Who makes Xerox Copiers \ MFDs???

I know that at one time or another every Manufacturer will relabel someone elses device to fill a gap in their line. But it blew me away at HOW MUCH RELABELING XEROX IS DOING!

We were competing for a customer’s business against Xerox. Xerox had already proposed 4 different Xerox models for this customer’s fleet of MFDs. Doing our due diligence we looked up these models on BLI and to my surprise saw that each of these 4 Models had a different manufacturer!!!! I didn’t expect this from Xerox. I was especially surprised to see SAMSUNG & Konica Minolta listed as two of the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer). See excerpts from the 4 BLI reports below.

I don’t know any customer who would knowingly mix 4 different types of MFDs for their fleet. By Xerox relabeling the 4 different OEMs the customer doesn’t know they are doing exactly that. Hopefully this article will allow customers to make an informed decision.

No wonder I hear so many horror stories about Xerox struggling to network their devices when they are made by so many different manufacturers. There is no way a Technician will be completely knowledgeable on 4 different lines. If you have a jar of pickles BUT you label the jar apples it may fool some people initially, but it doesn’t change what’s in the jar! So even though it says Xerox on the out side, it could be Samsung, or Konica Minolta, or Fuji, on the inside.  I thought that you would like to know.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Why is single clicking an 11×17 on a “copier” legal?

I was talking to my VP of Service, Mike McLaughlin the other day and he posed the question why is it legal to set a Copier \ MFD’s meter to only make a single meter click on an 11×17 page when it is twice the size of a standard Letter (8 1/2 x 11) page? That would be like having the option to set your car’s odometer to only count every other mile when it ran on certain roads, or when it was driven by certain drivers. That would actually be against the law, because you would be defrauding the person who would buy that car after you. Isn’t that the same on a copier? Would it be OK if Airplanes only counted certain hours that they flew? How would that effect their maintenance or resale value? As a consumer would you be OK flying on that plane? What if you as a consumer couldn’t tell which cars or planes had their meters “adjusted” to only count a portion of what they should? I would want to know so that I could make an informed choice, wouldn’t you?

Why would anyone want to set up the Total (main) Copier meter to single click an 11×17 page? There is really only one small segment of the business community that wants their copiers set up this way, and that is “Print for Pay”, or Quick Printers. Because they both sell and are charge by the page, it is the printing industry that insists on having their copiers \ MFDs set to single click on 11×17. Their is no other group that I can think of that really cares about it. Now I don’t dislike Print for Pay companies. I made a good living selling to Print for Pay when I was a Color Sales Specialist. Print for Pay buys top of the line equipment, often with high end accessories that is why sales people like them. On the other hand Print for Pay businesses (thanks to Larry Hunt) expect uber-competative pricing (for equipment and service) and demand a high level of service. They are one of the few customer who will pull out a “loop” to show you an imperfection in a copy or print that can not be seen with the naked eye. Print for Pay companies are also notorious for not paying their service on time, or wanting to negotiate down their overages. Now I realize that this is a generalization and that there are some P4P companies that do pay in full and on time, but in my experience they are more the exception rather than the norm.

So why should one small business segment get to dictate to all copier manufactures that they have to have this “feature” to short the total meter? If these companies did a normal amount of 11×17 that a typical business did, this wouldn’t be that big a deal. But most of these Printers run all of their 8 1/2 x 11 jobs two up on 11×17 paper and they cut them in half after they are printed or copied. This cuts their cost in half, which is great for them but who suffers? The consumer who buys a used copier in the aftermarket! These print for pay shops put a lot of clicks on their copiers \ MFDs. When you consider that the actual total clicks could be twice what the total meter reads these MFDs should be junked and not resold. This sure seems to to fit the definition of fraud, IMHO.

We have state divisions of weights & measures, and the attorney generals have offices of fraud and consumer affairs to stop this kind of abuse for cars, and trucks, and planes, and scales. But not copiers or MFDs at least not yet. I understand that Print for Pay is very competitive business, but I think allowing them to set their total meter to count 11×17 (which is twice the size of the standard 8 1/2 x 11) as one click is wrong.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Looking back on 25 years in the Industry

Maybe I am feeling a little nostalgic. The New Year fast approaches, and I have been writing this blog for 3 years. As I look back over a long an interesting career, I got to thinking about just how long I have been in this industry and all of the different jobs I have held. I have been a Trainee, a Service Tech, Troubleshooter, Field Service Manager, Salesman, Systems Engineer, Solutions Manager, and now an Executive.

I started working for 3M BPSI in Manhattan, NY in 1978, my first real job out of high school. I had a walking territory in the midtown and uptown of the East Side of NYC. Since I didn’t use a car, I didn’t get a Car allowance, but I did get $75.00 every quarter for shoes (LOL). I was originally trained to repair microfilm machines but in December of 1979 I was trained on 3M’s Secretary II Alpha Model 368 Copier. Believe it or not, I still have my diploma. That was the first copy machine that I was trained on. It came with a pair of large wooden tongs and you needed to have an empty solid metal waste basket next to it, because sometimes the paper would get stuck under the “toaster oven” like heater and catch fire. You were instructed to use the wooden tongs to remove the paper (while it is on fire) and put it in the empty, solid, metal waste can to “safely burn out”. Now consider that I use to service equipment in NYC 30 floors up and higher! Can you imagine OSHA being OK with a copy machine where the paper occasionally caught fire! Those were the good old days LOL.

I took about a 10 year break from the industry when I left in 1980 for school and travel, and returned in 1989 as a trainee copy service technician (in the Boston area) first on Mita copiers, and then Canon. While working at this large regional dealership I became a Troubleshooter, and then Field Manager, managing a dozen technicians who serviced the high volume Canon equipment (50ppm and up). In the early and mid 90′s the digital copier came on the scene. My Dealership sent two managers to Novell CNE school (back then Novell had 60% of the Server Market). The Service manager decided to go himself and took one Field Service Manager with him, I was a Field Service Manager but not the one chosen for Novell School. But it was apparent to me that these digital copy machines would drastically change our industry, so I paid for the Novell CNE training out of my own pocket (my then wife was NOT happy about that). when I finished all the classes and associated test to earn my CNE (Novell Certified Network Engineer) both of the managers who were CNE’s gave their notice within two weeks of each other. Leaving me as the only CNE on staff. After financial arrangements were worked out to cover my out of pocket costs I was made a part of the Connectivity Team, and in six months I was manager of the team. I managed that team for several years, and almost took a job with eCopy but decided to stay at NECS. After maxing out my earning potential managing the Systems Support team I decided to go over to “the dark side” (LOL), I became one of three Color Sales Specialists. At this time my dealership was a single line Canon dealer. The CLC was in the sunset of its domination and the ImageRUNNER C3200  had just been released. My first year I sold a little over 3/4 of a million dollars @ 36 profit margin.My favorite deals were selling a New IRC 3200 with a used CLC1150 that package would meet all of my customers needs. The CLC5000′s were still a very viable product in the Print for Pay market.

Then Canon released the infamous C3100 & C6800 hybrid B&W/Color devices that changed things again. I was sitting in a sales meeting when the Director of Sales started chiding the sales force for NOT selling these C3100′s and C6800′s on their own (without the color specialists). I caught him as we left the meeting and said, “so my job is going away?”, he looked at me sideways and said “why do you say that?”. I laughed and asked him if he was just in the same meeting I was. After thinking about what he said in the meeting he said to me, I can see how you might think that, but assured me he would make room for me as a down the street rep. Not really what I had in mind.

Shortly after that Sales meeting I got a call from a Major Account Rep who left the Dealership and went to work for Ricoh Business Systems (RBS) now Ricoh Business Solutions. He told me that they were reconstituting their “Solutions Team” and were looking for someone like me to run the team. After 3 long and intense interviews I was offered and accepted the job of Solutions Manager for RBS-Boston (The New England Market Place). I was later told that in a cost cutting measure Ricoh had disbanded their previous Solutions Team, and were surprised when their sales tanked (DUH!). I took about a year to get the chemistry right between the Solutions Team and the Sales force. But once we did we were a formidable force. The second year I was their RBS-Boston hit our triple crown numbers. We were the only branch out of 13 US branches to do it that year, and RBS-Boston had never done it before in the history of that branch. I was a part of a great management! The branch awarded me an MVP trophy that year. I still have it in my office today.

The Lanier \ Ricoh merger was announced towards the end of that year. We went down to a joint (Ricoh \ Lanier) year end meeting. I was psyched for that meeting! Why not, we were the only branch to knock it out of the park that year. We were strutting around when we got there, when I was told that they would be changing the structure of the branches. I naively said “to match how RBS-Boston is set up?” No, not exactly….. They moved my team into the Service department… I thought WTF? Do you have any idea what we do? or what it took to accomplish what we’ve done? Apparently not. This is when I lost respect for Ricoh’s management because they don’t respect results. They are more concerned about all the branches being the same (= mediocre). How can you work for a company that asks you to accomplish difficult goals and when you do it they change everything that you work so hard to put in place. I can’t and choose not to work for them anymore. I was offered the job of Vice President for the Dealership I worked for back in ’89.

I have been back with NECS for over 4 years, and when you add that to my previous 16 1/2 years I have worked for NECS for a little over 20 years now. So please indulge me in this short stroll down memory lane. This industry has been very good to me. I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some great people. I know that not everyone is cut out for it, and many people burn out after a few years. But for those of us who call it “our industry”, it has shaped us as much as we have shaped it.

What will 2012 bring? I have no crystal ball. But making it through the Tsunami and double dip recession of 2011 still standing tall, I have great expectations for 2012. I hope that it will be good to you too! Happy New Year! Bring on 2012!

