The Imaging Channel

RFPs: When to Respond and when to Walk Away

There has been some recent discussion on LinkedIn about when it's worth responding to a request for proposal and when it's better to walk away. Of course, the best case scenario is that you are developing the RFP on behalf of the client. Odds are you will get the contract based on your existing relationship. So what happens if you suspect a competitor has developed the RFP? Usually it's obvious based on the content and level of detail. I recently saw one that had several questions relating to very specific hardware functionality, and these questions were phrased as though only one type of hardware would be placed—it screamed copier dealer.

There may be cases where the end-user actually does develop their own RFP, but if they are inexperienced in managed print services, it would be difficult for them to ask appropriate questions. I have seen a couple of these as well, where most of the questions don't make sense, likely due to the fact that they don't know what they want and have a limited understanding of what MPS is. Although let's face it: most RFPs have a slew of questions that are irrelevant or overly complicated.

Regardless of the types of RFP opportunities that come across your desk, there are a few things you can do to be prepared and minimize the amount of time spent responding:

• Have a fully developed RFP on hand. If you end up with a client that needs to send out an RFP, you want to make sure you can be the one to help them out with it. Although each customer may need some customization, you should have a basic RFP put together. The questions you develop should be specific enough to highlight your competitive differentiators. Don't make a question asking if the vendor provides quarterly reviews; instead, use one or two unique aspects of your own quarterly reviews and ask if the vendor can provide that (I'll admit that this suggestion contributes to the reason why some questions seem irrelevant).
• Keep all of your previous RFP responses organized and available. It's too much work to complete an RFP response to not make use of it after it's submitted. Don't lose track of your old responses, because there will always be similar questions in another RFP. Ideally, compile all of your old RFP responses into a single file that you can reference.
• If you think a competitor developed the RFP, evaluate risk vs. reward. If you're comfortable asking the end-user, confirm that they've had help. If they have, odds are it will be an uphill battle to win the contract. From my perspective, the only time it ever makes sense to submit a response to an RFP that you are unlikely to win is if the profit potential is extremely high. Even then, since you already know you have to beat out their first choice, you will likely have to reduce your prices and profits will shrink. The only other reason to try in this scenario is if the RFP is relatively straight forward and you can develop a response in a few hours—if you are presented with an RFP developed by a competitor that consists of multiple 10-page documents, forget it.
• If you think the customer developed the RFP, offer some input. This can also apply if you think a competitor developed the RFP, but your success in that case may be more limited. However, if it's obvious that the customer developed the RFP themselves, approach them with some suggestions of what they should be including—specifically, questions from the RFP you already have developed.

In an ideal world, every RFP would be an outline of the company's current scenario followed by a single question: what can you do for us? No, wait—in an ideal world, there would never be RFPs. As much as you can, get in front of the situation and let potential customers know what value you can bring them before their existing contract ends and they release an RFP. For those situations where an RFP is inevitable, make sure you are using your time and effort wisely. Don't go chasing something that someone else already caught.

Posted on 04/25/20110 comments

MPS Security is Primarily About Education

Since printers are part of an organization's IT infrastructure, security concerns come into play. In a sea of PCs, servers and routers, printers are probably not high on your clients' security radar. At the same time, it is difficult to get anything installed on a network without proving that it will not jeopardize security.

Nothing you offer as part of a managed print services program needs to put your clients' network security at increased risk. There may be a few items—such as printer hard drives that can contain records of printed documents—that you will need to implement security solutions for, but for the most part, what you need to do is be knowledgeable about the types of security concerns your clients may have. If you intend to—or already do—offer additional managed services, you may eventually want to offer IT security solutions as one of your offerings.

As an MPS provider, there are a few things you can do to be prepared for your clients' security concerns:

1. Make sure your products and services fit within relevant compliance laws.

This is more about understanding the relevant compliance laws than having to make alterations to your offerings. The most important compliance laws deal with privacy (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act for medical records, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act for financial information, and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for credit card information), so if you are not capturing or transmitting any of this data you have less to worry about. Printer hard drives might be storing document data by default, so you may need to add some security features to the hardware itself—and printers connected to the network should be treated the same as any other networked hardware to prevent external intrusions (e.g. make sure they are behind the corporate firewall). In terms of any software you are installing at the client site, make sure you are aware of exactly what data it captures and if it could contain any sensitive information; this could be anything from document content to document titles or even user names. Your software vendors should be able to provide you with this information.

2. Be able to articulate to your clients why your products and services are secure.

Once you know how your hardware and software fits into the security landscape, make sure that anyone who interacts with clients is capable of relaying relevant security information. Your hardware and software vendors should be able to provide you with security documentation. If you are going to create it yourself, at least get help and approval from your vendors, if not a lawyer. Virtually any software can be hacked, so you don't want to making too many guarantees; you just want to provide the facts about how it works. Depending on the types of customers you target, you may want separate documentation that deals with compliance laws for specific vertical markets, for example, HIPAA for health-care organizations.

