Before Independence Day, Before Lost in Space, Before Tom Cruise, There was Radio and Orson Wells...

"...We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own.

We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

With infinite complacence people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small spinning fragment of solar driftwood which by chance or design man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space.

Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. In the thirty-ninth year of the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

It was near the end of October. Business was better. The war scare was over. More men were back at work.

Sales were picking up.

On this particular evening, October 30, the Crosley service estimated that thirty-two million people were listening in on radios..." - Orson Wells, 1938.

In a world without the internet, Twitter, cell phones or email a fictitious account of an invasion from Mars scared children, and angered many.

I submit to you a feast for your ears and the kaleidoscope of your mind. Travel back when this new medium, radio, ruled and was blamed for the Death of the Stage show and rotting young minds...enjoy.

Printable Electronics/NanoTech: Xerox

10/28/2009

Printable Electronics via this new silver ink from X may allow some interesting and different applications.

The "roll-up" display screen, "digital-paper" and wearable iPods.

I know, "pie in the sky" stuff. But remember, change occurs much quicker than it did 10 years or even 2 years ago.

Keep an eye on this.



Press Release.

MISSISSAUGA, Ont., Canada, Oct. 27, 2009 --

With the development of a new silver ink, Xerox scientists have paved the way for commercialization and low-cost manufacturing of printable electronics. Printable electronics offers manufacturers a very low-cost way to add "intelligence" or computing power to a wide range of surfaces such as plastic or fabric.

This development will aid the commercialization of new applications such as "smart" pill boxes that track how much medication a patient has taken or display screens that roll up to fit into a briefcase.
"For years, there's been a global race to find a low-cost way to manufacture plastic circuits," said Paul Smith, laboratory manager, Xerox Research Centre of Canada. "We've found the silver bullet that could make things like electronic clothing and inexpensive games a reality today. This breakthrough means the industry now has the capability to print electronics on a wider range of materials and at a lower cost."

Until now, bringing low-cost electronics to the masses has been hindered by the logistics and costs associated with silicon chip manufacturing; the breakthrough low-temperature silver ink overcomes the cost hurdle, printing reliably on a wide range of surfaces such as plastic or fabric.

As part of its commercialization initiatives, Xerox plans to aggressively seek interested manufacturers and developers by providing sample materials to allow them to test and evaluate potential applications.

Integrated circuits are made up of three components - a semiconductor, a conductor and a dielectric element - and currently are manufactured in costly silicon chip fabricating factories. By creating a breakthrough silver ink to print the conductor, Xerox has developed all three of the materials necessary for printing plastic circuits.

Using Xerox's new technology, circuits can be printed just like a continuous feed document without the extensive clean room facilities required in current chip manufacturing. In addition, scientists have improved their previously developed semiconductor ink, increasing its reliability by formulating the ink so that the molecules precisely align themselves in the best configuration to conduct electricity.

The printed electronics materials, developed at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada, enable product manufacturers to put electronic circuits on plastics, film, and textiles. Printable circuits could be used in a broad range of products, including low-cost radio frequency identification tags, light and flexible e-readers and signage, sensors, solar cells and novelty applications including wearable electronics.

"We will be able to print circuits in almost any size from smaller custom-sized circuits to larger formats such as wider rolls of plastic sheets -unheard of in today's silicon-wafer industry," said Hadi Mahabadi, vice president and center manager of Xerox Research Centre Canada. "We are taking this technology to product developers to enable them to design tomorrow's uses for printable electronics."

R&D samples of the materials including the new conductive silver ink are available by contacting Xerox.

About Xerox
Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox Corporation's 54,000 people represent the world's leading document management, technology and services enterprise, providing the industry's broadest portfolio of color and black-and-white document processing systems and relate

TSG Solutions Unveils New Business Applications for the Office Equipment Industry

Press Release:

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Windermere, FL, United States, 10/27/2009 - A subscription based cloud computing business application built on the Force.com cloud computing platform by Salesforce.com. Application is designed to assist Office Equipment Dealers and Agents manage and grow their business.

TSG Solutions, today announced the availability of AgentDealer™ on Force.com, salesforce.com’s cloud computing platform, bringing a fully customized sales and business management application to the Office Equipment Industry. AgentDealer™ is a 100% Force.com native application, benefiting from the reliability, scalability and performance of salesforce.com’s trusted global service infrastructure.

Equipment dealers can manage all their business relationships, connections, deals, agreements, sales quotas, commissions, service calls, meter reads, equipment expiration dates and more with TSG Solutions new CRM subscription service. Designed exclusively for the Office Equipment Industry, this application became available today at a price of only $49.95 per user, per month. Subscription includes ongoing remote administrative support.

“The AgentDealer application is a tool dealers and their salespeople can start using within days and at a cost they can afford,” said Edward Barfield, The Sailor Group’s CEO. “Our simple subscription model has no long term contract or additional investment requirements like configuration cost that other alternatives have.” In addition we offer Premier Remote Admin Service as part of the subscription. There is no need for the dealer to have to provide that resource.”

AgentDealer™ features a suite of business process and productivity enhancing tools designed to specifically shorten sales cycles and drive higher profitability:

• Deal Activity Monitor - alert system based on completed activities
• RightTrack™ daily activity tool for the sales reps
• TouchPoints™ contact management tags
• ProActivity™ - proactive automated multi-touch campaign generator.
• Equipment Tracker - Lease & Service agreement expiration alerts
• NextCall™ - automated next steps
• Quota & Commission Calculator
• Service Calls & Meter Reads
• Service & Lease Agreement Management
• Installation Stages and Tracking
• Deal Management
• Business and People Relationship Management.

About the Force.com Platform

Force.com is the only proven enterprise platform for building and running business applications in the cloud. The Force.com platform powers the Salesforce CRM applications, more than 800 ISV partner applications like those from CODA and Fujitsu, and more than 85,000 custom applications used by salesforce.com’s 51,800 customers such as Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE and Sprint Nextel.

Force.com is the fastest platform for building and deploying complex business applications. Unlike a stack of disparate client/server hardware and software products, Force.com unifies the development and deployment model from the database to the device, allowing developers to easily assemble applications with clicks, components and code, and then instantly deploy them on salesforce.com’s trusted global infrastructure. Customers and partners are using Force.com to build all kinds of business applications from supply chain management to compliance tracking, brand management, accounts receivable, claims processing applications and much more.

Pricing & Availability

AgentDealer™ is available now for a subscription price of $49.95 per user license per month. A Start Up Kit is required and is priced according to the number of users. To subscribe or arrange an online demo contact TSG Solutions by email or phone or visit our website dealeragentcrm.com/. AgentDealer™ requires a computer with an internet connection.

