R.J. Stasieczko

“It is always from what we anticipate which leads to what we get. However, many anticipations are misaligned with realities, causing a surprise to what we get.”

Everyone in business understands the importance of staying relevant. Yet nearly half of the companies on the Fortune 500 list in 2000 are gone. The reality is too many organizations fall victim to a lack of diversity, and an inability to pivot their deliverable to follow the direction of the market.

It makes no difference what you sell or how you sell it; it only matters what customers buy and how they buy it. May sound simplistic. However, simplicity is where complexity is always defeated.

Many leaders still believe the industry they live in is safe from disruption. Today nearly every disrupted industry fell victim because their perceived value proposition was out of alignment with their customer desires, needs and expectations.

“The Innovator is more aligned with the customers’ expectations to a product or a service.” 

Instead of recreating a deliverable to match the direction the market is going. Legacy organizations can become vigilant to save what they know. They double down on saving the past, they refuse to explore the unknown, and they surround themselves with the comfort of the past. Many declining industries are attempting to pull back their customer as to fit them into their old methods. Many still strive to delver the past to the future.

 Innovative disruptions are about processes 

The Innovators understand the customer is the master of the market and innovators go where the customers are going. It's there, they take many great relationships as they deliver a better experience. This better experience is nearly always about a better process in helping customers reach the outcomes they desire. 

Diversification or pivoting are critical components to an industry’s longterm survival. Creating a new process requires the ability to pivot; it will take open minds, imaginations, and stands void of any desire to save any outdated processes.

The past has shown many who have not pivoted or diversified, and we have all witnessed those who have. Here’s a perfect example of two organizations in the same industry. One defeated, and one succeed beyond expectations.

The Defeated

Blockbuster- no vision, and no passion to go where the future was heading. They doubled down on pushing the deliverable they had, instead of creating what the market wanted. The market simply wanted a new means to the desired outcome of watching a movie at home. Blockbuster thought the market wanted their stores. Blockbuster thought the deliverable was about them.

This defines Blockbuster. “A Company goes obsolete when they focus on delivering the past to the future instead of delivering the future to the present.”

The Winner

Netflix some thought of as a competitor to Blockbuster both providing physical products which allowed their customers the ability to watch a movie at home. However, Netflix understood and followed where the customer was going. While Blockbuster insisted that their deliverable remain stores and physical tapes, or DVDs. Netflix understood the deliverable as providing the customers’ the ability to watch a movie at home. Netflix realized the customer’s desired outcome was viewing a movie in the comfort of their homes.

Netflix never saw Blockbuster as their competitor; they saw the Theater as the competitor, and they focused on doing whatever they could to make the experience of watching a movie at home increasingly better. Netflix business model started by mailing content to their customer's homes, they then provided downloading capabilities and soon after offered live streaming. Netflix did not stop at merely providing content they now create content.

Netflix is recognized as one of the great success stories in a business pivoting and diversifying. Netflix continues to destroy aspects of their deliverables which become obsolete to their customers. Yes, Netflix listens to customers.

So, whatever industry you call home the lesson from Netflix or the lesson from Blockbuster can provide a window to your industries future. Or, how you as a participant in your industry prevail during the coming disruption which is already scheduled by an innovator.

Netflix proved that if you focus on customer outcomes, you will be rewarded. Netflix also confirmed that if your organization can recreate your deliverable based on customers the customers will in-fact welcome your re-invention.

Imaging Channel there is no denying the similarities in the print equipment and its services deliverable. Just as the home entertainment industry realized, the print industry must recognize. The customer wants a desired outcome; the means to its achievement always changes. Most innovations are about a change in the processes to the desired outcome. Imaging Channel you must align your deliverable with the market realities and like Netflix you must be willing to destroy and recreate your old product-centric processes, to those of an innovative customer-centric nature.

The Innovation to the Print Equipment and Services industry will most definitely be a result of new processes designed to the realities of the market and based on data. I am quite excited to help in the architecture to innovative the deliverable of printers and their services.

In closing:

“Disruption is a result of changing the customer experience so drastically that the old-way becomes a customer nightmare.”

Ray Stasieczko   

I recently attended a webinar where the scariest thing was what was not said. The webinar was discussing the Imaging Channel; it included a recap of a survey given to dealer owners. The dealers answered the survey in a most disturbing way which no one is questioning, so I will.  

