If you were at the BTA Mid-America event last week (May 2-4) in St. Louis, I’m guessing this question is still resonating in your head. I know it is in mine. For those of you who were unable to attend, I’ll bring you up to speed.
John O’Leary, an inspirational speaker and president of Rising-Above.com, posed this question to the dealers, vendors and other attendees in the room. It’s an inquiry that applies equally to all of us, of course, no matter who we are or what we do – but I think our industry’s willingness to both ask and answer it is more important than ever now, during this time when sales are down and morale is exceptionally low.
John O'Leary
O’Leary echoed the famous Abraham Lincoln quote when he pointed out what is obvious and true but too often forgotten: We choose how we feel about the circumstances in our lives; we are the ones who label them as positive or negative and act out of those attitudes, either achieving greatness or self-destructing. Using this reminder as a foundation to empower our industry, O’Leary asked attendees to consider how they could make 2012 their best year in both thought and action, using the question, “What more can I do to ensure that I am following through on my commitment to impact others and fulfill my potential?” as a means to accomplish such.
Other speakers at the event gave concrete directions specific to our industry so those in it could do “more” to make 2012 a stellar business year for themselves. “The year of color, if it ever arrived, has definitely passed,” said Photizo’s Ann Priede, so she and Bob Palmer suggested dealers to go after “more” elsewhere – in this case, by focusing on gaining additional customer share, which is where Photizo sees current and future industry profits centered. Muratec’s Jim D’Emidio encouraged dealers to think beyond MPS – a single managed service – and begin doing “more” managed services addressing multiple equipment categories and multiple client needs. Mitch Morgan and Chris Ryne of Growth Achievement Partners provided guidance on how attendees could go about doing just that, reminding them that in most cases, they’re not actually inexperienced in the arena that tends to intimidate them; they’re the ones who their clients have often been calling all along to handle IT problems – and since this is the case, dealers might as well receive compensation for the “more” they’ve already been happily taking on.
Muratec's Jim D'Emidio
Photizo's Ann Priede and Bob Palmer
As for me, I answer this question today by giving our readers this reminder: I’ve met no one who isn’t a well-seasoned champ in this industry. Let us over here at The Imaging Channel know what more we can do to help make 2012 another winning year for you in it.
Posted on 05/14/20120 comments
It never fails. It seems at every single trade show I attend here in Vegas, I will inevitably be asked if I gamble. While many understand that it’s not a great idea to do so if you actually live in Vegas – which I do – I often hear the following response after expressing my unwillingness to feed the machines: “You can’t win if you don’t play.”
This Kareem Abdul-Jabbar quote (slightly modified) gets thrown around by gamblers and the lottery folk all the time. Granted, while I find the latest twist on it – “You can’t lose if you don’t play” – a slightly more convincing argument in this circumstance, there are a lot of instances in which the former version holds true … like, say, trade shows. And you can, in fact, lose quite a bit if you don’t play that game.
I’ve heard all the excuses in the world as to why people won’t go to events – especially now that our country has entered its fifth year of recession. I’ve also had people cry on my shoulder (well, telephone or computer screen, anyway) about not being able to attend one show or another – or any, in some circumstances. And sure, while everyone loves to get away for a while and enjoy themselves at some exciting destination (like Vegas), they’re still ultimately doing business on the road too. In this way, among others, the trade show continues to be a great marketing tool.
However, times and rules have changed. There’s just no denying that. One major shift, for example, is that instead of buying right then and there on the floor, “smart attendees today gather information at a show,” said Steve Miller (not the “Really love your peaches / Wanna shake your trees” guy, but the author of the Two Hat Marketing blog). I’ve found, surprisingly enough, that attendees are now even trying to get the scoop from me. Case in point: Someone set an appointment with me with the sole purpose of asking me what MPS was all about and if I thought it was a good investment for a company of his size.
So it turns out potential customers are coming to trade shows, and they’re coming to buy from you. Well, eventually, anyway. This is no reason to get cynical or stop attending, though. This is a call to change your strategy, because people honestly wouldn’t be at any of these events if they had no needs. Buyers may be more selective, more skeptical themselves these days; they may ask their peers for opinions and leverage technology, doing some amount of research on the Internet before buying anything from anyone; but they still know they have pain points, and they know your solutions address them. Question is, Miller pointed out, when they are finally ready to commit to buying, will you end up being the provider they choose? Do they even know you’re among the choices?
He really encapsulates this point well when he reminds us, “The purpose of marketing is to be on the mind of the prospect when the prospect is ready to buy.” Trade shows still put you in that coveted position. They place you in the mind of your prospect, and they do so as more than words of an email or photos on the Web. You are a real live person to your potential customer at an event. And even as machines continue to revamp nearly everything else we do, it’s both refreshing and comforting to know that “trade shows and similar sales and marketing events have withstood the test of every technological revolution because people buy from people” (from Creative Training Solutions, which provides some really great trade show statistics). In speaking with a representative from a company we’d done some coverage on, I found out that after reading one of our articles about it, another company he’d been struggling to connect with actually reached out to him! Better still, the two are now partners! We ourselves had never even heard of his company, let alone covered it, until we’d run into him at – you guessed it – a trade show.
You never know which people you’re ultimately going to meet at trade shows, but you have to attend them to have any shot at influencing those who either are decision-makers themselves or are the closest to them. And while you may end up deciding not to go to such events, you can expect your competitors will be happy to … and subsequently, they’ll probably also win the business.
I have to admit, I’ve been quite impressed lately, seeing higher traffic on show floors with each passing month I’m here. It makes me feel confident that more and more people in this industry are recognizing the inestimable value of its events and betting on them to build more business. And for those who are still sitting on the sidelines, I have to wonder: How do you plan to win if you don’t play?
Posted on 04/27/20122 comments
Robert Sombach is the vice president of operations and development for Nexent Innovations, makers of Miracle Service, service management software. Sombach has an extensive background in using innovative solutions to improve operational efficiency, including satellite and mobile communications, hi-tech security operations and cellular network deployments. He guides the product development of Miracle Service, which has helped thousands of users in over 45 countries optimize their service operations and gain a competitive edge. Visit www.MiracleService.com for more information.
