Shades of Greg: 2015 "Top100 Summit" & The Death of Managed print Services

"Live a life less ordinary

Live a life extraordinary with me

Live a life less sedentary

Live a life evolutionary with me..."

These thoughts are my personal critique of an industry, not an individual.

Weeks ago, over one hundred leading MpS providers congealed in Park City, Utah to discuss the future of MpS.  It was a great educational and entertaining event - recommended.

This event was one of the best I've attended in years - only the MWAi show from last year, stands above.  West put together a great agenda and was able to recruit a diverse set of industry luminaries.

Here's a quick list of observations from The Top 100 - "MpS is Changing" conference:

• The venue: Superb.
• Event organization: Stellar.
• Promotion: Unparalleled.
• Presenters: Both gargantuan and irrelevant.
• Content: Both significant and forgettable.
• Off-line conversations: The best in over a decade.

For a detailed tracking of the event, talks, and feedback, see Ken's, Art's, West's, and Andy's most accurate reports.

The video, recorded, edited, and presented on-site, nearly live, is one of the best promotional pieces in the niche.  It was organic and fun. See it here.

Enough of us patting each other on the back, like we’re all buds. Here's a two word summary of the show:

"Points Missed."  

It has been said our niche moves at the speed of an HP Series II - I don't agree with that 100% of the time, but after this conference, I'm having second thoughts.

I've stewed on this for what seems years - why do so many still believe in the old models?  Why don't they see what others see?

In a juxtaposition with the best content I've witnessed,  the audience comments were befuddling.  I sat there, shaking my head, not at the presenters(mostly) but frustrated over the 1970 mentality of the audience. Still!

Here it is.  A list of call-outs from my perspective:

"Automatic Toner Fulfillment": 2007 called...

"If you sell hammers, everything looks like a nail" so, if you sell re-man toner, all the world is an empty printer, right?

ARRRG.

Getting toner to the right desk at the right time is something we've cut our teeth on, back in 2007. Staples delivers more toner to more desks, on time, "automatically" than anybody else and they use people. Automation for automation's sake is not visionary.

The fact that we are looking at ATF as a new advantage, in 2015, is trite - Clients expect every MpS program can 'get toner to the user' as a mundane function.

There is no such thing as "MNS": Really. 

This irks me on a personal basis.  Nobody in real IT refers to anything as managed network services; it is simply managed services. Whenever we say "MNS", we look like wanna-be, IT knuckleheads. If you're IT contacts don't flinch or roll their eyes every time you say "MNS" they are being polite.

Stop it.

Epson Bags of Ink: Not disruption, turbulence.

This is the BIG miss of the show.

When the Epson dude referred to his ink bags as "disruptive", I think most in the room assumed it was we doing the disrupting.

Immediately, calls of, "how can I make money the old fashion way, when I sell the machine and lifetime ink all upfront?"

The answer is, "you can't make money the old-fashioned way..."

But here's the miss: we won't be using ink-bags to disrupt, this disrupts Managed print Services.

It's the other way around: bags-o-ink AND "Instant Ink"(DOTC, 2011) will move the channel closer to irrelevancy.  Not because wet-toner is better than dry-toner - the iceberg here is "Lifetime Supply".  Buy a printer and never purchase toner or ink again.  All the costs, revenue, and profit are upfront.  An offering, so simple a monkey could sell it.

The 'lifetime' model will remove MpS from the lexicon because there is no need for a relationship.

Those MPS consultants and OEM programs that stress toner as "the most important component" of MpS have led us down the primrose path.

This one issue, redefined as "MpS" is slipping from the dealer channel into the hands of surviving mother-ships.

"Toner" is not a relationship and the biggest reason OEMs say they need an independent dealer channel is to maintain the relationship.  Well. The relationship is getting thinner every month.

