Managed Print Services Gartner Magic Quadrant

Magic Quadrant is a performance assessment method for a specific market, which gives you a perspective of different competitors, their efficiency and services, and their level of experience in the market.

Every year or two, a performance and ranking report is published by Gartner, a company called Gartner Magic Quadrant.

As the name suggests, there are four areas of ranking in a Magic Quadrant. These areas are Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players.

Leaders lead the competition, have the widest range of products and services, the most seniority in the market, and a presence in global markets.

Challengers are those who are not there yet but have strong potential to make it there into the leaderboard, challenging the position of a leader.

Challengers, too, have a decent amount of seniority and hold in the market, as well as first-class services. They also have financial resources to sustain their business. But they do not have as much influence in the markets as the leaders do.

Visionaries are the innovators who have the potential to make their name in the market with their keen eye for opportunities and the ability to cash on them. But, despite having the potential, they still have not made it to secure a market share of themselves.

Whereas, Niche Players are those targeting one area of one market at a time only and are trying to figure out a way to make their place in the market. They are usually small and struggling vendors.

Like most other things, Gartner issues a Magic Quadrant list for Managed Print Services and ranking MPS providers as leaders, challengers, visionaries, or niche players.

It is considered important to check the Gartner Magic Quadrant ranking before hiring an MPS provider, as it can tell you a lot about them.

But, a Gartner Magic Quadrant shall not be the only criterion to judge an MPS provider. There is a fair possibility that the services your companies need are better provided by a visionary or a niche player, even though leaders and challengers are better overall.

Managed Print Services Conference

 The first-ever Global Managed Print Conference took place on May 2, 2011, and lasted till May 4, 2011, in Orlando.

It was organized by the Photzio group and was intended to bring Managed Print Service Providers together from all around the world. 

The conference discussed the primary issues of Managed Print Services, the standards of business and procedures, how to get more business, and other similar issues.

The conference also hosted the participation of Printing Technologies Manufacturers, who briefed the Managed Print Services Provider about their products and services and discussed why they should be preferred.

The MPS industry stood at a net worth of $25 billion in 2010 at the time of the conference; Photzio group, the host of the conference, had put forth an estimate that the net worth of the MPS industry will be $60 billion globally, more than twice as much as its then value.

This estimate predicted the growth rate of the MPS industry and laid stress on the need for the training of Managed Print Service Providers so that they can spot and seize the potential opportunities better.

Similarly, the Managed Print Services conference explored how to pursue the world into making a switch and outsourcing their printing fleet to the Managed Print Service provider for their good, the good on their company, the betterment of the market, and the good of the world.

Printers, Copiers, and Fax Machines

A printer is a hardware device that can paste text and infographics such as graphs, flowcharts, and images on a piece of paper.

The draft for printing is usually prepared on a computer using relevant software. Afterward, a printer is commanded to print those characters on a medium, usually a piece of paper. 

A printer uses ink or a tonner, depending on whether it is an inkjet printer or a laserjet printer.

Printers are also capable of printing in color or black and white depending on their technology, the type of data to be printed, and the requirement from the print. 

It is a much cheaper, faster, and feasible way than writing by hand, as a printer can be commanded to print several copies at once.

A copier is a kind of printer that is also equipped with a scanner. Just like a printer takes printing commands from a computer, a copier takes commands from the scanner.

In the case of a copier, a hard copy of the file to be printed is put on the scanner, which scans the characters and figures printed on it. Afterward, the scanner converts that data into an electrical instruction and passes it on to the printer.

The printer reads the instructions and prints them down on a piece of paper, creating exact copies of the input file. 

Similarly, a fax machine also has two parts, one for input and one for output. A fax machine is much like a copier, just communicating with other fax machines over a distance.

A fax machine takes input in the form of a printed paper. It uses the same scanner technology to create a soft copy of data representing characters and figures present on the input paper.

The fax machine then communicates this data to another fax machine using electronic signals, decoding the message, understanding the commands, and prints an exact copy of the input paper.

In this way, a fax machine copies a paper but over a vast distance.

Managed Print Services Healthcare

Healthcare is a field that involves a lot of printing as they largely depend on printed reports. The efficient generation of these reports is crucial for effective healthcare.

Despite being crucial, printing is not the primary responsibility in healthcare departments. It gives rise to the need to outsource printing to an external Managed Print Service, primarily responsible for managing the printing fleet.

It is important because if the reports are not printed efficiently, it can become a matter of life and death in a healthcare department.

Moreover, suppose the printing environment in the healthcare department is not optimized. In that case, it will result in inefficient services and cost them more, hiking the prices of healthcare facilities and increasing problems for the patients.

Similarly, the healthcare field cannot afford a delay in service, resulting in loss of life or limb. As the department is not primarily concerned with managing the printing, they may exercise unintended negligence, resulting in a malfunctioning printer or a run-out stock of supplies.

This is why a healthcare department needs to outsource its printing to an MPS provider, who will ensure that all the devices are working fine and all the necessary supplies are stocked up timely.

Furthermore, a healthcare provider is also expected to be environment-friendly and gentle compared to the other businesses. Actually, healthcare is inherently releasing toxic material that they cannot help.

To deal with this pressure, a Managed Print Service can be of great help as they will optimize the printing environment, resulting in inefficient utilization of resources and a significant waste reduction.

An MPS can also equip the healthcare system with such environment-friendly machinery, which is proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint and is generally unaffordable for most healthcare providers.