What is your current state of mind?
I am very excited about the changes taking place in the industry and the opportunities before us. At the same time, I know keeping focused on our core mission of providing our customers with the best value for their service management software dollar is critical to continued success.
What is the greatest challenge you face today?
Technological change, especially in the mobile arena, is at a never before seen pace. New and upgraded smartphones, tablets and mobile devices are hitting the market daily as manufacturers compete with each other. The technology inherent in each device type is quite different. While this is a strategic competitive advantage to hardware manufacturers, it requires a high level of compatibility management. We work hard to ensure compatibility with these new technologies, giving our customers the greatest selection of devices to meet their business needs.
What do you see as your biggest opportunity?
Providing companies with the ability to leverage technology to help them operate more efficiently and profitably. We see the demand to continue to be strong in good software solutions that deliver results while providing a quick ROI.
What qualities do you look for when making key hires?
People that have a combination of good technical skills complemented with strong interpersonal skills so they can discuss issues with our customers, answer questions and provide effective support. Our business is as much about the people as it is about technology.
What would you consider your greatest achievement?
We have been able to provide a feature rich business application that offers an exceptional ROI. Our ability to continue to innovate and evolve while keeping the costs in control has enabled us to offer an unparalleled solution in the market at a price even the smallest dealer can afford.
If your customers were to describe your company in three words, what would they be?
Business management partners.
Managed print services or managed services?
More and more of our customers are moving into managed print services. Over the last 12 months, we’ve enhanced Miracle Service’s contract management capabilities to stay ahead of their MPS needs as more and more companies are going this route. We’ve also added a Supplies Tracker so they are alerted if they are over supplying or under supplying toner based on the equipment and the contract.
Where are you investing the most within your company this year?
Web and wireless features. We are constantly enhancing our application with new features to improve field service operations that give our customers a competitive edge. We are developing our next-generation mobile solutions with the very latest web-based technologies to take advantage of tools that we couldn’t even have imagined a few years ago.
What is your greatest concern for this industry?
A few years ago, I would have said consolidation. With the larger dealers, (consolidation) was a concern as it reduces competition and suppresses innovation. However, today we see this trend reversing with many new innovative companies entering the market offering a wide variety of solutions.
How would your employees and co-workers describe you?
I think they would describe me as someone who is great at translating users’ needs into effective business applications.
They’d probably also say that I have a habit of accumulating gadgets. Our development group needs to have the latest in hardware and mobile devices to test Miracle Service with, but somehow many of them seem to find their way to my office. When one is needed you can usually hear someone say, “Go check Rob’s office.”
Who are your favorite writers?
Robert Heinlein has written a number of great science fiction novels, which I have enjoyed reading.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“Keep it simple.” Working with technology, we find it is easy to get caught up in adding more and more features to our software, which if you are not careful can make the system increasingly complex to use. Our customers want systems that are simple to use. It’s important to pair increased functionality with an easy-to-use interface. I work hard at echoing our customers’ words to make sure they are heard by everyone in our organization.
Why do you hold your current business position today?
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have combined roles in service management and business efficiency and have always enjoyed helping companies implement technology to improve their operational efficiency. From deploying computer applications as well as satellite, cellular and other mobile communication networks, I’ve experienced over and over again how the right technology can so dramatically improve productivity.
Do trends exist in this industry?
I see a number of exciting trends in the market today, especially as they relate to mobile service management. So many companies are already benefiting from the use of mobile computing and certainly trends indicate that further adoption can be expected as the efficiency gains that companies are experiencing are huge.
What is your favorite quote?
There is a quote credited to Henry Ford when talking about the first automobiles that says, “If we asked our customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Innovation comes from understanding the problem and designing inspirational solutions.
Posted on 04/20/20120 comments
On behalf of The Imaging Channel, the world’s only print publication dedicated solely to managed print services, I attended EFI Connect. If you know anything about Electronics for Imaging, Inc. – and you likely do – you will be thinking, “What was the point of that? How does that relate at all to MPS?”
Answer: It doesn’t. But it does have to do with knowing what options are out there if you’re trying to succeed in the print industry – you know, just in case this whole MPS thing doesn’t work out.
EFI brings the interaction between software, hardware and processes to life.
We here in Editorial have the privilege of reading all the material that comes to you via paper or screen multiple times, so it may just be that I’m recalling at a greater frequency than they’ve actually been communicated to me certain strategic suggestions offered to help you save your business as print continues to decline. But I don’t think that any of you will be unfamiliar with the following two recommendations for expanding your MPS business:
- Managed services (sometimes called “managed network services”)
- Computing device reselling (including mobile devices like tablets)
You’ll probably notice neither of those suggestions have much to do with print, either. And as you might imagine, there will be significant hurdles to leap running off in either of these directions because they are not print-related. I’m not saying it’s impossible to do, these are bad ideas, or hurdles exist nowhere else. I’m just acknowledging a couple obvious things … like the fact that learning swarms of new devices and technologies you plan to service will take a significant amount of time, and the inherent flaw in selling and/or reselling any type of unspecialized hardware in my mind is a lesson the office printing industry has already learned the hard way – hence why it’s building services like managed print around such commodities.
EFI is an interesting company to look at from a print perspective for many reasons, but primarily (for me, at least) because it doesn’t have the same history, the same tethers as even one of its main competitors in the wide-format space, HP. It doesn’t concern itself much with office printing hardware – many print OEMs’ main staple (or, at least, it used to be). In our space, EFI focuses on providing digital color print servers (Fiery) to devices such as the Xerox WorkCentre 7547, for example; scanning applications through its SendMe application; or mobile printing capabilities through PrintMe Mobile – which, incidentally, was one of the first of its kind as an earlier iteration, PrintMe; how’s that for visionary?
EFI Connect attendees were able to learn about the various software EFI has to offer at interactive stations across the show floor.