The survey determined that only 4% of dealers were concerned about A4 equipment which could easily replace the oversold A3's in 80-85% of the Imaging Channel's Customers. It appears the Imaging Channel is conceding this massive A4 opportunity to another channel.

But wait. 

The next disturbing statistic was that over 90% of surveyed dealers aren't concerned about any challenges coming from outside the channel. 

So, here's how industry disasters happen. When an industry is not concerned with providing its customers with what they need and doesn't see anyone coming to challenge them, this stubbornness is the invitation the challenger was waiting on. Innovators attack as a legacy product-centric industry focuses on its products. The innovator's weapon is selling based on customer needs. Innovators build platforms and processes to sell customers what they need. Innovators look for what the old-way is missing or refuses to admit, and they seize the opportunity. 

The industry must take bold action to change the way it markets to end-users. The data on print volumes along with the collapse of the two largest acquisition strategies (Ricoh, and Xerox Global) should in-fact wake up the entire channel that diversification in your acquisition strategy is a must. Dealers have to stop buying declining revenue and calling it growth.  

The cross-channel acquisition between DEX and Staples will definitely play by new rules and should open new thoughts to acquisition strategies.

Change starts by listening to the DATA. 

The data on overselling A3 is readily available, the data on overstaffed service departments, the data on massive amounts of obsolete parts, the data on the growth of A4 and ironically. The A4 growth is coming as the dealers and most manufacturers impede it. 

If dealers used the data available and managed from it instead of trying to fit old processes into manipulated data, they would reinvent what they then can benchmark. Every dealer should question the experts who are telling them that anything resembling the way it used to be is OK. Obviously, it's Far from OK. Just ask Xerox/Global, and Ricoh. 

BEI Services has the data to help dealers manage to the realities of the market. All print service organizations should understand what the equipment in the field is telling them over what the cheerleaders for the status quo are telling them. It seems many in the channel are telling people what they want to hear over what they need to hear.  

Those in the Imaging Channel who understand the problems it faces must stop sitting in silence and start building customer-centric business models based on market realities. There is much to do and many changes to come. Procrastination is not an option anymore.   

It's time for the industry to stop patting each other on the back regarding yesterday and instead kick each other in the ass and create tomorrow, it's time go to where the market is going and get there before the innovators do. The industry's re-invention starts when more get involved and are willing to challenge the way it was and create the way it should be.  

The customer-centric innovator will take many great relationships as they deliver a better experience. The question is; can the current Imaging Channels' actors be the innovator?  

My friends those two statistics from that survey are indeed a mammoth threat to the Imaging Channel.

To recap 

1)  The channel is not concerned about the A4 movement and the tremendous shifts it will cause to the print services deliverable. 

2)  The Channel does not see any competitive threats from cross-channel players  

The first step to eliminate these two threats is to accept the realities they are threats.  

I look forward to sharing more on this in my session at ITEX. 

“Status Quo is the killer of all that will be invented. Don’t get stuck in Status Quo.”

Ray Stasieczko

Yes, I created a new word. “Relationship-Less” As time moves along so must our thinking. We hear a lot about relationships and their importance in the sales process. I agree with that. However, I also caution those who believe that their success will hinge on only building 1990 style relationships. In these times we live relationships are modifying too.

Yesterday's relationship building as a must before selling. Is not the reality of many today's buyers. There are many things purchased every day both goods and services which are void relationships as defined in 1990. Today there are too many in sales who still believe that without a relationship they can’t provide the means to a prospects desired outcome. This misguided thinking is costing them business to the savvier sales organizations.

The disconnect, is based on what precisely defines a relationship with a buyer? The old school thinking will make it near impossible to face the realities of today’s buyer. Many buyers today see this obsession from sellers who must build relationships ahead of delivering as an aggravation, not a benefit. The old-way is pushing and the new buyer wants to pull.

Buyers and more of them every day want to pull to them want they need and then build a relationship. Quite frankly with the speed to action available through technology today. Buyers what to act, and buyers expect to be treated fairly and when they need assistance they expect cooperation as a way of doing business.

Buyers do not purchase relationships they buy desired outcomes. If the means to those outcomes fails the customer will replace them, and in reality, most of the replacements are with someone they do not have a relationship with.