3. Offer solutions that help them meet their compliance obligations.

If you are looking to expand your business beyond MPS to include other managed services, security solutions are something you may want to look into. Almost every business requires some type of security measures to be taken to protect their data. While some can manage this on their own, many need or welcome outside help. Many managed print providers already offer document management solutions, many of which are already helping clients to keep their data organized and secure. I don't mean to imply getting into the IT security business is easy; you will need some experts on staff.

WikiLeaks has shown us that the biggest security risks are often internal. It makes sense that one of the most popular printer-related security solutions is the ability to enter a PIN at the machine before a document is printed. Simple measures like this can go a long way toward improving a client's document security.

Our July 2011 issue of The Imaging Channel magazine will be taking a closer look at security issues faced by solution providers. If you would like to share some of the security issues you have faced with clients, leave a comment below or feel free to contact me directly.

Posted on 04/12/20110 comments

An Assessment is Not an Intersect

On NBC's "Chuck," the title character has the entire database of CIA intelligence embedded in his brain. When he sees an object or person that is in the database, it triggers a "flash" and he immediately understands everything that needs to be known about that object or person. This conglomeration of data is known as the intersect.

Wouldn't it be nice if, in the managed print world, you could collect printer data using an MPS software tool, look at the data, and immediately understand exactly what needs to be done to optimize the client's print environment? Unfortunately, it's almost never that easy. So the question becomes, how much information do you need to develop recommendations that are close enough to creating an optimized environment? When is software data enough, and when is it critical to have more?

Here's a quick summary of information you might want for an assessment, broken down by software data vs. supplementary information that could be obtained in a variety of ways, including interviews, office walk-throughs, questionnaires, etc.

When developing an assessment, you have to consider the traditional tradeoffs of time vs. cost vs. quality. With software data alone, you can develop an assessment quickly and at a low cost, but it's not going to be perfect. To get a more accurate assessment, you may spend one or more days making phone calls and conducting costly office walk-throughs that will delay the delivery of your recommendations—even then, it's not going to be perfect. The more variables you take into consideration, the more you have to consider the relationships between them, and at some point you just might need an intersect to figure it out.

For the most part, the complexity of an assessment comes down to prospect size. I think most small to medium businesses will welcome a simple, concise proposal that can be developed primarily with software data. You can ask a few questions that are easy to answer and give your analysis more substance: how many employees do you have? How many or what percentage of your users have desktop printers? Enterprise accounts are a different story. It's a longer sales cycle to begin with, and since so many factors could impact the profitability of the account, it makes sense to put more work into additional analysis.

As usual, one size does not fit all. Luckily, an implemented MPS program is not an end state, so the important thing is to get your foot in the client's door, provide them with excellent service, and be flexible with their program over time. Keep the assessment as simple as possible out of the gate and adjust as needed. If your pricing hinges on what's discovered in the assessment, you might lose money in some accounts by ignoring a few variables—that's why you should take more time with enterprise assessments—but by using a one-size-fits-most model for SMB accounts, your margins will average out.

On a side note, one variable I haven't mentioned at all is page coverage, which previously warranted its own blog entry on whether or not having specific data was critical.

Ideally, MPS is less about the initial assessment and implementation and more about the ongoing management and partner relationship. Of course, you need to win the accounts first. I would love to hear about different approaches to assessments. Please feel free to share your approach in the comments!

Posted on 03/30/20111 comments

MPS Software: Do You Have a Backup Plan?

Last week, the news broke that ECi acquired FMAudit. For the two companies, I think this will prove to be an excellent move. But from a channel perspective, an acquisition like this makes you realize that it is necessary to always be prepared to make a change to your MPS software infrastructure.

This acquisition is probably concerning for dealers who currently use FMAudit in conjunction with a software solution that competes with one of ECi's other products, such as Digital Gateway's e-automate, and those dealers who use one of ECi's other software solutions, such as OMD, in conjunction with data collection software from a company other than FMAudit. My guess is that while all of these companies will claim to continue to support integration with all of the popular software packages, they will not be advancing support for a company that is now their competitor. Maybe this situation impacts you directly, but even if it doesn't, how would you deal with it?

The software industry is in a constant state of change, and without having direct control over the development of the software you use, there are many things that could force you to change your current processes. Maybe it's a merger or acquisition, maybe the vendor closes shop, or maybe there's simply a new software release that is barely recognizable compared to the previous version. In any of these scenarios, your processes may have to change.

My suggestions for preparing for these situations are simple:

• Do not build your MPS program around a specific software package. Know the processes that you need to execute your MPS program at a high level, so you can clearly articulate your needs to potential new software vendors. Know the items you absolutely need in a software package—integration with your other software solutions, reliable collection of the printer data you need—and worry less about the little details, such as having a particular report for a quarterly review.
• Always be evaluating alternative software solutions. You never know when you might need to switch. Keep up to date on what alternative vendors are offering—in the process, you might find something better than what you already have.
• Minimize your clients' direct interaction with your software. Particularly from a data collection software perspective, while it's nice that most of these applications have a web interface that allows end-users to log in, it's usually unnecessary. Maybe clients need to log in to some applications to check the status of service issues and things of that nature, but as much as possible, keep clients away from your software interfaces so they don't have to be confused if it changes. At the very least, take advantage of options that let you brand the interface for your company.

