If you Guarantee it, they will buy..

HP is standing behind their HP Edgeline Access VAR's and the CM8060/50 with one big stick.

"Overview

HP Products are designed and manufactured to meet both our customer's and our partner's performance expectations. If after working with HP Edgeline Support, an Edgeline Access partner is unable to bring an HP CM8060/CM8050 Color MFP's performance in line with specifications, HP will contact the partner within one business day to arranged for an HP representative to visit the customer site, schedule delivery of a replacement unit or initiate a refund of the unit price."

Ok, before you start picking the above apart (because one could) stand back and think about this, especially if you are in the copier industry - if you're a dealer, say...I dunno, let's just call you ICON - how easy is it to get a replacement unit out to your customer? Can you show your customer Canon's documented, replacement policy? How about K/M or how about Ricoh?

Sure you can get a like-for-like, meaning some old, returned, used but "functional" unit, pulled out of the service inventory.

And if you think even deeper - about a refund - who offers refunds on copiers?

There will be dealers out there who see this as a negative - who pays for pick up, how does this work with a lease, do I get a service credit from HP for all the time my tech spends trying to fix, and how come the service rates are so high - blah, blah, blah...as one of my characterized role models said, "I find your lack of faith...disturbing."

On the other side, there is a risk of dealers trying to "fit a square peg in a round hole" by using this as a closing tool - short sighted simpletons who will lead with this guarantee - they just don't get it. Indeed, the biggest risk to HP is in what the VAR channel does with this - but all things will be revealed.

The single most important aspect of this move is HP's apparent feeling that they have a super-duper, grand slam, slam dunk product; a Tiger By The Tail - a true "Copier Killer"

And they do.

And this is just the beginning - I can "Bear"-ly stand it!

Much more to come -

HP looking to be a big commercial printer....Part Duex

This twin-engine duplex printing engine press runs at a speed of 122 meters/minute (400 ft/min) and this equates to 2,600 Letter or A4 pages/minute.

HP’s new Inkjet Web Press is built around HP’s Edgeline scaleable printing architecture.

The press has a 30-inch (762 mm) web width compared with all the competitions’ 20-inch web widths. This twin-engine duplex printing engine press runs at a speed of 122 meters/minute (400 ft/min) and this equates to 2,600 Letter or A4 pages/minute. This press is expected to sell for around $2.5 million.

HP says that a color page with 30% coverage will cost $0.01 and a monochrome page $0.0015. You can check out a really good article on this unit here.

HP looking to be a big commercial printer

Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's imaging and printing group, said
"the move to digital printing is more environmentally friendly because it gives distributors the ability to print on-demand. He said, for example, 40 percent of books that are printed today are never read."

Another angle on Green. Full article.

Ricoh - A great, American Company? - Great ? yes, American? sorta...

I ran across this articlein on of our local papers about Ricoh. Sarah Tolkoff, of the Orange County Business Journal speaks with a 20 year employee.

Most don't think of Ricoh's being manufactured in the US - I've been through this plant, and seen the process and commitment to quality control and "Zero Waste to Landfill" philosophy in action.

Very cool.

Should HP Purchase IKON's PS Division? - Delicious!!

"At the beginning of the month we sell solutions (Documentum, Captaris, RightFax, Objectif Lune, etc.) by the end of the month, we sell copiers (Ricoh, Canon, K-I-Coe-Sera)" - famous IKON sales-dude.

Recent press:

"...In a conference call, Espe noted that IKON planned to work with vendors, adjust its go-to-market strategy and take steps to improve sales profitability. To that end, IKON is expected to reduce costs and expenses by $25 million in this fiscal year. Espe noted that the company does remain committed to a stock repurchase plan it embarked on in November 2007.

The bright spot in the report was in managed and professional services, which reported revenue growth of seven percent, to $206 million from $192 million in the same period last year.

