The game is changing, but it always has been. The way businesses align purchasing is shifting, but it always has been. New marketing platforms are emerging but always have been. Sales are evolving but always have been.
There is talk of a selling rebellion, but there always has been.
There's chatter about the new selling, the new way businesses are buying, and how the sales professionals of today had better change their ways. We've got to multiply our efforts tenfold, continue to cold call and embrace social media.
Today, "Kings", "Cowboys" and "Warriors" populate our little niche and we've got professionals "saving the industry one copier at a time". Worthy, noble, and authentic efforts - I'm all for self-branding and rebellion. I question the focus of our current emotional revolt.
Words mean things -
Revolt: refuse to acknowledge someone or something as having authority
Revolution: a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favor of a new system
So yes, we as a profession, are in the mood for revolt and revolution. It's understood the selling representatives are the Rebels but who are we 'rebelling' against? Who are the bad guys?
Are we taking on the old-school mentality? Assaulting old techniques is one thing, but these are outdated tools, not the root of evil.
Maybe we're rebelling against our prospects and customers - not the brightest idea.
Conducting a revolution against other sales people is self-destructive and most likely a strategy our nemesis relies upon. From the outside, it must look like we're a bunch of self-loathing, never good enough yahoo's running around spewing "transformation, this" and "the new way of that...".
To summarize:
Revolting against prospects and clients is not the way.
We are not our greatest enemy, we will not self-destruct.
The "Evil Empire" is not the past.
Again, who is the enemy?
I know who. If you're a sales trainer, you're not going to like it. If you're a sales manager, you're not going to like it. If you're selling anything through a tiered channel, you are not going to like it. Heck, I don't even like it.
The target of our revolution are those who inflict quotas, false ideals and untrustworthy sales techniques: OEMs, Mega dealers, and vendors of the day are the enemy.
I have moved from certainty to doubt, from devotion to rebellion.
- Phil Donahue
I am the last one to call for unionization - unions kill - but an organized resistance is the only alternative. I'm talking about a guild of selling professionals - similar to the Screen Actor's Guild.
So who is in a position to organize contemporary selling professionals? I have no idea but a great start would be for sales people to think differently:
start selling for yourself
form your own brand
invest in yourself
CAUTION: Rebellions require blood. The cost of freedom is never free and all revolutions, have casualties. Who, in this cause, will give all? Who will create change through sacrifice?
Will any of the new sales trainers step up to form The Guild or continue taking money from the establishment?
Will mega-dealers change the way reps are paid or continue to support an archaic standard?
Will OEMs get rid of their tiered approach?
And who in their right mind would join such a movement, let alone LEAD against these most formidable foes?
I don't have the answer to that question. I can say finding a leader within the Empire(OEM,Trainers, MegaDealers) is at best dubious. Perhaps an older, wiser Rebel will make their way center stage.
Caution: As a metaphor, in the movie Rogue One, can you recall how many of the small rebel team survived?
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses. - Plato
Leaders are able to discern what's sustainable and valuable from the past and what's not. It is the will of leaders to align, focus, and build cadence while releasing expectations, and tendencies to copy, compare and compete with others. Those behaviors are survival, reptilian and short-term ways of the past; weak and unsustainable in an increasingly innovative world.
True story. There is a guy in the industry that serves as a leader by copying others. He copies ideas, conversations, presentations, websites, and even locations for training with hopes of being more than he is. We'd like to thank him for being so ostentatious in his copying. He's helped us in some sort of backward way.
Have you ever seen a copy come out better than the original? No.
It's time for the death of copiers all around. Not just the machines, but how we behave, lead, act, and do. We're tasting a bit of our own medicine, and becoming uncomfortable. It's time to kill and experience the death of the...mundane. No more webinars, training classes, programs, conferences, and shows pushed out to the masses. We'll work one to one or one to a few. Intimate. Creative. Productive.
Here's the rub -
If you are a company that hosts trade shows, your revenue streams may include charging attendees and presenters - all fine and dandy. But how transparent, let alone honest, are you if you sell tickets to an 'educational' session, that ends up being nothing more than a paid 90-minute commercial?
"That's the way it's always been done..." is not your core value, is it?
If you're a research company, one would think you would make a living conducting research and presenting findings. Then why host trade shows and train salespeople? Aren't you selling content and hosting symposiums?
