The Fall of IT and the Rise Of The Human Resources Department

BYOD, the Cloud and 99 cent apps are shifting Information Technology expertise from the glass room to the end user at an accelerating rate.

Once, all business tools were housed 'back at the office' - the phone system, postage meter, mainframe, desktop and network, all your paperwork and files were physically located under one roof.  To support this infrastructure, organizations splintered responsibilities into appropriate departments; accounting, marketing, warehouse, sales, and administration departments carried separate responsibilities, budgets and expectations.  

IT was one such department.  

The 2014 Executive Connection Summit - "They Let the DeathOfTheCopierGuy In?"

The Executive Summit has been in existence for three years, this is my first one.  For context, I've attended and spoken at every domestic Photizo MPS conference, I attended and spoken at a few ITEX get-togethers and a BTA meeting - I 've attended more shows than I can remember.

I've known of MWAi and the group for years, meeting Mike Stramaglio at a Lyra back in ....2009 or 08, I forget. Mike and I have broken bread and on occasion, we've even solved many of the world's problems over whiskey, Cabernet, or some other variation of libation.  

As it Turns Out RELEVANT Content is King.

Relevance - 

Peggy Winton, CMO over @AIIM, reposted an article on LinkedIN about the benefits and pitfalls of content. Read the article, here. The essence of the piece is good content is better than bad content and bad content may hurt your reputation.

Earth shattering, isn't it?

It doesn't take a Marketing Degree agree or disagree with the author who presents good insight

From the article, "Being barraged with irrelevant content, misleading titles and promotion actually damages the brand." this is, and ALWAYS has been true, from late-night infomercials to toilet paper adverts.

Another great quote applicable in the copier/imaging industry, "A strategy based primarily on vendor generated content negatively impacts conversion because buyers consider that information biased and untrustworthy."

This includes content(sponsored) in free magazines, white papers and especially from the analyst community - it is all bought and paid for.

We've been saying this for years, the top-down, 'build it and they will buy' mentality propagated by OEMs and supported through hardware quota's was once old-fashioned.   

Today, its dangerous to the channel.

The phrase "Content is King" assumes 'relevant' or 'pure' is in there somewhere, as in "Pure Content is King". Which leads to the next level, "How pure can your content be, if you outsource its generation?"

In the turbulent world of content marketing and marketing content, Purity is difficult to muster.  The foundational question is,  "How can your content be relevant if you and what your offering is irrelevant?" Like it or not, the act of printing and copying is not that important and if you've built your business on the reliability and relevancy of office printing and copying, you could be in dire straits.

But I don't believe you are irrelevant, yet.  I believe you have happy customers with great stories.  I believe you ARE transforming into a leaner and more intelligent organization.

You just need to get your clients' stories out into the open.

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