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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Tank Man : Remember this?

What are you complaining about today?

What's your beef?

Cold calls got you down?

Your Sales Manager is an idiot?

No RFP's come in today?

Your demo room is a mess and half the machines don't work?

Your technician is trying to sell your clients Gucci knock-offs from the Philippines?

Still looking/waiting for all that "Hope and Change"?

Is there a tank in your way? Two tanks? A column of tanks?

20 years ago, this one event changed China forever. In theory, Communism combined with Capitalism should be like the old "matter vs anti-matter" argument, the two should implode.

Well, it's officially the Land of Bizzaro, because yesterday, a Chinese manufacturer, not even an automobile manufacturer, bought Hummer from the dying "Generous Motors".

My oh my, "...How are the mighty fallen...!"



Check this pic out of Tank Man from street level - YIKES!





I may lose my Chinese readers with this one.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Fuji Xerox: to take 2-3 yrs for demand to recover

Reuters -

TOKYO, June 3 (Reuters) - Japan's Fuji Xerox Co said it will take several years for global office equipment demand to return to levels seen before the financial crisis, with the sales outlook for industrial nations particularly murky.

Fuji Xerox, a copier and printer joint venture between Fujifilm Holdings (4901.T) and Xerox Corp (XRX.N), said it plans to focus on growth areas such as digital commercial printing operations to drive sales. Digital commercial printers are used to produce such documents as product manuals and direct mail quickly and in large volume, and are a fast-growing segment of the printer market.


Asked how soon the global office machine market is likely to see a full-fledged recovery in demand, Fuji Xerox President Tadahito Yamamoto said: "My answer is 'still uncertain'.

"In Japan and the United States and Europe it's still difficult to tell. I think it will take another two to three years," Yamamoto said at a meeting with reporters on Wednesday.

Parent Fujifilm expects sales by its document solutions section, which shows Fuji Xerox's performance, to fall 7.2 percent in the year to March 2010 to 1 trillion yen ($10.5 billion).

Yamamoto said Fuji Xerox aims to double its revenues from digital commercial printing operations and document-related outsourcing to 400 billion yen by the year to March 2014.

In document-related outsourcing, Fuji Xerox carries out such tasks as brochure and direct mail design, business letter and invoice printing, and hardware maintenance for companies, schools and governments.

Shares in Fujifilm closed up 2 percent at 2,845 yen, outperforming the Nikkei average .N225, which gained 0.4 percent.

Fuji Xerox is owned 75 percent by Fujifilm and 25 percent by Xerox of the United States. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Michael Watson)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Copier Sales People Destroy Managed Print Services Opportunities: Daily

June 2009 -

It will not matter how many "MPS Training Programs" start scrambling out of the darkness.

Hire all the "MPS Experts" in the world, it won't make a difference.

Get the hottest, newest, collection agent that can generate a highly professional appearing yet canned proposal.

Toshiba, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Samsung, Xerox, or Canon MPS training programs are doomed to fail and will result in nothing more than frustration and lost potential.

Why? Because Old dogs abhor change and Dogma flourishes.

I keep going back to this saying, "...at the beginning of the month, we all sell solutions, but in the last week of the month, we move a box..." - is the copier dealer/manufacturer sales manager's mantra.

Managed Print Services: Six "Need to Know's" from Photizo Group

This is a cut and paste, of an article from the Photizo blog - great stuff.

All points are relevant, especially for all of the "newbs" in the niche.

One point - not only are these arguments based on studies, I have seen evidence of all six, in the field.

Good read.

Six Things You Should Know About Managed Print Services

1. On average, companies save $1M (30% of total hardcopy cost), reduce hardcopy (printer, copier, and MFP) carbon emissions by 60%, and free up 10% of their IT staff who were previously devoted to supporting printers by implementing a Managed Print Services strategy.

Firms of all sizes are seeing significant benefits from implementing an MPS strategy. By outsourcing the entire ‘document production’ process including the hardcopy devices, document workflow strategy, and support services, customers are able to achieve a significant reduction in cost while achieving significant environmental benefits.

