The 10 Biggest HP Stories Of 2008

Wow - it's an HP love-fest-o-rama...

Over at ChannelWeb, a 10 slide presentation about the Top Ten HP stories of 2008 - nothing about printing, but lots of other stuff.

It was a good year for HP, a very good year if compared to the rest of the industry.

Check it.

Print Management - Insight from Everything Channel's 2008 Print & Imaging Summit last week in Bonita Springs, Fla.

Print Management Did Make a Splash in '08 - What about 2009?

See this article:

What Big-Spend End Users Want From Print & Imaging

By Chad Berndtson, ChannelWeb
1:53 PM EST Tue. Dec. 09, 2008

The article is more specific, but here are some highlights -

Budgets low, economy bad -

"It's really important to our organizations to reduce the overall print spend," said Colleen Grant, manager of field support services at Interior Health Authority, Kelowna, B.C. "It's really difficult to manage that in any effective manner, and in 2009 we'll be analyzing what we should print and what we are printing."

Print units are still being purchased, but:

"We're down to looking at every single contract: here's how much we're paying you and how much less we can pay," said Anna Garrett, senior manager at Deloitte Services, of Wilton, Conn. "Our print and image fleet is probably about 4,500 printers or MFPs and about 700 copiers. We're looking to put more things together and reduce the number of devices. We've also done a horrible job of tracking what we print. In terms of spending, our copiers are always leased and our printers are always bought."

Success story:

"We've had all these functions centralized since 2001: all print, all mail, all our IT functions are under one organization, and we've seen some real benefits from that," said Lawrence McNish, director of document processing resources at American Family Mutual Insurance, of Madison, Wis.

"We're headed for our second generation of MFPs and we partner quite heavily with our finance area and do a lot of tracking of end usage. We used to have 2,400 printers and 460 copiers and we have maybe 800 and about 225 now. We're seeing reductions because we're rightsizing -- it's not just for our budget."

"Our copier and printer fleet from Xerox (NYSE:XRX) are all up for renewal this year," said Cynthia Meyer, senior buyer, IT, at Alliant Energy, a public utility holding company also headquartered in Madison.

"We have less budget to spend like everyone else, but I don't like leases because of what happens at the end of a lease. I don't like the lack of flexibility. I'd like to put something in place that allows me to rent. Plus, even beyond putting ink on paper, you have plenty of issues with document management."

Still measuring:

"We're trying to get our arms around that, and trying to figure out our strategic direction," said Kieran O'Reilly, lead business systems analyst at UPS, Mahwah, N.J.

"We're not looking to spend a lot of money -- basically to keep the lights on," added Greg Matkovich, strategic sourcing manager at The Home Depot, Atlanta. "We don't even know what we have, to be honest. Corporate [offices are] the Wild West, and we're looking to do a lot more self-assessment."

Direct, Vendor, or VARs?

"On our printer side, we had HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Lexmark both, and they're bought through resellers," said Greg Cunningham, manager of service strategies and optimization at IBM (NYSE: IBM) Canada, of Victoria, B.C. "It's my observation, though, that HP and Lexmark support the reseller and not necessarily the client. I don't see [client support] happening."

A great deal of good information was shared at the summit - and it looks like Managed Print Services was discussed in detail, and is in place or top of mind for some of the "big" companies.

Click to email me.

HP Placed in Leaders Quadrant in “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers” Report- ***UPDATE***

According to Mike Feldman Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Sales and Services IPG-Americas

Over at the HP’s Enterprise Printing Blog, you can read that HP is proud to find the Edgeline in Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant.


*****Press Release *****

HP Placed in “Leaders” Quadrant for Multifunction Products and Printers in Magic Quadrant Report

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 12, 2008

HP today announced industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc. has positioned it in the Leaders Quadrant of its “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers” report.(1)

The Gartner Magic Quadrant positions vendors based on their “ability to execute” and their “completeness of vision.”

According to the analyst firm, vendors are assessed on weighted criteria, including products or services, sales execution and pricing, market responsiveness and track record, marketing execution, customer experience, offering strategy, business model, and geographic strategy.

“In my opinion, HP’s placement in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in the leaders quadrant is a testament to our strong customer relationships and our ongoing commitment to deliver the most robust MFP solutions to customers all over the world,” said David Murphy, senior vice president, LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “We will continue to set the industry standard by extending our MFP portfolio and complementing it with innovative software solutions that together deliver unequaled efficiency and performance for our customers.”

According to the report, “Leaders are the most capable in providing MFPs, printers and the associated printing solutions and services that support the proper functioning of these devices in the broadest category of customer sites. Leaders have broad channel capability to deliver the products to customers where they want to procure them. Leaders consistently hold strong market share positions in both printers and MFPs worldwide and are capable of delivering nearly identical service levels in more of the regions where Gartner customers are located. Leaders tend to have the deepest global capability and the inventiveness and resources, skills and vision to deliver superior levels of support to existing and future customers globally. Leaders have a proven track record of channeling R&D initiatives into products and solutions that customers need.”

HP’s complete portfolio of hardware, supplies, software and services offers both small to medium and enterprise customers a cost-effective, productivity-enhancing imaging and printing environment.

About HP

HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for MFPs and Printers,” by Don Dixon, Sharon McNee, Vishal Tripathi, SJ Chae, Sergio Santos, Dec. 9, 2008.

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors’ measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

© 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

The 10 most influential leaders in business technology in 2008

Last year he was "left off the list"...oh what a difference a year makes!