As the market matures, it makes sense that independent software companies will continue to merge or be acquired until there are a series of one-stop-shop vendors for all of your MPS software needs. ECi is well on its way to becoming that, with software products in a variety of categories: business systems, e-commerce, delivery management, and mobile sales. This most recent acquisition might push other software companies to form tighter alliances with complementary software products and potentially get the ball rolling on further M&As. In the long run, these mergers and alliances should create solutions for dealers that have tighter integration between different types of software applications.

From a dealer perspective, you can only prepare yourself so much for a potential need to change software vendors. For software vendors, there is incentive to make it easy for dealers to switch to your software. Just like how most banks are willing to switch over all of your automatic payments and deposits for you if you switch to their bank, software vendors should be offering extensive transition support for prospects currently using a different software product. I'm sure most software vendors support transitions to some extent, but it will become critically important as companies merge, alliances form, and more dealers look to change software vendors.

Read The Skeptic's blog for further analysis of ECi's acquisition of FMAudit. Overall, I think it's good news, and I hope the transition is a smooth one!

Posted on 03/16/20110 comments

OKI Releases Modular MPS Program for Channel

OKI recently announced that its Total Managed Print program has evolved into a modular offering. It now allows channel partners of all sizes to combine the components they require to develop or enhance their unique MPS program. Whether a dealer needs a complete hosted infrastructure, tools for a single component of MPS, or an entire MPS program that they can execute on their own, it seems as though this is what OKI is claiming to offer.

OKI's Total Managed Print program includes nine customized options that include components such as analysis, proposal generation, remote monitoring, service and supplies fulfillment, and billing. Their message is that the program will reduce print costs for end-users while providing ongoing revenue streams for channel partners, which is a nicely summarized version of the two main goals of MPS.

The press release from OKI states that the differentiators of their Total Managed Print program are a proprietary analytic engine that uses independent market research, industry benchmarking best practices and a variety of statistical data to evaluate an end-user printer fleet; brand- and device-agnostic strategy recommendations to meet the diverse needs of end-user clients; a proprietary proposal generator that delivers customized reports and has the ability to be branded for channel partners; and proactive sales support with ongoing device and usage tracking and continual optimization of end-user printer fleets.

It's interesting to see yet another mention of unbiased, brand-agnostic analysis and recommendations. Channel dealers and OEMs alike are recognizing the importance of moving away from proposals that are essentially a catalogue of their own products. I remember the first print assessment and proposal I ever saw, back in 2004, which was essentially a 25-page document that ended in several pages of hardware suggestions and specifications—all from that manufacturer, of course. While there are still companies that use this tactic, I'm happy to see most companies trying to do what is truly best for the client. Of course you want to sell more products, but the opportunity that MPS provides to develop a long-term relationship with a client will get you there without being too pushy out of the gate.

I hope the OKI program is as beneficial to dealers as it sounds. Although most other OEMs have their direct sales divisions occupying the majority of their attention, a modular approach to MPS could be extremely beneficial for the entire channel. However, the support requirements for this approach must be astronomical, so I will bet that we won’t see another OEM release this type of MPS program any time soon.

Posted on 02/23/20110 comments

Ricoh's $300M Investment in Managed Document Services Goes Beyond MPS

Ricoh recently announced a $300 million USD investment over three years in managed document services. This continues the trend of OEMs acknowledging the importance of managing the entire document lifecycle rather than only the printed output. Following their acquisition of ACS, Xerox is attempting to transform their business into a wide-ranging services company. Similarly, Ricoh wants to be known for more than hardware, and for more than managed print services. While Ricoh's acquisition of IKON has helped them achieve a larger footprint in the market and grow their service capabilities, I expect to see Ricoh acquire additional services companies in the future to enhance their MDS strategy.

The following viral video from Ricoh sets the tone for their new strategy: MDS is about distributing the right document, in the right form, at the right time, for the right price. More than simply determining how much is being printed and what equipment is needed to print, MDS manages documents in all forms—electronic or hardcopy—and helps to make sure information is being delivered in the most efficient and effective manner.

There are three key aspects to Ricoh's MDS strategy that I think are important differentiators:

• Change management. Software technology, combined with the knowledge of MPS professionals, can determine the current state of an organization's printing environment and what should be done to optimize it. Some optimization can occur without significantly interfering with the end-users' daily activities: replacing hardware, changing default print settings, using software to configure automated print rules. Further optimization that involves changing what documents are delivered, in what form, and at what time, requires more involved change management. Ricoh's change management services are based on Prosci's ADKAR change management methodology.
• Vendor-agnostic approach. Across the board in the MPS space, companies are realizing that it is unrealistic to expect customers to get rid of the printing assets they already have and replace them with new ones. To continue to be successful in MPS, you must be willing to support printing devices from other vendors. Ricoh will service HP and Lexmark printers, and they also offer to manage additional vendor relationships for the customer so they can have a single point of contact. Although hardware sales will continue to be a significant portion of Ricoh's business, it is critical for them to be able to manage devices from other vendors.
• Standardized sales and service training. Consistency in direct sales and service, worldwide, makes sense from a brand standpoint. But what about Ricoh's channel partners?

