Managed Print Services, MPS Training and Best Practices: I'm Calling Bullshit

2010

Ok, we all know anyone who claims to have been "doing MPS for 15 years" is nothing but Bravo Sierra - how was anyone trying to reduce costs associated with output back in 1995, re-inking ribbons on an Epson LQ-1050?

Really? Copiers were not even DIGITAL in 1995! Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot!

And if one more ding dong sales consultant tells me that "...MPS is all about TCO..." - but doesn't include costs incurred in the Third Stage of MPS, I may just hurl right then and there.

Do not even get me started on re-hashed IKON Circa 1990 leasing, "Image Management Plus", customer for-life, schemes - exactly how many lawsuits did IKON fend off back then?

100's?

So this is what we've come to: years of usage statistics, decades of observed business behavior, and so much data about how the world prints, stores and creates documents yet we still do not have any real-world benchmarks. No guideposts.

Hell, we don't really have any Guides.

Correction, "guides" do exist. Most just don't know shit about shit and keep telling us they do - that is if you pay them. And the more we pay, the more horsepucky comes out.

Welcome to MPS.

Steve Reynolds: Battled to the End, Passed Away Wednesday

Steve Lost this battle. I met Steve a few times, at two Lyra conferences and the MPS North America Conferences.

He knew his stuff, he will be missed.

Also, there will be a memorial service for him at the AGH Art Gallery in Hamilton on Monday night from 6to 9 PM.

http://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/aa_index.php

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Lyra Establishes Reynolds Family Support Fund to Help Colleague and Friend, Steve Reynolds, in His Battle Against Colon Cancer

Lyra Research announces the establishment of the Reynolds Family Support Fund to help Lyra Senior Analyst Steve Reynolds and his family in his battle against Stage 4 Colon Cancer.

Since 1998, Mr. Reynolds has been one of the prominent faces of Lyra—first as an editor for The Hard Copy Observer and then as a senior analyst for Lyra’s Hard Copy Industry Advisory Service. Diagnosed in June, Mr. Reynolds is meeting this grim news with the same direct, fearless attitude that he brings to his professional career.

The HP OPS Elite Managed Print Forum - "Indulge the Spirit"

Big conference in AZ this week. The surviving OPS dealers.

I am sure there is an NDA in my history that precludes me from sharing very much...but whatever I can get on the record, I will.

I do look forward to hoisting a few (I mean, taking copious and voluminus notes) with some of the "MPS IronMen"...you know who you are.

Not sure who else will be in attendance. Looks like there will be some MPS101 stuff; after 3 years, its good to see, I guess.

Looking forward to seeing Synnex, and SNi. As I have seen the presentations before, I will be more interested in the attendees' response to the MPS material.

One blaring deficit - I don't see a valid MPS research firm on the agenda.

Most of the HP MPS talk track has that familiar, Photizo-ish angle - "...Chaos...", "...the cheapest image is the one you never print...", "...let's take paper out of the business..." and if they whip out the Three Stages slide, wow.

I do not expext to hear any mention of a "Hybrid Dealer" - but we will see.



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A DOTC Shout Out to All the Managed Print Services Peeps in and around Detroit: Kid Rock - Roll On

Coleman Young and the People Mover.

COBO to Joe Louis, Devil's Night, FoMoCo in the RenCen, GM in the RenCen.

Greek Town, Woodward and Eight Mile, Boblo, the Big Fist, to the Uniroyal Tire - The Dirty D.

Times are bad - they've been worse, well maybe not.

Its all just a big roller coaster, like the ones at Cedar Point.

Some day, the boys in Honolulu blue will be in the superbowl, someday.



Sitting here alone
I'm looking back on where I've roamed
And laughin, now I swore
I'd win and not get burned
Left my family, left my home
I worked my fingers to the bone
And there was not a stone
I did not leave unturned..."


Enjoy-




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Managed Print Services: Future of Screen Technology

A "document" doesn't need to be printed.

Managed Print Services:Benchmarks and Approaches From Everything Channel

Sponsered by the Big "X".

We here at tDOTC do not regularly blow sunshine up the "big-guys'" skirts(ew) - but this 11 minute video at first caught my eye and then delivered.

Benchmarks, derived from PagePak activity, on revenue, margin and length of term are packed into this small video.

It is not bad - I cannot vouch for the accuracy, but, the numbers match what I have seen in the field, and I am not a Xerox-head.

Learn and enjoy.

For Two Years - This has been played here on DOTC on 9-11

Managed Print Services: The Case Against Auto-Generated Proposals

4/2010

"The heaviest proposal wins..."

"We gotta have the company history in this proposal..."

"And don't forget the spec sheets..."

"This will be easy, I can just use the last proposal we did, and search and replace..."

