Doing More with Less:The PhotoShop Effect

Here's the deal, as technology helps us in all phases of our lives, printing, media, office, transportation, connecting and electing presidents at what point do the "machines" take over?

Social Media, Hyper-Media, Death of the Media, DiaMedia...all around us - at work and play and sometimes on more than one display.

When does the spectacular sunrise pop over the horizon only after the director says, "...cue the sun..."

When does, or when did, reality stop to matter?

This is a long way from Copiers and MPS - or is it?

To some degree, we in this industry are technology goofballs. We are. We know the difference between Kirk and Picard, between Starbuck and well, Starbuck; the difference between a BattleStar, DeathStar, and GunStar.

We grew up on Pong, The Brady Bunch and Charlie's Angels. We loved our first "carphone" and remember the first time we saw laser printer output held up against a 24-pin generated letter.

Oh, and we remember Gas Plasma displays, 256 shades of orange.

Want more proof of geekieness? As I am banging on the keys, in a HULU window, I am watching "Son of Godzilla" - you think that's wrong, it's a gift from mother nature.

So what?

From slick multi-pronged presidential marketing over Web 2.0, instant-on news tweets from Twitter to mob-journalism - What we see is not what is real.

Submitted for your approval - The PhotoShop Effect.

An example of how technology bend's time and space molding a psuedo-reality, first creating and then fulfilling our fantasies, one pixel at a time.




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Konica Minolta Imaging the end of the Danka Legacy

Pirate Mike has some good information regarding a pretty healthy lay-off over at Konica.

It goes along with another blood-letting I heard about at HP last week or so.

Also, I am hearing more about manufacturers cutting back in advertising thus effecting some of the industry's print publications - like all other print.

And a quick look at some local layoff announcements, Toshiba will be telling 120 to "hit the bricks..." May 11.
The times...

Selling Managed Print Services 101

2009

MPS is all I talk about...ok, not ALL. I do talk about Half-Life, Land Rovers and Paintball, but enough about me, let's talk about me...

I have been performing MPS assessments pretty heavily over the past few weeks and I find that although we have a great deal of tools, I am still making things up as I go along.

After reading Ken’s post I knew I had to complete my current article. Ken’s post resonated with me regarding the Tools of MPS -

Current MPS tools consist of spreadsheets, interview forms, data collection sheets, automated data collection devices/software, supplies cost matrixes, etc. 

All geared around collecting the Technical data, i.e. volumes, lease end dates, lease payments, overages, 11x17, first copy out speed, duplex...blah blah blah...this data is mundane and acquiring it is fatiguing, but necessary.

The data is one dimensional and any “monkey” can collect it.

Unfortunately to some providers and many customers this is the extent of the information used in the analysis. Even more disappointing, the assessment to some, IS the proposal.

The Second Most Important MPS Tool: The Interview -

When interviewing, many issues are exposed, some that may not at first seem to be MPS related.

The idea here is simple - the End User interview, the Director interview, and the C-Level interview are all treasure laden conversations. 

Corporate directives, cultural issues, political hurdles, and decision making processes all become apparent as progression is made through the organization.

As an example, I am currently working 3 separate assessments for 3 clients - one is what I call a "Mini-Assessment"; which means we are only looking at 25 copiers out of a fleet of 220.

The idea is to analyze these units for fiscal '08, get the refresh approved, and continue the study into year's end for fiscal '09 upgrades. The goal of this study is to form a Standard Requirements List for all future hardware/copier acquisitions.

The overall organizational goals are:

1. Reduce operational costs by 5% without “Reductions In Field”
2. Increase employee job satisfaction
3. Improve Customer Service

Covering All the Bases – Strategic Approach

When interviewing the questions asked important but the people you ask are much more important. This is my personal application of a strategic approach. I see four types of interviewee’s:

Your Coach

The Technicals

The End User

Project’s Economic Influence

Your Coach

This person is convinced that MPS is the way to go. And he wants to see the project (and you) succeed.

The Technicals

These folks hold “go/no go” over the final recommendations. Their perspective is on the functional issues of the program. They are focused on issues like network compatibility, end-user support functions, invoicing and billing procedures, and maybe all the way down to duplex capabilities of the hardware.

The End User

The End User must be satisfied. When interviewing and speaking with the End User you must have a clear idea of what direction the organization wants to move. For instance, if one of the basic goals is to reduce all the locally connected, desktop inkjet printers, check with IT to insure how they want to approach the subject.

The End User has a wealth of “everyday issues” that cause work flow bottlenecks. Their visibility into the organization is restricted but at the local level the information obtained can be very illuminating.

