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

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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