I'd like to introduce Mitch Filby as our guest blogger. I had the chance to catch up with Mitch at Itex 2019 in Las Vegas earlier this year. Mitch and I connected many years ago through this site and I've been asking if he would write a blog for us. Mitch is from Australia and is Managing Director of First Rock Consulting.

Enabling Innovation is both Old and New

Will divestment, organisational and structural splits, re-investment and a greater focus on core business help to save the office printing & document imaging industry?

Well let’s hope so.

However, this without a clear strategy and an effective execution will mean nothing.

As I say,” if nothing changes, nothing changes”.

The real key to success will not be simply a repacking of the old ways or a new sales and marketing message saying the world has changed and we are now different.

Unfortunately talk is cheap and in relation to the office printing industry it’s been getting cheaper by the decade and some would argue it’s happening yearly (oh what - did I hear some say weekly, daily? Lol!! – let’s just say it’s not tracking in the direction we want).

Nevertheless, many industry providers have adapted either through their own accord or have been forced to either through the need to support the manufacturers best interest or the realisation that their clients are not wetted to them like they used to be.

Fortunately, since around mid to late 2005-2009 the emergence of a new and more customer aligned approach has allowed agile and switched-on providers to develop a services model that supported a changing IT and business model and business engagement.

Today a Managed Print Services engagement addresses how services are bought, delivered and maintained across a customer’s environment. However, this services model is quickly advancing and the industry as-a-whole is hopefully adapting to the next wave of change that extends outside just the physical print aspects of managed print services.

The change of uncertainly requires innovation:

The world has certainly changed economically, technologically and politically over the last decade. The structural change economically and the acceleration and acceptance of a digital economy has changed the dynamics for both businesses and consumers around the world.

Due to the rapid change and increasing uncertainty, an ever-growing political shift has occurred. This ongoing undercurrent will continue to impact the office printing and document imaging industry if it does not embrace the opportunity to change and innovate.

So where does this innovation process start?

Well the answer is quite simple but disappointing at the same time.

Unfortunately, we have forgotten that one of our biggest assets has been the most under-utilised or written down in terms of how a business should and needs to engage.  As an industry, we have moved away from or devalued the one source that allowed the industry to be so, so effective in the late 80’s and 90’s. We have in fact commoditised our approach and engagement. We have thrown out the baby with the bath water.

We stopped, numbed and blunted our most trained professionals to simply follow the process of device (box) acquisition. The focus became too volume orientated, where it was far too simpler for leadership and management teams to purely account for numbers. This was the metric that drove business decisions.

This might be one lever of business, but you must drive business using a set of different (or coordinated multi-levers) to be ultimately successful and sadly this did not occur as effectively as it should have.

Overtime the industry lost its customer intimacy. One of the greatest strengths of the industry over the last three (3) odd decades was the sales engagement and our people we called “salespeople”.  To other industries a sales role was a job. To our industry, it was a profession, a career, you were a business person. We were schooled in understanding the challenges of running a business.

In fact, this industry was one of the most highly trained and experienced to understand the needs but more importantly the business problems our clients were having. We as an industry were the most tentative to the customer needs and requirements.

Constantly, customers were always intrigued with our professionalism around how we gained such an insight around our client’s business. Many clients in the late 80’s and 90’s wanted many of the providers and experts of the day to extend themselves outside print even then. We were the trusted advisors of yester-year.

Building Innovation Capability: The first step

One way to start or enable innovation in your business or the industry as-a-whole is to go back to basics and talk and engage with the client and it’s not about “what keeps you up late at night” type of question.

 Also, it’s critical not to try to find a solution to the clients perceived problems. This may sound strange and opposite to what many have been trained to do. However, there is a reason for my comments.

Over the last ten years I have been actively engaging and working with over five (500) hundred CXO’s across many different industries such a financial services, insurance, retail, manufacturing, health, media, telecoms – you name it, I’ve done it and this extends into government and non-for-profit as well.