Understanding the relationship required of the deliverable is essential. Times are changing, and it seems buyers are changing their buying habits quicker than sellers are changing their selling habits.

Selling must live in two worlds for those who provide both goods and services. These two worlds are re-shaping commerce across the globe. Understanding how to navigate between the Digital World and the Physical world is a must as this defines the new world of selling and the new world of relationships.

Today Customer Experience will win over Customer Relationships. Sellers cannot merely focus on relationship building or taking advantage of their relationships they must concentrate on giving the better experience and in 2019 and beyond that better experience might just be without a relationship as defined by 1990.

In Closing:

“You can be the vendor with the greatest relationships and lose to the innovator who delivers a better experience.”

If you wish to connect here on LinkedIn send me an invite be well.

Ray Stasieczko

CEO/TEASRA, The Innovation Channel

One thing few in the Imaging Channel want to discuss is the innovative processes which will replace much of the old way’s deliverable. The glory days of selling print equipment and its services are just beginning for some innovative thinkers and ending for some others.

All things do in-fact change. Even those who refuse, eventually are forced to change. No one can circumvent progress regardless of their marketing strategies or their hopes that current circumstances remain a little longer. 

“Those who say they are waiting for the right time to change usually prove they can’t tell time.” 

The old-way always experiences more struggles to re-invent themselves, then the creators of the new way. The new approach is so focused on the customers desired outcome, and they are minus the baggage to the way things are or used to be. The new ways very existence is to defeat the old way. This reality is why legacy players must have the courage to explore how to defeat themselves ahead of the innovators.  

The end user's realities of printers, MFP's and their services are giving birth to innovative processes from customer-centric organizations. Customer-Centric Innovators will take the old-way's great relationships as they educate those customers on how selfish, and costly their product-centric vendor is.

I think some in the Imaging Channel have been missing the point of innovation. It seems many still believe their innovation will be a result of product enhancements — innovation in the Imaging Channel just like nearly all innovation. Comes as a result of new processes, or the means to a customers desired outcome is enhanced or completely changes, thereby providing the customer with a better experience towards reaching those outcomes. 

Who wants to create the new rules, with me?

A new customer-centric deliverable will be an A4 strategy and will focus on 80-85% of the market which continues being oversold A3 equipment. The new scalable model will be void the high cost of servicing the extremes on the deliverable’s edges. These innovative resellers will run from production print a 2% or less market share; they will focus on replacing the millions of A3 copiers and MFP’s which produce 7,000 pages a month or less. There are 10 of millions of these devices. 

Remember, Innovators don’t play by yesterday’s rules. Innovators create new rules. The greatest threat to the Imaging Channel’s dealers. Is losing a vast majority of their A3 MIF (Machines in Field) to a customer-centric innovator who delivers the better experience of A4. 

As I discussed in the video, I produced on the struggles of Hertz caused by the rideshare deliverable (UBER). When an Innovative process creates a better experience for a massive amount of the old ways customers to reach the outcomes they desire. The old-way cannot survive on the customers left with them. Usually, Innovative processes are created for the majority of the old way’s customers, customers whose expectations are more in line with the innovators than the legacy providers. 

The innovators will ignore those small percentages of customers who are out of scope in expectations with the majority they seek. The Imaging Channel is too focused on delivering to every potential customer from the highest volume to the lowest volume in the same manner. This everything for everyone is not scalable or profitable in a declining needs market, and the pains of this approach are in fact surfacing. 

The Imaging Channel was born by creating a process to deliver print equipment. Over its life, it grew in its capabilities, as the market grew. Today the market is declining, and so, naturally, everything the Imaging Channel grew into will now decline, as its end-users needs continue declining. It’s not logical thinking that the engine built for growth will remain in its current state. It's now time to build a profitable engine for the decline. 

How the Imaging Channel re-invents itself to thrive off the decline will determine their relevance. One thing is for sure; the innovators will not seek permission or seek compliance from the old way. Instead, they will focus on delivering a better experience to 80-85% of the old way’s customers. 

My friends in all channels come to ITEX April 24th-25th at the MGM Vegas and learn how the disruptions coming to resellers are also opportunities. 

“Innovation is what you find on the other side of the horizon you find it when you can look past what’s in front of you.”  

