For Walter Lemmermann, managed print services was his area of focus before it even became a term.

Advantage Enterprises, a managed print services company based in San Francisco, has seen its MPS business thrive in recent years. A big reason for that success is because as CEO, Lemmermann made the shift to managed services and recurring revenue streams in the late 1980s — long before most other solution providers. In an interview with CRN, he talks about his MPS business, how he shifted to a recurring revenue model, and what makes his business so prosperous. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

CRN: How did you get into the managed print services market?

Lemmermann: In 1987, I looked into the idea of refilling toner cartridges, and I investigated it for a friend of mine getting into that side of the printing business. I thought it was interesting because toner was expensive. We always had problems at the bank where I was working [at the time] because we didn’t know which toners or which printers to buy. We had an office supply guy who would take our order on paper and pencil, and the service was great. But the refilled toners we bought were just garbage; they would leak and not work.