Primarily, though, EFI focuses on the following:
- Management information systems (MIS) and (ERP) software solutions
- Wide-format and superwide inkjet printers
- UV and solvent inks
- Labels and packaging printers
- Ceramic tile printers
Yes – ceramic tile printers. Turns out there’s a huge market for that … with few competitors. I had no idea until I sat in on a session with Ken Hanulec, vice president, marketing, Inkjet Solutions. I also didn’t realize how easy it is these days for people to customize labels; I knew this was the case for POP signage and the like, but here’s a whole new sell to clients. And one bold EFI exec even went so far as to say that everything in the room – from floor to ceiling – could someday be printed. Unlikely, maybe, but think of it this way: The world may be going more and more paperless every day, but objectless? Not so much. Even that tablet that’s killing your sales right now still needs a box to get to us.
EFI CEO Guy Gecht (left) has a conversation with Staples VP Robert Schlacter by the fireside.
Sean Skelly, vice president and general manager, Jetrion, put it best during his session when he said, “Print is not dying; it’s growing. You just have to pick the right areas.” MPS may be one of those areas or ways to hang on, but it’s not the only one – as so many of our contributors have pointed out – nor is it the only one specific to print. Digital color is growing in all areas, John Henze (VP, marketing) told me during a one-on-one, as are print-related productivity and automation software solutions.
Would packaging printing be more, equally or less difficult for you to get into than managed services? Would wide-format consumables be a more sensible complement to your current business than tablet reselling? Just some questions, inspired by EFI Connect, to consider.
Posted on 04/16/20120 comments
As CEO of Agiliant, Gary Stevens is responsible for the strategic vision, direction and overall operational execution of the company. His focus is on assembling, aligning and leading a world class collaboration of the very best people, processes and technologies at the heart of the Agiliant services engine to optimize value to Agiliant stakeholders, customers and partners.
What is your current state of mind?
Optimistic and charismatic. The convergence of the MPS and managed network services markets is presenting unbelievable opportunities for growth and business transformation, especially within the BTA channel.
What is the greatest challenge you face today?
Resistance to change, complacency and an underestimation of how hard it really is to transform a traditional product-sales business into a services business. Many MPS providers have the misconception that integrating MNS into their existing business is as simple as finding a NOC to outsource their help desk function to. The reality is that making the leap into MNS isn’t the difficult part – it’s landing on your feet and learning how to run with it, sell it, deliver it, make it profitable and sustainable that proves to be immensely challenging.
What do you see as your biggest opportunity?
Building a nationwide managed IT services business from the ground up that tightly integrates output and network services hasn’t ever been done before, and therein lies the opportunity. Our model was designed to positively impact both the dealer channel and the end users. We help our partners achieve competitive differentiation, integrate MNS into their existing companies, and we also provide all the support, training, resources and tools necessary for them to become master managed services providers. Simultaneously, we enhance the value proposition for customers by offering a robust solution suite designed to optimize their IT function for their specific business needs.
What qualities do you look for when making key hires?
Smart, committed and energetic people that continuously demonstrate the desire and the ability to elevate their contributions and value to the organization beyond the lines that frame their specific job description. Creativity, passion and drive are also must haves in a fast-paced rapidly growing environment such as ours.
What would you consider your greatest achievement?
Personally – my children and how I’ve been able to balance providing for and supporting my family while aggressively pursuing my professional ambitions. Professionally – there is nothing more rewarding than building a successful company from scratch and being able to provide good jobs for a lot of really great and talented people while simultaneously accomplishing something in your respective market or industry that’s never been done before. I’m extremely proud to be making that a reality for the fourth time in my life.
If your customers were to describe your company in three words, what would they be?
Innovative. Agile. Ahead.
Managed print services or managed services?
As a pioneer in MPS, it somewhat pains me to say this, but definitely managed services. In the technology products and services space, you’re either evolving or dying; enough said.
Where are you investing the most within your company this year?
We’re continuing to build our core services engine and scope, growing our Affiliate Network and evolving our offerings to create a further competitive advantage and differentiation for our Network.
What is your greatest concern for this industry?
That it’s unable to make the changes it must make to keep pace. The convergence that is occurring is different than this industry has ever seen before. If this industry approaches and tries to navigate it the way it did MPS, there will be a lot of really good people and companies in a lot of trouble because they simply won’t be able to transform, and they will be obsolete.
How would your employees and co-workers describe you?
Passionate, visionary, charismatic, demanding and a holder of exceptionally high expectations for myself, my people and our collective performance and results.
Who are your favorite writers?
Thomas L. Friedman (The World is Flat)
Jim Collins (Good to Great)
Mark Frost (The Match)
Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games series)
Stephen R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
I recently read the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and thought it was fascinating and very well written.
Why do you hold your current business position today?
Because I’m passionate about this industry, our vision/mission, and it enables me to work side-by-side with some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met.
Do trends exist in this industry?
Absolutely. The real magic is in deciphering important, game-changing trends – those that force you to focus on embracing, navigating or battling them before you get too far behind to do so – from trends that don’t ever materialize into much more than hype and distraction. For example, there are some in this industry that will rabidly still debate which one of those buckets that MPS really falls into, given the widespread difficulty to really make it a substantial business growth engine. As somebody that built, grew and sold one of the only original independent nationwide MPS companies, I can tell you that I never had any doubt as to what kind of trend MPS was. But that was a decade ago and the nature of trends is that they change with the times. Today, the big trend is the convergence of managed print/output and network services, and even though there will be those that embrace (and benefit from) it and also those that never really commit to it, this trend is clearly here to stay.
Who is your next hire?
The next person I meet that’s smarter than I am in an area that’s important to my business: Someone who can demonstrate their ingenuity and effectively convince me that I’d be a fool not to hire them.
What is your favorite quote?
"There's a way to do it better — find it." – Thomas Edison
“Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” – Bill Gates
Posted on 04/04/20120 comments
Chris Strammiello, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Nuance Document Imaging Division
What is your current state of mind?