About TSG Solutions
TSG Solutions (a division of The Sailor Group Inc.) is a Salesforce.com partner offering consulting, implementation, integration and custom Salesforce.com platform application services. TSG Solutions provides managed services for custom designed market specific business applications and professional services for companies who desire to build their own custom cloud based business applications.

Press Contact:
Michelle Barfield
The Sailor Group Inc.
michelle.barfield[.]thesailorgroup.com

407.401.8821

TSG Solutions, AgentDealer, RightTrack, TouchPoints, NextCall and ProActivity are trademarks of TSG Solutions. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Toshiba Announces Entry Level DocMan

Press Release:

RVINE, Calif. - (Business Wire) Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) today announced the launch of three new software solutions – deskSystem, deskRecord and deskForm – designed to improve document management, capture, work flow, and output for multifunction printer (MFP) users.

These solutions represent tier one offerings in a new, multi-tiered Toshiba software strategy announced to dealers over the summer during Regional Summits in Las Vegas and New Jersey.

The “desk” software developed by Prism Software Corporation, targets small- to mid-sized businesses requiring affordable entry-level solutions. These solutions are also easy for dealers to install, connect, and complement the award-winning Toshiba MFP line-up. Software add-on options within tier one will range between $495 and $3,995.

“Part of the reason we designed a tiered strategy was to help our SMB customers who had a need for software add-ons, but often felt that the options available in the marketplace were too advanced and thus too costly for their particular needs. This made it difficult for them to fully maximize productivity and efficiency within their offices. By offering simplified, affordable solutions, we can meet their needs, increase their productivity and improve their bottom line,” said Joseph Contreras, director, Product and Solutions Marketing, TABS.

“At the same time, we’re providing an opportunity for Toshiba dealers to complement MFP sales and build professional services practices by offering solutions that are easy to deploy.”

deskRecord is a complete desktop document management system that:

Quickly searches and retrieves documents;
Decreases the need for physically filing paper documents;
Provides real time document tracking and auditing;
Instantly shares documents via email; and
Saves documents directly from Microsoft Office applications

deskSystem is an easy-to-use desktop application that allows users to:

Create work groups for community-based work flow and collaboration with intuitive document composition and editing;
Create personalized and automated workflows and business processes for the automatic processing of documents;
Automatically route documents in and out of software programs such as DocRecord,
deskRecord and SharePoint; and
Easily and quickly compose and edit complex documents.

deskForm is a complete personalized communication solution for cross-channel messaging for small organizations. Key features include:

Create personalized print and electronic promotional, transpromo and transactional documents;
Generate personalized Web pages and HTML emails;
Fully-integrated postal certification;
SMS text messaging to provide instant notifications to customers;
All capabilities in a single application;
Integrated Microsoft SharePoint Server Output; and
Integration with DirectSmile for the creation of unique, personalized graphics and images.


About TABS

Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS) manages product planning, marketing, sales, service support and distribution of copiers, facsimiles, multifunction printing products, network controllers, and toner products throughout the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., TABS has five divisions: the Electronic Imaging Division; the Toner Products Division; the Document Solutions Engineering Division; the International Division; and TOPAC U.S.A., Inc., dba Toshiba Business Solutions (TBS), a wholly-owned subsidiary corporation of TABS, that operates a network of wholly-owned office equipment dealers throughout the United States.

Named the most favored manufacturer ten times by the Business Technology Association (BTA), Toshiba's entire product line, customer support and marketing distribution policies are markers for the industry. Among the many other awards garnered in recent years, Toshiba was named the "Manufacturer of the Year" eight times by Marketing Research Consultants (MRC), and has twice been named to the CIO 100 for being among the top 100 "bold" (2008) and "agile" (2004) companies in the world.

TABS is an independent operating company of Toshiba Corporation, the seventh largest electronics/electrical equipment company and the world's 91st largest company in terms of sales. Ranked by Fortune magazine as the eighth Most Admired Electronics Company in the World, Toshiba Corporation is a world leader in high technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. Fiscal year revenue in 2008 was approximately $76.7 billion.

Video of The Week: She's The One, Springsteen

I first saw Bruce in 1980, in Joe Louis Arena, Detroit Michigan.

My seats?

I could lean back against the wall - I was in the very last row, on the highest level, the furthest anyone could be.

Didn't make a difference. He came on at 8:15 and the show ended at 1:07AM...incredible. The Big Man studded out in a white tux, and yes, that was Mighty Max on the drums - you know, he's on Conan now.

Mitch Ryder sang and the last 45 minutes all the house lights came on and stayed on.

Nobody was sitting - good lord, it was magic.

Enjoy, it's a 6 minute, 42 second break...start the week strong.

Managed Print Services is Like a Box of Crayons

2009 -

Forest had a box of chocolates - we have a box of crayons.

And by "we", I mean all of us in the business to business, office automation, document management, Managed Print Services/etc., industry.

And by "crayon", I am not making some left-handed swipe at the ColorCube or Phaser.

Look at what we've got to work with:

Copiers, toner, service, printers, fax machines, fax servers, EDM, scanners, electronic work-flow, monitoring software, automatic fulfill, email, email servers, telephony, readers, the cloud, production, facilities management, BPO's, sales managers, software specialists, leasing specialists, service managers, accounts receivable specialists, MPS specialists, consultants, advisers, coaches, vendors, manufacturers, distribution, training specialists, lease agreements, SLA's, service technicians, sales managers, quota's, owners, on-site service, assessments, help desk, CPI, CPC, copiers, single function, multi-function, color/black and white, tablets, on and on and on...

It's a big box with lots of crayons - some are prettier than others, some have been dulled by years of use, a few still sharp and still others have had their name changed.

Either way, everyone is in the same "box" - I like to think our box is one of those that has the sharpener in the back...you remember.

Look, don't start thinking I am having some kind of MPSA, kumbaya moment, I'm not. There is still friction, there are still those who try to influence others; manufacturers do all they can to make sure "boxes" don't sit in any of their warehouses.

And there are still plenty of areas for improvement and plenty of flawed approaches and beliefs - so be it.


Carbon 6, Digital Gateway, LMI, MWAi, Supplies Network, Synnex PrintSolv, Toshiba Encompass, HP, PagePack 4.0, Okidata Total Managed Print, Konica Minolta OPS, on and on - each program an attempt to coral a bunch of "crayons" for you. Worthy attempts from accomplished leaders, yet has anyone fashioned a crayon'd Mona Lisa or Starry Night?

And here's the rub - they are ALL good.