That’s my $0,02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

2012 will see more consolidation of the “copier” Industry

While the purchase of Oce by Canon, and Ikon by Ricoh are old news, both of these organizations have continued to be players in the industry. But it looks like that will change in 2012. The word on the street is the Ikon name will cease to exist in April 2012, and Canons recent move to “delist Oce” forebodes the same for the Oce name http://www.canon.com/news/2011/dec22e.html

While the number of choices for companies narrow even further in 2012, the basic choice remains the same when it comes to who will you buy an MFD from? And even more important who will service and support that MFD after the sale? The second question is best answered BEFORE the first question!  Because a cheap initial price will soon be forgotten in the face of poor service and support. It is quality service and support AFTER THE SALE that brings the real value to the deal. Is a few dollars less a month worth the head aches and complaints from your staff & coworkers for the next 3 to 5 years. I know that Purchasing Agents like to boil it down to a like for like comparison and then negotiate the cheapest price possible. And in some cases you may even be comparing the same manufacturer’s MFDs from two different vendors. What will you use to differentiate one Dealer from another? Here are a couple of things to consider:

1) How long has this Dealer been servicing the equipment they sell?

2) What is the average experience of their technicians on the equipment you are buying?

3) How long have they been selling and servicing in your area?

4) What kind of reputation do they have for Service & Support after the sale?
Anyone can provide  3 references, so talk to other companies in your area,
or check the BBB to  see what their rating is.

5) Do they have local System Engineers on staff? How many? Or does the same copier tech who
changes the heat roller do the systems work? Are you comfortable with that?

When you go out to buy a car, do you look for the cheapest car you can find? And then take it to the cheapest repair shop to maintain it? Generally not, especially if you are spending your own hard earned money, you want VALUE for your dollar! Why then does “common sense” go out the window when we are buying something for our company? When we buy a Car, or a TV, or a Suit we don’t look for the cheapest, we look for the best value, and I will pay a little more for it because it will last, and when I find a vendor,merchant, or car mechanic that gives me good service after the sale, I go back there again and again. And I tell other people to go there as well, because they gave me a good value, and good service after the sale.

So what are your 3 main choices in 2012 when it comes to buying an MFD (Copier)?

1. The Direct Sales Arm of the Manufacturer, the  _BS Branch (CBS, RBS, TABS, KMBS)
2. The Large Regional Dealers
3. The Mom & Pop Dealer – small, local, shop with a couple of techs.

If you are a very small office with one small piece of equipment you might consider the small Mom & Pop dealer. You needs will not likely tax their limited resources. But If you have multiple MFDs or multiple offices you are really down to two choices, the _BS Branch or a Large Regional Dealer. The Branch will say “We are the Manufacturer, why would you want to deal with anyone else”. CBS, RBS, TABS, and KMBS have never manufactured anything. They are just another sales channel and are treated no different than any other Sales Channel by the actual manufacturer (Canon, Ricoh, Toshiba, Konica Minolta). But even if the _BS Branch was “The Manufacturer”, what does that mean to you? You still need to answer the question How good is their service & support (after the sale) going to be? Past performance is the best indicator of future results. If you have a large regional dealership that has been in business for 30 to 40 years they have survived and thrived on good service & support. So do your due diligence and look for the best value in 2012. Because the sweet taste of the cheapest price will soon sour when poor service and support cause you head aches not just in 2012 but 2013, 2014, 2015, and beyond. I like to tell potential customers up front that we won’t be the “cheapest” company that they look at, and if that is what they want, “the cheapest”, they shouldn’t be looking at us. We will be competitive, and we will provide the best value for their dollars. But good service & support cost a little more. So you decide in 2012 what you want “The Cheapest Initial price” or “The Best Value for your money”. I already know what I will pick!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Merry Christmas!

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Luke 2:1 – 20

I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, and a very prosperous and Happy New Year! If 2011 was not all you wanted it to be, ask yourself what will you do differently in 2012? Because one practical definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.

Vince McHugh

Fiery Color Substitution saves the day!

In the early days of connecting copiers as network printers a Fiery rip (print engine) was a hands down must for anyone serious about printing. I know of one deal where a dealer sold 50 Konica Minolta MFDs to a manufacturing company and they had so much trouble with the early version of the stock embedded print engine that the dealer had to retro fit all the Konica Minolta with Fierys after the sale. The customer was so gun shy that each dealer who placed equipment on the next round of bidding was forced to supply MFDs with Fiery rips. It was only after demonstrating that the new Canon embedded print engine would print all of their documents from all of their applications that we won the bid without having to place Fierys on every Canon.

Don’t think for a minute that I am not a fan of the Fiery Rip, I think Fiery Rips are amazing and can do what nothing else can do quite as well. But the cost significantly more than the standard OEM embedded print engines, The key to successfully placing a Fiery is finding the problem that only the Fiery can solve, and then sell the value. Customers will sometime squawk about having to spend more, but value doesn’t mean the cheapest option, it means the best available for the money. Fiery is often the best value.

So when do I lead with a Fiery? Of course for Graphic Artists, a Mac house, a Print for Pay business, or CRD (Central Reproduction Departments) are all no brainers. But what about a law firm or any customer that DEMANDS critical color matching? We recently put a Canon C7065 with a Fiery A-1 rip in a Law Firm that had recently purchased a Xerox in another city with no Fiery. I spoke to the IT manager who ws involved in the Xerox purchase and he said that he didn’t think much of the Fiery because “they could only affect Pantone colors” (which is not true).  My salesman set up a training session so we could address any concerns about color. The customer handed me their standard corporate color specification sheet. On it were their three main colors, as well as about a half dozen secondary colors. Each color had a Pantone Color, as well as both an RGB formula, and a CMYK formula. Now most people know that Fiery has the best color management optins on the planet. The Graphics Arts package has amazing tools, but what about the standard A-1? Well there is “Spot On” which has always allowed us to edit the Pantone Colors to match them to what the customer thinks they should be. But what about the RGB or CMYK colors? What you may not know is “Spot On” does more than just Pantone editing, Now you can substitute any RBG or CMYK color and change it to any CMYK color you think it should be.

I took their standard color sheet and punched in their nine RGB colors and substituted the CMYK formulas listed next to them, and the colors came out dead on. This worked extremely well except for their “Caseware” documents, the red was still off. Why? Because it was a jpeg image of their 3 primary colors and NOT the actual RGB formula. While the image was RGB color it was NOT the same formula as was on their sheet. It just looked similar. Does that mean we can’t substitute those colors, because they are an image? Not at all, the problem is we don’t know what the formula for THAT THREE COLOR IMAGE IS. But the Fiery’s Graphic Arts package lets us inspect the document to see what the RGB formula is, and once we know that we can apply the CMYK formula that they demand. So that is what I did, I used the Fiery GA package to figure out what RGB colors the Fiery saw the 3 Color JPEG as and then used the “Spot On” color substitution to map those RGB colors to their CMYK corporate standard colors.

Too many sales people shy away from Fiery Rips because they are more expensive. But I have used the Fiery Color Management to win deal after deal. And that will beat the cheapest price more often than not (as long as it is presented correctly). Who among us goes out to by the cheapest TV, or Suit, or Computer we can find? No! we don’t buy the cheapest, we look for value! Why should buying a color MFD be any different.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Mobile Printing doesn’t have to be “all or nothing”!

iPads, iPhones, Androids, Blackberies, and a plethora of assorted tablets,,, what is an IT Manager to do?

There was a time when IT Managers could stop “rouge” devices from getting on THEIR network. But smart phones and tablets are multiplying and permeating every segment of work and home. An IT manager can no longer say NO to these devices. So What are the alternatives? For the most part it has been all of nothing. It has typically been either print to what ever device you can figure out how to print to or, you can’t print from that blasted iphone (or smart phone) not no how, not no way!

There is another option….SECURE MOBILE PRINTING! That is what the new UniFLOW Secure Mobile printing offers.

Take a look at these Mobile Secure Printing links:

http://download.nt-ware.net/partner/Sales_Tool/EN/index3e89.html?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=42&Itemid=54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWNtcM2jdt8

If Mobile Printing is the “wild west”, then UniFLOW’s Secure Mobile Printing is the “new sheriff in town”!

NECS is doing a Technology Forum in Boston on 11/17/2011 to show off this new technology. If you would like to join us you can see this new Secure mobile printing by contacting me directly by the information below.

THAT’S MY My $0.02
VINCE MCHUGH
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ
603-765-2767 Cell#

That is exactly what we are showing at the NECS Boston Demo Room on 11/17/2011 next week!

Ricoh slashes it’s net income 55%

Bloomberg reports:

“The following companies may have unusual price changes in Japanese trading on October 31. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are as of the latest close. The information in each item was released after markets shut unless stated otherwise. ….

Ricoh Co. (7752 JT): The office-equipment and camera maker slashed its full-year net income outlook 55 percent to 10 billion yen, citing costs from the company reorganization, earthquake and foreign exchange. The stock sank 1.7 percent to 681 yen. “

I heard late last week that Ricoh would be making some big announcements this week. Based on this information, which according to Bloomberg they posted after close of market on Friday,  it seems logical that a reorganization, and realignment of Ricoh \ Ikon will likely be the “announcement”.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

NECS 2011 Boston Technology Forum: First in the nation sneak peak at UniFLOW’s Secure iPad & iPhone Printing

This is an Invitation only event. If you live in New England and are interested in attending, email me directly and I will try to save you a spot. Guests need commit to a particular time slot so that each group will be able to get the most out of this event.

Vince McHugh
VP \ Network Solutions
NECS
vince.mchugh@necs.biz

When is a “Solution” not a “Solution”?

One of my sales people & I recently met with a large Church that had previously purchased MFDs from a Xerox \ Global Copier Dealer that still carries Konica Minolta. When we met with them they told us about a mailer that they do every month to their parishioners. They were printing out labels and applying them by hand before mailing them out each month. A very labor intensive process.

When we spoke to them about doing Variable Data Printing, of which mail merge is the most basic, and most often used form of VDP, they produced a copy of PrintShop Mail (still in the package) which the Xerox Global Dealer had sold them for an additional $1,000.00. They said that they included a single online training session, but no hands on follow up from the Xerox Global solutions person. So they were naturally a little skeptical about me telling them we could train them to do Variable Data Printing for this monthly mailer.

Now I have sold Atlas (and now Objectif Lune) PrintShop Mail, and it is a great solution in the right situation for highly complex VDP print jobs, but selling it to a church to do a mail merge for a monthly news letter (without any real training) is like giving a toddler a bazooka to kill a fly. Yes, it could do the job, but the likely out come will not give you the desired result. A simple fly swatter is a much more elegant solution to the problem of a fly.

