Printer Operations Group - Ed Crowley Brings them into the Light

This Post introduces POG but the real "gold" is in the white paper found here.

Go get it.

I was impressed. The ideas are good.

What I find most intriguing is that this represents yet ANOTHER definition and approach in Managed Print Services - specifically from the true, billable, Consultant side.

I will not break down the white paper - go get it.

But here some highlights from the White Paper:

- Billing for assessments

- Vendor Neutrality

- The Deployment Curve - 4 stages

- "Root Cause Analysis"

- Result of an assessment is a Road Map not a Proposal for Products

- Cultural Navigation

Bad Experiences with Leasing - Toshiba, IKON, Canon, Saxon

The copier industry has a self inflicted black eye

Here from a Church in Florida-

Leased Copier-The Final Punishment
By Kevin McCord

"...When renewal time came around last year I was interested in working with them again, but found their prices far too high. I was in a position to buy a machine outright. When they got wind of that, they pulled out the lease agreement. We were a few weeks beyond the 90 day notice for non-renewal. The lease agreement locked us in for 12 more months with a machine we didn't want to use. They were not interested in our future business enough to let us give written notice a few weeks late even though we had spent those weeks in negotiations with them..."

Here from a school I think near San Francisco -

Copier leases: A few experiences and thoughts
By Greg Beuthin

"...We had two major beefs with our current copier lease company:

1. Response time was supposed to be 4-6 hours, but we had increasing delays, up to 8 hours in some cases. And often what would happen is an agent would arrive, and 15 minutes later declare “Parts are on order, I’ll be back in X days.”
2. We had an per-machine copy quota system. On the simple b/w copier, our lease included 18k copies a year, on the large multi-use one, 380k However, because of location, the b/w copier was used far more than the other copier, and we got hit with massive overage charges - even though we were twice as much under quota for copies on the large machine..."

-- more --

"...It’s stories like this that are helpful to people when they are reviewing their final lease copy agreement. We got screwed by Canon similarly, but only for 3 months (our lease said we had to provide 90 days notice, so we had to pay for 3 extra months). Of course, had I not waited until the last week to finalize a contract with another company, I would have been better off..."

Here a bad experience -

Shame on you Toshiba Business Solutions

"...In order not to “auto renew” most copier leases have a very strict code of how, when and where to send your formal cancellation notice. And if you don’t abide you have just bought yourself another 2 years with an outdated copier, congratulations.It’s the equivalent of a current boyfriend or girlfriend denying your right to break up with them because you didn’t do so at the right time or place... "

In this post from a church -

I hate Ikon Office Solutions

"...After 3 years of leasing a copy machine from this company our contract is out at the end of the month. That is a good thing...since we own a machine now we don't need to lease one. The contract is out, we have to pay the remainder of the lease...which is right and fine. What is wrong is that they charge us to come pick it up!!! I lease a machine from them (Ikon)...which means it is theirs and DOES NOT belong to me (newpoint)...their words in their contract. So they send me to a company that will come pick it up...for $375!!!!! ..."
-------

Anecdotal, I know. But still - the story is repeated over and over.

Leasing is a difficult issue to understand and it should be simple. It should be easy to understand and easy to explain and Leasing should be explained and all the ramifications transparent.

I think the necessity of "contracts" does not over ride the

One Organization's Paper Operational Review

In Virginia, "...Participants included Senator Fred Quayle, Delegate Dave Nutter, Gwen Baily Assistant Clerk of the Senate, Linda Belflower of the Virginia Employment Commission, Paula Dehetre of the Office of Workforce Development, Fred Duball of VITA, David Nims of the Department of General Services, Tiffany Moklebust of Gartner Group, Stephanie Holt of Xerox, and Jim Dougherty and Tony Williams of Virginia Correctional Enterprises..." 

The article is here. 

Some of the items I found of interest - 

Current Costs - "...Virginia departments and agencies currently have a printer inventory of 34,221 and thousands more copiers. In FY06 the state spent $7,499,837 on paper, stationery and forms..." "...In addition to the printer, copier, and paper expenditures, the state spent $37,702,417 on printing services that include designing, printing, collating, and binding..." 

The Recommendations The reports put forward 5 recommendations, but I like number 4:

 "Recommendation 4: Move toward or transition to the implementation of managed print services--as appropriate for meeting agency and department mission and goals. Managed print services (MPS) are services offered by an external provider to optimize or manage an organization’s document output. An MPS contract can include assessment services, asset management, output management services, and support services. The external service provider either owns or leases the hardware, with the customer paying a monthly or quarterly fee—based on a cost per page or cost per seat. 

Gartner suggests that candidates for MPS are midsize or large organizations with 100 or more employees. Agencies and departments should document their print needs and determine if the use of managed print services would reduce their print cost." Seems the Great State of Virginia "gets it".

Shareholders Petition Court to Delay EDS/Hewlett-Packard Merger Vote, Announces Baron & Budd, P.C.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At a hearing scheduled by Collin County District Judge Greg Brewer on July 24, shareholders of Dallas-based Electronic Data Systems (EDS) will be asking the Court to postpone the July 31 shareholder meeting

It looks like stockholders are questioning the sell price of the deal - because of the increase in revenues and better EDS profit over the past 12 months.

They want more money.

Managed Print Services: Leading Edge and Bleeding Edge

Don't let the SALES GUY touch the machine! 

I recently had the honor of attending a training session intended for "technical" types. Both pre-sale and post-sale technicians were in attendance - about 13 of them and 1 of me. Resellers from all over the country - Edgeline resellers; Edgeline technicians.

That's right. 13 techs and one salesperson. Oh, the fun we will have.

The classes were covering Job Accounting in session one and Printing Security in session two.

I won't bore you with the details, but I will tell you this - early in the first session the instructor queried, "...what's going on out there in the field, do your customers seem to be interested in reducing printing costs?" - I am paraphrasing the question but the response, or better yet lack of response, I am not.

The collective answer? "Nope." "Not on any customers mind or radar.", "They just want to reduce their lease payment, that's all"

I fell out of my chair - I blurted it out, "MPS is the hottest issue out there right now, if you think your customers aren't on it, you are wrong." - And my reward for being one of the first to contribute to class discussion?

Dead silence. Blank stares. Crickets.

The first time I participate in class, this is what I say? I felt it was going to be a very long two days.

Well, the experience improved - a great deal. The guys represented the highest level of certification available from HP. I found everyone engaging and knowledgeable about the industry and their place in it.

We all have common struggles, challenges, and successes.

Still -

After reading Ken's articles, "Crossing the Document Output Divide" and "Customers Don’t Know What They Don’t Know." I wonder exactly where MPS is in the industry. It doesn't feel mainstream. It feels new and frontier-like. It feels like we are still making this up as we go along.

I wonder about the blank stares and shrugged shoulders I observed in class. I wonder about the blank stares I receive after I explain my version of MPS to a prospect.

With Managed Print Services, "Bleeding Edge" and "Early Adopters" are titles not only applied to prospect types but also Provider types.

This is a special time.

Leaders Lead.


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