It Sure Is Quiet Out There! It almost seems as though the Imaging Channel has no hardship. It appears that everything is just fine. Who could have ever imagined that some of the mighty could fail? Who could have ever imagined that Private Equity would evacuate ahead of schedule? Who could have ever imagined that the glory of Managed Print Services would not be so glorious after all?

Just because things are quiet doesn't mean all is good. As the weather teaches us, there is the calm before the storm, and the storm is on the horizon. Over the next year as realities set in. The Imaging Channel will witness causes which hopefully will alarm its complacency. I am pretty sure most of the channel's leaders are logical and realize the feeding frenzy on the bull market of buying growth in a declining deliverable had to come to bear sooner than later.

Soon the need for scrutiny to the realities of the market will reach the ears, the minds and the hearts of Private Equity, venture capital, and yes even the independent dealer's banker. I recently went back and read some articles regarding the reasons why Private Equity decided to invest in a declining market. It seems a few bought into the hype of the expected growth of Managed Print Services. As these investors are now discovering every printer in the world will continue to print less. So, regardless of the number of devices the devices out-put will, in fact, continue declining.

Will more Private Equity look to exit ahead of schedule?  

As Private Equity exits the value for those remaining will continue falling and of course, the more evacuating at the same time, the faster the falling of value. Private Equity really needs to evaluate what its end game is. I believe five or six years ago things were less clarified then they are today. Those grand visions of an industry as presented in 2015 of what 2020 would be. Are not aligning as thought and the realities of the actual market are now concerning Private Equity, and many of the industry's actors.

Who will buy from Private Equity? It seems that most of the Private Equity roll-ups are intending to sell to another Private Equity Firm. Will manufactures buy these roll-ups? As Ricoh clearly showed they have no intention of buying dealer distribution. Our friends at Sharp are currently buying dealers they obviously know a strategy Ricoh missed. Xerox is cleaning up their distribution, I don't see Xerox buying more distribution outside of something very strategic. Oh, HP well, they will more than likely buy Xerox not a dealer roll-up. Maybe it's a DEX Imaging strategy in their sale to Staples Private Equity hopes for.

So, this game of Private Equity musical chairs could prove fatal. As we are all currently witnessing, a couple of organizations in the industry struggling to sell and buried in debt. Their outcomes could be a pretty good barometer of what the future might bear. 

Somewhat troublesome is when we listen to some of the visions of today describing 2025, they still see more of the same. My friends, the industry must replace their memories with their imaginations as they look toward the future. The industry must have the ability to think and respond to how the market realities are affecting the current circumstances of the print equipment and services deliverable. Those who can do this will, prosper. 

The struggle will be building a sales engine which aligns with the realities of the value propositions of its customers. Today there is a massive percentage of customers whom I believe are misunderstood and out of alignment with today's sales strategies; strategies which, for the most part, have not changed in decades. The Imaging Channel must modernize its approach to the market. Since the industry's birth, they continue to sell, communicate, and service for the most part as they always have. All while the customers they sell, communicate to, and service have changed and in some cases drastically in their appreciation of the print equipment and services deliverable.

As the world prints, less the resellers must diversify, and if not, they must without a doubt have a plan to cut cost dramatically and deliver equipment and its services through an innovative approach. The industry must take the A4 opportunities seriously and develop a strategic A4 deliverable. The industry must respond to the data and stop insisting that their past can continue uninterrupted. The obsessions of A3 over the realities of A4 will be costly to those unresponsive to this shift in equipment realities. 

It's time to shift shift the thinking and align with realities 

Is it now time for the industry to stop getting in debt to buy growth which is declining? Yes, Instead, the industry should invest in the ability to deliver and service in a disruptive means. Invest in leadership executives from outside the industry who can inject unbiased innovation, invest in e-commerce, and updated technologies more in line with today's commerce realities. Many in the Imaging Channel are still using ERP systems-built decades ago which are useless to innovation, and many are not using data to clearly define the facts of not only their external customers their internal customers as well. 

My friends' none of this will be easy. However, if the industry works together and works toward progress, all things possible become probable. No industry or its leaders want to face the wrath of progress. Instead, they strive to be the wrath of progress to those competitors who ignored market realities or misinterpreted the silence in the storm.  

 One thing we all know is this.

 "Status Quo is the killer of all that will be invented."

Ray Stasieczko, Send an invite if you wish to connect also I welcome you to subscribe to my YouTube Channel here's the link. https://www.youtube.com/channe...A?view_as=subscriber

Sorry for be late with these. Up half the night, figured I would do an auto post in the AM.

