Okidata Into the Fray: A Three Level Managed Print Services Offering For Dealers

Oki is in and is approaching dealers. Especially those who are tentative about entering the MPS arena.

"The channel is struggling to learn MPS, there's a little bit of a handicap there because they're just focusing on printers and copiers," Krentzman, President and Chief Executive Officer at Oki Data Americas, Inc. said. "Partners have to rethink the way they do business from "hardware centric" to "service centric."

Details are sketchy at this point, as always. There are two different pricing plans; monthly flat cost and a cost per image.

Dealers can either dip their toe or jump in head first - Oki appears to have different levels of commitment each with a higher access to all of Oki's MPS tools.

The market is certainly crowded and Oki has stiff competition. Citing Xerox's MPS program, Okidata said that there are some major options that its program offers that Xerox doesn't, including hardware training and proactive service alerts. I wonder how factual that statement really is.

Remotely interesting announcement, relative to the last few days - Ricoh, HP.

Odds are, One Day You Will Not Get Your News/Information in Print or On Your Computer

2009 -

Hyper-Local information - Point your smart phone at a building, take a picture and receive every piece of data available on that building.

"We're finding that an increasing number of young people are getting their news from smartphones," says Geeta Dayal, a Ford Foundation Fellow who teaches a class on mobile phones and journalism at University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. "And the more people use their phones to access information, the more they want to know what's happening where they are right now."Imagine the face recognition applications.

Picking someone up at the bar will be wild - aim, shoot, download everything - Facebook, Twitter name, blog, work website, phone, email addy - even background checks.

No need to exchange business cards, simply snap a pic and rock and roll.

No print, all your output presented on bended plastic, not bio-mass.

"We're finding that an increasing number of young people are getting their news from smartphones," says Geeta Dayal, a Ford Foundation Fellow who teaches a class on mobile phones and journalism at University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. "And the more people use their phones to access information, the more they want to know what's happening where they are right now."

I suggest a day when there is very little being printed at all.

As we know, the primary reason for print media is cheap portability - but cheap comes with a cost - static versus dynamic, old news versus late breaking, news/information for everyone, edited by strangers versus custom and personal- analog versus digital.

Submitted for your consideration, a "Minority Report" view from Microsoft.

In this world of 2019, there is no "print", no CPC, CPI or MPS.

Caution - when you think you see a newspaper, you are seeing an iteration of the Kindle.

Enjoy.

Inspiration Here.

Canon Joins the Rest of The Imaging World: Announces 12 Steps To Managed Print Services: Wait, That's not Right...

As the rest of the industry stumbles, tumbles and clamors their way towards MPS nirvana, Canon stays the course - announcing that they will introduce a new line of copiers.

In light of the recent forays into MPS by Xerox, HP and other manufacturers, Canon's relative quiet, is deafening.

What is going on?

In a statement made today, Canon announced that their first new line in nine years will consist of three series composed of 12 machines. These units will be sold under the "ImageRunner Advance" nameplate.

The machines will be geared toward 12,000 images/month. One unit, the C7065 will produce color, A4 images at 60 ppm and prices out at around $35k(retail).

These sound like great boxes - I can't wait to include them under my MPS Engagements.

Strange Twist - Managed Print Services is Redefined Again: Printing Industry of America

In an unpredictable and amusing way, HP's announcement today regarding the Printing Payback Guarantee, triggered negative reaction from the PIA.

You will remember the PIA is the Printing Industries of America.

They bill themselves as "...the world's largest graphic arts trade association..." and today chastised HP for leaving it's core business to start printing greeting cards.

Hang on, this is going to be fun...


From the PIA Press release...

"...It is with disappointment, therefore, that Printing Industries of America learned of HP's latest offering -- managed print services, which was advertised with great fanfare in this morning's Wall Street Journal. "We are always concerned when a major vendor in our industry deviates from its core offerings to venture into managing print solutions, which the private sector has competitively provided for hundreds of years," notes Michael Makin, President and CEO of Printing Industries of America..."

Go ahead, read it again...

HP is deviating from "its core offerings to venture into managing print solutions..."?

Whiskey...Tango...Foxtrot!

LOL! The PIA are the folks printing your wedding invitations, posters, handbooks,etc.

What is your definition of Managed Print Services?

I am pretty sure it is not online customer job tickets, soft proofing of files on line, job status, retrieval of jobs and files, instant notification of job arrivals and proof approvals, and a product catalog.

Wait. It might not now be, but maybe it SHOULD be someday---?

I was in absolute shock - stunned actually.

I didn't understand when murmurings appeared on Twitter about "PIA's negative reaction to HP's announcement" - who the heck is PIA?

Did Ben kill a fly during the press conference?

How could anyone respond negatively to a simple guarantee?

Alias, a PR was issued, and the third ugly head of ignorance around the definition of Managed Print Services spewed forth.

I doubt very much that my comment will be posted on their board - I have been accused of sometimes being "blunt".

The PR is here. Go now, enjoy. My comment, that will never see the light of day, or smell the sweet scent of ink, is below:

OMG!

There is no way an organization that has been around for "100 years" can be so stupid...right?

"HP...Compromising their position..."

