Lexmark Teams With MSP Vendors To Drive Managed Printer Services

Jim Webb, director of channel solutions and industry partners at Lexmark, said the Lexington, Ky.-based printer company teamed up with the MSP vendors to integrate its remote printer and Fleet Manager fleet management technology with their remote management platforms.

Lexmark, which launched Fleet Manager last fall, aims to grow deployments of its device-neutral managed printer services. The tool enables solution providers to remotely monitor, track and manage a company's fleet of printers, scanners and other output devices.

Lexmark has been engaged directly in several top managed printer services deals, including a jointly managed offering with Dell for the aerospace giant Boeing.

Paul Rooke, president of Lexmark's Printing Solutions and Services Division, said the alliances and managed services offerings will open doors to new business and revenue models for channel partners.

"We believe [managed services] is a big opportunity for our partners," Rooke said. "What we're trying to do is bring value to them through these tools that we've honed and developed and tested in some of the world's largest enterprises."

Though current Lexmark partners have access to Fleet Manager and can deploy it in any model they choose -- as a billable service to customers or as part of a broader management offering -- the company has worked to make it easier for partners of N-able, SilverBack and LPI to partner with Lexmark as well, according to Rooke.

"What they need to do is engage with Lexmark and certify on our tools. We've got a lot of things to make [the technology] simpler for them to install," he said. "It's a matter of getting engaged with us, getting certified and selling services. That gets them access, beyond just partnering, to the consumables stream and providing large click-charge types of services engagements with their customers."