Sound familiar?

Let me ask you something, do you read books?

What keeps you interested?

It's the story, isn't it?

Somehow, your favorite writer or a nice article you spend time with engages you and tells you something new, yet familiar.

Now, do you think that article or book was boiler-plated into existence?

Do you think Stephen King, goes out, asks a bunch of potential readers what they like and what scares them, imports all that "data" into a tool, clicks "go" and out pops the next best seller?

"No, Greg, I don't think Stephen King clicks on "go" and a best seller pops out." - good answer.

Managed Print Services: TheDeathOfTheCopier to Speak at Major IKON Event - Alert the Authorities.

Solutions EXPO 2010

"...find out how IKON Office Solutions can help you define your road ahead..."

Is 30 minutes enough time to talk about MPS?

No.

But it'll do...it'll do...

HP sues ex-CEO Hurd over new job at rival Oracle

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) Tuesday filed a lawsuit against former CEO Mark Hurd over potential damages he could cause in his new position as co-president of Oracle (NSDQ:ORCL).

HP alleges in the lawsuit that Hurd, in his new role at Oracle, would not be able to avoid using HP trade secrets to compete with HP, and that "HP has been injured and faces irreparable injury."

More Here.

Mark Hurd Hired by H-P Rival Oracle

Oracle Corp. named Mark Hurd co-president and appointed him to its board of directors, heightening the rivalry between the software company and Hewlett-Packard Co., the technology giant Mr. Hurd ran as chief executive until departing amid a scandal last month.

tDOTC Managed Print Services PowerPlayer of the Week: Bruce Dahlgren

9/6/10-

With Lexmark in his pedigree, Bruce understands what it means to be fighting for market position. Is he as comfortable working as a leader, fending off pursuers?

True to leadership form, ignore the competition and focus on the customer.

"The cheapest page is the one you don't print" - An utterance credited to Mr. Dahlgren and a phrase sure to run a chill up all the third party toner guys, copier dealerships and printer manufacturers.

Actually, a more accurate application of that sentence is, the cheapest page is the one not copied.

"...In the office environment, 50 percent of pages are printed, and 50 percent are copied,” he said. “I know that pages are going to decrease, and I want to help my customers do that. But there are 50 percent of the (copied) pages that I can go out there and get.”

HP is converting existing accounts into MPS Engagements - at the Enterprise level. The EDS acquisition, Canon alignment and the "strategic" approach to MPS over existing infrastructure. Infrastructure that includes lots and lots of HP Blades, storage, servers and laptops.

Great quote, "...let's take paper out of the business..." - wow.

Bruce, DOTC PowerPlayer of The Week.

Bruce talks here.


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Managed Print Services and The Boys of Fall

Fall, 1979.
35 Fullback, 24 Tailback.

First published, Fall, 2010. Al Bundy, eat your heart out...

As an avid reader of DOTC, and not my mother (hi Mom), you know I occasionally use Football as a metaphor - for MPS, Selling.

Of course, there is more to life than Selling MPS(when you find it, let me know) and it seems that football, American football(I can't believe I need to make that distinction) is and always has been, a metaphor for this American Life.

So it is with salespeople. Pushy, over-talkative, uncaring, fake. Stereotypical. Yes, some of that is deserved, but not for all of us.

Fake? What's with those industry pundits who last year provided copier sales training suggesting MPS was a fad?

Friday nights in America during the fall, 22 young men gather on a North/South patch of grass or dirt or mud or turf - 100 yards long, 53&1/3 yards wide - challenging each other.

On those nights, under the artificial glare, in the middle of it all, you never really hear the crowd - for me that was mostly true. We were simply out there doing what we had been doing since we were 7 years old. My Tailback had been there, in his position, next to me since the third grade. Buds.

Canon to set up office equipment solutions unit in US - Nikkei

(Reuters) - Canon Inc (7751.T) will create a U.S. subsidiary next spring to provide services to businesses that use its office equipment, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The new firm, to be set up in New York as a wholly owned unit of local arm Canon USA Inc, will begin operations with a workforce of 100-150, the paper said.

The new unit will help corporate clients boost efficiency by constructing document-management systems and operating their office equipment, the daily reported.

In starting a dedicated business solutions unit, Canon hopes to strengthen its presence in an area where both U.S. firm Xerox Corp. (XRX.N) and Ricoh Co. (7752.T) have already staked claims, the paper added. (Reporting by Rachel Chitra in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)

Managed Print Services: Who Can Get Out of the Hardware Business First? Xerox or HP?

IBM beat them both but this article regarding Xerox's re-branding into a Business Process Management company tells me Xerox is hitting this hard.

Managed Print Services. Are You Optimistic? - I'm Feeling You

Wake Me Up When September Ends