Changing your managed print services vendor can feel like a risk, but the rewards can be worth it. Just ask Mary DiFranco, IT office manager at Ridley College. Here are three reasons she’s glad she went from leasing her large fleet of copiers, printers and MFPs directly from Xerox to leasing Canon machines from Beatties.
REASON #1: COST SAVINGS
“Xerox couldn’t touch Beatties’s price for the overall lease costs and the cost per copy. We’ll realize huge savings over a five-year period.”
When Ridley College’s lease with Xerox was close to ending, Mary approached Bob Hoxie, the director of Beatties’s managed print division, who prepared a proposal and invited Mary to find another vendor who could beat it. She couldn’t. To Mary, meeting with Bob was as good as meeting with the CEO. He had the power to deliver real value, no sales pitch or pressure tactics required. As an added bonus, potential cost savings continue to be discussed at an annual review Beatties has with the College.
REASON #2: SERVICE
“With Beatties they just dispatch a technician, no questions asked. That’s huge. I’m not a printer technician. I’m calling because there’s a problem. If there was a quick fix, I’ve already tried it.”
In the past, Xerox had asked Mary to perform her own troubleshooting on the machines, which were sometimes all the way across campus, before someone at a call centre overseas would dispatch a service tech. Now, all it takes is a single call to Beatties and a technician arrives quickly—usually within the hour—to make the problem go away. Supplies are automatically sent out when levels get to a pre-determined point and are carefully labelled so they can be delivered directly to the department where the machine is located. If there’s ever a question or concern, Mary knows her key contacts at Beatties are a quick text or phone call away.
REASON #3: HAPPY PEOPLE
“Everyone who uses the Canon copiers gives them great reviews. Change is hard, but the machines spoke for themselves and so did the customer service. It wasn’t long before people bought in.”
IT is as much about managing people as it is about managing technology. Beatties arranged for free demos of the Canon machines so key people at the College could try them out, allowing Mary to gauge whether the transition from one vendor to another would give her a headache or make her a hero. When there was nothing but rave reviews on speed, quality and ease of use, she knew she could move forward with replacing the whole fleet. In fact, the transition was so easy that Mary was able to cancel a cross-campus training program for the new machines.