Gartner's Managed Print Services Magic Quadrant is a useful starting point for identifying and evaluating managed print services (MPS) providers. It is intended for Gartner's client base of mainly midsize and large organizations, many of which operate throughout two or more countries or regions, and some of which are truly global. Although not all MPS projects are multiregional or global at the outset, customers often choose to scale up one region at a time. In this way they can manage their office printing in a unified manner globally. The providers in this Magic Quadrant have the geographical scale to attend to your office printing needs across world regions in a coordinated way.

Numerous other MPS providers that approach their MPS projects locally or country-by-country and region-by-region cater to like-minded customers, but they do not appear in this Magic Quadrant. Why not? As organizations progress from the prevailing loosely managed approach to an efficient and closely managed one, it makes more and more sense to manage the entire fleet in a unified way, rather than with today's characteristically fragmented approach. Naturally some MPS customers are organized in a way that makes a unified fleet impossible or are confined to one country or region.

Your vendor selection should be based on a detailed evaluation of your office printing needs and goals compared with a service provider's capacity to fulfill those requirements and expectations. Just because a service provider falls into the Leaders quadrant doesn't automatically make it the right choice for you. All selections are buyer-specific, so vendors in the Challengers, Visionaries or Niche Players quadrants may sometimes be a better match for your requirements. For example, service providers in the Challengers quadrant are capable of delivering the day-to-day office printing services required by most enterprises and may have a long track record. Those in the Visionaries quadrant match both the range of needs and the geographical scope of many midsize and large organizations. For smaller organizations or large ones situated mostly in a single locale, niche vendors may be the best match. All the vendors ranked in this Gartner Magic Quadrant are large, established companies, so buyers should not assume that the niche players are likely to drop out of the market in the near future.

The following is a timeline of the development of the MPS market.

• The "utility printing" concept comes in response to the increasingly diverse range of other IT infrastructure services and business process services being offered at this time. The idea is to bring the benefits of outsourcing to office printing, so customers seek to outsource the entire office printing function.
• Only a few vendors offer MPS at this time, and the customers are a subset of large corporations in North America and Western Europe that are open to experimentation.

• Cost savings opportunities draw large numbers of organizations to actively and closely manage office printing.
• The focus shifts from outsourcing to print optimization as MPS becomes the means for a growing number of organizations to identify and assess, and ultimately reduce, their visible and hidden costs, including consumables, support and maintenance.
• Most providers ask customers to sign a third-party lease instead of the pure utility model and then combine this with the costs of service and consumables in a per-page charge that typically includes a minimum monthly page quota.

• A wider variety of MPS packages is introduced for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) either directly from the provider or through its channel partner.
• MPS becomes a standard part of vendors' strategies to sell office printing to midsize and large organizations, resulting in increasing numbers of customers. To help win over cautious customers, all the major MPS providers agree to roll a portion of the customer's existing equipment into its MPS contract.
• Full-cycle results of early MPS customers are now visible, and more customers are in the market for the second time around.
• New refinements around needs assessment and usage tracking, user surveys, user education, and help in meeting environmental goals become mainstream MPS practices.

In September 2008, Gartner published its first "Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services Worldwide." As Gartner's 2008 visionaries and niche players strove to catch up with the leaders, their markedly improved execution resulted in them moving up into the Challengers quadrant. Thanks to advances and refinements, the 2008 challengers and leaders maintained their own solid execution amidst a distinctly more competitive field.

Financial survival is the dominant theme for 2009, and attitudes toward MPS have changed. Organizations look for ways to cut costs by managing printing in their organization. Gartner clients seek to take advantage of the benefits derived from the proper management of the fleet, and increasingly they request MPS. MPS is now available from almost every printer and multifunction product (MFP) vendor and from most dealers (even if only locally). It is increasingly being packaged for SMBs. Once treated as a special request for certain large customers, MPS has become a tactic for salespeople to approach and engage new customers.