Enjoy these awesome threads from ten years ago this week!

MSP & MSSP Industry Notes

September 7th 2019

Spectrotel awarded 2019 Visionary Spotlight Award for Managed Services

• Spectrotel based in Neptune, NJ provides national integrated solutions and managed services for enterprise businesses
• ChannelVision Magazine awarded Spectrotel
• Ross Artale, President & COO, “We are honored to be recognized by ChannelVision for offering one of the most comprehensive end-to-end soluitions”.

Red River Acquires CWPS

• Red River located in Claremont, N.H. technology transformation company
• CWPS located in Washington, D.C., specializes in managed services network, collaboration, data center, cloud management and security
• Rick Bolduc, CEO and Chairman with Red River, “The need for managed services platforms that can scale to meet the dynamic requirements of government, military and commercial organization is high.

eQuorum Announces Release of ImageSite 10.3

• Based in Atlanta, Georgia, eQuorum is the developer of the ImageSite suite of products, including Engine-Box.com cloud solution, an enterprise-wide workflow and content management software with departmental level pricing
• Major new features in Version 10.3 of ImageSite
• ImageSite is flagship workflow and document management solution
• ImageSite geared towards manufacturing, architects, engineers, utilities, universities and government

DataBank Enhances Data Protection Services with Turn-key Disaster Recovery as a Service Offering

• DataBank located Dallas, Texas. Provider of enterprise-class data center, connectivity and managed services
• Announces enhancements of its data protection services and the addition of Disaster Recover as a Service (DRaaS)
• DRaaS allow workloads, applications and systems to be recovered in minutes rather than hours or days

Docupace Now Integrates with RIA in a Box's MyRIACompliance Software to Offer Single Sign-On

• Docupace headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Technology provider for wealth management firms
• RIA in a Bx LLC, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Provider of compliance software for the ealth management software
• The Docupace storage add-on, advisors using MyRIACompliance can upload sensitive client documents to a secure cloud that is SEC-compliant.
• "Secure, digital storage of sensitive documents and information is paramount and one of the highest priority issues facing many advisors today," said Richard Thoeny, VP of Product Management for Docupace.

CloudJumper Appoints IT Leader & Enterprise Architect Richard Helms as Director of Managed Workspaces

• CloudJumper located in Garner, North Carolina
• Provides software and services in the Cloud Workspace and RDS enablement markets
• Announces appointment of Richard Helms to Director of Managed Workspaces
• Before CloudJumper Richard served as Data Center Operation for Attain, LLC
• “The global virtual desktop market is touted to touch USD $5 billion at a notable 9% CAGR over the predicted years through 2022,” noted a 2019 report by Market Research Future (MRFR)

RDX announces new CEO, other executives

• RDX based in Pittsburgh, PA provides IT infrastructure, cloud and database administration managed services
• Mark Clayman appointed to CEO
• Mark Clayman former President and CEO of TriCore Solutions
• Gina Murphy appointed to President and COO
• Murphy levels up form former position of Senior Vice President and General Manager of Rackspace
• Art Green appointed to Chief Financial Officers also formerly with TriCore

Martello Partner and Early Adopter 4Sight Communications Improves Remote Fix Rate with Mitel Performance Analytics

• Martello Technologies based headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with offices in Montreal, Paris, Amsterdam, Dallas and New York. Provide complex IT infrastructures
• 4Sight Communications provides business telecommunications and managed services for public sector and private businesses in the United Kingdom
• Announced 4Sight Communications, a Mitel Gold Solutions Partner in the United Kingdom says it has improved its remote fix rate to 98% after standardizing on Mitel Performance Analytics (MPA).
• 4Sight began working with Martello in 2013, recognizing the importance of proactively monitoring and managing Mitel communications platforms, and today more than 800 devices are under management by Mitel Performance Analytics

Tequity Inc.'s Client, intellinet Technologies Inc., Has Been Acquired by Coreio Inc.

• intelliNet provides computer, network products and professional technical & managed services to many innovative and institutions in Canada
• Coreio based in Toronto, Canada offers IT services, infrastructure and operation solutions for enterprise-scale companies across North America
• Tequity is an M&A advisory firm with core expertise in Enterprise Software and IT Services companies. Strategic mergers, exits, and carve-outs for technology companies are our exclusive focus.
• "The acquisition of intelliNet Technologies enables Coreio to enhance our Managed Services offering and expand our reach to smaller enterprise and corporate clients, which is an extremely exciting development for us" said David Naiman, President and CEO of Coreio.

