May 2021

There I was going back and forth with the client trying to figure a way to get the deal done for a couple of production devices.  Seems what ever I tried was not working. I even reached out to others in the Print4Pay Hotel community for help with how to get bring this deal home.  All of the suggestions were not working and then the client told me "I need to get this deal done so I can go rescue the cat!".  What, the cat wtf **** does that cat have to do with ordering the damn copier I thought?  You want to order the copier so you can rescue a cat I asked. The reply was "yes, let's get this done now".

I guess the cat, the copier and the rescue escapade didn't sit well with me and that's when I realized it was all a really vivid dream.  When I made my way downstairs this AM I told me wife about the dream and she stated, "there was something going on because I heard you talking in your sleep trying to cut a deal".

Well, I guess the cat is now out of the bag and this isn't the first time I've been accused of trying to cut a deal in my sleep.

Even those these are dreams there have been times when a dream helped me figure out a way to get an opportunity closed.  It was more about looking at something from a difference perspective and I guess the subconscious part of my brain figured it out for me.  Mind you it does not happen often and the dream I had last night was wild and will not help to close any working opportunities today.

On the other hand the part about reaching out to others within our community is something to take note.  Sometimes as sales people we think we're understanding the client needs and wants but something went missing during the sales cycle.  I guess the moral of the dream is if you think you need help then you do and should reach out to others for help.

Curious to know if anyone else has been accused of cutting deals in your sleep.  If so I think it would be great to hear some of those stories.

-=Good Selling=-

Sponsored by

May 22nd, 2021

Arcoa Group

Why partnering with ARCOA makes sense
Electronics Recycling is an important and profitable part of the IT asset lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming with all you already do, varying state regulations, and the limited resources at hand. That’s where ARCOA comes in. When you partner with ARCOA, you get all the benefits of a big company without any of the capital investment. We’ve been doing this since 1989 and have the expertise, certifications, and nationwide resources to get the most for all your clients’ retired IT assets. Plus, positioning your clients as environmental stewards not only elevates their appeal to consumers, it meets government requirements and avoids fines.

What partnering with ARCOA looks like
Our role is to make it easy for you to bring more value to your clients. We work with you to help stretch your clients’ IT budget by reducing the total cost of ownership of their electronics. We’re experts at identifying and implementing the solutions your clients need for the end-of-use remarketing, recovery, and recycling of their technology assets. The sooner you involve ARCOA, the sooner you and your clients will see better results.

The CIA to stop using fax machines

• The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency announced it will retire its secure fax machines that it was using to share secret information with its private contractors
• Will instead use new Gray Magic special encrypted email network

Lead for IT Asset Services in Missouri

• Follow this link https://oa.mo.gov/purchasing/b...ract-document-search

Ransomware Operational Costs

(Webroot claims of ransomware victims that 49% were unaware of the infection for more than 24 hours) reported on webroot

• 9% Less than one hour
• 43% less than 24 hours
• 43% less than 24 hours
• 28% 2-3 days
• 14% within a week
• 4% within one month
• 3% over a month

ABBYY solution company receives $$

• ABBYY, with US headquarters in Milpitas, CA, is provider of OCR, document capture
  and process automation solutions
• Announced it received a “significant investment” from Marlin Equity Partners of LosAngeles, CA

MSPAlliance Updates MSP/Cloud Verify Standard to Address Cybersecurity and MSP Assurance

• MSPAlliance® announced the newest release of its Unified Certification Standard (UCS) for Cloud & Managed Service Providers
• UCS v.21 adds more detail around existing Cybersecurity coverage within the standard, including further mapping to frameworks such as CMMC and ISO 27001
• Less than 3% of the MSPs worldwide possess an MSP Verify (or equivalent) certification or audit
• MSPAlliance® is a global industry association and accrediting body for the Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, and Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry

20 jobs forecast following merger at city firm Intuity Technologies

• Reported on Galway Bay fm
• 20 new jobs are forecast to be created at Ballybrit firm Intuity Technologies
• merger between Intuity Technologies and Roscommon firm myITdepartment