Cost savings is the main driver behind the decision to go with MPS, and the poor economic climate has boosted MPS opportunities. MPS enables organizations to reduce the cost associated with printing and copying through product consolidation or redeployment. It gives them a consolidated contract for hardware, supplies and maintenance for greater visibility of spending. MPS also provides the flexibility to scale pages, print resources and cost to match business volume and staffing. It has the ability to shift costs to where customers have available budget via chargeback and by turning capital expenditure into operating expenditure or vice versa. However, when evaluating projected savings, buyers also need to look at softer costs, such as how much they spend on replacing supplies, on services, on maintenance and on help desk, as well as the negative impact that an unmanaged printer/copier fleet can have on employee productivity.

The economic recession has sharply increased customer interest in MPS as a way to save money, but sometimes the customers who want to save the most are least willing to take risks. If you seek guarantees, you can probably negotiate them with any MPS provider. HP even announced a Payback Guarantee program, but watch out for the contract terms that go along with this or any other savings guarantee.

Despite the advances in vendors' ability to successfully deliver MPS, some customers are not getting as much guidance and help as they need. This dilution of the MPS concept is partly the result of salespeople trying to sell MPS to customers who are not ready to entrust the management of their fleet to vendors. It is also the result of competition between vendors eating away at the vendors' profit margins to the point where they focus on what is most profitable to sell, rather than what the customer really needs.

Although most organizations could, in principle, manage their own office print actively and effectively, in reality many lack the time, the staff, the experience, the tools, and the focus, and simply will not do it on their own. Organizations that manage their printer, copier and fax fleets can save between 10% and 30% of their print costs. It can be less costly for organizations to manage their printing needs themselves if they know exactly how to proceed and have the resources to do so. If not — as is often the case — then an MPS provider can help. MPS promises to help organizations carry out the needed changes and save them money by providing the staffing and expertise to determine their true needs, optimize the fleet to meet them, and track and monitor them to keep the optimal state in place afterward. They also allow customers to bring their best sourcing efforts to bear on what becomes a single, comprehensive and large deal that usually lasts at least three years. The deal may go beyond the printer, copier and MFP fleet to include better handling of documents with direct business benefits. The deal may also encompass centralized reprographics departments (CRDs, also known as copy rooms) and even mailrooms.

To manage their office printing more actively, customers need to involve more parts of their organization, not just Facilities Management or IT, but also Line of Business, and Purchasing (also known as Strategic Sourcing or Procurement). The change is greatest for organizations accustomed to letting IT specify what is needed and then handing it off neatly to Purchasing to get the best deal. Coordination is important, because MPS deals and the accompanying terms and conditions are much more complex than the customary purchase of hardware, and good results demand multidepartmental cooperation throughout the process.

MPS requires more of a commitment than traditional printer and copier purchasing, so both buyers and sellers must readjust their time frames. Letting more people have a say in selecting a more complex package can easily double the three-month purchase cycles to six months, and six-month cycles to a year. The reward for the added complexity is 10% to 30% cost reduction instead of the roughly 5% possible under traditional purchasing practices. Buyers who skip the assessment and analysis upfront shouldn't be surprised if they end up saving less than they hoped for, or perhaps even worse, living with the wrong choice of provider for the next few years. Note that much of the value that MPS provides is determined in the assessment phase that begins before the equipment is delivered, so prospective buyers should use their leverage to demand it be done carefully. Since the assessment often begins before the contract is awarded, customers should strive to use the clout they have at this point in the deal and not sign off until they have a solid case for MPS and understand what the vendor will deliver and how.

"Managed print services" is a Gartner generic term for a service offered by an external provider to optimize or manage a company's document output to certain objectives, such as driving down costs, improving efficiency and productivity, and reducing the IT support workload. Under MPS, a service provider takes primary responsibility for meeting the customer's office printing needs, including the printing equipment, the supplies, the service and the overall management of the printer fleet. The main components provided are needs assessment, selective or general replacement of hardware (optimization), and the service, parts and supplies needed to operate the new and/or existing hardware. The provider also tracks how the printer fleet is being used, the problems, and the user satisfaction. The MPS provider analyzes the information gathered in the course of tracking and makes (or recommends to the customer) the adjustments needed to ensure fleet efficiency and to meet changing user needs.

