Greg Walters
I’m Greg Walters, writer, analyst, publisher of greg report Ai, founder of CricketsUS, creator of The CricketsUS Continuum, and the guy behind The Death of The Copier.
The current work lives where office technology, Ai, LLMs, robotics, sales, and the old dealer channel keep running into each other.
That is the useful ground.
I started in business technology in 1988, selling computerized accounting systems at Inacomp Computer Centers when the office world was moving from big iron to PCs, Novell networks, laser printers, and software that arrived in boxes thick enough to stop a door. I built Novell and SCO networks on my kitchen table, worked with Timberline, Great Plains, ACCPAC, IBM, MicroAge, and Inacomp systems, and watched business technology move from green screens and dot matrix printers into networks, lasers, cloud platforms, mobile devices, LLMs, Ai, and robots.
The tools changed.
The arguments stayed familiar.
Somebody still has to explain why the thing will not connect to the network.
Over the years, I’ve worked across copier sales, managed print services, IT services, corporate identity programs, insurance sales, video production, bourbon retail, consulting, writing, content creation, Ai systems, and robotics channel development. Weird résumé? Sure. Useful? More than most.
My industry roots run through Oce, Panasonic, IKON, SIGMAnet, and the VAR/MSP world. From 2007 to 2011, I helped build a managed print services practice inside a $300 million West Coast VAR, serving as MPS Practice Manager for the final two years. That work connected printers, copiers, help desks, networks, assessments, contracts, service calls, toner, and customers who were already tired of hearing the word “solutions.”
From 2011 to 2014, I led Greg Walters, International and Walters & Shutwell, Inc., helping providers design managed print and managed services programs. We worked with companies shifting from transactional sales models into service-based engagements, focusing on print, process, infrastructure, recurring revenue, and the real business costs hiding behind office technology.
In 2014, I published Death of The Copier, a book about the early days of managed print services and the future of the hard-copy industry. The title still bothers people. Good. It was supposed to.
Today, my work has moved beyond the old managed print conversation. The current focus is greg report Ai, CricketsUS, The CricketsUS Continuum, Celeste, LLM usage, sales coaching, embodied Ai, robotics, dealer enablement, and the next layer of managed infrastructure.
greg report Ai
greg report Ai is my Substack publication covering Ai, robotics, LLMs, office technology, sales, and the changing shape of work.
The writing looks at how Ai moves from theory into ordinary business behavior: sales desks, service departments, customer support, content systems, office technology dealerships, robotics channels, and the messy places where software meets people with quotas, contracts, calendars, and bills to pay.
The question is rarely, “What will Ai do someday?”
The better question is, “What is Ai already doing before most people notice?”
Celeste
Part of my current work includes Celeste, an Ai-based sales mentor and writing companion built around decades of copier sales, managed print services, VAR/MSP work, business technology consulting, and field experience.
Celeste reflects lessons learned from thousands of sales conversations, stalled deals, awkward demos, late-month pressure, bad discovery calls, quota theater, and the old truth that prospects do not care about your brochure nearly as much as sales managers think they do.
The point is practical LLM usage.
Not novelty.
Not parlor tricks.
A salesperson with Celeste has a coach, editor, objection journal, account analyst, meeting prep assistant, and writing partner sitting beside them before the first call of the day. That changes the apprenticeship model. The rep still has to make the call. The machine remembers what happened last time.
CricketsUS and The CricketsUS Continuum
I am a founder of CricketsUS, a robotics channel and market development effort focused on bringing office-ready robots into real business environments.
CricketsUS grew out of a simple observation: the copier and office technology channel already knows how to support business machines in the field. Dealers understand contracts, leases, dispatch, customer training, service calls, recurring revenue, lifecycle management, and the weird little details that show up after installation. That knowledge did not come from a white paper. It came from decades of walking into offices, warehouses, schools, clinics, showrooms, and back rooms where the technology either worked or became somebody’s problem before lunch.
Robotics has a similar problem forming in real time.
The demo may get attention. The robot may impress the room. The real question comes later: who supports it, trains the customer, handles the calls, swaps the parts, bills the agreement, explains the software update, and keeps the thing moving when the original excitement fades?
That is where CricketsUS comes in.
Through CricketsUS and The CricketsUS Continuum, I work on the practical channel model for office-ready robots, especially in spaces where copier dealers, IT providers, managed services firms, and field service organizations already have customer relationships.
