volumes there, while the same trend is not evident with color machines.

He also reported that customers seem much more educated about managed print services. “In the past,” he says, “not many of them asked for managed print, and those that asked may not have been particularly clear or specific. But now they seem to be more on board. They know what it is, know to ask, and know what to ask for. They are more receptive to making the changes necessary to implement managed print services. We are seeing this increasingly in the RFPs we have received over the past few months.”

The outcome of this is that companies are replacing fleets of company-owned copiers/printers with equipment managed by a services provider. They are less focused on equipment specifications and more focused on how the vendor manages the program, what the transition plan is, and monitoring and rationalizing the equipment footprint. “Ardelean adds, “They want to optimize cost, but they also want to balance that with their real needs. It is not a focus on a machine-to-machine replacement process. They are carefully examining their current and anticipated print volumes, number of users and how they are distributed across the organization, and asking for a print solution or infrastructure that delivers the best cost and quality yet meets the needs of their users.”

So where does Océ PrintExpress fit into this picture? “Océ PrintExpress fills a specific need,” says Ardelean, “which is fast turnaround, high quality work that needs to be distributed. It doesn’t really impact managed print services volumes because it is more project-oriented and somewhat unpredictable, as opposed to normal office production work. It could also involve work that requires special materials, binding or other capabilities that might not be available on site.”

From Mimeo’s perspective, Océ PrintExpress is another channel through which the company can receive work. According to Charlie Corr, Mimeo’s Vice President, Corporate Strategy, “We don’t offer any on-site services, and if we can acquire a piece of that business through partners such as Océ Business Services, it is additive for us. Sure, the company could come directly to Mimeo. But in many cases, especially with managed print services in place, Procurement will see that as rogue spending. With Océ PrintExpress, it is part of a contractual arrangement that is already in place. It strengthens client relationships for OBS rather than undermining them.”

While Océ PrintExpress is certainly not the first solution of its kind to hit the market, I found the arrangement between Océ Business Services and Mimeo to be quite interesting, especially in light of the fact that Mimeo’s production platform doesn’t have much Océ equipment content, at least at this point. That could change, of course. But Océ Business Services has a more open approach to helping customers choose the right equipment mix to meet their needs that some of the other managed print service vendors, especially other equipment manufacturers, who, understandably, will focus on installing their own brand. OBS positions itself as “vendor agnostic.”

For commercial printers, this is another example of the critical role web to print is playing in the enterprise printing ecosystem. Work going to Mimeo is likely work that would previously have gone to a commercial or digital printer, who, in many cases, would return the printed output to the customer for distribution. With the combined Océ Business Services/Mimeo resources, it is a seamless print-and-distribute model for customers, who can not only wait till the last minute to “hit print,” but can be assured that their work will be produced accurately, with consistent quality, and—perhaps even most importantly—arrive next day, wherever it needs to go, with no extra work on their part.