Every MPS infrastructure package, approach and process from the manufactures to the toner/supplies guys, is a good one.

They're all the same. (What?!)

I have been kicking this issue around for a bit- it seems that the MPS world has all the right ingredients, the correct crayons.

Now It's coming down to that person who decides to use Fuchsia instead of pink. The ones who either stay in the lines or draw new ones.

It is coming down to execution - execution in the field.

This phenomena is nothing new. From industry to industry, the best infrastructure and supporting processes, the prettiest marketing slick, website or Value Statement can't sell on it's own and never could; never will.

My point is this - successful MPS isn't about all the infrastructure, remote meter reads, toner yield or page coverage - these MPS tools will evolve all on their own - successful MPS, just like everything else in life, is all about you.

You, the MPS/Toner/Copier/Printer/VAR selling professional, it is all about you. This is no simple thing because as the center of attention, not only do you get the spotlight, you get the responsibility. Uh, oh.

That's right, just because, as an example, it isn't your fault that your A/R department keeps trying to collect on an invoice raft with bad meter reads - it is your responsibility to get it settled.

All those colorful crayons are for you. The trick is finding your blank sheet of paper and beginning to color, inside or outside of the lines.

It's Not the Content, it's the Fishies! - DOTC Name The Fish Contest(?)

It has come down to this.

So many hours spent toiling away, blood soaked digits leafing through the dictionary.

Eye-drying nights searching for that perfect "hot girl next to copier" picture.

Eternities spent scrolling through thousands of output based web sites and news stories - all in an effort to bring you, dear reader, a fresh, bold look at our world.

And what do I get for my labor of love?

More people feed the fish than read the content.

Fine - I can deal.


There are, as I am sure you know, a total of eight fishies, five red ones, floating over my mug, on the left.

After deciding not to "sell out" by advertising in that most coveted location, I put fish there. Made sense at the adult beverage enhanced time. Figuring out how to get my face in the tank was a challenge but a few more Jack and Cokes did the trick.

One red fish has been named "Elfman" compliments of Fred Jeffery from Document Technology Solutions, Inc. in Bloomington, MN - Don't-ja know,eh.

The Vision and Mission at DTS:

" To become the best Document Workflow Solutions Provider in Minnesota, one client at a time. We know from past experience that bigger is not better. Better is better. Our unique approach involves improving the business of our clients and enhancing the lives of our employees. We believe this philosophy leads to success for everyone..."

No small mission in the land of "The Body..."

Why Elfman? I have no idea - but why not!

This leaves four, red, nameless inhabitants in the digital fish bowl. I bestow the creation of their monikers to you, the faithful readers and feeders of electronic fish.

Email me with suggestions, if I like, I shall name your fishie and raise it as though it were my own. Also, I will mention you or your company and link back.

Just click on one of the "contact me" buttons over there on the left, and let's get these little red critters some identity.

Oh, for the record, I did not expect so many hits on a "hot girl fish" Google search - fishing? Really? Who woulda thunk.

Photizo Opening New Office

"Today had a ton of 'meat' in terms of content. Very good, even better than San Antonio." - Chris Stoates, Laser Network.

Press release:

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (MMD Newswire) October 22, 2009 - The Photizo Group continues to grow in response to the burgeoning need for Managed Print Services research, consultation and community. With the opening of a new European office in London, England, the total number of Photizo Group locations is now five. Company headquarters are in Versailles Kentucky, with staff in Boston, New York and Austin, and the newest office in London.

Photizo has also expanded its executive force. Senior Consultant Steven Swift now heads up the London office for Europe, while David Cameron, PhD, has joined the company as Senior Consultant and Partner.

"Interest in the MPS market continues to expand, as more companies and vendors adopt these business models. It is important for the Photizo Group to maintain both the market coverage and the expertise to ensure our customers stay abreast of developments and achieve their MPS goals," said Ed Crowley, CEO and Senior Partner of the Photizo Group. "We are thrilled to have such esteemed professionals as David and Steven join Photizo. Their contributions are already being felt as we add more value through our MPS services."

Dr. Cameron has over 20 years in the hardcopy industry. His background includes managing after sales support, engineering and business director leadership positions at Texas Instruments, IBM Global Services and Dell. Most recently, he was Director of Product Development for the startup Imaging Systems business at Dell. The enterprise blossomed into a $1 billion business, with some of the fastest growth in the industry. Dr. Cameron also teaches Management courses at Texas State University.

"I'm excited to join Photizo Group, as it is a great opportunity to apply my experience in developing innovative products and services to a new market. This is a fantastic challenge to bring fresh ideas and meaningful thought leadership to the industry," said Cameron.

"I am delighted to be joining Photizo at such an exciting time. MPS is a concept whose time has truly come, and we can expect to see stellar growth rates over the next few years. Photizo has established itself as the industry thought leader in MPS, and is in pole position to provide independent, authoritative market intelligence to both vendors and users," said Swift. "I have over 15 years experience in the printing and imaging business, and I have been involved with the development of MPS from its earliest days. I hope to put that experience to good use, helping vendors and users throughout Europe"

As a general manager and business development director, Steven Swift has a long track record of both building and turning around international businesses. He helped establish Ricoh Global Services Europe as a €100M + business, and ran a €140M European business unit for Acco Brands. He has a broad background with experience throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. His diverse experience includes blue-chip consumer marketing at P&G + Mars, followed by corporate strategy responsibility with an FTSE 100 company. Swift is a graduate of Oxford University with an MA degree in chemistry. His language skills include fluent French. He has completed the Inchcape Senior Management Programme at INSEAD, and courses in corporate finance and M&A.

For more information about the Photizo Group and Managed Print Services, visit at http://www.managed-print-services.com.

Your Managed Print Services Association Announces In Europe...It's a Long Way from San Antonio -

Managed Print Services Association Launches New Member Services and Community Website Hub at MPS 2009 European Conference

Free trial membership lets users try new MPSA services Amsterdam, The Netherlands – October 22, 2009 –

The Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) announces a new suite of member services at the MPS 2009 European Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Starting in December 2009, a free limited MPSA membership lets users try these services for several months at no cost.

Recognizing the importance of serving a global membership, the MPSA also announces it is accepting nominations for two new board member positions offered exclusively to international MPS providers. Detailed information about member services, board nominations and other topics is available at the new MPSA web site, http://www.yourMPSA.org.

“The Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) gets down to business at European MPS Conference, although some would say we’ve been doing that all along,” said MPSA Board President, Jim Fitzpatrick of Oki Data Americas, Inc. “Membership has grown quickly, leaping to 1,000 LinkedIn MPS group members in a very short time. Now just a few months after officially forming the association, MPSA is launching a series of tools and services for members. And these resources are only the start of what the MPSA can provide for our industry.”