Options Announces New Cloud Connectivity Services With Equinix Cloud Exchange (ECX) Fabric™

• Options technology provides cloud-enablement managed services for the global financial services sector
• New services will combine Options’ hybrid cloud offering with Equinix Cloud Exchange (ECX) Fabric
• Provides businesses with one streamlined and secure platform to quickly deploy hybrid digital infrastructure anywhere in the world.
• “We are excited to welcome Options to the growing number of cloud service providers who have joined the Equinix Cloud Exchange.” Stated John Knuff, Vice President, Financial Ecosystems, Equinix

Versiant Designated Among Top Third of World's Premier Managed Services Providers in 2019 Channel Futures MSP 501 List

• From Charlotte, North Carolina, Versiant is an international provider of managed, professional, software and support services for enterprise IT infrastructure
• "The 2019 MSP 501 winners are the most elite, innovative and strategic IT service providers on the planet, and they stand as a model of excellence in the industry," says Kris Blackmon, Content Director of Channel Partners and Channel Futures

CGI Acquires Sunflower Systems - Leading Provider of Asset Management and Services

• Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world.
• CGI provides end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions.
• Annams Systems Corporation d/b/a Sunflower Systems, a leading provider of asset management software solutions and services, based in San Ramon, California with offices in Arlington, Virginia.

see attached pdf format

Wow, what a week?  A couple of weeks ago I realized my funnel was sucking wind for September.  With August ending on the 23rd by the time Labor Day was finished I'm already 28% into my month. In addition this coming Monday I have a charity golf event then Thursday and Friday of this coming I'll be in the Big Apple for the BTA East event.

What's a sales guy to do?  One is to prospect your ass off and the other is to try and make up some days. Thus everyday this week I was in the office by 6:15AM. Today was the banner day, I didn't close any deals this week but I was able to add $40K to my funnel for September. It did lift my spirits since I'm now halfway through the month. Monday morning back up and working by 6AM, I can get another 4 hours of prospecting in before I need to leave.

Enjoy these awesome threads from 5 years ago this week!

In between appointments today I had made a short list of three net new suspects that I wanted to cold call.  All three of those cold calls turned up a fat ZERO. I'm okay with that because I'll be following up in the near future with phone call and email.  Sooner or later I'll get an appointment but hoping it doesn't take 10 or more years like some of the ones I've had. At my age 10 years is not going to cut it.

In Between Drives

About mid-day I pulled into a park so that I could check my emails and voice messages. No big news in the email and there was one voice message from a friend of mine that worked in marketing a few years back.  Thus, I made the call and left Chris a message.  A few hours later Chris was able to call me back and we got caught up on what we've been doing for the past year in our personal and business lives.

I was delighted to hear that Chris had hooked up with a office equipment dealer in the mid-south.  Thought that was awesome and I later found out that he took a job offer in sales. Which led me to ask how things are working out for him. Chris told me he closed a decent size deal for multiple units for about $40K with an existing account, has about 100 existing accounts and a **** load of net news .  As I thought we were getting close to the end of the call, Chris stated that he wanted to ask me a few questions related to prospecting.  Chris stated that he's been having a hard time with getting appointments and conversations going with net new clients.

Prospecting Cold Call Dials

I was in full agreement to help,  however I had many questions for him before I could help. I'll bullet out those questions for us.

• How many cold calls are you doing per week?  The answer I got was 100
• How many of those are walk in cold calls? Answer was 20

This meant that our new rep that was making 80 dials a week. Ah, right, been doing this long enough to know that fudging is common practice.  I told him 16 calls a day is not going to cut, even with the walk in cold calls.  I told him he sucks at prospecting and he needs to be making at least 60 calls every day. Anything less and you're going to wash out. With only having 100 existing accounts there is plenty of time.

Prospecting Cold Calls Walk-ins

We know that Chris is doing around 20 cold calls a week which is not that bad. But when we you only have 100 existing accounts, dude you need to step up your game! 

• How do you cold call walk-ins? Answer was that when he picks a company to cold call he will cold call additional companies in that area. 

Okay I thought, not so bad, however you should plan your cold calls. What I mean by that is to comb your CRM and look for accounts that you haven't been able to get through to yet. Pick 25 of those accounts and make sure they are "paper intensive" type of accounts.  Look to your verticals of Healthcare, AEC, Law and pick other one, just make sure they are accounts that could result in multiple placements.  Don't ever willy nilly walk-in cold calls because you are wasting valuable time.  In addition your only goal is to get the name of the decision maker and scope the place out.

