Tag: Brother

Brother UK has launched three new managed print services (MPS) for businesses of different sizes, to make it simpler for partners to meet demand for print-as-a-service.

Dubbed MPS Essential, MPS Professional and MPS Enterprise the three products are designed for the needs of SMBs with a single office through to larger, multi-site corporations.

The company said that the aim was to give partners straightforward, better-focused solutions to target a mix of businesses and expand their revenue streams. Read more…

Brother has launched a pilot subscription service in a bid to encourage smaller firms to use managed print services.

Customers will pay monthly for support, device installation, supplies recycling and maintenance services, with a three-month notice period. Prices range from £17-62 a month, depending on page volumes and the hardware.

The channel will be able to pitch the option to customers, with no need for credit agreements and cancellation at any time, which should make it attractive for small customers looking for inkjet and laser printers.

Greig Millar, general manager for sales at Brother UK, said that the firm had seen some of its highest levels of growth with managed print services in the past year and viewed MPS as an area where there were further opportunities. Read more…

Printer outfit Brother has extended its options for partners with monthly payment plans being offered on its label printer range

The outfit has launched a hardware-as-a-service option and offer partners the chance to pitch a Managed Label Service (MLS) to customers.

Ged Cairns, head of auto ID business unit at Brother UK said the big idea was to enhance the company’s value proposition.

A subscription model was already there in other parts of the business so it was not too much of a leap to extend that concept to the label printers themselves, offering software and services that would be delivered in a monthly plan.

“Brother being a strong managed print services organisation – that seems to be on a roll with us. We are attracting more and more new business, so there seems to be a propensity within our customer base and our reseller base to think of hardware as a service”, he added.

Cairns said that the initial response from partners had been positive and the business had seen requests coming in from customers that wanted demonstrations.

Brother UK has launched two new label printers to help resellers support retail businesses prop up their e-commerce.

The online channel is expected to grow to 18.5 percent of total retail spend by 2022, and as customer demand grows, the new QL-1100 series is designed to help busy workers to cut time and improve organisation when producing shipping labels.

The four-inch print size, achieved with the new DK11247 and DK22246 rolls, means shipping labels comply with the size requirements for Royal Mail, FedEx and various online retailers, so users don’t need to spend time correcting incompliant labels. The new models also feature quick print speeds at 110mm per second.

The series, consisting of the QL-1100 and the QL-1110NWB models, also helps sellers sending products to Amazon warehouses be  streamlined, with a unique crop-print function that is compatible with Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), claims Brother.

The new label printers can also help users “be more productive” by keeping labels in the correct order of print. The QL-1110NWB model also supports flexible workforces with additional connectivity options including Wi-Fi, Wired Network and Bluetooth functionalities, including MiFi (Made for iPhone, iPad and iPod) so labels can be created using smartphones, tablets, PC or Mac. Both models feature USB and USB host connectivity.

Ioana Nitu, labelling product manager at Brother UK, said: “We’re launching the QL-1100 series to help resellers tap into the growing demand for label printers on the back of the rapidly expanding e-retail market.

“The share of third-party sellers on the Amazon platform increased to 51 percent in Q4 2017, an increase of eight percent on the same period three years ago. Meanwhile, eBay has seen its active users jump from 90 million to 170 million between 2010 and 2016.

“As this market expands further, so does the requirement for shipping labels. The new QL-1100 series can solve the labelling pain points of everyone from individual sellers to large retailers when shipping goods.”

New research from Brother UK says that the channel could help save small and medium sized businesses across the country around five  million working hours  every week by fixing everyday IT problems.

The survey of more than 600 business leaders by YouGov, into office productivity, commissioned by Brother, showed that just over a fifth (21 percent) of senior leaders in SME businesses believe that solving printer problems are one of the top things wasting employee time, while 20 percent think computer crashes are hurting their bottom lines.

Brother says that channel firms should put solving SME’s productivity challenges at the heart of how they sell to the sector.

The data shows that 75 percent of business leaders estimate that each of their employees spend one to two hours per week in front of frozen computer screens. Over two thirds (71 percent) thought a similar number of hours were wasted each week by faulty printers.

Other drains on employee productivity identified by the survey are staff not being able to find documents either on a server or as hardcopies (28 percent) and workplace equipment (excluding printers) not working properly (21 percent).

Phil Jones , Managing Director at Brother UK, said: “Productivity is a big issue for ambitious SMEs, and it’s great that so many business leaders see investing in employee training and rewards as key to smarter ways of working. However, such investment can be worthless if staff can’t rely on the office infrastructure and equipment.

“As the survey data shows, millions of hours of employee time are wasted through typical IT errors that many people will be all too familiar with. It is easy to overlook the common issues that have, wrongly, become part of the working day. Fixing these issues can deliver quick and long-term productivity wins that improve staff morale as well as helping the balance sheet. The trick is to preserve a small amount of time to look for the seemingly inconsequential things that waste time.”

A third of leaders said introducing mandatory regular screen breaks would have a positive impact (34 per cent), 16 percent said a change office ergonomics would help and 1 in 10 (11 percent) said they would limit website access.