Lead for IT Services in Illinois

• $75K opportunity
• Click link for info http://apps.mwrd.org/ContractA...ails?contractID=2232

IDC predicted that four hundred billion fewer pages would be printed in 2020

• Demand for managed print services has fallen sharply during the Covid pandemic
• estimations came after IDC predicted that four hundred billion fewer pages would be printed in 2020 than previous years - the equivalent of seven football fields-worth of paged every minute
• Maruggi told CRN that, while there's a lot of speculation about how badly the print sector will be hit in the aftermath of the pandemic, Apogee is working with the assumption that it will lose around 15 to 20 per cent of normal print levels post-Covid

ATCO Australia Pivots to the Cloud with OpenText

• OpenText™, announced ATCO Australia has moved their information management solutions to the OpenText™ Cloud
• ATCO Australia is an energy company responsible for developing, building, owning and operating energy infrastructure assets
• "With OpenText Cloud Managed Services, we no longer have to maintain infrastructure or worry about upgrades and patches," said Chris Marshall, General Manager IT at ATCO Australia
• OpenText, The Information Company™, enables organizations to gain insight through market leading information management solutions, powered by OpenText Cloud Editions

TPx Awarded Most Promising in SMB Cybersecurity in the Coveted Global InfoSec Awards at RSA 2021

• TPx, announced it was recognized with the Most Promising in SMB Cybersecurity award from Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM)
• To see the full list of winners, visit http://www.cyberdefenseawards.com/
• TPx is a managed services provider focused on the success of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with approximately 25,000 customers in more than 50,000 locations across the U.S

ReachOut Technology Remains Bullish on Infrastructure and Cybersecurity; Seeks to Acquire 75 ...

• According to Pew Research, 64 percent of Americans have an online account involving health, financial or other sensitive data and nearly two-thirds of those have experienced some form of data theft
• roughly half (49%) of all Americans feel their personal information is less secure than it was five years ago
• a full 70% of Americans expect that the U.S. will experience a significant cyberattack on its public infrastructure in the next five years.¹
• In recent years, ReachOut Technology has quietly been acquiring local Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and private security companies across the U.S.
• Founder and CEO Rick Jordan has committed to a goal of actively acquiring 75 in the next 24 months. J

Toshiba Tec is hacked with ransomware

• A Toshiba Corp. unit said it was hacked by the DarkSide ransomware group
• Toshiba Tec, which makes products such as printer/MFPs and is valued at $2.3 billion, was hacked by DarkSide
• Claims “that only a minimal amount of work data had been lost”
• "There are around 30 groups within DarkSide that are attempting to hack companies all the time, and they succeeded this time with Toshiba," said Takashi Yoshikawa, a senior malware analyst at Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions

Ricoh Canada's Document Processing Services Chooses ancora Software to Enhance their ...

• ancora Software, Inc., announced that Ricoh Canada's Document Processing Services has signed an agreement to use ancora's flagship product ancoraDocs to enhance their Intelligent Capture ServicesA
• ancoraDocs is available either on premise or as a true multi-tenant cloud service hosted by ancora on Microsoft Azure
• "We are really happy to sign an agreement with Ricoh Canada's Document Processing Services group," said Noel Flynn, CEO at ancora

WBM Technologies Wins HP's North American Smart Device Services Award for Predictive Analytics in Print

• WBM Technologies (WBM) was named HP's top partner in North America in the area of Smart Device Services

• award acknowledges WBM's innovative and proactive use of remote monitoring technologies and predictive analytics

HP rehires Christian Slater for security push

In past, company ran video ads featuring actor Christian Slater as a hacker named “The Wolf” who access company data by hacking into printers and MFPs

• Has brought him back for new set of ads to promote new HP Wolf Security solutions
• New focus on potential security vulnerabilities from remote workers using devices at home
• New report published with results of latest survey:
• • 45% of IT decision makers say they have seen evidence in their company of compromised printers being used as an attack point in past year
  • 86% have concerns around the security of their home printers
  • 1.5 attacks per minute on endpoints connected to Internet, including
    printers and MFPs
  • 91% plan on making endpoint security just as important as network security
• HP Wolf Security solution offers:
  • Self-healing firmware
  • In-memory breach detection
  • Threat containment via virtualization
    • • Cloud-based intelligence
      • Remote recovery from firmware attacks
      • Threat data collection
      • Alerts
      • Next-gen anti-virus
    • Is offering online training and resources for dealers to sell new solution
    • Is planning a series of virtual “road shows” for dealers and their customers