Within that realm, on-site managed services, which comprises some two-thirds of IKON's managed and professional services revenue, grew 10 percent. The company noted that was largely due to the expansion of existing contracts and new sites. Professional services grew nine percent, owing much of that increase to strong European business. However, off-site managed services decreased three percent..."

The PS Division is doing better at IKON - as equipment sales stall, flatten and degrade.

How many monkeys does it take to...

How many people does it take to process, configure and deliver a copier? Would you believe 20-30, if all is well with the order and nothing is out of the ordinary? Of course these 20 or so people are just involved with the "pushing of paper" - add to this the technicians who stage equipment, the drivers who deliver and the techs and Professional Service Consultants who connect the unit to the clients' network.

Now, to make things really interesting, lets shift some of the higher end tasks like network connectivity, scan connectivity and set up, and user set-up LDAP or Exchange, onto the technicians plate - technicians who are the very best at fixing mechanical breakdowns and failures; twisting wrenches and banging hammers. -- Train Wreck

Honestly, selling the copier is the easiest aspect of sales at IKON.(at first)

I am not making any of this up, this stuff can't be made up, I have seen it with my own eyes.

"OH, how the Mighty have Fallen"

Get this - A year ago IKN's stock was at 14.00 today it is at 7.14! Can you say, "DANKA"?!!

So now IKN is in the middle of a huge stock buyback, "reaching out to vendors" and looking to reduce more costs - while doubling or tripling the layers of management between the "trenches" and the "Towers" - classic!

Core Competencies

When the going gets tough, get back to basics, back to the roots, back to what worked and what got you to over 2 billion in revenues - copiers. Sell Copiers. Period. No EDM, no Documentum, no Captaris, strictly copiers. The Core. Reduce the number of people it takes to process an order and deliver a product. Get comfortable residing in a cell, on CPM's Vendor Analysis Spreadsheet. Get use to disappointment.

And in order to re-focus, get rid of the influences that can take you away from your focus - Professional Services.

What would HP get in the end?

1. A global network of established relationships built around solutions.

2. An instant increase in "brainshare" in the Analysis and application space of Managed Print Services.

3. Payback. See this previous post.

Off the IKON site:

"IKON's Value Proposition

At IKON, partnering with our customers to uncover needs, costs, current processes and future expectations is a critical part of developing a strategy that will be successful for years to come.

What sets IKON apart from the competition is our unique ability to provide the most knowledgeable people and integrate them with innovative technology, document expertise and best practices to create a framework for success. From this base of experience, we deliver a sustainable competitive advantage to your operation by eliminating inefficiencies and improving your administrative and document management processes."

I don't care how low their stock is, the above Value Prop is very impressive - not one mention of copiers, not one. Now, just replace "IKON" with "Hewlett-Packard"(or SIGMAnet - MPS... who?). It works, don't it?

Ok, I have both Hurd and Espe's email; I volunteer to broker the deal. For a small fee.

Introductions might go like this:

"Mark, meet Matt. Matt, this is Mark. Now, we're just three guys talkin here - no worries, ok? Yousse, guys work somin out, bada bing, bada boom - we got a big deal, we toast, we dance, we sing, we all go home happy, capice? Talk amongst yourselves - fogeda bout it.

Loyalties...

HP is looking for a few good VARs and continued Loyalty from their existing VARs. The challenge seems to be converting resellers with IT Service mentality into a “copier-type” mentality. Additionally, converting “copier-centric” resellers into HP minded, analytical partners, is a severe mind-shift.

In this space, HP has become all too familiar to forwarding leads to the “copier” guys and having the lead mysteriously converted into a Canon or Ricoh sale – or even worse, standing with a reseller in a Managed Print Service deal and watching the supplies orders dwindle to nothing as the reseller converts their customer from OEM supplies to third party.

Supplies – the “Holy of Holies” for HP is the Untouchable Goose – and HP needs those Golden Eggs to keep dropping.

And as much as this is an economical, sales and marketing issue it all seems to boil down to loyalty with HP. A bit naive? Yes and reality.

