OfficeMax: ***CORRECTION*** I DO Remember Seeing Someone From OfficeMax at the Managed Print Services Conference

****** CORRECTION ********

David Peterson, Director of Sales, OfficeMax was in attendance at the MPS Conference, and I did speak with them - my apologies!

So, what can be determined by this?

OfficeMax gets it.

They get the whole MPS approach and are leveraging their customer relationships. And not only with MPS but also as a MSP.

Lawton Smith and Darrell Amy's discussion resonates once more - the advance MPS providers are ready to hop-scotch over to the MSP role.

And now, I need to wipe the egg off my face.

During the OfficeMax earnings call today, Sam Martin – Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer regarding Managed Print Services said, "...The idea is to collaborate with customers and maximize their office supply savings with OfficeMax through analytics.

This value proposition then opens the door to approach the customer with related spend categories as well as non-traditional areas in which we have expertise such as managed print and data center services..."

Furthermore, Martin adds, "...We believe that a deeper business relationship results in better retention...Our relationship with Young has evolved from basic office supplies procurement into a broader solution which includes managed print services.

Print is not a core activity for Young and they viewed OfficeMax as having a best-in-class solution that met their needs.

Other categories where OfficeMax has expanded its relationship with Young include certain data center services and other supply categories not originally priced with OfficeMax. Currently less than half of our business with the Young brand is traditional office supply procurement..."
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On the OfficeMax Managed Print Services website, they use phrases like "scalable end to end solutions" and "...across all manufacturers...". On the site, they even say, "...We'll help manage all your print and multi-function machine supplies and coordinate the installation, servicing and redeployment of your hardware..."

In one session at the MPS Conference, Lawton Smith explained how Managed Print Services will one day soon be enveloped into the Managed Services Provider's portfolio of services.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, OfficeMax is pitching just that.

***** CORRECTION ********

OfficeMax was in attendance at the MPS Conference - my apologies!

The complete transcript here.

The British Are Coming, The British Are Coming!

Press Release

NewField IT Opens US Office


31st March, 2009, NewField IT, a leading UK based provider of software and independent assessments for the Managed Print Services market, today announced the opening of the company’s first office in the United States. NewField IT’s software, Asset DB, is widely used to accelerate and enhance the delivery of Managed Print Services (MPS).

The market for MPS is set to grow by a CAGR of 24% in the next three years according to InfoTrends; a growth which has led to a jump in demand for NewField IT’s highly regarded MPS toolset, Asset DB. Use of Asset DB in the US has been growing since the product was launched in 2004 and this new office will enable NewField IT to provide greater support and information to its North and South American based customers.

“Despite the economic climate, this is an exciting time for our industry because of the rapid growth of MPS. By opening an office in the US we can support our growing customer base with more direct and value-added services” commented Robert Newry, Co-Founder of NewField IT.

Leading the US office will be Ed Mosteller – Vice President, Americas. Ed has an extensive background in information technology and output management with ten years’ experience managing Professional Services at Lexmark International and a 15 year career with IBM.


Contact information:
Tollfree: (888) 870-0156
General office: (727) 538 4162

13575 58th Street North, Suite 136
Clearwater, FL 33760-3746

NewField IT is an independent software and services provider focused on reducing print and document management costs. Established in 2003, NewField IT has completed assessments on over 70,000 devices in 30 different countries. NewField IT’s innovative software suite, Asset DB, is the only toolset driven by a graphical interface and underpinned by an integrated and powerful database. Many of the leading vendors including Canon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, Océ, Ricoh, Toshiba, and Xerox use Asset DB to enhance their MPS assessments and implementation.

Click to email me.

Is Hurd funding IPG's Demise with IPG's Revenue?

In a very interesting article by Ned Randolph at NewsFactor, he discusses HP's move into other, non-traditional printing areas like Photo Kiosks and on-demand, uniquely individualized newspapers.

Buried toward the end of the article is a quote from Gary Peterson, a principal analyst with Gap Intelligence in San Diego.

"... the printing industry is a mature one, and there is a movement within HP to use IPG's 18.5 percent profit margin not to grow the printing segment, but move it into IT services, where IBM Relevant Products/Services dominates..."


Peterson goes on, "What we've seen from (CEO) Mark Hurd is that he's very interested in infrastructure Relevant Products/Services services. He wants to slowly evolve HP into IBM."

And they're using IPG profits to power Relevant Products/Services that transition, he said.

"It's really a matter of IPG funding the transitional costs of acquiring EDS and funding how that division of HP grows and succeeds," he said. "They purchased EDS to get a better foothold in the enterprise Relevant Products/Services market."

For example, when IBM approaches a huge company like General Motors, it can give them high-level customized server Relevant Products/Services, software, hardware and support..."

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Over the past few months, HP has overtaken Dell in laptops, purchased EDS and is actively working with Intel and the G6 - CISCO is getting into servers now as well.

It isn't like HP is going to leave the printer and output space completely, just come at it from a different direction.

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.

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