Ricoh Announces Purchase of White Castle - Strengthen Channel with "Bags of Sliders"

What can only be described as "Unbelievably Mind blowing", Ricoh announced their purchase of 400,000 White Castle locations.

"As part of our $300,000,000.00 investment in MDS program, this acquisition puts us even further ahead by strengthening our ability to deliver services and solutions through our channel partners to SMB customers,” said an unknown Ricoh source.

“We’re reinforcing our commitment to our channel partners by bringing them a level of grease-technology and 2:30 AM experience that is unprecedented in the industry.”

Managed print Services - As The World Turns: First HP/Printelligent today Xerox/Newfield

5/2011

Whose Next?

WOW!

A few of my acquaintances, wait they are more than people I simply know, two close, MPS Pioneers, have now become part of the Machine. In a good way.

Congrats to Robert and his team at NewfieldIt and congrats to Greg, Rob, Lawton and the entire crew at Printelligent.

Well done, well deserved - good luck.

Okay - Now What? This is almost as exciting as when Ricoh bought Ikon.

Questions, questions...

Nature moves in 3's, is there a third shoe to drop?

HP Buys Printelligent - Whadda Think 'bout THAT?

DOTC 5/2011

From an article on CRN -

"Founded in 1988, Printelligent was an early mover in the managed print space, launching its first MPS solution in 1993. Once the deal closes, Printelligent’s work force and technology assets will become part of the LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions unit within HP's Imaging and Printing Group."

This makes it sound like the integration will be at the enterprise level...but then...

"This acquisition puts us even further ahead by strengthening our ability to deliver services and solutions through our channel partners to SMB customers,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group, in a statement.

Joshi makes it look like this is a channel move.

Time will tell, it always does.

I will say this; the OPS channel is chuck full of MPS training and content.

I know the guys at Printelligent (congrats!) - they are smart. They understand Stage 3/4.

If this is a move to replace the channel, look out.

If this is a move to improve the channel, look out.

Very, very interesting.


OverLords assemble - the Big Three descending.

Childhood's End.

Click to email me. 

You Know Who You Are - You're Not Alone.

What in the hell does this have to do with MpS/Copier Sales?

Nothing...Everything...

DOTC, TheDeathOfTheChannel - More From 2011 Global MPS Conference

I am a big fan of those ad-hoc meetings around the watering hole, in the lounge or on the bus to Harley Davidson.

You never know who may end up sitting next to on the bus ride over.

This year some of the offline talk revolved around the OEMs - indeed, we had Xerox, HP, Ricoh, and Canon all on one stage fielding questions.  I don't think this has ever happened before.

One conversation that struck me was about 'control' or better yet, the lack of control the OEMs have relative to just 2 years ago.  Control over the industry, over the channel, over the customer.

I detected a bit of anxiety, bitterness.  Granted, the relationship between dealer and OEM has always been strained, right?  And over the years, we've all heard the common complaints, the same gripes  -

• "manufacturers quotas are unrealistic and they keep changing"
• "they are shifting their warehousing cost to us"
• "why is your service rate so high"
• "how can I compete when your toner pricing is so high?"
• "CBS vs. the Canon dealer"
• "RBS vs. the Ricoh dealer"
• "direct vs. the dealer'
• "Are they redefining an Enterprise Level Account, again?"
• "thank goodness for back-end and MDF..."

But this time it was different.  This time, as I listened, waftng through the angst was something different.  A bad smell.

Difficult to pinpoint. But then it hit me. It was the stench of fear.

You see, these self-proclaimed 'independents', were not simply complaining, they were scared.  For a second, I felt badly as they seemed to prefer ignorance over fear.

In the end, all I felt was pity.