LOL! Bufoons!

I would urge all PIA members to re-evaluate their membership if this is the kind of direction the PIA leadership hands down.

Stunning...absolutely stunning...

You could have at least Googled "Managed Print Services" - even on dial-up the correct information could have saved you this embarrassment.


Too much, do you think?

HP Managed Print Services Guarantee Announcement - The Ben Stein and Bruce Dahlgren - Show Simple Analysis

Special guests, Intel, ST, and InfoTrends.

My impressions.

The HP Printing Payback Guarantee -

Simply put, HP guarantee's an amount of savings, based on analysis and implementation of a new HP Managed Print Services Agreement.

Companies will be required to complete a detailed, fee based assessment.

The agreement also requires a hardware/supplies/service agreement for a minimum of 3 years.

After a year, HP conducts another assessment to determine past savings. HP will credit the difference between projected and actual savings.

Although most of this is re-hashed, I think the Guarantee is new - which is probably a bummer for Intel and ST; or is it?

Here's the deal with this guarantee:

First, there is a low probability that HP will ever need to credit any client. There is practically now way that any company will not be able to save money after implementing MPS, anybody's MPS, because most have no idea and no control of printing costs.

Also, HP will perform an in depth, detailed FEE BASED, assessment before offering the guarantee - they will know where all the skeletons are buried and exactly how much they can save their client. Ratchet that number back 10% and savings can be guaranteed.

Third, this is a great marketing technique(opposed to a marketing scheme) for a the client to be offered the guarantee, a three year hardware/supplies/service agreement must be initiated - delicious.

Fourth, after the first year HP performs another assessment, not sure if this one is fee based, to determine the delta between projected and actual savings.

If the projected is less then the actual, HP issues a credit - not a check. You tell me, if HP knows they need to find $100,000 of savings, they will find $101,000 - genius. One can only wonder what happens if the proposed savings ends up being more then actual - will the client issue HP a credit?

I am sure this move will be dissected ad nauseam.

This is a Enterprise Account issue - and for most of the channel, this announcement won't effect day to day activity.

Details Here.

HP to Re-Org IPG - Again - Focus on Managed Print Services - Again

A new division specific to the MPS market will be formed, head up by Bruce Dahlgren, the former Lexmark vice president and general manager of North American Printing Solutions and Services.

You may remember the Dahlgren case back in 2006; it seems HP and Lexmark sued each other over Dahlgren's defection from Lexmark to HP.

Last week Ricoh, today HP - wowzie.

Or is it?

Industry insiders, pundits and observers have been waiting to see how and when Bruce will begin leveraging his experiences with Lexmark.

Game on.


The press release is sketchy on detail but does mention HP's interest at the "Enterprise" level.

So this does not appear, at first, to be a channel program.

There was no creation date given for this new division HP saying more information will be released over the next few months.

Also, from the PR:

"...It(HP) also launched a program Monday that it said would help to guarantee savings for companies that sign up for its print services. HP will assess a company's imaging and printing environment and calculate how much it thinks the company can save using HP's managed services. After a year, if customers haven't realized the savings, HP will make up the difference with a credit that can be used for their next printing services contract..."

Here is the full release:

July 12, 2009 — IDG News Service —

Hewlett-Packard is stepping up its efforts in the area of managed print services. The company plans to form a new group dedicated to this area, and is also launching a program that it says will help guarantee savings for customers who sign up for the services.

The new group will manage printing environments and help companies reduce the printer hardware they need to use, said Bruce Dahlgren, senior vice president of worldwide sales and services at Hewlett-Packard's imaging and printing group (IPG). The company already offers printing services, but HP will be able to give the area more focus by giving the business its own unit, Dahlgren said.

HP said it would help enterprises to consolidate their printing hardware and reduce the cost per page printed, Dahlgren said. Customers will be able to negotiate service contracts with HP, which will manage their hardware and software printing infrastructures.
Click here to find out more!

HP didn't say exactly when it would form the new unit, but said announcements will follow in the coming months.

It also launched a program Monday that it said would help to guarantee savings for companies that sign up for its print services. HP will assess a company's imaging and printing environment and calculate how much it thinks the company can save using HP's managed services. After a year, if customers haven't realized the savings, HP will make up the difference with a credit that can be used for their next printing services contract.

"With all the expertise, we should provide a guarantee," Dahlgren said. The company thinks it can help companies cut 20 percent to 30 percent of their costs, he said.

HP may be looking to stimulate growth in its printing and imaging group, which saw revenue decline more sharply in the last quarter than some other divisions. Revenue from the group dropped 23 percent in the last quarter to US$5.9 billion, compared to a drop of 3 percent in revenue for HP as a whole.

Printing services are a big opportunity for HP, said Gilles Biscos, president at Interquest, a research and consulting company in Charlottesville, Virginia. Some areas of the printing business, such as billing and the production of legal documents, have been relatively unaffected by the rise of the Web, and there remains a big market in helping companies to find ways to cut their printing costs.

Large companies could potentially save money by consolidating copiers, fax machines and multifunction printers, Biscos said. Simple steps like shutting down printers when they are not in use and printing on both sides of pages can dramatically cut costs, he said.


Link Here.