Source: The Photizo Group’s analysis of 105 Managed Print Service engagements using pre-and post-MPS engagement data. Justifying MPS Webinar – February 2009


2. Managed Print Services is more than just Cost Per Copy or providing an assessment to right size the fleet. Managed Print Services (MPS) entails the outsourcing of the fleet and document strategy to ensure the customer’s business process optimization goals are met.


In order to do this, an MPS provider must act as a professional services firm which offers multiple services in order to meet the customers requirements. In fact, over 70% of all MPS engagements include all of the following components:

• Vendor returns service call in 2 hours
• Next day service response time
• Understanding color print/copy requirements
• Same day service (4-hr response)
• Device installation
• Help desk services
• Assessment provided for the initial MPS agreement
• End user training
• Parts depot close to user sites
• 24x7 customer service line
• Recommendations on device deployment
• Remote or on-site monitoring of devices

Source: The Photizo Group’s on-going study of Managed Print Service engagements in North America and Western Europe. The firm collects data from over 700 MPS decision makers each year.

3. Managed Print Services is the fastest growing segment of the imaging industry. In fact, the MPS market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of over 25% a year. In fact, the market will reach over $45B annually by 2013. By 2013 Managed Print Services will represent over 35% of the total imaging market and over 35% of all business print devices will be under a Managed Print Services contract.

Source: The Photizo Group’s 2009 MPS Market Size, Share, and Forecast Report.

4. There are three stages which customers go through in the adoption of Managed Print Services.

The first stage is to gain control of the fleet. 29% of all MPS engagements are at this stage. 47% of all MPS engagements are at the second stage, the stage of optimizing the fleet to ensure devices are deployed in the most efficient and effective manner. 23% of all MPS engagements are at the third stage of MPS, enhancing the business process. The third stage is about enhancing business processes by engaging document workflow and document management solutions.

Source: The Photizo Group’s on-going study of Managed Print Service engagements in North America and Western Europe. The firm collects data from over 700 MPS decision makers each year.

5. IT is typically the department responsible for managing the Managed Print Services engagement. In fact, 60% of the time, the IT department manages the MPS engagement.

Source: The Photizo Group’s on-going study of Managed Print Service engagements in North America and Western Europe. The firm collects data from over 700 MPS decision makers each year.

6. Hybrid dealers will dominate the Managed Print Services market. Hybrid dealers are those resellers (both dealers and IT VARs) who have transitioned from a hardware centric business model to a professional services business model based on delivering Managed Print Services. Hybrid dealers and ‘committed’ dealers (dealers who are committed to making this business model transition) make up less than 25% of all resellers and dealers. Fence sitting and ‘testing’ resellers (traditional hardware centric resellers) make up over 75% of all resellers.

The Photizo Group predicts that half of these traditional resellers will be out of business within the next five years as they fail to make the transition to the new business model.

Source: The Photizo Group’s Hybrid Dealer Report (Published January 2009)

The Photizo Group believes that Managed Print Services represents a disruptive business model which will affect all aspects of the value chain, including manufacturers, distribution channels, and other service providers.

Firms that make the transition to a professional services led business model will achieve a significant competitive advantage over firm’s which retain the traditional hardware centric business model. Understanding the evolution of this new business model is critical to all participants in the industry, including end users.

Excerpts from this article may be used as long as the Photizo Group is credited as the source.

The Photizo Group is the leading research and consulting firm in Managed Print Services, and the only research and consulting firm, which derives a majority of its revenue from the Managed Print Services market. The firm provides research, consulting, and market insights to customers, resellers, and manufacturers.

Phone: (859) 873-4518

Web




Monday, June 1, 2009

Goodbye 2008 SIX Months Later - My List of the Best Lists

"Top 10's", "Best of 2008", "Most Memorable" -

There must be 10's of thousands of year end lists.

Here are a few that I like:

The 10 Biggest HP Stories of 2008 ChannelWeb

10 Burning Questions In Print And Imaging ChannelWeb

What I Learned About Selling in 2008 Bryan Neale. Caskey sales training - I haven't attended any of their classes but I have been getting the PodCast since the very beginning - great stuff!

Adieu 2008 Andrew Keen - you don't know him? Check him out.



Contact Me

Greg Walters, Incorporated
greg@grwalters.com
262.370.4193