MPS is mostly adopted by organizations with more than 500 users, across all industries and in all world regions. Although MPS can benefit all but the smallest organizations, it is midsize and large ones that ask Gartner about it the most. Large organizations, in particular, tend to have the most complex and least efficient office printing practices to begin with, and thus stand to benefit the most from optimizing them. These large organizations and many midsize ones, as well, typically have offices in multiple locations and world regions. Some seek MPS in all of their offices from Day 1, but most choose to start small and then add sites, divisions, countries and regions over time. For that reason, our Magic Quadrant is limited to providers that can serve as a single source for at least two world regions.

MPS may also be expanded to include staffed services, such as CRDs (copy centers). It may also include enterprise content management services and workflow optimization components, such as developing custom applications for smart MFPs that automate paper-intensive document workflows and route scanned pages to document management systems. It can also be extended to include the restructuring of document workflows.

MPS does involve a consolidation of spending, but the actual payment schemes vary. Generally, the external service provider either owns the hardware or (more typically) leases it from a financing company in its customer's name. The customer usually pays a per-page charge, which covers the cost of the equipment, any leasing costs, the supplies, the parts, the service and other MPS elements. Some contracts stipulate a minimum number of pages per device per month, with unused pages forfeited. Others involve some variation on the monthly minimum, such as a sliding cost per page that decreases as the number of pages increases. Services are usually folded into the click charge, although in some cases, they are billed on a flat monthly or quarterly basis. Contracts that impose no minimum number of pages appear risk-free but typically obtain some other financial commitment on the part of the customer, such as a flat fee, a per-device fee or a per-seat fee. Some MPS contracts include guarantees of a certain result, but this hinges on agreeing to do things the vendor's way.

Only vendors that meet all the following criteria are included:

• Is able to provide the equipment (via lease or as a procurement service)
• Provides the supplies
• Performs the break/fix and preventive maintenance
• Provides the technical support
• Provides MPS in two or more world regions to at least one customer. The customer must be verifiable and have at least 500 MPS users. The regions are North America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Asia/Pacific (including Japan); and Latin America.
• Provides the long-term tracking and management of the printer/MFP fleet
• Performs the initial assessment/s
• Buys back or disposes of existing equipment that is being replaced, if this is required
• Bills on a per-page or per-seat basis

The inclusion criteria exclude print-related services that fall short of MPS. These include traditional, narrowly drawn copier contracts, certain retail printer service packages, and most infrastructure outsourcing contracts. Some genuine MPS also did not qualify because they do not serve multiregional customers in a unified way.

No vendors were added.

We deleted IKON Office Solutions because it was acquired by Ricoh in October 2008. It is now covered as part of Ricoh's MPS rather than as a separate provider.

The Ability to Execute axis positions each MPS provider based on its success in delivering results today as well as its preparation to deliver results in the future. On this axis, Gartner verifies an MPS provider's capability to deliver MPS based on direct feedback from extensive interviews with its clients and other provided customer references.

Gartner analysts evaluate MPS providers on the quality and efficacy of the processes, systems, methods or procedures that enable their performance to be competitive, efficient and effective, and to positively affect revenue, retention and reputation. Ultimately, MPS providers are judged on their capability and success in capitalizing on their vision.

Each criterion is weighted high, standard or low in importance and scored accordingly. Table 1 shows the criteria for evaluating providers' ability to execute.

Product/Service

This criterion addresses core goods and services offered by the MPS provider that compete in/serve the defined market. This includes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets and skills. We probed how well the provider ensures that the customer ends up with the right mix of equipment and help throughout the MPS engagement.

Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy and Organization)

Viability includes an assessment of the overall organization's financial health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the business unit's likelihood of continuing to invest in the service solution. We drew on all available sources to gauge how solidly grounded the MPS providers are today and how safe a bet they are for the future.