Associations should derive revenue in an effort to support the improvement of their members, not chase big OEM "sponsorship".
If you're an industry publication, should you pay for content, charge for the opportunity to submit content, or take all the content you can, for free, and charge for advertising?
There's nothing unusual about any of these models, but they've become mundane; tedious, and fatiguing.
Think deeply - trades shows, white papers, copier training, MpS Seminars, and buzz are examples of us talking to ourselves.
Focus.
I've been working with end-users, and IT departments in various industries, helping them reign in costs, evaluate vendors and enhance the productivity of their IT services.
This gives us a great view of ourselves through the eyes of your customers. We've reviewed proposals from large MpS/MDS providers as well as some of the best-known IT/VARs.
We're not only listening to the presentations, but we're also hearing the "backstory". And they're not pretty. It's embarrassing.
Our industry is in a "turnaround" period, reversing, backpedaling, and on a downward turn - if anyone tells you differently, they're lying not only to you but to themselves as well.
People made this niche great.
You do know teaching people how to increase a 'share of wallet' is not sustainable, right?
Copiers, printers, Blades, paper, toner, MPS, PM, managed services, paperclips - if you sell, keep selling, sell today, sell in a recession, sell in a depression, sell even though the gov't takes half, never stop.
You sell. You don't run from history.
You make it.
It's tough out here - but here we are.
Thing is, it can always be worse -
Superbowl, 2002. Just months after 911.
The nation was in mourning - we needed something to get ourselves back up. Soldiers were cool again.
Do you remember the Empty Sky's of 9-12? That was scary.
Superbowl, for us, represented something more than a football game - it meant we were still here, the US, we Americans were still standing.
Still here to do what we Americans do: watch football, buy music, dance in the frickin streets, flaunt those who hate us, those who would kill us, and to sell.
We were celebrating life while remembering those who went before us.
It took a few crazy Muslims to tear down the towers.
But a rock band from Ireland, it's lead crooner sporting goofy blue shades, helped us remember who we are and helped us tell the world, we weren't going anywhere.
Let the cube rats play in the dark. Let the sales managers who have forgotten their passion and left their soul somewhere in the corporate cafeteria, try to keep score.
Keep going, no matter who, no matter what gets in your way - don't let them win.
Not the congressmen we elect, not the fat, lazy, bureaucrats, not your covetous neighbors, not the terrorists or that overly pompous PA can keep you down. You know the score.
It can all end tomorrow, for them it will be a period at the end of an empty life.
For us, we who make things out of nothing, we will be complete.
Looks like TikTok's got 99 problems, but a glitch ain't one
Dancing to a beat,
TikTok takes us on a ride,
Brief moments of joy.
This is arguably the most transparent power move of the decade.
Ironically, many Americans rely on TikTok with direct ties to a communist government for their news. This says more about how much WE DON'T TRUST our own media than the cleverness of the Chinese government. This speaks volumes about the lack of trust in our own media, rather than the ingenuity of the Chinese government.
First, the US congress is full of "Olds" who can barely use email, let alone spell "A I" - there is no way they understand the social impact or technical workings of the "interwebs". And that crusty old-geezer yells at everyone, even the mailman, I mean mailperson, to "Get off my lawn!" just before tumbling off the porch - he doesn't know sh8t about technology.
Second, ban it and they will come. Let me ask a technical question, "is there a way to ban the use of a software internet app?" The day TikTok gets 'banned' is the day the number of users doubles.
Third, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and any other social network aren't coming to defend TikTok's right to exist - no other app comes close to the number of users and popularity. They are losing to TikTok - so why not call in Uncle Sam? If you can't beat em, legislate them out of existence, it's the American way.
The best way to kill TikTok is to mandate everyone born before 1960 download and start using TikTok. Instantly the app is uncool.
I've prompted into existence the following tale. ChPt3.5, inspired by, the WSJ.
Enjoy.
Summary:
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew argues that selling the app to an American owner won't address national security concerns.
This Unprovoked Attack on Me, is an Attack on You.
From my friends at CRN - Computer Reseller News, no less.
I have no idea how I even popped up on their radar, but apparently, I ruffled some back room feathers. I am an easy target, my name is all over my blog, unlike the fictitious "Paige Coverage"; an obvious Xerox marketing creation, and yes, I actually have real pictures of me.