We asked them to email me the MS Publisher files that they used for their monthly mailer, and then come in for a demo. I set up our MS Publisher to do a Mail Merge. When we did the demo I showed them their files with a Mail Merge already set up, and with the click of the “print” button out came a run of the churches monthly mailer already addressed to each of their individual parishioners. While I did not show them how to set up MS Publisher to do mail merge during the demo, I did guarantee them that if they gave us their business I would come in an give them hands on lessons on how to set up the mail merge in their MS Publisher, and left them my business card with my cell phone so they would know they could call me personally if they have trouble afterwards. My sales guy got the deal signed this week, and we will be delivering the MFD shortly. I will schedule the follow up training once the equipment is delivered.

A genuine “Solution” often combines, hardware, software, and know how to solve a business problem. When the Xerox Global dealer up sold them Printshop Mail for $1,000.00 with no commitment to this church to make sure that they would learn how to use it, they stole a $1,000.00 from the church! You make think that is a harsh statement, but a good business deal encompasses an exchange of currency for value. The Xerox Global sale of Printshop Mail imparted no value to this church. Because while it had the potential to do what the rep said, without a committed dealer to make it work, the church received no value for their $1,000.00 purchase. The Church understood this, and remembered it when it came time to buy again.

Too many Branches & Dealers have significant turn over in their sales force. So a sales person or solutions engineer who screws a customer on one deal, are often gone by the time the customer’s lease is up in 3 to 5 years. So the new sales person can claim innocence. It’s better to deal with a seasoned sales person who treated you right the last time. Treat your customers right, be just as attentive after the sale as you were when you were trying to win their business and you will add value and earn the right to get their renewed business at a reasonable margin. You don’t, and shouldn’t have to be. the cheapest bid, if you have proven the value that you will bring before and after the sale. Most people will buy value over cheap!

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon terminates Ikon as an Authorized Canon Dealer

On October 31st 2008 Canon issued a public letter confirming what had been widely speculated, that Ikon (now a Ricoh Company) is no longer Authorized to sell OR SERVICE Canon equipment. This of course does not mean that they have to stop servicing Canon equipment, but they will not be authorized by Canon to do so. Canon does say in this letter that they will continue to sell Ikon “spare parts” for 3 years, and provide “certain technical support for at least one year”.

So what does this mean to you if your company has Canon equipment that you purchased from Ikon or is currently serviced by Ikon? The first thing I would do is see if your Ikon Service agreement is tied into your lease. This was a common Ikon practice because it makes it harder for you to get service elsewhere. If it is not wrapped into the lease it will make it easier to switch to an Authorized Canon Service provider. But you should speak to your legal counsel regarding this agreement. One significant aspect of your Ikon Canon service agreement that has changed is when you signed this agreement Ikon WAS an authorized Canon Service Provider, it can easily be argued that when they lost that status, it diminished the value of their service to your company. I think that you could even make the arguement that Ikon broke the service agreement.

If you are in a long term lease with Ikon for Canon equipment then it is very important that you make plans to obtain authorized Canon service. Let’s say you just signed a 5 year lease with Ikon for Canon equipment. Then the two time frames in the Canon letter to Ikon should really get your attention, because both of these terms are shorter then the terms of your lease. The first said that Canon would sell Ikon “spare parts” for three years. What will they do for the last two years of your lease for replacement parts? The second time frame mentioned is that Canon will provide Ikon “certain technical support” for “at least one year”.  Ikon does have it’s own tech support, but according to “the letter” there will clearly be some limitations on what tech support Ikon will get from Canon. This again seems to lessen the value of the service contract that you entered into with Ikon. I wold at least bring these issues to the attention to your legal counsel.

Now one thing that Ricoh said it would try its best to do in the next few years, “just to help you out” is try to “upgrade” your Canon equipment to Ricoh equipment. You may like your Canon equipment and not feel like replacing your entire Canon fleet with Ricoh equipment. You also may feel (like I do) that this would not be an “Upgrade”! When I first left the Canon Dealer to go to work for Ricoh Business Systems (now Ricoh Business Solutions), I was able to help convert several Canon accounts to Ricoh accounts. I came back to work for the same Canon Dealer 2 & 1/2 years later, and a number of those customers who tried the Ricoh equipment also came back to Canon. I often heard from these customers that they felt the Ricoh equipment suffered by comparisson to its Canon counterparts. Having supported both lines I would have to agree.

So what do you do now? You can seek an Authorized Canon Dealer. You can allow Ikon to switch you from Canon to Ricoh, or you can stick your head in the sand and believe the “business as usaual” hype that even the Ikon reps can no longer say with a straight face. The choice is (as always) yours.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Questions to ask Ricoh-Ikon regarding Canon Service

The Canon Ikon letter has been out for a while now, and the following statement seems to be getting the most attention.

“…Canon will continue to sell spare parts and supplies to IKON for three years, and will provide certain technical support to IKON for Canon brand business equipment for at least one year.”

The first thing that comes to mind is I hope that you didn’t just enter into a 4 or 5 year (service included) lease with IKON on Canon equipment since they will only be able to obtain Canon parts for three years. But if you did you have time (and options) to make some decisions on what will be best for your company.

The more interesting part of the Canon statement is that Canon will provide “certain technical support… for at least one year.” Even when you ask someone at Canon they will not give you a clear definition of what that means. They fall back on the legal disclaimer that it is a private agreement between IKON and Canon and that they either don’t know or can not disclose the exact terms. OK, Fair enough, but where does that leave you as a business person trying make sound business decisions about your company and who will service and support your current Canon equipment. As business people we make our decisions based on the best information available to us at the time.

The above statement as to what type of support Canon will or will not give IKON in the next year or beyond seems to be vague by design. But don’t worry,  I am going to help you get to the bottom of what kind of support you can expect from IKON on your Canon equipment.What you can do is ask your IKON-Ricoh Sales Rep, or IKON-Ricoh Service Manager to respond in writing to the following questions. These are questions that an Authorized Canon Dealer can answer “Yes” to.

Q1. Can the IKON technician call Canon Technical support? Do the IKON technicians have active Canon support IDs?

Q2. Do the IKON service technicians have access to the Canon eSupport Web Site and knowledge base?

Q3. Can the IKON service technician open up a problem ticket with Canon tech support?

Q4. Does the IKON service technician get access to all current Canon modifications for the Canon equipment  that s/he services?

Q5. Does the IKON service technician get access to all current firmware, and patches (including security patches), on all current Canon equipment that they service?

Q6. Does the IKON service technician get access to all Canon Technical Publications (Tech Pubs) for all of the Canon equipment that they service?

Q7. Can the IKON service technician escalate a technical problem to Canon Engineering?

Q8. Can the IKON service department request and receive an on site visit form a Canon technical specialist at your site, to help them resolve a service problem in the field?

Please get the answers to these questions in writing, or via an email. If the answer is yes to all of these, I will be surprised if it is, have them go to the Canon eSupport site http://www.support.cusa.canon.com/ Ask them to log in to this site in front of you. See what they can access.

But if it turns out (as I suspect) that the answer is “no” to some or all of these questions then you will have a basis to make an informed decision on just how much value your company lost when IKON lost their status as an Authorized Canon Dealer. After all they were an Authorized Canon Dealer when you purchased your Canon equipment from them, and they were an Authorized Canon Dealer when you entered into a Service contract with them. And it is IKON not you who changed the agreement, by losing it’s standing as an Authorized Canon Dealer. If their loss of standing costs your business the level of support that you originally negotiated for, then maybe you have a basis to break that contract (consult your legal department).

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: Is the proper spelling on the new Ricoh-Ikon entity Ricon or Rikon? I guess that will depend on who in management still has a seat when the music stops.

Is Konica Minolta dropping IKON as an Authorized dealer too?

That’s what I am hearing! That by the second quarter (Q2) of 2009 IKON will no longer be Authorized to sell Konica Minolta. IKON has sold a rebranded Konica Minolta (KM) line under the IKON name. How will Konica Minolta respond?

Who will service these IKON branded Konica Minolta’s? The problem that customers will have getting some other authorized KM dealer is that the IKON branded KM MFDs have unique toner bottles and firmware that was specifically designed to only be used in the IKON version of the KM MFD. Will  Konica Minolta break their agreement with IKON and begin to supply this special toner bottles and such to other dealers who are still authorized on KM equipment? 

One other possible option would be to have the KM Direct Branches pick up this service, but that would REALLY make the independent KM Dealers angry. KM has always stated that they do not give special treatment to their branches, so we will see how this goes.

The other thing that I am hearing is that the DANKA name will disappear completely this year. DANKA will be completely absorbed (PACMAN Style) into the direct Konica Minolta organization.

I think that it is a good time to be an Independent Dealer! Especially for those who carry both the Canon & Konica Minolta lines. Stay tuned for future developments on this story.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Can Ricoh, Konica Minolta, or Xerox do what Ikon, Danka, and Global couldn’t?

So the Manufacturers (Ricoh, KM, Xerox) have gobbled up the last of the national dealers (Ikon, Danka, Global). But will they be able to do what the large national dealerships couldn’t? Are not the direct sales & service arms of the Manufacturers the same as the national dealers were?

How will they do what their predecessors could not; stay profitable and continue to deliver premier service? Are the people who run the direct branches smarter, or better than those who ran Ikon, Danka or Global? If you know anything about our industry you will know that for the most part its the same people who worked for Ikon, Danka, or Global. We work in a very small industry, everytime I go to The Print on Demand \ AIIM show its like old home week catching up with all the people that you use to work with and finding out where they landed.

AA Defines “Insanity” as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results! My question to Ricoh, Konica Minolta, and Xerox is what are you going to do differently than Ikon, Danka, and Global did? If you don’t have a clear and decisive answer then you should expect the same mixed results as the companies that you acquired. Just being “bigger” is not a strategy. 

It’s a tough economy and we may be at the beginning of the Darwinian weeding out process of the weak. Panasonic seems to be getting out of our all too competitive business. See Art Post’s blog article http://mfpsolutions.blogspot.com/2009/02/panasonic-copier-division-dumps-all-but.html 

Who’s next? Toshiba, Sharp? Oce? I’ve heard rumors that Canon might be looking at Oce, Maybe they are feeling left out of the club (Ricoh, Konica Minolta, and Xerox). We shall see…

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Global (Xerox) buys Comdoc, what does that mean to Ricoh?

