Maybe We Shouldn't Get Into Managed IT Services

Are we marketing the edge of forever or yesterday's Enterprise?

I'm beginning to think the road to #digitalTransformation, for #TheImagingChannel, doesn't require stepping into the managed (IT) services niche. 

Maybe we've been looking at and been told the wrong thing by well-meaning yet misguided know-it-alls. (me included).  

I.T. isn't all that sexy. 

I know, I know, compared to #copiers, firewalls and anti-virus are #seductive.  

Wouldn't it be easier to deliver, and install coffee machines connected to the IoT? Or design and implement an IoT Connectivity Policy? Or how about looking to the fringe of technology beyond the curve? 

“Fewer clients. Less money. More attention. Caring for them.”

Speaking to the next generation of copier dealers - those who have survived, inherited, or still fly under their original colors - If every copier, printer, and paper document disappeared tomorrow, what would you do? 

What would you sell? 

If this happened, you could do and sell ANYTHING. 

This transformation is bigger than moving from analog to digital copiers.  It's bigger than document management, the reduction of output and the digitization of the office.  The revolution incorporates Covid accelerated technological adoption, the decentralization of work, money and democracy.  

You're smart, you know the 'cloud' is going to annihilate the current managed services model, so setting up a helpdesk and getting SOC certified is on the other side of the curve.

The move to the cloud means fewer face to face touchpoints in the selling and installing processes.  

 

5G is going to accelerate the rush to the sky and with AI is the help desk.

What does this mean?  Any business that requires an IT infrastructure, and end-user support need only connect to the IoT.  

A remote AI will recognize clogged workflows configure and implement solutions, and support end users.

 

No dealers.  No Technicians. No people.   Just AI, drones and self-healing, 'living' software.

So what?  

When the world 'zigs' toward the Digital Universe, maybe humans should 'zag' to the analogue.  People will drink coffee, eat donuts, charge their electric vehicles and clog up the plumbing. 

Look at the above chart. It is from 2019. Back then, 5G was 2 to 5 years away and autonomous driving would be quite advanced - pretty accurate.

The IoT is all over the Hype Cycle as is AI and 5G - combine these and we've got everything connected, everything smarter and information moving barely under the speed of thought.

Look to SMART vending machines in smaller, local markets. Check into monitoring mouse traps and refrigeration systems and build partner ecosystem with DIFFERENT partners.

This transformation is bigger than moving from analog to digital copiers.  It's bigger than document management, the reduction of output and the digitization of the office.  The revolution incorporates Covid accelerated technological adoption, the decentralization of work, money and democracy.  

We are in the middle of the beginning of the greatest shift of wealth, intelligence, natural resources and labor in the history of mankind.

You're going to reduce the numbers -fewer salespeople, service technicians, admins, managers and inhabitants of the C-Suite.  You will have fewer clients, and less money.

We're facing annihilation, alignment with the great divide, the end of the world as we know it - and - rebirth, redemption, and freedom.

"See your future, be your future."

Need a crystal ball?  Check this out:

The 2021 Hype Cycle is challenged by the global fear of Covid but if you look close, you'll see things like, "Real-Time Incident Center-aaS", "Generative AI", and "Nonfungible Tokens".

Do you have ANY of these on your radar? You should.

So maybe all the hype about pivoting to managed services from all the consultants, marketing professionals, pundits, and peddlers is just that - Hype pushing us through the Guardian of Forever

"I have seen the future of our industry, and it isn't print..."