“It’s only fitting that we launch these services at the fall MPS Europe conference. We started this association at the first Conference in Austin, based upon the demands of our industry. It’s been a breakneck pace, but the new board has really banded together to delivery what the MPS community is requesting,” said MPSA Secretary, Greg Walters of Death of the Copier.

New Tools and Services for MPSA Membership:

The MPSA is launching a special web portal for the MPS industry as a centralized source for not only information, but also a hub where providers can collaborate and communicate to increase their own knowledge and expertise. MPSA members can also volunteer on many of the projects underway by the MPSA to help shape the future of the industry.

Tools:

· MPS Discussion Forum: Designed to help communications and collaboration for anyone doing business within the MPS Industry.

· MPS Industry Awards: Members of the MPS community can submit significant accomplishments they have made within the MPS environment. These will be profiled monthly on the site, and an annual award will be given to the most significant entries across five different categories.

· MPS Industry Events Calendar: Accessible for all areas of the MPS community to add to and document industry events.

Services:

· First MPS Business Listing: This is a first -- anyone within the MPS Industry can list products, services and offerings.

· Industry Best Practices & Standards: A primary focus for the MPSA team, this will help establish the standards and best practices that ensure success.

Vendors, dealers and enterprises can find more information about the MPSA at http://www.yourMPSA.org.

Gartner's Magic Quadrant Under Fire - Libelous Claim in Lawsuit

We all know the Magic Quadrant.

The Quadrant can make propel a product or company, if their dot ends in the top right; the Quadrant can destroy dreams, if said dot ends up bottom, left.

But who are the 1,200 or so "consultants" whose opinion is reflected by those dots?

And what kind of vetting goes on to insure large sponsors of Gartner's aren't given a wink, a nod, and a top-right position? Ummmmmmm...?

Skulduggery? Shenanigans? Bravo Sierra?

Well, ZL Technologies, that hugely popular Lotus Notes and Email archiving company, is alleging that Gartner was spreading libelous reports and failed to position ZL Technologies in the “Magic Quadrant”.

Wow, not even a dot.

Kon Leong, president and CEO of ZL Technologies, said,

"...It would be nice to know, of the vendors rated, how much money did they spend on Gartner? That factor is very similar to what the SEC enforced on Wall Street ratings agencies," he said. "This way the reader can say, 'I can factor that into my assessment.'


"The other transparency issue is with regard to the scores. If you go and describe 14 different parameters on which you score a company, then you neglect to show the scores, that entire exercise becomes meaningless."

Oh so, delicious.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is a huge influence in the IT world. From copiers to storage - any product or service that could conceivably be used is judged.

And IT folks read the Quadrant; believe the Quadrant. If the Quadrant can't be trusted, the universe will lose balance.

And this turns up on the heels of Gartner announcing Xerox/Fuji in the Leaders Quadrant of 2009 Managed Print Services report. Gartner first introduced the MPS category of its Magic Quadrant report last year.

Stay tuned.

The complaint and documents can be found here.

MPS Conference Europe - More feed back, an Announcement from MWAintel and Have You Heard About M2M?

"Hi Greg,

MPS Europe in one day is a hands down winner for everyone in attendance!

This show has taken San Antonio to a whole new level of success!

Packed rooms, great educational tracks and people! MPS Europe is providing a MPS MBA! People from the US, EMEA and other parts of the world! Amazing accomplishment and kudo's to Ed and team!"

- Mike Stramaglio, President/CEO at MWA Intelligence

And speaking of MWAintelligence, they announced nMPS the first "MPS supply chain".

I have an idea what that means. Looks to be a turn key program, that appears to include everything a Hybrid-dealer needs to execute a MPS practice.

And by everything, I mean from DCA to Inventory Control to dispatch to remote monitoring to behavior modification...interesting.

And a new acronym, at least for me, is "M2M" communications, which of course, stands for Machine to Machine communications. Ok, fine, you can get that.

But what about "M2P" ?

Yes, yes, Machine to Person communication - duh!

I see this as sorta like how your fuel injectors talk to your gas pump(M2M) and your speedometer communicates to you(M2P).

Think I am making this up? There is even a M2M Magazine right here.

I don't have all the details, and haven't had a chance to interview MWAintelligence, but I am sure I will get the chance.

For now, here is a quick Q&A:


1. What does this mean for the industry?

For the first time the new hybrid MPS dealer can bundle MPS print assessment, job routing, automated remote service, break/fix field service, and a full array of imaging supplies. Every asset is managed real time and with actively managed accurate data and fleet management tools.

2. When will this be available?

We are officially launching this program here in Amsterdam and sales activity will begin November 2009.

3. What applications are included in nMPS

Includes management of the service personnel, print management and low cost job routing, print assessment tools, remote asset management, automated inventory management and field service break/fix capability.

4. Will this be available in Europe as well nationwide?

Yes it will be available in Europe next year

5. What are the benefits of this nMPS program?

By definition the Managed Print Services (MPS) marketplace demands a clear combination of a full suite of products and services. The benefits for the distribution and the end user client are nearly identical. Improved supply chain, actionable fleet data, asset management, etc. all directed toward customer satisfaction, ease of use, cost recovery and redeployment of dollars toward revenue and or profit.

6. What are the overall MPS customer needs?

We put the MPS customer needs into three categories. The first is control which creates visualization and lower TCO. The second is optimization by device consolidation, print page consolidation, fleet deployment, monitoring and support. The third category is enhancement providing national coverage, business process optimization, and vendor agnostic support.

7. How will this help to enhance dealers and resellers MPS offerings?

The nMPS Service program will enhance a dealer and reseller’s MPS offering over all by fulfilling all of their MPS customer needs in one program. It will offer dealers turn-key national service programs creating instant revenue opportunity and growth.

8. What is MWAi’s Intelligent Service

Intelligent Service module provides automation tools for service dispatch operations and back-office supporting roles to ensure that data flows seamlessly between your assets in the field, IT infrastructure and people. The Intelligent Service modules provides a seamless link between the service activities of your field workforce and other mission critical portions of the enterprise, connecting service management, supply chain operations, dispatchers, account management, credit and meter collections, ensuring the needed data is available where it is needed, when it is needed.

9. What is MWAi’s Intelligent Device Management?

Intelligent Device Management™ (IDM) is an enterprise-class solution for the collection of asset information and delivery to your back-office, IT systems. MWAi offers a variety of data collection clients to capture information from connected, unconnected and locally-connected imaging devices. Data is transmitted from end-user location utilizing innovative cellular, pager, wireless Mesh and network protocols.