I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about the future of the document imaging market as well as Nuance’s place in the market. We have more opportunity in front of us than ever before. It’s not just the addressable market or the health of the industry. What I’m seeing today is a hunger for what Nuance is bringing to the market and a desire by customers to combine our solutions and deploy our technologies. This is particularly exciting for us and for the industry.
What is the greatest challenge you face today?
One of our greatest challenges is developing programs and strategies to offer the power of this combined Nuance portfolio of technology and expertise to our imaging channel partners. Nuance is on the cutting edge of driving a dramatic change in how customers interact with all types of devices, and we need to find ways to help the channel adopt and sell this change.
What do you see as your biggest opportunity?
Our biggest opportunity comes from the shift in how information is being consumed and the requirements this has caused. Customers are looking for universal access to information across mediums – whether that is on the network, in the cloud or on mobile devices. This leads to a need for control of information – where you access it, how it is consumed and how you interact with it. Information consumption and access are indelibly tied together. This creates a need to manage information accessibility and compliance while driving costs out of processes and making workers more productive. As individual products and as integrated solutions, our portfolio helps customers gain this control.
What qualities do you look for when making new hires?
Our business has been built by way of innovation and it will take a lot of creativity to bring the business into the next realm. Because of this, I look for creative thinkers and highly motivated problem solvers. I want people who are excited about the future of this industry and see themselves as change agents by leveraging our technology to shape the industry.
What would you consider your greatest achievement?
I’ve been here for 11 years and my greatest achievement is a long-term one. I’ve helped transform a consumer-oriented scanning business to the world’s largest capture and print management business. This has been a huge accomplishment and one that has taken a lot of time, focus and passion to make happen. To have been part of this transformation the entire way brings me a lot of professional and personal satisfaction.
If your customers were to describe your company in three words, what would they be?
Essential. We’re essential to our customers’ initiatives to save costs and improve productivity. And we are essential to our partners who are bringing these solutions to market. Dedicated. Nothing is more important that making our partners successful, and our dedication to customer satisfaction and moving our technology forward through innovation is key to that goal. Nimble. Being the largest document imaging company in the world provides us with the resources we need to stay nimble and agile enough to respond quickly to whatever our customers require – whether they are a small business or a global enterprise.
Managed print services or managed services?
Of the two choices, managed services is the direction the market is headed. While managed services might start with print, business processes don’t end there. We are shaping our portfolio to go beyond print and we see our partners moving that direction as well. The cloud, mobile devices and vertical processes — particularly in markets like healthcare — all provide significant opportunities to move beyond managed print.
Where are you investing the most within your company this year?
Nuance has always been a company that has focused on R&D and product innovation, and this will continue this year – particularly in the cloud and mobile realms. At the same time, we are very focused on building and organizing our front-line staff to support our customers and partners across the globe.
What is your greatest concern for this industry?
Our industry needs to embrace services and support as a differentiator. At a time where technology changes are accelerating quicker than ever, the industry must react just as quickly. This means investments in training of sales teams to understand shifting landscapes, significant incentive programs to get sales teams out of their comfort zone and help them embrace solution selling, and more effort on the part of both hardware and software providers to focus on servicing the customer. If I have any concern, it is a hope that everyone involved in our industry can combine both energy and incentives to keep up with this current pace of change.
How would your employees and co-workers describe you?
Nuance has achieved its position and stature in the industry because of a relentless focus on execution and bottom-line results, and I believe my team would describe me as having the same relentless focus. At the same time, they would say I am open-minded and welcome to ideas. We work in a very innovative culture and ideas come from all corners. My job is to assimilate good thinking into an action plan that helps us stay ahead, and I am very welcoming to that type of thinking.
Who are your favorite writers?
Jack Kerouac. There is a sense of adventure in his writing that is unparalleled, and keeping a sense of adventure in life is part of what motivates me.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
This is the most important quarter of our life.
Do trends exist in this industry?
Trends exist in every industry. The important trends that we focus on are end-user customer desires and challenges. If you look at the trends in our industry – managed print services, secure printing, capture and workflow – they all tell a bigger story about what customers want and how technology can satisfy those needs. They roll up into customers’ desire to save money, to be more environmentally friendly and to make IT more scalable. These are the important trends, and we align our best thinking around them.
Who is your next hire?
Needs can change quickly, but at the top of my list today is finding a product management resource in Europe who can help us drive deeper product integration into the back-end systems that are prevalent in that geography.
What is your favorite quote?
It would be from Muhammad Ali: “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
Posted on 03/26/20120 comments
What is your current state of mind?
Optimistic. I'm an eternal optimist but very bullish (about) the future of our company and our industry.
What is the greatest challenge you face today?
The challenge that all organizations face is to continually learn from their customers and stay agile enough to meet their long-term needs. For years, we've been told by organizations literally all over the world that the lack of data security is an unacceptable oversight in managed print, which, ultimately, is why I founded Print Command.
As a security-focused organization, staying ahead of the industry and, naturally, ahead of cyber threats is a constant challenge that always keeps us at the top of our game. Cybersecurity, particularly when it's the basis of managing sensitive content, consistently challenges our creativity and threat expertise. Anyone who thinks they have a solution that doesn't require constant improvement and regular updates becomes irrelevant almost immediately. Fortunately, we've been able to develop processes and methods to keep us ahead of the game in both of these areas, but that is certainly the greatest challenge we face.
What do you see as your biggest opportunity?
Without a doubt it is moving beyond just managing print and working with clients to secure the entire deployment cycle of their content. We're developing some really cool apps that will allow our clients unprecedented content sharing capabilities, all in a totally secure environment and at significant cost savings to what they're currently experiencing.
What qualities do you look for when making key hires?
Integrity and work ethic. Almost everything else can be learned, but you either have integrity and work ethic or you don't. You can't compromise on those qualities.
What would you consider your greatest achievement?
You know, I've graduated from West Point, achieved success in a number of positions in different industries, (and) earned an MBA from one of the top business schools in the world, but all of these pale in comparison to a completely non-work related achievement: my family. I've been blessed with a wonderful wife and three children who are each very different yet miraculous in their own way. They're my constant and unconditional source of pride. And although we're still a work-in-progress (what family isn't?), my family is certainly my greatest achievement.