Tip: Don't add new suspects to the CRM when you haven't defined the suspects in your CRM (if you see one or two accounts that you'd like to break into that's fine).

Personally, before I ever speak to the Decision Maker or Person in Charge I want to do the research on the company.   What they do to make money, how many employees, the more you know the better.  Facebook, Linkedin, Manta, and Google are my favorite sources. Next you want to do the research on the DM. Who they are connected to, where they worked, their existing and previous position and if you can find it what they like or care about.

In the next installment I'll tell you what we spoke about with the following titles

The Pitch,  Work Ethic,  Prime Time,  The Email,  Breaking the Bank

-=Good Selling=-

Well, I guess if you believe you are great, what does it matter what others think?

My friends in business, the belief of your greatness matters a lot. Especially if it's out of alignment with market realities, sometimes I think organizations can fool themselves into complacency based on a false sense of their greatness. One's past greatness always has an expiration date, especially if that greatness is based on how and what they deliver to the market without adjusting as the market changes. 

Let's all be realistic. The times we live in are continually modifying, and not all industries or their organizations can keep up with the speed of innovation and the changes made to business landscapes. During these times of disruptions, organizations must have the ability to analyze without prejudice the realities to what once made them great; today may have no relevant influence on their continued greatness.

No one cares if you answer the phone quickly when they rather communicate on online, no one cares of your storefront if they get what they need delivered, no one cares for your real person handshake if they prefer to have a mouse in their hand to click buy now. 

Today there are billions of dollars in commerce changing hands minus many of the business processes which once made organizations great. 

Does your corporate culture put past greatness ahead of relevance?  

I believe that many organizations mistakenly inject their past greatness as an unwavering attribute in their culture. In other words, many organizations pigeonhole themselves based on the what and how they delivered a product or service in the past, which by today's standards probably isn't that great. Some organizations will allow their perceived greatness to get in the way of their needed reinvention. See, it's more comfortable to think back and remember what once made you great then looking forward and admitting your past is irrelevant to your future. 

No industry or organization should ever base their greatness on how, or what they deliver unless they are willing to modify their deliverable to the realities of the market continually. 

As we look back at those industries which disappeared, we can also remember what these industries saw as their greatness. Think about the things Blockbuster thought made them great. They thought the human interaction to help their customers pick out a movie, the venue they created for neighbors to gather were things which made them great. Blockbuster built their greatness around a human to human component.

So, doesn't building a business's greatness around a human to human component seems like an eternal safe bet? Well, those who bet yes lost. See, our friends at Netflix saw the venue of storefronts, and the need to interact with store associates as cumbersome to the realities of the market. Netflix built its greatness by providing a completely different means to the desired outcome of watching a movie at home. Netflix also continues to modify to market realities. Blockbuster was delusional to market realities. 

Blockbuster thought the venue, the human interaction, and the gathering place was their customer's desired outcome. It wasn't. The customer wanted to watch a movie at home. Blockbuster went to their grave, believing their great relationships and their greatness would continue forever. The tenure of forever continues to show up and surprise the complacent.

So, now let's look at the state of the industry which delivers print equipment and its services. My friends, I see a blockbuster, and that is not describing something good. Instead, I am describing a probable disruption to a once very lucrative industry, and like Blockbuster, this industry is fighting market realities in hopes of prolonging their yesterday's greatness. 

In the way, Blockbuster insisted on the relevance of its stores over the movies it provided. The imaging Channel is insisting on overselling equipment based on their desire to keep alive outdated processes. In the way, Blockbuster could not believe they had a business model without their stores the imaging channel believes they have no business model without A3 equipment. This miss- calculation will cost many in the channel their business life as the new delivery of print equipment and its services will be very disruptive to a majority of the channel. 

In the way, Netflix destroyed the Blockbuster model. A4 equipment will destroy a huge percentage of the A3 model. The data proves that 80-85% of every A3 in the market could easily be an A4. This overselling insistence from the current channel players is feeding the disruptors appetite to come and deliver the market a better experience disrupting the status quo of the channel. The disruptors are figuring how to do what the old way refuses to do. The disruptors are focused on the market realities and the customers in those realities. The old way is focused on themselves and the survival of all that was good for them. The old way is ignoring the customer without regard to what's right for their customers. Like Blockbuster many in the Imaging Channel are ignoring the market realities. 

The channel stills sell all customers the same; still, services all customers the same, still bills and leases all customers the same, and from this sameness will come defeat. For the innovative disruptor's will look for the majority of the market and reinvent the print deliverable. The disruptors will take away a vast majority of customers. They will focus on the 80-85% of the market, which is currently being oversold A3 equipment through outdated finance models which are far from customer-centric. 