10. Do you have to have both MWAi’s IDM and IS Solutions to take advantage of the nMPS program?

The good news is that the MWAi solution suite is a scalable enterprise solution. Which means it is most effective with all modules in place and active. However every application can be applied independently.

MPS European Conference: Press Release, MWAi

MWA Intelligence, Inc. and Image Star Launch Industry First nMPS Supply Chain.

Image Star’s i.s.connect™ eCommerce Web to secure and automate MPS Supplies replenishment fully integrated with MWAi’s new nMPS National Fleet Service and M2M/M2P solutions.

Amsterdam, Netherlands — October 22, 2009 – MWA Intelligence, Inc. (MWAi), a leader in enterprise-class M2M (machine-to-machine) and M2P (machine-to-people) solutions and services, today announced a strategic partnership with Image Star, a leading wholesaler of imaging products, to increase dealer income and end-user satisfaction through integration of MWAi’s Intelligent Device Management™ (IDM) to Image Star’s i.s.connect™, the company’s industry leading eCommerce web portal to provide high quality printer supplies and automated supplies ordering process for dealers and resellers.

Image Star’s line of quality printer supplies will be an integral part of the nMPS, the industry-first national fleet service program that supports dealers and resellers across the U.S. to expand and enhance their MPS offerings to satisfy requirements from end-user organizations on lower TCO and supplies replenishment automation.

“Image Star has won a great reputation in its high quality supplies products, and is about to add their new value for their dealer and reseller customers in this MPS era,” said Michael Stramaglio, CEO and President of MWAi. “End users demand lower cost of ownership in printing, which requires both competitive pricing of quality supplies and the efficient supply management process for dealers to proactively detect toner levels or toner low alerts to automatically replenish supplies.”

This new offering is the result of a strategic partnership between Image Star and MWAi, designed to maximize synergies between a leading wholesaler of imaging product and the world’s leading M2M/M2P solutions provider and MPS service.

Speaking on the partnership, Charlie Antell, Director, Business Development of Image Star said, “We are very excited to play a significant role in this industry first national field nMPS service!” He added, “Having a successful 15 year track record, Image Star can guarantee that the end user will be satisfied with what we have to offer as a company. We pride ourselves on top notch customer service and solutions, paying close attention to each customer’s specific needs”

About MWA Intelligence, Inc.

MWA Intelligence Inc. (MWAi) delivers enterprise-class and leading-edge M2M (machine-to-machine) and M2P (machine-to-people.) MWAi provides an enterprise class solution designed to manage the MFP’s, Printers (locally or networked) collecting, automating meters, consumables, service alerts and Managed Print Service (MPS) tools. MWAi literally connects the people who service and sell the assets with the actual machines and ERP systems delivering greater customer satisfaction. Solutions include: Intelligent Service Management, Intelligent Managed Print Services, IntelliDashboard and Intelligent Device Management. For more information, please visit www.mwaintelligence.com.

About Image Star

Image Star is a leading wholesaler of imaging products offering a wide selection of OEM and compatible printer, fax, copier, and data media supplies. They have been distributing quality products at an exceptional value for over 15 years. For more information, please visit https://www.imagestar.com/isps/index.html.


Contact
Rose Alagna
MWA Intelligence, Inc.
Marketing Manager
Rose.alagna@mwaintel.com
480.538.5905

A Quick Tour of the Xerox R/D Labs, sans "M" ...

I "peeled" the following out of an article by Jennifer Kavur, over at Computer World.

A couple of revealing subjects popping over the horizon from X.

Check it out.

CTO Sophie Vandebroek provided an overview of Xerox's R&D strategy, which focuses on information explosion, mass customization and sustainability.

Long-life photoreceptors

Xerox has advanced the life of photoreceptors by 50 per cent with the development of a polymer composite that acts as a protective chemical armor against surface wear and scratches. The new photoreceptors, which were implemented into the 4112 and 4127 monochrome copier/printer models this summer, can achieve about one million prints and 33 per cent fewer replacement cartridges.

The ultimate goal is to develop photoreceptors that will last the entire life of the machine, said Giuseppa DiPaola-Baranyi, laboratory manager for Materials Integration at the XRCC. This involves leveraging expertise in smart materials design and nanotechnology to design molecules for next-generation photoreceptors with self-healing capabilities, she explained.

"For example, when you scratch your hand and you heal, that's a biological process. We're looking at how we do that analogy for photoreceptors. How do we use smart materials design, how do we use nanotechnology to give us life-of-the-machine components that can repair themselves so that any damage is oblivious to the rest of the systems," DiPaola-Baranyi.

Reusable paper

To meet the continued demand for paper and reduce the amount of energy used for recycling, Xerox researchers are developing paper for printing temporary images that can be erased on demand. The end goal is the ability to reuse one sheet of paper up to ten times with prints that can last three to five days.

While paper usage per individual is declining in developed countries, paper usage in developing countries is on the rise due to growing economies and more people having access to computers and printers, said Adela Goredema, project leader for Reusable Paper at XRCC.

"Everyone was thinking that the office of the current millennium would be paperless, but as we know that is not the case ... We can recycle paper, but the amount of energy required to recycle is also quite significant," she said.

To make one sheet of paper from virgin pulp requires about 204,000 Joules of energy, which is enough to run a 60 watt light bulb for about one hour; making one sheet of recycled paper requires about 114,000 Joules, which is enough to run the same 60 watt bulb for about 30 minutes, she pointed out.

Natural language colour

Xerox is making it easier to edit colour in digital documents by translating words into numbers with Natural Language Color technology. The software allows users to make adjustments in colour by selecting everyday words and phrases from drop-down menus to create a phrase such as "make the skin-tone colours slightly more warm." Over 50,000 colour variations are supported.

The technology has been introduced in the Xerox Phaser 7500 colour printer as a Color By Words feature and accessible online in a test lab called Open Xerox. Xerox plans to expand the technology into other printer and MFP models in the future.

Rob Rolleston, technical manager of the Workflow and Documents area at the Xerox Research Center in Webster, N.Y., encourages visitors to the site. "We are trying to get customer feedback. We are calling this customer-led innovation," he said.

Printable organic electronics

Xerox envisions a flexible monitor that can "fold neatly into a briefcase" and a smart hospital gown that "monitors your vital signs and displays them for the nurse or doctor to see" as potential end uses of printable electronics technology.

An alternative to silicon, electronic materials promise to be "durable, flexible, lightweight and economical" and printable on large flexible substrates. The technology, currently in development at XRCC, will have significant implications on the consumer electronics industry.

