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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

"The Sky will Blow The Heavens into Stars" - The Future of our Imaging Industry, Xerox, IBM, HP, Content



2011

Autonomy Corporation

"Autonomy is the market leader in the provision of software that automates the analysis of unstructured data, whether in the form of text, audio, images or video." - UBS, July 2008

The other day, I sat in on a webinar.  The fine folks at Lyra were presenting "Printing supplies market trends MPS" - yeah, I know, who the hell would sit in on one of these?

MpS Geeks, that's who.

Of course, the data presented has been fodder for DOTC for the past year; we will never get back the placement levels of 2008, A3 devices are dying(ahem), any recovery will be linked directly to the surviving dealership's ability to focus on workflow, not the box. We know this, correct?

Then a funny thing came up - OEMs are "rationalizing" their fleet offerings.  They are narrowing down the number of models.  

Shrinkage.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! T1000 is here..."Sarah Connor...??




From: Teetering on the Edge of Chaos by Jennifer Ouellette at Cocktail Party Physics.

Original source: Sachiko Kodama “Morpho Towers — Two Standing Spirals”

Sarah Connor...



Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Summer of 2011: Integration, Re-Imaging, User MpS Profiles and DOTC Members Only


Optimize Everybody...

Oh boy, I am in the middle of the Anthony Robbins "Ultimate Edge...blah blah blah..." -  it's good, really, I mean it and someday I want a place on Fiji right next door.  So what better way than to study the dude.

He's humongous, you know.

Perhaps you don't know Anthony Robbins or what he does - in a nutshell, he helps point out the obvious to the oblivious.  He sounds sincere, is the consummate selling professional - always closing - and makes an impression.  He attracts - I guess that is one reason he has 'handlers' - huh.  Well, the material I am visiting is dated and timeless pointing out how so unaware we walk through Life.

The waning days of Summer 2011 entice a review of my journey these last 90, a Quarterly Review of sorts - who says our clients should be the only ones to get QBRs?  

This summer has been about breaking through Stage 1 and Stage 2 - wait, that's not 100% - before I could breakthrough, I needed to 'remember' Stage 1 and Stage 2...so yes, now I see S1/S2 completely.  Table stakes.  Temporary.

You can really change, by letting go of the restrictive patterns of our past and you can't let anything go until you remember.

MpS changes all of us, by making us aware, and helping us remember.

Anyway, this summer has been about integrating an MpS Practice into a VAR/MSP's Infrastructure, recognizing End-User's behavior, and Re-Imaging.  

Interesting thoughts. Everything starts with a thought.

MpS Will Migrate Downward - Lyra Acknowledges the Death of the A3(Copiers)

The Imaging Channel held a webinar where Lyra presented, "Printer and Supplies market Trends That Impact Your MPS Program",

8/17/2011.

I found the content interesting.

Some of the better comments:

"MpS is a Significant Threat to the Supplies Business"

"MpS should be the first step in engaging clients for overall managed services."

"A3 in decline and has been before MpS became 'sticky'" - The Death of the Copier.

"Everybody is considering mobile printing"

"The key to the recovery will be looking at workflow"

One of the questions from the audience was, "what are ITO and BPO?"

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Imaging of Greg - "MpS: The Unifying Theory"

"Just over three years ago, when I started writing about copiers, MpS, technology, selling and pole dancing, I was one of three. Back then, if one were to Google “managed print services,” the dozen or so returns would’ve consisted of wedding invitation printers and “full-serve” print advertising providers.


There were few fleet monitoring alternatives and fewer proactive supplies management solutions. Hardly anyone mentioned cost reduction, business process, fleet optimization or phases. And nobody championed reducing costs by reducing prints, copies, or printers and copiers.


This isn’t to say nobody serviced printers or supplied toner. Yes, some were “optimizing” fleets, shifting volume, addressing document workflow and business process or managing hundreds of devices, but we..."

Get the rest of the story at The Imaging Channel blogs, The Imaging of Greg.

Go..go there now...

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Dawn of The New Selling Professional - MpS Leads The Way - Sales X.X

Not Sales 2.0 - Call it 
"Sales X.X"

2011

“Business Acumen” is a cool way to say, “been there, done that…got three years' financials to prove it” – I admit, it is a big word, does it scare you?

From Merriam-Webster:

Acumen: keenness and depth of perception, discernment, or discrimination especially in practical matters.

Practical Matters.

Lots of salespeople don’t think they have acumen, or that there is some special process that goes with acquiring the skill of discernment. Worse, some employers don’t believe their employees possess keenness – more than a few sales managers feel their salespeople lack depth of perception.

You know I’m right. You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, we’ve all been there.

What to do?

Stand back, there is something going on here, something new; The New Age of Selling. It has nothing to do with the Mayan calendar although "The New Age" calls upon the collective selling skills of the past 25,000 years.

Woah, heavy.

I know it’s difficult to see, but the current economic “Charlie Foxtrot” will someday be in our rear view mirror. When the recovery does start, for real, the new selling professional will lead the way. I believe that our industry, our sales people, in the trenches, will be examples of success, role models.

