ChangeForge | Ken Stewart

Ripped From The Headlines

Joe Kozlowski — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:45:29 +0000

The History of Konica Minolta
[EMEA] Sharp targets 20pc growth in 2010
Green printing ‘can be profitable’
HP’s Strategies to Increase Efficient Use of Paper
Ricoh Introduces Aficio GX e5550N GelSprinter Color Printer
New device “unshreds” your shredded documents
Digital Color Printing Taking on Greater Role in Packaging Industry
Webinar: Simplifying Disaster Recovery for Complex Virtual Environments
Worldwide Hardcopy Peripherals Market Returned to Year-Over-Year Growth in Fourth Quarter, Ending Six Quarters of Decline, According to IDC
Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) – A Global Strategic Business Report – new market report released

… plus as many as 15-20 other news items, press releases, white papers and case studies EVERY DAY that will effect your Document Solutions Business …

Get the whole story … subscribe to Document Solutions Daily.

Your first month is FREE. Cancel during your first month and you won’t be billed!

Beyond Cost Cutting: Saving More Than Money by Being Nimble.

Ken Stewart — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:30:10 +0000

How many times have you heard, “We need to cut costs.” How many times are you leading with a cost-cutting strategy in your talk-track?

There are only two ways to impact an organization’s bottom line:

Increase revenue without proportionally increasing costs, and
Decrease overhead costs with the focus of increasing profitability.

Innovations and disruptive programs can dramatically impact both, while taking your competition off guard. But you have to be paying attention to the bigger picture – influences impacting you and your customer. From economic conditions to technological advances, from global politics to currency rates, its about more than just what you sell; it’s about how what you sell can help your customer deal with their challenges and achieve their objectives.

Software as a Service (SaaS), server virtualization and data centers, managed services and outsourced print: All are very real opportunities driven by real customer demand – not speculative desire.

I call these opportunities leverage points. These leverage points speak to an underlying migration to reach utilization saturation, a phrase I’m fond of using to indicate a focus to leverage the economies of scale in order to drive down overall cost per transaction to a level that quite possibly could end around where in-sourced transaction costs might have been.

Jack Be Nimble.

As the nursery rhyme goes:

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candlestick.

Adjust to change and offering value is a continual fight. All industries eventually face commoditization. Production at cheaper, faster, and better – at lower costs. Now we are no longer talking concepts of mass production at the factory level, but at the information level!

New York City found itself at the intersection of cost overruns and affordable, available technology to meet a need. According to a March 2010 article published by InformationWeek, IT commission, Carole post has orchestrated a massive data center consolidation. With a sprawling annual IT budget of $375 million, post is hoping to make a dent in their costs:

After a review of the city’s IT system, IT Commissioner Carole Post will oversee a plan to modernize and consolidate data infrastructure at more than 40 city agencies. The goal of the consolidation ” which will start later this year and consolidate 50 unique data centers into one shared system — is to lower the city’s cost of operations by up to $100 million over five years, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office. … Many of the facilities and their technologies are obsolete, and having to staff, manage, and maintain them is a drain on city resources.

NYC is a perfect example of a customer who realized the convergence of technologies offered them substantial savings. But look past the savings of energy and hardware. Do you see the competitive advantages offered in having a strategy that is focused on multiple facets?

Sure it can include cost savings, and this is a critical component to overcome the pain of change. However, it also includes components of competitive advantage – an ability to be nimble and shift gears quickly. Dave McClure, GSA’s associate administrator, recently weighed in on the General Services Administration’s (GSA) cloud computing services request for quotations (RFQ).

… [we are withdrawing the RFQ because] the purchase agreement was 11 months in the making, and that’s like 11 years in the evolving cloud market.

Business moves at the speed of information, and information now moves without regard for person, place or thing. Rather than solely focusing on cost-cutting initiatives with your customer, think how you can provide value by allowing them access to relevant information and an ability to apply it to their market – help them be Jack.

Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken serves on the board of the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA), an international industry organization seeking worldwide best practices for the managed print services industry, and writes a weekly column for MPS Insights. He is also the founder of Seeking the Son, and is always interested in connecting with you to see how he might help you.

Pain, Pleasure and Perspective: Dealing with Change (Part 1 of 2)

Ken Stewart — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:28:50 +0000

How painful is the current economy for you, for your sales team? How painful is it to evolve into a new business model, or are you even certain you need to change? Change is constant, but the evolution we need to survive is often painful at best. Photizo Group predicts that 50 percent of the dealers will either be acquired or close their doors by 2013. Learn why pain and pleasure are not the only answers for your high-impact organization to make the cut.

Read the entire article at the new MPSInsights.com.

