Overview of a Block Time agreement

What is a Block Time Agreement?

A Block Time agreement is a great option for a business that is capable of managing their printing fleet themselves, either with a large IT team or a help desk, but also wants to be able to call in support when they need it.

With Block Time, you purchase “credits”, also can be called “hours”, to be used when you want to. These credits can be purchased when you need them and they do not expire.

Credits can be applied towards a few different things surrounding printing.

1. Service

Having the option to call in a certified printer and copier technician is the main reason why companies purchase Block Time credits.

Credits can be applied to all aspects of a service call:

• Travel
• Labor
• Parts

Terms, rates and conditions can all be negotiated like with all agreements. 

2. Supplies

Supplies can be a complex aspect of office printing. With Block Time, you can apply credits to the purchase of all printing supplies:

• Toner
• Drums
• Ink
• Waste collection units
• Whatever else your device may need that’s classified as a “consumable”

With Block Time, you get the added bonus of having a partner that knows your equipment. So instead of trying to figure out what toner the purchasing device needs, you can just call your Block Time partner and let them deliver the correct thing to you.

Supplies and consumables are the most costly part of office printing. Having a system in place like Block Time can also help bring some financial clarity to the cost of printing and make budgeting easier and, mostly, surpriseless. 

3. Hardware

Block Time credits can actually be used for the purchase of hardware as well as the maintenance and supplies that goes in them. It can be beneficial to buy a new printer or copier from a service instead of the traditional transactional purchase or lease.

If you have a big pool of credits in your account, it is also nice to be able to pull from that instead of having to use additional funds to purchase hardware. 

4. Consulting

There is a lot of work that goes into designing and deploying a truly optimized printing fleet. Consulting services can be purchased with credits, which can be beneficial to you in many ways.

Designing an optimized deployment for your printing fleet can save you money by eliminating redundant or unnecessary devices, reducing the different amount of supplies and consumables and by finding out where devices are actually needed vs where they are not.

Adding a software solution can help your digital documents get more streamlined, make it easier for your employees to work and can almost ensure there are no errors when digitizing and storing documents. Consulting credits can be used to have a printing partner work with you to determine and deploy the best solution for your office.

Consulting can be used whenever you need to talk to a printing and document expert to make your working experience better.

Benefits of a Block Time Agreement

• No contract
• No expiration date for your credits
• Single invoice – when you purchase credits
• Being able to use credits for service, supplies, hardware and consulting
• Having a professional printing partner to support you when you need

Block Time agreements can be a great benefit to companies that either just need a little help from time to time, or are looking for an alternative from regular managed print services (MPS). The agreement can have terms and conditions agreed to before signing including response time for service and how supplies get delivered.

Purchasing credits is simple and get applied to your account, they do not expire and are not category specific. You have a pool of credits which you can easily switch between using them for service, supplies, hardware or consulting without having to purchase credits just for service that cannot be applied towards other things.

Block Time agreements are also a great way to try out a managed service partner before committing to a more encompassing managed agreement like true Managed Print Services (MPS) or Printing as a Service (PaaS). 

For more information visit - https://www.lasersresource.com/block-time