Death of The Copier and MFP Solutions Blog - Greg To Art

7/2009

WHAT’S THE DEAL? TELLING IT LIKE IT IS

by Scott Cullen 

The truth is out there and it’s only a few clicks away on of the imaging industry’s cutting-edge blogs.

Blogging is nothing new, but feet on the street sales reps in the imaging industry who blog are certainly something you don’t run into every day. Meet two of the most prolific and opinionated bloggers in the imaging industry-- Greg Walters and Art Post.

Walters works in the managed print services division of a West Coast IT integrator and HP value-added VAR. His “Death of the Copier” blog (http://thedeathofthecopier.blogspot.com/) is hip, happening, and sometimes irreverent, and a must-read for anyone doing business in the imaging industry.

Post is a self-proclaimed “docusultant” with a Ricoh dealership in Highlands, New Jersey who, like Howard Cosell, tells it like it is. He started his blog, (www.mfpsolutions.blogspot.com) 15 months ago and the hits just keep on coming.

The inspiration for Walter’s blog, at least its eye-popping title, was the introduction of HP’s Edgeline technology, a technology that was going to be the death of traditional copier technology as we know it. Well, we all know what happened there.

“The Death of the Copier was because we had the Edgeline engine and it was going to take over the copier world,” recalls Walters. “That’s how it started and very quickly evolved into content and information about managed print services, the print industry in general, copiers, printers, and all that stuff.”

It’s all that stuff that makes Walter’s blog a fascinating read. He knows what he’s talking about having been in the imaging industry for 20+ years, including a stint at IKON. He’s no shill for any manufacturer, including HP. Honesty is Walter’s best quality and his blog does indeed make for scintillating reading even when he’s sharing stories from other sources.

Walters’ blog gets 14,000 views a month, which is pretty darn good considering the topic. Are there really that many people who want to read about the imaging industry each month? Guess so. He has no idea why so many hits, but isn’t wasting time figuring it out. When he’s not integrating and providing added value to customers in his day job, he’s blogging, and he’s making appearances at industry conferences and events. From the looks of it, Walters’ 15 minutes of fame is just beginning.

"With bloggers like Post and Walters, it’s refreshing to find two industry veterans willing to cut through the hype and tell it like it is."

Oki Printing Solutions Launches Total Managed Print: Stage One - "PageStart"

Details of Oki's MPS programs are beginning to take form.

Today, Oki announced their Total Print Management MPS program for re-sellers.

A three level offering, the first of which is active today, PageStart, will be followed later this year with FleetAssist and FullAccess.

This first level is designed to get interested resellers into the MPS niche with little risk or cost.

Oki reportedly has simplified a pricing structure making it much easier for a provider to quote a CPC engagement with confidence.

But, what exactly is, "...the industry's only MPS Ready line of color and black and monochrome single function printers..."?


PageStart is a simple, turnkey program that provides the fastest way to start supporting MPS opportunities.

Partners requiring more support or those requiring complete support will benefit from the two other levels, which look to go live later this year.
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DOTC -

A big couple of weeks for the manufacturers and Managed Print Services programs. And compared to the recent Ricoh and HP announcements, Oki's could go unnoticed.

But MPS is for everyone - there is plenty of room.

What I find interesting is Oki seems to be either pacing the reluctance of their resellers, introducing MPS to the willing in baby-steps or Oki's programs haven't completely "baked" or Oki Print Solutions is itself wary of the MPS niche.

So they tip toe into the water.

But is this "only MPS ready printer" aspect?

What does that mean?

Are the cartridges "keyed" to the reseller?

Do the machines only report meters to Oki-based collection agents?

And once again, what about "blended MPS engagements"? Certainly, there will be other manufactures' machines in an Oki fleet - correct?

Interesting.

Now, the only two left are Toshiba and Canon - so I guess that really only leaves one.

Okidata Into the Fray: A Three Level Managed Print Services Offering For Dealers

Oki is in and is approaching dealers. Especially those who are tentative about entering the MPS arena.

"The channel is struggling to learn MPS, there's a little bit of a handicap there because they're just focusing on printers and copiers," Krentzman, President and Chief Executive Officer at Oki Data Americas, Inc. said. "Partners have to rethink the way they do business from "hardware centric" to "service centric."

Details are sketchy at this point, as always. There are two different pricing plans; monthly flat cost and a cost per image.

Dealers can either dip their toe or jump in head first - Oki appears to have different levels of commitment each with a higher access to all of Oki's MPS tools.

The market is certainly crowded and Oki has stiff competition. Citing Xerox's MPS program, Okidata said that there are some major options that its program offers that Xerox doesn't, including hardware training and proactive service alerts. I wonder how factual that statement really is.

Remotely interesting announcement, relative to the last few days - Ricoh, HP.