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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Lexmark, Ikon, and the University of Kentucky Part Duex

As the dust settles around Ikon's spiriting away the University of Kentucky from Lexmark, there is time for reflection.

As sad as this sounds, I tend to discuss MPS, imaging, and output devices during off hours; which means there really aren't "off hours".

At one point, I had the bright idea of recording some of these conversations to capture the ideas bantered about.

Crystallizing conversations; making clear the obvious.

Ideas solving the worlds woe's; ending poverty and hunger, accelerating the economic recovery and defining Managed Print Services. Again.

So I roped two volunteers, who would be suffering through another MPS pontification anyway, into putting together some microphones, music and dozens of 3x5 cards.

This is adult time, opinionated time.

My opinions.


**** WARNING ****

***** ADULT CONTENT - STRONG LANGUAGE *****

***** F-BOMBS & POLITICALLY INCORRECT *****

THIS AUDIO IS INTENDED AS ENTERTAINMENT ONLY

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE MINE AND DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF ANY EMPLOYER, SPONSOR, ASSOCIATE, VENDOR, CO-WORKER, MOTHER, FATHER, FRIEND, COLLEAGUE, TEACHER, OEM, UNIVERSITY, GOVERNMENT AGENCY(FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC) OR CLIENT.

FIGURES STATED IN THIS WEBCAST ARE ESTIMATES AND UNCONFIRMED.

We apologize if we offend anyone.

Pertaining to this specific audio, we wish to apologize to: The University of Kentucky, RiKON, HP, trees, Lexmark, Panaboards, CISCO, mysterious announcer girls, higher education, professors, Lindsay Lohan, the green movement, cheerleaders, dogs, Jerry Maguire, Liberals, and purchasing managers everywhere.

Enjoy.

READER/PLAYER REPLACED - 2/16/2011



Ricoh may be in a position to indeed effect the IT environment here at UoK and beyond - their recent announcement of $300b investment over the next 3 years is aimed directly at the CIO.

"We see ourselves as a key partner to the CIO, and we offer our guidance and support," said Jeffrey Hickling, the president and CEO of Ricoh U.S., "We also look at a company’s people, its processes and technologies in order to optimize each element."

Maybe this isn't all that surprising - good form.

More here.
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2 comments:

  1. For all this talk of "The Death Of The Copier BS" Ricon got this takedown precisely because they are a copier company. They did not, I repeat, they did not get this because they are an MPS company. They won it because they are a copier company that has printers as well. Lexmark lost it because they are a printer company that makes crap for copiers. You guys see where this is heading????

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anon!

    You make a great point. Thank you for commenting.

    First issue though, copier sales/placements are down 27% from the salad days of 2007. And for the previous four quarters, the industry has been flat. The A3/A4 battle is over - copiers lost.

    Facts are stubborn things.

    There will be a day when the only folks over-buying walk-up copiers will be in government and education accounts.(ahem)

    Having said that, I agree with you, IKON won this precisely because they are a copier company.

    This is not sarcasm.

    This deal goes against some of the MPS grain - from outside observation.

    Indeed, I was incorrect with my interpretation last year.

    So, perhaps this isn't an MPS deal after all. Maybe it is a straight copier deal dressed up as MPS?

    I might have agreed with this six months ago, not today.

    I think this is an MPS deal.*

    I think, today, IKON is still a copier company. Today, for now.

    As for where this is heading -$300 million tells me it is heading right into the CIO offices - away from Purchasing.

    I criticize IKON and occasionally poke them in the eye.

    But, secretly, I am one of their biggest fans. On paper, RiKON should kick ass in MPS.

    Not copiers.

    The future is IT/MPS/MSP/BPO/ITO/OMG...

    * I think it deserves mention that this discussion is somewhat academic - UoK is an education account, not a commercial account, this isn't a REAL account.

    I am suddenly reminded of a similar deal from last year - Bowling Green.(I sure hope IKON gets signed agreements)

    Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know - "the money is real..."

    Is it?

    Thanks for commenting.

    Keep coming back.

    ReplyDelete

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