If you wish to connect on LinkedIn send me an invite.  

See you all in Vegas. 

Ray Stasieczko 

CEO/TEASRA, The Innovation Channel 

Does anyone else see the dysfunction in the Imaging Channel’s SMB’s MPS, (Managed Print Services) deliverable? MPS is at least 20 years old. Here’s the reality, MPS was an enterprise deliverable, and its complexities were never accepted in the SMB space and continuing to peruse this like it's 1995 is a waste of time and money. It's time to face the realities of print equipment and their services to SMB customers.

Most of the SMB market understands that printers their supplies and their service represent less than 2% of their technology spend. My friends! All logical thinking would conclude that managing the lowest cost of a process is, in fact, the lowest priority of management.

Something for all dealer owners in the Imaging Channel to ponder is this. Why is it that your dealership's internal business processes are void managing who in your company prints, what they print, or how much they print? It is a simple answer; you don’t see this as a priority, you realize that print is declining every day, and you have more issues to managed that what your organization’s associates are printing less of every day. My point dealer owners, you realize the same thing as 85% of all SMB printer and copier end-users realized a long time ago.

Today we see all the articles and experts talking about the tremendous growth in MPS. We have seen the headlines “Managed Print Services a 50-billion-dollar business by 2025.” It seems that all those saying these things intend to deliver the past to the future.

“A company goes obsolete when they focus on delivering the past to the future instead of delivering the future to the present.”

Managed Print Services has been around for over two decades and now all of a sudden MPS, is going to be a 50-billion-dollar business by 2025. As I hear this, I can’t help but think, the industry could not secure Managed Print Services agreements in the SMB space when print was growing and had out of control cost. But now, that the whole world is on the same page in understanding that the needs of printed pages are in-fact declining, and the cost of its equipment and its supplies have never been lower and continue to reduce every day. So, now what has changed to insight this MPS success prediction? 

Folks, here is my thinking. The definition of Managed Print Services as defined by this future 50-billion. Means. That nearly all print output devices will be contracted to end-users in some form of a re-occurring billing model. A model which includes the equipment its supplies and its necessary service. In reality-nothing will be managed. It will just be sold using a billing contract type called Managed Print Services.

I am also a believer that many end-users will buy A4 devices through a pull-economy process and have a completely different billing agreement than the legacy print channel resellers or its predictors anticipate or can even imagine. Again, these predictions of future Managed Print Services revenue numbers are calculated on the merits of delivering the past to the future. The facts are that many new Innovative Processes regarding print equipment and its services will surface and challenge the rules set it 1990. Staples/DEX are just the beginning.

Those today who describe the results of the print services business in the year 2025, unfortunately, are thinking that nothing changed in the industry. This thinking is no longer logical considering the recent and continuous changes to the industries infrastructure.

I look forward to speaking at ITEX April 24th-25th at the MGM Vegas. It has never been a better time to begin delivering print equipment and their services as long as you do it based on the realities of today and tomorrow’s market. The time is NOW to break the rules and change the game. It is time to deliver the future of print services to the present, and not the other way around.

If your organization is, an office supply reseller, a Managed IT Services reseller or a member of the Imaging Channel, and you are ready to take advantage of the new circumstances which in-fact changed the model of selling and servicing printers. Come join the discussion at ITEX. April 24th-25th at the MGM

If you wish to connect here on LinkedIn send me an invite.

Ray Stasieczko

CEO TEASRA, The Innovation Channel  

Well, it’s not just Office Supply and Print Service Resellers who are witnessing changes which pose both opportunities, and threats to their Status Quo. When Sycamore Partners the Private equity firm who owns Staples bought the office supply wholesaler Essendant - many office products re-sellers became gravely ill knowing that their product’s wholesaler was now owned by their competitor.

As the dust was settling on the Essendant deal. Staples buys DEX Imaging a mega copy/print dealer. It is safe to say in the last three months that Sycamore Partners with their holdings in Staples DEX Imaging and Essendant have changed the infrastructure of two channels. 

Now, let's talk about the Managed IT Services re-seller space. We recently heard ConnectWise is the latest addition to Thoma Bravo’s portfolio of 35 software/IT service companies. It seems they continue buying up the tools and services used by independent service providers who in turn use these products and services to deliver Managed IT Services to their end-user customers.