"XRCC scientists also have developed special conductive 'inks' that can be used to print transistor components," states Xerox. "The components can be used as driver circuits for displays."

Solid ink

Solid ink is Xerox's alternative to liquid inkjet printing and traditional toner. The technology, which has a crayon-like texture and sits in a solid wax form at room temperature, doesn't require cartridges.

Because the ink melts within the machine and uses a quartz crystal to generate very small droplets at slightly above room temperature, the droplets don't move very far and give you very nice, round spots, said Peter Kazmaier, manager of New Materials Design at XRCC.

Xerox recently developed second-generation solid ink technology for its ColorQube multifunction printers, which feature colour printing speeds up to 85 pages per minute and a four print head design that totals over 3,500 ink nozzles.

XRCC estimates customers can save about 60 per cent of their colour printing costs with a ColorQube machine, which makes colour less expensive to work with and requires fewer replacement parts.

"Solid ink performs really, really well when you are working with rougher papers, so you can get almost the same image quality with a cheap paper, a recycled paper, on this machine than you can with a much more expensive, high quality paper," said Kazmaier.

Solid ink technology has several environmentally-conscious benefits, such as using nine per cent less lifecycle energy, producing ten per cent fewer greenhouse gases and generating 90 per cent less supplies waste than traditional laser printing.

Cured solid ink

Building off its solid ink technology, Xerox has invented a cured solid ink that hardens under ultraviolet light and sticks to nearly any surface. The technology has big implications for packaging by allowing printing on non-porous materials such as plastics and foils as well as heavily porous materials like corrugated cardboard.

This offering is different from anything else on the market now, said Michele Chrétien, project leader for UV-Curable Solid Ink at XRCC. "We have something that our customers could do things with that probably we haven't thought of yet," she said.

Ultra low-melt toner

Xerox has expanded upon its Emulsion Aggregation (EA) toner, which was introduced over ten years ago and holds over 300 patents, with an ultra low-melt version that fuses to paper at 45 degrees Fahrenheit lower temperature.

"Our goal was to get to higher speed colour printing at the same time as using less energy," said Patricia Burns, laboratory manager for Materials Synthesis and Characterization at XRCC.

The new Ultra Low-Melt EA Toner retains all of the benefits of the original EA toner, which features smaller particles that improve image quality and require less toner resulting in more prints per cartridge, she pointed out.

The technology is available in Xerox's 700 Digital Colour Press and expected to roll out to other desktop printer, high-end MFP and high-speed commercial colour press models in the future.

Your Managed Print Services Association - Three Months Free

Your MPSA is opening up and inviting you to "test the waters" with a comp'd 3 month membership.

From the MPSA site, here.

Special Offer - Special Limited Time Offer

Become a Member of the MPSA

In order to kick-start the MPSA we will be allowing potential members to sign-up for free membership to the MPSA, which runs from 12/01/2009 to 02/28/2009. This will give you the opportunity to test the MPSA benefits, and assist in our numerous projects.
----------

This is great opportunity to check out the MPSA and see if membership would enhance your customer relationships.

Heck, it's free...give it a whirl.

Canon Sits Down with Imaging Solutions Reseller: Scott Cullen Queries Canon’s senior director, Dennis Amorosano

The complete interview is here.

Scott brushes up on the HP question and Canon answers more directly then HP regarding the HP channel and access to Canon product.

The following is an excerpt of the complete interview.

Will HP have access to these products?

Amorosano: HP will have access to both imageRUNNER ADVANCE and legacy imageRUNNER products. For HP, these offerings will nicely fill a gap in their existing Managed Print Services product portfolio.

For Canon, adding HP’s Managed Print Services organization and EDS as a channel provides us an avenue to reach the largest global enterprises. Although Canon does have its own National Account organization, the base of customers we can reach through this new relationship is much broader and should represent a nice addition to Canon’s channel operations.

Do you see this expanded HP relationship having any affect on your dealer channel?

Amorosano: Not to a great extent.

Many of the accounts that HP through their MPS group is targeting are true global enterprise accounts who want a global relationship from HP. Generally speaking, our dealers are not in a position to do those types of things for a customer and in some cases we’ve been challenged in that area as well. Will there be some conflict?

It’s possible, but by and large the dealer will more likely gain from this relationship by being used as the primary service delivery vehicle for the placements of devices by HP. So, in or view the upside for the dealer channel is bigger than any potential conflict.

You’ve probably spoke with a lot of people the past couple of days about the HP partnership. Are there certain misconceptions that continue to come up that you need to dispel?

Amorosano: There may be some misunderstanding in regards to the scope of the relationship with HP.

In a sense we’ve tried to be very clear that it provides HP with an ability to source Canon product and resell that technology directly to the end customer.

"We do not provide the ability for HP to sell through their reseller channel, which we think is a very important distinction for our channel partners. If HP were able to do that quite frankly we’d have a lot of conflict in the marketplace. That certainly is worth clarifying."

There’s also some confusion in regards to the technology aspects of the relationship. Canon Inc. made an announcement that mentioned some collaboration from a technology perspective. Much of that at this point is focused on the network management of the devices—both the Canon devices within HP’s tools and the HP devices within Canon’s tools.

There have been some questions as to whether HP’s Open Extensibility Platform (OXP) will run on Canon imageRUNNER devices and we haven’t had any conversations to that effect or made any public statements about anything beyond what was in the Canon Inc. press release. Same holds true for branding.

I think there’s some misconceptions that the nature of the relationship is such that we would deliver product to HP under an OEM basis where they would put their HP brand on it, but that’s not the case. All the technology that HP will source under this relationship will be sold under the Canon brand.

---------------

Based on these answers, it sounds like Canon got the best of this deal.

By the way, go check out Imaging Solutions Reseller. It's a new online magazine about our industry - not bad.

Your Managed Print Services Association and the European MPS Conference

Your Managed Print Services Association and the MPS conference in Amsterdam - the coming out party; the Vanguard. Think of it as a precursor to the North American conference in May.

Not only will your MPSA be attending the MPS Conference in Amsterdam, Jim Fitzpatrick the President of your MPSA will lead a presentation on the "State of Standards".

Since the election of your MPSA Team, much has been accomplished in preparation for the European MPS Conference. Indeed, in less than six months, the MPSA has built an infrastructure, website(parts under construction), and put together membership offerings.

Oh but wait, there is so much more.

A three month membership is free to those who sign up now for a limited time

Check it out here.

So, you might say,

"Greg, why in the world would I ever want to be part of the MPSA? I sell copiers, toner, printers, service, servers, telephony, storage, EDM, etc."

Good question.

