A few days ago I was alerted by a Print4Pay Hotel member about the new Xerox "All in Plan". I had some time on my hands and paid a visit to the Xerox site and gleaned everything that I could about this new program.
For me "all in" meant that the plan was similar to KonicaMinolta's flat rate program. Pay a monthly payment that includes the MFP along with maintenance/supplies and print as many pages as you want. Since Xerox is a competitor I owed it to myself to learn as much as I could as fast as I could.
What I thought was unlimited is not. The brochure is carefully wordsmithed that states you'll have a fixed monthly price no matter what you print. That "no matter what you print" appears several times in the brochure. Thus the "no matter what you print" is more about the types of coverage that is used to print the document and has nothing to do with unlimited prints.
The web site is an e-commerce site where clients are asked simple questions to determine the type of printer or copier that is the best fit for their printing habits. After selecting "find a printer", you're navigated to the next page to answer a series of questions which include.
- color or black print?
- how many people will share the print device?
- what is your print volume (heavy, average or less than average)
- types of documents that you print (photos, brochure or text)
- will you need to scan, copy or fax?
- do you need 11x17?
- then printing from smartphones or tablet
After answering all of these questions you are then asked if you are a business to proceed. The next page will give you the pricing, in my case the site gave me a choice of three A3 color MFP's with the price per month. The next step is to create an account. It seems that only 3 color A3 devices are offered at this time.
Okay, I'm a business and I created an account. One I got past that I was then awarded the lease contract and the maintenance/supply agreement. Of course I did not select the buy button! But I had the documents for review.
Here's what I found out:
- Program is run through XFS Financial
- All Service is routed the XBS dealer that is associated with your zip code
- According to your answers for the questions I listed above your lease has a benchmark. That benchmark in my case allowed me 12k per month (I picked heavy user)
- In the Ts & Cs there is a clause that states that if you are over the benchmark volume three months in row Xerox can raise your monthly price or mandate that you get an additional print device that for an additional monthly fee. I'm guessing that monthly fee also includes maintenance and supplies
- Toner and meter reads are automated
- Fusers, drums, imaging kits are not on auto shipment and the client needs to make a call to Xerox
- 36 month FMV lease term
- 150-60 days LOI
- Device always has to be connected to the internet/network
- Payments are auto charged to credit card or debit card
- Clients may need to contact Xerox so Xerox can remote in to install patches or firmware updates
- Clients need to notify Xerox of printer location within 10 days if the device is moved
What Happens When?
- Your coverage volume is to high, could there be an additional charge for that also
- You don't get your maintenance kits in a timely manner
- You don't like your service provider. You can only use XBS
Summary
All in all it's not a bad plan but it does have some covenants that may need to be addressed somewhere down the road such as the coverage volume. There is no auto escalator that I read about.
The most critical is the benchmarking for the monthly volume. If you're off on your calculations you'll pay the price with an increased monthly fee or you'll have to get an additional print device.
After speaking with an XBS person today I was told that anyone that creates an account is assigned to a sales person. At least I'm happy to hear that.
The All in Plan appears to be the first salvo with an e-commerce sight that delivers the lease document and the maintenance agreement document electronically and offers the ability to digitally sign the document with out every speaking with a sales rep. Yes, it's somewhat scary and is most likely the future in an industry that is contracting.
However the future is not here yet. I will continue to prove my worth because at some point in time we are still needed to navigate the agreements and find the best fit for the clients. I can only think about all the issues that will be created with these types of agreements when the client does not know their printing habits when it comes to type of documents and whether they are a heavy or light user. We all know that print volumes can change and locking client in for three years could cause that predictable expense to become a non-predictable expense.
Here's a link for the conversation threads on the forums for the plan, you can also download the lease and the maintenance agreement https://www.p4photel.com/topic...copiers-and-printers
Here's the link https://allinplan.services.xerox.com take it for a spin and see what you come up with.
-=Good Selling=-
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