Another Swipe at Salespeople From the IT World: Telecom Sales People Are Funny

Sales Stories are standard conversation pieces at watering holes all over the world - always have been, always will be.

How often have we sales people made fun of "idiot customers" and remember that time we spilled coffee on the prospect's desk.

Or when we put that open, felt-tipped pen in our pocket, latter realizing while we were presenting, a spot of black ink expanded on our shirt, distracting the prospect and propelling our presentation into the annals of "funny sales stories".

It is interesting to see what the guy on the "other side of the table" thinks and what he thinks is funny.

Over at The Industry Standard, Johna Till Johnson, Networld World, pieced together this narrative about "...the sheer entertainment factor of the "dog and pony show" as carrier salespeople and sales engineers present their responses to the RFP..."

An excerpt:

"...The carrier obligingly scoped out a scenario, including a managed router connecting into the MPLS network, and a parallel Internet router connecting into the Internet (over a separate local loop). The carrier then added a Session Initiation Protocol trunking card to link the site PBX into one of the routers. The only problem: it plugged the PBX into the Internet router, not the MPLS one — arguing the customer needed to "keep the MPLS network available for data..."

My response - "huh?" Why is this funny? Did I miss somin?

The post is short - so go over and check it out if you like, here.

My favorite nugget is this statement, "...Carriers often invest a lot of time and energy in these presentations, typically bringing a half-dozen employees in to extol the wonders of their company..."

I have often wondered why competitors and at times, my own management, feels the need to bring an army of "presentors" to a client meeting.

Many times, it is quite comical.

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HP = MPS Powerhouse...in Portugal...

"HP Portugal currently holds more 50% of all contracts for Managed Print Services, and focused its strategy in large companies and leaving the market share of medium and small enterprises to their partners...operates a fleet of about 2,500 machines with 8 to 10 million printed pages per month..."

Seems they understand the difference between "operational" and "capital" costs...


Full article translated, here.

US Air Traffic Patterns

Lexmark "Lands" BASF for Managed Print Services: Wasn't BASF MIF for Lexmark?

If so, then isn't it just a "conversion"?

I stripped this off of the Business Lexington site.

BASF chooses Lexmark to optimize its print output management.

submitted by Staff - May 14, 2009 | 02:35 PM

May 13, 2009 -- Lexmark International (NYSE: LXK) today announced a multi-year global services agreement with BASF (BASF SE (ADR)). The contract, as part of a Managed Print Services initiative, will enable BASF to reduce its output costs significantly in a sustainable manner, and improve its document processes.

Following a rigorous competitive review, Lexmark was selected because of its thorough approach to total cost of ownership, its worldwide service and support capabilities and its comprehensive set of product features.

BASF is the world's leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals as well as oil and gas. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF has approximately 97,000 employees and posted sales of more than €62 billion in 2008.

Managed Print Services is a business model that allows companies to control their print infrastructure, rationalize the hardware they use, and take advantage of an ongoing service level agreement with a strategic partner to deliver continuous improvement.

Lexmark works with companies around the world to optimize and manage their print infrastructure. The printing company's 'Print Less, Save More' message resonates with large, multinational organizations who wish to reduce their paper use, improve process efficiency and reduce costs. With so much to gain from a controlled and less-costly printing infrastructure, more and more companies are turning to Lexmark to support their needs.

Photizo Group Announces MPS Program Benchmarking Study Objective evaluation designed to help dealers find best program partners

Lexington, KY – May 13, 2009 – The Photizo Group today announced the MPS Program Benchmarking Study™ to provide dealers with objective assessments of competing managed print programs offered by vendors and infrastructure providers. This helps dealers make good business choices and promotes profitable, long-term MPS relationships.

The Photizo Group specializes in analysis of the printing and imaging industry and is the market’s main source for ongoing business intelligence about the burgeoning Managed Print Services opportunity.

The Photizo Group is the thought leader for Managed Print Services, providing insight to the manufacturer, dealer / reseller, infrastructure provider, and end user communities.

“Dealers are often at the forefront of MPS engagements and relationships, and they are confronted with an increasing number and variety of program offerings. While there are a number of excellent MPS programs available from vendors, the dealer community has no clear guidance on which programs are right for them based on their specific needs. Different dealers require different programs, but until now, there have been no credible third party assessments of various approaches relative to MPS requirements. This new study provides neutral guidance to help dealers identify vendors best suited to meet the needs of their organization, based upon their stage of MPS adoption,” said Ed Crowley, Founder and Senior Partner of the Photizo Group.