If your customers were to describe your company in three words, what would they be?
Secure. Innovative. Partner.
Managed print services or managed services?
I don't believe the two should be separated. We don't stop our practice just at managing print devices because the cyberattack threat doesn't end there. Our applications can function as a standalone managed services offering with managed print as a feature set for business-to-business customers or facilitate a managed services capability for a VAR already selling managed print.
Where are you investing the most within your company this year?
Honestly, (it’s) split between application and team development. They're so intertwined that it's hard to differentiate; both are key to our growth goals for 2012 and beyond.
What is your greatest concern for this industry?
My biggest concern for the managed print services industry is that it will continue in its current form without developing a strong identity. I compare MPS to social media before Facebook. There were at least two players already in the industry with Friendster and MySpace, but until Facebook was able to offer users what they really wanted – a way to passively share their status with others on their profile page – social media languished in identity-less mediocrity. MPS is not all that different at this point. (Every channel) typically defines MPS differently ... which means that no one outside the industry has any definitive idea of what MPS is. Until the industry looks beyond the obvious shortcomings of the traditional MPS applications and develops something more in line with what clients really want, we'll have "Friendster" and "MySpace" offerings that never truly capture the full potential of what we, as practitioners, can offer clients with respect to managing their content.
How would your employees and co-workers describe you?
Innovative, collaborative, driven, optimistic and a big-picture guy. Oh, yea... and fully caffeinated.
Who are your favorite writers?
It's tough to beat a good Vince Flynn novel, but I'm really looking forward to reading "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus" by my West Point classmate Paula Broadwell. The last book I read, "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development" by Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits, was a great, quick read and one I highly recommend to everyone in business, regardless of how long you've been around.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Well, when you work with young, talented, driven software developers all day long, the word "Dude" gets thrown around way too liberally. So do various emojicons in our texting vernacular. Beyond this, I find myself talking to a lot of people about "hackers" and "breaches.” This isn't so much an overuse as it is an occupational reality. If we do our jobs right at Print Command, maybe we won't have to talk about these items as much (in the future) as we do now. That's my goal.
Why do you hold your current business position today?
I'm where I am today because there isn't an application available in the marketplace that does what I hear clients telling me they need. Plato quipped, "Necessity is the mother of invention," which is precisely why I branched off from working with legacy MPS applications and designed my own. I knew I could do better, and by all accounts of client feedback, Print Command offers a much-needed, secure alternative to anything else available. I love the position we're in and the path we're tracking on.
Do trends exist in this industry?
Absolutely. Everything from modality use, consumption rates, consumer choices and dozens of other meaningful data points develop trends on both micro and macro levels. The ones we're most tuned into right now, however, don't involve the backend diagnostics of devices. Do we worry about the "backend" information? Absolutely, and Print Command's base application provides an incredibly powerful and sophisticated secure application to gather traditional MPS data. The trend analysis that sets us apart, however, is our focus on – and the technology we develop to combat – much more sobering statistics, like 90 percent of companies' networks were breached last year with 59 percent of them breached multiple times at an average per-instance cost of greater than $500,000. (Ponemon Institute/Juniper Networks). With statistics like this staring us in the face, we know that clients are going to have to save a lot more than 10 to 30 percent on their internal printing costs to overcome the expense of just one security breach. That's a trend we think will shape the future of this industry, and it's why we're tracking it now.
Who is your next hire?
Good question. In my office I have a list of approximately 20 positions (and many of these positions can be filled by multiple people) that I could hire immediately ... I think the total number of seats we could fill is somewhere near 40 or 50. Hiring people, however, all goes back to finding the right mix of talent and the non-compromisable traits of integrity and work ethic. I can't tell you which one of those 20 roles will be filled first or where they'll be filled, but I can tell you that no position that I have open is so important that we can't wait for a proper screening process to find someone our clients and, in turn, their clients will consider a partner.
What is your favorite quote?
There are a couple of quotes that I live by and don't think could ever be overused. First among them is "'If you can?' said Jesus. 'Everything is possible for him who believes.'" – Mark 9:23 and second is "One man with courage makes a majority." – Andrew Jackson.
Dave Westlake
Chairman, President and CEO of Print Command
Dave Westlake started Print Command with nearly two decades of leadership, sales, marketing, and consulting experience. His background includes key positions in companies from start ups to Fortune 100 firms in logistics, manufacturing, employee benefits and insurance, and most recently in the managed print services industry. Over the last six years, Westlake has tested, evaluated, installed and customized current print management programs to meet client needs in numerous industries and with organizations of all sizes. After having clients consistently report their disappointment with existing “legacy” solutions' security and analytical capabilities, Westlake took his experience and customer feedback and started Print Command.
Contact Dave at dave@print-command.com or visit www.print-command.com.
Posted on 03/19/20120 comments
Ah, the conference circuit: familiar faces, cocktail receptions … and educational sessions so close to infomercials that they’ll put you to sleep faster than an alligator on its back getting its tummy rubbed.
It’s not often that you attend a conference that surprises you (at least not in a good way), but such was my experience at Konica Minolta’s 2012 Business Conference and Product Expo at the Bellagio in Las Vegas – and no, I’m not being paid to say that. The theme of the conference was “Inspire Customer Passion,” and I’d have to say that Konica Minolta set a strong example of how to do just that; I and the dealers among the 1,100 attendees found ourselves, as Konica Minolta’s customers and guests, inspired – and that’s a pretty tall order, especially for those of us who’ve attended countless shows and have been in this industry since the dinosaurs bit the dust.
One impressive part of the event was the presenters – three in particular that I was able to see who focused on education that applies to all companies as opposed to delivering the typical hour-long ad for their companies. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, was the keynote, and, taking a page out of his bestselling book “Delivering Happiness” to echo the idea that if you work on making your employees happy, the rest will naturally fall into place, he described how dealers could create their own company cultures conducive to winning more business. Rick Von Feldt, senior partner of Kolaborative Consulting, also addressed the culture of the workplace, though through a more chronological lens, providing insights into how the various generations of employees can come to “all just get along” under one roof, leverage technology and move into a profitable future together. Doug Lipp, former head trainer of Walt Disney University and private consultant, not only took on the challenge of living up to a session title that was strikingly similar to Konica Minolta’s – “Igniting Customer Passion” – but knocked it out of the park, bringing lessons from the culture he helped create at Disney to bear on the print space. Information about sales, social media, and, of course, MPS was also abundant.
