Interestingly, many clients are increasingly contemplating Remanufactured (Reman) vs. Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) toner cartridges. According to an InfoTrends webinar from September 2009 here, the trend is showing a lean towards Reman.
Really? Who wants used...anything?
Um...everyone. It's the new Green.
Let's take a look across the vast sea of possibilities.
Before having sex with older women, possibly a teacher, was considered a bad thing, and when being touched by a sports gear sales person was criminal, yet could still make it into a movie - Vision Quest.
The music was great.
The visuals familiar. The theme, every red blooded American boy's dream(wet or not)
I had, yet another, epiphany the other day while sitting in front of a prospect, reviewing his fleet over my 8-page "Approach Document", poking through the pain, and proposing an MPS S1 Engagement.
I realized that this and every, single, assessment have had one thing in common - overcapacity.
11x17 at 1% of volume; duplex at 4% of volume; fax machines physically next to MFPs with fax capability next to laser printers; 5-year leases; fuser assemblies and toner sitting next to oh so many client's Canon/Xerox/Ricoh/Konica/Copier-De-Jour.
I thought to myself,
"What's going to happen when everybody realizes they don't need a copier?"
Last week I sat in on a Lexmark MPS webinar - the OEM doesn't matter as much as the customer (always) - Columbia.
As a matter of fact, 60 seconds into the show, I felt I wasn't going to make it past five minutes. I mean, I expect to be "pitched" but a read speech? I swear it was pre-recorded. OMG.
Toughing it out, my staying power was rewarded.
Mike Leeper, Global IT, Columbia, presented a frank, honest, and downright refreshing story of his MPS implementation. Two years into a successful MPS Engagement breaking 10 years of status quo.
Now, I am familiar with the DOW Chemical MPS and Nationwide MPS Project, so I have a good framework for comparison. Both DOW and Nationwide are successful, cost-reducing examples.
I won't bore you with the many details except these:
1. Moved decision process out of Facilities
2. Past decision process was very hardware-centric
3. Print Vendors were just like "...used car salespeople..."
4. Printing was considered boring
5. Success hinged on selling internally and continually communicating
6. Network-only devices considered
7. Project reduced costs by 37%
8. Reduced printed output by 1 million images
9. Effectively "killed" all the previous copiers(DOTC) - zero remained
The last two should send chills up the spine of every OEM and induce the booted, incumbent to hurl - through his nose.
MPS engagements like these are the Pure MPS - how can you commoditize this?
But wait, commoditizing is exactly what the manufacturers want - get all this MPS stuff boiled down to the most basic, simplistic, lowest common denominator. Make it easy enough for a monkey or copier rep(jk!)to sell.
Create tools that kill the art of MPS, and stifle creativity and growth by automatically creating proposals and QBR marketing slicks. Just press F7.
Cram MPS into the old, "slay it and move on" sales model. As long as that MPS engagement includes 11x17, an unused duplex, and a fax machine with every copier.
Back to my prospect.
As happens with like-minded folks, conversations travel the spectrum of technical subjects, tangents really. Some would say, tangents get in the way of the close. Yeah, right.
So we talked about the Agile methodology, Google, SaaS, dual-monitors, MPS(reducing output), CIOtalkRadio.com, and the new control end-users share via social networking.
How, today, the ultimate buyer has more choices and how everybody is collaborating. I told him MPS really expanded around the world because of the new social media - the buzz started online.
I expressed my belief that finally, in my little world of copiers/output devices, the shift from Supply (copier OEM) to Demand-driven(ultimate end-user)is taking place.
The party may not be over but fewer and fewer will be attending...
I think he was being polite when he agreed with me.
Either way, we decided to move forward with an MPS S1 Engagement.
So, now that I have a close, I guess I should strike out and "slay" another one, right?
This MPS universe teems with interesting folks and unique stories. Straight-laced suits, drunk service technicians, leaders with vision, Sales Managers who don't know Steve Schiffman.