Thank goodness I didn't post pics of my children, for they would have been thrown under the bus with me.
What befuddles me, beyond comprehension, is what nerve have I struck?
Perhaps the Xerox folks I have been working with for the last year, evaluating PagePack and ColorCube as possible offerings here at SIGMAnet, will be able to answer that question.
Perhaps the members from TeamXerox, who I met with last week during a Synnex event, can help me understand why I would consider moving forward, or even recommend anything from Xerox to my executives, prospects, clients, members of the MPSA, or the thousands of DOTC readers.
Read and tread lightly for this isn't just an attack on me. No, this goes deeper. Much.
What Paige/Xerox has done is shown its colors - they don't like, they don't want, dissension.
THEY FEAR CHANGE, THEY FEAR YOU, THEY FEAR US.
Paige is a creation, like the Monkeys and a shill for Xerox. Paige represents the will and vision of the Big X. For all we know, Paige Coverage is Ursala Burns. In the end, Paige is Ursala.
The Summer of 2011 DOTC vs. X - un-fuking believable. Oh the fun we are going to have...
And yes, I know this is all a sham to get more hits on their small, pathetic site - God, I love this country.
Read on...
Greg Walters Leaves a Trail of His Own Ignorance
Posted by Paige Coverage on Jun 21, 2011 11:27:02 AM
When he's not parading past you his music library or posting You Tube videos on his site, Greg Walters hacks out a confounding and scattershot blog called "The Death of The Copier is the Death of MPS."
Presently he's mourning the sad and premature death of E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, but he'll soon be back to getting his facts wrong, and contradicting himself with his bizarre attempts to frighten you out of a business he himself claims to be successful in: Managed Print Services (MPS).
Like spotting someone you've placed a restraining order on, I was reminded of Greg when a colleague forwarded me this rusting blog of his from December.
In it, Walters rekindles his addiction to managed print defamation by claiming that:
“Just as everyone figures out how to spell MPS, industry pundits kill it. Photizo called heavy growth rates in MPS Engagements through 2015 - of course this was back in the "olden days" - 2009! Last year at Lyra, consultants and statisticians explained that we will never return to the same levels of units (copier) sold, pre-2009.”
Same level of copier units sold? This is not an argument for the death of managed print services.
And Walters – who describes himself as “an MPS Practice Manager at medium-sized west coast VAR/MSP (whose) GP is consistently at 48% - fleet is doubling year to year, my goal is to quadruple in 2011” – should know this.
Managed print services is not about pushing boxes, anymore than managed IT services are about selling more PCs, or virtualization is about selling more servers, or cloud computing is about selling more storage hardware. A managed service is about optimizing existing resources. Sure it’s nice to sell some hardware, and everyone does. But service dollars outdistance hardware and software sales by a country mile, and have so increasingly for years.
Walters’ blog post goes on to feature quotes from those either too unsure of themselves to enter the managed print market, or are under the misconception that “it will make us millions on printer revenue.”
Walters’ opinions are just plain nonsense sprinkled with rock music lyrics, and no reputable technology reseller of any kind would allow this child to speak in front of their employees or customers.
It’s a shame that just as everyone figures out that certain blogs and social media sites can be of benefit to helping the channel drive more revenue through services, irresponsible self-promoters like Greg Walters come along to contaminate the well.
At least - by his own admission - no one is foolish enough to pay Greg Walters to write.
"One of the iPad's biggest competitors has been paper," said Nick Bilton, a tech columnist at The New York Times, "and now this is better than paper."
So many books and so little printing-
I was somewhat dismayed to learn Britannica is no longer going to print its encyclopedia.
I was a bit vexed when I read that printed, pulp-erotica isn't as hot as it once was.
My confusion cleared upon discovering the hottest thing on E*Readers is ladies' romance/erotica - women and their dirty little Nook's. This makes perfect sense; nobody can tell what you're reading while sucking a caramel macchiato, head down on a Kindle. Poor Fabio.
I was digging around some old stuff when I ran across this interview. This was written and aired back in 2011 on the old "The Imaging Channel" website. Cracks me up! ###
Most of us know Greg Walters … or at least we know a little bit about him. We’re familiar with his blog, The Death of the Copier (DOTC), and the scantily clad ladies of said blog. We recognize his bandana and Harley Davidson. We know he’s opinionated and passionate about MPS. But we here at TIC Talk wanted to know more …
TIC: Do you have a “real” job? If so, what is it?