Sales Execution/Pricing

This criterion examines each MPS provider's capabilities in all presales activities and the structure that supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support, and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel. MPS agreements can lock in customers for years and can do more harm than good if the terms, conditions and pricing are drawn up wrong. We examine how well the vendor ensures that the customer gets a fair deal that is appropriate for the customer's needs.

Market Responsiveness and Track Record

This looks at the MPS providers' ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve, and market dynamics change. This criterion also considers the provider's history of responsiveness. Successful MPS engagements cater to specific needs of the customer at hand. We looked closely at the how far the vendor goes to ensure the success of the specific customer.

Marketing Execution

This criterion refers to the clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization's message in order to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase awareness of the MPS offering, and establish a positive identification with the service/brand and organization in the minds of buyers. This "mind share" can be driven by a combination of publicity, promotional activities, thought leadership, word of mouth, and sales activities. Effective marketing is important, because customers struggle to understand exactly what each vendor will do for them and how this differs from one provider to another. We look from all angles at how well the vendor communicates this, and how easy it is for customers to obtain this information.

Customer Experience

This evaluates the relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to be successful with the MPS evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, and service-level agreements (SLAs). Successful MPS turns on the provider's relationship with the customer in ways that SLAs and contract clauses can never entirely anticipate and enforce. We look from numerous angles at how well the provider ensures it maintains a good all-around relationship with the customer.

Operations

This criterion reviews the MPS provider's ability to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include the quality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs, systems and other vehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis. Office printing is one of those technologies that affect almost everyone, so even small disruptions matter. We look at how the vendor works hand in hand with the customer to minimize the disruption to the end users and key stakeholders in the customer organization.

This axis reflects each MPS provider's prospects for success by analyzing its view of the market, its service operating model, and its strategic plans for growth and service improvements. Gartner verifies an MPS provider's vision based on presentations from the providers and direct feedback from extensive interviews with the MPS provider's clients as well as insight gained while answering Gartner client inquiries on that topic.

Each criterion is weighted high, standard or low in importance and is scored accordingly. Table 2 shows the criteria for evaluating providers' completeness of vision.

Market Understanding

This criterion refers to the MPS provider's ability to understand buyers' needs and translate these needs into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to and understand buyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those wants with their added vision. We look at key areas in which the provider can prepare the customer for tomorrow's priorities as well as today's.

Marketing Strategy

This evaluates the MPS provider's strategy and approach to marketing and promoting MPS. We looked for a clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout the organization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements.

Sales Strategy

This criterion reviews the provider's sales strategy and its capability to sell MPS. It includes the strategy for selling MPS that uses the appropriate network of direct and indirect sales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth of market reach, skills, expertise, technologies, services and the customer base.

Offering (Product) Strategy

This criterion addresses the MPS provider's approach to MPS development and delivery that emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature set as they map to current and future requirements. Across each of the main elements of MPS, we examined how the vendor maximizes the benefit of its MPS to customers.

Business Model

This assesses the soundness and logic of an MPS provider's underlying business proposition. A sustainable MPS business model must not only deliver savings and other benefits to customers; it must also minimize the risks. We looked at how the vendor protects its customers against the risks inherent in MPS.

Vertical/Industry Strategy

The experience that MPS providers gain and investments that they make in vertical markets will help them build and retain their customer base in an increasingly competitive market. We assessed the MPS provider's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of individual market segments, including verticals.

Innovation

This includes direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment, consolidation, or defensive or pre-emptive purposes. As MPS matures, customers should expect continued improvements both in what vendors do for them and in how they do it. This depends on judicious investments. We look at the quantity and quality of the providers' investments in MPS versus the value that they are likely to provide to customers.

Geographic Strategy

This refers to the MPS provider's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries, as appropriate for that geography and market. Many of Gartner's clients have offices scattered across an entire country or region, several continents or the entire world. We evaluated the ability of the providers to accommodate the range of customers' geographies, from local through national, regional, multiregional and global.