In general, I have met great personalities and people out here - sales people, owners, CEO's and shipping clerks.
All with one common thread: we didn't grow up telling our mothers we wanted to be copier or MPS Sales people.
European Managed Print Services Industry Shows Its Vitality at Major Industry Conference
Record attendance indicates Europe on track to become largest MPS market
Lexington, KY – December 6, 2010 – The success of the recent European MPS Conference signals strong and growing interest in managed print services, the business model sweeping the imaging industry. The European event drew 162 attendees to Barcelona, Spain from November 10-12. Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom were among the most represented markets, with participants traveling from 18 different countries as far as South Africa and the United States. HP, Ricoh, FMAudit and DocuAudit Europe were Platinum Sponsors of the 2010 European MPS Conference.
Archived footage of the European MPS Conference Webcast can be found at http://www.mpsconference.com/wrapup/ondemand.html.
“We keep hearing from our attendees that the MPS Conferences hosted by Photizo Group are becoming a watering hole for the industry--a true source of education and networking with peers and experts. That is so important, because with organized, focused resources like these, MPS professionals and users increase their chance of success,” said Photizo founder and CEO, Ed Crowley. The highly acclaimed Barcelona keynote and presentations inspired attendees with stimulating insights and ideas:
It is the hottest thing going on our little industry.
Secular, paradigm shifting, and a defining moment inhabited by both players and posers - there is plenty of room.
Who in the world would NOT get into this?
How could anybody rationalize not having a Managed Print Service offering with a statement like, "...I don't think we can be that bullish, I think we have to react to what the market wants..."
The newly wed couple fresh from the states live in a one bedroom house.
They share the shower, and toilet with 2 other couples. He a Naval corpsmen, his beautiful young bride the homemaker.
After being married a few months and living with family in a small, cramped California house, they journey thousands of miles and half an ocean's distance to finally live together alone.
Together in Paradise.
This is Oahu, April of 1941. Cane fields surround the lazy, sleepy town of Honolulu. Soft, tropical breezes stir through the palms drying out remnants of morning showers. The island was home to 50,000 service men but it still had jsut one traffic light.
Hawaii a US Territory, statehood nearly two decades away. The town has one road in and out; no skyscrapers, mega-resorts, or miles of lights, to wash out the stars of the night sky.
A time as foreign to us contemporaries as the surface of Mars.
On the morning of December 7th, eight months after arriving in Paradise, and a mere 30 minutes before "all hell breaks loose", a sailor gives his new bride a kiss on the cheek and heads of to another day doing whatever a corpsman does. She expects to greet her husband at day's end, with a home cooked dinner.
At work, a line of gray battleships - the might and power of the United States Navy - are tied off - "Battleship Row". They carry names of honor; Nevada, California, Tennessee, Maryland, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Utah and Arizona.
Focuses Supporters on New Challenges Facing Dynamic Marketplace
Leadership and volunteers recalibrate assignments to evolve with fast-growing association
December 6, 2010 -- Key volunteers and leaders within the Managed Print Services Association executive committee and board of directors have realigned their roles to focus their experience on other areas of the MPSA. This will help keep fresh ideas and new perspectives flowing across all aspects of the association.
“In an effort to improve our effectiveness and support the ideas of our volunteer leadership team, the MPSA Board has approved these changes,” noted Joe Barganier, who was elected Interim President of the MPSA. “This coordinated transition ensures members can benefit from the diversity of experience we have to offer at the leadership level. We are all very excited about taking on our new challenges.”
“An office worker at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is accused of stealing as much as $3.8 million from the hospital by ordering toner-ink cartridges in bulk, diverting their delivery and then selling them elsewhere, authorities said Wednesday…” - The Wall Street Journal, Digital Network
There must be at least 2 dozen motivators for implementing a Managed Print Services program – but fear should not be one of them. As a matter of fact, fear should rarely be a motivator.
Sure, printing is not sexy but that doesn't stop MPS/BPO/BPM/Systems Analysis from becoming a LifeStyle.
