What is managed print services, in plain English
- 5.0 on Google from 150+ reviews
- Trading since 2010
Managed print services is an agreement where 1 supplier owns every printer in your organisation.
- Defined by what changes on your invoice, not by what it aspires to
- Every figure cited to a published Australian benchmark
- Includes who it does not suit
You are billed for pages rather than for things.
They supply the devices, repair them, and send toner before you run out.
That automated supply replenishment runs off a monitoring alert rather than off somebody noticing.
In Australia that rate sits between 1.2 and 3.5 cents for a mono page.
Written for somebody who has been asked to look into this and wants the shape of it before the meetings start.
Go deeper on how managed print services work
Ask what this page does not answer
- 5.0 Google rating, from 150+ five star reviews
- Since 2010 Australian owned and Queensland based
- 500+ Australian businesses on an agreement with us
- Next day A technician on site the next business day
Trading year and client count: published by Global Document Solutions, who operate this service, and read from their site on 5 September 2026.
Rating and review count: from the Google Business Profile for Global Document Solutions, read the same day.
Next business day attendance: a commitment we make, not a measured result.
You stop buying printers and cartridges.
You start paying a rate per page printed.
Somebody else fixes the machines.
You outsource the print environment rather than the printing itself.
Or as one operations manager put it to us.
“I want to stop being the person who knows where the toner is kept.”
Everything else on this page is detail hanging off those three sentences.
The reporting analytics behind it show print usage by site, by device and by month.
Last updated 5 September 2026.
What actually changes when you sign one
Most definitions describe an approach.
This one describes what moves, because that is the thing you can check afterwards.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| The machines | Bought, owned, depreciating | Supplied under the agreement |
| Toner | Ordered when somebody notices | Arrives on a monitoring alert |
| A breakdown | Find a repairer, get a quote, wait | One number, attendance committed in writing |
| The invoice | Several, from several suppliers, irregular | One, monthly, per page printed |
| What print costs you | Nobody can say | A reported figure, by site |
| Who owns the problem | Whoever is nearest the machine | The supplier, under contract |
Read the last row first.
Proactive maintenance and monitoring are what keep downtime off that report in the first place.
Every other row is a consequence of it.
A supplier who cannot demonstrate that row has sold you a rate card rather than a service.
The attendance term belongs in a service level agreement rather than in a meeting.
The last row is also the one we answer about ourselves.
That answer sits on the page setting out who operates this service and what it refuses to claim.
From $160 + GST a month per device.
Volume is pooled across every site, so a larger fleet prices into a lower band.
Paper, staples and pages above your agreed volume sit outside that figure.
Still not sure whether this suits your organisation
Ask the awkward question and you get a written answer, not a call.
What does MPS stand for and what else is it called
MPS is managed print services.
The rest of the vocabulary is largely the same purchase under different vendor names.
-
Managed print services
Same thing
The common Australian term, usually shortened to MPS.
Covers device, servicing, toner and reporting in one per page rate.
-
Managed printing
Same thing
Used interchangeably.
No difference in what is being sold, and no difference worth arguing about in a meeting.
-
Print management
Different
Often means the software alone, which is a much smaller purchase.
This is the one distinction that costs money to get wrong.
-
Print and output management
Different
An older enterprise term covering print plus scanning, document routing and workflow.
Broader than MPS, and usually a software led sale.
-
Managed printing services
Same thing
The same three words in a different order.
Nothing about what is being bought changes with the word order.
-
MPS managed print services
Same thing
The acronym and the words together, which is how many vendor sites write it.
One purchase, said twice in a row.
-
Managed print solutions
Same thing
A marketing phrase rather than a category.
Ask what is included and you are back to one of the rows above.
Two rows there say different, and both of them are software.
The full argument about which of those purchases you actually need is set out on its own page.
Everything people ask straight after the definition
What are the benefits of managed print services?
Three, in the order they are worth money to an organisation with several offices.
- Pooled volume. Eight offices at 2,000 pages a month is a 16,000 page commitment.
- Correctly sized devices. On the published lease bands, entry level to high volume is $65 to $95 a month.
