Choosing a managed print provider.

Service levels and how they are reported

Every provider will say its service is responsive. The useful question is how that is defined and measured. A service level is only meaningful if it states what is being measured, from when, during which hours, and what happens if it is missed.

Ask to see a sample of the reporting you would receive. A provider that measures its own performance should be able to show you how it reports response, resolution and uptime, and how often those reports are reviewed with clients. Look for service levels expressed as specific commitments rather than general aims, and check whether they apply to every site and every device or only to some.

• Response: how quickly the provider acknowledges and starts work on a request, and whether that differs by priority
• Resolution: how quickly faults are fixed, and how often they are fixed on the first visit
• Uptime: how device availability is measured, and over what period
• Hours: whether commitments apply only during business hours, and how urgent issues are raised outside them
• Remedies: what the agreement provides if service levels are not met

Coverage of your sites and brands

Check that the provider can support every location you have, not only the main office. Ask how regional or remote sites are serviced, whether technicians are local or travel in, and whether service levels change by location. If you have offices in more than one city, ask how supplies and service calls are handled at each.

Brand coverage matters just as much. Some providers support one manufacturer; others work across several. A single-vendor provider may know its own range very well, but will tend to recommend that range for every role. A multi-vendor provider can support the mix you already have and recommend different brands for different work. Neither is wrong, but you should know which you are dealing with, and whether technicians are trained and certified by the manufacturers of the devices they will service.

Security, privacy and reporting

Printers are network devices that handle sensitive documents, so security belongs in the selection criteria, not as an afterthought. Ask how the provider configures and patches devices, whether secure release and audit trails are available across every brand in the fleet, how print jobs are protected in transit, and what happens to data stored on a device when it is replaced or removed.

Reporting is how you will know whether the service is working. Ask what reports you will receive, how often, and who reviews them with you. Useful reporting covers usage, cost per page and service performance at a minimum, and lets you see the fleet by device, site or department. A provider that can only report in totals will make it hard to find where costs or problems sit.

Transition and contract flexibility

Moving to a new provider means changes on your floors: devices replaced or taken over, drivers updated, supplies switched, staff told what to expect. Ask for a written transition plan that sets out what happens at each site and in what order, who leads it, and how existing agreements and devices will be dealt with. A provider that cannot describe its transition approach in detail may not have one.

Look closely at how the agreement handles change. Organisations open and close offices, grow and shrink, and change how they work. Ask how devices are added or removed during the term, how minimum volumes are reviewed if printing falls, how rates can change, and what is needed to exit at the end of the term. Our guide to managed print contract terms explains these in more detail.

Questions worth putting to every provider

Ask every shortlisted provider the same questions, in writing where possible, so the answers can be compared directly.

• Which of our sites can you service directly, and which rely on a partner or subcontractor?
• Which brands in our current fleet can you support, and are your technicians certified by those manufacturers?
• Can you show us a sample monthly report and describe how it is reviewed with clients?
• How do you measure first-time fixes, and what does that measure exclude?
• Who will be our day-to-day contact, and who do we escalate to if that does not resolve an issue?
• What does your transition plan look like for an environment like ours, and who leads it?
• What happens to device storage when a device leaves our premises?
• Can we speak to current clients with a similar number of sites and devices?

Red flags

Some warning signs come up often enough to be worth naming. None of them rules a provider out on its own, but each deserves a clear answer.

• A price quoted before the provider has seen your devices or volumes
• Savings promised without a measured baseline of what printing costs you now
• Service levels described only in general terms, with no reporting to show how they are met
• Inclusions that are vague, or exclusions that only appear in the fine print
• Minimum volumes well above what you currently print
• No clear answer on what happens to device data at the end of the term
• Reluctance to provide references, or references only from very different organisations

Comparing providers fairly

The fairest comparison starts from a shared baseline. If every provider prices and plans against the same device list and volumes, differences in their proposals reflect differences in their service rather than in the assumptions they made. Our free, no-obligation fleet assessment can produce that baseline, and you are welcome to use it to compare any provider, including us.

If you want to see how we answer these questions, our managed print and fleet management pages set out what is included, and we provide monthly reporting on usage, cost per page, environmental impact and SLA performance, reviewed in quarterly business reviews with a dedicated account manager for every client.