R.J. Stasieczko
The End of The Day With Ray! Xerox 1st to E-Commerce
The End of The Day With Ray! Disruptions bring realities to Market-Shifts
The Imaging Channel's ERP!
Let's explore the reasons ECI's E-Automate is maintaining and adding to its massive customer base of Imaging Channel dealers and why I believe dealers should not, at this point, attempt to replace an ERP.
Today there's a copious of solutions for resellers to manage individual deliverables. The imaging channel resellers, managed IT service resellers, or our friends delivering office products. These reseller groups are in-fact consolidating and even converging into each other's spaces. This convergence is what started the search for the no bolt-on ERP platform.
However, after a decade of attempts:
"The No Bolt-On Platform" does not exist and isn't a reality for resellers/dealers." And even if one comes to market what would a dealer really gain? to warrant the distraction and cost to replace.
I believe, based on the massive customer base E-Automate has, they are, in fact, in a better position to accomplish my vision of helping dealers not only innovate but diversify as needed. Over the next five years, the print equipment and its services will see many challenges, consolidation, and new players changing the game entirely.
So, instead of replacing E-Automate, dealers should focus on building out their diversification and utilizing those systems which are relevant to the diversification's deliverable. Today's dealers must explore the technologies required for what they intend to deliver understanding; there is nothing that can do it all on its own with the expertise of the systems which are the global leaders in their respected sectors.
Some will ask. What about dealers wanting to delivering Managed IT Services? And others may suggest E-Automate is outdated.
Regarding the outdated argument, what's really out-dated. Today's dealers have not changed their print deliverable processess for decades. In all fairness when we examine E-Automate we see in fact they have modified as the dealers do. Print tracking, cloud service, and intergrading with other software providers are examples. One would imagine as the deliverable continues to modify so will E-Automate. But, frankly today they are matching the industry's changes without forcing the industries dealers through massive disruptions.
Regarding Managed IT Services, most of the Imaging Channel's actors have heard of ConnectWise, the most extensively used RMM and IT Services operating system in the world. Today the vast majority of dealers delivering IT Services, are using ConnectWise, again it's the most preferred MSP platform in the world.
Some suggest that the newer ERPs have better data. I ask, does the replacement have enough better data to warrant the investment and disruption to change? Again, I believe that the data available today through the legacy players is more data than most dealers use. Frankly, they should be using what's available before investing both time and financially impacting their bottom lines. After all, replacing operating systems is extremely costly in both money and time.
The Channel has the data, Now it's time the channel uses the data they have. It seems as many are getting sidetrack by the un-proven rhetoric over the realities of what currently exist.
For example, NEXERA, a BEI Services company, has been providing detailed analytics based on the world's most extensive database of print equipment and its services for over 25 years. NEXERA, integrates with E-Automate, providing dealers data needed to improve not only performance but profit as well. It's time the channel stops and learns how to search and explore the data they have over, hoping an entirely new ERP will miraculously improve them.
If dealers spent a fraction of the time they would spend in the ripping apart their infrastructure to replace the ERP they have. These dealers would be astonished by what they would discover.
The Imaging Channel has the tools, and yes, those tools will be a collection of software. However, right now, there is no one platform doing everything, and in the foreseeable future, there won't be. Dealers should rather invest in both human capital diversification, and deliverable diversification long before an operating system investment. Using the tools you have with open minds will lead to new possibilities.
Today's most significant threat to the resellers is not its operating system. Dealers must sell based on the market realities and should be focused on delivering services to those realities. Dealers investing in their diversification and understanding how to use the data they have to defeat their status quo will have the winning advantage.
"Status quo is the killer of all that will be invented."
Ray Stasieczko
It Won't Work! Is the motto of the unimaginative, and the Cry of the Insecure
The XEROX/HP saga playing out is proving that many can't see past what's in front of them and have limited imagination to assist them in discovering how things could be, based on how things should be. It has been a few months since Xerox took the bold action and beat HP to the table in a merger discussion.