Greg: Yes, I have a “real” job as the MPS Practice Manager at SIGMAnet, a 25-year-old, West Coast VAR.
Sidebar: AI will first eliminate Purchasing Agents.
Greg's Words:
One day, much sooner than you can imagine, your past prospects will incorporate an AI Agent to help them, "...optimize their existing business processes and workflows..."
One day, much sooner than you can imagine, your past prospects will build their own "...trusted advisor..."
One day, much sooner than you can imagine, your prospects will revel in experiencing sales without ever speaking to or meeting with You.
One day, much sooner than you can imagine, organizations that build technology solutions, hardware, software, consulting and advisory services will incorporate an AI Agent to communicate and manage, "...the customer experience and selling journey..."
One day, much sooner than you can imagine, providers of IT and Office Technology will have a team of AI Selling Professionals who work 24/7, never get sick, never get emotional, and exceed quota, every single month.
Over time, quotas will go the way of the typewriter.
In this document, we will discuss a proposed MPS S1 Engagement and its benefits. This engagement aims to improve the current printing infrastructure and bring cost savings to the organization.
I dug this up from the underground vault - archives of days gone by, reflections of the future.
Most of us know Greg Walters … or at least we know a little bit about him. We’re familiar with his blog, The Death of the Copier (DOTC), and the scantily clad ladies of said blog. We recognize his bandana and Harley Davidson. We know he’s opinionated and passionate about MPS.
But we here at TIC Talk wanted to know more …
TIC: Do you have a “real” job? If so, what is it?
Greg: Yes, I have a “real” job as the MPS Practice Manager at SIGMAnet, a 25-year-old, West Coast VAR.
TIC: Do you wear a suit to this “real job,” or ever?
Greg: OK, that’s funny. Yes, 9-5, I can be found usually sporting a suit, with a tie even. Odd thing is, many days I am the only person in the office in such garb. It’s Cali, and I am originally from the Midwest.
TIC: What’s your background?
Greg: I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii – Pearl Harbor, in that great big “coral pink” hospital in 1962.
I grew up in a suburb just outside Detroit, graduating high school in 1980 – the same year of the Miracle on Ice, Mt. St. Helens’ eruption, the Olympics and Ronald Reagan accepting the Republican nomination in Detroit, at Joe Louis Arena.
After college, I worked at INACOMP, making my way through a few other dealerships and VARs over a decade or so, always proposing computerized accounting systems. Those were wild times – PS/2s, COMPAQ, Novell networks and DOS 4.0. Taking a break from technology, I worked uniform sales – ahem, I mean, “Corporate Identity Programs” – for a great company, CINTAS. They transferred me out to Ontario, California, in 1999 to help open a new plant.
We started from scratch – oh, the stories I can tell.
TIC: When did you get into MPS?
Greg: Well, I started with the MPS practice in September of 2007. But while at IKON, I exposed myself to all the EDM I could and even worked intimately on a rather large FM project – MPS before there was such a thing.
TIC: When did you create DOTC, and why?
Greg: My first post was on February 20, 2008, and was about HP Edgeline. I created the blog thinking it would be a good way to put some information up regarding the benefits of Edgeline. We (SIGMAnet) were, and still are, an HP OPS Elite dealer. Edgeline was going to kill all other copiers, hence, “The Death of the Copier” – pretty simple. My second post, made on February 24, 2008, was titled “Managed Print Services, That Hot, New Thing …”
TIC: Did you ever imagine that it would grow into what DOTC has become today?
Greg: Nope. I can still see the looks on all the faces of those copier dudes at Lyra 2009. “Death of the Copier? Just who do you think you are?” LOL!I often comment how happy I was getting just 12 views a day, and most of those from my mom. I built the blog originally as a receptacle for things I was interested in. It evolved into a spot for me to put thoughts down one day and go back to read later. I honestly do write for an audience of one: me — and I crack me up. I must say, I am honored, humbled and thankful for all the great people DOTC has introduced in my life. No plan – just making it up as I go.
TIC: What do you do in your free time?
Greg: Huh – sleep.