HP sells printer/MFP plant to Sharp’s parent

Business Korea magazine reported that HP Inc has sold a laser printer/MFP
manufacturing plant in Weihai, China

• The buyers is Foxconn, aka Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan, which is the owner of Sharp
• In 2017, HP bought the printer/MFP plant from Samsung for $1.05 billion
• The Shandong plant will continue to supply HP with LaserJet branded product
• (unknown if plant will also be used to make Sharp-branded product, or how this will impact HP’s other supplier, Canon)

CGI to continue modernization of Department of Interior's mission-critical National Trust Information ...

• CGI announced an award from the Department of Interior's (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for continued enhancement of its Trust Asset Accounting Management System (TAAMS)
• BIA leverages TAAMS to administer and manage natural resources on 55 million surface acres and 57 million acres of subsurface minerals estates held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives

Bell Techlogix earns spot on CRN® Tech Elite 250 and MSP 500 lists for second consecutive year

• Bell Techlogix, announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named the company to its annual Tech Elite 250 , Security 100 and MSP 500 lists for the second consecutive year
• The Tech Elite 250 list is comprised of solution providers in the U.S. and Canada who have the highest level and most certifications from Amazon, Cisco, Dell, HPE and VMware
• Fifth year Bell Techlogix has been named to the Tech Elite 250. The Managed Security 100 spotlights MSPs with cloud-based security services expertise.

NetDocuments Cloud Platform Records Unprecedented Q1 2021 Growth

• announced unprecedented growth in Q1 2021 (1Q21), continuing its record setting sales momentum
• 1Q21 was a record first quarter for new customer acquisition representing 27% growth over the previous largest Q1, and the biggest non-Q4 quarter on record
• Company continued its record growth within the small-medium law firm segment, recording 84+% growth, and a record 1st quarter 2021 in new corporate legal accounts, representing a 163% increase compared to Q120