Jason Hiner, Editor in Chief over at TechRepublic, in his blog listed his Top 10 Leaders - it's an interesting read.

Number one with a "bullet" -

"1. Mark Hurd, Hewlett-Packard

Last year, I left Mark Hurd off the list and even remarked that Carly Fiorina deserved a lot of the credit for Hewlett-Packard’s resurgence because its roots are based in the HP-Compaq merger, which Fiorina had the guts to do. But, it becomes clearer every year that Hurd is making the right calls and motivating the various HP divisions to execute. HP is back on top in the PC market (having overtaken Dell), it is tied for the lead in servers with IBM, and it is even making strong moves in the networking market with its ProCurve gear. Plus, it bought EDS in 2008 to expand its footprint in IT services. All of the while, it has allowed its incumbent printer business to quietly take a back seat. That’s why HP is doing so well, even in the face of economic headwinds, and that’s why Hurd deserves the top spot on this list."

And I found this post over at MediaWireWeekly from February, 2007 - "...He barely makes appearances, not to make a statement, but because he is actually huddled with his management team working..."

Not bad, I doubt Hurd even cares which is cool too.

Last Year: Ricoh and IKON; Next Year HP and Canon? What the Heck?

"I've advocated some kind of [agreement] between Canon and HP, modeled off the Fuji-Xerox joint venture," suggested Don Dixon, research director at Gartner, "They have complementary product sets and complementary capabilities from a best practice sense. Canon needs distribution and the IT affiliation that HP brings to the marketplace. There's a good fit there. Whether Canon has the temerity for something like that is the question." - Image & Print Summit, 2008.

- Woah, Nelly!



While researching for my "Best Darn End of Year Article", I ran into the 10 Burning Questions In Print And Imaging over at the ChannelWeb site.

These questions reflect the hot topics at the Print and Imaging Summit from last week.

All ten questions and the associated answers are ripe with direct information and heavily sprinkled with inferred strategic directions. I recommend you go there, read and digest.

We all wonder how the the current economic woes will effect us, personally. As for Imaging and Print, Gartner Managing Vice President Peter Grant said, "...there are three areas that are going to be the lighthouses guiding you to the land of print cost savings -- smart MFPs, managed print services and software.

I understand his belief about Managed Print Services and can see the software angle, but define for me what exactly a "smart" MFP could be or is.

***UPDATE*** 12.17.08

Definition of a Smart MFP, SMFP:

" A regular MFP can print, fax, copy and scan paper documents. An SMFP can also be programmed by a third party, the user or the technology provider to perform custom functions; easily integrates with office and enterprise applications; is management-friendly, with consistent architecture and user interface; works well on the network; and is based largely on open industry standards. SMFPs can perform usage tracking and other functions that help organizations actively manage their office printer/MFP fleets."
-Source, Gartner.

Who are the Heavy Hitters in MPS?-

Specifically who are the players in the MPS arena and which ones are best positioned. At the Summit, Gartner Research Vice President Ken Weilerstein referenced the latest "Magic Quadrant" results stating Xerox and HP are the Leaders. IKON, Ricoh, Pitney Bowes, Lexmark, Canon and Toshiba are each mentioned in the "Qaudrant" report.

Regarding an advantage the smaller, niche players may have over "big" players, "They [niche] may provide more personalized service and be more accommodating to your needs than large vendors," Weilerstein said.

"I heard from one client who tried one of the big vendors that it took her five calls to get to the right person. It can be unwieldy."

But to me, the big questions revolved around the IKON/Ricoh deal and Canon's response.

What's To Become of Canon?-

One of the biggest print and imaging stories of 2008 was Ricoh's acquisition of Ikon Office Solutions back in August for approximately $1.61 billion. And you also remember Ikon provided more than $1 billion of Canon's systems in North America.

And according to reports from both Canon and Gartner, Canon is focused on expanding its national accounts, widening sales channels, more acquisitions and authorizing new Canon dealers to compensate for Ikon losses.

"For the most part, the Canon box and the Ricoh box at certain levels are doing pretty much the same thing," said Don Dixon, research director at Gartner, "If you're an Ikon customer holding Canon hardware, well, you're in a great position to renegotiate your agreement. Canon is in a precarious position at the moment."

What Will Be The Next Big Merger & Acquisition Event In The Space?-

As you can imagine, one of the big subjects discussed officially and around various watering holes are the implications of Ricoh's acquisition of Ikon.

There will be more M&A in 2009 as barely surviving firms run for cover from the current global recession.

"We've advocated that there are too many players," suggested Dixon, "Some are staying in the marketplace but don't necessarily offer anything unique that customers are really asking for. They've just always been there."

"Canon has a lot of money but is not showing well in managed print services -- their channels are getting attacked by their competitors," said Gartner Managing Vice President Peter Grant. "Ricoh is on a tear, moving forward -- it'll be interesting to see what Canon does now that it's back on the ropes."

"I've advocated some kind of [agreement] between Canon and HP, modeled off the Fuji-Xerox joint venture," added Dixon, "They have complementary product sets and complementary capabilities from a best practice sense. Canon needs distribution and the IT affiliation that HP brings to the marketplace. There's a good fit there. Whether Canon has the temerity for something like that is the question."

Could the above quote be an indicator of the "shape of things to come"?

I am not sure, but those guys over at Gartner seem to have had a pretty good grip on things thus far, perhaps the crystal balls have been polished.

Minority Report - Who Needs Paper?

And I really wanted is on of those cool glass, "whiteboards" but now...I want this.




I "lifted" this off of the Xerox