"Someday comes back..."

"...everything dies, baby thats a fact, maybe everything that dies, someday comes back. Put your makeup on, put your hair up pretty and meet tonight in Atlantic City..."





Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last
Night now they blew up his house too
Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready
For a fight gonna see what them racket boys can do

Now there's trouble busin' in from outta state
And the D.A. can't get no relief
Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade and
The gamblin' commission's hangin' on by the skin of its teeth

[Chorus]
Everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and
Meet me tonight in Atlantic City

Seven Deadly Sins...Copier Salesman

This post first appeared on DOTC, January 2009 and is the DOCT book.  This is a truncated version, get the rest, in the book.

Never mind that he is hundreds of miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, he lives on a boat, sells "big-iron" copiers...and has a blog. Introducing Pirate Mike.

I received a "hit" today from one of my internet-search-spiders-thingies, and read the resulting post while waiting for the Rover to be washed - it was 86 degrees and sunny - as I scrolled along the post I literally laughed out loud.

It Is Not 'Disruption', It Is 'Turbulence'

Shigetomi's "flowing water crest" is a gem-like work created by abandoning the ego and assimilating it with the flow of water. The main shadow of the flow of the sudden time while echoing the song of Raku Holy Water is

probably because it has the memory of water

July 2014

Catchphrases come and go: Transformation, transactional to services, customer-centric, think outside of the box, change or die, innovate or die, release in beta. Each moniker seems to hold its uniqueness for about a week.

"Disruption" - is one such word.

Today, it's disruption tomorrow it's something else - observing the same thing over and over, calling it something new, expecting different results.   In an attempt to understand the temporarily incomprehensible connectivity between multiple events occurring in real-time, a snapshot is taken.

A static slice of activity predicts futures based on this single shot.

Providers: YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT !

A great sales manager once told me, "Greg, sometimes, we over complicate things - we're just selling copiers."  I've come back to his statement again and again over the years because it's true.  

Speaking as somebody from the industry; we've cold called, assessed, proposed, Powerpointed, scrubbed MIF and yes, even closed a few equipment, EDM, ECM, SFA, FM, Mps and MS deals - I can tell you, most of us take ourselves WAY TOO SERIOUSLY.  Print, even managed print services, just ain't all that important to customers.  Remember them?  

From the Soon to Be Released Book

excerpt from the upcoming eBook...

In the beginning I did not make a living writing. I understand that most everyone has a dream to be a writer ‘someday’ – I did not share that vision, it just fell into place.

My pedigree is that of a "copier-schlep" having cut my teeth over at Océ, Panasonic, IKON.

My technology roots run deep by way of the technology/accounting system/VAR arena MicroAge, Inacomp, IBM, Novell, Great Plains, Timberline, ACCPAC, etc. - I've been in since 1988.

Along the way, I’ve been fortunate enough actually get paid to write – one of the more colorful stories around this subject involves Xerox, UBM and a persona name “Paige Coverage” , that story is for the next book.

With DOTC, I've been pontificating about since the beginning of the current MpS model.

When it gets right down to it, I am nothing more than a guy who used to sell copiers, sitting in front of a computer writing really goofy stories.

888 - DOTC, You Chose the Cover

"W"

"G"

Years of pondering, hand-wringing and soul searching it has come down to this -

What cover do I choose?

014: She's Coming...

Soon to be released, the DOTC eBook.

Chock full of all the best DOTC blogs, commentary as well as a taste of fresh content.  A compendium of delicious, imaging delectables for you to enjoy, over and over.  Do it on your laptop, tablet, phone, or desktop...the demo floor, in the halls, planes, trains and automobiles.

Go down hard, come up breathless... again, again and again.

Stay tuned...

One More Time...

Dear Reader - Thank You,

On December 31, 2011, I submitted the last post for The Death of The Copier. DOTC was to stand unchanging as a historical marker signifying the beginning of the End of the imaging industry, as we know it.

And honestly, there is nothing more to say about MpS or copiers. It can be summed up this way:

1. Print is decreasing; Print is Dead
2. MpS assists this movement, but user behavior is driving the shift
3. The OEMs have LOST control over the populace
4. The Independent dealers are in a great position to survive and thrive
5. The strong will survive
6. The “Next Thing” is content, Big Data, Business Process, business intelligence and mobility
7. Ultimately, like no other time in history, the real power falls to the individual

From that very first post, in 2008, my views were never and are never meant to be vindictive – I do not celebrate the demise of businesses, displacement of good people or the end of an era.

I do, however, bristle when observing blatant disregard for the obvious, can't stand bullies or their enablers and loath those who use fear to fill classes or manipulate.

But that isn't why I'm addressing you now.

Somehow, the DOTC following is growing - .  In my voluntary absence, DOTC peaked over 300,000 lifetime views – without any NEW content.

I’ve attended three shows this year and at every show, you’ve come up to say hello. Hello to me, and Jennifer. She and I have had our names screamed across a crowded bar and been challenged on our views around paperless.

This is overwhelming and humbling.

Our New Enterprise, Walters & Shutwell, is a platform for growth beyond MpS/Imaging – there is a bigger world out there. I encourage anyone with interests that transcend MpS to visit.

