Managed Print Service Conference - Day One.

The rooms overflow.

Copious notes have been had.

Topics as mundane as remote monitoring and as unique as internally branded Managed Print Services dominate conversations.

And still, the definition of Managed Print Services eludes...


Memorable quotes of today:

Ashby Lowry, Vice President, General manager Enterprise Print Services Xerox Global Services:

"...it is our estimate that each knowledge worker represents $3,400.00 in annual printing related costs...this cost contains nearly 300 components..."

"...the goal of any good MPS is to lower the number of prints over the life of the engagement..."

Robert Simmons, Development Manager Printer Market, Samsung regarding MPS penetration:

"...we look to increase our MPS programs by 40%..."

Steve Pearl, Group Manager, Solutions Business Planning, Konica Minolta, regarding getting a Managed Print Services practice started:

"...you're not launching a new product, your launching a new business..."

Day one of the first annual Managed Print Services conference is in the history books.

Lyra's Senior Analyst Steve Reynolds Discusses 'State of the Industry and MPS Predictions' at 1st Annual Managed Print Services Conference

First MPS Conference, so far…Great!

Another Look into the World of An IT Guy: The Evaluation Process

More specifically, the IT person's process, not yours.

A post by Jay Rollins over at TechRebublic is very interesting.

The premise is software selection, but the basics apply to anyone approaching the IT folks.


The account is quiet funny - especially, because all the things he went through, we can all see happening.

Thomas the Tank Engine as a tool?

A Pizza Party for ALL THE SUPPORT TEAM?

Oh, and a pushy sales person - no way, can't happen.

The best quote from his post, "...The next time a vendor wants to impose their process on us instead of the other way around, I’ll tell them to take a hike..."

LOL!

Watch out!

Read it here.


From an IT Director: "How to Shut down vendor cold calls"...this is good stuff.

Do You Sell for A Living ? We all Sell.

Copiers, printers, Blades, paper, toner, MPS, PM, managed services, paperclips - if you sell, keep selling, sell today, sell in a recession, sell in a depression, sell even though the gov't takes half, never stop.

You sell. You don't run from history.

You make it.

It's tough out here - but here we are.

Thing is, it can always be worse -



Superbowl, 2002. Just months after 911.

The nation was in mourning - we needed something to get ourselves back up. Soldiers were cool again.

Do you remember the Empty Sky's of 9-12? That was scary.

Superbowl, for us, represented something more than a football game - it meant we were still here, the US, we Americans were still standing.

Still here to do what we Americans do: watch football, buy music, dance in the frickin streets, flaunt those who hate us, those who would kill us, and to sell.

We were celebrating life while remembering those who went before us.

It took a few crazy Muslims to tear down the towers.

But a rock band from Ireland, it's lead crooner sporting goofy blue shades, helped us remember who we are and helped us tell the world, we weren't going anywhere.



Let the cube rats play in the dark. Let the sales managers who have forgotten their passion and left their soul somewhere in the corporate cafeteria, try to keep score.

Keep going, no matter who, no matter what gets in your way - don't let them win.

Not the congressmen we elect, not the fat, lazy, bureaucrats, not your covetous neighbors, not the terrorists or that overly pompous PA can keep you down. You know the score.

It can all end tomorrow, for them it will be a period at the end of an empty life.

For us, we who make things out of nothing, we will be complete.

Go Sell.

Flying out to San Antonio Saturday: Will be Tweeting and Posting From the Managed Print Sevices Conference

The conference should be most xlint - I will be trying to get into every session.

Follow me on Twitter

Execs Leaving HP

Predictably, EDS executives leaving HP. Wonder if they will end up at Lexmark, Dell, or CISCO.

Hewlett-Packard Co. confirmed on Friday that as part of the recent merger and integration of Electronic Data Systems, four EDS executive leaders will be leaving their posts as the company realigns its structure.

The company confirmed that Mike Koehler will be leaving his position to pursue other opportunities, replaced by Andy Mattes who will oversee the company's Americas region.

As Mattes transitions into his new role, Robb Rasmussen will over Mattes' former job leading application services.

Bobby Grisham, who oversees EDS sales, is retiring in June. A search for his replacement continues, the company said in a statement.

Tom Haubenstricker, who leads EDS finance, is leaving the company in mid-May to explore other opportunities, while Pete Bocian, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, will serve in the role on an interim basis as the search for a replacement continues.

Mike Paolucci also is leaving as vice president of human resources at EDS. He will be replaced by Shawn Williams.

Both H-P and EDS employ thousands in the Sacramento area.

The Best Reason For Twitter: To Find Old Printers and Things That Cover Queen

4/2009

Frst there was the "musical road" out here in Cali and now, the signing, old skool printer...no really, you gotta check this out...

All Around The World : Copier Mouse Trap

This is the story of a mouse and a South African in Saigon, food crumbs, and a copier...

Read on, if you dare.


The Rodent Solarium of Death

Okay, I don't usually do a "what am I doing every five minutes"/stream of consciousness/now I'm eating cherry ice-cream/now my car broke down/now I have bowel problems kind of blogpost, but this is an extreme case in the morbid curiosity sort of way.

This morning I was on relief, no not relieving myself, but meaning I have to teach when other teachers pull a sicky and when no-one decides to sleep in, I hang around the office and do admin stuff. Anyways, this is one of those admin days and my girlfriend came out of her class (yes, we work together) to ask me to photocopy some of her students' in-class writing seeing as I wasn't doing much.

We have two photocopy machines at work and both had the Post Man-handled Shits this morning as the paper was constantly getting jammed in the one and the other one would photocopy with this thick, faded unreadable line down the middle of each page. So I asked the IT guy Phuong (he's the closest we have to a janitor/repairmen guy at our school) to sort the one out while I sort out the paper jam one.

I managed to unjam it and about an hour later the photocopy repairman walks in with his toolkit and gets to work on the one that's fading the copies. I'm sitting at the computer when Tom, one of the teachers on his break, calls out" Hey Henno, come check this shit out!"

Nice. Inside the copier, on the big roller part that inks the paper, lies our furry little workspace friend who has tasted his last office crumb. Yes, the office mouse had got into the machine, and nestled in all snuggly probably because of the warmth, and this morning some unknowing teacher happened to tragically nuke him with some ultrahot, ultraviolent ultraviolet rays. It was really gross because the little rodent was all seared and stuck onto the roller and the repair dude at to literally unpeel him.

No wonder the photocopied papers had these funny mouse-shaped faded parts on them!