This post was first started April, 2011 -----
The battle for MpS.
As the 3rd Annual MPS Conference fades in the rear-view, its deja vu all over.
Today, questions around MpS border on the mundane; reflecting, once again, the commoditization of me and of you:
Cold Calls, Dialing for MpS - old school scripts
MpS is Dead - Toner and Service only
MpS is Dying - MIF is shrinking
MpS needs 'farmers' and 'hunters' - labels and boxes
MpS Reps are simply coin operated - sure, that's all we care about, isn't it
The OEMs are not working with the channel - working 'on' is not working 'with'
The OEMs are losing control - do we sell machines or services or supplies
"I have MpS on my HP's. The copiers are all on a service agreement. We're fine..." - quote from an IT guy
So, here we are again...after DOTC defined it...we're stuck asking, "What is MpS?"
"What is Managed print Services?"
I have it from very credible sources, my prospects and clients, that MpS is being defined as simply, "toner and service for everything except copiers...".
Wait, what, huh?
The OEMs have hijacked the meaning of MPS to mean simply toner and service...exactly like the old CPC models around copiers? Why? So they can continue to sell hardware.
IT directors are telling us they already have MPS on their printers, and CPC on the copiers. Purchasing is still buying copiers. We've been here before. The Walls are all the same, just the people have changed.
Your MPS and my MPS beliefs lie over those who believed color was secular.
And those lie over the analogue to digital evolution.
And those cover the OEM's who learned how to build in obsolescence, define and segment an entire industry - from the ditto machine, carbon paper to white out.
"Those who own the network, own the account."
Who has claim?
No one has claim...
All have claim.
MPS is not about faceless copier manufacturing companies or heartless IT behemoths. Its not about infrastructure or meter reads or remote monitoring, behavior modification, M2M, third party toners, or A3vA4. It isn't even about the transactionalization of the 'solution sale'.
All that is corporate dogma.
It's about People. We fight not for the machine. We fight for the people in the machine.
MpS is more than print, it is more than toner and service and supplies - it is about Content and Dark Content, technology and change - and People. All that infrastructure, those walls, fall away, crumbling and crashing, ultimately exposing who we are and what we do.
We Are, All of Us, What We Do.
What is all this worth?
"Nothing..."
"Everything..."
As with everything great, it comes down to the individual - real change starts in the grass, in the roots.
What can you do?
First, change your mindset. The 'church' is not 'faith'. 'Religion' is filtered, shaped and slanted. Doesn't mean it's wrong - it means you have more responsibility in choosing what you follow. Who you follow.
Look at our niche. The hierarchical model - Top Down - of the OEM is dissolving. Corporate org charts are flattening.
The 'Cloud', in the Sky, connects us with all the Content ever created - directly. We don't attend the corporate cathedrals those homes of empty priests.
We work at home. In the dirt. In the trenches. Again, reclaiming our power and forcing us to be more personally responsible.
It's here.
The Gates have fallen, the new guard pouring in - we have seen the enemy and they are Us.
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