Friday is FunDay: Smooth version. For all my Peeps in ChiTown - Step In The Name Of Love

Killer Paper The Return: Receipts Contain Chemical Bisphenol A

From the "Be Scared. Be Very, Very Scared" category: The paper receipts you get from McDonalds, CVS/pharmacy, Walmart, and 33 other retailers are tainted with the endocrine-disrupting chemical BPA, which has been the target of nationwide efforts to ban it in food and beverage containers, especially those used by babies and children. Animal tests show that BPA, a plastics hardener that is also a synthetic estrogen, can cause reproductive and behavioral abnormalities and lower intellectual ability, as well as setting the stage for cancers, obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. 

WOW - so those little pieces of thermal paper are going to make me cry more often, act strangely, make dumb decisions and send me out of the store wheezing, short of breath?

Industry Pundit and MPS Pro Ken Stewart Joins Photizo

A friend of DOTC, indeed one of the earliest "connections" I made out here in the MPS Ecosystem, Ken Stewart.

It is a great honor to know this gentleman, and to see one of the MPS Titans receive "just rewards".

Congratulations, Ken. Photizo is fortunate to have you.

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Stewart brings channel background, customer experience and MPS leadership

Lexington, KY – July 30, 2010 – Ken Stewart, experienced managed print services professional, founder of industry blog ChangeForge.com, and decorated former Marine, has joined Photizo Group, leading advocate of managed print services research and consulting. In his new role as senior consultant, Stewart will focus on developing education tools, training, and other programs for the reseller channel.

"I am honored to join a team I so greatly respect, and believe this exciting opportunity to be a marriage of like minds and passions. As this industry continues to evolve, I look forward to serving our clients with integrity, intensity and insight as part of Photizo Group," said Stewart.

Meritus Ventures Announces Investment in Photizo Group

LONDON, Ky., Jul 27, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Meritus Ventures announces investment in Photizo Group, Inc. (Photizo) of Versailles, Kentucky. Photizo, founded in 2004, is a consulting and research firm that provides market information and services to vendors, dealers, and end user communities in the managed print services market.

Managed print services (MPS) is at the intersection of business services and technology, focusing on providing a total printing solution that enables organizations and companies to better manage their print environment through the outsourcing of hardcopy devices, software, supplies, and services. Each year, hundreds of players in the managed print services market attend Photizo's international conferences and purchase Photizo's cutting edge market research and intelligence reports.

Examples of industry players include Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Cannon, and Ricoh.

Meritus Ventures was the sole investor in the transaction, and Ray Moncrief of Meritus has taken a position on Photizo's board of directors. Photizo has demonstrated an annual revenue growth rate greater than 50% since 2006 and doubled revenue from 2008 to 2009. In addition, the company had positive earnings in 2009 and is on track for increased revenue growth and profitability in 2010.

TRON: Legacy - Next, Red Dawn

KINDLE DEVICE UNIT SALES ACCELERATE EACH MONTH IN SECOND QUARTER; NEW $189 PRICE RESULTS IN TIPPING POINT FOR GROWTH

SEATTLE-July 19, 2010-(NASDAQ: AMZN)-Millions of people are already reading on Kindles and Kindle is the #1 bestselling item on Amazon.com for two years running.

It's also the most-wished-for, most-gifted, and has the most 5-star reviews of any product on Amazon.com.

Today, Amazon.com announced that Kindle device unit sales accelerated each month in the second quarter-both on a sequential month-over-month basis and on a year-over-year basis.

"We've reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle-the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

"In addition, even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books-astonishing when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months."

Iron Mountain to Help Hospitals Adopt Electronic Medical Records

BOSTON, Jul 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Iron Mountain Incorporated (IRM 23.28, -0.22, -0.94%) , the information management company, is combining its services for document scanning, file archiving, data backup and more into one solution for hospitals and healthcare organizations converting hardcopy patient files into an electronic medical record (EMR) system.

The new Iron Mountain EMR Enablement Solution offers healthcare organizations a complete set of tools for digitizing patient records, archiving electronic files, protecting them from disaster, and then destroying outdated records.

A Case Against Paperless: Your Bank, Your Credit Cards, Your Cell:

Matt Swain at InfoBlog put together a nice little, personal example of why surrending to the marketing pressures, and "turning off" his paper billing, may not be a good thing.

I know all the "big iron" folks have for years watched the clicks tumble as more and more utility and credit card customers decide to recieve bills and statements via email.

Sounds like a good deal, right?

Supply your bank your email addy and expect a bill or reminder to find its way to your inbox.

Friday is FunDay: Katy Perry "California Gurls". You know it !!

You knew this was coming - CaliGirls, all the way.

I may never look at jello, or Candyland the same - ever again.

And whipped cream? Fa-git-bout-it.

One bummer - I have reviewed this work dozens of times and can not find one reference to Managed Print Services, copiers or BPO - odd.

Maybe you can find one...or ...two...

Hope you're having a great summer.

No Really - NO MORE PAPER. Sixth Sense TED/2009

September 2009 -

Speechless.

This is crazy and you have to check it out.

New ways to read toilet paper labels, people and newspapers - which is weird.

8 minutes.

And the last thing she says, "...maybe, in another ten years, we'll be here with the ultimate Six Sense Brain Implant..." - Good Lord.




Click to email me.

Selling MPS: This is Why Managed Print Services Providers COULD Have an Edge Over IT.

The title of the post grabbed my attention:

"Why there should be no such thing as an IT project."

"IT is not an island: CIOs reveal the secrets to successful business projects..."

ANALYSIS
How is it that pure IT projects seem destined to fail, and yet technology is clearly key to business?

Mark Samuels canvasses a group CIOs for their views on what barriers there are to IT project success.
"IT projects never really work," says Mike Day, CIO at fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. That seems like negative talk from a technology chief but there is sound method in the apparent madness..."-----------------------

Madness? Yes.

I can count more EDM and FaxServer projects that ended up on "eternal roll-out" because of the reasons mentioned in this article - so to finally see somebody within the IT world recognize this, I was taken back.

Well, as you know, MPS is simply Business Process Optimization - say it with me, "MPS is BPO...MPS is BPO...MPS is BPO..."

But as long as we can use our laptops out by the pool, I am fine with IT projects, really, I am.

The BBB doesn't Like Office Depot: Takes away Membership and Gives them a "Badge of Shame"

Office Depot is in very hot water, again.

The Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida has revoked its membership.

Seems you can't be in the BBB with too many government investigations occurring - huh.

An investigation revealed that ODepot allegedly switched local government agencies and nonprof's "from one pricing plan to another without their full understanding or knowledge..."

Let's throw away the key, shall we?

Wow.