Quote:

"We need quality partners," Hurd said. "If we have partners that can't get it done, I don't want them helping us. I don't need bad partners. I need good ones. I need great ones. I need ones that will help us slay some dragons. I want some that can go help us compete. I want some that are willing to put skin in the game and willing to be just as consistent, just as simple, just as excited, just as fired up as we are. And if they're not, they should go partner with 'insert name here,' some of our competitors, and mess them up.

"And if all they want to do is whine about channel compensation, and they want to do the same thing they did 10 years ago and get paid more for it, go find some other place to partner with," Hurd continued. "If you want to get on the cutting edge and kick some butt and go get something done, then come hang around with us."

If you're a channel partner with anyone, even HP, read that again - do you feel the tone? This guy turned HP around in 3 years. He has the legitimacy to say this, to mean this and to not care what people think about it.

APC- Vegas

Hurd also said regarding the Americas Partner Conference:

"I didn't want to miss this because you are so important to us," said Hurd, who spoke in a hoarse voice. "You are an extension of Hewlett Packard. Being here is a big deal to me and I want to make sure you knew that."

We were there. We believe we are an extension and loyalty goes both ways.

the Color Copier

I can not tell you how many times I have walked into an account that uses a high-end, color copier to hear that prospect gripe about how long “it takes to print on this 30 thousand dollar machine and I print the same job in minutes on my HP color laser.”

I have seen this with my own eyes. K/M’s with all the bells, rips, memory etc etc – absolutely choke on .PDFs and the little HP chugs it out with no problems. Why is this?

Even after so many years of color, color copiers are still cumbersome. Color copiers with RIPs are still complicated and can be inconsistent – or worse, color copiers with RIPs and hardware and memory upgrades once configed and working with an application are now static. As long as nothing changes with the applications, or the operating environment all will be well.

But if the customer needs change, or a new software application is added or an existing application is upgraded – all bets are off. And this is a moving target for both the customer and the vendor. Copier hardware changes nearly every six months and the copier guys are going to talk about, sell, and support what is hot currently – they are not all that motivated to help upgrade or solve problems on a 2 year old color system. “All you need to do is go to the Canon site and upgrade the driver or flash the copier that’s all" - what kind of support is that ?!!

Committing service and support resources to the newest color system with the newest drivers and RIPs and ROMs and the minutia of details involved with supporting this specialized segment is daunting and expensive and unfortunately, well over the comprehension of most hardware tech's. Throw in shrinking profit margins and volume purchase commitments and monthly hardware forecasts and it becomes so much easier to just "sell the box".

Meanwhile, the HP 9500 color laser is spitting out 11x17 proofs.

Committing service and support resources to the newest color system with the newest drivers and RIPs and ROMs and the minutia of details involved with supporting this specialized segment is daunting and expensive and unfortunately, well over the comprehension of most hardware tech's. Throw in shrinking profit margins and volume purchase commitments and monthly hardware forecasts and it becomes so much easier to just "sell the box".

By the way, I hear that there is an Edgeline in some super-secret bunker outside of Boise churning out color at over 120 pages per minute. I also hear that an external RIP may be in the future for Edgeline.

And the I.T guys love this Edgeline thing.

Clients, Edgeline vs Xerography...

I had breakfast with a very important client today and he asked, "could you tell me what the difference is between Edgeline and all the other copiers? I mean, how does the toner get to the paper?" This is a large company headquartered locally with locations and plants across the country and over 1500 printing assets.

Well, he tossed me a slow pitch, hanging, softball and all I had to do was smack it out of the park - and I did.

And as I was explaining the process I started to relize, once again, how very evolutionary this period in time has become.

I was harkened back to the "good ole days" - when I saw the very first color VGA monitor, or the very first NEC MultiSync color monitor. The very first laptop I used was the Compaq SLT - the "lunch box" was worlds ahead of the "sewing machine".