Cybersecurity Update

• Colonial Pipeline Company, headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, was hit by
  ransomware and forced to shut down its fuel pipeline operation that spans 5,500 miles from Houston, TX to Linden, NJ. This may cause a further spike in gasoline cost.
• Judge Eldon E. Fallon sentenced Edward Tolliver of New Orleans, LA to 124 months in federal prison for making and selling fake credit cards using stolen identities he acquired from Dark Web sites.
• SmileDirectClub, headquartered in Nashville, TN, notified an unknown number of patients their PHI may have been exposed after “systems outage”
• Owners of Tesla beware! Two researchers are warning that a hacker can use a specially equipped drone to remotely hack into and take control of the Tesla car, using the TBONE exploitation.
• The federal Department of Health & Human Services’ Office For Civil Rights reported:
• • March there were 1,116,997 patients that had their PHI exposed due to breaches
  • April has 2,121,186 patients impacted
• Flashpoint is reporting that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is behind ransomware campaign using a hacking group called Emen Net Pasargard.
• The Rochester Community Technical College of Minnesota notified 5,392 students that their info was exposed after cyber security incident.
• Check Point Research is warning that billions of Android-based mobile devices are exposed due to a security vulnerability in Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem chips
• Dell Computer announced it has patched flaws in vulnerable firmware that shipped in millions of laptops, tablets and desktop PCs since 2009.
• Peloton Corp., headquartered in New York City, NY, is notifying millions of customers of its Peloton fitness equipment that their info may have been exposed due to newly discovered vulnerability.
• Aprima suffered outages of its cloud-based EHRs due to ransomware attack on MednetwoRX data center in Dallas, TX.
• Lourdes Hospital of Binghamton, NY notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after its CaptureRX pharmacy claims processing solution was hacked.
• West Penn Hospital of Pennsylvania announced that former employee, Guy Caley, was convicted of 44 felony and 45 misdemeanor counts for illegal actions which exposed the identities of patients.
• Mandiant Threat Intelligence is reporting of new security vulnerabilities found in Intel and AMD computer processor chips, that bypass fixes that companies issued to correct the past Spectre and Meltdown hacking attacks.
• Wolfe Eye Clinics of Iowa notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed due to cyber attack.
• SEIU 775 Benefits Group of Washington notified 140,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after cyber attack.
• Nexelis Group, headquartered in Seattle, WA, notified an unknown number of patients of Pacific Biomarkers that their PHI was exposed after malware attack.
• Medtronic, with US headquarters in Minnesota, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after cybersecurity incident.
• Rx Pharmacies, headquartered in Tri-Cities area of Washington, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.
• Truesec Security Consulting is reporting that the Russian government is backing Evil Corp., a cybercrime organization.
• The US State Department has fined Honeywell Corp., headquartered in Charlotte, NC, after some of its employees allegedly leaked plans for the F35 and F22 Raptor and other aircraft designs to the Chinese government.
• Health Aid, headquartered in Parma, OH, notified 140,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after cybersecurity incident.
• Scripps Health of San Diego, CA notified an unknown numbers of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after a ransomware attack.
• Midwest Transplant Network, headquartered in Westwood, KS, notified 17,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Gifford Health Care of Vermont notified an unknown number of patients that their PHImmay have been exposed after a cybersecurity incident.
• Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare of Utica, NY notified 17,655 patients that their PHI may have been exposed after cybersecurity incident.
• Orthopedic Associates of Dutchess County in New York notified 330,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after cybersecurity incident.
• BakerHostetler published ransomware report:
• • Average initial ransomware demand is now $4,583,000
  • In healthcare, average ransomware payout is $910,335
  • Average forensic investigation cost = $58,963
  • HIPAA fines range from $100,000 to $6.85 million

• The Alaska Court System was forced offline after cybersecurity incident.
• Netskope Security is warning that ransomware could be inserted into a network by usingnmalicious Microsoft Office files. The malware could be embedded in MS Excel, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, etc.

You've heard it from me over and over and that's as long as you work hard and put in the effort good things will happen. Now they may not happen on your timeline however in the long run the work and the effort will pay off.

It was about three years ago when I started posting IT, MSP, MSSP and Document Management press releases on this site.  Over those years the news from those press releases and the verbiage used in them has slowly helped me to better understanding of the IT world.  When you couple that with the awesome training that Stratix offers on a weekly basis it became clear to me that sooner rather than later I would have my first managed IT client.

Today I received my first managed IT order for 10 users from an existing account and while it's not a medium nor huge client,  it's a start.  Sometimes it's more about ability to knock one down to build the confidence and then the other domino's can fall in to place.

Did I have help?  You bet your sweet butt I did and I couldn't have done it with out the members of our IT team. 

The Future

While I'm a little late to the game I can see the pay-off for younger rep because of the monthly residual for each client acquired. While the sales of copiers only pay you once every three or five years the managed IT is a gift that keeps on giving each and every month for as long as you have the relationship with your client.  I have two clients that I have a forty year relationship for copiers, and then another 15-25 for thirty years and I can only guess at the rest.  Imagine selling managed IT services for forty years and the residuals?  Now I'm thinking I was born thirty years to early!

After Memorial Day I have second appointment with a much larger company to see if we can finalize a proposal we introduced about four weeks ago.  At this time I think we have a good shot winning and that's because of the vision, the team and the IT stack that we bring to the table. 

I'm not giving up at selling copiers because there is still quite a bit of demand but you can bet the ranch that I'll be telling more clients stories about IT news that I've read.  The Columbo in me comes out with that last question before I leave, hey did you happen to hear about XYZ company that........which means a new conversation starts

-=Good Selling=-

The Week in Copiers Ten Years Ago

Last Week of May 2011

Tomorrow is the last day of the month for me in May.  I have one small order to book, however that still leaves me $7K short of my monthly quota. I still have two $60K opps out there however one has been in the weeds for three weeks and the other opp is in the weeds for a week.  Both will get calls and emails, and after 41 years of doing this I still can't fathom why and existing client or net new won't give you the courtesy of an email or a phone call.