The show floor was also dynamic, including several partners who’ve been acquired in recent years, such as All Covered, alongside their contributions to the Konica Minolta product suite. The most interesting area to me was a spot near the center of the floor that had been carved out for the education vertical, wherein Graphtech’s (one of All Covered’s managed IT acquisitions) ActivClassroom by Promethean products were brought to life, complete with an Albert Einstein look-alike theorizing nearby. Ever notice how those pavilion areas on show floors tend to have empty seats? Not so here. In fact, every time I walked by when “class” was in session, all the chairs were occupied, and people were even standing on the sidelines, checking out the interactive whiteboard and handheld gadgets the “students” could key in product quiz answers on to win prizes. This classroom of the future is definitely something to keep an eye on, and Sam Errigo, SVP at Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc., informed me that what I saw at the show is only the beginning. “It’s really cool technology and certainly will have impact in the marketplace,” he said. “The more exciting stuff is where they’re going, how we’re tying technologies together and how we’re using our products to interface with their products and make that classroom experience something really, really special. That’s the exciting part – finding great partners that share our vision and enthusiasm around growth and really doing something different and special that has big impact in those vertical markets. That’s the key. So we’re being really selective in our partners – and not necessarily just for the technology; it really is the shared vision.”
That shared vision was evident all around – not only among the partners at the event, but those presenters who’d been chosen as well. And speaking of sharing, multiple book giveaways to all those who attended certain sessions to me signaled Konica Minolta’s highly inspiring dedication to dealer education as well as its interest in including dealers in that same vision. If it’s any indication of the changes Konica Minolta has said it’s made within its own organizational culture, it’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years in the print and managed services marketplace; inspiring customer passion will undoubtedly also inspire customer loyalty.
Posted on 02/20/20120 comments
I recently traveled to Salt Lake City to watch my sister, a professional violinist, perform in a solo recital. I felt very fortunate to be sitting there, in this beautiful theater, watching and listening to her. It took me back to my childhood.
I grew up in a very musical family. My mom is a violinist, and she raised all her children to have a deep appreciation for music and the arts. Beyond our private music lessons and orchestra rehearsals, we were constantly going to concerts and seeing classical performers who had come to town. There were never packed theaters, but the people who were there really wanted to be. They were respectful of the music and the musicians.
I remember my mom telling us stories about the music scene when she first moved to Las Vegas in the 1980s. Shows on the Strip mostly used orchestras at that time. They weren’t huge, but they were live. Somewhere down the road, though, musicians got cut and orchestras got smaller until most shows didn’t use live music at all. Instead, they opted for a sound system and a CD. Recorded soundtracks seemed like the way to go. It was much cheaper. It cut back on rehearsal time, allowing the theater to be open for more shows or showings, and the majority of audiences didn’t mind.
Thankfully, the allure of recorded music has worn down. Show producers eventually saw the value of live music, so musicians have made a bit of a comeback. Some shows still use that trusty sound system, while others utilize a small quartet, jazz band or chamber orchestra. It’s not the same as 20 or 30 years ago, but it’s something. For me, that something adds a bit more personality to the show. It adds to the credibility of the show, and it most certainly adds to the magic. For other people, it makes no difference.
Although musicians are being used more frequently, the job of a musician is a rough one. There may be a violin opening for a show, and hundreds of talented violinists will audition for it. It is competitive; it requires long hours and hard work – for something that some people don’t even notice.
As I sat in the theater and thought of the career my sister has chosen and how hard it has been, I started thinking that musicians and managed print providers aren’t all that different. Stay with me here as I make the associative leap.
Back in the heyday of the imaging industry, everyone was printing. People couldn’t get enough paper, which meant more devices, more supplies and more successful salespeople. Today, print volumes are flat, workers are mobile and everything can be accessed, viewed and shared on a screen. Paper isn’t always needed. Competition is fierce. All those successful salespeople are fighting for those clients that actually do print.
But the great thing about the music and managed print industries is that there will always be an audience – I’d like to believe, anyway. It might not be standing room only, but just like the people who were there to watch my sister perform wanted to be there, the people who need to print will.
The world changes, and people change. One decade, the entire community is going to orchestra concerts, opera and the ballet; the next, they are watching 3-D movies from their couches. One decade, people are printing everything they view and even things they don’t; the next, they don’t even have home printers. I am guilty of all of this.
But no matter how much the world or people change, there is always a market. You might have to work harder to get the gig – or the contract – but success is still possible.
Go support your local music scene and print your tickets!
Posted on 02/14/20120 comments
One of the signs of a good conference is the number of sound bites that come out of it. As a journalist (among other things), it’s my job to make note of those quotes and sound bites to then succinctly wrap up the event and give those who couldn’t make it a good overview.
However, I discovered something at this year’s event: Twitter is either making my job easier or making me obsolete.
There was a “critical mass” of Tweeting going on at this year’s event (that’s a sound bite in itself from Lyra’s Frank Stefansson), so to get an overview of the event, one only has to take a look at the Twitter stream from the event. Jim Lyons, who is possibly the king of social media in this industry, created a great Storify feed of the Tweets, and you can also find them by searching the #lyra12 hash tag.
The feed tells a great story – of the innovation, intelligence, quest for knowledge and, yes, humor in this industry (Greg Walters is always good for laughs and keen insight all at once).
