Vancouver – “Printing is not sexy,” said Brian Stevenson, executive-vice president of Toronto-based LaserNetworks. “This is my reality,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders during a presentation to Tech Data TechSelect members at its Canadian conference, held here.
The reality Stevenson talks about is that IT sales people rarely discuss printing as part of an end-to-end total solution for customers. The printer has turned itself into an appliance similar to the dishwasher. “It’s just supposed to work,” he said.
However, saving customers money on printing is trendy, especially during a recession.
LaserNetworks has developed a cost per page selling model that it wants to take to the channel. The initiative is solely a collaborative effort on the part of LaserNetworks.
The cost per page works best with 10 printers and up, Stevenson said. A 10 printer example would see a customer remove its copier save $600 a month on that lease payment. If they print 10,000 pages per month the cost per page would be 1.6 cents each, or $160. An HP MFP would replace the copier at a cost of $50 a month for a grand total of $210. The old way would cost $700; $600 for the lease and the copier’s per page cost would be a penny per page, which would work out to be $100 for 10,000 pages.
Under the cost per page model, customers pay less per month, eliminate having to deal with printers, attain cost certainty, and receive a guaranteed SLA for break fix.
And for the reseller partner, they will get three per cent referral fee from LaserNetworks. According to Stevenson, it adds a revenue bucket for solution providers at no risk.
“Cost per page is as simple as a dishwasher with a nanny. The dishwasher takes care of the plate, but the nanny takes the plate after your meal, rinses it, puts it in the dishwasher to be cleaned and after that puts it away in the cupboard so the next day you just grab your plate,” Stevenson said.
LaserNetworks also uses a streamlined approach for the cost per page model. The company conducts a volume check on copiers. More often than not it will have a low for a high capital cost item.
It then reduces the copier fleet by at least half ensuring cost savings on leases. It replaces those copiers with HP MFPs. Finally, LaserNetworks supports all the printers so there is one throat to choke, Stevenson said.
LaserNetworks currently has 1,500 customers on this cost per page model, including the Royal Bank. Of those customers, only five left the program, of which two declared bankruptcy, Stevenson said.