The one key learning or insight that has been garnished from all these engagements is that most businesses fail around innovation or solution development because many of their ideas or problems that they think they have are still assumption.

Now this is not to say that they don’t understand the pain or opportunity they have in front of them. However, their problem or solution is 99.99% based on assumptions. Their problem is usually symptomatic of a larger problem that they have not had the clarity or a process to identify more clearly.

Everyone has been taught in the modern era – “if you have a problem, you should find a solution”. This has forced our thinking very quickly on the solution rather than testing the problem or the assumptions behind the problem.

I could go into more detail as I have developed a very sound and repeatable methodology to help end clients become more innovation.

But as always, the intent of these articles is not about self-promotion, but more about how this industry can transition. What could I do to support a wonderful industry that has the capability to evolve.

On that note – what I’d like for all to consider is how can your talent and your most valuable resource and asset help your business re-engage with your end clients around testing their assumptions on the client business problems.

Help them not to find solutions too quickly. Easier said than done – I know.

Customers can see it and smell it faster than you realise.

The key is to have a conversation and engage and work with the client to identify the symptomatic problem that over-hangs the real source of the customer problem.

Sure, this may take you away from the box sale – however as a business you must start to align yourself with your customer’s real problems. As I have learned “don’t define your business by the products or services you sell, but more the contribution and value you provide to your customer.

The key to any successful business has always been and always will be about how can you help and add value to your customers business. The innovation transition for our industry starts with the following strategy or at least one plank of your overall strategy – align your business to your customers business – in doing so, your value will expand your own business. They will provide you direction on how your business can be shaped.

The next challenge will be about how best to adapt your business at scale. However, if your customers are asking you to do this, then that’s a much safer, less risker process then going out there trying to build new services and products that client may not want.

The speed of change is happening at an accelerated rate; however, we still have to have a balanced view of how we manage both the old and the new. What hasn’t changed is that the most successful businesses have been built on a simple formula of have having the right talent, the right technologies that allow the right talent to do a great job and a great understanding of their customers business and the challenges and problems they are trying to solve or the problem that they don’t know they have.

Special thanx to Mitch for this. Here's a link to check out Mitch Filby on Linkedin

October 28th 2019

MSP & MSSP Industry Notes

Sponsored by

Arcoa Group

ARCOA has established itself as an industry leader in the recycling and processing of electronics scrap. Our management has over 30 years of experience in scrap and precious metals recycling. As an R2:2013, ISO 14001:2015 and OHSAS 18001:2007 certified electronics recycler, we can assure you that all of our material processing is done in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

Office1 Partners with Chaparral Business Machines, Inc to Expand Territory in California

• Office 1 based out of Las Vegas and is privately-owned provides IT services, copiers, printer, document imaging, cloud security and managed IT in Nevada and California
• Chaparral Business Machines located in Paso Robles, California area for 35 years. Offers Ricoh, Samsung MFPs, shredders and wide format plotters

IntraLAN business growth sees five new team additions

• InteraLAN business located in the United Kingdom for 25 years and provides IT services to UK clients
• Steven Smith Account Manager, previously worked at Vodafone
• Andrew Blanchard, previously Business Development Manager at AVI-SPL
• Martin Roskelly, previously from Novartis
• Mark Hurst with 23 years senior telecoms experience
• Andy Horn, CEO joined InterLAN earlier this year

AWS Managed Services Provider Logicata Offers Free AWS Migration

• Logicata based in London, England is and AWS managed service provider
• Offering free AWS cloud migration services for businesses
• Logicata offers full suite of AWS Managed services which include monitoring of AWS environments, cost optimization, patch management, incident management change management and continuous improvement

Axcient Introduces AutoVerify

• Axcient located in Denver, Colorado and offers cloud migration solutions for Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
• Key Benefits of AutoVerify include the following
  • Offers MSPs confidence in the integrity and recoverability of their backup system
  • Reduces the time spent manually fixing issues that might occur during a recovery fail over
  • Lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO) by automatically detecting, alerting, and fixing backup consistency issues
  • Allows for faster identification if there are any potential backup issues
  • Alerts from AutoVerify can sync directly with PSA and RMM technology tools, such as ConnectWise
• AutoVerfiy introduced in beat in August 2019

