HP Into A Perfect Storm? No. More Like Galactic Meatgrinder

I guess when others say it, it must be true.  I mean, if some guy with a blog and a leopard headband spouts off about "ignore this" and "Hawk" that, he's just a lone voice in the darkness, right?

Sure.

In a recent All Things D article, Arik Hesseldahl reflects upon analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank Securities review of sales trends over the last 10 quarters at printer companies including Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Xerox and Hewlett-Packard.

Deutsche Bank calls the combined sales for equipment and supplies down 6 percent year on year.

Huh.


Let me outline a few of the high-points from Arik's retelling of the Deutsche Bank report:

Credit: Deutsche Bank

Supplies and equipment sales are down 6%, year to year

Six percent is significant

Sales of printer paper, A3/A4, fell 6% in the
2nd quarter to levels that are 20 percent below the 2006 peak

Interesting how paper sales peaked a year before the copier/MFP revenue peak of 2007(Lyra).

Read the rest ...

Who Owns MpS Now?

Two years a ago I was ringing the bell, exclaiming '...the OEMs where hi-jacking managed print services..." by angling to define MpS in their own likeness.

You remember, in 2008(ITEX), the second or third generation of MpS was in breach.

Back then, OEM MpS programs defined MpS/OPS as managing their devices, ignoring all others.

Everyone was scrambling to release a program. Xerox had PagePack 1.0, HP had OPS Elite, Kyocera had the "cheapest devices", Konica had OPS, OKI jumped in and Toshiba's MpS was one of the best kept secrets in the industry.

The pendulum swung hard right, all the way up to OEMs = MPS as they dictated their doctrine of either 1:1 refreshes or bundled lease and service.

That didnt work. They couldn't get their heads around the fact that ... the rest of the story...

MSFT to Bulid Surface: But What About HP? Karma Isn't Just an Electric Car

The MSFT Surface is making headlines all over as yet another software manufacturer steps into the hardware business, just...like...Apple.

Everybody is doing it - Google, MSFT...okay, not everybody.

As the usual technology pundits air out their sponsored 'opinions', am I the only one who is hearing desperate cries over at HP?

TheDeathOfWebOS Took Less than a 3 year Lease.

I sold the "Hawk": HP/Konica Minolta and Ikon's nexus of the absurd. HP's first toe-dip into the copier industry.

I sold Edgeline.  HP's second and "this time, we'll get it right" attempt to play in the copier industry.

I own a TouchPad.  I wanted to own one.  I was an HP head, as much as could be, without being employed by Mother Blue.

So when the TouchPad was rumored, I maneuvered into a position to get one.

When the rumors came down the channel that HP was going to market their E*Print along with the new tablet, as an MpS Practice manager, under the HP OPS banner, I was doubly excited.

I was not alone.

Across the country, honorable, trusting, HP believers, and employees,  fanned out to the channel exalting the next big thing in print; mobile print through HP tablets and phones.  WebOS was to be installed on every printer, MFP, laptop, phone, and tablet.

Ubiquity.

We were encouraged to invest and build mobility practices. Indeed, HP VARs all over, hired, shifted, and built business plans around the "Blues Clues' handy-dandy notebook" and print.

At the time, we saw Apple as pulling tablet use up for everyone - like the rising tide lifts all ships.

Of course, it ended up not being the tide, but a tidal wave, dashing the hopes and dreams of mobility practice managers everywhere into the rocks of BYOD.

Looking back like this feels as though I'm 'piling on' as Meg tries to right the lumbering behemoth - jettisoning tens of thousands and returning to HP's hardware roots.

HP will survive.  It's too big to fail.

What is to be learned from this Shakespearean tragedy?  What can we as individuals take from the meteoric arc?

1.  Everything dies, baby that's a fact...
2.  What is strong today, can be gone tomorrow
3.  Logic sometimes, doesn't prevail
4.  The obvious isn't
5.  When you forget who you are, you're just aching for a smack-down

Currently, HP, Canon, and Samsung have announced, each in their own way, that they are now, always have been, and always will be, hardware manufacturers.  Defining who you are and promoting yourself as true, is the only way to survive these days - we can debate over the sustainability of a pure hardware play, my money is on Samsung.