I have been reading about this Condoc sale to Xerox \ Global on a couple of blogs.

http://mfpsolutions.blogspot.com/2009/01/xerox-company-agrees-to-buy-comdoc.html

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2009/01/comdoc_inc_sold_to_global_imag.html

And then I got to talking to a friend who use to run the printer program for Ricoh in the Northeast. He reminded me that Comdoc was one of Ricoh’s biggest customers. How big? Enough so that if they stop selling Ricoh products, Ricoh will feel it. This couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ricoh. I have heard from those within Ricoh that sales for the last few months have not been good. We know that Ikon can no longer sell Canon, and (from what I am hearing) soon they won’t have the ability to sell their relabeled version of the Konica Minolta product. On top of that heap on the slumping economy and this should accelerate the merger process between Ricoh & Ikon. While the first to go will likely be the redundant executives and management (some from Ikon and Some from Ricoh) just like they did when they merged with Lanier. But the Sales People and the Tecnicians won’t be far behind. I lived through the Ricoh \ Lanier merger and the last time their was a merger like that was when the Titanic merged with the Iceberg!

The last time that there was a merger like Ricoh Lanier...

So things are starting to look pretty gloomy for Ricoh, they make this huge purchase of ikon, financing a large debt on top of what they overpayed for ikon, Canon drops them (ikon) as a Dealer, Comdoc (one of their largest customers) gets bought by Xerox \ Global, and it looks like Konica Minolta is going to drop them (ikon) soon. WOW! That is a lot to deal with! I hope that Ricoh has really deep pockets and can ride this out. I still have a lot of friends who work for that company.

I am starting to feel bad for Ricoh, do you think that they will be able to get a bailout from Washington? Hey its worth a try everyone else who has made bad business decisions and run a company into the ground seems to be standing in line in Washington with their hands out. Why not Ricoh?

Gunnerdog posted the following on on the http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2009/01/comdoc_inc_sold_to_global_imag.html

“Being the low cost provider without a reasonable return can be sustained by growth for only so long. Lochridge’s comment of, “Nothing is going to change”, is a joke. Xerox (Global) spending upwards of $80 million so Comdoc can continue to sell Ricoh doesn’t fly and Ricoh won’t sit still while Xerox upgrades their base either. Further, Ricoh isn’t listed as a Business Partner or Vendor on Global’s web site.”             Posted by Gunnerdog on 02/02/09 at 9:32AM

I was recently chided because Canon “screwed” their loyal customers (in one guys opinion) by dropping ikon as a dealer. But it is the reality of our very competitive business (and this is the business that we have chosen) that you don’t buy a company so that you can help your competitor sell their products (at least not long term). The dilemma that you face is who do you hurt worse your competitor or yourself by dropping them as a dealer? In someways its like getting Chemo Therapy for Cancer. Yes it kills you a little but it kills the cancer faster.

There really isn’t a painless way to do handle it for either party. But pain can be good (REALLY? Yes Really!). Where there is pain there is opportunity. So if you find customers who are in pain or turmoil over the turbulance that our industry is experiencing you have the opportunity to ease their pain. Are you ready to step up? Because I am.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Do the Copier Manufacturer’s Sales practices rise to the level of “dumping”

Have you ever heard a Salesman called a “give away artist”? Or have you been in a deal against a Sales person who “dropped his pants” to get the deal? Do you find yourself scratching your head when your hear what they “sold” (I use the term loosely) the MFD for?

Did you go into this business to starve? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it is wrong to make an honest profit on the equipment that you sell, especially if you have a history of taking care of your customers. (There is an added value here).

Along come the Direct Sales arm of the manufacturers. Usually with a name that ends with _BS (CBS, RBS, KMBS, TABS, or some other_BS). Is it just me or does it seem that the ONLY thing they have to compete on is price. Why is it that they always seem to be the cheapest? Could it be because one Manufacturer’s Direct Sales Branches lost $42 million dollars last year? It must be nice to have such deep pockets that you can afford to loose $42 million dollars in a year and still stay in business (OK, stop thinking about AIG, CitiBank, etc. we can talk about them another time).

How do you loose $42 million in a year? Could it be by pricing your equipment and service so low that it COSTS YOU MONEY to make the sale? Isn’t that the very definition of “dumping”, predatory pricing designed to buy market share and drive your competition (who actually sells for a profit) out of business? The concept of “dumping” is based on the fact that you can “bleed” longer than your competition. They (the Manufacturer) can afford to Loose money longer than most of your competition (We, as independent dealers are in business to actually make a profit).

It’s not just the guys who lost $42 million last year either. I worked for a different  _BS for a little over two years, and my last year there (right before their big merger with Lanier) we were the only direct _BS branch out of 13 direct _BS branches in the country to hit our “triple crown numbers” for the year. Which means 12 out of 13 didn’t! How do they stay in business? Maybe they just keep buying other companies (Savin, Lanier, Ikon….) to buy their market share. IF they were an Independent business, they would be OUT OF BUSINESS!!!

When I was the Solutions Manager at _BS \ Boston (New England) I brought one of the top sales guys over from my old company (happens all the time in our industry doesn’t it). When he made his first sale, the GSM (General Sales Manager) for the Boston Branch was bragging to the VP who ran all of the direct branches about his first sale and the profit that he made (personally) and for the branch. The Corporate VP (an Accountant type) said to the GSM you need to look at that deal to make sure that he didn’t do anything unethical. UNETHICAL!!! Oh My God! He MADE A PROFIT, Somebody arrest that Salesman, HOW dare he make a profit!!! Who the hell does he think he is!!!! After all doesn’t he understand that we are in business to give the equipment away and he is screwing up our plan by actually making a profit.

This is what happens when you put a “bean counter” in charge of a Sales orginization. How do you put someone in charge of a Sales force who themselves have NEVER sold anything in their life! Am I out of line saying that it is necesary for you to have made a quota and sold for a profit to manage those that do. If you have never done this, it doesn’t make you a bad person, but it does mean that you are not going to be repected by those who have gotten up every morning thinking about their quota and their margin. But maybe I digress…

The Direct Sales Branches of the Manufactures, the _BS organizations seem to give it away. Am I wrong about this? They not only give away the equipment (which is bad enough) but they try to give away the service (if their Service Manager is too weak to stand up to these Give away artist). These are the people who have set the bar at 4.5 cents for an 11×17 color page (Single Click)!!! You Can NOT, repeat NOT even break even, never mind make a profit at that price. So WHY DO THE MANUFACURER’S OFFER IT. In my opinion THEY ARE DUMPING!!! and that is illegal. I will say that our VP of Service (Mike McLaughlin) at NECS will not put up with this, why? Because he knows, and he makes sure that we know, that IF he is going to give the customer the GREAT SERVICE that they are acustom to from NECS that he can not, and he will not do it for this price. We regularly tell customers that if you are looking for the CHEAPEST then you don’t want us (NECS). Because we are not CHEAP, we will give you the best value, but we are not the cheapest.

So, It may be necessary for those of us who actually turn a profit in this business to call to task the direct branches who loose money each and every year. If you can’t do what we do, and make a profit then GET OUT! It doesn’t make you a bad person just unfit to manage a Copier \ MFD organization. You are ruining this business for those of us who can do it and make a profit. And I think that if you can’t make a profit then you are “Dumping” your equipment and your service, and that’s illegal! So Knock it off, you are not helping anyone in the long run.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

What’s up with Lexmark?

I was in an Industry conference about a year ago and there was a panel of financial analysts that specialized in our industry. They predicted a dark future for Lexmark. At first I was a little skeptical but I watched the news to see if what they said had any merit. After a while I started to see stories on Lexmark. When you begin to string together the following news items things begin to look grim for Lexmark.

Acacia Research, a firm that buys obscure patents, announced it has forced Dell & Lexmark to pay license fees for a patent it owns pertaining to network multifunction printer technology.  The dollar amount was not released.  Other companies that have already settled with Acacia are; HP, Samsung, Oce’, Brother, Epson, Muratec, Okidata, Panasonic & Toshiba.  Acacia reports that its total annual collections are up 45% to $13.8 million per year.

Lexmark warned that its fourth quarter financials would be lower than expected:
- stock shares went down 11%
- restructuring charge of $45 million
- Layoff of 375 jobs
- 17% drop in revenue
- Company started as a spinoff of IBM in 1991
- Stock dropped to $28.35 per share
- Still has 14,000 employees

And now we hear that Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service just lowered its rating on Lexmark to one notch above junk status, or BBB- . Lexmark stock has lost about half its value since peaking at $37.55 last summer.

What does the future hold for the once mighty Lexmark.  From where I am standing it doesn’t look good.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Are Ricoh’s employees paying for the Ikon aquistion?

We all know that Ricoh paid too much to purchase Ikon. Any of you that are in deals against Ikon know that Ricoh continues to spend liberally to pay off large leases for Canon equipment IF the customer will switch to Ricoh equipment (It must be nice to have deep enough pockets to buy market share). But who is paying the price for Ricoh generosity? Is it Ricoh’s employees?

In a cost cutting move. Ricoh apparently announced the following changes for its employees:

• Suspend the Employer match for the 401K plan for 2009
• No merit increase for FY2009
• bonus control program which caps payment at 75% of the annual potential for bonus payout
• Universal standard work week moves from 37.5 hours to 40 hours, without pay increase
• hope these actions will save $20 million in FY2009

Did I miss the part where they told us how much of a pay cut that Ricoh’s CEO was taking? After all wasn’t he at the helm for this growth by acquisition strategy. Buying companies (like Savin, Lanier, & Ikon) doesn’t guarantee you will capture there market share. Do you think Ricoh is beginning to figure this out?

It sounds like Ricoh is trying to balance their budget on the backs of the rank & file workers. Does Ricoh really think that they will keep there best & brightest people with this plan? I think not! Especially with the Large Independent Canon Dealers & CBS growing like crazy. Hey guys (& girls) come on over the water is fine over here.