Enjoy these awesome threads from 10 years ago this week

COVID19 Remote Working at Three Hundred Days of Selling Copiers

It's been eight days since my last blog and tomorrow marks three hundred business days of working remote since March of 2020.

Jersey is just about wide open at this point however we are the only state in the continental US that still has a mask mandate and social distancing for indoor activities.  The only other state with mask mandate is Hawaii.

May

May has been kind of up and down and with three days left in the month I may end $5 or $6k short of my monthly quota.  A good thing is that there's still more than 10% of the month left.

The month has been somewhat frustrating since one large existing account has decided the get lost in the weeds for the last three weeks.  Emails, calls and nothing seems to get them to poke their head out for a chat.  Patience.....I keep telling myself that because sooner or later something will happen.  One of the good things that came from this week is that another existing account that went into the weeds for four months made an appearance and I was told they need asap 5-7 A3 color MFPs.  That's a nice one. We'll see if this can come to fruition before the month closes on Monday the 24th.  So far crickets for the last 24 hours.

Now if just if I could get both of those well that would be a nice way to end a so so month.

300

The past three hundred days have been a long long journey during COVID19.  I know the blogs have tailed off as of late and I guess the reason for that is two fold.  One it's almost summer time again and I do love my summers and the other is because with the transitioning to a post COVID19 era, I've been more active with in person meetings.  In addition I've actually populated the NJ office for a couple of days in the last two weeks.

I couldn't have done this without many of you.  The zoom chats, the phone calls and the emails helped me make it through one of the toughest times our industry has ever faced.  It will be interesting to see the changes now that we're in a post COVID recovery and I'm sure I'll have something to write about the changes that I'm seeing in the field.

Special Thanx

I guess the first person I need to thank is my dealer principal, he's the one didn't cut staff and believed in his people. To him I owe a heartfelt thank you because if I had been furloughed who knows what the next step would have been.  Next is my VP of Sales, he has that no quit mentality like me and helped me believe that if you have faith you can accomplish anything.  Guess what?  We accomplished EVERYTHING!

Greg Walters our early zoom meetings were the bomb and I know we both helped each other and others as well. John Anderson, what can I say I love John like a brother and our consistent chats kept the juices flowing.  Larry Kirsch, the old veteran that knows more than me and I'm still learning from him.  Dayna Karron, what can I say but I wish I could be more like her. We had an early Zoom call in early April about the use of Linkedin and what I learned (can you believe I'm still learning) helped so much. Chris Pierson, was the only guy I could chat with that understood what it was like in Jersey for the past 300 days.  Gonna miss Chris because he's transitioned out of the industry.

Eddie Jones, Jason Habbal, Monte Jensen, Deon Beshoff, Joe Escamillia, Frank Vasquez and everyone else that attending our early zoom calls was amazing.  Having the ability to talk about our markets and what's working or not working was key!

Martin Hoffman (Copier Store), Chris Polek (Polek & Polek), Brent Martin (Arlington), Brett Apold (Arcoa) our calls and zoom chats helped me to understand what was happening with our vendors.  Funny story with Chris it was in mid February that we did a chat about COVID19  in China and how that might affect our supply chain.  It's 300 business days later and there are still major supply chain issues!  Guess Chris and I knew something but never thought it would be this bad.

To my wife, one amazing women that puts up with my crazy ideas, my workaholic attitude and ADD, Could not have gotten through this without you dear.

The End

At 300 business days I'm calling this blog series a wrap.  I can only hope that I've helped someone along the way and if I did it makes all 300 days something very special.

-=Good Selling=-

It's been almost two years since I wrote my last blog on finding a full brother alive and well living in Arizona.  If you're not familiar with the blog it's about my fraternal twin and I being adopted back in the summer of 1960.  We were a tad over three years old and to this day I remember the ride we took down the NJ Turnpike to meet our new parents.  We always knew we were adopted and that lead to some issues especially with me as I got older.

