HP, a molecular biologist, Napa and Green Mentality

10/6/08

Good people, great wine, good times...


I recently attended a Green Conference hosted by HP, in Napa - while the conference was held at the very nice Meritage, our "field trips" included a Green winery, Merryvale Winery the facility at Starmont and the City of Napa Recycling and Composting Center(affectionately, and incorrectly referred to as "the Dump")

Both stops were fascinating.

Meritage/Starmont -

I have been to Napa many times, but had never been part of a tour like then one HP arranged for us. Because the theme of the conference was Green, I felt visiting a green winery both appropriate and interesting.

What made the trip most interesting to was the person giving the presentation and the manner in which it was delivered.

There was NO PowerPoint, no projector, no written agenda, no boardroom, no Halo Room, laser pointers or stage lights. Just a group of "printer geeks" standing in a field, learning about Viticulture & Enology - and sustainability.

Our hostess, Remi Cohen, holds a bachelors degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Master’s Degree in Viticulture & Enology from U.C. Davis, and in 2008, she completed her M.B.A. at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Wow - and the best I had hoped for was Lucy.

We didn't learn how to sip a wine, or how to swirl the wine in a glass, or determine how much sugar is in the solution...nope, we learned that in order to determine the amount of water in the ground, one method involves burying scales under a plot of turf and to monitor weight fluctuation.

I had never met a molecular biologist before - and to be completely honest, I hold most "intelligentsia" in pure disdain. I tend to think of "intellectuals" as "those who sit around and talk about what others have done, without actually doing anything themselves..."

I am a little embarrassed to admit, but, Miss. Cohen made me realize my blatant stereotyping.

-The point here is even if you actually are a brain surgeon, rocket scientist or a micro-biologist specializing in Viticulture, it is possible to communicate with an audience without talking down to the audience. -

I learned a great deal -

All the rain water is saved.

Solar panels provide enough energy each day to power 250 homes.

The structure is very green - double windows, zone climate controlled system and the wine was excellent.
----

City of Napa Recycling and Composting Center - "It's not a Dump, it's a Recycling Plant..."

We have come a long way since the times of the "Iron Eyes Cody"

 There are huge machines that sort most of the materials, still, there is a crew of of people who hand pick the larger glass objects out.

To the right of the entrance, huge, heaps of steaming bio-material - the compost heap - is routinely watered lest the internal tempurature of 130 degrees give new meaning to "the burning bush".

Over to the left, the county's largest deposit of E-Waste waits. Canon copiers, Xerox printers, HP 9050's, large, flat-panel displays and even electric can openers - all staged and waiting to be sold by the pound and then broken down, unscrewed,and disassembled by Second Chance employees.

And out back, bales the size of VW's, stacked three stories high, composing of compacted tin cans, soda cans, plastic bottles and containers - each going for around $1,500.00.

And guess who is buying all out "trash"...China.

That's right, China sends over containers full of toys, and lead-tainted candies and we send back our "garbage" - the balance of nature, at its best.

How Green Is My Money..."Will Going Green in Business printing go the way of OS/2?

Paperless Offices, Killer Toner , Carbon Offset - "A World Without Sin"

It's not Easy Being Green - "Don't Take My DeskJet"

Click to email me.

Managed print Services : 2008

It's just my view. These are MY "top of mind" events and posts in 2008, in no particular order:

1. Ikon/Ricoh - Easily the biggest event of the year. After much rumor and guessing, Ricoh NOT Canon steps up.

2. WEB 2.0 - The Wild, Wild, West The BlogaSphere, social networking. From MySpace to LinkedIn. It is crazy out here. There are no rules, everyone is an expert on how to "monetize" your site, but nobody has a track record - it's all new. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection can instantly become an "expert' - I do not understand this phenomena and I have practically given up trying.

2.1 Andrew Keen's book, the cult of the amateur. Monkeys with typewriters - that's what we are. Thanks to him, I no longer reference Wikipedia.

3. The Death of The Copier - Why Do You Write? I write to read what I write. The "success" of The Death of The Copier is not measured by how many views occur(16,000/month) or the average time spent on the blog(two minutes 48 seconds). I measure the success of the blog by how often I go back and add to it.

If my interest is still there, than the blog is succeeding for me. An unforeseen and added benefit of TDOTC, has been all the people I have met out here; unknowing mentors, colleagues, cohorts, planners, visionaries and all around great peeps.

4. Photizo - defining and elevating Managed Print Services From start up, first two newsletters, now two locations, a conference and more, the folks over at Photizio, Ed and the gang, I have found to be the most knowledgable group in terms of Managed Print Services and the industry. I found them quite by chance, via a google search, and it has been a pleasure ever since. I look forward to watching and working with them in 2009.

5. LinkedIn - MySpace all grown up. Much more mature than Facebook with real contacts and real business and NO high school moms pretending to be CEO's...well, maybe. Quite by chance, I fell into LinkedIn. Early, I joined MySpace, Facebook, Plaxo, etc. - but LinkedIn, for some reason has held my attention and gets most of my input when it comes to "social networking". I do not tweet.

6. Napa - The Dump, the Wine and the Hot, Microbiologist - Huba, Huba As I mentioned in point #3 above, The Death of The Copier is for my entertainment and one of the most "entertaining" posts I have(in my opinion) is about an HP Green Symposium in Napa. It still makes me laugh right out loud.

7. Magic Castle, A Week in The Life - Every now and again, I am suddenly reminded why I like it so much out here.

8. Single Unit Install - Not the biggest sale of the century, not even close, but a significant and fulfilling experience. One that I did not write about. This past year, one of my clients involved a 90 day cycle which included a 30+ day trial for a single Edgeline.