Client ransomware attacks up 37% in third quarter

• Beazley PLC (Beasley Breach Insights Report) reported a 37% increase in ransomware attacks against their clients over last year
• 24% were confirmed to be caused by a vendor managed service provider
• Chubb Ltd. Reported that ransomware attacks in the first half of this year exceeded total that was reported in 2018

Butcher Named CFO of Alaska Communications

• Alaska Communications provider for advanced broadband and managed IT services for client in Alaska
• Alaska Communications also operates statewide data network and undersea fiver optic system connecting Alaska with contiguous United States
• Names Laurie Butcher as CFO. Joined Alaska Communications in 1997 and previously served as Senior Vice President of Finance since October 2019

Blackpoint Cyber Announces its MSP Protect Program with Special Pricing for Managed Service ...

• Blackpoint Cyber headquartered in Elliot City Maryland
• Blackpoint Cyber established by US Department of Defense and Intelligence cyber security technology experts
• Launches MSP Protection program for MSPs
• In August of 2019 a ransomware attack hot 22 Texas local governments. City of Keene Mayor Gary Heinrich told NPR, "They got into our software provider, the guys who run our IT systems." The MSP of the affected governments later revealed that the hackers used its RMM to carry out the attack.

Konica Minolta hints at Aussie MSP acquisition

• KonicaMinolta has hinted it’s looking to acquire and Australian MSP as reported by ARN
• KonicaMinolta also has alliances with Sophos, Fortinet, Microsoft and HP

Edge Technology Group Announces Multi-Cloud Platform Designed Exclusively For Alternative ...

• Edge Technology located in Greenwich, Conn., offers fully-managed IT services, cloud solutions for financial firms worldwide
• “CloudSuite is an agile and holistic platform that brings together the best components of the Private and Public Cloud. Having the ability to offer both Private and Public Cloud solutions, enables us to offer a combination of both in a Hybrid Cloud, supporting industry trends and data
• that a Multi Cloud approach is becoming widely adopted as the new industry standard,” stated Tom Woollard, Managing Director, Head of Europe, at Edge Technology Group
• Edge has 8 locations across Asia Pacific, Europe and the US, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, London, New York, San Francisco, Austin and Greenwich, CT.

LucidLink Launches Global Managed Service Provider Program

• LucidLink located in San Francisco, California offers cloud-native file service, which was designed specifically for extensive data access over distance and to provide the performance needed to run file-based workloads on object storage for maximum efficiency and productivity. LucidLink Filespaces™ is compatible with any AWS S3 compatible storage provider that utilizes the cloud, on-prem, or hybrid storage
• Launches Global Managed Services Provider program
• Benefits to MSPs using Filespaces

Datto Hosts Its Largest European Conference to Date for Managed Service Providers

• Named DattoCon took placed in Paris, France on October 22, 2019
• Datto is a global provider of IT solutions delivered through MSPs
• DattoCon attracted more thant 850 MSP’s from 26 countries making this the largest DattoCon event in Europs
• According Canalys, there has been a 25% increase each year in SMB spend on managed services from IT providers between 2016-2018
• DattoCon announcements

New MFX Card Reader from Y Soft – Now with Plug and Play Ease

• T Soft founded in 2000, operates in 17 countries, has more than 20,000 clients in 120 countries and boasts 98% customer partner satisfaction rate
• Announces new YSoft USB Card Reader 3 MFX
• The MFX card reader simultaneously reads RFID cards that are both high and low frequency and uses HID technology commonly used in the U.S. and Mifare technology common in Europe and supports advanced security requirements.
• Founded in 2000, the company is headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic, with offices in North and Latin America, Europe and Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and the Asia Pacific region (APAC).