Ricoh claims to have one of the industry's largest direct sales and services workforces, including 30,000 services professionals. At the same time, Jeffrey Hickling, president and CEO of Ricoh U.S., called their dealer channel "extremely important" in a recent interview with CRN. He said they increased their investment in dealer support by 50 percent in 2010, and that channel partners who moved away from Ricoh after the IKON acquisition are encouraged to take another look at their channel offerings. Are you a current or former Ricoh channel partner? What is your take on this latest announcement and the state of their channel offerings? I think Ricoh's new strategy is headed in the right direction—we can only hope that their investment in MDS will trickle down to the channel.

Posted on 02/02/20110 comments

Upcoming Webinar: Compensation Plans for MPS

You can't expect your managed print services program to get off the ground without compensating your sales reps for MPS sales. Mark Shelton, principal of MPS results, will be presenting our free upcoming webinar, "Compensation Plans for MPS." Register today and join us on January 27 to learn how to effectively design and implement an MPS-specific compensation plan.

Shelton will share some real life scenarios he has encountered when working with clients to develop their MPS business plans. The stories range from businesses that had compensation plans for MPS but didn't tell their sales force, to businesses that were paying out too much in sales compensation and ended up with little profit.

It makes logical sense that sales reps will sell what they get paid to sell. Continuing to use a compensation plan originally developed for transactional hardware sales, for example, in no way encourages a sales rep to pursue MPS sales. Shelton will discuss how to align your compensation plans to target specific business goals: increased pages under contract, increased number of accounts, increased hardware sales, etc. In addition, he will explain different ways to balance salary- and commission-based compensation to get the results you want, and how to develop a mechanism for discouraging below-expected performance.

Once you have designed an effective compensation plan for MPS, you need to roll it out properly to your sales team, create supporting documentation, and ensure it meets compensation regulations in your area. Shelton will share best practices for all of these tasks in addition to how to encourage collaboration—rather than competition—between transactional sales reps and MPS specialists.

At the end of the webinar, Shelton will be available to answer attendee questions about MPS compensation plans. Whether you're just starting out in MPS or you've been in the game a while with less than ideal sales results, this free webinar will give you an opportunity to learn how you can boost your sales results and achieve your business goals through properly designed compensation plans. The critical area of sales compensation is worth a second look in any organization struggling to meet their sales targets. This is especially true when you are selling a new product or service, or when the industry itself is in the midst of change.

Shelton's webinar will be followed up by an article he has written for our April issue of The Imaging Channel magazine, "Compensation Planning for Managed Print Services."

Register today for our free compensation webinar, sponsored by MPS Results. Hope to see you there!

Posted on 01/19/20110 comments

Into the Future: Upcoming Technologies

Over the holiday season, I had the opportunity to watch the "Back to the Future" trilogy for the first time in many years. The future in "Back to the Future Part II" takes place in 2015. While we won't own one of the flying cars or hoverboards portrayed in the film by then, the filmmakers did accurately predict our flat-panel, wall-mounted televisions. Sometimes the future does live up to expectations!

While browsing the latest imaging industry news, I noticed some innovative technologies that are breaking new ground. They might not all make it in the market, but it's intriguing to get a glimpse of what the future holds.

Already Here: Lexmark Genesis

Besides its sleek vertical orientation, the new Lexmark Genesis all-in-one printer introduces Flash Scan technology, which allows you to convert a document to a digital file in as little as 3 seconds. This scanning technology is essentially a 10-megapixel camera that can capture a document instantly, and the 4.3-inch color touch screen immediately displays a preview. With an internet connection (computer and router required), the Lexmark Genesis touch screen also allows you to access Lexmark SmartSolutions to view and print web content or create 1-touch applications to simplify routine tasks. Although a 10-megapixel resolution is not the highest quality, it's good enough for most scans and I'm sure as these printers further develop we will see higher resolution scanning. This device is being sold for $399 and is targeted at professionals, small businesses and home office customers.

Upcoming: Xerox Smart Document Review

It's not quite like the computer interface in "Minority Report," but the prototype for Xerox's smart document review technology is getting there. Developed at the Xerox Research Centre Europe, this technology allows a user or group of users to quickly sort and group similar documents using a touch-sensitive tabletop display that is more than 150 times larger than a typical smartphone touch screen. Using only your hands, documents can be moved around the screen to be placed side by side, scaled up or down, or piled in a corner—it's like working with paper documents with all of the capabilities and speed of digital files. Users can also teach the system what is important by pointing to a few relevant documents; the system will then automatically categorize and sort millions of documents in a fraction of the time it would take to do it manually. This technology is designed for document-intensive industries, such as the legal industry, where this technology allows attorneys to examine a few evidence documents, indicate which ones are relevant to the case, and have the system scan the entire repository to automatically retrieve all documents that should be reviewed by a professional. The Xerox smart document review system combines two existing technologies for its basis: CategoriX, an automated document classification tool that is currently available as part of the Xerox Litigation Services suite of offerings, and a touch-table screen from PQ Labs. The prototype system is currently undergoing a customer pilot phase and will be further developed before commercialization.

Xerox Smart Document Review Prototype

Concept: Eco Printer by Sharsha Lee for Liteon Technology Corp.