Economic Influencer(s)

This entity releases the funds necessary to move forward with the project. Interested in cost reduction and R.O.I. and is probably already spending a great deal of money.

These interviews are most likely the C-Level players. I do not recommend asking the CEO if “duplexing is important…”

Additionally, if while covering the Economic Influencer, it is revealed that MPS does not hold a high degree of attention, you may NOT want to proceed.

(See Strategic Selling for more on the above influencers)

Any successful project includes covering ALL these bases with relevant (from their perspective) questions.

Imagine – if you were to contact ALL the above types of users - your picture of the organization’s output fleet would be detailed to the nth degree. And hopefully, this data would allow to make a solid, agreeable recommendation proven to positively impact the organizations overall goals.

Want to know more? Check out Ken's articles:
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Managed Print Services: the Theory, the Tools, and the Targets (Part 1 of 3)

Managed Print Services: the Theory, the Tools, and the Targets (Part 2 of 3)

Managed Print Services: the Theory, the Tools, and the Targets (Part 3 of 3)


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Xerox To Manage Procter & Gamble’s Global Print Operations - MIF or NN?

According to a report over at ZDNet, posted by Larry Dignan, Xerox landed a five year deal to manage P&G's print fleet.

Reprint of the article:

Xerox said Tuesday that it will manage Procter & Gamble’s global print operations with the aim to cut costs by 20 percent to 25 percent.

Managed print services are becoming popular as companies look for ways to squeeze costs. All of those stray printers residing in offices add up to a big cost. In the managed print service market, HP and Xerox are duking it out as the largest players.

In a statement, Xerox said it won a five year deal to manage P&G’s “print shops, offices and home-based work settings.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Xerox said it is aiming to cut print power usage by 30 percent and paper consumption by 20 percent to 30 percent.

As part of the deal, Xerox will offer training to P&G employees and tips on reducing printing costs as well as a portal for procurement and support.

Overall, print managed services is an interesting market that I’ll be learning as a user. HP is planning to provide print services to CBS, owner of ZDNet. I don’t have any local printers hiding under my desk so I don’t anticipate any problems.

Are You Considering Managed Print Services ? - What You Should Know and What your Service Provider Should Know

April 2009

Managed Print Services is still being defined - or is it?

I firmly believe in "the best advice is the advice you ask for...", so please don't give me any advice - unless I ask.

I extend the courtesy to you if you're not asking for advice and don't want to know my opinion, skip this article.

But if you are a prospective Managed Print Services client, and you're just a bit curious as to how to go about choosing a provider, read on.

Introducing, Greg's Top 10 Must-Know's before engaging in an MPS assessment.

Imagine, you're sitting across the table from a Managed Print Services representative. He or she seems to know a great deal about printing and output and supplies.

After he gives his 5-minute canned intro, pull out the yellow pad with these questions written down, hopefully, you have left plenty of room for his responses.

Let's begin:

1. How do you(the client) define MPS? Have your prospective provider define MPS.

2. What is his Process? Leave it at that, let him further define your question. You want to see the detail of his process if he has one.

3. Tell me about your assessment. Get the gist of the assessment, the mechanics. You are trying to see if the proposal is the assessment - is that all he's got?

4. Clearly define the goals of your MPS engagement and have him respond to them. You should think before you meet with the provider. You do not need concrete goals, just a direction.

5. What goals does your prospective MPS provider have? Is his plan to replace all your existing equipment or supply source(s) with his?

6. How important is the assessment? Again, is the assessment the only tool in the shed?

7. How many units have the prospective MPS provider assessed in the last 6 months? This is simple and the numbers don't matter, it's how he answers that matters. Does he make excuses or wild claims?

8. How many units does the MPS provider manage? How? Same as above.

9. What percentage of savings has the prospective MPS provider achieved with clients and from what areas of cost? This is a great one, don't let him get away with quoting Gartner or All or InfoTrend or even Photizo, make him get specific. Again, the numbers don't matter as much as how he responds.

10. What was the Core business of your provider before MPS? The best question. This will tell you where he is going with your account and exactly how much infrastructure he has to support your fleet.

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Some generalities and points to observe -

• Does he use the word "partner" or "vendor"?
• Does he say he has the cheapest program around?
• What does he say he can not do?
• Where did he learn about MPS?
• What does he know about IT issues like power consumption and cooling?

As the captain of the Titanic said, "...this is just tip of the iceberg..." 

The ten points above can be expanded into even deeper discussions - would you like to learn more?