Fast forward to two and a half years ago when I received the results of my DNA and was notified that I have a full brother living in Arizona.  Yes, we connected and yes me met in Vegas two years ago this week.  We look more alike than my fraternal twin and I did.

The Saga Continues

In the last two years I've been able to connect with two half sisters to learn more about my birth parents or at lease my birth fathers side of the family.  Both are up there in age and both are sweethearts for allowing me to test and pry their memory banks.  I received a shocker that one day last summer when speaking to one of the sisters. My birth father had eight children with his wife and then my birth mother had 3 children with her husband.  My birth mothers husband had left her after WW2. Some where in Bergen County, NJ my birth mother and father met and I believed they had three children (Peter full bro in Arizona and me and my twin). So between half brother/sisters and full siblings there was 14 of us.  The shocker was that my birth mother and birth father produced 6 children and not the three I was led to believe.  By my count that makes 17 of us!  To date I've not been able to track down the other three siblings and one of the reasons is that they probably never took a DNA test. In addition my twin and I were the youngest. My birth fathers age when I was born was 47!  Well at least he was a player.

Just This Week

Every now and then I get some "hints" sent to me from Ancestry.com. I'll open the email and see if it's something new or just some of the same old hints that have been coming across for years now.  There was a new name that I was not aware of so I logged into Ancestry.  That new name didn't go anywhere but there was a PM from someone. Okay, let's check it out because just maybe it's a hit from a full sibling. The PM was from a women in NY and stated that I was showing up as a 1st cousin with a 15% DNA hit.  Sometimes with Ancestry a DNA hit like that could also mean a full sibling thus I was willing to check it our further.  Stuff just started to click, this person was adopted out two days after birth and not the legit way but given to another family. The year was 1963 and the location of the birth was in North Jersey which is right in line with my birth family.

DNA Does Not Lie

Okay, 15% DNA hit, North Jersey birth, adopted out not the legit way and all of this was adding up that this could be a close family member.  Of course I reached out to her and she shared with me that she knew and had met her birth mother. She gave me her full name and maiden name and both of those names were names I was not familiar with birth family circle.  Right, back to the DNA, I then asked her who else she share DNA with and then the names fell into place.  One was my full brother and one was a nephew of mine that were on Ancestry. So it had to be from my birth fathers side of the family and yea that was probably the right conclusion from the start, however take it from one who knows birth certifications from that era can have false information.

All She Wanted Was...

Like me many years ago all I wanted was to find some type of connection in the world.  Who came before me, how did I get here, where were we from and who were my birth parents.  It was more like needing closure to to along standing puzzle that couldn't be finished because you didn't have all of the pieces.  Today I was one of those pieces that could help her put a name and a face of her birth father.

I felt on top of the world today because I thought I had the contacts that could help her figure out who her father was.  For me it was a choice of two people my father (the man about town) or one of his sons.  There were only two sons and one was killed in a car accident in 57 and that only left the one son.

I called my "go to" nephew in PA and we chatted about the names and threw around some scenario's an in the end he need to reach out to his Aunt/my half sister to she what she remembered.

By the End of the Day

Turns out that my half brother had a short marriage back int the early sixties and was then involved with another woman who turns out to be the mother of the person who contacted me.  I was told that my half brother and her had a baby although he wasn't around anymore because he decided to change teams if you get my drift.  That baby was her! My half brother also passed away back in 1990.

End result is the person that contact me is my niece and I'm her uncle.  She was  elated that after all of this time she finally had solved the puzzle of who her father was. I felt awesome that I could help this stranger that turned out to be family in finding that last piece of the puzzle. Thus the reason I just had to write this tonight.

Adoption

As with many adoptions it's more about be careful of what you wish for. In most cases adoptions back in that day (at least in northern NJ) were from unwed mothers that were Catholic and since they were Catholic those mothers carried the babies to term and many made local arrangements for the adoptions.

In closing I'm never been so thankful for the faith that people put on lives in the Catholic Church for born and unborn.

Art