Lexington, KY – April 14, 2008 – Increasing interest in Managed Print Services (MPS) is reshaping the industry, according to new research from the Photizo Group. MPS refers to outsourcing of imaging devices of any kind, but today it involves more than just leasing copiers. In a full engagement, a vendor will analyze enterprise equipment utilization and recommend a deployment strategy. The vendor will then manage and maintain the fleet. MPS decisions can be very confusing, and they represent big risks for IT professionals, facilities managers, and others. Contracts affect millions of printed pages annually. If a program fails, it can have significant financial impact on the customer, and it can negatively impact the customer’s perception of the MPS provider.

The Photizo Group has just released the first installment of MPS Tracker report, an ongoing study of the growing Managed Print Services sector. The landmark study is the first to cover both vendors and end users across a large number of enterprises. The research examines adoption rates, brand awareness, purchase decisions, loyalty and satisfaction rates to inform both vendors and end user organizations. The report delivers the most current analysis of this growing market, and the timely data will help companies more accurately evaluate and implement an MPS strategy.

“MPS is reshaping the industry in a way people don’t realize,” said Ed Crowley Founding Partner and CEO of the Photizo Group. “It is changing the purchasing responsibility for hardcopy distributed print. MPS is taking on greater significance as contracts approach millions of dollars, and both vendor and end user organizations see MPS as strategic to their business. On the vendor side, MPS decisions are often the deciding factor in which vendor ‘wins’ the output fleet.  For end user organizations, MPS is initially seen as a way to ‘gain control’ of output device fleet cost and then ultimately to improve business processes.”

The subscriber-based MPS Tracker is the first to establish ongoing research that approaches MPS as a growth market, and it is the only study with its international scope. Over 100 firms were interviewed in the first quarter in North America alone. A European version of the study will focus on MPS markets in the UK, France and Germany. During 2008, a total of 700 surveys will be collected--400 in North America and 300 in Europe.

“MPS is still emerging. Fifty percent of all MPS engagements captured in our study are in their first MPS engagement,” said Crowley. Cost reduction is the primary driver for initially adopting MPS. “Firms typically begin in their MPS engagement by focusing on gaining control of resources and reducing costs for maintenance, printing and staffing. It’s not until they have these two items under their belt that they focus on business process improvement. It’s important for vendors to understand this, because they have to approach the customer with the right combination of product offerings and services based on where the customer is in this cycle.”

“Perhaps the most interesting detail is what is happening within brands. Each brand’s dynamics are unique, and it is important to understand what levers to pull -- awareness, consideration or product offering -- to improve your brand’s performance,” said Crowley. The MPS Tracker “Brand Scorecard” captures unaided awareness, consideration, familiarity, satisfaction and recommendations to create a relative measure of brand performance. “For decision makers in both IT and non-IT roles, HP is the leading brand in terms of unaided awareness and consideration for printers and MFPs. While HP and Xerox are very close in terms of brand consideration rates, HP has almost twice the unaided awareness of Xerox as an MPS vendor among IT decision makers.”

The study revealed that IT managers and non-IT managers have different expectations for MPS engagements, and vendors must be aware of and sell to the differences. “There is a measurable difference between IT and non-IT purchasing and facilities management in how they view vendors and what they look for in MPS contracts. Understanding these differences is critical for vendors as they market their MPS offerings to these very different communities,” noted Crowley.

“It is important to note that the decision making process is less collaborative than might be expected. The market is shifting to an IT-controlled, printer-based MFP-centric environment, and study results indicate that IT is winning the battle to make the MPS decision for the entire fleet, including printers, MFPs and copiers.  Since MPS deals are typically cover an entire fleet, this has significant consequences for vendors who are behind the curve with their IT penetration, such as those who have traditionally sold through the copier channel,” observed Crowley.

Almost 60 percent of respondents had an assessment completed on their device fleet, demonstrating the importance of solid assessments, but “simply winning the assessment is not a guarantee of winning the account,” said Crowley. “Vendor reliability and responsiveness are central to success in the MPS space. In fact, half the time a vendor other than the one performing the evaluation is selected as the final MPS vendor.”

Additional information about brand awareness, assessment considerations, market opportunities and more is available in the full MPS Tracker study available from the Photizo Group and at http://www.managed-print-services.com.