MPS (discarded by Gartner) we have Managed Content Services now

The role of MPS, is changing  gradually from simply helping customers optimize their printers and MFPs, to helping them handle documents more efficiently and eliminate printing where practical. The industry-specific needs assessments are a starting point and one more step in the transition from MPS to the service we call "managed content services

»   Managed content services (MCS) is a solution that rationalizes, streamlines and optimizes business communications by providing consultative help, software and implementation

»   As the successor to MPS, MCS will subsume the print-related functions of MPS & also help customers manage the same content & documents in digital form

»   MPS and MCS are mostly adopted by organizations with more than 500 users, across all industries and in all regions

»   MPS usually covers scanning & document capture and may also be expanded to include staffed services, such as copy centre’s, as well as telecommuters

»   Some MPS is designed to improve document security or to reduce print volumes and power consumption for environmental reasons

»   MCS pricing and billing:-

o   Flat-fee services, which may be scaled according to the size of the engagement

o   Software licenses and maintenance fees per user or per MFP

o   Per-transaction fees for cloud services or SaaS

o   Hourly, daily or one-time fees for consultation and implementation

»   Traditional MPS together with the four services in which MCS focuses on:

o   The IT side of printing — printer server and printer driver maintenance and consolidation; printing security services; business system integration; and mobile, thin-client, and virtual desktop printing administration services

o   Business process automation

o   Business process optimization

Choose your MPS and MCS provider on its ability to help you optimize your printer fleet and to keep it optimal. Beyond the obvious equipment, supplies and technical support, this includes the needs assessment, ongoing tracking and consultative help, as well as software-based components, such as pull printing and mobile printing services.

Take into consideration any value-adds that make sense for you today, such as workflow packages for business processes and forms or for scanning and searching paper documents. At today's level of maturity, all MPS and MCS providers should be able to provide all these things, but how they go about it, at what cost and with what kind of foresight (around such risks as diminishing page volumes) will influence your selection.