A "Pyramid Scheme" in Copiers - The Struggles of Governor French Academy Continue

This story has legs - four of them.

We first brought you this account last month. The same, familiar routine, "shady" copier dealer churns customers, flexing buyouts into upgrades, never returns equipment to leasing company. Lease company continues to bill, receives no payments, sends letter, customer is shocked to learn they are still on the hook for the original lease.

This is excessive - there are around 7 leasing companies involved, possibly an eighth, and they all want this school to pay up. The school owes about 50 million clicks worth of Francs.

Nasty business, this.

And yet, so delicious...

When I first started on my DOTC, writing journey I would review my Google Analytics daily.

Checking how many hits came in and from where - I could tell my parents looked once, a few hits from my sister, some acquaintances etc. And after things "blew up" I would occasionally check the popularity of particular articles.

Those days have long since past - I rarely look at the stats - until last week.

A quick perusal of the most popular articles revealed an interesting point - views of lease related articles tripled over the last 60 days. Tripled.

I credit this spike to:

1. More interest in leasing because more people are making decisions to get new copiers
2. More people are looking for ways to get out of their existing lease

And unfortunately, this type of action makes our jobs that more difficult.

Escalation -

Now, the Illinois Attorney General's is involved. They announced an investigation, and the local gendarmes, already on the case, are cooperating with federal authorities.

Officials at Governor French Academy say the school owes at least $500,000 after leasing copiers from Kevin Welch of Okawville, in what they now call a complicated Ponzi scheme.

Thus far, no criminal charges have been filed.

So, copiers are at the heart of this intrigue - greed, schemes, local non-profit, and federal investigations.

Keep an eye out for a little sex, some drugs, gambling and hookers in this escapade.

Quel dommage!

12 Things I Hate About Managed Print Services

12. How some I.T. people think "printers" are below their intellectual standards.

11. How some purchasing agents think of MPS Providers as a cell on the Big Spreadsheet.

10. The dealership/VAR owners who don't allow MPS Sales Professionals access to the company's existing customers.

9. Manufacturers who still think MPS is CPC.

8. Bad copier salespeople.

7. How some in the industry focus more on themselves than the customer.

6. Lease agreements.

5. Newbies who don't think they are Newbies.

4. "Experts" who haven't been in the field for over a decade.

3. MPS training text that has been generated through the simple Search and Replaced function; "MPS" for "copier".

2. MPS Practices that are better than mine.

And the Number One thing I Hate About Managed Print Services -

1. The word "Print" in Managed Print Services.

9/2009

Canon and HP Announce Alliance - the Silence is Over and The Questions Begin

HP and Canon will share technology enhancing their existing partnership. HP will start selling Canon products by the end of the year; these units will carry the Canon placard, eventually switching over to the blue "HP".

 

"HP will now have the full line of hardware to bring to the customer," said Bruce Dahlgren, senior vice president of sales and services in HP's IPG. "And [Canon] will be able to leverage our managed print service as a way to get their copiers sold."

For months, maybe a year, the industry has predicted this and waited - this is a big deal. Maybe not as big as the IKON/Ricoh assimilation, but still big. 

I am sure more will be out in the following days and weeks answering questions like: 

How will this work with the existing VAR channel?

Indeed, is this for the Enterprise (HP direct) business only? 

Does this now open up all Canon dealers to HP? 

Does this now allow all HP SVIP/OPS VARs access to the Canon/HP line?

Canon and HP: A Response to Ricoh/IKON?

Canon U.S.A. Acquires San Francisco-Based NEWCAL Industries

A press release from Canon. (Source: Business Wire)trackingCanon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced an expanded alliance to jointly market and distribute a new range of multifunction office systems that unite the best of both companies: Canon's leading multifunction devices and HP's enterprise printing and imaging assets. 

The alliance builds on an established relationship between Canon and HP, and positions the companies to offer customers a new class of web-enabled solutions that combine Canon's superior multifunction device processing and imaging systems with HP's leading device manageability, IT integration and office workflow capabilities. 

With the broader range of software and service offerings supported by EDS, an HP company, along with Managed Print Services from HP and Canon's global Services and Support offerings, enterprise customers now have access to one of the most complete offerings in the industry, delivering improved efficiencies and greater cost savings. This alliance includes current and future product portfolios from both companies, providing customers greater fleet compatibility across their entire office printing infrastructures. 

Canon and HP also will benefit from access to each other's management and third-party development software portfolios, including Canon imageWARE Enterprise Management Console and Canon MEAP as well as HP Web Jetadmin and the HP Open Extensibility Platform. The expanded portfolio of products and services is expected to be available to customers in North America and Europe, as well as global customers from these regions. 

"Through this new alliance with HP, we look forward to bringing the advantages of Canon's high-versatility, high-performance multifunction products to an expanded user base," said Masaki Nakaoka, managing director and chief executive, Office Imaging Products Operations, Canon Inc. 

"We expect this will maximize benefits for both companies' customers while also paving the way to increased growth for both Canon and HP." "HP has long been an industry leader with a portfolio of products, software, services and solutions that enable enterprise customers worldwide to improve their imaging and printing efficiencies without compromising the reliability, quality or professionalism of their documents," said David Murphy, senior vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP.

"In growing our relationship with Canon to offer customers value-added and more holistic IT solutions, we are confident organizations will enhance productivity with their imaging and printing and overall business workflow needs."

Ricoh to Buy IKON - Shot Heard Around the World