Memjet, Preton Saver Offering New MFP & MPS Solutions

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog about Memjet's new C6010 ink color printer with their waterfall ink head technology.  The Memjet C6010 color printer's claim to fame is an out put speed of 60 pages per minute with full bleed for letter size paper, the ability for the dealer to control the aftermarket for the ink and the excellent margins on that are available for the ink and the hardware.

I had the chance to speak with Kim Beswick with Memjet the other day.  Kim spoke about the dealers ability to control your ink supplies. The dealer(s) would be able to buy new or send used cartridges to Parts Now for a refill @ a 30% discount.  Dealers also would be able to refill their own cartridges @ a 50% discount and Memjet would supply the dealers with a free refill systems. Dealers would be able to buy ink in one liter bags.

Control is good, especially with aftermarket supplies. One of the points I outlined in the previous Memjet blog was the thought that wouldn't it be awesome if the Memjet C6010 had technology to allow dealers to bill the end users for the amount of ink that they used.  This would be similar to Xerox's tiered billing or Kyotier billing. Having this type of billing system would allow dealers to bill for just black, and tiered cost per page billing for the amount of color ink that was used. At the time when I wrote the blog there was no such technology available until......

Preton made an announcement on March 17th
that they added enhanced page coverage analysis in the new version of Preton Saver.  Below is a paragraph from their press release:

The enhanced page coverage analysis features in the new version of PretonSaver calculate the exact amount of color and monochrome toner that is used for each printed page.

Managed Print Service (MPS) providers can use PretonSaver's page coverage analysis features to improve their color printing pricing strategies. By calculating the exact amount of color toner that is used in each printed page, PretonSaver now enables MPS providers to define page coverage thresholds and offer multi-tiered pricing for color print jobs. The ability to offer scaled pricing for color printing can benefit an MPS provider with an essential competitive advantage, especially during initial contract negotiations.                    

This is interesting, especially to any MFP dealer that does battle with Xerox or Kyocera and has been losing deals based on the tiered billing approach for cost per page.  MFP dealers now have a tool where they can offer tiered billing with their Canon, KonicaMinolta, Ricoh, Toshiba etc.  This is a good thing, right?

Now, I may have jumped the gun with the relationship between the Memjet C6010 and the ability to use the Preton Saver software (because Preton is referencing toner and not ink) for the tiered billing. I will be speaking with Tony Miller (Preton) later this week for a clarification.

Here's what it comes down to, and I'm sure many will agree with how many times they've visited an existing or new account and found another new SOHO type printer or MFP.  Most customers engage with dealers for the larger MFP's and solutions, when they need a smaller unit...well they just go out and buy one from the web or a local Staples, Office Max etc.  But, what if, Dealers had a program to give the Memjet C6010's away for Free and offered a tiered billing for the prints. This is one way to add additional clicks to your portfolio and keep the customer forever.

While our industry continues to changes companies like Memjet and Preton are giving us additional choices to increase our clicks and solutions.

-=Good Selling=-