The focus includes light warehousing, office environments, facilities, education, healthcare, logistics, and service-heavy businesses where automation is becoming less exotic and more operational.
The CricketsUS Continuum began as a way to think through robotics without pretending the future arrives in a clean box with a QR code and a support portal.
It is part robotics channel model, part field notes, part market argument. The focus is office-ready robots, dealer participation, service infrastructure, recurring revenue, CORR programs, sales enablement, and the ordinary business work that shows up after the demo lights go cold.
The Continuum comes from a familiar place. Copier dealers, IT providers, and managed services firms already know how to live with machines after the sale. They know dispatch boards, service calls, firmware updates, customer training, lease language, support agreements, and the Friday afternoon call that starts with, “It was working yesterday.”
Robotics is entering that same world.
The robot may be new. The customer questions are not.
Who supports it?
Who trains the users?
Who handles the service ticket?
Who explains the invoice?
Who updates the software?
Who moves the dock when the floor layout changes?
Who keeps the machine useful six months after the first walk-through?
That is the space The CricketsUS Continuum explores.
The Continuum looks at that shift from the floor, not the keynote stage.
It covers robotics companies, dealer models, service economics, field support, light warehousing, office automation, customer adoption, and the practical realities of turning robots into supported business assets.
The idea is simple: robotics will have a channel. Somebody will sell it, install it, support it, bill it, train around it, and take the call when it stops in front of a pallet, doorway, elevator, or confused office manager.
That somebody may look a lot like the people who spent the last forty years keeping copiers, printers, networks, and managed services alive in the field.
That ground feels familiar.
A little weirder now, sure.
But familiar.
The Death of The Copier
The Death of The Copier began as a place to talk about managed print services, copiers, selling, office technology, and the slow migration away from paper.
It became a running record of an industry trying to explain itself while the world moved to screens, cloud platforms, remote work, Ai, automation, and devices that no longer needed a green button.
DOTC still carries the same basic spirit: personal views, hard-earned experience, a little sarcasm, and no apology for calling out horse pucky when it wanders into the showroom.
Industry Work and Recognition
I’m a founding member and past president of the Managed Print Services Association, a past contributor to The Imaging Channel, Workflow, and CRN/Business Transformation Center, and was named one of the Top 40 Most Influential People in the Imaging Industry by The Week in Imaging in 2013.
Over the years, my work has centered on managed print services, managed services, copier sales, digital transformation, workflow analysis, business process evaluation, sales training, Ai usage, robotics, and the long, messy evolution of office technology.
The current center is Ai, robotics, writing, sales, and the office technology channel moving into whatever comes after print.
Away from the keyboard, I’ve been a tournament-level competitive paintball player and, from 2015 to 2022, worked as a bourbon manager. Copier guys contain multitudes. Some of them even know the seven steps of xerography.
Professional Timeline
| Years | Role / Focus |
|---|---|
| 1986 to 1988 | Young & Rubicam |
| 1988 | Entered the computer sales market |
| 1996 to 1997 | Systems consulting, sales force automation design, and training |
| 1997 to 2000 | CINTAS, The Uniform People |
| 2000 to 2001 | Oce |
| 2001 to 2002 | Industrial Video, Inc. |
| 2002 to 2003 | Panasonic |
| 2003 to 2007 | IKON |
| 2007 to 2011 | SIGMAnet, MPS Practice Manager |
| 2011 to 2014 | Greg Walters, International |
| 2012 to 2014 | Walters & Shutwell, Inc. |
| 2014 to Present | Greg Walters, Incorporated |
| 2015 to 2022 | Bourbon Manager |
| 2023 to Present | LLM usage, Ai writing systems, sales coaching, and applied Ai strategy |
| 2023 to Present | Publisher, greg report Ai |
| 2024 to Present | Development and use of Celeste, an Ai-based sales mentor and writing companion |
| 2025 to Present | Founder, CricketsUS |
| 2025 to Present | Creator, The CricketsUS Continuum |
| 2026 to Present | Founder and director, Continuum CORR Direction program |
From PC-based accounting systems to managed print, managed IT, LLMs, Ai, and robotics, the pattern has stayed fairly consistent: technology changes first, the industry argues about it second, and eventually somebody has to support the thing in the field.
Thanks for stopping by.