And hit the trails, get off the grid in my 2001 LandRover, Disco II – yes, it is a green vehicle. Metallic Forest Green, that is. Ha! By the way, new idea for a bumper sticker on a Prius: “My other car is a … car.” Get it? Sorry, that’s my Detroit showing. Anywho, I also like to get out to the paintball arenas and light up some newbs. I used to golf – had all the stuff. One day I figured I really didn’t need another reason to chase a beer cart around all day.
TIC: Greg Walters is certainly an interesting and busy person, both personally and professionally. In addition to blogging on DOTC, working at SIGMAnet, and sitting on the board of the Managed Print Services Association (he currently serves as secretary), Greg will be joining the TIC Web team as a resident blogger, contributing bi-monthly blogs to The Imaging of Greg.
Be sure to check back on Monday, July 11, for his first post.
Posted by Katherine Fernelius on 07/07/2011 Click to email me.
Friday, May 6, 2011
"Managed Print Services" is dying.
Let's Kill it Together...
The juice is in the white spaces.
MPS can stitch together the Columns as the Green Box.
Once this is done, the Columns have no further need for MPS.
The only path to rebirth, renewing, is through Death.
It ain't mobile print(last gasp of a dying niche) but which iTEX exhibitor might just get printing (not all of it) relevant again...?
It's no secret, iTEX has been taking it on the chin lately with bad venues, obvious 60-minute commercials camouflaged as Power Hours, and empty-headed booth-drones claiming to have been in MpS for 25 years.
Heck, some of the presentations were given a stage worthy of side-show-Bob carnival barkers - "step right up, see the bearded lady..." where is my bamboo stick?
Well, at least somebody got new shoes and it was Vegas, right?
Just kidding - the show was a success. A big success.
Those Who Stay, Will Be Champions
Without a doubt, hands down, shorter hours and everything, the show was a good time. I saw business being conducted in the booths, everyone I talked with was not only positive, but most were also buoyant, almost - dare I say - giddy.
No, really. People in this dying industry are smiling.
And do you know why?
The ones I spoke with are lined up perfectly to be survivors. And this time, the power brokers are the agile, defiant, independents. That's not to say the OEMs are eunuchs - well not all of them. It just means that the role of the OEM is changing, transforming from a large, centrally based command and control center, to a more flexible responsive entity.
Well, one can dream.
We've all been there, "...whatever doesn't kill me, makes me stronger..." - the smart have utilized MpS, the quick are moving beyond marks on paper and the strong are forging their way without blaming anyone.
Staying the course, taking responsibility, and not wasting energy on bitching. The Heart, it still beats...
MpS whiners need not apply.
With the puffed-up and contrived angst around the "false promises of MpS" it was refreshing to find more than a few successful MpS providers. Even though I understand and support the notion, I won't call them Hybrids. I call them businesspeople.
It is my personal belief, that if you're a copier dealer and have half a brain, you can be successful with MpS. Yes, I know, the two may be mutually exclusive (wait for it...wait...)
One reseller I spoke with explained how he analyzed the market, looked at his strengths, calculated a plan, articulated his MpS vision both internally and with his existing clients, and executed his plan.
Today, his revenue consists of around 47% MpS services. He is satisfied with his progress, but moving forward, honing his value prop around his customers' needs, not those of his mainline, OEMs. That's called customer-centric vs. OEM-centric. Huh.
Oh, and are you ready for this - he came from outside the industry, bought a dealership, and whipped it into shape, like a real business, raising both the bar and the curve.
And when things were tough, he didn't look around and ask, "...what happened to all those promises..."
Get Used To Disappointment
If I detected any displeasure, it was with the Power Hours(again).
You can't please everybody, all the time, and no matter which show I've been to, I hear people lament over the class/workshop/seminars. The gripes typically go like this:
"The content was too basic."
"The content was too complex."
"The guy tried to sell me his system."
"We heard all that 6 years ago."
"That session was nothing more than a rolling commercial, describing his product, not a process."
"I walked out."
Now, just because these are common statements, it doesn't make them less valid. Indeed, one of the MpS workshops I sat in really was a 60-minute commercial. And I spoke with one person who walked out of TWO sessions because the content was "stale, dated and inaccurate". (not my words)
Ouch.
