ChangeForge | Ken Stewart

Ripped From The Headlines

Joe Kozlowski — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:45:32 +0000

“Thin Brand Line” Breaks as Canon Announces Plans for .CANON
Konica Minolta Goes Google, Launches Innovative Communications Platform
BTA’s ‘ProSolutions’ Workshop Scheduled for April 1-2
Brace for Storm in Paper Availability, Says Merchant
Voice to Document: Clinical Voice Recognition on Your iPhone Thanks to Dragon Medical Mobile
Boston Red Sox Accounting Selects eCopy PaperWorks
10 Tips And Information Nuggets That Will Save You Time, Money, And Hair

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How Will Context and the Cloud Impact Your Information Management Initiatives?

Ken Stewart — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:30:01 +0000

With the explosion of information, relevancy has become increasingly important. Is Google the answer to creating this relevancy? How about Facebook? How about SalesForce.com?

I recently presented to a local chapter of ARMA International, a not-for-profit professional association on managing records and information, focusing on the impact the explosion of information, social media and cloud computing will have on information and records management.

It was a highly interactive and exciting group, and some of the take-aways I might offer are:

Consider the entitlement-factor when defining information management guidelines.
With an information explosion, relevancy is defined by context.
Information management has to shift from control-driven to community-driven.
Content doesn’t exist if it is not accessible, and if it is too accessible it’s a risk.
Take it or leave it: It’s your choice to adopt a social media strategy or not, but decide now.

Feel free to spin through the Prezi below, and share within your social circles if you find it meaningful.

How Will Context and the Cloud Impact Your Information Management Initiatives? on Prezi

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.

Ripped From The Headlines

Joe Kozlowski — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:45:13 +0000

.canon domain soon available on the Web?
Exciting New Conference Developments Announced for the info360: AIIM EXPO + CONFERENCE
Eco-Friendly POS Printing Solution Announced by Star Micronics
Océ releases innovative print management software
2010 North American MPS Conference (San Antonio, TX; May 3-5)
Small to Midsize Businesses Fastest Growing Segment of MPS Market, According to Photizo Research
Voice to Document: Nuance launches new mobile speech apps
IDC Upbeat About Commodity Hardware
Tech apocalypse: Five doomsday scenarios for IT

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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

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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.

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

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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

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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

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