From the 5.25 HD floppy to Outdoor Wireless Mesh; from Corporate Identity Systems to Industrial Video production, I have been in nearly every type of business environment.
It is my intent to always work with my clients as a partner, and as an advisor, and to do what is in my client’s best interests.
Managed Print Services is a “new” issue for most I.T. professionals when it comes to output devices yet MPS represents one of the most “revenue drains” in today’s business. This site is a place for me to share information and views relating to Managed Print Services, the impact of print systems in the organization, and Professional Selling as an Agent of Change.
I'm an entrepreneur and founder of the notorious destination site, TheDeathOfTheCopier where I comment on all things imaging, the rise of managed services, and the advance in business technology.
I am President of Greg Walters, Incorporated, contributing writer for The Imaging Channel, Workflow, a founding member and past President of the Managed Print Services Association, and recognized as one of 2013, "Top 40 Most Influential People in the Imaging Industry" by The Week in Imaging.
I love sharing unique—and provocative—views of technology and people addressing the digital impact on 21st-century business, the new way of work, and society.
My book, Death Of The Copier, published in 2014, offers a controversial summary of the early days of managed print services and the not-so-distant future of the hard copy industry.
From April 2014 to January 2015, I helped a VAR evaluate managed print services, outsourced managed services, executive mobility management programs, and telehealth offerings.
Between the years 2011 and 2014, my business, Walters & Shutwell, Inc. helped providers, design and implement managed print services and managed services programs. We coached businesses in transitioning from transactional to service/relationship-based sales models.
More rewarding, we helped end-users manage internal business processes around technology - saving millions of dollars for our clients.
From 10/2007 to 10/2011 I was involved in building a Managed Print Services Practice serving the last 2 years as the MPS Practice Manager within a large West Coast VAR. Prior to that, I worked IKON, a Panasonic dealership, and Oce.
Before then, I held positions as varied as Executive Vice President, Industrial Video Inc., AFLAC sales, and providing 'corporate identity programs' with CINTAS, The Uniform People - I started selling computerized accounting systems in 1988, with INACOMP, Timberline software.
My technology roots run deep by way of the technology/accounting system/VAR arena MicroAge, Inacomp, IBM, Novell, Great Plains, Timberline, ACCPAC, etc. - I've been in since 1988.
I currently write for both The Imaging Channel and CRN/Business Transformation Center and my pedigree is that of the copier industry having cut my teeth over at Oce, Panasonic, IKON.
With DOTC, I've been pontificating about MpS for almost four years now since the beginning of the current MpS model.
When it gets right down to it, I am nothing more than a guy who used to sell copiers, sitting in front of a computer writing goofy stories.
As a simple dude from the mid-West, I grew up just outside Detroit. Westland John Glenn class of 1980 – the last analog generation – we didn’t have Xbox or the internet, we used our gray matter to entertain ourselves. If something didn’t add up or we couldn’t touch and feel the facts, we called bullshit.
Our social networking occurred on weekends as about a dozen of us chided and ‘dogged’ each other relentlessly - we survived, our self-esteem intact if not a bit stronger.
When we played basketball, we kept score. At the north end of every gridiron, I ran on, stood the scoreboard, and we kept score.
We were taught to win with grace and to lose with honor. We learned that a defeat only meant picking yourself up and getting ready for the next chance to win. The world is like that, it isn’t fair and sometimes tough to get through – but we get through, we survive, and thrive. On our own, with the talents God gave us.
We did not gripe and shunned those who did.
As an MPS Practice Manager with a medium-sized west coast VAR/MSP, SIGMAnet, I have made every mistake possible associated with building a practice.
The pursuit of integrating MpS as a service under one Managed Services umbrella; right next to staff augmentation, help desk, and NOC, is nirvana; not easily achieved.
From Toshiba's Encompass to PagePack and HP OPS - I have even seen Oki's first-gen MPS, Konica's failed OPS, and Kyocera's "CPC is MPS program". I was there when Samsung first announced its intention to enter the MPS world, 3 years ago.
MSE, LMI, SNi, NER, Synnex. PrintFleet, AssetDB, FMAudit, @Remote, Preo, Capella, Equitrac - I've evaluated these programs and many more.
Steven Powers, Water, BEIPros, Navigator, and Photizo's Dealer transformation program are quite familiar.