But this reaction was rare and presented by people I consider to be rather advanced in the art that is MpS. The overwhelming majority of the people I asked said they enjoyed the show and came away with many 'golden nuggets'.
Well done, ITex/Questex. Well done.
ITex - Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Fairest of them All...
With Lyra, Transform, World Ex, and other shows, you can count on seeing people from each organization working the rows, the booths, and speaking. Charlie, Ed, and Patricia could be doing everything from hobnobbing with the elites to chasing down HDMI cables for the next presentation.
It's their show.
Not so with Questex - and that's okay. Questex does not sell MpS. Questex has never provided remote meter reads or automatic service dispatch; they don't know of or give a hoot about the three stages of MpS.
Again, that is okay.
Questex publishes trade magazines and manages events - and they do that well.
In a very real sense, Questex/ITex is simply a platform for us in the industry to display our wares, pontificate about ourselves, and generally show off.
But it doesn't end there. ITex is just the name of the stage that Questex Media manages - what happens on that stage is not only our responsibility it is a reflection of who we are.
So last year, people reported the venue sucked and "nobody attended" - well, last year, our industry was sucking and nobody had a presence.
This year, the show was fantastic, attendees positive and upbeat, right now, the independents are cheerful and looking toward the future. The show is reflecting the mood.
For the life of me, I don't totally understand this joviality - every indicator is down with no rebound in sight. The largest print OEM in the world is getting out of print and the next generation of end-users barely read off paper, let alone send print to it.
Be that as it may, I am as sick of the negativity as I am of the blatant "ignore that" mentality.
I say we rock. Let's persevere or go down fighting.
Print can be relevant, again.
A week ago, if you told me the most impressive thing I would see at ITex was a piece of hardware I saw 4 years ago, I would have laughed.
And after I stopped laughing, had you mentioned to me that 'not only could this piece of hardware bring print back into the spotlight, it may even save mobile print' I woulda dropped you right where you stood.
Well, I stand corrected. How so?
The goal is to make print easy, not available on every street corner for a price - what most mobility models miss is the cost to the end-user. Sure there is a laser printer down in the business center, but it takes longer and costs a dime a sheet.
What I witnessed could make over-charging customers for print, a thing of the past. I saw an MFP that is blazing fast at 60ppm, performing this speed at 5% or 100% coverage, black and white or color, full-bleed no less - it just didn't matter.
And cheap. Four cents for color, penny B/W. And cheap. $700.00 cost.
As the pie of available prints shrinks, the big, centrally located, 11x17 copiers are too expensive, too loud, too slow, and too old-fashioned.
And they require a service agreement.
Also, today's printers are slow, expensive to feed, suck too much energy, and have left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. The machines and their toner cartridges are fading yet not all the prints will go away, it's an example of the Long Tail.
So who will be there to print all those buggy-whip designs? The lowest, almost disposable, devices, that's who.
Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
At those prices, $900.00 for a 60 page per minute, full color, printer, with very low operational cost, barely any moving parts - why would anybody ever want to purchase a service agreement?
And let's say, just for giggles, each purchased unit included ink refills at half price. Let's just say.
Why wouldn't every hotel on the planet have one of these? Why wouldn't every Starbucks? Hell, why wouldn't you have one to print Christmas pics right then and there for Grandpapa and Grandmama?
There you have it. Mobile print everywhere and not a dime to show for it - no CPI, MpS, no margin or service calls. Nadda, zip, zero.
Have a nice day.
The Belle of the Ball - Sindoh/MemJet
And there it was. Sitting there unassuming. Back in 2009, I saw the MemJet engine spitting out A4 color prints on some guy's couch in a hotel room somewhere. It was cool and for the next 3 years we all waited for the 'real thing'.
Like a ghost, MemJet haunted the halls of Lyra and trade shows across the country. We heard of desperate deals consummated with the devil - and still no device.
From San Diego to Sydney to Oklahoma City - the rumor mill and paper trail churned on.
It's real, not a wraith. I saw it. Touched it and even videotaped it working Lawsuits aside, Sindoh the Korean concern utilizing MemJet in their machine has got a tiger by the tail on this one.
Stay tuned for more as I get more on them...
So in the End...
ITex 2012 is in the rearview. MpS is all over the globe and the copier dealer is on the rebound.
Just when you think you're getting out, they pull you right back in...
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...
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