Leaders provide MPS to a wide range of customers, including the largest and most geographically dispersed, so they must demonstrate a truly global reach. They must demonstrate not only the skills to deliver today's MPS, but also the understanding, initiative and resources to prepare for tomorrow's. Leaders characteristically augment the full scope of MPS with a wide range of added-value services.

Although challengers have solidly demonstrated that they provide the core elements of MPS, they have a less complete view of the market direction than leaders. The package of services they offer and the way it is marketed also cater to a somewhat narrower range of company sizes and industries than that of leaders.

Visionaries thoroughly understand today's market and also know how to address customers' future needs and expectations. In the aggregate, they provide a wide range of MPS to a diverse range of customers. What differentiates them from leaders is their ability to successfully market and deliver all of their services to customers of different scale and across different regions in a well-unified way.

At the current level of market maturity, there are no visionaries in the 2009 Managed Print Services Magic Quadrant.

Niche players meet all of our inclusion criteria but provide a narrower range of services to a narrower range of customers than the other vendors. They may be a cost-effective choice for customers whose requirements, scale and geographical scope are a good match. Some customers also report that the niche players pay them close attention and are generally more accommodating than large vendors.

At the current level of market maturity there are no visionaries in the 2009 Managed Print Services Magic Quadrant.

• Canon's continual and heavy investments in research and development have resulted in an up-to-date and comprehensive line of MFPs. Its advanced manufacturing processes help it ramp up new models rapidly and without sacrificing quality.
• Canon does not shy away from customers who need hands-on service in all the regions where it provides MPS. It can also link its MPS to the CRD staffing it has long provided to some customers.
• Some MPS providers strive to win new accounts and immediately run into rollout and installation problems. Not Canon: Customers familiar with Canon's MPS praise the efficiency expertise with which it installs and rolls out its equipment in their sites.

• Canon sells and services its equipment worldwide but has relatively few multiregional MPS customers and almost no truly global ones. This is primarily an organizational issue of Canon reconciling national and regional flexibility with global consistency. We expect this to change: Canon is carrying out a systematic plan to coordinate its MPS offerings and marketing worldwide.
• Customers should allow themselves some time and patience to properly scope out Canon's MPS in different locations.
• On the one hand, Canon's MPS capabilities differ somewhat from country to country and region to region, with variations both in what services are offered and in whether they are provided directly or through dealers or distributors.
• On the other hand, the depth and detail of information on MPS available on Canon's websites also varies from region to region, making it harder for customers to understand the regional differences.
• Look closely at how Canon will coordinate support and service responses with its distributors or service partners. Some customers report gaps in communication.

• HP successfully provides direct MPS to customers ranging from midsize to very large, and with a single point of contact even for truly global accounts. HP also provides MPS to a wide variety of industries and has the customer references to prove it.
• Though no MPS vendor is entirely consistent worldwide, HP has unified its marketing communications so that customers see a consistent message across its websites world over. That message explains the MPS basics, such as needs assessment, rollout, and support, as well as help streamlining document processes and workflows.
• Though HP's integration of EDS is still in progress, EDS already yields HP a stream of large new MPS customers. Together with HP's other IT services businesses, this puts HP in a better position than any of the competitors to make MPS a central, rather than peripheral, part of your overall IT environment.

• Because so many IT departments trust HP as they do no other printer vendor, HP may seem to be a natural MPS choice to those in IT. Outside of IT, though, this may not be the case. The take-away: Be careful to involve and win over the line-of-business and other corporate decision makers, and make the case for HP on its merits. Otherwise you may end up without the internal support to fully carry out the policies upon which fully effective MPS depends. HP's assessment and change management services can help you make your case and win this support.
• HP needs a wider range of high-volume, fully featured MFPs for customers with centralized offices. As a customer you can work around the limitations if you choose, but don't redefine your centralized printing needs just to conform with the range of products that HP happens to offer.
• Though HP will, in fact, accommodate users who need A3 laser MFPs with speeds over 50 pages per minute (ppm), you won't see much about this in its marketing literature, and HP won't always volunteer this at the outset. Most likely, HP will bring in your existing MFP supplier as a subcontractor or else partner with another supplier, such as Toshiba, to augment its product lineup. You, as the buyer, need to clearly state your needs and preferences.

