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.