Liquid Crystal Displays, the first IBM ThinkPad, and I remember the very first time I ran an Epson LQ-something next to the HP LaserJet II WOWZIE!!! And here I am nearly 20 years later feeling those same feelings - "THIS IS BIG, THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING"

As my conversation filled with "negative static, latent images, fuser oil, melting toner, corona wires..." I had to slow down, my passion was getting ahead of me - I actually took out a napkin and drew a diagram of the "zero-graphic" process ( you know of course Compaq Computer started on a napkin over lunch somewhere).

Explaining the Edgeline technology can be a great deal less complicated and I guess less sexy, “the machine squirts ink on the paper…really fast”

The excitement is there, the time seems to be now and I closed my discussion with,” let me ask you this, do you have a black and white TV? Do you remember when black and white TV’s were manufactured and sold and everybody had one? Have you seen a NEW black and white TV lately? There was a time when people just took black and white for granted in their TVs and color TV’s were too expensive”. – Interesting.

Paperless Offices, Killer Toner , Carbon Offset - "A World Without Sin"

7/2008

Read the email, print the email, throw the email away, print it again, write on the email, send a response, throw it away - again" - yeah, that's how WE roll...

I stumbled onto this article from N.C. and it's illustrative of the next generation gap, and brushes up on the social reasons there are still newspapers being printed all over the world - and why we still cut down Ka-jillions of trees each year. And I really like it because the author uses the phrase "post-coital". One would usually need to go to a bowling alley to read something of this caliber.

The Killer Office - Dunder Miflin meets Resident Evil

I got this off of an article regarding "special" air filters -

"It has been indisputably proven by various international studies that ultra-fine particles are emitted by laser printers, fax machines, and copiers. In 2005, the University of Giessen in Germany initiated a "Toner Pilot Project" on behalf of the Bundesinstituts für Risikobewertung (BfR) to assess the effect of laser printers and copy machines on the quality of interior air.

The final report published on 08.01.08 stated that emissions by toner-based office appliances significantly increased the number of ultra-fine particles in interior air. According to the study, the increase in the concentration of fine dust can be assessed as being quantitatively alarming from a hygiene standpoint and may also be regarded as being questionable from the point of view of health." Based on this current knowledge and seen from the standpoint of precautionary aspects, the FIRA advocates preventative measures in this case."

Just another reason not to be a cube-rat: killer toner and TPS reports.

Managed Print Services - That "Hot, New, Thing..."

2/2008

It seems over the past sixty days, we have been approached by all sorts of "consultants" willing to teach our team (SIGMAnet -MPS) how to perform a detailed Managed Print Service study.

It seems everybody wants to get on this bandwagon, the "I use to sell copiers, but now I sell this service to help you save more money - as long as we are at the beginning of the month..." bandwagon.

Okidata, Lexmark, Konica Minolta, Xerox, Toshiba, and Ricoh, can you see the pattern, trend, and characteristics of this new wave? These folks are all Copier Companies. So the problem with obtaining a true, honest, real-world Managed Print Services program is something I like to call "Hardware Agnostic and Partnering with High Intent". 

It is true that HP is the leader when it comes to getting "marks on paper", but how many companies have 100% HP devices - for printing and copying? Or all Okidata, Lexmark, or Toshiba? You can see my point.

With companies searching out every way to cut costs, printing and the reduction of costs associated with printing are becoming sexy and attracting all sorts of "flim-flam" and "snake-oil" experts. Managed Print Services isn't Brain Surgery, it's Rocket Science!

A copier salesperson does not directly translate into an MPS specialist. 

Nor does an IT Services salesperson translate into an MPS Specialist. It takes both IT experience and copier experience and a great deal of general, C-level, business experience. That holy grail of Professional Selling, "Business Acumen".  Someone with the "Big Picture" insight and manage the details of a solution.

- Edgeline -

2/22/2008

No Drum
No Toner Emissions
Low Heat
Nearly Silent
No Fuser
No Fuser Oil
No Static Charge...

This is impossible...and yet after 1.4 billion dollars of R&D, that is exactly what we have today; the HP CM8060 with Edgeline Technology.

