"Why in the hell would you come back?"
Truth is, I never left. The bigger truth is that the book is launching and I figured it would be nice to get the word out here where it all started.
A funny thing happened on the way to "blogdom" - I started re-reading entries from six years ago and THEY STILL MADE SENSE!
What seemed like a few years, was nothing more than a blink of the eye. Whats more, the cast of characters hasn't changed - except for sons-of-old-guys returning home with marketing degrees - I see all the same faces, ideas and ways.
Sad.
But then another turn. I caught the trailer for The Walking Dead now in its fifth season. The show premiered on October 31, 2010. Again, it seems like a million years ago since Rick rode into Atlanta - on a horse. It got me remembering, I published my first post, "Managed Print Services - That "Hot, New, Thing...", TWO YEARS before Walking Dead premiered.
Good lord, I am old.
Back then, I was selling managed print services and traveling the Wild Wild West of MPS. Everything was possible. No benchmarks, few experts, just a handful of tools - Excel, a clipboard and colored dots - and No Rules.
Has anything changed over the last 72 months?
In a way, nothing has changed. Today:
- Everybody talks about managed print services
- Everybody is an expert
- We still argue about the paperless office
- The OEMs continue to believe they drive the market
- Fax machines are still around
- Nobody listens to the customer - we just talk to each other
And yet, there are some things that are different:
- Everybody sells MpS
- Customers are on their second or third MpS agreement
- The A4's
- Nobody talks about Stage 3 MpS
- Everybody talks about managed IT services
- The OEMs have cornered the definition
- The analysts have sliced and diced managed print services into demographic segments
- The paperless office is here
Well, one thing is sure. There is plenty to write about and go off on.
Get ready, the end is here...
"In here you're not the greater good...you're part of a system..."