The total sale was for ONE Edgeline.

But, this one particular engagement had every nightmare available: bad lease, terrible service, a color machine (K/M) that did not perform, a single line of color text costing a dime each. Monthly volumes were around 10,000 images, mostly color and 95% printed.

Today, as I click over to the PrintSolv tab in my Mozilla browser, I can see that total life count on the Edgeline is 99,000 images. (Since August) This month they have 5,900 color images, all of them printed - no color copies. We solved many issues: Recommending they purchase instead of lease (because of the benefits of the Economic Stimulus package of 2008) was "refreshing" and negated any "bad taste" they had from their current lease.

Although they went with a new Edgeline, the existing lease is still in effect, the old machine is tucked away and relegated to "back-up" duties. Color overages - a perfect fit for Color Accent, saving thousands in "click" charges. Automated Supplies Ordering - the machine emails us when it needs supplies. This in addition to the information available via PrintSolv. Easy to use scanning, and simple mis-feed resolution with "live" video walking the end user through the process.

And this is as good as it gets: “Greg, I just wanted to say that we love the CM8060...it prints consistently and much faster than the Konica c500. I’ve noticed it handles its tasks much better. I can scan large document sets to myself via email while it is printing other jobs, and continue to scan while it is still processing the previous scan batch – all with no hiccups. Your response time to our requests has also been very good. Thus far, it has been a pleasure to work with the HP Edgeline..."

9. The Hardware Begins to Disappear; Customers get Smarter - Machines are all the same but people still care Are clients smarter? As the commoditization of output devices continues, does it really matter if there is a little blue label that says "HP" on your printer?

Clients are looking for more - more help, more business, more control, more vision...but they are not in our industry, they wake up in the morning thinking about their business model, not printers, copiers or Managed Print Services. So, how can they be "smarter" then us? Maybe more informed then they use to be, but they should never be smarter then us - ever. I found (once again) the smart clients are the ones who understand that they do not know everything and need to surround themselves with experts. Experts who posses business acumen, people who are not walking spec sheets.

10. Gas Prices/Mortgage and Credit Crunch - The Gas Price restricted the miles I would travel, the Mortgage crisis eliminated two of our largest customers, the Credit tumble slowed or delayed commercial purchasing decisions - but all of these factors shot the interest in Managed Print Services through the roof.

11. Managed Print Services - Changing the copier model and creating another. The Photizo Group, as do I, call them the Hybrid Dealers.

12. Bill Caskey Bryan Neale and Brooke Green - These folks are on the cutting edge when it comes to Selling and the sales process, the mental attitudes and beliefs needed to succeed. And they are overall good people.

13. Web 3.0 - The Death of Print? I still have not figured out Web 2.0 and now there is talk of the Web 3.0. The next decade will be the decade when printing is truly redefined into something we can not fathom today.

It should be fun.

Ricoh Offers Managed Print Services to Reduce Printing Complexity

WEST CALDWELL, N.J., Oct 02, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Four-Step Process Designed to Measurably Reduce Companies' Total Cost of Ownership

Ricoh Professional Services (RPS) of Ricoh Americas Corporation, the leading provider of digital office equipment, today launched a new service to minimize the complexity and cost of printing in today's highly networked business environment. Managed Print Services (MPS) was created to streamline companies' current print operations by working with RPS to help reach critical business goals from a productivity and financial standpoint.

Users of this program participate in a four-part process with MPS experts in order to create a package of services to help them reach their printing goals. The four stages of the process include:

-Assess: Provides a detailed overview of current costs and process workflows, along with maps of output device locations

-Design: Recommends a future plan based on the assessment results with specific productivity, sustainability and security measures built it

-Implement: Includes the execution of the plan in order to help users realize the benefits outlined in the Design phase

-Manage: Helps organizations stick to the plan and adapt to any unexpected changes - enabling projected cost-savings and productivity gains to be realized

Outsourcing all or part of the print management process helps reveal hidden costs, identify savings and significantly reduce spending on output. MPS experts work with an organization to remove underused printers, MFPs, fax machines, etc. in order to consolidate output among fewer and faster centralized systems and produce a more strategic document workflow process. In addition, overhead costs are reduced with devices that use less energy, paper and toner and users are not asked to pay any additional costs other than one monthly charge for actual page counts.

In addition to lowering total cost of ownership, other benefits of MPS include sustainable solutions and security options to help protect confidential documents. Security is a main focus and benefit of the MPS program. MPS experts work behind the scenes by utilizing remote monitoring and management tools to make sure an organization's print environment is running smoothly and sensitive documents are kept confidential. Usage and workflow are closely monitored in order to achieve optimal device-to-user-rations and make sure the fleet of devices is aligned properly with actual volume. Secure printing, file encryption, and removable hard drives all support regulatory compliance initiatives and are part of the standard features that MPS provides.

From an environmental standpoint, optimizing print environments can help organizations improve their corporate reputation by aligning with "green" initiatives and taking a stand in regards to saving energy, reducing paper usage and maximizing recyclables. The hardware and software that Ricoh MPS experts implement have low emissions in order to maintain air quality and protect the environment.
"At Ricoh we are constantly trying to develop new programs and services to make our customers lives easier. As such, we are proud to introduce our Managed Print Services offering as it not only takes the complexity out of the printing process, but also improves bottom line results," said Carl Sills, vice president, Ricoh Professional Services, Ricoh Americas Corporation.

For more information please contact a local Ricoh Professional Services representative or visit www.ricohbusinesssolutions.com/rps.

SOURCE Ricoh Americas Corporation

http://www.ricohbusinesssolutions.com/rps