- One invoice and one renewal. Instead of 6 or 8 of each, signed on different dates by different people.
The one everybody leads with, saving money, is a consequence of the first two rather than a benefit in itself.
Cost savings follow a correctly sized printer fleet, not the other way round.
Be wary of any figure offered before somebody has seen your meter reads.
According to the same benchmark this page cites, the mono band is where those three benefits actually show up.
A fleet that pools its volume moves down that band, and one that does not stays where it is.
How much does managed print cost?
The CopierChoice Australia Printer and Copier Cost Benchmark Report 2025 publishes the Australian ranges.
Bundled managed print runs 1.2 to 3.5 cents a mono page and 7 to 13 cents a colour page.
The device is included in that rate.
Where you land inside those ranges depends on four things.
Your colour ratio, the volume you commit to, the device class at each site and how far the agreement has to reach.
All four are worked through with sliders on the cost page.
Per the same report, the colour band sits several times higher than the mono one.
Nothing in those ranges is our offer, and they are published so you can check ours against them.
A quote that sits outside the band is not automatically wrong, but it should be explained.
Bring your own meter reads and the answer stops being a range.
How long does a managed print contract run?
Three to five years is the normal Australian term.
Data from the CopierChoice benchmark puts the market in that band.
The length follows the hardware finance underneath the agreement.
A shorter term is available and costs more per month, because the same device is paid off over fewer payments.
Most Australian equipment agreements run 3 to 5 years, because the device is being paid for across the term.
A shorter term is available and it prices higher per page, since the same hardware cost is recovered over fewer months.
The two dates worth reading are the end date and the notice period before it.
Ask for the early exit figure in dollars against your own fleet rather than as a clause reference.
A supplier who will not put that number in writing has answered the question.
Who is managed print not suitable for?
An organisation with one office and two machines.
The overhead of an agreement is not worth it, and buying the devices outright is cheaper and simpler.
Also anyone whose print volume is genuinely falling fast.
And anyone who consolidated their fleet onto a single agreement in the last eighteen months.
In all three cases the honest answer is to wait.
An organisation running 1 or 2 devices in a single office rarely gets the arithmetic to work.
There is no second site to pool volume with, so the largest lever in the model is not available.
It also does not suit a fleet that was replaced outright in the last 12 months, because the hardware is already paid for.
A department with a single specialist problem, such as large format or production colour, is usually better served on its own arrangement.
This site is written for organisations running 5 or more offices, and that is where the numbers change.
Does managed print include paper?
No.
Paper and staples sit outside every bundled agreement we have seen, including ours.
That is consistent with how the published benchmark describes the model.
It is a small thing that catches people out when the first invoice arrives, which is why it is on this page rather than in a schedule.
Paper is not included, and neither are staples.
The per page rate covers the device, the servicing, the parts, the toner, the delivery and the installation.
Bundled mono sits at 1.2 to 3.5 cents a page on that basis, in the 2025 CopierChoice benchmark.
Paper is excluded because consumption varies far more than printing does, and pricing it in would mean pricing in a guess.
Buying paper separately also leaves you free to change supplier without touching the print agreement.
Ask for the exclusions list in writing before you sign anything.
Ask the question this page did not answer
You are early in this, which is the right time to ask an awkward question.
Send it and you get a written answer, not a call.
What their customers write on Google
Managed Printer Services is new. Global Document Solutions, who run it, is not.
When something breaks
We have had a great experience with this team.
They are always prompt, helpful and really easy to deal with.
Any issues are sorted quickly and the whole printer leasing process has been seamless.
On price, and on being told things
I highly recommend Cyrus at Global Document Solutions.
The service was brilliant from start to finish, with clear communication and attention to detail.
Pricing was extremely competitive and offered value for money.
Replacing a machine already on contract
We replaced our existing machine (also through GDS) and, as always, the process was seamless.
We had our machine up and running with minimal downtime.
These are reviews of Global Document Solutions, who operate this service, and not of this site.
Each one is copied word for word from their Google Business Profile, under the name Google shows, read on 7 September 2026.