Time to Put the Cost Per Copy Model Down.

Oh yeah, we're going there.

It started long ago.  In the beginning, making copies of business documents - memo's, invoices, reports - was slow and tedious.

So we built devices to perform these duties.

Thousands of moving parts, heat, static electricity and heavy handed employees contributed to a dynamic and precarious environment - they required a good amount of attention.

To put it bluntly, our machines broke down so often we needed a way to pay for technicians.

To support the machines in field the 'industry' hatched a plan:

"Why don't we sell service with the machines?  We'll make it impossible for anyone else to supply our devices, so we'll combine service and supplies into a billable line item, determined by how many pages come out of our devices...and will call these 'clicks' after the noise a meter makes with every copy and call the billing model Cost Per Copy..."

Genius, really.

Oh sure, there were other schemes - blending ...

Read the rest, here.

The paperless office will come to being over a copier rep's dead body...so to speak.

Yes, I believe the long standing transactional business model of the copier industry will have to die before the paperless office ever stands a chance.  Indeed, the majority of the die-hards in the industry are motivated, trained and developed to increase paper in the office, not decrease it.

You see on the vendor supply side, there are different types of providers.  For the purpose of this blog, let's focus on the die-hards, the traditional copier companies that dig in their heels, resist change and insist that the old school way is the best way.  Or at times...the only way.

It is no secret that thousands of owners, managers and copier/mfp reps thrive on six and seven figure incomes all derived from selling office machines to produce as much toner/ink on paper as possible.  The die-hard copier teams have goals to sell copiers/printers/mfp's to businesses "without regard".  That is without regard except for the numbers.  The higher the number the better the number whether its in units, price or pages.  Hear that cow bell ring...seriously.

Read the rest, here...really good stuff!

013: Managed print Services And The Last Generation Gap

The Last Generation Gap- from 2013...

If you remember back to the '60s - riots, Viet Nam, Presidential and political assassinations, hippies at Woodstock, the Beatles, Stones, the Peace Movement, and a vaguely remembered issue called the "The Generation Gap".

This Gap referred to the difference between younger generations and their elders. Back then, teenagers regarded their parents' established social norms as outdated and restrictive - many rebelled:

• They burned draft cards.
• They marched in the street.
• They took up new social and political issues.
• They expressed themselves through free sex, lots of drugs, and rock and roll.
• They didn't trust anyone over 40.
• And they promised to never, ever end up like their parents. 

At Transform2013, I attended Terrie Campbell's presentation, "GenY's Idiosyncrasies - Can your Business Survive Them?"