When Netflix defeated Blockbuster, I am sure there were a few folks who would instead go the store and get their movie. However, there weren't enough as Netflix went after the majority and won. My friends in the Imaging Channel the disruptors are coming after the majority of your customers. The disruptors are not interested in the dismal market share of production print. The disruptors are coming after the heart of the channel. The disruptors will deliver a different model creating new greatness for themselves and the old way's ex-customers. Dealers need to develop an A4 strategy and then be willing to disrupt themselves and the market they serve. Or, wait and be disrupted by someone bringing a new greatness to market.  

So, how great are you?  

A test to determine if your organization puts too much weight in past greatness. Is to ask the rank and file this. What it is that makes our organization great? When the answer is a laundry list of everything, you do that used to matter. It will be a great indicator that it is time to reinvent your greatness. However, be aware that stubbornness to admit declining relevance will feed on the businesses ego attempting to make yesterday's greatest still relevant today, and it rarely is.  

 "Status Quo is the killer of all that will be invented."

MSP & MSSP Industry Notes

IT Total Care New Co-Managed IT Promises Relief to Strapped SMB IT Teams

• Located in Foster City, California, provides outsourced IT support to small and medium sized businesses
• Offers their Co-Managed IT, allows companies to “lease” IT Total Care’s staff wot work with their existing IT department
• IT Total Care operates in San Francisco Bay area since 20019, has worked with more than 2,000 Bay Area companies

Logically Expands Sales Leadership Team to Drive Continued Growth

• Managed IT provider service provider for small and mid-size companies, headquarter in Portland, Maine
• Manages 500 clients from Maine to California
• Matt Putney appointed as Vice President of Sales, previously held Vice President of Sales for mindSHIFT
• Tracey Pick appointed Senior Manager for Revenue Operations, served as Senior Manager of Sales at Alchemy Systems

Charter Communications unloads cloud services firm Navisite

• RDX based in Pittsburg, Pa. managed IT services acquires Navisite from Charter Communications
• RDX backed by private equity firm of Madison Dearborn Partners
• NaviSite founded in 1996 provides applications services, enterprise hosting and managed cloud for outsourcing IT infrastructure

TPx selects ADVA for edge device innovation

• TPX announce selection of Adva’s Ensemble software as the basis for new universal customer premises (uCPE) platform
• TPx delivers unified communications, managed IT network security & connectivity to more than 53,000 client locations
• Adva baed in Los Angeles, California develops hardware and software for the networking industry

Ensono to Offer Managed Services on VMware Cloud on AWS

• Ensono based in Downers Grove, Illinois a hybrid IT service provider
• Will provide clients a managed service offering for VMware Cloud on AWS Solution Competency
• VMware Cloud on AWS is an integrated cloud offering jointly developed by AWS and VMware delivering a highly scalable, secure and innovative service that allows organizations to seamlessly migrate and extend their on-premises VMware vSphere-based environments to the AWS Cloud running on next-generation Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) bare metal infrastructure.
• Ensono certified for AWS, Azure and Partner of the year for Microsoft Datacenter Transformation

ePlus Acquires ABS Technology, Expanding Reach in Mid-Atlantic Region

• Acquires certain assets and liabilities of Innovation Technology Systems and Solutions dba ABS Technology
• ABS headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia provides managed services, networking, collaboration and security solutions
• ePlus is a technology solutions provided in Herndon, Virginia and offers expertise that include security, cloud date center, collaboration, networking. Founded in 1990 has more than 1,500 associates serving clients in United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific

Cradlepoint Wins NASPO ValuePoint Contract for Software-Driven, Cloud-Managed LTE and 5G Ready Solutions

• Cradlepoint founded in 2006, delivers cloud 4G LTE network solutions for businesses
• Has more than 18,000 clients worldwide
• NASPO is a Cooperative Purchasing Organization formerly know as WSCA-NASPO, specializes in competitively sourced contracts.

Spinnaker Support Announces First Half 2019 Highlights

• Global provider for Oracle and SAP third party support
• Headquarters in Denver, Colorado

CoNetrix Technology Releases New Cybersecurity Monitoring and Compliance Solution

• Based in Lubbock, Texas provides computer networking, managed IT services and cloud hosting since 1977
• Offers new Cybersecurity Monitoring and Compliance solution
• Clients to have access security information and event management (SIEM) and security op centers (SOC)
• Highlights