Period.

The truth is finally revealed.  No more talk of 'solution-based selling', or 'on-ramps to EDM', or such nonsense.  For these guys, the value is, 'best product', 'reliable performance', "affordable price', 'simple to use', printers and copiers.

For them, MpS will always hold a capital "P" and a small 'm'.  Oh, they will protest, flaunting symbolic MpS programs, designed by marketing departments and tasked with landing more equipment.

Period.

So it is with great nostalgia that I combed through this article from The Verge, regaling the rise and fall of Pre, WebOS, and TouchPad.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen - $1.6 billion write-off? - ain't nothing but a thang, just ignore that.

The Hits Keep Coming: HP downgraded and 52-Week Low...

As long as someone else says it, I should be okay...maybe these good folks are picking on HP, because HP is the biggest and best in the business.

I threw up a little...in my mouth, just now.

Business Week:

"Peter Misek of Jefferies & Co. said that tablets are likely to hurt HP's personal computer segment.

"While consensus thinks Windows 8 will boost personal computers, we think it will accelerate tablet cannibalization as the operating system focuses on touch," he wrote in a client note.

Misek also believes that smartphones are now used by enough consumers -- and tablets to a lesser degree -- that it is lowering printing demand.

The analyst lowered HP to "Hold" from "Buy" and reduced his price target to $23 from $30.

HP shares closed at $22.68 per share on Thursday. They fell to a 52-week low of $20.57 on May 23 and traded as high as $37.70 late last July.

An email seeking comment from HP was sent before business hours but was not immediately returned."

From a usually more upbeat news site, cheerfully named, Bright Side News, the first passage is the high-point of the article:

"While we at Bright Side of News always try to look at the bright side of things and have an optimistic view of the industry, there are times when we simply cannot help ourselves and must say something.

Case and point is Hewlett Packard [NYSE:HPQ] and their current announcement of their reduced earnings of 31%..."

The analysis compares HP's terrible employee/revenue ratio with other companies in the niche sumamrizing with:

"When you have that many employees, your workforce begins to become a liability rather than an asset and you begin to drain yourself purely as a result of maintaining such a large bureaucracy. If HP wants to really become nimble, they need to spin off divisions of the company or give some of them less importance in the future of the company's success."

Mother Blue is going through some significantly bad times - more than most.

Who else could one week announce the reduction of 28,000 employees and talk about being around 40 years from now the next?

IPG merging with PSG is like two fortune 500 companies merging - and we all know how well merges of that scale go, right?

Well, the next time you see an HP'r, wish her the best.
I know I will.

HP, Lexmark and Xerox - Their Words, In the Clouds

Everybody is going to the Clouds and in that spirit, I went out and created Word Clouds based on two conference call transcripts and one interview - from the horses' mouth, sort of speak.

Word, or Tag Clouds generate a picture based on the quantity each word is mentioned in a given field of text. All I did was C&P transcripts and the application did most of the work.

Entertaining and illuminating.

Enjoy.

Lexmark - Seeking Alpha, May, 2012 -

"...our performance in the MPS segment itself is very strong, but more importantly it’s the way we go to market. So over 70% of our hardware revenue is in that large workgroup category, which is really the Enterprise segment of the market and that percentage is growing and it’s being driven by our ability to deliver high-end services and solutions..."

- John W. Gamble.

Word cloud made with WordItOut

HP Conference Call, February, 2012 -

"...In Imaging and Printing, year-over-year revenues decreased 7% with declines in supplies and hardware in consumer and commercial. And operating margin declined to 12.2%...IPG has been the lifeblood of our company for a long time with great margins and very resilient revenues...But we also have to recognize that the business is being pressured on multiple fronts, and revenues from our adjacent businesses...are doing quite well, but not developing fast enough to replace the revenues we've been losing. We have work to do here and are aggressively exploring ways to build on IPG's leadership given the realities of today's marketplace..." 

