Companies that can trace their roots back to almost a century, usually have a few characteristics in common that underpin their longevity; the business acumen to spot and respond to emerging opportunities, and a willingness to adopt the latest technology in order to operate more efficiently and provide their customers with an even better service. Those qualities have come to define Weaver & Bomfords, an office supplies business whose origins go back to 1922.
Today, the Cheshire-based business continues to thrive, with its 15 staff offering its nationwide clients an array of services that a busy workplace needs. At Weaver, this includes photocopiers and network printers, Managed Print Services (MPS) and Document Solutions. Bomfords focuses on office furniture and supplies. One solution that’s helping the company’s customers drive greater efficiencies from their print, is from MPS Monitor®, the company that develops and distributes the leading platform for the remote monitoring and management of printers and multifunctional devices. Its MPS Monitor 2.0 is a Cloud-based SaaS solution and, today, two thirds of Weaver customers are benefitting from the accessibility, flexibility and security it delivers.
Meeting customers’ print needs with MPS Monitor 2.0
Convenience often lies at the heart of a great customer service experience, as Sue Lenton, managing director of Weaver & Bomfords, explains. “We’re always looking at how we can offer our clients value, and by providing an outsourced print management solution from MPS Monitor we can remove their print burden so they can get on with running their business. From a customer’s point of view, they haven’t got to maintain or manage toner supplies as it simply gets delivered and marked up for the right machine, so they know that it will be there as they need it. Typically, our customers have several print devices, so we looked at what was the best MPS for them, to make it easier for them to keep their fleets running efficiently and cost effectively. MPS Monitor takes away any administration or management of that process from the customer,” Sue stated.
It’s a service that many customers have come to appreciate, given the diversity of their print needs, as Sue explained: “We have a really broad range of clients printing a really wide range of things; prescriptions, marketing materials, point of sale and even transfers used in china production. We deal with lots of local food producers, mills and bakeries, distribution companies and then there’s the more usual professional and legal firms and local schools and academy trusts. All these companies have remained open over the last year and so have we – they’ve needed our local support and service more than ever.”
A flexible and adaptable MPS solution for a rapidly changing world
It became apparent to Sue and her team that MPS Monitor was a future proof solution for her clients’ needs, given that MPS Monitor was founded on the vision of being a scalable cloud-native platform. Sue noted: “Weaver is an early adopter of remote monitoring technology for managing fleets and ordering supplies, so we’re familiar with the solutions available. When we first started talking to MPS Monitor, it quickly became quite evident that this was a much better offering than we used previously. To start with, its front end is very intuitive and the user interface is graphically orientated.” Sue added that MPS Monitor makes data and information easily accessible, which is unlike other solutions that required a fair amount of technical knowledge in order to be able to access the information and reporting data. MPS Monitor makes it easy to get a proper snapshot of a fleet’s status, so problems or issues can be identified straightaway. “It’s really easy to find the information that you need. Overall, MPS monitor offers us much more by giving you a business management tool that can be used easily.”
The diversity of the Weaver client base called for a remote print monitoring solution that could adapt and scale easily to each customers’ unique needs, not least when the pandemic struck and staff were forced to work from home. Here, MPS Monitor’s flexibility helped. “During the pandemic, we were able to supply and monitor print devices for those that were working remotely, thanks to MPS Monitor. We were able to provide an extension to the service we normally offer office-based staff; we can check remotes devices and supply them with toner when needed and we provide remote support in the event that they have any print or scanning problems. That’s the great benefit of MPS Monitor is that you’ve got the multi connector availability so you can have it running on more than one device. As long as the connector is installed, we can see devices and the network hierarchies. It’s very straightforward.” With its cloud-based architecture, vendor-agnostic approach, security focus, and direct integration with HP Inc.’s Smart Device Services (SDS) and Microsoft Universal Print (UP), MPS Monitor is ideally suited to meet the evolving needs of the hybrid workforce.
Integration as the key to unlocking business potential
In fact, integration with third party applications – like CRM systems – is another MPS Monitor strength. “We were quite an early adopter of MPS Monitor and we were using it with Vantage Online. At the time, there wasn’t actually an official connector for us. But MPS Monitor listened to us and developed one pretty quickly and then helped us to get it set up. The integration with Vantage Online made the complex process of changing from another provider straightforward. They also helped us to perform a bulk update to minimise the tasks involved.” Sue added: “With the system in place, toner alerts are created directly into our system, ready for immediate processing while real time meter readings simplify billing. It’s streamlined what can be very manual tasks, therefore freeing up staff time. The integration between the two is being developed further and we hope to be able to use even more of the MPS Monitor features from within Vantage Online very soon.”
Solutions you can trust
On a day to day basis, another benefit that Sue and her team have come to appreciate is MPS Monitor’s stability. With Weaver’s previous MPS solution, it had to endure many false alerts, some of which were triggered by print users taking the toner out and shaking it. It took the company a lot of time and effort to check every alert it received to validate it or dismiss it, which isn’t a problem that they face with MPS Monitor, as Sue states. “We really trust MPS Monitor in a way that we didn’t trust our other system. It helps us ensure that customer service levels are maintained.” The alert’s flexible configurability is key too, with Sue citing a client that runs a 24/7 operation, and alerts can be set so that the customer never runs out of toners.
To make a tangible difference to a business, an exceptional product needs to be supported by an exceptional team, and Sue’s experiences with MPS Monitor has been highly positive. “I would say that the team are great. They very accessible and very helpful, which has not been my experience of other MPS providers. They are very happy to work with us whenever we need their support.”
With the right combination of products and people, and a managed print service provided by MPS Monitor, Weaver & Bomfords’ future is set to be as illustrious and as long-lived as its past.
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