Green initiatives are becoming increasingly more important. This concept Eco Printer is designed to extend the life of paper by allowing you to remove ink and print on the same sheet multiple times before it gets recycled. It uses ink composed of photographic materials that disappear after UV irradiation. The printer includes a UV irradiation device in the paper tray, which cleans the paper before it is printed on again. If used for casual prints that don't need to be kept for a long time, this printer could significantly reduce paper usage. The Eco Printer won a 2010 red dot design concept award.

If you've heard of any other up and coming technologies, or if you own a time-travelling DeLorean, leave a comment and let us know.

Posted on 01/05/20110 comments

As 2011 Approaches, There Are Still Few MSPs in the MPS Market

According to the ongoing MSPmentor 100 survey, only about 20 percent of MSPs focus some of their efforts on managed print services. In his recent blog post, Managed Print Services: Still Overlooked By Most MSPs, Joe Panettieri asked, "if managed print services is such a huge opportunity how come we hear from so few MSPs on the topic?"

He suggested that one reason could be because the OEMs are difficult to work with and are focused on enterprises rather than the SMB market. For the most part, it's true that OEMs put the majority of their focus on enterprises, but this point is true regardless of whether you're an MSP, VAR, or managed print provider. This says that MPS providers are not always relying on their OEM relationships to help them succeed. While I do think that some of the OEMs are starting to put more effort towards supporting their channel, there are other organizations for MSPs and VARs to turn to for help entering the managed print market—and companies that haven't dealt much with printers before will indeed need more help.

Let's say you're a company that sells servers, PCs and networking equipment, and perform break-fix service on this hardware. Now you decide to become an MSP and start using software tools to monitor and manage the hardware remotely. In the end, other than some new software you've had to learn, you're still working with the same products you've sold for years. You know how to fix them and when it's time to replace them. Now let's say you're a copier company, selling and servicing MFPs, and you decide to get into managed print. Again, you need to learn some new software tools to manage the devices remotely, and maybe you need to learn to service some additional types of machines, but in the end you're still working with printing devices. Printing devices require consumables to be replaced on a regular basis and servicing them requires dealing with many moving parts—these two things alone make them inherently different to manage than most other IT products.

Panettieri said in a previous MPS-related blog, "Like all managed services, the difference between success and failure typically has little to do with technology and everything to do with sales/marketing strategies." This is the case for independent copier or printer dealers moving into MPS. They already know printers and everything about related supplies and service, and while they may have some difficulties getting up and running with remote monitoring software, the bulk of the transition has to do with learning and implementing a new marketing and sales strategy. But for an MSP or VAR starting out in managed print, it's not just about marketing and selling, and it's not even about the remote monitoring technology (which should, in theory, be easier for them). It's about acquiring the expertise to be able to service and supply printers. In a lot of cases, it probably doesn't make sense for an MSP or VAR to go out and acquire this expertise on their own—hire and train printer service technicians, source a supplies vendor, source a parts vendor, etc. It makes sense to partner with a company that can provide all of this—plus remote monitoring software and sales training—in one shot. These programs work well for many companies that have been working in the printer and copier industry, and can make the transition much easier for MSPs and VARs looking to get into managed print. Panettieri's blog initiated a discussion about the various programs available in the comments section, which I recommend reading.

I have always thought that it makes sense for managed service providers to offer managed print services. Regardless of the uniqueness of printers, they are still a component of an organization's IT infrastructure. It can be an additional source of revenue for an MSP and one less vendor for a client to deal with.

I hope that 2011 brings more partnerships between MSPs and the managed print companies that can help them succeed in this segment of the industry. Happy holidays everyone!

Posted on 12/14/20100 comments

Customizing MPS for Specific Vertical Markets

While it's good to have one or two standard MPS programs that you can roll out to virtually any customer, there is so much value you can bring by offering tailored or additional solutions to clients in specific vertical markets.

The January 2011 issue of The Imaging Channel magazine focuses on specific needs and trends in a variety of vertical markets. Our cover story features Reed Smith, a law firm with several offices across the U.S., that has greatly benefited from the MPS program offered by Océ. In a market that is so print-intensive, they can reap many benefits from the process streamlining and cost reductions that can accompany MPS. Of course, law firms need to bill their clients for prints generated, and although law firms generally have to already have this type of budgeting under control, MPS has the ability to automate the process and make the cost estimates more accurate. Value-adds for professional firms could include integrating MPS data with their industry-specific back-end systems, or helping them to comply with document security and privacy regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley for the financial industry.

Our January channel profile highlights Laser's Resource, an MPS provider that has a lot of success with clients in the health care industry. This market also requires a lot of document security procedures to comply with HIPAA, which is something that MPS companies can help out with. There are also opportunities for customized printing solutions, such as prescription printing, form printing, and wristband printing. One software application for the health care industry that was highlighted in one of our previous issues is Lexmark Downtime Reports; this software allows health care providers to access critical patient forms and reports when the network is down, directly from certain Lexmark devices. In an industry where privacy and reliable access to information is extremely critical, there are many opportunities for customized solutions.