Here's my answer: you will be part of something that will add value to your client relationships.

This is an organization of like minded people, at the very beginning of organizing. We are sharing insight on a non-competitive basis, elevating the discourse and breaking free form the shackles of the past...

...yeah, that was dramatic.

We are not a bunch of statisticians collecting data points from across the output device spectrum(not that there's anything wrong with that).

And we're not a group of beard scratching consultants who have been in the industry for the last 105 years espousing re-hashed copier sales training(not that there's anything wrong with that).

From my experience with just the executive members, the board members, and even our detractors, this is a good thing.

For instance, your elected officials are of such a diverse background and employed in completely different sectors - yet we all get along and we are all looking to improve MPS awareness. To use a word I have come to despise- Synergy.

We hope to establish some basic standards ultimately sharing tools that will help you transform the transactional into relational. Adding depth to your selling engagements.

But we shouldn't do it alone - we need you.

My "special" mission is to keep the direct avenue's of input open to the "trenches" - the people on the street, in the mix, winning and losing deals everyday, owners, managers, executives, clients and selling professionals.

No frackin Ivory Towers here, no elitism, no snobbish intelligentsia- this is a goal.

And it is just that, a goal. I know the solitary fighting man is a tragic story; it never ends well for the "Leonidas" of the day or a young Anakin and remember what happened to John the Baptist.

But it's fun.

- Yikes.

LOL!

Insider Trading Hits IBM - Moffat Charged

This is big.

Of course, everyone is innocent until...but the FBI don't fool around.

Especially when wire taps are involved.

"Bob Moffat is a good guy, and IBM is pretty strict about things like this," said Pete Elliot, director of marketing at Key Information Systems, a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based solution provider and IBM partner. "I'd be surprised if he was involved in things like that." - Channel Web

The full article is here.

This tomfoolery will deliver bad dividends.

Into the Belly of The Beast: Managed Print Services Discussed at Purchaser Conference

Purchasing Magazine sponsored the Smart Sourcing Summit in Chicago, October 13-14.

On the second day, just before lunch, there was a session entitled, "Business Printing Solutions: Managing Print Services".

How interesting.

That's right, a convention of Purchasers.

A collection of folks, educated in the art of "grinding" you, bent on making your job more difficult, and reducing your commissions. These PA's with their CPM's were dedicating 45 minutes to Managed Print Services.

It's no secret, I really don't like purchasers.

I can count on one hand, the number of "Purchasing Agents" I have been willing to work with over the past 20 years, and two of those, I met just within the last couple of years. But hey, we all got a job to do, and purchasing is the lynch pin of every successful business.

And it's no secret that if you are selling ANYTHING to the Purchaser, you are a commodity - not the place to start a conversation around Managed Print Services.

Which is why this article piqued my interest and to my surprise, a friend of DOTC was carrying the MPS banner - Ed from Photizo.

Check the article out.

It doesn't surprise me that MPS is getting the attention of the Purchasing community.

The MPS message, printing costs are out of control and unmanaged is resonating at all levels in business.

From the show:

"...Crowley says the lifecycle for printer or copier is three years yet uncoordinated procurement allows for out-of-date equipment to remain in service and operate badly. The problem is exacerbated since "less than 10% of total corporate print spend is for hardware..."

Although the Purchasing Department may be the antithesis of value add, it is sometimes better to align with these folks - find a common area of concern - turning the advisory into a ally.

The common issue? Cost.

MPS reduces Costs. Period. Even the most stodgy and decrypt PA understands cost reduction.

Video Of The Week: It's Only 7 minutes, 26 seconds, Let's Go to India

India and Asia seem to be a very good market for MPS in general, and Canon MPS specifically. Some say the future of MPS is in the far East, indeed I have commented about Canon in India. 

MPS aside, Indian music has exploded on the scene with Slum Dog, etc. Some of you may remember this song from the Jodi Foster movie, "Inside Man" - she looks friggin hot and plays a great part, by the way. 

But check this out. 

I doubt very much you will ever find Mariah or Witney dancing and singing on a moving train, as it snakes its way over bridges and through mountain tunnels. Notice how the two stars sing, dance and stomp on the train, and how the director uses the darkness of the train tunnel - special lighting on the female singer. 

No green screens here. 

Think of this as a 7-minute vacation - before your "forecast meeting" or Friday, end of the week rah, rah...  

Enjoy. 

2010: The Year of the Tablet, The Year of the E-Book

When Dan Brown’s latest blockbuster, The Lost Symbol, was released recently by Random House, digital sales of the book on the Kindle were rivaling paper sales on Amazon.com.

On campuses all around the country, students can download "one time use" digital versions of chapters or complete text books.

Are publishers shaking in their boots, eye to eye with yet another"nail in the coffin" - one more milestone on the downward spiral of the DeathOfPrint?

Or could this next technological mash-up SAVE publishers; save the "Dead-Tree Media"?

Will some pitch against the tide like so many music executives had against iTUNES?

Apple is preparing to make a big splash in tablets early next year - this one a little bigger than the Kindle some think this to be a title wave to rival the iPod.

And Xerox thinks paper will never go away.

But what does this mean for us?

It means that instead of carrying around a pad of paper, or a Franklin - by the way, do Selling Professionals still use Franklin Planners? - we will be checking email, forwarding proposals and reading the latest internal HP "constraint report" on our half-inch thick "digital readers".

And there is more.

If Apple can pull it off, you will see publications go directly to consumers through iTunes - by the magazine, newspaper, author, or subject matter.

Cheap subscriptions - perhaps "by the article" or even, by the author -

I haven't read about this angle yet - before iTunes, how many of us would purchase a CD(or if you remember vinyl) to be dissappointed that more then a couple of songs really didn't float your boat?

I know, back in the day, the songs on the album actually were there because the artist felt his/her creation included the COMPLETE work, all 12 tracks, not just the commercially viable tunes. Remember Johnny Cougar, "...the record company's changin my name now..."

Today, musical content is sold, and consumed, one, 99 cent song, at a time. Apply this to the Wall Street Journal - the Mother of all Newspapers(debatable). Other than corporate titans who have 2 hours in the morning, probably because they are a prison cell somewhere, who else can easily read the complete issue every, single, day?

But maybe I would pay, a very small yearly fee, to receive the "left" column. Perhaps I could have my new searches all end up on a custom formated and downloaded on my new iTab.

And not just print. Video as well. All on one 11x17x0.50, water resistant, digital, place mat.

The Demo From Hades: This Is What Happens When You Take Your Eye Off Your Opponent

10/2009

We have all done it. The seasoned of us, have committed it more often.