- Meg Whitman

Word cloud made with WordItOut

Xerox Conference Call, April, 2012 - 

"...You've heard me say this before, but it bears repeating. Some companies talk about transformation; we're actually doing it. Our results this quarter and our expectations for the balance of this year reflect the shifts happening in our business..."

- Ursula Burns

Word cloud made with WordItOut

Click to email me. 

It Begins: H-P to Unload 25,000 employees...

I got a question for you. How many MBA's does it take to get 25,000 people laid-off?  Ignore that.

The rest of the world see's output waning, the largest company in the world builds devices without the ability to print and the smartest people in the room cancel a tablet after 49 days.  Quick, get that drawer statement out.

Right now, it's too easy to kick Mother Blue in the chops - it is good to remember that "25,000" isn't just a figure on a screen - it represents 25,000 fathers, mothers, sons and daughters - families.

Dare I say, believers.  So to mock the poor souls taking early retirement or collecting pink slips, is cruel.

I won't do that.

I will say this - its easy to snicker and sneer at the mighty as they fall - especially the arrogant.  But we do not live in a vacuum and we are no longer islands.

I wrote a quip back in September referring to whenever HP sneezes, the rest of us get Zombie Flu.

I fear the trickle-down ramifications of a larger print OEM contracting Zombie Flu. What the hell is going to happen to all the 'little-people'?

Huh.  No worries, we're ready.

From around the interweb, first reports of this latest disturbance in the Force.

From Houston Business Journal, May 17:

The source told Business Insider that HP wants to downsize its workforce — which totals 320,000 worldwide — by 10 percent to 15 percent, though Business Insider doesn’t expect the company to eliminate that many jobs all at once. Also, manufacturing employees are not expected to be hit as hard as others, Business Insider said.

From Business Insider, May 16:

Layoffs are going to be significant. 


At least, they'll be bigger than what Whitman has said so far. She's said that layoffs would NOT be "broad-based" at least in China (whatever that means), but she didn't say anything about the rest of the worldwide workforce.


Our source said HP wants to trim its workforce by 10%-15%. Given that HP has 320,000 employees, a 10% reduction would be 32,000 workers gone. However, that would include an early retirement program. 


We'd guess that this would include attrition, too, where new hires don't come in when employees leave. That number sounds high and we don't expect HP to promise it next week, because HP will also want to shift some jobs offshore. So, HP's total workforce numbers won't reflect all of the cuts.

Barron's, May 17 -

Business Insider’s Julie Bort this morning is back on the corporate layoff beat, writing that one unnamed source at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) tells her that there will be “massive” job cuts at the company, perhaps as much as 10% to 15%, or 32,000 to 48,000 workers.


ISI Group’s Brian Marshall this morning writes that a so-called Reduction in Force would “improve confidence in HPQ’s guidance for ‘at least $4.00 in EPS in fiscal 2012′ and enable investments in strategic, higher-growth areas.’” Marshall has a Buy rating on HP shares.

ZDNet, May 17 -

HP’s operating profit per employee trails rivals, according to a Morgan Stanley analysis.


For instance, IBM’s operating profit per employee is $49,000. Apple’s is the same. EMC makes $67,000 in operating profit per employee.


HP’s tally: $35,000.


The only way for HP to change that metric—assuming the company can’t suddenly boost growth—is to lay off workers.

And of course there is this:

Number of people seeking jobless benefits unchanged last week


The number of people seeking unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, suggesting steady gains in the job market.


The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly unemployment aid applications stayed at a seasonally adjusted 370,000, the same level as the previous week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell for the second straight week, to 375,000....

Here.

Why We Can't Let #Xerox Go

2012

If you've been in the industry for over a year, you know how much the ecosystem changes.  You also know that rumors of business deals churn faster than your 36 month ex-dates.

Especially when it comes to which OEM is buying who, what dealership is consolidating and who is getting sued by Canon/HP.

We have a small but rather colorful niche which is likely to get a bit smaller.

Not 'doom and gloom', it just is.

I keep my eyes out for new and interesting tidbits of information, getting a feel for trends - nothing statistically supported, no study groups or polling numbers.  I pay attention to how often a company or person pops up on my 'radar'.