Another vertical market with unique needs is the education market. Particularly in large university or college settings, there is a complex printing network that requires print charges to be billed back to the appropriate users or departments, and a population of students who often print using prepaid swipe cards. Equitrac is one company that specializes in several software solutions designed for specific vertical markets, including education, health care, and professional firms.

In every issue of The Imaging Channel magazine, we have a vertical market profile from Lyra Research. This issue, they will be providing us with a comparative analysis of printing hardware installations in three vertical markets. Looking at hardware installation trends reminds us that there is no single solution for every type of business. While it may be cheaper for many people to share one larger printer, in some cases this just isn't an option. Geographically dispersed locations and the need for highly confidential prints means some users require convenience printers.

Having a basic understanding of how users print in a specific vertical market, and being able to offer them additional, industry-specific solutions, will give you an advantage in the marketplace. Subscribe to The Imaging Channel magazine to get our January issue focused on targeting specific vertical markets.

Posted on 11/30/20100 comments

Inkjet: No Longer a Bad Word

Inkjet printers have been given a bad reputation over the past several years. Their deceptively low purchase prices are matched by high consumable costs. They print slow. Worst of all for managed print services companies, they are rarely connected to the network and are therefore difficult to manage.

A recent viral video from RISO and Epipheo Studios demonstrates how this definition of inkjet is coming to an end with the RISO ComColor printer series.

Wildlife advertising aside, it’s great to see alternatives to laser popping up for high-volume, in-house color document production. RISO, whose high-end machines bridge the gap between office copiers and commercial production printers, is marketing this product to both print centers and office users.

So, what’s the big deal?

RISO claims you can print color pages on a ComColor printer for 2 to 3 cents a page. If this is true, you get a faster, higher capacity, and more environmentally friendly printer that costs significantly less than a standard office MFP. With scanning capabilities and a variety of finishing options, the higher end ComColor machines could easily replace a laser MFP.

To cover off the basic technical specs, these inkjets print up to 150 pages per minute and have a duty cycle of up to 500,000 pages per month. The printers use 24 heavy-duty inkjet heads that remain in a fixed position, allowing documents to print in a single pass. A single set of cartridges can yield over 90,000 pages. RISO says their ink is fast drying, fade resistant and moisture resistant, resulting in print quality that is better than a traditional inkjet printer.

There was one part of RISO’s marketing video that struck an emotional chord with me, and it may be the reason why I’m happy to promote this new product. The animation of the complex paper path in a laser copier made me cringe. Paper jams are right up there in my list of top annoyances, and for whatever reason, engineers thought it was reasonable for users to have to pull five, six, or seven pieces of paper out of just as many different locations along a paper path to correct a jam. It’s crazy. The paper path in the new RISO machines is simplicity at its finest.

The simplicity of these printers also helps make them energy efficient. With few moving parts, the RISO machines use as little as 300 watts when running, and unlike laser machines they don’t need to generate heat. Comparatively, as the video says, you could cook a turkey in a laser machine. That’s not pepper on your Thanksgiving bird--it’s toner. Yum!

The ink and packaging itself is also easier on the environment than toner cartridges. The ink is contained in recyclable cardboard, and RISO claims that all of the ink gets used before you need to change supplies.

Alternatives to laser technology, like these inkjet printers from RISO and the latest solid-ink machines from Xerox, have the potential to bring positive change to the hardware market. The environmental benefits of these technologies should be enough to change the market, but the cost and performance is right too.

If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend viewing the RISO video and checking out Epipheo Studios to see some innovative marketing.

Posted on 11/10/20101 comments

Office and Commercial Printing Industries Both Turn to Solutions to Grow

I had the opportunity to attend the Executive Outlook Conference at this year's Graph Expo. I learned that the commercial printing industry is undergoing a shift similar to that of office printing—one towards solution sales. It's really a shift taking place across all industries, as companies outsource functions that are outside of their core business to external experts.

At the Executive Outlook Conference, there seemed to be a large focus on the economic recession and continual decline in business for commercial printers. I began to think that our industry is lucky that we got on board with managed print services when we did. While the recession took a toll on almost all businesses, MPS offered customers a strong value proposition and, importantly at the time, potential cost savings. Although I haven't followed the commercial printing industry closely, it seemed to me that they are still in the early stages of transitioning to a solutions model.

Another similarity between the commercial and office printing industries is that the markets are flat to declining. To grow your business, you have to take it from someone else. To do that, you have to offer customers greater value, which means offering additional services and solutions that will in turn grow your business. There are great ways in which commercial printers are offering more value. Instead of just taking content from the client and printing thousands of identical copies, commercial printers are now helping clients gather and analyze data about their market so they can develop highly customized content for each target segment. The printing technology available today is capable of short, customized print jobs, which offer much more value to customers. And it's not just about hard copy anymore—marketing campaigns need to be cross-media, with an online focus, and commercial printers are helping their clients achieve this. Frankly, our industry isn't helping commercial printers; it's getting easier to print documents in relatively high quality in-house, but commercial printers are offering much more than that.

One presentation noted that sometimes all that’s needed is a change in syntax. It's not commercial printing, it's targeted content delivery. It's not the commodity of printed documents, it's the solution to building a targeted marketing campaign. It's not about being a vendor, it's about being a long-term partner. Sound familiar?