The MPS Program Benchmarking Study begins with the “ideal” deliverables needed for a particular dealer given their stage of MPS adoption, and then maps vendor programs against this standard. The dealer’s stage of MPS adoption is evaluated based upon the proprietary “Hybrid Dealer Adoption Model” developed by the Photizo Group. The evaluation establishes a baseline by matching the dealer’s stage of MPS adoption against the MPS capabilities that are required based on the typical expected customer engagements. The customer needs criteria are based on the lifecycle of the MPS engagement, according to the popular MPS Adoption Cycle developed by the Photizo Group.

Program evaluation criteria include items such as infrastructure assessments, hardware break / fix service, remote device monitoring, and integrating device monitoring into a billing system. The evaluations for each item are positioned on a sliding-scale analysis.

Then the study objectively analyzes program features and execution to determine how well a vendor’s program components as well as support activities addresses each stage. By compiling the individual factors, the study evaluates and scores each overall program relevant to the vendor’s ability to deliver the capabilities needed for that engagement.

According to Mr. Crowley, “We are providing MPS vendors with an opportunity to sponsor the study. While we require final say on all criteria and analysis, we do encourage input into the definition of the criteria for the study. We have been pleasantly surprised by the response to the study, and in fact, we have already surpassed our initial sponsorship targets. Once again, I believe we have identified a key need in the industry and stepped up with a unique solution.”

Other sponsor benefits include:

· The complete report (150-200 pages) detailing results for all vendors

· Nominating customers for validation

· Special pricing for reprints

The report will be available for purchase by dealers in late July. For more information about the upcoming MPS Program Benchmarking Study and sponsorships, contact Photizo at (859) 873-4518 or info@managed-print-services.com.

# # #

Can Managed Print Services Rise to a Presidential Level: Will the "O" Implement "behavioral modification" software? Hide the toothpicks.

The private sector is losing jobs every, single day. Here in the US, we lost some 550,000 jobs last month - this is considered good news because we didn't lose 600,000+ jobs.

And as much as I think most Public Sector minions couldn't hold a position in the "real world", they do enjoy the comfort of never needing to worry about losing their job.

Additionally, from my experience, most forms of government bureaucracy are stellar examples of waste - waste of intelligence, waste of manpower, wasteful processes, waste of tax dollars.

In a recently released report from Lexmark International Inc. and a survey conducted by Alexandria, Va., marketing firm O'Keeffe & Co. it is revealed that the government is wasting millions of dollars in useless printing. (no way!)

The study, which is based on a survey of 380 federal employees, found that the U.S. government spends nearly $1.3 billion annually on printing.

Of that, about one third, $440 million, nearly $1 million a day, is wasted on useless pages.

"It makes way too much sense," said David Williams, vice president of policy at Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based think tank.

"We see a culture of bureaucracy. When given a choice, even with these huge technological advantages, you don't see the government taking advantage of this. Private industry and business has taken advantage, but this government hasn't," Mr. Williams added.

What is more interesting is the dollar amount wasted, $440 million, is more than four times the amount President Obama recently asked agency managers collectively to eliminate from their administrative budgets.

On average, federal employees print 30 pages of paper every work day and respondents say that they discarded about 35 percent of the pages the day they printed them.

Ninety-two percent of respondents acknowledged they did not need all the material that they printed, and more than two-thirds said they could print less if they tried.

"Printing at work is made very easy, so I tend to print without thinking about it," one respondent said.

Lexmark recommends that federal agencies have a comprehensive printing policy in place, including how to better use digital documents.

"Agencies need to look at how to deploy and manage technology, not just from the perspective of putting a printer out there to be used, but around really understanding it as a service to your employees," said Brian Henderson,Lexmark's federal information solutions director. "How is printing strategically going to enable your mission?"

All is not lost, as 10 percent of survey respondents report a working under formal printing policies, and 20 percent said that their agencies had restrictions on color printing.(LOL)

Additionally, the Homeland Security Department expects to save more than $40,000 in part by printing fewer copies of the fiscal 2010 budget- posting online.(LOL, 40k savings?)

The Agriculture Department is developing a Web-based utility billing system that could save more than $670,000 annually.

"President Obama has called for fiscal responsibility, and identifying and eliminating unnecessary printing is a simple first step," said Marty Canning, a Lexmark vice president.

"Clear, standardized, and enforced agency printing policies, as well as increased reliance on secure digital records, will help change the employee printing habits that have become so ingrained in the government 'corporate culture' and enable agencies to decrease their carbon footprint," Mr. Canning added.


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All well and good.

But if I were Lexmark, I would stay clear of the Obama Public Sector Gravity Well - else, Mr. Canning could find himself working for Olivetti or in line with the ex-CEO of GM.

Articles, sources:

Federal workers throw out millions of pages a day.

Report recommends crackdown on excessive printing.

Olivetti

Wednesday Morning Federal Newsstand

Survey: US government could save millions on printing

The Lexmark report


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