Much Ado About NOTHING: Output Device Hard Drive security - of course, Congress has to Get involved - more waste!

Deficit?

Unemployment?

Crazy, religious zealots wanting to Nuke us and our friends?

Failing public education, yet successful indoctrination of our yoots ?

The heart and soul of a society?

The DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WAY?

You would think that with the above and oh so many other concerns, like regulating the substance we exhale(WTF!), congress would have many more important things to do.

Apparently not.

Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) sent a letter today to the head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calling for an investigation into the, "retention of documents on the hard drives of digital copy machines..."

This is stupid, fear mongering, and yet so damn predictable.

Before you go off thinking I don't recognize this a real issue - I do, I did, back in 1999. That is not the problem.

The problem is simply this, the congress, indeed this administration, is using any perceived fear to leverage their way into the free market rendering the market a little less "free" with every effort. And right next to them, shoulder to shoulder, is CBS - the Dan Rather, made up letters, the Murphy Brown, a fictitious character, who takes on the spelling skills of a sitting Vice President of America, a non-fictional character - network.

Can the hard drives hold sensitive data? Yes.

Has the "industry", known this from the beginning? Yes.

Have these same industry players openly addressed the issue and presented solutions? Not all. But some have.

Have clients known about this issue? Not all, but those who were smart enough to see the potential, they acted. Some purchasing the hard drives out right at lease end. I know for certain, The Church of Scientology, has been practicing this level of security for at least a decade.

How come they were so smart 5 years ago and the manager at a Tommy Bahama's restaurant in Scottsdale isn't? Well, it's not his job.

And how does this figure into Managed Print Services?

It's so classic, it is almost nauseating.

Let's remember Stage One of the MPS adoption model - Control. Within this stage is the requirement of there being "one decision making entity". This addresses the "facilities handles copiers", and "IT handles printers" mentality. MPS can not exist if there are two separate decision making teams involved with output concerns.

Throw in the fact that IT is usually responsible for supporting corporate, IT, security policies - not facilities; not Purchasing - and we have a predictable, security hole.

So What?

This industry can regulate itself - we don't need any help from a congressman from MA.

Although...how delicious is it going to be when Veejay, Espe, and all the others from Canon, Ricoh, Konica, Kyocera, Oki, Brother, Lexmark and Panasonic are sitting at the same table, being grilled by congress - hide the Katana's!

Story here. I need a drink.

Click to email me.

Netaphor Launches Major New Version of Managed Print Services Tool

Press Release:

Netaphor Launches Major New Version of Managed Print Services Tool

SiteAudit Version 4.0 from Netaphor Software offers the most comprehensive reporting capabilities and Key Performance Indicators in the managed print services (MPS) industry.

Irvine, CA (PRWEB) April 29, 2010 -- Netaphor, a provider of managed print services (MPS) software, today announced a major new version of its SiteAudit tool. SiteAudit 4.0 offers the capability to create an unlimited set of Web reports covering all aspects of a printer fleet’s performance in the areas of inventory, supplies, and service.

10 Things I Am Looking For at Managed Print Services Con 2010

It's a list of my expectations for the MPS Conference next week.

My singular hope is that something, one thing, anything, may turn up to be just as intriguing and refreshing...

10. What's working and what isn't...

9. For the last time, what is MPS...

8. Who thinks they have it all figured out...

7. MPS training, should we scratch it all and start over...

6. Are there any organic, MPS Selling Professionals...

5. How is all that national, retail office supply, MPS activity working out...

4. BTA types, do you have a bad taste in your mouth, or what...

3. Who is going to stand up and say, "MPS and SLED/GEM do not mix..."

2. How far along is the DeathOfPrint...really...

1. A year from now, what say you...

Kinda makes you want to go green, doesn't she?

Click to email me.

Free Photizo Webcasts Offer Live Coverage of MPSA General Assembly at North American MPS Conference

Other key MPS Conference sessions also offered

LEXINGTON, KY – April 28, 2010 – Photizo Group and MPSInsights.com will host a free webcast of the MPSA General Assembly live from the 2010 North American MPS Conference, and interactive chat will let viewers participate during the session. The MPSA Annual Meeting and General Session led by MPSA President Jim Fitzpatrick takes place May 5 from 4:45-5:30 pm Central.

In addition, a number of other MPS Conference sessions will also be webcast free of charge from MPSInsights.com, providing viewers with a sample of the MPS Conference. With the North American conference nearing a capacity audience, the webcasts will make portions of the event content available to more people.


“This year’s MPS North America Conference continues the high standard that has been set at each event in the MPS Conference series, and the agenda is loaded with excellent content. We recognize the crucial need for information in this dynamic market, and through these free webcasts, Photizo hopes to extend the educational opportunity a little wider across the MPS community,” said Ed Crowley, President of the Photizo Group.

MPSInsights.com Webcast Schedule: (All sessions are Central time.)