Here are three organizations owned by Thoma Bravo which should at the least bring up some questions to the MSP’s who are dependent on them.

1)   Continuum, The world’s largest Master Service Provider. I believe it safe to say that they serve over 5,000 MSP on their platform. The question is, Should Managed IT Service Providers considered bringing their helpdesk in-house and seek alternative backend support?

2)   ConnectWise, The world’s largest PSA/RMM/Tool in the Managed IT Services space. The question is, what will Thoma Bravo do with ConnectWise?

3)   SolarWinds/N-able, Maybe the second largest PSA/RMM tool in the Managed IT Services space. The question is, will SolarWinds/N-able be rolled into ConnectWise.

Thoma Bravo's could put together an un-disputed powerhouse of capabilities. So, another question is, who do they sell to? It must be evident to all logical thinking the return on investment would be a higher return if the same buyer bought both Continuum and ConnectWise. This buyer would then be in the position to deliver Managed IT Services to the SMB space globally. They would also be a position to filter out or expand the current partners on these platforms.

So, the thousands of MSP’s who outsource to these organizations may indeed find themselves outsourcing service to a competitive threat. Those that believe this un-probable should visit with the office supply resellers who are currently questioning their path after Sycamore Partners, Staples owners bought Essendant the wholesaler who sells them the products they sell to their end-users. 

Could Office Depot, or Staples be the infrastructure that could benefit from ConnectWise and Continuum? After all, if Amazon is the end game for both Sycamore partners and Thoma Bravo Staples would be an extremely diversified deliverable with Continuum, ConnectWise, and of course, I imagine very soon they will acquire a few more Mega Print Services dealers and likely will include IT service providers as well.

Amazon revenues in its B2B space are in excess of 10-Billion Dollars. Over half of that revenue was generated by third-party sellers who use Amazon Business to expand their customer reach. Amazon is also one of the largest cloud services providers in the world with over 33% of the market, and they are expected to have 71-Billion in revenue by 2020. When Amazon is ready to complete its deliverable with the addition of SMB service capabilities, they would be very interested in Staples/DEX, Continuum, and ConnectWise. Wouldn’t they? Will Amazon one day be the Master Service provider to the independent MSP?

So, 2019 is turning into the year for the history books. The year the channel re-sellers’ infrastructures were redefined. Soon there will be no borders between channels: office Products, Print Services, IT Services, and Telephony Services. Service providers will become conduits for massive enterprise delivery systems. Those organizations who have the processes to execute in the Pull-Economy will prevail as they gather the needed support from those who understand the processes of the Push-Economy.

All dealers and re-sellers must open their minds to what could be possible based on the realities of their deliverables along with the shifts in the market. There will be massive realignments in channel sales and what many re-sellers once thought impossible will indeed become probable. Over the next couple of years, the advances in cloud services, A.I. technologies, innovative solutions, and the shifts in business’s processes will affect thousands of channel resellers.

What are some options in the PSA/RMM space and the Master Service Provider space?

The opportunities for PSA/RMM providers especially as the channel re-sellers continue delivering alternative services. An excellent example of this is the number 3 PSA/RMM tool Tigerpaw; they are the only PSA tool designed for the Managed IT Services deliverable which includes an application for print service dealers. Tigerpaw’s PSA/RMM is a much more beneficial system over the print service industry’s legacy ERP.

Tigerpaw is providing dealers a much more accurate method for managing service labor cost against contract revenue, built in RMM tool, more efficient inventory controls, and even the ability to collect meters from nearly all print tracking software allowing dealers to manage meter activity. It will be interesting to see how Tigerpaw capitalizes on this and other opportunities as ConnectWise gets to know its siblings at Thoma Bravo.

Also, the Master Service Provider space will surely ramp up to differentiate themselves. I expect that many MSP’s will seriously consider bringing their Helpdesk in-house and look for alternative backend solutions. MSP's joining forces will allow for shared resources. So, over the next couple years we should expect MSP roll ups to gain in momentum.

2019 started only two months ago; there will be much more to come, and the one thing we should all agree on is this.

“A Company becomes obsolete when they focus on delivering the past to the future instead of delivering the future to the present.” 

Ray Stasieczko

Hope to see you all at ITEX