Over the last 60 days its been Xerox - more specifically, Ursula Burns.

Videos and quotes have been flowing into my view so often and I decided to listen in on the Xerox earnings call.  Very interesting.


These calls pretty much go without incident - one typically needs to listen deeply, digging out encoded tidbits of insight.  It is quite typical not to hear any mention of competitors and report the landscape in extreme generalities.

That's why one statement made me do a double take:

Ursula Burns, Xerox Corporation, Chairman and CEO, responding to a question posed by Bill Shope - Goldman Sachs, Analyst on the competitive landscape, 2012, Q1 earnings call:

"...Yes, I think that I would speak about two companies outside of the other group. 


So the other group is Canon, Ricoh, KM. You know, the normal technology people, technology hardware providers, and they are still infants in document outsourcing.


They are really not large players. They are trying to get together solutions and offer them, but we really don't compete actively against them..."


WOW - bit of the old smack-down, eh?

Now listen, I have never worked for Xerox, seems they are the only OEM I don't have intimate experiences with, and it is true that I write for the Business Transformation Center  which is Xerox sponsored, but up until 12 months ago, I considered Xerox a competitor.

Twenty-four months ago, I evaluated PagePack. Ten months ago, I was looking at PagePack 3.0. and just 8 months back I evaluated the ColorCube. Xerox hardware and program are impressive, any way you shape it.

Over the past 60 days I have come to know the story of Ursula Burns - out of the projects and up through the ranks.  I like that.

At Less than 9 bucks, XRX is a steal.

Merger talk and take-over rumors are part and parcel of the imaging industry - from Ikon to Danka, Ricoh to Global, everyone on the outside recognizes the incestuousness atmosphere while we inside shrug our shoulders and say, "what?"

The swirling chatter today is that the X is prime for a take-over and Dell or HP are would-be suitors.

Personally, I don't think HP is a strategic position to take on anyone.  And I don't think they are all that gun-ho on continuing down the toner-based path.

So what about Dell?

With Xerox deriving over 50% of its revenue from services, Dell might fare well acquiring all those inroads to global IT entities; spin-off the Global arm, converting it into cash.  Again, I doubt Dell wants to get into the copier/printer world, wax-based or otherwise.

I know what you're thinking - who else would take Xerox?  Look west...far west...Seoul.

Samsung may want a channel where they have none now.  Samsung might like the idea of instant invite into the best of the Fortune 500.

Nawwwww...it'll never happen...still...

Detroit hasn't been the Automobile capital of the World for decades.  GM is owned by Canada and Chrysler has been sold off to an Italian automaker.  Boeing has to compete on the world stage no longer holding dominance.  And HP is in the middle of sending her once cash-cow, out to pasture.

What happened to all the American companies?

Well, in the End, money is money - generated by clicks, seats or acquisitions - it makes the world go 'round.

Does Making a Man a Knight...Make Him a Better Provider? Yes.

This post was first started April, 2011 -----

The battle for MpS.

As the 3rd Annual MPS Conference fades in the rear-view,  its deja vu all over.

Today, questions around MpS border on the mundane; reflecting, once again, the commoditization of me and of you:

Cold Calls, Dialing for MpS - old school scripts
MpS is Dead - Toner and Service only
MpS is Dying - MIF is shrinking
MpS needs 'farmers' and 'hunters' - labels and boxes
MpS Reps are simply coin operated - sure, that's all we care about, isn't it
The OEMs are not working with the channel - working 'on' is not working 'with'
The OEMs are losing control - do we sell machines or services or supplies
"I have MpS on my HP's.  The copiers are all on a service agreement.  We're fine..."  - quote from an IT guy

So, here we are again...after DOTC defined it...we're stuck asking, "What is MpS?"

"What is Managed print Services?"

What's old is new.  We've all been here before. Timeless.  From Jerusalem to BattleStar Galactica to The Matrix - the footprints we follow are our own...

Greg's Top 12 of 2012 - The End of the World as We Know It...Well, not Really...