I have attended and spoken at each of the last three-yearly Photizo MPS Conferences. I was at the first MPS Conference in San Antonio and participated in the genesis of the MPSA.
I am currently the President of Your MPSA.
The industry has defined MpS as only Stage 1 and Stage 2 - toner/service on a CPI agreement. MpS is a marketing tool leveraged to land more gear - diametrically opposed to the goals of MpS purity.
I keep going back to this - it isn't about prints it's about content. And most fleets are filled with too many, overcapacity devices - if every manufacturer stopped making output and copy devices today, we could go for decades on today's MIF.
We will never get to 100% paperless, but we will get to less paper.
TheDeathOfTheCopier is a work in progress and a hobby. Originally created to promote the 'copier killer' for HP, Edgeline, it quickly changed into a platform for pontification.
My views, my ideas, and my words about sales, selling, copiers, technology, and whatever else I like. I see things through the prism of over 20 years in the technology industry - selling, failing and overcoming.
It's my way, it's your way this tome is a collection of my personal views, in my tone and manner, with no apologies.It is no lie, I was happy with 12 views a day - I write for an audience of one - Me.
I have met hundreds of readers and formed solid relationships within the industry, because of DOTC. Great people have encouraged me and agreed with my words, and my ideas.
Not a bad deal.
##UPDATE## 2012
As 2012 comes to an end, reflection, gratitude, and optimism swell.
Walters & Shutwell has broken through the 100 days barrier; forever young.
Come on over and check it out.
The adventure continues: Greg Walters, Incorporated takes off and DeathOfTheCopier is reborn. More stories of victory, woe, tragedy, and intrigue.
Stap in, the ride is going to be turbulent.
##UPDATE## 2015
April 1, 2015-
Oconomowoc, Wi. working with a VAR architecting a Print & Content Management practice, under the Lifecycle Services discipline. Partnering with HP, PrinterLogic, and helping enterprise clients in the healthcare niche.
Good times...
##UPDATE## 2016
April
Well, the last year has proven a few of my personal theories:
1. Big companies offer no more security the owning your business
2. Working for other people sucks
3. Investment companies don't know how to run real businesses
4. Print is not that important to 95% of businesses
5. Everything happens in the manner it is meant to happen...
My stint with a pretty big VAR has ended; my position was eliminated because it did not align with corporate/VC goals.
Out of all the reasons to lose a job, this was the most honest.
Now I am working with a colleague and friend, Dave Westlake. Atlas is the name of a software package that "connects disparate databases, pulling out relevant points, and presenting actionable information, under one pane of glass..."
It connects the help desk, MpS, accounting, CRM, dispatch, and other databases, breaking down silos and eliminating pivot tables.
##UPDATE## 2017
Jan
The recruiter thought I was still in Charlotte, I guess a part of me will always be. When he said "Brookfield", I was intrigued enough to explore the opportunities.
I took the position of "MPS Specialist" - My role was to support the sales team in assessments, proposals, and presentations. One point I found very interesting was the aggressive cold call and phone regiment.
Impressive.
I figure the team should be able to get me 10-15 solid MpS leads a month. The MpS director thinks the way I do and see MpS as a pivotal practice for growth and expansion into the IT realm.
We shall see.
##UPDATE##
- The Partner I was working with quit. "Ethical Misalignment with Ownership"
- Ownership interviewed a candidate for MPS Specialist. yet hired her as the Practice Manager.
- Ownership changed the compensation model, requiring SMEs to cold call and close deals.
- With a 30-day notice, the SME team was required to hit cold calls AND revenue goals.
- Management backed off the revenue requirement, allowing the team to hit cold call goals as selling cycles are typically 60 days.
- Management lied. Removed SMEs who did not 'meet revenue requirements'.
- The company represents everything that is bad about the copier industry.
Greg Walters, Inc. After a two-year hiatus, I see now, that spinning the business back up was inevitable. I've secured a spot on the team charged with implementing a global Print Optimization Program for a Fortune 100 company.
Aug 2018
Project Complete. It was a learning experience being part of global deployment. My interactions focused on Latin America so the cultural exchange was incredible.
##UPDATE## 2019
#ArcDrive
On June 6th, we launched an economical yet powerful scan, archive, workflow, and managed print service appliance called ArcDrive.
https://thearcdrive.com/
2019 - 2022 - Bourbon @ Vino
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