If your looking for a color system you most likely will not hear anything regarding HP from the traditional Copier Dealers – there are roughly only 30 or so Edgeline Authorized HP dealers in the country today – this will change. HP has added some 2,000 new sales rep’s in the field and HP is attempting to utilize their extensive channel of IT VAR’s in helping move product.

On that subject – if you know anything about HP you know that as an American engineering company they are second to non, yet as a marketing force, not so good. So now you have a machine that can revolutionize the way every single business prints, and only 30 RESELLERS to “get the word out” and start evangelizing the opportunities.

HP is not a dumb company – they are going to go at this market directly and with their most trusted and experienced resellers. (Danka excluded, for another post)

How about a little background on the HP/Edgeline/Copier vs. Laser/go to market strategy?

HP has their sights directly focused on a segment of the business world that traditionally is ruled by the big copier companies – Xerox, Canon and Ricoh. Nobody knows more about copying then the copy companies and nobody knows more about printing then HP. With the convergence of these two functions resulting in the volume of copies made falling behind the volume of prints, a new dynamic is coming to light. Copier machines are connected and working as printers and printers now are scanning and copying. This issue is worth it’s own post – “To Print on a copier or to copy on a printer?” (later)

Anyway, when looking back at the relationship with HP and IKON (yes, there once was a bright and shinny future in that relationship) – HP seemed to be “testing the waters” in the copier market. Looking at distribution channels and establishing partnerships with “leading edge, technology partners”. HP tried and IKON pretty much kicked them to the curb without a kiss or dinner or anything.

The idea was great on paper yet in practice at the field level, copier sales reps tend to take leads generated for HP and “switch” to a more profitable line (i.e. Ricoh, Canon). And even more egregious, some sales reps set-up managed print accounts with original HP supplies, only to switch them out after a period of time, increasing personal and corporate profit. (Please note here and now, profit is good) So as the years past, just about three years, the IKON/HP relationship cooled, and then froze.

Meanwhile, just over a year ago, HP was rumored to have been in negotiations with one of IKON’s smaller competitors, Global Imaging. HP and Global were negotiating a purchase or merger of some sort. HP had at the time, this new technology code named “Condor” and wanted a channel – Global seemed perfect, HP had the cash and Global had the dealer network. Just about the only other company with more cash and as big a reason to expand its channel was the big “X”. Lo and behold, at the 12^th hour, Xerox came in and scooped Global right out from under HP.

Nearly overnight, HP had a significant and expensive product with no way to bring to market – after TWO attempts to work within the copier industry, HP was spurned. (Big-time)

When times call for action, look to what you know best – and HP looked at their existing channel of IT VARs. And that is where the channel resides right now. I am sure there will be changes and additions in the near future. (Danka and HP)

Click to email me.

The List

The List" - 2008

1. Buyers are trained by Salespeople
2. Truth is Good
3. Insecurities Rule
4. All conflict is a result of an insecurity
5. Self-esteem does not come out of a box, or from someone else
6. Guilt is a Motivator
7. Motivation can be turned into Manipulation
8. Seven Seconds; you can know someone in the first seven seconds you meet them
9. Everyone has an Agenda
10. You Are Your Boss
11. Fear Sucks
12. Once People know you care, they will try to manipulate you
13. The best way to make everyone around you better is to make yourself better
14. If you ask a question, be ready for any answer
15. The Best Advice is the Advice you ask for
16. Do not Answer statements
17. People see their own weakness in others; Cheaters see cheaters, thieves see thieves
18. People will accuse you of the bad things they see themselves doing
19. Nothing occurs in a vacuum
20. Luck is for the Unlucky
21. Hope means you stop trying
22. Weak people cannot say no
23. Be specific in what you care for
24. You control your day, the day does not control you
25. Value received for value given
26. You can't rape the willing
27. It can always be worse – You could have been on the 73rd floor, in your cube, drinking a Starbucks at 9:01AM, September 11th in the WTC…