For you, dear reader, my personal top 12 for 2012.

A list of what I see happening in the coming year, for us, our industry, and our world.

In a moment of pure randomness, a stream of consciousness, my off-the-cuff opinion - feel free to disagree:

12. Content

Content is everything. And it grows.  Not simply printed content, Tweets, cable/digital TV, cellphone calls, dead-emails, texts, sexts, DropBox, utility bills - bumper stickers, ATM transactions: Everything.

And there is the DarkContent/DarkMatter - the "metadata" - the stuff we can't forget because we've never seen it. For example, if you are running FourSquare, your every step is recorded, not just the cute 'check-ins'.  Your movement is recorded and filed off into the great Rift that is DarkConent.  Same with your NetFlix orders and cable TV viewing patterns, your Visa spends, and the digital footprint that follows your every search, view, post, comment, and click.

All there, all Dark and unseen.  Collective.

The Age of Content is engaged, 2012 will reveal more.

11. Social Everything

Everybody is touching everyone, everywhere - Twitter is going to kill news collectors and email; and not a printer in sight.  DropBox/BoxNet makes sharing large, exchange-choking files a snap.  Tablets will be faster, . PDFs will download instantly(almost) and the screen will be the new 'paper'.

10. Less Copiers

That's right, less 11x17, less off the glass copying.  'Nuff said...

The Top Six Managed Print Services Organizations of 2012

Photizo, Supplies Network, Xerox, Great America, MWAi,  & Lyra 

Photizo - They get it right and have been there from the beginning.

Before Gartner ever considered an MPS Quadrant, Photizo was there.

Back then Gartner didn't give a lick.

IDC, didn't know MPS.

Back then, half of our "esteemed" instructors carpet bagged on dealer fear.

When the consultants of the day were espousing the similarity of  MpS to color and poo-pooing MpS as "just another marketing scheme..." Photizo tagged the name "Hybrid Dealer" - of course, they copied the phrase.

That's what Copiers Do.

While others were 'find and replacing' the word 'copier' for 'MPS', Photizo published the Three Adoption Stages of MpS.

And just as others enveloped those three into their MPS talk-track, Photizo added even more stages, resulting in the above chart.

They've gotten it.  They've been on it from day one.

Now some in our ecosystem confuse me with them, promoting me as a Photizo employee or worse, their hatchet-man.  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem being a GunSlinger, but I choose both my allies and my targets - nobody tells me where the Red Dot lands.

Truly, if back in the day anybody else was saying what Photizo was saying, I would acknowledge them as well.  

"...Sooner or later, One has to take sides, if one is to remain human..."

So we make our choices and we stick with the plan.  I chose Photizo because they've been right there on the same page as I, seeing the same things I have in the field from Genesis.  And sometimes, they make people uncomfortable - awe, poor baby...

One Has to Take Sides
The Quiet American — MOVIECLIPS.com

What Should we Do with all These VARs?

johnathan, Johnathan...JOHNATHAN...JOHNATHAN...JOHNATHAN !

Next chance you get, check out the last 10 seconds of the ending scene in 300.

Why would a proven model some 3 decades old, not hold up to supporting MpS?

Because no matter how many nifty tools or vendor partners come calling, no matter how 'easy' an MpS program looks from the outside, Managed Print Services is not a bolt-on proposition.

Sound familiar?  Remember the 50% to the MpSr's who failed?

Top Morning Indicators Your Day is Really Going to Suck...

We've all been there, experiencing those morning events that just scream to you, "this day is going to suck."

Tie-Dipping in coffee, every shirt is wrinkled, car won't start...

How about these:

You wake up and it's Monday.

You wake up to realize you've stolen anything from Mike Tyson.

You wake up late for the Monday Morning Sales Group-Hug back in the crumbling world that is your company.

You wake up, walk to the bathroom, and Patrick Duffy is stepping out of the shower - it was all a dream. And you might be...well,  "...skip to my Lou, happy...".

You wake up, swear by all the gods of fast food hell, you will never go to Wendy's again. Lift the lid, there are ladies about, feel a stronger than usual back pain, look down and see blood.

