Okidata - VARs/BTA/PSA/RMM - and Agiliant

I just read the press release from Okidata announcing a relationship between Oki and Agiliant.

You'll remember Agiliant is a newcomer to the MpS space(sorta, they pretty much invented MpS back in the day before flipping out to Pitney) - Agiliant is looking to provide third-party IT services to MpS providers, rounding out any managed services portfolio.

Not a bad model.

Okidata adds yet another dimension to their VAR strategy.  Again, you'll remember back in the summer of 2011, Oki announced a re-vamping of their Total Managed Print portal that included interfaces to many of the popular PSA's.(Connectwise, Level Platforms...)

The VARs are coming, and their infrastructure partners are leading the way.  All this is fine and grand.  But software does not an MpS Practice make.

How are these new VARs going to SELL this new service?  Just like helpdesk and the NOC?

It ain't that difficult, so we should see thousands of VARs embrace and prosper in this new realm, shouldn't we?

It's our ecosystem all over again - let's call it the MpS ExoSystem.

Press Release:

Butch Cassidy, the Return - BlackThorn

What Should we Do with all These VARs?

johnathan, Johnathan...JOHNATHAN...JOHNATHAN...JOHNATHAN !

Next chance you get, check out the last 10 seconds of the ending scene in 300.

Why would a proven model some 3 decades old, not hold up to supporting MpS?

Because no matter how many nifty tools or vendor partners come calling, no matter how 'easy' an MpS program looks from the outside, Managed Print Services is not a bolt-on proposition.

Sound familiar?  Remember the 50% to the MpSr's who failed?

Top Morning Indicators Your Day is Really Going to Suck...

We've all been there, experiencing those morning events that just scream to you, "this day is going to suck."

Tie-Dipping in coffee, every shirt is wrinkled, car won't start...

How about these:

You wake up and it's Monday.

You wake up to realize you've stolen anything from Mike Tyson.

You wake up late for the Monday Morning Sales Group-Hug back in the crumbling world that is your company.

You wake up, walk to the bathroom, and Patrick Duffy is stepping out of the shower - it was all a dream. And you might be...well,  "...skip to my Lou, happy...".

You wake up, swear by all the gods of fast food hell, you will never go to Wendy's again. Lift the lid, there are ladies about, feel a stronger than usual back pain, look down and see blood.

- this is what happened to me, today, this morning...

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot!

Wow...

"...You All Read this Tome for different reasons...I'm asking more of you...sure as I know anything, I am to misbehave..."

12/8/2011

"...Let's be bad guys..."

Brick and mortar is dead.  

The ways of the past are limiting.  Still, the Ways are promoted, adhered to, and pushed down from the AllianceArchaic.

We who abide, sleep in the cubical that has become life.  Suckling the metal teat, swallowing the dogma and false promise of a heartless Utopia. Blissful. One day, we wake up selling copiers.

Those of us who see, rile and squirm under the thumb. We are misunderstood chastised and subjugated.  Seen as different, defiant.

Contrarian.

Christmas, a Pool, and the Red One Piece...

The World is Truly Coming to an End: Led Zeppelin Song in A Disney Movie

Sorta.


 

Charlie Brown - Merry Christmas for the Block Head...2011

Disco Lives...sorta

...huh..

Miami Vice - One of Many End Scenes...