Uh-huh. That's right, I said it. I meant it. I'm here to represent it.
Not just an industry, MPS is a LifeStyle.
********
Free, like a river raging
Strong, if the wind I’m facing.
Chasing dreams and racing father time.
Deep like the grandest canon,
Wild like an untamed stallion.
If you can’t see my heart you must be blind.
You can knock me down and watch me bleed
But you can’t keep no chains on me.
--
Some call me an MPS Expert - I don't really want to be an expert. Some say that I'm disruptive, radical, a "John the Baptist" type. (not sure about that one, what happened to John's head?)
Other miscreants have called me disgruntled - out loud, during an MPS Sales Training session - projection at its best.
If anything, I prefer Defiant Idealist. The shame of it is, today, "Defiant Idealist" is considered redundant.
I see MPS as a secular change, not cyclical. I see MPS in the imaging industry today as technology was to the music business a decade ago.
The music didn't die - we changed the way "we" acquire it. The "Control" of the music industry shifted from the fat-cat record companies(establishment) to the individual listener; the ultimate consumer. The Big Guys could no longer control the creative process, the distribution channels, or the DEFINITION of the industry.
Did they fight? Yes.
Did they continue to throw their diminishing weight around, until the very end? Yes.
Did any of them change? No.
Are most of the players, and their advisers around today? Negative.
The pure "providers" of music(bands, songwriters, etc.) shifted their attention from pleasing the record producers to pleasing their ultimate audience - themselves.
You and me, out here in the listening audience simply choose to tag along and enjoy.
In a broad sense, this meant these creatives could once again, produce content they actually wanted to create. No more "Johnny Cougar"'s(the record company changed his name for Mellencamp to "Cougar").
And as the Titanic-like music moguls rearranged the deck chairs, they never hesitated to mock the young upstarts and deride the agents of change, the Defiant Ones.
(Are we having a Glenn Beck moment yet? Please, not tears.)
********
"Calm facing danger
Lost, like an unknown stranger
Grateful for my time with no regrets.
Close to my destination
Tired, frail and aching
Waitin patiently for the sun to set."
--
For us, now is that point in time when the entrenched authority has begun to crumble, their influence over the MPS ecosystem fading.
This is part of the reason some think me disgruntled - the establishment, if there is one in our industry, wants to, like the music industry once did, make the rules, create the definitions and they abhor "uncontrolled" change - especially change that starts in the grassroots. Down here with me and you.
I am "of" the grassroots and am not afraid to point out, to you, the naked Emperor. So I must be crazy, unqualified, "disgruntled".
This is heady stuff - the "Imaging Intelligentsia" do not want "us" to be independent in thought or action. The OEMs don't want us looking outside of their box.
Neither seems to be the least bit concerned with the client.
And by "we", today, I mean we in the field selling MPS on a day-to-day basis. We are in the trenches who (hopefully) are strong enough to partner with those prospects who deserve our company.
We who are sent to those "sales training classes" and attend the weekly mentoring sessions only to find little guidance or relevancy when across the desk from a prospect.
We who recognize our own shortcomings now have a growing suspicion of those who say they know the way.
********
"And when its done believe that I will yell it from that mountain highhh!
I was Born Free!
I was borrrrrrn free
I was born free, Born Free.
And I will vow to the shining seas and celebrate God’s Grace on me.
I was Born Free!"
--
There is more to our world. More than OEMs, toner delivery, technicians, proposals, assessments, and quotas - More than Managed Print Services.
And yes, this too shall pass.
So what?
If you are just getting into MPS or have been slugging it out since the beginning, every turn, every setback and every success is yours.
Yours Personally.
Hopefully, revenue-enhancing but most certainly, resume enhancing.
This journey is all about you. Today's MPS "grunt" is tomorrow's MPS Leader.
Explore your boundaries, try MPS things that haven't been tried - right now, THERE ARE NO STANDARDS, no benchmarks, no "proven".