We, the Independent dealers have continued to be fiscally responsible. We don’t buy our market share, we earn it. As a result we are growing and we are hiring. In this economy that’s a certifiable miracle!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Creating “chemistry” in a Sales Orginizations

Have you ever been a part of a Sales Team that had “chemistry”? Where the whole of the Team were greater than their individual parts? I have been fortunate to have been a part of a number of such sales teams. While I have sold for a living my real passion is the Solutions side of the team. A good Pre-sales solutions engineer or solutions salesman can really give your team a shot in the arm. A bad one (with too much ego) can do just as much damage to morale.

When I first took the job at _BS-Boston I showed up at the downtown showroom, the “Tech Portal”, Corporate had spent some decent money making this a top class showroom. I knew that I would be spending a good deal of time there. I asked the Sales Manager who ran the downtown office if I could get one of his parking passes (for me to hang on to). He looked at me skeptically and said “what do you need a parking pass for”? I said that I am planning to spend a lot of time in this demo room, and working out of this office. He said “Yeah, we’ll see”. He went on to tell me that none of the SEs liked coming in to Boston. After my third visit that week, he handed me a parking pass, and we began to develop a real good working relationship. The Sales Manager had a solid team of mostly young, but motivated, sales people. He had one or two more seasoned guys. But that team had chemistry. They worked together helping each other out on deals. They often would eat lunch together or go out after work together. This is not something you can force it had to be cultivated naturally. This downtown sales manager did a good job of developing a team culture.

When I first started talking with this Sales Manager for the downtown office I told him that it would take us a year to get things where we really wanted them. But after that we would see some real benefits. Why so long? Because when I arrived there was a distrust between the Sales & the Solutions people. Why? Because most Solutions people come up through the Service channel. And let’s face it there is a certain animosity between Sales & Service. We can’t afford to have that same animosity between Solutions & Sales! We MUST be a team. I believe that it is incumbent upon the Solutions Engineer to earn the trust of each Sales Person that they work with, and this is what takes time. It took us a year at _BS-Boston, but we did it and by the end of the second year we had shown what a Sales Team with Chemistry can do. We were the only _BS direct Branch to hit all of our numbers for the year. I am very proud to have been a part of that team.

How can the Solutions Engineer gain the trust of the Sales people that s/he works with? It REALLY helps if the Solutions Engineer has sold in a previous job. But it is REALLY hard to find a good technical person who has sold for a living too. If you do prepare to pay a premium for their services (it will be worth it). If they have not sold them selves they really need to be empathetic to what it is like for a quota bearing Sales Person. To get up every morning thinking where am I at on my quota, what will close this week, or this month? It is not enough to just dress a Systems Engineer (SE) in a suit and make them look like a Sales person, they have to think like one (at least to some degree) if the sales person is going to trust them. The biggest thing a Solutions Engineer has to show their Sales counterpart is that they are committed to doing what it takes to get the deal. They need to see that the Solutions Sales Engineer is invested in the deal, and that they will do everything (ethical) to get it.

This is all too often the missing ingredient to that illusive “chemistry” that we seek to develop in our sales teams.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Creating Chemistry (Part Two)

When I was at one of the _BS branches there were two very unique sales teams in the company, the one in California took a “REAL TEAM” approach. There were several members of this team, one was the phone guy (he set the appointments), a couple were the Account Reps (who were real good in front of the customers), there was the Sales Manager (who started the concept by putting her best accounts into the pot), and of course a Solutions Engineer. They all shared equally in the revenue of the deals that they brought in. Could your team do this? Maybe not but it worked for them. OK, maybe it does sound a little communistic but it was California after all, so it worked for them

When we talk about chemistry it is not an exact science. How you do it in San Fransisco may be different than what works here in New England. But which is more important, that we are individually successful? Or that we all do it the same way? Well, that depends upon who you ask and what culture dominates your organization. There is an American proverb that says “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. Contrast that to the Japanese proverb that says “the nail that stands up gets hammered down”. Now both may be true (to some degree) but they reflect a difference in cultures that I think should be considered when trying to create that illusive chemistry on your sales teams.

There was a different _BS branch that had a team of System Integrators that came to work for this branch (I beleve that it was in Detroit). And they did some amazing deals that revolved around customized solutions that their team had the know how to pull off. But the National Sales Organization is unhappy with individual success they wanted each of the _BS branches to be the same.

As I have mentioned in a previous post when I was at the _BS branch we were the only _BS branch of thirteen _BS branches to hit our triple crown numbers that year. How do you think you would feel (being a part of that Sales Team) going to the end of year meeting? I won’t lie we were strutting around, feeling pretty good about what we had done. Until we got to the end of year meeting and not a single word was said about what _BS-Boston had accomplished! Instead they spoke about how they were changing everything, not to mimick what we had been doing but something completely different. Something that had not yet been proven to be successful. They actually moved my team from reporting to Sales to the Service side of the house (WTF?). They clearly had no idea what pre-sales System Engineers do.

I have had the privilege to work with one of the best Pre-Sale SEs in the country, I have actually hired him 3 times. That’s how highly I regard his talents. When I first took him away from Ikon he said something in the interview that I have never forgotten, he said he was tired of someone at Ikon management “moving around the coconuts every six months”. It seems like some “genius” at corporate would have a “brain storm” to fix everything that was wrong with Ikon. So they would implement the new fix-it-all plan and change everything (even what had been working well before). In six months when that would fail the next “genius” would step up with his/her “fix-it-all” plan and begin to move the coconuts again. My absolute favorite asinine plan that Ikon had is when they split the city on Boston into two separate markets! So the southern part of the City was part of the RI Branch, and the northern part of Boston was a part of the NH Branch. ONLY A BEAN COUNTER could have come up with such a stupid plan. Of course “on paper” to the guy at corporate who doesn’t have to make such a stupid plan actually work in the real world, it probably looked good (at least on paper), It made one strong branch and one weak branch look like two mediocre branches. And that is the problem with corporate bean counters! They choose mediocrity over an individual commitment to greatness. They don’t leave the strong branch alone (or better yet ask them what they need to do it even better), and then focus on making the weak branch stronger, they feel compelled to change it all. Why? In a word arrogance! They think that they are smarter than the people in the field, after all they work for “Corporate” as if that alone makes them smarter. I have personally met more empty suits who worked for the corporate manufacturer than I could believe (not all, but way too many). People who I wondered how they got, or could possibly keep their job. IMHO.

The reason that I think that Ricoh & Konica Minolta are going to follow the same path (and hence get the same results) as Ikon & Danka is because they practice the same heavy handed Corporate (centralized) management that Ikon & Danka did. Fundamentally the Corporate office thinks that they know better than the people who run their branches, But almost without exception when they have a “Brain Storm” it is simply something that they saw work at one of their branches, and now EVERY branch must do it the same way. But what works in Chicago with the personnel that they have may fail miserably in Miami with their people. But all too often Corporate doesn’t get this point.

When I first interviewed with the Manufacturer, many years before I actually accepted an offer to become the Solutions Manager at the _BS-Boston branch I met with a hiring manager from Corporate. He recommended a book to me that was all the rage back at HQ in NJ. It was called The Agenda by Michael Hammer. I will say that one good thing that I got out of this book was that as companies we need to be “easy to do business with”. That nugget was worth the price and time I paid to read the book. But what made me laugh out loud was his notion that as managers we can train people so that they are basically interchangeable. That is a manager’s pipe dream. Would it be great for a manager if this was the case? Sure, because talent and ability and motivation would all be equal, so pay would drop and the managers job would be easy! Wouldn’t that be great! OK, back to the real world, the one  we we all actually live. People are not interchangeable. The primary job of a manger is to get and keep good people. This of course includes developing “good people”. If you do this your organizations will run well.

Have you ever read On a clear day you can see General Motors By John De Lorean? The biggest problem he faced when he took over GM was people had been cross promoted. He had Accounting people promoted to run Operations, and Operations people running Sales divisions, Sales managers running HR departments. Why because of this concept that good people are interchangeable. BULL! What makes a great Salesman would make a terrible Accountant, or Assembly line worker and visa versa. Sadly he had to clean house and begin to promote people with in their areas of expertise. We should all take a lesson from his book. This doesn’t mean that you can not change careers. I have been a Service Technician, A Field Service Manager, a Systems Engineer, a Sales Person, and now an Executive. But when I went from being a Field Service manager or an SE over to Sales I wasn’t put in charge of the Sales Department.

So I think we have well defined the problem that our industry faces. So what is the Answer? Have you noticed that when i often mention IKON or DANKA that I rarely lump Global in with them? If you did give yourself 10 points extra credit for paying attention Why? Because the Global Model of management was very different than IKON or Danka’s model. For the most part Global let the companies that they purchased run autonomously. The Global Corporate office DID hold them accountable to “hit their numbers” but they did NOT micro manage their day to day operations. This is where the centralized management of the manufacturers will fail. Global was the most profitable (I didn’t say the largest) of the three National Copier dealers because of this strategy. Politically it is the difference between a strong Federal government and a looser Confederacy (No I am not talking about slavery). A Confederacy is a looser association of States that cooperate together towards the common good or the common goals, But NY does it differently than GA. Like a Confederacy Global allowed their individual dealers to retain their management teams and styles that made Global want to buy them in the first place.

Let me ask you this, Do you hire good people? Do you think that they are qualified to do the job that you hired them for? Then why for God’s sake don’t you let them do the job that you hired them to do. Should you hold them accountable for results ABSOLUTELY! But if they are good at what they do, let them do it. Help them, measure their success, or failure, but don’t micro manage their day to day work. The one exception to this may be a brand new person, like a new sale person. They have not yet proven themselves. We don’t yet know IF they can do the job. The best thing you can do for a new sales person is manage their activity (Yes, I learned that at Ricoh U). What they “do” today will greatly impact their success or failure three months from now. But it drives seasoned sales professionals crazy when you try to change what they are already doing successfully just to make it uniformed with everyone else. It is often the reason they leave.

When I got hired by _BS-Boston to be the Solutions Manager I was told that Corporate had disbanded the previous Solutions team several years before and that it had a significant negative impact on the branches sales efforts (see above reference to “moving around the coconuts”). They wanted me to come in a reconstitute the Solutions Sales Team. Ricoh has a great Interviewing process. I won’t give away the details (you should experience this kind of interview for yourself sometime, you won’t soon forget it). I met with three separate managers, two of whom I ended up would working for directly. Good men all. My immediate manager ran a number of successful sales teams with sales managers reporting to him, and in my opinion he was a big reason why the branch was so successful. I have never worked for a better boss or one that could read me so well. It was almost scary. He had that great balance of professional and personable. People not only respected him (because he had proven himself to be a great salesman and manager) but he was, and is well liked too. That’s part of putting together the chemistry I spoke of. His boss (my bosses boss, when I was at _BS-Boston) was a long time industry guy. And I respected him. He was always decent and fair to me and I knew he had my back, with Corporate. These two men (My Bosses) told me what they wanted me to do, and then they actually let me do it. They knew the results that they wanted to see and they held me accountable for them, but neither of them had ever done my job, so they did not try to micro manage me. This was a great part of the chemistry of that branch. It extended beyond the local sales teams to the larger branch. I liked working there, they were good people, professionals.

And then the Lanier merge happened. Like I said they completely ignored what this branch had done because the other 12 branches weren’t doing well, so we (the geniuses at Corporate) have to fix all 13 branches so that they are the same (mediocre). BTW, How are they doing so far? At the end of year meeting when the coconuts began to get moved around, I was told that they were moving my team to service (EXACTLY what had happened to the previous _BS Solutions team before me). To his credit the VP who ran the Northeast (a guy I respect) came to me personally and told me it was just for “logistics”. He wanted to settle me down because I was floored by Corporate’ response (or lack of) to our year. But It did not turn out to be so. Originally they put a guy in charge of Service for the New England Market place that had previously managed 10 technicians. He was a nice guy but way over his head. Soon after I was assigned to report to him he came to me and said “Who tells you what to do?”. I said Joe, Ricoh hired me to manage, if someone has to tell me what to do, then you hired the wrong guy. He was only there for a short time, to fill the gap until they eventually brought in a couple of top notch service guys.

I knew it was time for me to go when everyone else in the management team had their comp plans in place except for me. I had a conversation with the gentleman who ran service for the region and he said to me “We are not sure what to do with you”? Sadly, I knew what he was saying. My Comp Plan would not work under Service, the measurables are not the same. We had meetings about all the new (coconut moving) things that my team of SEs and Solution Sales people were now going to do. I asked my Service manager well what about all the things that we had been doing to make this branch successful? Who is going to do those things? He paused for a moment, looked at his shoes, and said well (pause) you guys will still do ALL that too. I asked him “are we going to get comp’d on those things”? He said no. Well then you and I know that they are not going to get done. People, especially sales people, will only do what you pay them to do. That is the purpose of a comp plan.

As long as Ricoh, KMBS, and Xerox try to run their direct sales branches like Ikon & Danka did (rather than the Global model) they will get the same results. AA has a definition for insanity. They say that it is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: I will be on the floor at the On Demand \ AIIM show all day on 4/1/09 maybe I will see you there.

Canon’s UniFLOW Solution – Follow Me \ Secure Printing

Canon’s new MEAP application is the Swiss army knife of MEAP (Multi-Functional Embedded Application Platform) solutions.

But one feature in particular has caught my eye, the follow me (secure) printing functionality. With this functionality an end user who is logged in to their companies domain prints to one of two generic Canon Print queues (Either B&W or Color). Their print job is stored securely on the Canon UniFLOW server. The end user then walks to their closest Canon MEAP enabled UniFLow MFD and releases their job by Identifying themselves with a Proximity Card, or Swipe Card, or even a simple Pin Code that is associated with their Windows AD Logon.

Think of the ramifications of this. Not only does it give you secure printing but convenience AND redundancy! The secure printing benefits are obvious (compliance, and privacy with no need for personal printers). But the other benefits are more subtle but just as real. Convenience, actually security with convenience (See article on the Next Killer App). Because there is convergence of technologies between the Active Directory Logon that so many companies use, and the security swipe or proximity cards that companies often use to open their doors. Tie these together with your MEAP enabled Canon MFD and wallah! you have security with convenience.

Now add in redundancy, when the first Canon MFD is busy or down (that never happens) for a PM (of course) the end user is barely even inconvenienced. Because instead of having to go back to their desk and log back on to their PC (or set up their laptop again if they shut it down), and then open the application they had printed from and hopefully have a back up printer already set up, so they can FINALLY reprint their job in total frustration. Instead of that scenario with the Canon UniFLOW solution they simply walk to the next closest MEAP enabled Canon MFD (running the UniFLOW app) and release their job at that Canon MFD. No frustration, no waiting, no problems.

I know the techies will really like the secure part of this solution (the security people too), but the average end user will think that the redundancy feature is the coolest thing since they started slicing the bread BEFORE they wrapped it up! The help desk will also like the fact that they only need to support two print queues.

I know that Canon will be showing the UniFLOW solution (with all of its functionality) at the On Demand \ Aiim show in Philly this week. If you are going to be there you should stop by the Canon booth to see it. Those of you who sell or buy Canon’s will be in awe (since Canon owns this solution, it is a Canon only app). The other manufacturers can come by to see how its done.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: I will be on the floor at On Demand on 4/1/09.

On Demand \ AIIM Show 2009

I spent the day at the On Demand \ AIIM Show in Philadelphia today. The show was a little smaller on both the On Demand and the AIIM sides. Obviously a reflection of the tough economy. http://mfpsolutions.blogspot.com/2009/04/traffic-at-aiimon-demand-show.htm

I walked the floor up and down every isle but I could not find the Ricoh or Ikon booth. Oh how the mighty have fallen! There were years when when both Ricoh & Ikon had had two of the larger booths at On Demand, but not this year. I also heard that Sharp pulled out of the show at the last minute. Canon and Konica Minolta had two of the larger booths, Xerox too, even Panasonic had a small booth.

I saw a few Ricoh people there, but I hear that they were doing their end of year meetings so none of the sales reps. One Ricoh guy said that Ricoh didn’t want to have a booth at On Demand \ AIIM because they were concerned about their people passing out resumes at the show, that makes sense, especially with the recent cuts at Ricoh.

Even though the show did seem a little smaller and a the attendence was a little off it is still my single favorite show of the year. You get to see not only the great new solutions that your vendors are bringing to market, but also what the competition is show casing. And yes, if you have been in this industry for any length of time On Demand \ AIIM is like old home week. You get to catch up with many people you have worked with in the past.

I also got to have a Philly Cheese Steak and a Yuengling Lager at Jimmy’s Steaks. Worth the trip just for that!

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Ikon is no longer selling Konica Minolta

Well, I have been holding off on posting this but I have now heard from two differnt sources, on two different coast (East & Left Coast) that Ikon is no longer selling Konica Minolta equpment as of 04/01/2009.

The way I hear it, it wasn’t Konica Minolta that pulled the plug. I can’t imagine it was Ikon, those guys are desperate to sell anything other than Ricoh, so who does that leave? Right, Ricoh corporate. And that makes sense to me. The word is out (from their end of year meetings) that the Ricoh Direct Branches (RBS) tanked their numbers for the last quarter of their fiscal year. So Ricoh is hoping, praying, begging that their bright and shiney new purchase (Ikon) will save them. Ricoh corporate doesn’t want Ikon selling the Konica Minolta production equipment anymore, when they have been pushing their competing product line. We shall see if this works, or if it simply hurts Ikon. Ikon is truly now a one trick pony. All their eggs are firmly in the Ricoh basket. They have no other products to sell. I heard one Ikon customer remark that for years Ikon was telling me that the only reason they carried Ricoh was to sell it to people who couldn’t afford to buy a Canon (Their main line of MFDs), but all of a sudden they are telling me that Ricoh is the best product on the planet!!!! What changed, other than the fact that Ikon can no longer sell Canon. Nothing. Do they really think that their customers are that stupid? Apparently they do.

Now that the Ikon sales reps only have Ricoh to sell we’ll see just how good of a sales force they are. If I was in the market to find a new sales job, which I am not, the last place I would go is to work for Ricoh Business Solutions (RBS) or Ikon. These are both two fairly large sales orginizations selling the exact same product line often time in competing markets. At least if you are RBS you can spin it by saying “We are the manufacturer”, what is Ikon going to say? We are better than Ricoh because……… we use to work on Canon & Konica Minolta.

What if you purchased an Ikon CPP MFD (a relabelled Konica Minolta MFD) where does this leave you? Unfortunately for you, Mr Customer, you are in even worse shape than your Canon \ Ikon customer counterparts because at least Canon did not allow Ikon to sell a customized version of the Canon MFD that only Ikon could service or sell you toner for. Konica Minolta Japan did just that. They allowed Ikon to purchase their relabeled Konica Minolta MFDs as IKON CPP equipment. They also set it up so that ONLY Ikon is authorized to get the firmware or the toner for these Ikon CPP versions of KM MFDs. It’s not like you can go to an independent Konica Minolta dealer or even to the KM Direct Branch and buy their toner or a service contract. The Toner bottles were made special for Ikon and the regular KM toner bottles will NOT fit in the Ikon CPP version of the same machine.

Now if I owned an Ikon CPP version of a Konica Minolta MFD, I would be calling Konica Minolta and complaining. I would demand that they allow all Authorized Konica Minolta Dealers be authorized to service and support these Ikon CPP versions of the KM MFDs.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Printing from Oracle to your MFDs

I just recieved my third request in 2 months to set up some Canon MFDs to print from Oracle. In each case it was a large customer who had already installed a fleet of our MFDs. After we had them up and running as multi-functional devices (Scan, Print, Copy, and sometimes Fax) a conversation happened, either with a Sales Person or a Systems Engineer (SE) and the customer heard we can set them up to print to their new MFDs from Oracle.

In the last two set ups the customers support people tried to set it up on their own and ran into problems. In both cases they didn’t do anything wrong, they just didn’t know what settings to make on their MFDs to allow them to receive and correctly format their Oracle Print Jobs. It would typically take about an hour to an hour and a half, to set it up and test the new MFDs as Oracle printers.

Why would this be a big deal, well for the longest time Oracle printing was the domain of HP and pretty much HP alone. For most IT departments there was no reason to try something new. The HPs worked so don’t fix them. But I am sure that you have noticed that the economy has tanked! And business managers are asking their IT departments to help them reduce costs. The and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of these HP printers is low hanging fruit.

I just looked at the BLI (Buyers Lab) web site and got the CPP (cost per page) of the HP 4250 that one of my customers had been using to print to from Oracle. It’s not hard to do, simply take the cost of the Toner, and divide it by the yield. So the a standard yield black toner costs $150.00 each. This black toner bottle yields 10,000 pages @5% coverage. So let’s do the simple math.

$150.00 divided by 10,000 = 1.5 cents CPP

This price per page is ONLY for Toner, no service, and no parts or other supplies (like drums or fuser kits). This is also only if the toner coverage is at 5%. But what if the average coverage is 10% or even 20%? Then the Cost per page doubles or even quadruples to 3 cents or 6 cents respectively.When you compare this to a Toner based (rather than cartridged based) MFD whose typical Black CPP (for Toner, & Service) is under a penny, and sometime under a half penny (if the volume is high).

So a customer could potentially save between 1/2 cent and 5 1/2 cents per page for a black & white print. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much to you, but what if you are doing 10,000 pages a month (I have often seen one B&W HP printer do this kind of volume). How much would it save the customer a month to simply move the volume from that one HP printer to their new MFD? Would you believe between $50.00 and $550.00 a month! In a year that could save your customer between $600.00 and $6,600.00 for JUST THAT ONE PRINTER!

How many printers like that might we find on their network? Isn’t it at least worth looking at? If you are in the IT Department you could get a great reputation with the Managers of your company by helping save money (maybe a great deal of money), If you don’t know how to do this contact your local independent dealer, and ask them to help you. We do it all the time.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Thank you Ricoh, Thank you Canon!

Would it be understating it to say that we are in the midst of a slow economy? I think not!

As someone who works for a large, regional Canon & Konica Minolta dealership I would like to personally thank Ricoh Corporate for how nice they have been to us. How so? I’m glad you asked.

First, the purchase of Ikon that caused Canon to cut them off as a Canon Dealer has been a real God-Send. It is amazing how many loyal customers Canon has. People and companies that really want to stay with the Canon MFDs. They tell me that it is because of Canon’s reliability and ease of use for their End Users. So when their current Canon dealer (Ikon) can no longer sell them new Canon equipment or service their current Canon equipment (as an Authorized Canon Dealer) they look around and find the largest Canon Dealer in their region, which in New England is Us! It really takes the sting out of a slow economy. So Thanks again Ricoh!

Secondly, Ricoh also recently stopped Ikon from selling Konica Minolta. As you know Ikon was selling a re-branded KM MFD under the name Ikon CPP. Since they can no longer sell the Konica Minolta MFDs those who love that product line are looking around for a large regional Konica Minolta Dealership and in New England we fall into that category too. So thanks again Ricoh!

How many other of you large Independent Dealers are reaping the benefits of the Ricoh purchase of Ikon? Please leave me a comment on this post if you are. But did you notice in the header that I also thanked Canon? Why? I’m glad you asked

Thanks go to Canon for having the guts to NOT buy Ikon. While I am sure that many (if not most) of the Ikon sales reps were hoping that Canon and not Ricoh would buy Ikon, Those of us who work at the Large Independent Regional Dealerships could not have scripted it better. So thanks go to Canon also, It is starting to look like that their Management Team were the REAL GENIUSES for NOT buying Ikon. I think 2009 and 2010 will till If I am right.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Why should I pay for your NFR Software???

Please indulge my ranting on this subject. It REALLY pisses me off when a Vendor (who supposedly wants me to carry and sell their products) charges me for NFR (Not For Resale) software!

I am not talking about paying for equipment that we get to resell after we demo it, but software. Especially when the Vendor offers an actual NFR version of the software. WTF? It smacks of a pyramid scheme where they “Sell” it to us (even at a reduced price) so we can have the privilege to demo their software! Are you kidding me. When I find myself in this situation I refuse to “purchase” their NFR software until I have a deal pending that looks like they will buy it. And even after that I can choose not to lead with it.

You might say “it’s not your money, why should you care”? Because as a Manager or an Executive for a comapny you are paid to care! You don’t work for the government. Your company doesn’t get to raise taxes or print more money if you need it, so you have to care about the bottom line, and your operating expenses.

Let’s talk about a compnay that does it right; eCopy. I have worked with this company since the mid 90s. I have even been in the field with Ed Schmid (The Founder) doing installs. Now that was a long time ago, I don’t think Ed does his own installs anymore But eCopy handles thier NFR software right. If you are an Authorized eCopy Dealer and you need either NFR software or a trial version of their software you go to their secure web site and you download it. No human interaction is required. Do you know what this leads to….? It leads to me always having the latest version of eCopy Sharescan OP and eCopy Desktop running in all of my demo rooms. Since it is always in my Demo Rooms it also leads to all of my Sales force being familiar with and willing to talk about eCopy. That’s what it leads to!

You would think that the Vendors would figure this out and make their NFR software to their Authorized Dealer available at no charge, but many of them haven’t. That’s OK when the Vendor’s rep is begging us to talk about their product I will pont them to this post so they can figure out why we aren’t. Hopefully some of them will figure it out and stop annoying their dealers by nickel & diming us for the privilege to show their software in our demo rooms. But I’m not bitter

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

“You are going to have to explain to my boss how this happened”

I was at my Quarterly Sales meeting yesterday and I heard the funniest quote that I have heard in a long time.

We had a good quarter and we were going over some of the bigger deals that came in. With the current Ricoh \ Ikon situation it isn’t hard to understand that a number of the bigger deals that we have landed have been “take aways” from Ikon. One of our Sales Reps talked about such a deal. By the time Ikon found out that they were completely out of this account the deal was done.

When the Customer called their Ikon Sales Rep to tell them that they lost the deal, and the Account the Ikon Rep lost her mind. I don’t know what else would explain the following rant. She started to berate this customer, she started to throw out the same old tired spin that Ikon has been using for years, it all smacked of “don’t you know who I am” LOL! The customer just wasn’t buying this line of bull anymore. Since Ikon had lost the Canon line, and now lost the Konica Minolta line, and all they had left was Ricoh equipment to sell, they just didn’t have what this customer wanted. Apparently just being “Ikon” wasn’t enough. I think only now the Ikon Sales Reps are starting to figure this out.

At the end of this phone conversation the Ikon Sales Rep actually said to this Customer “You are going to have to explain to my boss how this happened” REALLY! Can you imagine a sane person saying this to an Account that they just lost? I can’t, so I am going to have to chalk it up to temporary insanity on the part of the Ikon Sales Rep. The perfect reply would have been, “No I think that YOU’RE going to have to explain it to your boss”.

But I think this Sales Rep’s statement reveals two of the more serious flaws that Ikon has\had. The first is arrogance bordering on hubris! The “don’t you know who I am” attitude (said with your best Ted Kennedy accent). They have bought into their own hype that because they are “Ikon” people HAVE to do business with them. On a side note isn’t it funny that that name “Ikon” will be going away shortly. Soon there will be no more Ikon, only another Ricoh branch. Ikon will be regulated to nothing more than a foot note in the history of our industry.

But I said there were two serious flaws that this statement revealed the second is that Ikon sales management manages by fear! You can hear the desparation in this Sales Woman’s voice when she makes the insane statement that “You are going to have to explain to my boss how this happened” As if this customer was obligated to do so. What she was really saying was she was afraid that she was not going to be able to explain to her boss how this happened, how she and the once mighty Ikon lost another deal to a large regional independent dealer. But don’t worry Ms. Ikon Sales Person If you think that you are afraid to have to explain it to your boss, just think how afraid your boss is to explain it to his boss. Maybe you’ll get lucky and he will get fired before you do. Let me say for the record that managing the people who work for you by fear is a bad long term strategy. It may accomplish your short term goals but it will not build a top shelf professional sales organization. No REAL Sales Professional will stay in that kind of environment for long. And the best and most talented will ALWAYS have other options. Ikon never seemed to get that.

Folks, I believe that we are witnessing the early stages of the Ikon implosion, and It isn’t going to be pretty!

That’s my $0.02
Vince Mchugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon’s Q1 Profits drop 88%, but is Ricoh a non-profit orginization?

The buzz in the industry this week is that Canon’s Q1 profit fell 88%. That is big news and I am sure that it is very troubling to Canon. And every article you read about Canon’s profit falling all reference Ricoh’s purchase of Ikon as the contributing factor. And we would all agree that that Ikon going from selling 30% Ricoh (when they were independent) to 90% Ricoh in January 2009 would account for the drop in Canon’s profit. So everyone is wagging their tongues about maybe Canon made a mistake NOT buying Ikon.

And now the rest of the story (My apologies to the late Paul Harvey), Have you seen Ricoh’s financials for Q1 2009?

Ricoh’s Net profit margin for Q1 2009 was -4.39%

While Canon’s profit dropped by 88%, Ricoh is loosing money at least Canon did make a profit. And remember Ricoh bought this huge distribution channel, the once mighty Ikon and they are still losing money. Does this make Ricoh a Non-Profit Organization? Maybe they can get in line to get Federal bailout like every one else who has a failing business. It won’t be long until this administration starts bailing out international companies too.

So I am sticking to my opinion that Canon and not Ricoh made the correct decision regarding the purchase of Ikon. And while the industry pundits are chattering about Canon’s Q1 profits dropping, when you line them up next to Ricoh’s Q1 losses I will restate my belief that Canon’s decision to not purchase Ikon will prove (in the long run) to be the right decision. Time will tell.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Are we really headed back to liquid machines \ MFDs?

Have you ever heard the phrase “Disruptive Technology”? Here are a few examples.  The automobile disrupted the buggy whip industry. Email has disrupted the postal service, and the iPod has disrupted the vinyl record business. In each case a new technology has caused an established business to have to change, The Darwnistic choice for business is evolution or extinction.

