Printada!’s back-to-basics approach for managed print services is gaining in popularity, especially among small- to medium-sized businesses, and gives resellers the chance to make money in a traditionally low-margin part of the sector.
Printada! might be a new name to the sector, but it is an embodiment of the phrase ‘good things come to those who wait’ as the idea behind it was first thought of some 17 years ago by the company’s general manager, and industry veteran, Paul Callow.
Back in 2006, when Paul worked for a major printer manufacturer, he spotted a niche for providing managed print solutions specifically to small businesses. While the company liked the idea, at the time it didn’t get off the ground, for a variety of reasons – not least that it requires a coalition between a vendor and a distributor for it to work.
However, Paul retained the belief that such a solution could work, it just needed the right company at the right time. And so, when he came to work for Data Direct, in discussions with the directors of the company last year the idea came up and they also saw the opportunity, but also, crucially, the chance to bring all the necessary parties together to make it happen.
“We started working on it and it came together very quickly,” recalls Paul. “I oversaw the project and together with the team at Data Direct we were able to execute the vision and bring it all together.”
Simple solution
Thus Printada! was born, and the concept is very simple. “It is a solution aimed at SMEs including organisations such as charities and churches – basically any organisation with between one and 25 A4 devices,” says Paul. “At the moment customers who have A4 devices are quite limited in the way that they can buy the printers and pay for the cartridges; often they buy the printer outright and then shop around and buy the cartridges. Sometimes they get a good price, sometimes they don’t. We have created a programme that allows a small business operator to procure their print in a more similar way to how a larger enterprise does. This means they can have a fixed price rental subscription for three years and included in the subscription is the printer or MFP plus enough cartridges and consumables – everything that’s required to do a certain number of pages per month, which is set out in the agreement.
“Everything is covered under our warranty and maintenance programme as well. If there’s any problems with the printer, we’ll fix it, or, if it cannot be fixed, we’ll replace it.”
In keeping with the simple ethos of Printada!, there is a limited range of packages available. “There’s four printers and three different page volumes on offer,” he says. “There are 12 deals, including a mono laser printer and MFP, and a colour laser printer and MFP. Then there are three page ranges: up to 1,000 pages a month, up to 2,500 pages a month, and 5,000 pages a month.
“If an end user customer comes to the website, it’s easy to go; ‘okay, I’m looking for a colour laser MFP. I probably don’t print 5,000 pages per month, but I know I print more than 1,000. Okay, I’ll go for the 2,500.’
“It is the same for dealers. When it comes to selling it, they can just walk in, have an idea what volume the customer might be printing, and just offer them the subscription then without having to go away and do lots of calculations.”
Paul adds that there is another element to the agreement, which he hasn’t seen offered elsewhere; after the first 12 months the customer can cancel the subscription with no penalties. “They just give us three months’ notice, and as long as they return the printer to us, they can cancel the subscription,” he says. “So if the circumstances of the business change or they just find themselves not using the printer, they can give it back; they’re not tied into a deal for a full three or even five years. It’s flexible and clear.”
The subscription agreement is also simple – just two pages in length. “There’s no finance arrangement or leasing or anything like that,” Paul says. “It’s a rental subscription and it just takes a couple of minutes to fill in so the customer can do it themselves or the dealer can do it with them.”
Positive response
Printada! launched its Beta version in January and started taking orders in February. So far, the response has been very positive from customers and dealers, according to Paul. “Once we’ve sat down and shared the details with people, the response has been very strong from dealers and it seems to be for lots of reasons,” he says.
“The copier dealers seem to like it because it gives them a way to effectively place A4 devices without having to do any work, and it doesn’t take them away from their core A3 and office products focus. IT dealers pay like it because they can’t make much money with A4 now. They might sell the printer, make £10-20 from that, probably never sell the cartridges again, whereas with this every month they’re gaining revenue from that customer for three years. But at the same time, customers still saving money.”
Printada!’s solution is also geared towards SMEs that have home or hybrid workers, Paul adds. “During the pandemic, one of the things that was difficult for companies was having their employees suddenly working at home, all using different types of printers. And most of them weren’t geared up for business printing. Some people were making huge expense claims for inkjet cartridges for printers, which weren’t suitable, and they were phoning into their IT managers for help and with various types of printers, the poor IT managers didn’t stand a chance of being able to help.
“Printada! offers a perfect solution because it means employers can have exactly the same device in all employees’ homes and we do all the warranty and maintenance for it. But even if the IT department do want to become involved, it’s just one device that takes the same cartridges, which are delivered automatically.”
Big ambitions
Now Printada! is starting to get traction in the marketplace, Paul has big ambitions for the brand, which is owned and operated by Data Direct Thames Valley Ltd.
“There are many, many organisations within the SME space that want to buy their printers and just go down that traditional route. But if we could even just get three quarters of 1% of the market, that would be a huge number of devices and it would be a huge number of customers that we’d be helping to make life a little bit easier for and save them some money as well.
“We’ve tried to keep it simple; we just have 12 deals, four devices, three different page levels. As the dealers have gone out and spent more time with their customers, we are getting now some more specific requests where the dealers come back saying, ‘our customer likes a certain brand, is it possible we can put something together using those? Or they don’t want 5,000 pages per month, they need to do 7,000 so we can do that?’ If dealers need additional support to create a bespoke deal, we can do and are doing that and that’s working very well.
“But the idea really is to make it as much as possible self-serve: dealers can pick one of the 12 deals and introduce it, or customers can just choose a deal and sign up. It is quick, hands off and easy for everybody, but we can go bespoke if people ask us to.”
