2011 Managed Print Services Global Conference: MPS Purity, Pure Content, Pure Energy

What's the difference between a Conference/Trade Show and an Educational Conference?

The trade floor.

Remember when COMDEX was the shit?

How about the North American Auto Show, held each year in Detroit?

Or the Boat Show here in L.A.?

Does one attend any of these shows expecting to learn more than what the handout says?

Do I hear battle-stories from the trenches articulated by any of the booth-babes? Would I care?

Granted, one can learn something at each.

A new MPS players can glean insight off a marketing slick, establish a new working partnership and possibly find his new soul-mate.  Possibly.

Soul mates aside, the 2011 North American MPS Conference is striving to make their more educational and less sales-like.

I had a conversation with Misty Hamel, Director of Marketing with Photizo the other day and she calls out the difference between a trade show and educational conference - "Content".

Agreed. I push one step closer to the Edge and call it "High Intent".

High Intent + Educational Content = Pure Energy

Who And What is Your Managed Print Services Association? From LinkedIn

2011

I haven't mentioned much about Your MPSA.

Like some mysterious mistress she's there, just out of reach, misty, hazy and slightly out of focus....waiting for you to light the candles...ahem -

but I digress.

With the North American MPS conference, back drop for the MPSA - MPS Leadership Awards, just around the corner and our second annual MPSA membership meeting taking place the day after, now is a good as time as ever to talk MPSA.

Recently, somebody on LinkedIn expressed the feeling that one of the bedrocks of today's MPS, the 3 Stages, is flawed.

Interesting...


The Three Stages of MPS -

What was MPS to you, 3 years ago vs. what it is today? What will it be 3 years from now?

The thought leaders of the MPSA have been wrestling with ALL issues around MPS since the beginning.

This is difficult and challenging because once we, or anyone puts anything out there, once somebody makes a stand, the critics now have something to focus on.

And critics they are.

One of the touchstones in today's MPS are the Three Stages:

1. Control
2. Optimize
3. Enhance

Granted, they were first published by Photizo.  But they are ingrained in the basic understanding of MPS.

Is it possible that we are taking this process for granted? No.

Let me remind everyone, including my fellow MPSAr's and MPSr's:

The Three Stages where NOT created, they were discovered.
This mere distinction may blow right past most of us, copier dudes ain't the brightest bulb in the tool shed, yet try, I must.

The stages were observed as the process MPS CUSTOMERS traveled.

Let that soak in - the stages are customer not vendor centric.

And this point is at the fulcrum of the challenges encountered by the MPSA - we are trying to mirror and respond to MPS customers/users - NOT MPS Providers.

Let THAT soak in.

Imagine if you will an organization standing for something, and based on its core beliefs and philosophy could attract end-users.

Imagine how attractive this would be for an OEM to get in early and try to shape the battlefield. Not aligning with, but reigning over, the definitions, standards, awards, education, communications, and messaging. Think it wasn’t attempted? It was.

Can you fathom the interesting conversations as the MPSA tasked themselves with defining MPS?

Your MPSA Executive Board members come from every segment - including END USERs - the discussion was heated, and pulled in every direction. Those days were the wild west of MPS.

Still, we made a stand.

• We accepted the 3 stages as a valid observation.
• We considered, built and published a definition of MPS.
• We continue to hold the MPS Awards.
• We are building 'standards' around observed customer and vendor behavior.

In the end, one of our challenges is to maintain the MPSA as an organization who observes and publishes agreed ideas - ‘attracting’ the like minded – that being said, just like MPS, the MPSA is not for everyone.

I am an anti-hardware type of MPS’r.

I know that if we define MPS as simply toner and service (S1 & S2), we will whittle away and die. The MPSA has plenty of hardware-heads, folks squarely under the Bell curve – fine.

I will run out here to the extreme right of the curve. Tugging and pulling - stand by me, if you dare.

I challenge you – become a member of Your MPSA.

Get in on a committee.

Contribute.

If you find the Three Stages flawed  – tell them.

We named it "Your MPSA" for a reason - its yours.

Click to email me.

Who is Everything Channel and Why Are They Important to You?

I know, I know - one more 'industry magazine' to read.

One more collection of sponsored advertisements dressed up as 'journalism'.

Another "leg" in the Research-Convention-Publication Triad.

Why yes...actually.

From their website:

"...Everything Channel is the premier provider of channel-focused research and consulting, events, media and custom solutions for the technology industry. Everything Channel provides integrated solutions to technology marketers for managing channel strategy to accelerate technology sales..."

I swear - I looked high and low, walked that site corner to corner and I could not find anything from RiKon,  KonicaMinolta or Kyocera.

I did find some entries from Xerox.

But down in the lower right-hand corner, under "Industry Events" I discovered a nugget -

"Print and Imaging Summit, Orlando Florida, May 3-4".  I seem to remember there being another show around the same time - an MPS show no less.

Coincidence?  Are there ever any real coincidences?

Ed Crowley, Photizo - 5 Steps for Implementing MPS/BPO/MSP/ITO/EDM/NOC/MOUSE

"I must tell you something, darling...
you...look...marvelous.."

Another guest author and fellow DOTC_Leopard, Ed Crowley (Photizo), chimes in.

This time, on the subject of 'implementation'.

Notice how the FivePoints can be applied to any discipline - expansive, isn't it?

Ed and I go back.

It is an honor to have so many fellow DOTC readers contribute - I consider myself fortunate.

Enjoy.
------------------------------------

Why is implementation important?

By Ed Crowley, Photizo


Implementation is the process by which you will construct the entire project and it is the frame and foundation, which anchors and shoulders the considerable weight of the entire project.

When I discuss implementation for managed print services, I don’t just mean the initial roll-out, but rather, the planning, customer-needs assessment, roll-out, on-going management, and evolution through the various MPS stages.

In my experience, the key to a successful MPS engagement begins with the end-user needs assessment. We often want to jump immediately into ‘right sizing’ the fleet, deployment planning, and all of those other activities that deliver immediate or near-term cost savings. Without an adequate understanding of the customer needs and the organizations environment, we can quickly turn from the hero to the villain.

Nothing can replace walking through the customers environment, survey where the equipment is, who is using it, asking about their needs, and issues. Holding internal focus groups with customers to understand what is and what isn’t working in their imaging environment is a great way to start. This can pave the way for a formal survey of all employees to gain an in-depth understanding of their needs and desires.

The net result of truly understanding the customer environment is that you will be able to craft a set of ‘policies’ for identifying how the products are rolled out and what are acceptable exception procedures.

Ed’s Top 5 for implementation :

Thor - Big Hammer Time

Click to email me.

HP to Purchase Xerox. Joins CISCO, IBM & MicroSoft in move offshore. Upside Down World.

In a late-night move, HP began buying outstanding Xerox stock. The Nikkei 225 responded by rising 5%  London's FTSE 100 hiking 3%.

HP's effort to gobble up one of its primary competitors is eclipsed by other stunning developments.

Reports of HP physically moving their headquarters to Sri Lanka are swirling around the water coolers and through the hallowed halls in San Jose. 

An unnamed source had this to say,

"...with the US economy growing at the speed of smell, and the apparent anti-business stance of both California and the current administration, we have no choice but to execute what we call Special Order 66.  This group of technology concerns will move all facilities and employees to special accommodations that have been constructed in Sri Lanka..."

Not only will this move include ALL domestic facilities and employees at HP, it appears that CISCO, IBM, and Microsoft have decided to exit the US as well.