BUT XEROX IS TOO SMALL TO BUY- THE GREAT BIG HP!! Say those looking with no imagination.
Yes, HP should have approached Xerox. HP having three times the market cap acquiring the smaller Xerox, obviously makes more financial business sense. However, in today's business environment being bold and decisive are better attributes than being big slow and arrogant to yesterday's circumstances.
What would Bill Hewlett and David Packard do today? I would say they would have called Carl Icahn and brought the two companies together they surely wouldn't be sitting in silence. Bill and Dave were creators of the future, not managers of the past. Today Xerox seems much more focused on delivering the future to the present and much bolder towards accomplishing that.
"A company becomes obsolete when it focuses on delivering the past to the future instead of delivering the future to the present."
HP seems to be sitting quietly by hoping Xerox just goes away. I conclude that HP's silence is loudly defining their absolute lack of boldness. It appears as though the newly appointed HP leaders are more concerned with maintaining power as they create visions from memories. Where the Xerox leadership team is decisively expressing a desire to recreate tomorrow for an entire industry, a tomorrow where Xerox imagines two iconic companies coming together to reinvent the industry they both gave birth to. Xerox giving birth to xerographic print technology and HP giving birth to digital printer technology.
Of course, Shareholder value is essential, so, is a company's relevance, and most agree that relevance is what provides continuous shareholder value.
Some suggest this is all about Carl Icahn making money. Well, Carl does know how to make money. However, Carl is also a leader who is watching an industry that is quickly resembling another industry. Remember KODAK? I see Carl's interest as an interest not only about shareholder value but an interest in preventing two iconic organizations Xerox and HP from becoming victims of maintaining yesterday; something the world watched kill Kodak.
Remember, it was Carl who re-aligned the Xerox board, re-evaluated the leadership, and the direction of Xerox during the attempted sale to Fuji by the evicted past administration. I see Carl Icahn as one who is concerned for an industry and is showing his leadership in reinventing it, starting with the appointment of John Visentin as the new Xerox president, which has proven to have been the right decision.
Where's the outspoken HP Board Member? Arguing for Status Quo. Is HP's Board merely a rubber stamp for HP's brand-new executive team? We sure don't see any Boldness from their Board or Executive team.
HP's leadership is missing the value of this merger or, worse, are more concerned about protecting their positions than protecting their shareholders. The industry of print equipment and its services is unbalanced between supply and demand. Anytime supply exceeds demand adjustments are mandatory to bring back balance. Over the last couple of years, we continue witnessing declines in both document printing and copying, thereby declines in sales and manufacturing. The industry must consolidate, and HP's arrogance to ignore Xerox's offer is not in the best interest of the HP shareholders.
HP is gambling that they don't need what Xerox brings them. However, they are also risking that an alternative acquisition by Xerox won't affect them. These two gambles are foolish bets in a declining marketplace. Especially as the two are current market leaders in their core competences.
Xerox's ability to sell and then service what it sells through a push economy process utilizing a world-class direct and dealer partner distribution footprint. HP's dominance in desktop printing and compute equipment mostly sold through pull economy processes. Both Xerox and HP are globally recognized brands and they should capitalize on this.
HP is jeopardizing its dominance in a declining market, and if XEROX decides or is forced to move in a different direction, HP could face disastrous results. Use your imagination and think about the possibilities. The industry is consolidating, and all manufacturers are facing challenges with their financial outcomes, both revenues and profits are slipping downwards with increasing speed.
In closing: I would suggest that all those looking for the reasons this merger won't work instead imagine the possibilities of how this merger will work and regarding the noise around Xerox having too much debt as the buyer. Think about a strategy where Xerox sells an equity position in the newly formed Xerox/HP company. There're a few manufacturers I can think of who would be ecstatic to join in the re-invention of an industry. Think about Canon or Fuji. Yes, we all remember Fuji and Xerox once had an equity relationship.
In times of declining markets in need of diversification and consolidation, strange bedfellows emerge. As I have mentioned, it takes boldness and decisiveness to deliver the future to the present.