The New Way demands more from you, the Selling Professional:
  1. Expertise – be an expert in something, anything
  2. Collaboration – be open to working with everyone, yesterday’s rivals could be today’s partner
  3. Engagement/Intent  – work with your clients, partners, peers at a deeper level, with High Intent
  4. Growth – thrive on change, bring change, be the agent for change
The New Way also exists in a new environment, a business context that has never existed:
  1. Information is everywhere Content and data are universal and will permeate
  2. Power is shifting down – from the OEMs to the cube farms, personal power is increasing
  3. Technology is mundane – your refrigerator will talk with your toaster
  4. “Citizen Mobil” – brick and mortar is dead. Smartphones, tablets, wireless and G4 networks, you, your clients, and clients’ family and kids are processing business everywhere. Think Cold Calls from the beach.
Eight simple observations.

Still, you will need to know Strategic Selling, VITO, closing techniques, prospecting, how to marshal resources on your team, monitor your funnel, and manage your manager. You still can’t be afraid to pick up the phone.

You must correctly present and follow up – to build trust. This may be new, but you still need to handle your shit. The basics – I won’t say ‘blocking and tackling’ – I loathe clichés, but I just did, didn’t I?

The times are different and personal acumen is more relevant, you are much more relevant, and in context.

One more thing:  There are No Academic Experts.  We're making this up as we go - and because this is all new, dynamic, and changing every 30 days, formal, teaching experts are simply rehashing history - not projecting

The New Selling, not Sales 2.0 or 3.1, let’s call it, Sales X dot XX - “Sales X.Xx"

Acumen, again. MpS Purity, again. Intent, again.

Just ideas on a screen - but ideas are bulletproof...

Sell on.


Friday, August 12, 2011

The Shift is Happening - Not Only in MpS...

 

  "Voila!

In view humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi now vacant, vanished.


However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.


The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.


Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that its my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V."

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The 2011 Global Managed Print Services Conference - Pictures of You.


My Current reflection points, and material for the future:

1. Philosophical discussions - this is bigger than MPS
3. Innovate - now is the time
6. Soylent Toner is People
7. MSP and MPS is difficult

9. Out of the Box - meaning so much more, I have never been more proud of my industry

10. Are you telling the Truth, or just stating a number
11. "I don't even use the phrase, MPS, with clients anymore"


16. I can't wait to see the first servers "ripped and replaced"
17. There is still a "P" in MPS
18. MPS is the egg in the cake, not the entire cake

21. I have Pluto in my Seventh House

22. Ricoh is in - all in
23. Canon is finding herself

24. "Fire, Walk with Me"? - Greg has lost it...again.

25. MPS is a Process, not a Transaction
26. Fire and Ice, Cold Water

27. The 2011 MPSA Leadership Awards

29. YOU ARE NOT ALONE...WE, ARE NOT ALONE
Oh the fun we are going to have with all that...

DOTC



Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tech-News: More Plastic Paper, Self Assembling MicroParticles and the Last Book Ever Printed

Yeah, I know, the electric paper trick has been around for decades.

Below is the latest:

"I think the greatest breakthrough was that traditional display devices usually require electricity to write, but our technology made it closer to how we would use normal paper," said John Chen, Vice President of the Institute and general director of the Display Technology Center.




The more interesting advancement revolves around micro-robots.

"Danger, Danger...Will Robinson..."

Monday, August 8, 2011

Peter Sheahan - "Rule The White Spaces"

"no, no, no..its THE Death of the Copier..."
Page Coverage.

In our little industry, one can live or die on the difference between 3% and 8%.  

The white spaces between the toner, Fact and Fiction, Vision and Reality.

Between all those Silo's.

I first saw Peter's presentation online,  from the MPS Conference in Barcelona.

My impressions were, "...who the hell is this guy? A shorter version of T. Robbins only from New Zealand?"

I know, its Australia...and everyone is shorter than Anthony Robbins.

I jest!

Peter's conversation was geared toward innovation, technology and miscalculations.  He talked about how our beliefs and more importantly, how our successful past, holds us back.  He talked about the silo's that keep us separated and how the cracks present the best opportunities.

That's cool.

Friday, August 5, 2011

"Hay Wire" - the female Jason Bourne?




And yes, the leading role, also played "Crush" on American Gladiator.




Tuesday, August 2, 2011

iPad-Head-Girl and Cosmo for Men





There is something here - a bit creepy, and yet..alluring.

It's a marketing stunt promoting the new iPad App for "Cosmo For Men" - Cosmopolitan for men.

Sometimes irony needs to hit you right in the middle of the forehead - but do you see it here? Or should I get the "2x4 of Awareness"?

It's an advertisement, on iPads, for an app, for what used to be, and still is, a print magazine...!

Full, flippin, circle.

And don't get me started on the more than apparent 'stealth' application...

"I love you, Miss. Robot..."


Contact Me

Greg Walters, Incorporated
greg@grwalters.com
262.370.4193