Ripped From The Headlines

Joe Kozlowski — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:45:14 +0000

Ricoh eyes 10 pct operating profit margin in 5 yrs
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns to aid effort to increase exports
Print Audit® Achieves Record Growth In Sales & Profits
HP Invests $40M in “Let’s Do Amazing” Advertising Campaign (w/ ad videos)
Thermocopy Earns Designation of Kyocera Certified Managed Print Services Dealer
PrintFleet Welcomes New Partner West Point Products
Podcast: The Evolution Of Document Scanning To Document Solutions
IDC: Print shipments on the up
[UK] Version One: 82% of Finance Professionals Believe Document Management Can Reduce Business Disruption Caused by Bad Weather

… plus as many as 15-20 other news items, press releases, white papers and case studies EVERY DAY that will effect your Document Solutions Business …

Get the whole story … subscribe to Document Solutions Daily.

Your first month is FREE. Cancel during your first month and you won’t be billed!

Your Good is not Good Enough.

Ken Stewart — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:30:30 +0000

Customer satisfaction is often thrown around like the word “good”. Good might be meant in the best of intentions, “I had a good day!” Or it might not, “How are you?” someone asks. “Eh, — I’m good I guess,” is the response.

But customer satisfaction is a number easily measured but not necessarily easily converted. It is certainly not a thing that will keep your customers coming back for more if your offering is not solid too. But what of things like customer retention and innovating as a means to thrive – not just holding steady in order to survive?

When a company culture begins caring less about constant and fanatical innovation to acquire and retain customers than it does simply surviving, perhaps it’s time to step away. The tough question to ask is whether you are culpable of being asleep at the wheel too.

What do you think?

Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken serves on the board of the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA), an international industry organization seeking worldwide best practices for the managed print services industry. He is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting with you.

Ripped From The Headlines

Joe Kozlowski — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:45:04 +0000

Xerox chief charts her new path
Xerox Sweeps Printing and Imaging Honors in CRN Channel Champion Study
XChange 2010: HP Prepares For Growth With Economic Recovery
Toshiba Earns BTA’s Top 2010 ‘Channel’s Choice’ Award
Plustek Unveils Scanners for Financial Industry
Cloud data protection: Archiving to reduce backup data increasingly important
Five Trends Reshaping The Health Care Channel Right Now
Photocopiers – A Global Strategic Business Report – New Market Report Published

… plus as many as 15-20 other news items, press releases, white papers and case studies EVERY DAY that will effect your Document Solutions Business …

Get the whole story … subscribe to Document Solutions Daily.

Your first month is FREE. Cancel during your first month and you won’t be billed!

Ripped From The Headlines

Joe Kozlowski — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:45:42 +0000

Lexmark International Defies Bears, Challenges Key Technical Resistance
Canon Business Solutions opens Tampa Bay offices
HP’s difficult week continues with strikes and a lawsuit
Francois Ragnet Deconstructs the Document
How to Optimize Business Processes Using Integrated SAAS Solutions
Paragon and NextDocs Introduce Clinical Optimization Solutions Targeting Life Sciences Firms
D.I.G.(TM) Enables Morphology-Based Cross-Content Multi-Lingual Search for Fast and Accurate Intranet and Website Information Retrieval
One on One with Jeff Segarra of Nuance
Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. – Financial And Strategic Analysis Review – New Report Published

… plus as many as 15-20 other news items, press releases, white papers and case studies EVERY DAY that will effect your Document Solutions Business …

Get the whole story … subscribe to Document Solutions Daily.

Your first month is FREE. Cancel during your first month and you won’t be billed!

Blogs Are Important To Your Customer. Are They Important To You?

Ken Stewart — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:30:42 +0000

“If it’s too good to be true, then it probably isn’t true.” That’s how the saying goes, right? How often do you buy something you are suspicious of? Being real with your customer elevates the level of trust in the buying cycle.

I receive a good many PR solicitations each week with this or that firm asking if I want to look at this or that. Most of them are not compelling in the least, but there was this one e-mail that got my attention regarding a subject I am very passionate about.

So I started chewing on the e-mail a bit. Once I got past the fact that from address was from an ISP and not their company domain (seeming a bit spammy), I began to review the PR company’s website. Instantly, I’m greeted by a warm smiling face of the owner. Interesting.

I read about the first 2 sentences of the front page of the firm’s website, and then I’m scanning the navigation for things like depth of content, ease of categorization, and what can I find that isn’t so manufactured. I stop on the link titled, “Blog.”

You see, I wanted to see some thought process going on, and the best way I can see that you are thinking is to share your thoughts (this is what Social Media is supposed to be about, by the way). If I agree with what you are saying, I begin to intellectually and emotionally align with you – thus engendering trust where none had existed prior.

Dee Wilcox of Dealer Marketing Systems, and owner of Creative Perch, posed the fundamental question of “Why are websites and search engines important to my dealership?” She goes on to say,

This is a good question. After all, our industry has been built on relationships, hard work, and good service. However, the business world is changing. While relationships are still important, the way relationships are formed, developed, and maintained is radically different than it was 15 years ago. … keep your site updated with fresh content that contains these keywords. The easiest way to do this is with a blog.