This is what I have decided to do here on DOTC:

It is my intent to share edgy views with those who are willing to see. Whether that be two people or 200,000 - it doesn't matter to me.  Entertainment value, perspective and stuff I would read myself - that's pretty much all I was after.

I plan on contributing back to DOTC, but not on the same schedule as the previous four years.

I will tell it as I see it.  You are more than welcome to visit, read or express your opinions.

Either way, strap in.

Time to Put the Cost Per Copy Model Down.

Oh yeah, we're going there.

It started long ago.  In the beginning, making copies of business documents - memo's, invoices, reports - was slow and tedious.

So we built devices to perform these duties.

Thousands of moving parts, heat, static electricity and heavy handed employees contributed to a dynamic and precarious environment - they required a good amount of attention.

To put it bluntly, our machines broke down so often we needed a way to pay for technicians.

To support the machines in field the 'industry' hatched a plan:

"Why don't we sell service with the machines?  We'll make it impossible for anyone else to supply our devices, so we'll combine service and supplies into a billable line item, determined by how many pages come out of our devices...and will call these 'clicks' after the noise a meter makes with every copy and call the billing model Cost Per Copy..."

Genius, really.

Oh sure, there were other schemes - blending ...

Read the rest, here.

The paperless office will come to being over a copier rep's dead body...so to speak.

Yes, I believe the long standing transactional business model of the copier industry will have to die before the paperless office ever stands a chance.  Indeed, the majority of the die-hards in the industry are motivated, trained and developed to increase paper in the office, not decrease it.

You see on the vendor supply side, there are different types of providers.  For the purpose of this blog, let's focus on the die-hards, the traditional copier companies that dig in their heels, resist change and insist that the old school way is the best way.  Or at times...the only way.

It is no secret that thousands of owners, managers and copier/mfp reps thrive on six and seven figure incomes all derived from selling office machines to produce as much toner/ink on paper as possible.  The die-hard copier teams have goals to sell copiers/printers/mfp's to businesses "without regard".  That is without regard except for the numbers.  The higher the number the better the number whether its in units, price or pages.  Hear that cow bell ring...seriously.

Read the rest, here...really good stuff!

013: Managed print Services And The Last Generation Gap

The Last Generation Gap- from 2013...

If you remember back to the '60s - riots, Viet Nam, Presidential and political assassinations, hippies at Woodstock, the Beatles, Stones, the Peace Movement, and a vaguely remembered issue called the "The Generation Gap".

This Gap referred to the difference between younger generations and their elders. Back then, teenagers regarded their parents' established social norms as outdated and restrictive - many rebelled:

• They burned draft cards.
• They marched in the street.
• They took up new social and political issues.
• They expressed themselves through free sex, lots of drugs, and rock and roll.
• They didn't trust anyone over 40.
• And they promised to never, ever end up like their parents. 

At Transform2013, I attended Terrie Campbell's presentation, "GenY's Idiosyncrasies - Can your Business Survive Them?" 

013: "MpS in a Box", "Managed Services in a Box" and other Silly Things Marketing Comes up With

We can call this out, because we've been part of the movement.

I saw another services-in-a-box marketing statement the other day.  They were advertising a webinar about something or other - managed services in a box.

It struck me, weren't we just complaining about the commoditization of MpS?  Wasn't it a couple of years ago, when we started to see "MPS in a Box" offerings? And once we put ourselves in a box, are we not off to see our maker or worse, a commodity?

Why do we do this ?

Like you, we've been spoon fed the "...in a box..." value proposition time and time again.

From the word "solution" to the phrase "Professional Services", unique approaches to unique problems do not easily translate into predictable ROI.  So they box, barcode and ship creating commission gates forcing us to attach the latest software sku to our boxes in order to collect the pittance.

Think I'm wrong?  How many faxservers, DocSends or ECopy did you sell?  Without a copier?

Here's the deal - we in the field do not place our expertise in a box.  We are unique as individuals and when we discuss opportunities with clients, our uniqueness shines through.

The only people who want to place expertise and acumen in a box are those who manufacture the box.  What are they making in those plants, anyway?

• Are they assembling business solutions? No.
• Are they putting together answers to complex business problems? Not really.
• Are the container ships unloading Workflow or Process Optimization? Nope.
• How about Business Acumen?  Oh heck no.

What leaves their shores and hits our docks is a box - glass, plastic and tin - that's all.  As long as the factories kick out machines, machine based quotas will continue down stream into the trenches - from the manufacturer, to the branch/dealer, to the sales manager, down to you my good friend.  Scrub your MIF, churn n burn, and call it ALL managed services in a box.

"On the first of the month we sell solutions, after the 15th, we sell boxes..."- Ikon, 2005ish.

Remember when "think outside of the box" was the mantra of the day?  What fools we were back then, buying into the whole think differently mind set which was only true as long as our different thinking on the 1st of the month brought in more boxes by the 28th.  Fact is, back then, we could of attached George Forman grills to our copiers and people would have signed 68 month leases anyway.

It just didn't matter.