Crate.io Launches CrateDB Cloud on Azure

• Headquarter in San Francisco, California and io develops data management solutions that help companies put IoT and machine data to work.
• Launches CrateDB Cloud on Azure
• What it is
  • CrateDB is an open source distributed database offering the scalability and performance of NoSQL with the power and ease of standard SQL. The Crate.DB Cloud for Azure IoT is a turnkey data layer, offered as a hosted cloud service on Azure, enabling faster development of IoT platforms and data-driven smart factories
  • The CrateDB Cloud on Azure is ANSI SQL-compatible, making it easy to use and integrate with custom applications. Dynamic schemas and the sophisticated JSON handling (JavaScript Object Notation) make the database ideal for use even with especially heavy IIoT time-series data workloads

@Old Glory Posted this 15 years ago.

Brian Tracy says in The Effective Manager, that "change is accelerating." I believe that, do you? What does that mean to you? You know the old saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always have what you always had." I don't think that is true anymore. If you always do what you've always done, you will continually have less and less. If we are not consciously getting better, we are unconsciously getting worse. In our business, if you are not growing, you are being passed by more competent and better educated competition. 

Topic

User Code Management

jswinberlin · 10/29/049:49 PM

I've set up user code management for customers on their color machines in the past. But I have one question. In the operators manual it states: "To regiser the user code of the printer driver automatically, select PC Control: ON for the printer in User Code Management." - no problem, that is what I normally do. Then it goes on... "If you use the user code set in User Tools, select PC ControlFF and set the user code for each color. Set the user codes registered in User Tools for the printer

There's a really awesome topic from ten years ago titled "Is selling at cost the future for print hardware?". I went back and read it several times, and realized that 2009 was the start of the great recession. Somehow we survived, but recently I've heard some grumblings in the AEC industry and they are not good

Enjoy these awesome threads from ten years ago this week!

I had to go back and do some editing one of the blogs I wrote 5 years ago.  Seems my fat fingers and my racing mind leads me to many typo's and grammar errors. I do not profess to be a writer, but just a copier sales person that likes to write stories with an occasional opinion or two.  Here's the blog I touched up

5 Reasons WHY You Will Fail Selling Copiers

Enjoy these awesome threads from 5 years ago this week!

Member

croy.printman

If you're reading this blog series for the first time you'll notice one of these icons .

Clicking that icon will take you the collection of blogs that we've posted with our amazing industry veterans who were selling copiers in the seventies.  I believe its important that we not only post these blogs but to also have them archived for our industry.

Selling Copiers in the Seventies with Ed Mclaughlin

Ed Mclaughlin is Executive Advisor with NEXERA, A BEI Services Company. In addition Ed was also President of Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America. Please visit his profile on LinkedIn

How did you find your way into the copier industry? 

My path was an odd one for sure. After discharged from the Air Force in 1969, I became an accountant for Sperry Rand, UNIVAC international Division. I was also attending the evening Division of LaSalle University, working on a Degree in Business Administration. I did well at Sperry, but I was very interested in the diversity of the sales process. As opportunities came about, I was always passed over. Later I was told I was too valuable in my present position, and I thought well, it’s not what I want to do, so I started looking around.

What company or manufacturer did you start with, what was your title and what year did you start?

I didn’t want to work for just anyone and didn’t think about the copier industry. Still, I was attracted to the 3M Company. An opportunity developed, and I grab it. I had more than a few friends tell me I was crazy accepting the copier job. I wanted to be in sales, and I was miserable being pigeon-holed by my present employer, so off I went.

If you worked for a dealer please tell us what brands you sold and what was your favorite model top sell and why that was your favorite.

That was in November of 1971. 3M was a great company, very diversified, and I saw it as a tremendous opportunity to learn about many aspects of the business. The training they put into us was fantastic. Throughout my time there, I attended numerous training programs. We were exposed to an abundance of efficient business processes and the necessary skills that were a benefit not just in selling, but in business in general.  

What was the percentage of copier sales people that made it past two years and what made them last or not last so long?