I have to say that the commercial printing (targeted content delivery) industry has a lot of neat things that make the geek in me get excited: illuminated paper, e-ink, scent strips, flavour strips, and yes, those massive printers that fill a room.

One thing is for sure—there will always be a need for content, documents, and in some form, printing. As a result, there will inevitably be demand for companies that help manage all of these.

Posted on 10/28/20100 comments

Five Lessons Learned from the Executive Summit

I hope that everyone who attended our first Executive Summit found the content to be refreshingly unique and actionable. If we did our job right, you learned something new that can be applied to your MPS program and made industry contacts that can help support your managed services initiatives.

There were a few points and topics that stood out to me during the event. If I could boil the lessons learned down to five points, these would be them:

MSPs Are Increasingly Offering MPS

In his keynote, Tom Gall, director of value channel marketing at Xerox, kicked off the event and talked about how managing print is a natural extension for managed service providers. I agree with him that MSPs may have an advantage over traditional office equipment dealers when trying to seal an MPS deal. From the client's perspective, it's not a stretch to hand over the management of printers to a company who already manages their network, e-mail, desktops, etc. An MSP is already the client's partner and is entrusted with sensitive information. It's a bigger stretch for a client to trust their office equipment dealer to install monitoring software on their network, because the existing relationship is based on commodity sales and break-fix service. Right now, there's still room for both in the market. Tom shared the statistic that one in four MSPs provide MPS, but that 26.1 percent said they will begin offering it within the year (Source: IPED / Everything Channel, 2009; Managed Services Study). At the same time, there is still only a small fraction of the market under an MPS contract: although 93 percent of solutions providers offer or will soon offer managed services, only 52 percent of their install bases are under managed contracts, and less than 5 percent are under managed print services contracts (Source: IPED, Managed Services Study, 2010). I think the takeaway is that to stay competitive in the long run, MPS companies will need to expand the types of managed services they offer, or partner with MSPs that can offer complementary services.

Support All Brands of Devices

This point came up a few times, but maybe surprisingly in the presentations given by Xerox and Océ. Even the OEMs recognize that MPS cannot be about swapping out all of a customer's existing devices with their own models. What customers need is for you to manage their existing devices when it makes sense, and only bring in new devices when there is true value in doing so—replacing really old devices, bringing in a machine that has additional features that they need, or consolidating several expensive machines (and even then, maybe there's an existing device that can be used to consolidate). The bottom line is that you need to be able to service a wide variety of machines from several manufacturers—at the very least, the most popular ones.

Cost Savings Don't Make the Deal

Another point made a couple of times, but particularly by Michael Greenberg of Océ MPS during the session focused on the end-user's perspective of MPS, is that cost savings should not be the top priority when making an MPS deal. In fact, maybe cost savings shouldn't be a priority at all. Clients just need to be able to print without hassle. MPS is about managing the client's printing devices (regardless of brand) and minimizing downtime by making sure they get supplies and service when needed. In many cases, substantial cost savings will only be realized by removing, reallocating, or replacing devices. To do this overhaul upfront could be scary for the client and make for a longer sales process. But if you go in with the value proposition of relieving their IT department from managing printers, making sure they receive the right supplies and service when they need it, and consolidating all of their printing costs into one invoice from one vendor, it's hard to go wrong. Most companies have no idea what they are spending on printing anyways, so simply having a consolidated invoice is a great improvement. Cost savings can come over time, as you build the client's trust and learn what can and can't be changed in their printing environment. MPS is a valuable service, not a commodity, and should be presented as such.

Partnerships Make Life Easier

It's something that is often heard from early adopters of MPS: if the programs available now were available when I first started, the transition would have been much easier. This was reiterated several times during the panels at the Executive Summit, as well as during the partnership-focused session presented by Tim Brien of OKI Data Americas and Kathy Cauldren of KT's Office Services. The lesson is important whether you are seasoned in MPS or are just getting started: the right partners will make your life easier and help grow your MPS program in a faster, more efficient manner than you could do on your own. Software vendors, supplies and parts distributors, leasing companies, service organizations, trainers, consultants and industry associations all have something to offer. Maybe you don't need all of these, but evaluate potential partners thoroughly and choose the ones that are right for your business. With so many choices out there, you're bound to find a good fit.

Human Resources, Human Resources, Human Resources

In the end, it's all about the people you have to drive your managed services programs. It was clear that executives recognize this, because we heard more discussion and feedback about the presentation from Sally Brause, director of human resources consulting at GreatAmerica Leasing, than any other at the event. There have always been debates over whether or not the people who drove transactional sales could also be successful in a solutions-driven business. Sally gave us some insight into the personality traits that drive success under the two models; in short, she said there are differences between the ideal candidates for transactional versus managed services sales, and that using methods such as behavioral-based interviews and job shadowing will help filter potential candidates. With so much interest in this topic, stay tuned for The Imaging Channel to cover this in other mediums soon.