• Lexmark has a long history of understanding and catering to the industry-specific needs of retail, healthcare, finance, government, utilities and manufacturing.
• Established MPS customers of Lexmark express increasing satisfaction with its account management and with its billing, which is often a sore spot in competitors' MPS delivery, and rarely a source of customer satisfaction.
• Though most MPS vendors talk about optimizing customers' workflows, Lexmark actually understands what streamlining work processes involves. Its solutions approach, which predated its MPS, involves listening closely to its customers, analyzing how they use documents in the business context, and proposing either off-the-shelf or custom solutions to help them.

• Though Lexmark can staff your CRD, its focus is really in printing environments that are distributed across the customers' offices and sites. Customers who see the CRD or centralized reprographics center as the hub of the MPS will likely to turn to other providers whose strategy and services are more centralized or CRD-centric.
• Though Lexmark recently refreshed its line of printers and MFPs, it still has gaps in the over-50-ppm A3 MFPs that make sense in centralized offices and CRDs.
• In the vendor selection stage, some customers will need to make an extra effort to take the full measure of what Lexmark has to offer. Customers who are used to stack-ranking the competing vendors on a simple, standard set of selection criteria and then extracting the lowest price from the survivors will find that important elements of value of Lexmark's MPS fall outside the same preset criteria that work happily for competitors. These may include "soft" productivity or business-related benefits that were outside their evaluation matrix.

• Some customers are uneasy with the way most vendors use MPS at least partly as a distribution channel for their printers and supplies, because they fear that as a result, they will be sold more printing equipment or capacity than they really need. Pitney Bowes has no such incentive, since it does not manufacture printers or MFPs, and all the equipment it supports under MPS comes from other manufacturers, such as Canon, HP, Sharp and Xerox.
• Customers like to interview references from others in the same industry. Pitney Bowes provides MPS to a wide variety of industries and has the customer references to prove it in most of them.
• Thanks to its geographical reach, Pitney Bowes can staff its MPS engagements with its own employees, even if the customer's offices are scattered across the U.S. and Canada. In some cases the same staff that operates a customer's CRD (copy center) or production printing center can also provide a rapid, in-person response to customer service calls or perform preventative maintenance on office printers and MFPs.

• Customers with global operations should note that although Pitney Bowes operates in all major world regions and has improved its cross-country coordination and monitoring, it has more customers and services in North America than in Europe, and other regions trail even farther behind.
• While some competitors have well-established MPS customer bases rooted in each world region, Pitney Bowes sells mostly to overseas offices of North American companies in Latin America and even in Western Europe.
• Most organizations considering MPS are eager for answers, and you may like the precision with which Pitney Bowes' predictive modeling can quantify the result of changes you are contemplating to your printing and document management. Be careful in how you use the predicted outcomes, though, because the results are only as accurate as the underlying assumptions and the data they contain. Always temper predictions with what you know about your own organization and its own appetite for change. Aggressive predictions may win you approval for your project, but they could also set unrealistic expectations on the part of senior management.

• Ricoh manufactures a wide range of equipment for the office and production environment, and can handily accommodate customers who want a single-source vendor.
• Ricoh's approach to MPS emphasizes follow-through and continuous improvement over the life cycle of the engagement. Continuous improvement usually focuses on cost or reliability, but Ricoh has taken this in a new direction: Ricoh's print carbon footprint module plugs into your IBM Tivoli dashboard and lets you extend your continuous improvement approach to your environmental goals.
• Ricoh has extensive direct channels for providing MPS to local and national accounts in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia/Pacific (such as Australia) and Latin America. The acquisition of IKON Office Solutions in 2008 augments Ricoh's reach even further. Customers report satisfaction with Ricoh's on-site repair and maintenance, and its close and consistent attention to the customer.