"Status quo is the killer of all that will be invented." HP don't get stuck in Status quo."
Visit and subscribe to my YouTube Channel where I have produced many videos on the Xerox/HP story. Here's the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rud7wjNok3A&t=7s
Also if not already let's connect here on Linkedin I will look for your invite.
Ray Stasieczko
The Consequences of Delivering Out-Side Market Realities Come With Awareness
It seems as more of the same is the mindset for many in the Imaging Channel. Over the last year, as print volumes continue declining, as dealers continue over-specking and over-selling, nothing seems to wake up the channel to the threat of consistently delivering out-side market realities. However, soon the end-users un-awareness will end.
"The channel's threat is a new competitor who takes advantage of where the customers are going while the legacy way attempts to keep customers where they were."
In mature markets, the suppliers of goods and services can become consumed in their history as they plan their future. In other words, they create visions from memories rather than imagination.
"Without the ability to look past what's in front of you, you will always follow. Unfortunately, in declining markets, following memories will lead to obsolescence."
The Imaging Channel dealers are taking their eyes off the customer as they instead focus on keeping the customer in what made the dealers comfortable. This blindness to market realities is creating an enormous opportunity for outsiders to disrupt the status quo of the channel.
It is easy to spot complacency in legacy players. The legacy way will always argue for their own comfort, not that of their changing customer. Listen to the arguments the channel will have to continue over-specking and over-selling as an example. Nearly all their arguments are related to the pain caused to the dealers or manufacturers processes in moving from the product-centric A3 to the customer-centric A4.
The market realities are now becoming very apparent. For the first time in the channel's history, it's end-users are beginning to recognize alternative solutions as they now are being presented alternative narratives. I believe these alternative narratives to the deliverable will increase and disrupt the legacy actors as more customers replace their un-awareness with awareness.
The status quo and the disruptor have a fundamental difference in how they argue. The status quo will argue for keeping things as they were; the disruptor will argue to create things the way they should be.
The Imaging Channel will be disrupted by a shift in the delivery and the equipment delivered as the buyers will migrate to A4-equipment. The better experience of A4 will capture the imaginations of those wishing to disrupt the channel. The market realities are too compelling for the legacy way to continue fighting for the more complicated A3 approach.
If the current actors do not face this reality, they may be left with just the A3 buyers; however, there won't be enough of them to keep the dealer in their current circumstances of revenue and profits.
The solution to selling based on the market realities is simple. Dealers must look at their deliverables through their customer's eyes and be honest with what they see. Data proves the reality of volumes, needs, and usage. The dealers must develop a strategy to sell the most significant part of their customer base, which is producing volumes on MFPs under 8k a month. A better alternative than constantly upgrading and buying out leases, overselling A3 to meet commission plans or manufacturer quotas.
It's time to provide buying options such as e-commerce and understanding the importance of supporting and accepting transactional business. Not all buyers are contract buyers, and the channel is losing hundreds of millions of dollars by not providing an on-line transactional solution.
The disruptors will focus on your largest customer base, those producing 8k or less the commodity mindset buyers. Dealers can't afford to lose this vast portfolio of business. So, the dealers must change the processes to deliver and service. Migrating from A3 Equipment to A4 Equipment is not something you have a choice in. It's where the market is going.
However, you do have a choice to allow a new competitor to beat you in providing the A4MFP solution which a majority of your customers will in-fact migrate to. Simply said-with you or without you, your customers will go to the future and will be quite comfortable leaving behind all vendors who refuse to modify as market realities changed.
Don't be the vendor with the greatest relationships and loose to the innovators who delivered a better experience. For more and more customers, A4 equipment is the better experience.
"Status quo is the killer of all that will be invented."
Ray Stasieczko
CEO/Founder TEASRA,The Innovation Channel and Host of The End of The Day With Ray! https://www.endofthedaywithray.com/
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A4Revolution for a reason. In this article you can discover why. Today's customers are becoming aware. Dealers must also become aware of Market Realities. A4Revolution CustomerCentric