One of the biggest talking points/debates/conundrums? Mobile print. Is it the future? Or is it our last-ditch attempt to stay relevant in a world of tablets and mobile devices? Lyra’s Robert Palmer stated that mobile printing is unlikely to drive new, incremental print. And at a roundtable discussion I attended, which consisted of representatives from four OEMs, the consensus was that there has to be a way to make mobile printing simple and necessary for the consumer. Can it be done? “The longer users go without printing, the less they will want to print,” the MPSA tweeted in agreement with a quote from Palmer. And although I can’t remember whom this next quote is attributed to (possibly Robert Palmer again), I agree with Greg Walters that it’s a “great friggin’ quote”: “Paper is simply a competitive display device.”
As always, there was talk of the need to educate consumers to print from their mobile devices, which led to my favorite quote of the entire conference: “I cringe when I hear we need to educate consumers,” said Lyra’s Palmer (perhaps the winner of best sound bites for the conference). It’s true. Consumers don’t want to be educated. They want things to be easy, to just work. If mobile printing has a future, it’s in a simple, agnostic, cloud-based solution that meets actual needs with no education required.
The Lyra 2012 Imaging Symposium was notable for reasons beyond great quotes and active tweeting. It was the first official event of the new Photizo/Lyra merger (as someone called it, PhoLyra – or was it LyrTizo?). The Lyra Symposium has always been a great resource for hard copy and imaging supplies data and information; this year marked the addition of a Managed Print track at the end of the second day – a harbinger? Or simply a sign of the times? We look forward to our continued work with this group and hope to see everyone and their Twitter feeds not only at the Photizo event in May, but at The Imaging Channel Managed Print Summit July 17. Long live the sound bite!
Posted on 01/31/20120 comments
Not even a week into the new year, M&A news came through the wire. Xerox announced that it had acquired LaserNetworks, a managed print services provider in Canada. In the past five years, LaserNetworks more than doubled its revenue and annually supported approximately 1 billion pages under MPS contracts.
Former president of LaserNetworks Brian Stevenson sat down with TIC and offered his two cents on what this acquisition means for Xerox, LaserNetworks and the industry.
TIC: What does the acquisition mean for Xerox?
Stevenson: Up to this point, Xerox had done exceptionally well in the production space in Canada (greater than 50 percent market share) and has been competing well in the A3 space (approximately 25 percent market share). The A4 space, however, had been a huge issue, with minimal traction and minimal market share for Xerox. This acquisition will double Xerox’s footprint in the A4 space in Canada and may provide it enough momentum to hold or grow its new position in this market. The second benefit is its access to key Canadian verticals, such as oil and gas, legal and financial/accounting. LaserNetworks has a dominant presence in these verticals, and I fully expect Xerox to exploit this opportunity.
TIC: What does it mean for LaserNetworks?
Stevenson: One of the greatest strengths of LaserNetworks’ has been its independence and its commitment to provide the best solution for the customer, whether it be HP, Lexmark or another solution. I would expect this to continue in the short term. However, being owned by an OEM automatically adds a bias to the “independent” equation. Mix in the expected Xerox corporate and sales training to the LaserNetworks sales team, and it becomes even tougher.
TIC: In terms of top MPS players, where does this position Xerox?
Stevenson: Xerox has picked up a lot of MPS knowledge with LaserNetworks, and there’s a major opportunity to leverage this knowledge into its existing direct business. If Xerox is successful transforming its direct business to this services-led, customer-centric model, it will certainly become the top MPS player in Canada. But that’s a big “if,” given the traditional “push” that occurs every month-end and quarter-end to sell more hardware.
TIC: How does it help Xerox play in the SMB space?
Stevenson: The service infrastructure at LaserNetworks covers all of North America and supports a wide portfolio of manufacturers. Xerox will be able to leverage this service network and immediately grow its “share of wallet” by placing non-Xerox-branded devices under management. In theory, Xerox should be able to offer this capability through both its direct and agent organizations.
TIC: Xerox started 2012 with this news. What do you expect to see further into 2012? More acquisitions? Who’s next?
Stevenson: I believe we’ll continue to see consolidation and expansion at the same time. The savvy MPS providers will continue to be on the radar of the OEMs as the OEMs seek to maintain existing revenues and further transition to a services-led model. I also see new entrants coming into the MPS space, as the barriers to entry have largely been eliminated. IT VARs, office supplies resellers, remanufacturers and strong independent sales agents will continue to come forward and pull share from the traditional direct OEM companies. It’s certainly an interesting time to be in managed print.
Brian Stevenson left LaserNetworks in May 2011. Today, he is the president of footPRINT Managed Services. FootPRINT is focused on helping business owners transition their companies to include a profitable MPS model. Similar to MPS itself, footPRINT Managed Services delivers these results faster and for less money than other alternatives. Stevenson has lived through the challenges and understands the best practices needed to improve the profitability and revenue growth of an MPS program.
Contact Brian at bstevenson@footprintmps.com.
Posted on 01/23/20121 comments
2012 – I can’t believe it’s already here. Some people might fear this year, as the Mayan calendar has predicted that it will be Earth’s last. But I’d like to think the majority of people are looking at it from a more positive perspective – maybe even a more positive calendar: the Chinese calendar, which marks the start of the Year of the Dragon in 2012. At least that’s the calendar I am choosing to look at – for the purposes of this blog and my sanity.
Apparently, the Year of the Dragon is a good year. It signifies power, strength and success. The dragon itself – the only mythical creature in the Chinese calendar – is made up of different animals, including a tiger, fish, snake and eagle. These features add to the powerfulness and uniqueness of the dragon, and the Chinese culture believes that those born in the Year of the Dragon will stand out among the rest.
When I think of this industry and the strength it’s had throughout the past few years of economic turmoil, I wonder if 2012 might be somewhat of a birth year for “MpS” (yes, I’m stealing that from Greg Walters).
“How can this be?” you’re probably asking. “MPS/MpS has been around for years.” Of course I know this, but when I’ve talked to different people within the industry about what 2012 will be for the MpS industry, each person has a different response. Some people say 2012 will be the Year of the Cloud. Some say it will be the Year of Automation. Others say the Year of Converged Infrastructure, and still others the Year of the Hybrid Strategy. The list could go on forever.
