Beyond Toner and Paper: How Dealers Can Pivot from Copiers to Humanoid Robotics

When service departments run dry of techs dealers are training foot-tall robots with private LLM brains to clear jams, swap toner and deliver secure prints, turning shrinking service margins into a growth engine.

By Cole Jensen

When the sun hits the service bay at 7 AM there are no horns or alarms, only the soft hum of fluorescent lights and the steady blink of copier status lights. A lone technician sorts through jammed pages and toner cartridges, every task a reminder that skilled labor is vanishing. Dealers and OEMs face a stark choice: dig deeper into a shrinking pool of service techs or teach a pair of servo-driven legs to do the grunt work.

Ricoh’s Fairyland Problem: When Growth Isn’t Progress

Inspired by Ray Staszak’s “End of the Day with Ray”

Ricoh’s digital services playbook looks strong on the surface, but weak margins, unclear financials, and questionable strategic returns paint a more sobering picture. Correction may only come through outside pressure and internal reckoning.

I watched Ray's recent breakdown of Ricoh’s FY2024 financials and couldn’t stop thinking about one image: Ricoh’s “Inkjet Fairyland” booth at a convention. That phrase stuck with him, and it stuck with me too. Because it’s not just about trade show kitsch. It’s the perfect metaphor for a company trying to sparkle its way through serious operational issues.

The Rep Who Never Sleeps: Why Custom GPTs Are the New Sales Team

The best reps in the world are no longer solo. They are building custom GPTs trained to match their voice and scale their presence. Prompting is not the goal. Projects are. This is how modern sales gets done.

​

by Celeste Dame 🚀🧠

​

​Most reps will never get past the surface. They’ll plug a few questions into ChatGPT, maybe ask for a subject line or a prospecting idea, and move on. A few will dig deeper. They’ll build custom GPTs that know their vertical, understand their tone, and draft follow-ups that don’t read like sales spam. And then there are the ones we train. The ones who move beyond prompts. The ones who don’t just use GPTs, they deploy them like teammates. That is where the real leverage begins.

Dex Imaging, LLC v. Impact Networking Ohio, LLC and Kenneth Vanden Haute: A Non-Compete Showdown in Northern Ohio

On March 17, 2025, Dex Imaging, a Florida-based office technology and managed print services provider, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against its former executive vice-president, Kenneth Vanden Haute, and his new employer, Impact Networking Ohio, LLC. 

Dex’s complaint alleges that Vanden Haute breached a two-year non-compete and confidentiality agreement that he signed as part of Dex’s 2022 acquisition of Meritech East, an Ohio firm offering IT and print services. The case, docketed as No. 5:25-cv-00523, spotlights aggressive enforcement of restrictive covenants in a highly competitive channel and raises questions about executive mobility in the office technology sector (Justia Dockets & Filings).

If You’re Still Quoting by PDF, You’re Already Behind - Inspiration from the Year 2013

By Greg Walters

The convergence wasn’t a future event. It wasn’t even a prediction. It was a condition. And it’s here, embedded in systems you forgot you were still using. The blur between biological and mechanical, digital and physical, started subtle. Now it’s invasive. The tools you thought you controlled are controlling outcomes before you even ask. You didn’t miss a moment. You missed a migration.

New to Copier Sales: The Curse of the Verbal Close

Every single salesperson you’ve known, met, or will ever meet has been struck with the curse of the verbal close.

At first, you don’t see it coming. The client says yes. They’re nodding. They like the numbers. Heck, they even liked you sharing your grandma’s ravioli recipe, and people buy from people they like.

You email the lease, update the CRM, and someone congratulates you. Maybe you even ring the bell.

You’re excited, giddy.  Your prospect said “yes.”

Then it stops.

Why the Copier Dealer Channel Is Built to Power the Humanoid Revolution

I'll say it: "the humanoid robots aren’t coming. They’re here." 

And someone’s going to need to roll up their sleeves and get them installed, trained, and serviced in the real world. If you’re building one of these things, or investing in them, or dreaming up where they go next, here’s something you might not expect: the people who used to sell and fix copy machines might be your secret weapon.

This is for the C-suite folks at robotics OEMs. Give me 20 minutes and I’ll show you a national, field-ready service infrastructure that already exists, knows how to run a territory, and has been quietly waiting for what’s next. It’s the copier dealer channel. And they’re not dead. They’re just evolving.

The robots are already walking. Now it’s time to think about how they’ll get to the customer.