10 red hot enterprise tech for SMB customers

The managed print model, popular in enterprise and mid-market, is coming to SMBs because it promises a lower and more predictable total cost of ownership.

It also moves print from the capital expense column to an operating expense, and separate buying decisions (printer, toner, paper) are rolled into one that only needs to be reviewed every three years. Per-page billing makes it easier to allocate costs internally.

SMB resellers have been slow to build a managed print services business for several reasons. In part it's because selling a managed print service is very different to moving boxes.

Instead of one large hit when the printer is sold, payment is dragged out over years. And many SMBs don't need or can't afford the A3 printers around which a managed print contract is usually sold.
Oki is the first printer vendor to target deliberately the SMB managed print market. It launched its reseller-only Executive Series to 40 Australian partners in April and added five mono-colour and colour models to the range this month.

The Executive Series multi-function and single-function printers stand out in three ways. They are only available as part of managed print services contracts; the devices will only accept toner that is microchipped and designed specifically for these models; and they only come in A4 size.

Oki's Australian managing director Takaaki Hagiwara said customers are charged by the page and that it is a disadvantage to buy toner outside the MSP program. "The cost per page goes up," Hagiwara says.

This pricing strategy locks out catalogue and online companies which often sell grey-market toner below the cost price of local product.

Oki only sells LED printers which have fewer moving parts than lasers, and the vendor claims its machines are more reliable and robust. The Executive Series come with three-year warranties, the length of the standard managed print contract.

Hagiwara says the gap between the hardware cost of an A4 and an A3 printer is still surprisingly large. He says the Executive Series are aimed at SMBs with under a few thousand pages per month. "An A3 printer is not the right product for them. The lease cost is two to three times the running costs. A4 is much cheaper," he says.

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