I was hired with four other people at the time. Within six months, there were two of us still in the sales force. The truth is that the quick turnover scared me a bit. I was a young husband and father, and the thought of being out of work was, well, horrifying. It was also quite motivating, and I took the responsibility seriously. I decided I was never going to have a bad month. The work was hard, really, and a lot more physical than I had thought. We took our copier wherever we went, and they were heavy to move around. The ”209” copier was about 250 lbs. I had a city territory when I first started, and that meant steps getting in and out of buildings and not many elevators.

What did you like the most about your job in the eighties?

When I later got a more suburban area, I thought I died and went to heaven. I often thought about the rapid turnover and wondered why it was so extreme. I think there was a disillusionment to the whole idea of sales. Sure, you could make good money, but it was a lot more involved than you may be prepared to experience. Once I got promoted to account sales, the physical part got a lot easier.

What was the compensation plan like, was there a salary, what is just commissions or was there a mix of salary and commissions?

Compensation was a mix of a small base salary and commission. We also received a quarterly bonus based on our hardware number. There were two levels the first level was you received 1.5% of your supply sales in your territory. If you achieved the 2nd level, you received 3%. The payout could be excellent. Once promoted out of territory sales, it became more salary and bonus. We were responsible for growing the account and received quota and bonuses accordingly.

How did you go about finding new business, and what was your favorite of those methods and why?

The way we went about cold calling, freely walking around buildings, and just calling on people would get you arrested today.   What does carry over, though, is the need to understand where we are in the business process. The principle of “think on your feet” and “shut up and listen.”   The concept of seeing things through the eyes of the customer has stayed with me throughout my whole life. I not only have learned to apply it to business but life and family.

What was the first sales book that you read that and what did you take away from it?

As I came along in this business, I didn’t read “sales” books I read “business” books. 

What type of car did you use for your demonstrations and how many demonstrations would you perform in a week demonstration?

3M provided us with a station wagon; mine was a 1969 Nash Rambler station wagon with a broken rear door.

If you pulled out too fast, the force of the copier in the back on the rolling cart would push the door open. We were provided a harness to secure the beast in the back. I put a strap under the bumper. This way if the copier did push the door open the harness and the strap would keep it from completing the fall to the ground.

What is the biggest problem you seeing facing the industry today?

I look back on the early days with a mix of fondness and a little bit of “what the hell was I thinking.” I can honestly say I learned a great deal not just about selling but about business processes and, most of all, about people. It was an education if you wanted it to be.

The way we went about cold calling, freely walking around buildings, and just calling on people would get you arrested today.   What does carry over, though, is the need to understand where we are in the business process. The principle of “think on your feet” and “shut up and listen.”   The concept of seeing things through the eyes of the customer has stayed with me throughout my whole life. I not only have learned to apply it to business but life and family. 

Can you tell us a couple of funny story about selling copiers in the seventies?  

I remember one day when a particularly aggressive guy tailgating me over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge pulled up behind me at the toll gate within inches of my rear bumper became startled when as I pulled away from the toll booth, he right behind me, the door suddenly flipped open. The 250 LBS 3M “209” monster came screaming out of the back. It had an automatic document feed on it, and it hung just inched from the windshield of his beautiful new MGB sports car. I knew what the look of fear was that day. I jumped out, pushed the copier back in the car, jumped back in, and took off. The MGB took a few seconds to compose himself, and I noticed a safe distance between him and me as I traveled down the highway.    

What’s the one piece of knowledge that you’d like to share with new reps entering our industry today?

What would I say to those getting into the business today? Learn your trade, not just your technology but the technologies that impact your products.  More importantly, learn what these things mean to your customers and how they affect their performance. And above all, understand business in general.  You will always communicate more effectively if you have a similar vernacular and common ground. A good rule whatever you do.   Finally, be curious, I started my business career in 1969 I’m still learning today.

-=Good Selling=-

Note from Art:  Ed never knew you were in the service.  Thanks so much for your service in such a troubled time.