- this is what happened to me, today, this morning...

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot!

For the New Mobile Force - Hardened, Underwater, and Shaken, not stirred...

Huh. From touchy-feelie-Pad to ToughPad. Better than 'maxi', that's for sure.

Columbia Prof Calls Out HP : “It's like selling a car without selling the keys to lock it,”

“It may ultimately lead to telling everyone they just have to throw their printers out and start over,” he said. "Fixing this is going to require a very coordinated effort by the industry," Stolfo said.

It's Deja Vu, all over again.

First it was security breaches related to our hard drives.  Then it was the toner particles - as dangerous as toast.  Next toner bombs.

Today, a group of Colombia students and one very smart professor are ringing the warning bell.  This time, 50 million devices fall under the scrutiny of The Columbia University Intrusion Detection Systems Lab.

At first, I laughed. ALL HP printers are shipped "wide open" - I've seen it myself when in training, we intercepted print streams, changed the amount and the pay-to-the-order-of name and printed a check.

It's not that difficult, does not exclusively apply to HP and has been a known phenomena for decades.

And then there was the toner particle scare - great headlines, but in reality, toner dust is about as harmful as toast particles...snore...

And who will ever forget the plastic-explosive-in-the-HP-toner-cartridge trick, Al Kinda, pulled - genius.

Mobility Print is Dogma. DOTC calling it. No. No way. Nope.

11/2011

The final gasps of a dying niche - print/clicks/marks on paper.

Mobility Print, means I can print from my Droid or TouchPad from almost anywhere.  But, for me, the numbers are not all that impressive:

Print a hard copy in a hotel? Sure, 12 pages a year.

Print my airline tickets? Sure 52 pages a year.

My mother printing my aunt's recipe for stuffed turkey? Sure, 11 pages a year.

Print a map? Okay, another 13 clicks.

That's 87 pages. In a year. At 12 cents/image, we're talking about a buck a year.

Print People Magazine at home? Nope.

Download a .PDF from Scientific American, for 99 cents? Possibly.

Applying this to the B2B world, when Alaska Air issued each pilot an iPad, they replaced every, single flight manual for every jet in their fleet.

Mobile print philosophy would argue that if the iPad had the capability of printing, each pilot would go home and print a manual the night before a flight.  Wha, wha, whaaaaaaaaat?

Guess who is most interested in mobile print? Go ahead, guess.

Transform 2012 Global Conference - in the city that begins with an "O" and ends with an "O"..

Transform 2012 Global Conference Focuses on Transformation to the Business Services Model


HP joins as first Platinum Sponsor

November 14, 2011 -- Midway, KY -- Photizo Group will lead the print services market in a new direction at the Transform 2012 Global Conference in Orlando, Florida on May 24-25, 2012. Transform 2012 is the next evolution of the popular Global Managed Print Services (MPS) Conference that will focus on the necessary services transformation facing the MPS channel.

“The Transform 2012 Global Conference is managed by the experienced MPS Conferences team and we’ve introduced a new theme into the agenda in response to the shift we’re seeing, across all levels of the technology marketplace,” said Edward Crowley, Photizo Group founder and CEO. “The upcoming Transform Conferences will focus on helping dealers, resellers and other channels transform from hardware-centric business models to services-based approaches.”

HP recognizes the opportunity in service transformation

HP is the first Platinum Sponsor of the Transform 2012 Global Conference. “As our first Platinum Sponsor, HP has shown a strategic understanding about where the MPS channel is heading. We are honored to have their commitment to bringing this important content and education to the MPS dealer and reseller community,” said Crowley.

“The managed services market is evolving and we are excited about the opportunity to have more in depth partnership with our customers. We intend to bring to market new solutions that take advantage of key trends, leverage our channel partners and create world class capabilities,” 

said Mike Weir, vice president, Strategy and Marketing, LaserJet Enterprise Solutions, Imaging and Printing Group, HP “This is an exciting time for HP to be engaged in leading forums like the Transform 2012 Global Conference.”

