Epson WorkForce 845 All-in-One Printer Delightful “Ink as a Service” Experience

My home printer is the utterly delightful Epson WorkForce 845 — one of the best multi-purpose printers i have ever owned. It’s networked, so I have wireless printing throughout the house, and it is a reliable, fast, and jam-free machine. My oldest daughter has the exact same printer at college, which is super convenient when either of us needs help — we can reference each other’s machines and manuals. She’s been super helpful with network set-up for me; and I seem to have a special skill for RTFM functions.

So, I’m printing this morning — just sent a short document to the Epson — when this dialogue box pops up on my PC (from the installed WorkForce 845 software):

Epson Buy Epson Ink Dialogue BoxWow, “Ink as a Service” (IaaS) has arrived! I’m probably over-reacting here, but as a customer *I LOVE THIS*. Cause, y’know … there’s nothing is worse than running out of ink, and nothing seems to be more difficult than buying more ink. For some reason, in typically human fashion, we have to have hundreds of different ink cartridge designs, which makes an ink run to Staples a special kind of hell.

<Insert Rant> As an aside — what is that about humans? Why do we insist on having multiple electric outlet standards? Multiple video standards? Different current set-ups? Different screw heads for crying out loud! For example, the Robertson screw — an infinitely superior screw type BTW — is only available in Canada. WTF is it about humans that we can literally not agree on anything? Every time I drive across a bridge or get in an elevator I always have a momentary pause as I think “…humans built this…” </End Rant>

So, I click on “Buy Epson Ink”, which is nicely highlighted and in the bottom right — very nice Jakob Nielsen usability standards. A click drives the user to this Web page, which provides convenient purchasing options, and no-cost delivery: Link

Epson Ink Order Web Page

Way to go Epson — this was a great user experience!

Now, if I could only convince P&G to offer Detergent as a Service (DaaS)…

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Former CMO at Microsoft U.S. and Sprinklr; currently CMO at PROS, and recently described by Tom Foremski at ZDNet as "...a near perfect example of what a tech company CMO should be like." Personal Philosophy: “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson