Death of The Copier

Death of the Copier

Greg Walters

The Death of the Copier

Copyright © 2011 by Greg Walters All rights reserved.

First Smashwords Edition: 2014

Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics

Unless otherwise specified, the views expressed in this book are my own, and not those of any other individual or individuals connected with TheDeathOfTheCopier Project, GalacticRailWorks or the Internet at large.

Nothing included or said in this book is meant to offend anyone in any way.

Any information relating to persons, dates and places, unless otherwise specified, should be taken only as a guideline and not considered as legal information. It is recommended that all such information relating to persons, dates and places be checked through an independent authority to verify for legality and correctness.

All names, logos, and other outside material — including material submitted by ‘contributors’, or attributed to other sources — remains the property of their respective copyright owners.

Dedicated

to

Jen

All Ways, always…

The Death of the Copier

In the beginning I did not make a living writing. I understand that most everyone has a dream to be a writer someday — I did not share that vision, it just fell into place.

My pedigree is that of a copier-schlep having cut my teeth over at Océ, Panasonic, IKON.

My technology roots run deep by way of the technology/accounting system/VAR arena MicroAge, Inacomp, IBM, Novell, Great Plains, Timberline, ACCPAC, etc. I’ve been in since 1988.

Along the way, I’ve been fortunate enough actually get paid to write — one of the more colorful stories around this subject involves Xerox, UBM and a persona named Paige Coverage — but that story is for the next book.

With DOTC, I’ve been pontificating about since the beginning of the current MpS model.

When it gets right down to it, I am nothing more than a guy who used to sell copiers, sitting in front of a computer writing really goofy stories.

As a simple dude from the Midwest. I grew up just outside Detroit. Westland John Glenn High, Class of 1980 — the last analog generation. We didn’t have Xbox or the Internet; we used our gray matter to entertain ourselves. If something didn’t add up, or we couldn’t touch and feel the facts, we called bullshit.

Our social networking occurred weekends, as about a dozen of us chided and dogged each other relentlessly — we survived, our self-esteem intact, if not a bit stronger.

When we played basketball, we kept score. At the north end of every gridiron I ran on stood the scoreboard — we kept score. We were taught to win with grace and to lose with honor. We learned that a defeat only meant picking yourself up and getting ready for the next chance to win. The world is like that, it isn’t fair and sometimes tough to get through — but we get through, we survive and thrive. On our own, with the talents God gave us.

We did not gripe and shunned those who did.

I express my views, my ideas and my words about sales, selling, copiers, technology, and whatever else I like. At times, I’ve been asked to edit, temper if not outright remove content, indeed, if you’re an early DOTC follower, you’ll remember the pictures — I have no regrets pulling them off the site.

I see things through the prism of over 20 years in the technology industry — selling, failing and overcoming.

It’s my way, it’s your way, it’s the American Way.

I’ve seen every single MPS program on the planet. From the well-defined and comprehensive, 24 Mod, RIKON MDS, to Canon’s MDS.

I have attended and spoken at each of the yearly Photizo MPS Conferences. I was at the first MPS Conference in San Antonio and witnessed the genesis of the MPSA. I am currently an elected executive board member of the MPSA.

With a wealth of experience in the Managed Print Services niche, I have an in-depth understanding of MPS business and sales processes for all types of client environments — with the overall goals of cost savings and increased efficiencies. I am passionate about this industry and have a unique perspective on all things MPS. As such, I am frequently asked to speak at industry seminars, as well as consult on forecasting and standardization issues.

The Death of the Copier (the eBook) is my compilation of written observations, MPS insights, and constructive commentary about the beginning of the MpS wave.

I hope you found one or two chuckles and maybe even a nugget of wisdom within these ramblings.

Keep an eye out for more.

Greg Walters

Author

Cast of Leopards

(in alphabetical order)

Joe Barganier

Bill Caskey

Ed Crowley

Kevin DeYoung

Nathan Dube

James Duckenfield

Misty Hamel

Sarah Henderson

Jim Lyons

Mark Mathews

Ed McLaughlin

Matt McLeish

Pirate Mike

Robert Newry

Art Post

David Ramos

Max Rosenthal

Rob Sethre

Jennifer Shutwell

Lawton Smith

Ken Stewart

Mike Stramaglio

Greg VanDeWalker

Greg Walters (a.k.a. LeopardOne)

Foreword

Change. It can be unsettling at times. And we who work within the managed print services industry are no strangers to the concept — of change and to the fact that it is often met with some resistance. The simple truth is that our industry is going through a metamorphosis, a complete shift from a product technology focus to a services focus. The transformation — while undeniably challenging to our business infrastructure and to our mindset — is inevitable. Just look at the numbers. With an anticipated annual growth rate of 22 percent over the next five years, the MPS industry’s market revenue is expected to ca tapult to $68 billion dollars — by 2014! And the businesses who continue to hesitate, or worse, refuse to jump on the bandwagon of Change will likely not reap the benefits of this phenomenal growth spurt.

Some major MPS players are perfectly positioned to make that leap: HP, Canon, and Ricoh, for example. In the case of HP, the company’s decision makers must be completely on board and confident that their CEO, Meg Whitman, is up for the challenge. IBM made the transition — very successfully. Why? It had the support and backing of a board of directors who understood the changes that the company needed to make and entrusted the visionary CEO Lou Gerstner with the difficult task of leading this transition. It was not easy. IBM turned over half of its 400,000 person workforce during this transition! Gerstner was not in an enviable position at the time. But, again, he had the unwavering support of the IBM board. They understood.

They got it.

Which brings me to Greg Walters. He gets it. For the past several years, this enlightened MPS professional has been observing the zigs and the zags of this industry and writing about it. He does not mince words. Greg Walters is one of those firebrands who isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo. His views are interesting and insightful, and I believe he brings a very healthy dose of humor, skepticism, and creative thought to the area of MPS.

This book is an engaging compendium of his ideas, observations and commentary — carefully chosen from over 350 of his widely popular The Death of the Copier blogs. The chapters cover the full gamut of topics that are current and important in the MPS industry. Added to the mix is a cast of brilliant characters (or leopards, as Greg calls them) who, at his behest, impart their wisdom and advice to the MPS professional who is open-minded enough to listen, learn and, yes, change.

Ed Crowley

President & CEO

Photizo Group

Zigs & Zags

This book holds a slice of my views around the rising MpS tide and the waning copier industry. Lyra Research once stated that 2007 was the peak sales for copiers. They also claimed that we would never again reach those levels.

I believe the stats.

The content here is not simply a collection or scrapbook of popular posts. It’s a compilation exposing the many facets of the MpS movement within the imaging niche, contained inside the always-evolving technology realm.

When I first let the Death of the Copier genie out of the bottle, back in the wild days of 2007, I did not know what to expect. Indeed, I had no expectations at all.

As the popularity grew, I noticed more visits from the UK, South Africa, and Australia — even more than the U.S.

I credited this phenomena to the U.S. having real MPS experts — folks with lots of letters behind their name, answering MPS/sales questions on their real websites — nobody would come to a goofy blog called The Death of anything.

So I went out to see for myself. Call it a digital walkabout. I explored every instance I could of Managed Print Services. Back then, when I Googled the phrase, nothing came back.

Nobody else.

I Googled MPS Training. Again, nothing — at first. Soon, MpS training classes started to pop up. A quick gander at the agenda revealed one glaring truth: these guys were repackaging copier sales techniques into MpS sales training.

Now, if I were truly on the outside looking in, I probably wouldn’t see the difference. If I had not been in the copier industry, had never been involved in the IT industry or not been trained on solution selling by software companies back in the 80s, I probably would have not been able to see.

Heck, if I wasn’t freshly into MpS, I wouldn’t have cared. But none of that was the case. I was looking for somebody who knew more than I about MPS, and I was disappointed.

Oh, there were a few — and they are still around: Jim Lyons, Ken Stewart, Art Post, Ed Crowley, followed by Nate Dube. We admitted to making it up as we went along and it was great fun.

DOTC was alone in the wilderness, talking about MpS and getting echoes back — except for Australia. For some reason, the folks Down Under were coming to my site.

Fast forward a few years. DOTC was considered a go-to source for information on MpS and nanotechnology (the nanotech thing is way out there, just beyond the reach, out on the Edge).

DOTC is known for scantily clad ladies and contrarian views. For pole dancers, movie clips, honest real world MpS/sales stories, and attitude.

Always, attitude.

When I think back on the history of DOTC, we always turned and evolved. Over the year we stayed a couple of steps ahead of the industry when it came to seeing our direction. Dumb luck, I say. And yet ...

Well today, there is this:

Everybody does MpS

Stage 1 and Stage 2 are no longer cutting edge

The paperless office is a myth

There is another turn in the road for DOTC. The world is lining up, falling into pattern — it’s time to zag again.

More and more, the market is reflecting what is happening with us as individuals.

Ahhhh ... individuals.

Not tied to an OEM nor dependent on the agenda of others. Flexible, mobile, innovative, self-reliant, individual, unique. NO MORE COPIES.

More than The Death of the Copier, we are heading into a time of The Death of Copiers.

Our little industry is on the forefront of dynamic, systemic, change — the nexus of convergence.

Hang on for the ride.

1

MPS — THE COPIER SALESPERSON

This one's for all the copier salesmen and women who work under pressure each day, trying to make the numbers and facing the challenges of keeping up with an industry that is rapidly expanding and an economy that is tanking.

What keeps these brave soldiers going?

Hope. Pure and simple.

A soldier fights until the bitter end, rejoices in victory and feels crushed and angry in defeat.

When expectations are set unreasonably high and quotas aren’t met, the commission checks stop coming. And when this scenario becomes perpetual, this leads to defeat, disillusionment and, more often than not, burnout.

Did you ever believe?

Were you ever a dreamer?

Ever imagine hearts open and free?

Did you ever deny?

Were you ever a traitor?

Ever in love with your blood lust and need?

This is a call to arms, gather soldiers…

~ Vox Populi , 30 Seconds to Mars

A soldier needs a good commander.

Without solid leadership he may perish.

I’ve seen real leadership in action. Just a short while ago, in Australia. Here are some of my observations (posted on October 29, 2011):

I did not expect to discover, to see what I saw: National pain, wrapped with dignity, respect, and honor.

You see, the news of the day included Qantas grounding their entire worldwide fleet over some union troubles — inconvenient, yes. But that wasn’t the reason for the somber mood expressed to a nation and from a nation. That was due to the word of three Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

This struck me. Afghanistan is OUR war. Fun-loving Aussies aren’t supposed to get blown up.

Emotions rifled through me — sadness, remorse, and, just when I was getting to guilt, the Prime Minister of Australia took center stage in a nationally broadcast news conference to specifically address the death of these three brave soldiers.

I had never heard her speak before — hell, I didn’t even know Australia had Prime Ministers! But there she was, addressing the press. Steadfast, articulate, knowledgeable — when she knew the facts, she stated them; when she didn’t know the facts, she said so. She did not mislead, there were no grey areas in her responses.

As I listened, drawn, almost hypnotized in a moment of refreshing confidence, I noticed something else.

She wasn’t using a teleprompter.

My embarrassment over pulling friends into our fight gave way to shame, then to anger.

Was I pissed over a war we shouldn’t be in? No. The bad guys took down my Towers and killed fellow salespeople while they drank Starbucks.

It was the absent teleprompter that got me. If you know me, then the question I asked won’t surprise you:

Why doesn’t The United States of America have this level of leadership?

That’s the thought that pissed me off. It gets worse. Julia Gillard covered all the aspects — expressing grief, sadness, and bitterness over these deaths. She revealed discussions with her military commanders, the U.S. field commander and her Canadian counterpart.

Apparently, her discussion with the President of the United States did not rise to a level comparable to the Prime Minister of Canada.

Oh, wait, the O was prepping for his appearance at the National Italian American Gala Saturday night and probably just couldn’t get a call off. Nice.

What do the Wizardess of Oz and President O have to do with MPS? One word: Leadership.

We’ve known this from the beginning — to be successful in MpS, upper management and/or ownership must be committed and willing to transform.

Successful MpS leadership knows who they are, has a clear understanding of MpS, manages through an open, clear narrative and trusts the people around them.

They stand up and explain the situation when things go wrong and spread the admiration around when things go right.

They are not wishy-washy. They own their space and are committed to their team and mission. When addressing the team, they don’t require a script or a teleprompter.

They don’t play a round of golf while Rome burns; they do reach out to co-workers when tragedy hits.

Lessons learned.

Like any good commander-in-chief, the sales manager will motivate, mentor, and monitor.

And, like any good soldier, the copier salesperson continues to hope.

DOTC BLOG | August 13, 2008

The Death of The Copier Salesperson

Some feel the current model is broken. Now what?

Over at Ken’s, a new contributor penned an article regarding the current state of copier salespeople. It is a good read: Are Your Solutions Sales Stalled? We’ve Been Expecting You.

I am going to borrow Max’s definition of Solution Sales:

"so· lu· tion / [suh-loo-shuh n] –noun

Anything you sell other than just copiers. My copier proposal was half the price and I still got crushed! They said that even though we have been their copier vendor for the last 10 years, going forward it was in