Twenty minutes of hell demonstrating the greatest contribution to office productivity and flubbing up every, single thing.

Face Plant. Flameout. Bunkered. Epic Fail.

It wasn't the machine's fault, a matter of fact, the Edgeline was in great shape, the best ever; someone even cleaned the chassis. Trays were set correctly, scanning worked, print driver installed and at the ready.

So I couldn't blame the machine.

The MPS pre-work had been established; study conducted, and the decision for the copiers had been wrestled away from purchasing and handed over to IT.

The small fleet was old, oversold and the leases expired.

My proposal made sense didn't grow into a 10 pound, thousand-page monstrosity and even included Visio flowcharts. Cool.

The prospects' approval process had been defined, documented and we were are track. The Economic, and Technical influencers were identified and covered.

I had a Coach and End-Users interviewed. As a final stage, my coach was bringing the last remaining end-user to our offices so she could just take a "quick" peek at the Edgeline.

Can you see this train wreck coming?

To be certain, I am not the best at "the demo" - and I think those who are, commit way too much time, standing at the machine, learning the myriad of never-used functions.

I loathe copier training disguised as "sales" training - you know the ones - all speeds and feeds and why this guy's toner is more round than that one's...gag.

But also, I have demoed Oces with cold cans of Coca-Cola in them. I have run dozens of Edgelines with the doors open - if you've never seen it, it is glorious.

I've scanned coffee-stained UPS Red shipping tickets through many Canon ADFs and received 99% hit OCR rates.

Who hasn't had a toner bottle explode while showing how "easy it is" to replace?

Yes, I have even "made up" a flip-chart presentation while that damn space shuttle icon prepared for and finally launched(Konica/Minolta) because some goody-goody, decided to power down the unit 10 minutes before my client arrived.

And the ultimate bar story - I have demoed a machine that had no power; I just used the word "imagine" a great deal.

So yeah, I can dance through most anything. Most.

But I prefer to have all the variables nailed down. Like, what kind of documents will be copied, are there any specific functions to be reviewed, will you ever need a heavier bond?

Are you printing PDFs, and if so, can you send me a file ahead of the demo, so we can be prepared? And what about envelopes?

Do you need and will you need to see 11x17, in color?

Stuff like that. The boring, mundane, bland, everyday functions that a copier should be able to perform. The simple things.

The dark partner of concern shuddered my foundation of confidence when I saw her meaty hand clutching the manila folder of documents. Her heels clicked across our reception area tile like the ticking of some angry clock. Oh boy.

But I thought to myself, "Should be no problem...they print more than copy...".

Well, she pulled out a full color, highly detailed, 11x17 map - generated from an older inkjet - .BMP, not even .PDF.

My question to her was why would you ever copy something like this if you could print it? Don't you receive these documents (hard copy, bound, site survey and maps) in electronic form?

Mind you, I recognized the engineering company who generated the document. The same company I sold a few wide format devices and a color Canon unit to three years ago.

The Canon came with E*Copy Desktop. And I remember spending an hour showing them how to assemble multi-page .PDF documents so they could email final reports to their clients, saving thousands on courier charges. I knew that she had the report in digital form.

"No", her response.

"So, you dismantle the report, scan them and then make copies? Is that the process?

"Yes", her response.

I know, logic does not apply, but it didn't matter. This is how she does it now, and this is the process she wants to see my machine perform.

My weakness - my unit scans at 600 dpi and outputs 1200 so the output was clearly sub-standard. I had to agree.

Oh, and sometimes, they need to duplex 11x17, at the machine and hate the speed of their existing Xerox.

Carefully explaining how the Edgeline applies the ink, reads the surface of the paper, and either re-applies ink with another pass or runs the sheet around again until the ink is dry - this makes the speed of output decrease but ensures higher quality.

She wasn't having any of it.

The scan quality sucked, and the speed slowed to an unbearable crawl. Game, set, match, I took five in the back.

The Postmortem - "Somebody Call Dexter, we got blood here..."

What did we learn?

Know what the heck you are getting into before you get into it. More importantly, MPS is a big deal, a compelling argument, but when it gets right down to it, it's the basics that either make or break you - always has been, always will be.

Remember the basics.

Hey, this isn't easy, if it were, your manager would still be in sales.

Keep getting up and keep selling.

HP IPG folding into PSG? Someday, HP Won't Sell Printers

10/6/2009

Back in April, I wrote a bit about an issue that was, at the time, unthinkable.

In my article, Is Hurd funding IPG's Demise with IPG's Revenue?, we briefly explore the possibility that Hurd's restructuring of HP into a full, IT services company, is being funding from IPG(printer) profits.

The irony being that one day, HP will not sell printers.

Ludicrous, inconceivable?

Add it up:

Expected HP growth somewhere around 3-5%, with MFP growth at only 2%

Five years ago, HP's PC unit was losing out to Dell, and barely making a profit, today HP is the leading PC provider in the world

IPG growth has been over shadowed by PSG and other growing sectors of HP's galaxy

MPS programs supported by distribution partners, not "home grown" except for Enterprise accounts

Edgeline

EDS purchase

Mark Hurd

Canon Alliance

And who is Todd Bradley?

Indeed, if this is true, if the LaserJet is destined to follow OS/2, the next move we may see is an "enveloping" of IPG into PSG.

CrazyTalk? Oh really?

"...Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hurd is considering a plan to fold the printing business into Bradley's division. HP executives have declined to confirm or comment on the report, which the Journal attributed to unnamed sources..."- Mercury Hews

Here is the blip.

More from the Mercury News article:

"...As businesses shift to electronic records, some analysts believe they will print less on paper. Many consumers, meanwhile, are increasingly viewing Web-based material on their laptops, smart-phones and portable devices, without feeling the need to print.."

This is big - But what about Joshi?

The Mercury News article, here. A very good read.

In an article by Bob Evens, Information Week, he hearkens the same tone - HP needs to stake it's flag and the colors won't simply be printers/output:

"...Hewlett-Packard's got all the pieces to become just about whatever kind of company CEO Hurd wants it to be, and while that vision has yet to be fully expressed, the imminent merging of its PC business with its printer business is a huge step in the right direction. Because while both of those product lines are massive and are among the top reasons why HP's annual revenue of about $120 billion tops that of any other IT company, PCs and printers are simply not going to serve as the strategic platforms that define HP's future and its enduring value to enterprise customers..."

IBM, at one time, sold laptops, PC's and printers...

It's Not a Copier, It's a Replicator and The World is Not Enough

Photocopier - watch more funny videos

...and one of the main characters in this bit is "Mr. Walters"...LOL!

Enjoy.