• Even though Ricoh is one of the top worldwide suppliers of copiers and MFPs, the range of locations where it provides MPS and the extent of the MPS services that it provides there is narrower than for its equipment sold outside of MPS.
• Much of Ricoh's MPS expertise came from the companies it acquired, and though the hardware it provides is consistent, customers have noted inconsistencies across countries and between support teams in communication, and sometimes in the software tools they use. If you're considering Ricoh on a national or multinational scale, scrutinize the consistency of Ricoh's approach across countries and current or past business units, as well as any subcontractors that are involved.
• Customers renewing or newly contracting MPS with IKON should ascertain what changes, if any, will take place as Ricoh gradually absorbs IKON's operations. Ask especially about the kinds of services that you may have decided to put off until later, such as workflow optimization.

• Toshiba carried out an ambitious program in 2008 and 2009 to standardize its MPS practices and contracts and bolster its assessment and tracking. Its assessment programs now include detailed security and environmental modules, and it has trained its staff and dealers to deliver on the latest MPS offerings.
• Though fully capable of serving large customers, Toshiba truly caters to midsize ones and tends to lavish more attention on midsize customers than its larger competitors do. Toshiba has done more than anyone else over the years to integrate its dealers into the sale and provision of its MPS. For customers, this means that in North America, you can start your MPS in one office and scale all the way up to a national Toshiba directly delivered engagement, all in a single, largely consistent program.
• Though Toshiba has its own line of MPS and printers, it will also absorb equipment that you already own under its MPS. Toshiba even has a partnership with HP in the U.S. to provide its MPS customers with a carefully chosen subset of HP workgroup laser printers and MFPs at competitive prices. As a result of the partnership, it is also fully and formally certified to support the gamut of HP equipment you may own.

• Toshiba has little experience with multiregional MPS and is not organized to sell and provide global MPS from a single point of contact.
• Toshiba has a scant track record with MPS in Europe.
• If you are looking for an MPS provider that has experience in your own industry, press Toshiba for specific examples and references. Toshiba claims it serves a wide range of vertical markets, but it has provided us with references to verify its participation in only a few of them.

• Xerox can provide a single point of contact for customers of many sizes, from local, national and regional right up through global. Even some rivals candidly acknowledge that its geographical depth, breadth and consistency is unrivaled. In Asia/Pacific, Xerox works very closely with Fuji Xerox, of which it is a part owner. Because of the close coordination between these two companies, the Magic Quadrant treats Fuji Xerox as an extension of Xerox.
• Xerox offers a wide range of extensions to MPS, including CRD and mailroom outsourcing, telecommuter support, document-centric process optimization and outsourcing, vertical-market programs, and production print center staffing. These go beyond what most competitors can provide, and Xerox has a better track record in these areas.
• Xerox pioneered MPS practices that others have now adopted, such as advanced needs assessment, monitoring and management of the fleet and user demand, and change management to rally users behind MPS and help them cope with the transition to well-managed office printing. As those practices deliver results, the next step for many customers will be to broaden the control of their documents from the office to the CRD, production centers and telecommuters. Looking ahead, Xerox's Enterprise Managed Print Services initiative will likely forge the way for the overall MPS market in these same areas.

• Make sure you choose your cost-per-page plan based on a solid upfront needs assessment that is forward-looking. Xerox offers a variety of plans, and it does accommodate some rescaling, but don't expect to switch plans in midstream without a cost.
• If you engage Xerox on a multinational basis, take pains to first analyze and explain your priorities. Xerox can provide worldwide MPS in a consistent and coherent way, or if you prefer, it can cater to the varying needs of the different countries and regions at the expense of consistency. The correct approach is the one that works best for you, but it's easier to get it right the first time than to change it afterward.
• Despite Xerox's investments in business systems, some customers are not entirely satisfied with the timeliness and accuracy of their per-page billing. Some of this has to do with the varying ways in which enterprises need their bills formatted, so negotiate with Xerox the reporting you need and use sample bills to make sure you understand and are understood. Be sure to monitor the billing for consistency during the rollout phase as new sites and departments are added, and continue to spot-check it for accuracy over time.