Tuesday, May 4

· 9:15-10:15 am; Ed Crowley--Photizo Group, State of the Industry

· 10:30-11:30 am; John MacInne--Print Audit, Scott Bonck--IKON, Adding Print Rules to Your MPS Program

· 3:00-4:00 pm; Lawton Smith--DirectPointe, SharePoint Servers As a Building Block for Stage 3 Engagements

Wednesday, May 5

· 8:15-9:00 am; Jason Evans--PEQ Services Solutions, Keynote Address

· 9:45-10:45 am; Jose Luis Parga--Pulsartec, Is Selling MPS to SMBs Profitable?

· 1:30-2:30 pm; Greg Walters--SIGMAnet, David Cameron--Photizo Group, Changing Dealer Business Models; Myth vs. Reality

· 4:45-5:30 pm; MPSA Annual Meeting and General Session led by Jim Fitzpatrick, MPSA President

Webcast video access and other information are available at MPSInsights.com.


Click to email me.

"I have seen the future of Managed Print Services, and its name is Bruce Springsteen."

4/2010

A bit of a stretch, but stay with me here.

"...in 1974, 25-year-old Bruce Springsteen played at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge.

Although popular with the college crowd in the Northeast, Springsteen was not yet a star.

That night, he and the E Street Band opened for Bonnie Raitt.

The influential music critic Jon Landau was in the audience. Overwhelmed by what he heard, Landau wrote,

"I saw my rock and roll past flash before my eyes. I saw something else: I saw rock and roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen."

In the years since that momentous spring night in Cambridge, the Boss has had 14 albums go platinum, has won 11 Grammies and an Oscar and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame..."

Back in those days, stars were truly discovered. Crowds were organic, not Twitter-induced - the "buzz" was real.

This is way before MTV, before "57 Channels", email, the internet, Facebook, blow dryers and teeth whitening. The music was real.

To know Bruce back then was to either hate him or love him. And the Bruce fans were nuts, unique, outside of the norm - to the right of the bell curve.

His shows today are intense, but back then, the 4-hour sessions skyrocketed up and over the religious. Not because he demanded so much from his band, all of them willing accomplices, but Bruce did more - he demanded more from his audience.

From everyone within hear shot. Those of us in the very last seat, to the fans behind the stage, to the high rollers in the front row - if you didn't believe in Rock n Roll after one of his concerts, you didn't have a pulse.

One of the most interesting things I remember from those glory days - well, not back in 1974 - I consider myself a "second-gen" Bruce fan, from the Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town era - I think back to how we fans stuck together. How while standing in line to get into a show, we all had that "cat who ate the mouse" look.

The nod, the smile from fan to fan - we were in for something special, something not everybody "got" and that was fine with us. Actually, we preferred it this way. Bruce was ours. Not everyone's. And as much as we wanted to keep this a secret, we all knew that someday, Bruce would be moving out of the smaller venues into the mega-shows, the real world, mainstream.

And so it is with Managed Print Services - our Secret Garden, we lucky few who shared a wink and a nod, over a year ago in San Antonio, we are about to lose to the rest of the world, this special, undefinable "thing".

It's been a year, another turn of the globe, and MPS has just about come full circle.

The "big guys" have now gotten it right.

I rail against the titans, the over publicized global MPS takedowns less than 5% of us will ever see. The over-exposed CPC to MPS conversions straight out of MIF, touted as examples of MPS.

And yes, I protest the lack of human touch extolled by heartless MPS programs.

I challenge, I poke, I prod, I mock. Yet, deep down, I know the exercise is tragic if not futile. One step up, and two steps down.

You see, there is a part of me fighting to keep MPS bottled up, pure. Sure, me, the dark skeptic, exposed as an eternal optimist, even as the genie evaporates out for all to see.

The lack of MPS purity, I feel, has led to the detriment of so many MPS programs; Konica Minolta OPS, Samsung MPS Platform, the Lexmark thing, HP MPS redefining the size of an enterprise account down to SMB, from PagePack 1.0 to PagePack 3.0(there never was a 2.0) on and on.

And all those failed BTA/MPS programs, doomed from the very beginning, taking with them, bright-eyed and hopeful copier salespeople or service managers christened as MPS experts. Such a waste.

To be sure there are many, many bright spots - Great America offering leasing and MPS training, not to mention advice on how to hire MPS people.

Synnex, delivering just in time, HP OEM, and utilizing Stephen Power - the only old skool mentor who gets it.

And the Photizo Group, how frustrating it must be to see your work, copied and regurgitated as new; complete trade shows themed on your descriptive: The Hybrid Dealer. I mean, flattery can only go so far.

So, after a year, where are we now? Indeed, after three, where do you stand now?

For me, it's a realization that this has finally gotten bigger than us.

MPS is hitting the mainstream, the time for defining is passed, those of us who may have felt at one time in control of destiny, need to simply hang on, and make the best of it.

Those intimate Springsteen shows were special, a point in time that can never be duplicated, except in memory.

But the sheer, awesome, spectacle that is a Springsteen arena show, even if mainstream, is glorious.

As I consider the past 12 months, "I saw my printer and copier past flash before my eyes. I saw something else: I saw MPS's future and its name is (fill in the blank)."

All is not lost - there are more windmills for us to charge on this MPS landscape - all it takes is a Leap of Faith, I think we should keep taking those tickets from the fat man, living the runaway American Dream.

Because, ultimately, I still haven't found, what I'm looking for...



  Click to email me.