Content Centered on Business Transformation

The conference program has four tracks, with additional pre-conference workshops on May 23. The main agenda covers the four key areas that are impacting channels today:

• Transforming the Customer's Environment (beginner discussions)
• Transforming Business Processes (advanced discussions)
• Transforming Your Organization (management discussions)
• Beyond Print: Transforming the Market with Technology (market trends, technology, vendor presentations)

Photizo invites applications for speaking opportunities at the Transform 2012 Conference. More information is available at http://www.photizogroup.com/conference/be-a-speaker/.
In addition to the educational events, a Golf Scramble at the Waldorf Astoria Golf Club is planned for attendees on May 22. More information about the Transform 2012 Global Conference agenda and activities can be found at http://www.photizogroup.com/global2012/.

# # #

Misty H. Gonzalez
Director of Media & Publishing
+1 859 846 9830 ext 109

Things I Learned at the Asia Pacific, Managed Print Services Conference in Sydney: There Is an Unifying Theory

11/2011

What a week. First, I drove from LAX to Charlotte, NC.

After a two day rest, off to Sydney.

My flight went up to Detroit, hometown, back out to LAX, nicest night time approach view around, then out to Sydney - 14 hours away.

On a plane Friday and landing Sunday morning without knowing what time it was, let alone what day ...where in the hell did Saturday go?

That night, I hit the sheets at 6:00PM, local and slept until 6:00AM, local.

Again, what the hell?

Monday morning, sipping coffee from a way too small cup, on a saucer no less, I found myself standing in a sea of grey pinstripes - this sure wasn't LA, St. Louis, Seattle, New York, Orlando or Vegas.  This was Sydney. 14 hours, two hemispheres and one international date-line away.

Oh what fun was to be had, Down Under...

As with all conferences, the first presentation covers the basics: thanks for coming, the rest rooms are over there, we hope you get one good thing out of the next few days and here is our first keynote speaker.

It was a tough crowd for Dom as he took us along the innovation path explaining how the successes of our past can hold us back, chaining us to the old ways.

I got the jokes. But the audience was a bit cold, reserved, dubious.

This changed as one table shot out many different responses to one of his questions. That's when I knew this was going to a very good conference.



First Golden Nugget? - MpS is Universally Spoken

That's right. There is little difference between how MpS is defined down under versus here in the States or North America.

All the challenges we have experienced here, they have down there. Commission structure, toner delivery, cartridge based or CPI invoicing, DCA installations, OEM relationships, "what is MpS" questions...all of it.

Interestingly enough, the S1/S2 successes run parallel to the US and the more advanced firms are expanding into Managed Services.  But they aren't looking to "rip and replace" servers - jus sayin...

I may have expected the A/P MpS'rs would be slightly behind the U.S. on the adoption curve, but they aren't.

There is a unique set of issues, the old copier models still hang on, but the attitude, the 'can do' attitude is prevalent - palpable.  And that was refreshing.  Bold.

The best kind of Zag.

Second Nugget - MpS is open and clear

Wide open.  The players in A/P are hitting everything in sight.  From government to commercial to Education - not unusual, right?  What I got out of their exuberance was a wide eyed wonder not only geared at seeing the huge pool of prospects, but also in the wide array of MpS subjects they would talk about.  Not just toner but networks, documents, storage, workflow and business process. All this under MpS!  No really, it's true.

From the inside out, making it up as they go, not worrying about benchmarks(too much) or best practices(not too much) or their ego.

I did not hear one complaint about OEM toner pricing being too high, or any whining about how OEM so and so is encroaching into SMB.

Hard work gets results, complaining doesn't.

I have attended each North American MPS Conferences so meeting people with different definitions of MpS, infrastructure, pricing and OEM partnerships is common - from Cali to NYC, we are diverse.

There are sectors of the MpS Ecosystem inhabited by those consider themselves above the rest, better, erudite in manner - born into their position.

We all know them; the stuck up consultant, the know-it-all copier dealer, the old-skool, old-man, collector and seller of souls - destroyers of innovation.

None of that here.

Clear.  They can see a carpetbagger coming a continent away.

