Production Print Direct is a certified partner for Develop, offering the latest SRA3 models manufactured by Konica Minolta. Managing director Mike Ashforth considers service and click charge models.

It’s a little over two years since Production Print Direct installed its first digital press under a new rental scheme, aimed at allowing commercial litho printers to acquire fit-for-purpose equipment, without a long term financial commitment.

Having worked for three of the major cut sheet digital manufacturers for almost 23 years, we decided there was a disparity between the sales and service models the manufacturers had and the service and expertise levels the customers wanted. From a sales perspective manufacturers need to move units – and fast. This has led to aggressive sales behaviour and on many occasions supplying a machine to budget rather than requirement. The major problem here is the need to upgrade the equipment after one or two years to a more robust build, and loading settlements on to new five year agreements becomes very expensive and it becomes much more difficult to find volume to cover the lease costs.

While acquiring new digital equipment via the lease model works for many commercial printers that have the accounts to support the investment, for many smaller enterprises that want to introduce digital into their production, many hurdles are ahead, including up to date full accounts, management accounts, personal details, affordability forms, personal guarantees, cash flow forecasts, bank statements, deposits etc.

We have supplied almost 30 fully refurbished presses on our unique rental scheme, whereby we supply the press complete with controller, high capacity feeder and stacker unit, and fully install and train the operators to make the most from the equipment. We take a fully refundable deposit up front, charge for clicks used one month in arrears by Direct Debit and the minimum term is 12 months, making it ideal for commercial printers at any level looking to ‘dip their toes in the water’.

As the click charge combines everything such as the rental cost, toners, parts, servicing, callouts and maintenance, the only thing for the customer to do is advertise their new Print On Demand service and supply the paper. We don’t charge a minimum but we do expect that our rental machines will produce over 100,000 SRA3 full colour clicks per annum. By simply migrating litho jobs better suited to digital and bringing back in house short run jobs sent out to trade, most customers find their feet very quickly and start to grow a digital business to complement other services. 

Since the majority of suitable equipment on the market today is derived from the original photocopier industry, the model that exists from a supplier viewpoint tends towards a sales and service model that has existed since the 1980s. Quite often you would buy the equipment from the salesman first, then experience the service engineers after installation. Three to five years would pass, then the salesman (or his latest replacement) would pop up to advise you to upgrade before your equipment becomes obsolete, too expensive to run etc.

This works for the office MFD environment and will probably continue to do so but when this model is set before a commercial printer things can go wrong very quickly. Salespeople tend to have a fear of searching questions and rather than answering in the negative, find themselves saying yes to questions that later become fundamental to the customer. Such as: ‘can I feed 400 gsm board?’ The real answer is no, but you may get away with a good 330 to 350 gsm board from this range of manufacturers.

By the time the customer meets the service engineer and is informed that his new investment cannot perform as the salesman said, relations can sour very quickly. Indeed many service managers will choose not to become embroiled with a commercial print customer, as their demands are not met with the skills and experience of the field service engineers.

A better way to do it is to have engineers that are specialists who will often meet with the customer very early on in the sales cycle. This ensures installations run very smoothly and the equipment supplied performs to both actual requirement and specification.

The Print On Demand volume continues to grow as customers become more likely to order a quantity of print they need right now and expect their printer to deliver. Having either the wrong device with inappropriate support or no device at all will no doubt lead to those customers seeking out a full service printer. The good news is that commercial printers can now take that leap, without all the pitfalls from the past.