Think about it, the 'lifetime ink' business model eliminates:

• Meter reads  - no billing
• Monthly billings - see above
• Deliveries - UPS
• Phone orders - machines phone home
• Service calls - these things don't break
• Quarterly reviews - why?
• Contracts
• Independent Dealers
• Etc.

If I were getting into managed print services today, I would become an Epson reseller and push those guys to start releasing model after model, ASAP, before HP kicks their super-duper, closed loop MpS machine into gear.

I mentioned this during the Q&A, and nobody understood what I was saying.

...chunks...blown...

points...missed...

Watch Epson.  Watch HP MPS.

In The End: It's Not Me, It's You

I've seen great things in our niche.  I've seen companies make the leap, shun the old ways, and thrive.

I've also seen organizations espouse the future, make cosmetic changes and fail - the road back to 1991 is littered with used-up MPS Directors.  Settling into the old ways of selling copiers, hiring sales managers from yesterday's enterprise, 'trapping customers', paying salespeople a pittance yet expecting them to be professionals, and forcing equipment quotas on their customers - is the easy thing to do.

These types fade away or get swallowed by a bigger dealer.

I've been ringing the bell for years - "MPS is the gateway to something bigger than toner and copiers...".  I evangelized the new ways only to see big equipment manufacturers hijack and kill innovation, searching for more shelf space and stickier schemes.

It is the way of things.

But it doesn't need to be your way.  Many have made the shift, pivoting off the copier and into fertile markets.  It isn't easy to break free the ordinary ways, but it's got to be done.

Conferences that break the mold, separate the future from the past are few and far between - this Top 100 is one of the less ordinary get-togethers.  If you were there, you are one of the less ordinary people and nowadays, the Life Less Ordinary is the life evolutionary...

Let's go.

Click to email me.

The End Of Managed Print Services

"Chew, if only you could see what I've seen with your eyes!..."

From coast to coast,  I've seen the promise of MpS scattered to the four winds as companies reject the outsource model, bring MpS in house only to realize they don't want anything to do with supporting print. Ironic, but what do they do?

Go back to doing nothing.

The days before MpS...

It was different back then - copiers sold for $15,000.00.  Color images were as much as 18 cents each and users generated 2,500 copies a week. (or was it 5,000?)

Copiers inhabited every floor and printers popped up everywhere overnight.

"Purchasing" or "Facilities" generated RFPs, negotiated for the cheapest CPI, signed leases, and dropped the entire project over to IT and the receiving department.

IT would complain to themselves, struggle with a copier technician connecting this huge, unknown machine - possibly integrating LDAP or creating user folders on a shared server or the unit's hard drive - all the while lamenting the difference between these clunkers and all the printers and scanner that easily hung off the network.

This entire process was unmanaged and costly - very costly.

Today, as old-fashioned copiers die off, relegated to government or educational accounts, A4 prices fall while generating fewer images, the real cost of print is approaching, but never reaching, zero. (See Limits)

Soon, instead of running internal assessments, generating an RFI, then an RFP, evaluating suitors, negotiating price, running lease and contracts through legal, signing a five-year lease/service agreement, scheduling delivery/removal, connecting to the network, installing ATF software, conducting end-user training and experiencing a 90-day spike in copier related help desk traffic, customers simply order a printer online, for under $2,500.00 including lifetime ink supply.

Done.

• No copier demonstration.  
• No comparing OEM to drill and fill toner.  
• No back-end points on a 60-month lease.  
• No stair climbers.

The days of $25,000.00 Edgelines and 5250i's are gone. Gone like a freight train and terminus is right back where we started - a sku, a price, and a delivery date.

Now, more than ever, fewer employees require a printer and if they do, devices are so cheap, there's no need to invest time into developing an RFP.  The decision process takes no more effort than a few mouse clicks.  As the cost of print shrinks and blends into operational overhead, the primary reason for MpS, cost reduction, vanishes.

So what do we do?