Another cool Zig.

Third Nugget - Even the OEMs are Runin' and Gunnin', in the Wild, Wild West...

There was a time, not long ago, when I would compare the MpS Ecosystem to the "Wild, Wild, West of Imaging" - no rules, no sheriffs, and lots of Gold. We were ALL making it up as we went.

Those days seem to be gone as the OEMs clearly define MpS as Stage One and Two, leveraged to land more equipment.

They are bringing out all sorts of heartless paraphernalia: Toner portals, shrink wrapped MpS, nameless service networks,  automatic proposal generators, MpS "Agent Fee's".

Controlled. Stifled. Boring.

But not in A/P.  I was fortunate enough to share time with Fuji/Xerox, HP, and Canon MDS folks. Each for about an hour.  What struck me was the absolute willingness to get things done by working the market not their system.  Sure, they want to land more gear, but the MpS ideas and philosophy are truly geared around a vision that works up to Stage 3/4 - they don't stop at toner and service.

There are all building teams from scratch, they are all putting together deals and infrastructure programs from scratch.

And they are flexible.  That's right, I just referred to 3 of the big OEM's as "flexible" and I could easily say, "out of the box".  Smack me in the forehead and call me dumbfounded.

What a Zag this is.

Don't...friggin...ask...

The Big Take Away - Remember to Let Go

Again, we talked about how the successes of the past can hold us back.  I mentioned how now is the time to really look at the world sideways, to be open to new partnerships.  New business models, new employment paradigms and different personal archetype for success.

I pontificated on how now is the time when power is shifting away from the big, centrally controlled entities and down to us, the folks in the trenches.

How this point in history is that unique time when technology truly allows us to control our own destinies - that is if we recognize how the "good ole days" can shackle us to the past.

To move forward, we need to let go the past.  Before we let go, we must first remember.

And that's what Australia did for me.  The people, the vibe, the way, reminded me of our past. Our MpS past.

If you can remember, now is the time to let it go, let go of our MpS past, step over the Edge and into a  future with less toner.



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Managed Print Services: The 2011 Rising Stars, Constellation 2

Last autumn, we published the very first DOTC MpS Rising Stars: Constellation 1.

A collection of interesting MpS players who brought something good to the Ecosystem.

I chose individuals or companies who in my opinion, contributed to the MpS cause in a positive manner. For instance, last year, Constellation 1 included MT Business Technologies, Ken Stewart, Robert Newry, and Photizo.

So how did these stars fare over the past 12 months?

Ken Stewart, as Senior Consultant with Photizo, is helping build audacious projects global in scope and transformative in results.

Robert Newry/Newfield IT - Being purchased by Xerox sure has its financial benefits. The doubters and old -skool sayers of nay, express how X will stifle the free expression of ideas. Yet, Robert continues to promote the art of assessments for 8everyone, for all in the MpS ecosystem.

Photizo's - Ed and the Gang's reputation continues to grow, around the globe, as THE MpS consultancy. They are moving from a consultancy to a transformation company.

MT Business Technologies - Still plugging along, slugging it out in the trenches and barnyards of MpS/SmB in the state that starts with an "O" and ends with an "O".

Who will make it this year, and where will the be 12 months from now?

Intriguing.

I introduce to you, Constellation 2 - The Rising MpS Stars of 2011.

Coming soon! Xerox Color Qube: The DOTC Review

For the last 30 days, I have kept output from a Xerox ColorCube, both 8.5x11 and 11x17, on the dash of the LandRover.

It sat in the Ontario(California, not Canada) extended stay parking lot, for a week.

The interior temps exceeded 100 degrees.

Happy to report, no runs, no drips, no errors.  As a matter of fact, the cracking along the fold closely resembles what happens when color toner is folded.

I anticipate installing an evaluation unit into one of my most important and discerning clients, within the next 30 days.

I know, I know, MpS has nothing to do with hardware - I got that.

Still, the entire story is delicious - I could write a book titled, "The Evolution of Edgeline: From ink, to Oblivion, to Wax..."

Hey...that's not a bad idea...