Thank you to our sponsors and speakers who made this first Executive Summit possible. The feedback we have received so far has been great, and the 2011 Executive Summit should be even bigger and better. Whether or not you attended this year's event, we would love to hear your ideas and suggestions for future events. Contact us at any time with your thoughts.

Posted on 10/13/20100 comments

Xerox Says to Get Back to Real Business

With the amount of status-quo marketing in this industry, it excites me when an extraordinary campaign is launched. Xerox has definitely hit the mark with their "Ready for Real Business" marketing campaign. Here we see the full extent of the plans Xerox has for the ACS acquisition. Wanting to further separate itself from being synonymous with "copiers," Xerox is ready to be a full-fledged services firm. Their message with this campaign is clear: get back to doing what your real business is, and let us take care of everything else.

The marketing campaign stretches across all forms of media, but the most fun can be found at the microsite, realbusiness.com. By visiting different "floors" of "Real Business International," you can interact with a variety of mascots from some of Xerox's large customers—watch Mr. Clean polish the flatbed of a copier, see a crash test dummy repetitively walk into an office wall, receive attentive service from a Marriot representative, and much more. The entire site is focused on presenting case studies of Xerox's major clients, and there are a variety of opportunities to read these stories and view corresponding television commercials. The site is actually fun to browse, which is an accomplishment in itself.

One of the first things I noticed on the microsite was that "document management" is listed last in the main menu. Intentionally, I'm sure. It's listed behind finance and accounting, human resources, customer care, and IT outsourcing—all things that most of the world would not associate with Xerox. The case studies cover all major industries and a variety of services: invoice processing for Marriott, benefits administration for Ford, workforce training for Hertz, data center and network support for Ingersoll Rand, retirement education for a global defense technology company, call center support and training for a telecommunications company, customer service support for colleges, basic to advanced finance and accounting services for manufacturing companies, and of course, a variety of document management services highlighting clients such as Ducati, Target, P&G, the New York Mets, and the University of Notre Dame. Xerox is presenting the idea that no matter what industry you're in, they can take care of all of the back-end processes while you get back to your core ("real") business. Exactly what a services company should do.

The campaign has sparked renewed discussion about Xerox and the impact of the ACS acquisition. Over the weekend, a Barron's magazine article suggested that Xerox's stock price may double, primarily as a result of the ACS acquisition and further movement into services. That article was followed by a 7 percent increase in Xerox's share price on Monday. It seems that any short-term concerns that investors had over the ACS acquisition can be put to rest.

In other news this week, Dell Services won a 5-year contract to provide wide-ranging services to BNSF Railway, including print management. It's great to see several companies trying to do it all, because it just makes sense. Print and document management isn't any more unique than network management, employee training, payroll administration or call center support. If a client can source all of these things from a single vendor, the easier and cheaper it is for them. And although small dealerships may not have the ability to take on all of these things in-house, it's good to see partnerships forming that will allow for this sort of one-stop shop solution.

Posted on 09/15/20100 comments

What Can We Learn from Wall Street?

I had the pleasure of interviewing Shannon Cross, managing director and co-founder of Cross Research Group, an equity research firm, for an article that will be featured in the upcoming issue of our magazine. As someone who has seen the industry primarily from an independent dealer perspective, interviewing Ms. Cross was a good reminder for me that the industry is dominated by the OEMs—and not even all the OEMs, but the few that are at the top.

What I took away from the interview is that, although the managed print services market is growing at a slow but steady rate, the traditional hardware and supplies market continues to be flat or declining. When you put those two things together, the pie is essentially remaining the same size, while companies fight to increase or maintain their piece of it. Ms. Cross said she values the managed print services market at $7 billion dollars, which is what she believes the revenue being generated by it is. We've seen larger numbers tossed around, but conservative numbers are likely more realistic.

It may be that sales of print- and document-related software and services can replace what we're losing in hardware and supplies sales, but will it be able to grow beyond that? I think maybe it could, if you include any solution related to printing devices, documents, or electronic files, but if and to what extent these could outdo a market comprised primarily of commodity sales remains to be seen.

Ms. Cross confirmed that Xerox and HP are at the top of the MPS market, with no reason to see this changing in the near future. Her words that stood out to me the most were, "the strong are going to get stronger." The good news is that the OEMs, particularly HP, are putting a bigger focus on the channel. With top OEMs recognizing the importance of supporting their distribution chain, I think we should see MPS solutions strengthening in both value and execution across the industry—it may be a slow process, but it will happen, especially in conjunction with the ever-growing availability of MPS resources for the channel that can be found outside of the OEMs.

Our October issue article, "A View from Wall Street," contains Ms. Cross's perspectives on market growth, OEM leadership, mergers and acquisitions, and more. Get your free subscription to The Imaging Channel magazine before the October issue hits. In addition, Ms. Cross will be presenting our second-day keynote at The Imaging Channel Executive Summit, where she will provide an analyst's perspective on the health of our industry and take a look at upcoming trends.

I'm very excited about all of the speakers that will be at the summit, including Tom Gall from Xerox for our first-day keynote, "A New Channel Dynamic: The Top 5 Emerging Trends in Managed Services." Between Ms. Cross and Mr. Gall, this is an event you won't want to miss. Register today.

Posted on 09/07/20100 comments