Xerox and HP Managed Print in the Wall Street Journal...

As MPS continues to expand in recognition, Ed Crowley gives is 0.020 worth in a recent WSJ article written by William M. Bulkeley.

The article is a simple piece - the content nothing new to any of us "in the industry." I guess if your niche gets mentioned in the WSJ, the niche is likely to start getting crowded.

A mention of a big deal in Michigan, Dow Chemical, was of particular interest. I believe the case is studied in one of Photizo's first newsletters.

From the WSJ article:

"...Tom Codd, H-P's director of marketing for enterprise services, says H-P's managed print services business has been growing at a 38% annual rate since 2004.

"H-P comes from a very strong position because we invented network printing, and historically IT guys bought the printers," Mr. Codd says.

Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich., which hired Xerox, says under the managed service it cut the number of printers, copiers and fax machines in its offices to 6,600 from 15,000..."

One other interesting point from Stephen Cronin, president of Xerox's global-services business,

"...Xerox doesn't force customers to switch to Xerox hardware,

noting more than half of the 1.5 million devices the company currently manages are from other vendors. But he says consolidating on a single brand helps cut costs. "Total spending goes down, but my proportion goes up," Mr. Cronin says. Last year, services, including maintenance as well as managed print, contributed $3.5 billion of Xerox's $17.6 billion in revenue."

Check the rest out, here.