MpS has grown, and the players within the industry are growing. Many believe that providers can no longer just offer managed print; companies are now seriously looking at and investing in the cloud, security, automation, managed network services – again, the list could go on forever. And this is why I say that 2012 may just be the birth year of MpS – a year where all these components of a complete, comprehensive offering come together.
Some of you are already there. You are the leaders, the companies others will look up to and try to emulate. But for those of you who are just starting to merge some of these components together, draw from the dragon. Be smart, have strength and be successful. It is your year!
Posted on 01/09/20120 comments
2011 was definitely an interesting year. I have spent the last couple of days combing through news, articles, blogs and webinars focused on this year’s mergers and acquisitions, natural disasters that severely impacted many OEMs, and evolving trends in the managed print and managed services spaces. It has been an active year, to say the least.
Many of these topics were addressed on TheImagingChannel.com. Some of the industry’s top players came here, under one domain, to discuss, analyze and inform readers about these issues, and I have to say, they’ve done an impressive job! But both the print publication and the website are evolving, presenting new opportunities to all. Do you have topics you’d like to see addressed? Email us. Do you have opinions about the content posted? Share your thoughts in the comments box. Would you like to be a guest blogger, or do you know people you’d like to see on the guest blog lineup? Let us know!
Bottom line: This information is for you, and we are listening. It is our goal to continue producing the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of content here on the site through additional writers, features, blogs, webinars and a few new things up our sleeves for next year. We hope you will join us for another exciting year.
And just a reminder: If you missed some of the content throughout the year, everything is archived, so you can revisit, reread and/or find what you are looking for easily.
Here are a couple helpful links:
Issue Archive: http://theimagingchannel.com/issues/issue-archive.aspx
Blogs: http://theimagingchannel.com/blogs/browse-blogs.aspx
Webcasts: http://theimagingchannel.com/webcasts/list/all-webcasts.aspx
See you in 2012! We hope it is a prosperous and successful year for the industry!
Posted on 12/22/20110 comments
A lot of time is spent educating salespeople on how to establish and foster relationships with customers. But how do you build a relationship with someone who won’t even read your email, let alone have a conversation with you? This was one of the dilemmas discussed during a session at the BTA West event last month, and the answer reminded me of an anecdote my sister recently told me.
She was visiting L.A. – a place she talks about moving back to every now and again, as she still has many buddies there. When she arrived at the house of the friend she’d be spending the weekend with, she saw a piece of paper on the bed of the guest room she was staying in. Naturally, she picked it up to read it, at which point she discovered it was an application – to her friend’s employer.
We’re in a recession. My sister already has a job. And yet here she found herself being offered an opportunity many would kill to have right now – and hers would come with a current employee’s recommendation to boot.
This is the power of relationships. Build strong ones, and the opportunities that might be thrown your way are virtually endless. Good old-fashioned friendship paid off for my sister, and those in the MPS business who attended BTA West were encouraged to put forth efforts to network and develop such fruitful relationships among peers as well.
How? Participating in any kind of community – and during this season, it’s especially easy to get involved with a nonprofit organization or charity – has benefits that extend well beyond the service you give to the group. Establishing relationships – perhaps even friendships – with people who aren’t in your field gives you not only a more well-rounded sense of the world, but may someday put you in the position to be recommended or sponsored in with a new client looking for someone reputable or maybe even with that customer you’ve been chasing who previously refused to return your voicemail (because it really is often a smaller world than you think). After all, a coworker probably isn’t going to pass a job offer they qualify for on to you, and a competitor likely won’t recommend you to a potential customer of his or hers, but a friend you made participating in a sport or hobby might do either or both.
Granted, this is not why we form relationships with other people initially – we do it for the fun of it, which incidentally makes it a lot more comfortable than cold calling and other awkward situations that require “building rapport” – but it’s a wonderful perk! You never know when the relationships you’ve built in your life might pay off beyond the immediate joys of camaraderie and connection they bring. So while you attend your conventions and training, working on your relationships within the industry, don’t forget to foster those outside of it as well – and always continue to forge new ones in both arenas.
Posted on 12/13/20110 comments
Last week, news broke that Columbia University researchers found a security vulnerability in certain HP LaserJet printers.
The story, reported by msnbc.com, seemed a bit sensationalized, what with its claims that millions of printers could burst into flames, but if the researchers’ findings are correct, the security flaw is definitely a serious issue.
HP addressed this in a statement it released saying, “Today there has been sensational and inaccurate reporting regarding a potential security vulnerability with some HP LaserJet printers. ... Speculation regarding potential for devices to catch fire due to a firmware change is false.”
However, HP did say that they have identified a “potential security vulnerability” with some HP LaserJet devices if placed on a public Internet without a firewall. The company also said that it is “building a firmware upgrade to mitigate this issue and will be communicating this proactively to customers and partners who may be impacted.”
Regardless of whether this story was sensationalized or not, security flaws are dangerous for anyone -- individual, small business or enterprise users.
In a demonstration of the vulnerability, the Columbia researchers printed a tax return to one of the devices, which in turn then sent the document to a different computer (which would be the hackers). The document was then scanned for critical information and once found, automatically published it to Twitter.
Social security numbers, Tax ID numbers, sensitive business docs -- anything that may be printed at home or at a business could get into the wrong hands.
Although researchers have only found vulnerabilities in HP devices so far, they are continuing their testing on other manufacturers’ devices as well as gadgets and appliances.
“Printers are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to vulnerable embedded devices,” warned Salvatore Stolfo, who directed the research at Columbia. DVD players, telephone conference tools and home appliances now all connect to the Internet and have no security at all. “Supposedly secure offices -- even in sensitive government agencies -- have networked teleconferencing devices, printers, even thermostats that create security risks,” the article pointed out.
As more and more devices have network capabilities, security becomes an ever-increasing issue. We are all aware that printers are no longer just printers. They store important -- perhaps sensitive -- information. They can be used as a gateway to the network and if unsecured, they can be damaging. End users may not be aware of the potential hazards an unsecured printer could cause, but here is the opportunity for managed print providers to step in, secure the network and secure the customer.
Posted on 12/05/20110 comments