Looking at my own behavior, I instantly began to identify the business owner of this PR firm, whose picture graced the home page, as legitimately engaged in helping people. Just because there was blog? Nope, because there was content on the blog that spoke to the questions I was asking – and caused me to ask a few more.

Blogging is a labor of love; you don’t do it because you are going to get rich quick. Don’t believe me though. Take a look at some of what HubSpot, an authoritative inbound marketing company, has to say:

… In review of data from 1,531 HubSpot customers (mostly small- and medium-sized businesses) 795 of the businesses in my sample blogged, 736 didn’t. The data was crystal clear: Companies that blog have far better marketing results. Specifically, the average company that blogs has:

55% more visitors: Why are website visitors important? Because more visitors mean more people to convert to leads and sales.

97% more inbound links: Why are inbound links important? Because they signal authority to search engines, thus increasing your chances of getting found in those search engines.

434% more indexed pages: Why are indexed pages important? The more pages you have on your site, the more chances you have of getting found in search engines.

You may believe you don’t have the technical know-how to start blogging. You would be wrong. It’s never been easier with SquareSpace, Blogger and WordPress. Whether you think it’s too hard, too time-consuming or simply a waste of your time, you can’t deny the one true fact about your customers – they buy because they have a need or want. But the major component at the time of transaction is trust; they trust that what they are buying, and who they are buying it from, will uphold its value and fulfill the need or want.

Blogging offers a message for your customers that you care about something enough to say it and put it out there. Don’t be intimidated, just be yourself.

Ripped From The Headlines

Joe Kozlowski — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:45:27 +0000

Xerox CEO Ursula Burns is getting a raise
Lexmark CEO gets 2009 pay of $2.2M, down 36 pct.
Microsoft Targets Cloud Partners With BPOS Incentives
BTA Business Planning Workshop
FaxAgent Online Fax Server Integrates Fully with ShoreTel IP PBX
2009 Storage Software Sales Dip, Hardware Sales Dive: Reports
Solutions Summit 2010 Program Focused on Moving beyond Managed Print and Managed Services
Document Management Roll-up: Office in the Cloud, Business Process Management to Follow
InfoTrends™ Document Outsourcing Forecast Indicates Market is Expected to Rebound
Buyers Lab Introduces the BLI Solutions Center

… plus as many as 15-20 other news items, press releases, white papers and case studies EVERY DAY that will effect your Document Solutions Business …

Get the whole story … subscribe to Document Solutions Daily.

Your first month is FREE. Cancel during your first month and you won’t be billed!

Special Edition: Finally Market Intelligence for Less Than Market Price!

Ken Stewart — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:30:46 +0000

Are you a dealer or channel partner who is always on the move, always looking for that next sale? Are you short on time and budget for marketing research data to help you make faster, accurate decisions to be there before the market does?

I have been involved with the development and pilot of Photizo Group’s new Market Intelligence Package (MIP), which provides dealers and reseller channelsÂ with a range of information and guidance about the MPS marketplace. The new service, available March 1, will provide a subscription-based service with ongoing market intelligence to support your MPS program development and sales success in this brave new world we find ourselves in.

For less than $400 a month, about the price of an HP LaserJet printer, The Market Intelligence Package gathers a suite of Photizo information resources into one package geared to dealer MPS program development and sales needs. This includes:

MPS Channel Insights News: A weekly dealer channel-specific update including critical news and market developments, along with insightful Photizo perspective. Clients also receive the complimentary Daily MPS Insights.
Monthly MPS Webinar: Live presentations look at MPS business development and sales insights relative to the Hybrid Dealer curve. Each topical webinar covers explicit case studies or implementation examples. Repeated twice monthly for convenience.
MPS Monthly Newsletter: Online publication of timely MPS topics targeted to dealers in varying stages of MPS adoption. Articles focus on competitive, market and end-user trends with implementation examples. Designed for customization and use with dealer’s clients and business associates. A front-page column will be reserved for a message from the dealer or vendor.
Quarterly Insights Journal: Professional business journal devoted to the challenges, opportunities and experiences of developing an MPS business. Delivered online and as a printed magazine to add credibility to sales presentations and business discussions.
MIP Online Portal: This online hub gives full access to Photizo online archives, including news releases, newsletters, webinar features and presentations, which can be used to support client business or sales initiatives. The MIP Online Portal is also a forum for feedback and discussion.

“Talking with many channel players in the last year made us realize the enormity of the challenge they face in creating MPS programs. This service provides quick hitting, channel-specific summaries of competitive events, along with our commentary on the impact to operations,” said David Cameron, PhD, Senior Consultant, Photizo Group. “Channel partners with even small to medium training and research budgets can quickly justify the investment. The package will more than pay for itself is subscribers gain one additional MPS contract because of what they have learned.”

So do you think you can afford the price of a printer? My real question is can you afford not to keep your finger on the pulse of the MPS marketplace?

Find out more HERE and sign-up HERE.