Continue and keep going.  Leave MpS, copiers, and ATF in the rearview mirror - someone will always want a copier or a printer.  Consider plumbing as a service, HVAC as a service, heck, think about interior design as a service - the Universe is calling.

Like the copier before it, MpS revenue will approach but never reach, zero...Remember, right this very second, somebody on the planet is making and selling buggy whips.

Click to email me.

The Next Managed print Services Event

“Wrath”- One of my favorites

Another stage, power point, round table, expert panel and cast of hundreds looking to commune and see the “new MPS” …again. I've witnessed multiple iterations and others broken promises since 2007. I’ve attended many such gatherings and presentations: Lyra, Photizo, ITEX, ReCharger, MWAi Executive Summit. I’ve spoken with thousands of customers, hundreds of resellers all the OEMs and countless dealers about MpS, copiers, printers, toner, managed services and the like.

Now, a new effort is in town. The "Top 100 Summit" focusing on the future of managed print services; "MPS is Changing" is the tag-line.

In the beginning, managed print services was mocked for being nothing more than facilities management or copier-service on laser printers. Something the more “forward" thinking copier providers and OEMs had ‘been doing for decades’ - not really.

But even back then, in the frenzied years of possibilities, there were those who saw managed print services literally; a service that managed print. Some of us understood ‘print’ to be any media - from 8.5x11 to voice mail. Further, we recognized this managed service as a path to higher thought, more relevancy and a foundation for a sustainable business model not increased shelf space, capturing clicks, or trapping clients in 60 month contracts.

We knew the future of print had less to do with copiers, printers, ink or toner hitting paper. We eagerly embraced the talk tracks and value props around ‘more efficiency in the office’, reduction in costs and optimizing the print environment - and we meant it.

We attended new and interesting shows. In April of 2009, Photizo ushered in this bold new concept and talked about managed print services well before ANY other pundit, consultant, training house, OEM, toner remanufacturer or copier dealer - yes there were a few true managed print services providers but most of the traditional imaging industry either explained away the movement as ‘just another gimmick’ or claimed to have been in managed print services for “25 years”.

We believers "...gave the Future to the winds and slumbered tranquilly in the Present, weaving the dull world around us into dreams.” Designing a future of connected devices, less print and optimized business environments. Yet, like most promises, our dreams were burned away by the reality of equipment quotas and dogma; more specifically, in toner and ink.

Spin the dial six years into the future and it seems who can spell “MPS” can sell “MPS”. Bags of ink are the new MpS. Analytics are the new MpS. Copier service is the new MpS. Despite consistently declining equipment placements, shuttered paper plants and industry lay-offs, increasing print volumes are the new MpS. It is an upside-down world.

 The Universe according to Greg:

• Print Analytics - Who Cares? We do, but do our clients?
• Ink vs. Toner - Who Cares? We do, but do our clients?
• Print is not dying - Ignorance is bliss.
• Managed (IT/Network) services is the future - Oh, really? Even the IT guys understand MS is short term - look up Software Defined Workspace.
• Print volumes have been going up - rearranging the deck chairs, nobody is creating new "clicks".

So what about all this?

Is it still the doom and gloom era? Not really. But no matter how many round tables, expert panels, sales classes, consulting services, or business transformations our industry attends or participates, we’re all simply talking to ourselves; alone in the dark. Until we stop looking at our prospects as ‘targets’ to be ‘trapped in an agreement’ or design ‘sticky’ marketing schemes and start ‘solving’ instead of ‘selling’ those who do survive, will wander the the abyss; shadows of the once might ‘copier industry’.

Which brings me to the Top 100 Summit. Will we usher in a new era? Will the sins of our past support positive change or drag us into the depths of irrelevance?

Big questions and unseen answers.

I suspect we’ll have a great time. I see us sharing new ideas and expressions of hope. Ultimately, what really matters, is how everyone feels 72 hours after the show; sinful and atoned or raptured ignorance.



Get more, here.