I first heard of Silverbrook, maker of Memjet \ high speed color Inkjet technology a year & a half ago at an industry conference. I was fascinated by the concept of a functional page wide ink array that could lay down an entire page of color across the entire width of the page as it passed under the page wide ink head. On top of that they added a 5th element (on top of CMYK) to immediately seal the ink on the page, and they made it fast, 60 pages per minute color. But Silverbrook Research, inventor of the Memjet high speed color inkjet technology, has struggled to bring a product to market. I heard reports of quality and functionality issues. But what happens when Silverbrook finally gets it right?

Major Disruption to the Copier \ MFD Industry

Why, you ask? Because a Silverbrook \ Memejet powered (Inkjet) MFD would be cheap(er) to buy, Cheap(er) to run, and It would be fast, even in color, – top speed of 60 ppm for full color. No fusing means no fuser units, no heat, less power, more green (environmentally friendly). Less moving parts would mean less service. Quite honestly with the low cost they could be considered throw aways. Projected selling price for a Memjet enabled desktop printer of $300 to $500, so a color MFD would likely be a few thousand dollars. All of this would change how we (Office Technology Dealers) do business, how & what we sell, AND SERVICE!

But this ONLY happens if Silverbrook can get Memjet right

Here is some background Information on Silverbrook \ Memjet: The U.S. Patent office listed the total number of INKJET patents issued to the industry heavyweights: Silverbrook (maker of future Memjet high speed color inkjet printer) = 501 end of 2009. Silverbrook \ Memjet is not looking to manufacture a new line of MFDs or Printers, but rather to license their technology to those that do.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: In the next post we will look at handling the typical objections to Inkjet technology.

A sustainable support model for a plethora of solutions

When you go to Canon’s “Integrated Solutions” section on the Canon USA web site you will see dozens and dozens of solutions, the same is true with Konic Minolta’s “Application Solutions” area on their web site. Now throw in what EFI has for “solutions and a number of other of software “solutions” vendors and your dealerships SEs may be supporting 100 different solutions.

I get calls all the time from Document Management (DMS) or other software vendors trying to get us to carry their products. So how can a dealership support such a large number of solutions without breaking the bank. These “Solutions Vendors” all want you to send your sales & support people to their school to learn how to sell their solutions products. Some times they even charge you for the privilege of attending their school. I tell them to please “hold your breath, and I will get right back to you to schedule my people to attend the class that you want to charge me for so we can resell your product” (NOT!). Or maybe they want to come in and address your sales force to pitch to them the benefits of selling their product (take a number and get in line with all the other vendors who want to present out sales force).

What do Solutions vendors need to know, and what do they need to do if they want us to lead with their solutions products?

1) You need to understand that our sales force has a hardware quota that they need to meet every month. If your product does not help them meet that hardware quota you will not get the time of day from them. If you can show how your solutions product can genuinely help out sales force sell more hardware, you have our attention. But you better be able to prove what you say. The best way is to show us how your solution product helped another dealer land a good deal. My sales force only cares about your product IF it can help them make their quota and put money in their pocket.

2) The gate keeper is the Solutions Support Engineers. If you think you are going to go around the SEs you are deluded. The SEs can and will shut you out of the sales force because it is the SEs or the Solution Sales Engineers that ultimately propose the right solution for a particular customer. The average sales person doesn’t know EFI from eCopy, it is not their job to know. They depend on their SEs to analyze, propose, install, and support the right solution. If the SE doesn’t support your solution very few sales people will go against that advice, and if they do so, they do it at their own peril. Ultimately if it ‘blows up” it comes back to that sales person. It is their responsibility, and they don’t want that. So the bottom line is don’t try to make an end run around the Solutions team.

3) What you can do to make your company more attractive for the SEs and the dealership to want to carry them? For starters don’t charge us to take your class. I will pay for our SEs travel & lodging but the class needs to be on you. After all you are asking us to sell your products that is benefit enough, you don’t need to charge me for your class. Secondly, you need to provide NFR software for us to load in as many showrooms as we have AT NO COST! eCopy does their NFR software right! Many other solutions vendors should take a queue from eCopy on this. Why should I pay you anything to put your software in my demo room? Do you want me to show your software? Do you want me and my sales force to talk about it? If the answer is yes, then you need to provide me with NFR software for each of my demo rooms at no cost to me. I am NOT Buying it, I am allowing you to show your solution products in all of my demo rooms at no cost to you. Since I am not charging you to show your products to my customers, I expect that you will not charge me either. I do understand that when there is hardware involved that you have to pay for, then that cost is passed on to us. It should be at a discount if we are going to keep it in our show room. If not then we will need to be able to resell it without restrictions if it is at full dealership cost.

What else can you do as a solutions vendor to make the dealership want to lead with your products? By the way, there is a BIG DIFFERENCE between a dealership carrying your product, and leading with your product. I hope you understand the difference.

4) You can provide initial Web-Ex training to our Sales & Solutions people. This will be initial training to certify us to sell your product. We will not be taking people out of the field for a week or even a few days to go to your class until we see that our customers want it. So start out by doing web training. Also offer ongoing pre-sale web ex support to our sales people for our customers to see your solutions products.

5) Next offer remote installation and remote support (as chargeable professional services) to support the dealerships initial installs and sales. Be reasonable on your pricing and realistic as to how much time will be required. We (The Dealership) know that our vendors are trying to run leaner and we are fine trying to help your best support people do less travel and more chargeable support. We will commit to having our SEs on site with your support people logging in remotely. This is the best of both worlds for both the solutions vendor and the dealership. We have your best support person available for this install and our best SEs are on site to work with them and our customers. I have done this a number of time and it works well. It’s economical and we can wrap the cost of your professional services into the cost of the deal. And because your support people don’t have to travel they could do multiple installs in a single day and still be home with their family at night. Everybody wins!

6) Finally, offer web based end user training classes that we can resell to our customers. These will be very helpful when we take on a new solutions product that we want to make available to our customers. We again will provide an on site SE at the customers site during the remote end user training class. We will not be paying for our SE to attend this class. They are there to support the end users and to learn how to better support your product. We are happy to also roll this into the deal so our customer will get the most out of this new solution.

So that is how you can get a new solution into a dealership. This support model is economical and sustainable for both the Solutions Vendor and the Dealership. Just how many solutions Vendors will adopt it is yet to be seen. I can tell you that it works! I have done it on a few solutions that were new to us and now we are selling & supporting them. Our sales force is talking about them and we are showing them regularly in our demo rooms. Do you want a piece of this? if so, I have just laid out a model that will work. The next move is up to you as a solutions vendor. What are you going to do?

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Ricoh abadon’s its RPCS print driver

I hear that Ricoh has discontinued work on Refined Printing Command Stream (RPCS) technology:

Like Ricoh’s Desktop Binder, RPCS was Ricoh’s attempt to create its own product to differentiate its products from the competition, however, Based on its current economic situation Ricoh has decided not spend any more research & development funds on either project. RPCS was advertised a new, innovate print driver, supposedly a better option than PCL or PostScript (true marketing hype).

The truth is both products were sub-standard. I say this from first hand experience, because I have personally supported both the Ricoh RPCS print driver and Desktop Binder. The difference between the two is at first glance I knew that Ricoh’s Desktop Binder was a poor imitation of either eCopy’s Desktop or Nuance’s Paperport. But the base version was free, so I guess you get what you pay for.

The RPCS driver on the other hand showed real promise, promise that unfortunately was never realized. When I first saw the Ricoh RPCS driver I thought that this is pretty cool! It is icon driven. If you wanted to do a double sided staple print job you had an icon for that. If you had an even more complex job like a report that you ran every Friday you could set up all the complex settings (landscape, double sided, top edge binding, staple in the upper left corner, and 9 sets) and you could save all those settings and give it a cool looking icon and even a name like “Friday’s Report”. Now every time that you want to print that report you just have to click on that icon named “Friday’s Report” and it will print with all of the correct settings, isn’t that great! Well it would be, if it worked, the only problem was that it didn’t work, at least not reliably.

The truth of the matter was even Ricoh’s Tech support recommended that you didn’t use the RPCS driver if the customer wanted to load it on a Print Server and download it to their work stations. For the record let me say that this made the RPCS driver all but unuseable. Can you imagine a modern print diriver that had to be loaded locally on each and every PC? Why? because the RPCS driver was flakey, poorly written. My persoanl favorite behavior was sometimes when you pushed it down from a print server to a work station and all of the cool icons would disappear and you would have to reinstall the RPCS driver to get them back, only to have it happen again. That was great! Network Admins loved that….Not! And Ricoh’s Tech Support had no solution, no explanation, only a disclaimer “we don’t recommend that you load the RPCS driver on a Print Server”.

So it is probably in all of our best interest that Ricoh has run out of money to support these two sub standard technologies. no one is really going to miss them. they never really worked well anyway.  Now Canon is the only traditional MFP vendor still producing a host-based driver, called Ultra Fast Rendering (UFR). The original UFR driver wan’t great, but the newer UFR II driver is considerably better, it even works on both the PC and MAC OS X platforms. It may not be as robust as PCL or Postscript but it is one of the only inexpensive printing option and unlike Ricoh’s RPCS technology, it actually works.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

How’s your back room???

I met with another large account (several hundred MFDs) that currently has Ikon as their Canon dealer. They are concerned about the future level of support that ikon will or will not be able to provide after October 2009 when (according to the Canon letter) their support from Canon will end. And rightfully so. They have already seen a drop off in the service that Ikon is providing on their Canons, so they are talking to Authorized Canon Dealers.

But that is not what this post is about. What came up again at this meeting was how bad Ikon’s back room has been. Billing issue after billing issue. It would be one thing if this was an isolated case but it seems to be “par for the coarse” for Ikon. I have heard the same horror stories from account after account. I have also heard, from first hand accounts, that Danka has the same problems as Ikon, if not worse.

How do Ikon reps handle this? You can only apologize for your incompitent back room so many times before your customer just doesn’t care that you are sorry. What this customer said is what a lot of customers feel; “I don’t care if there is a problem, we all have problems. But what really ticks me off is when I have the same problem month after month after month. And your company can’t or won’t fix it.” They actually told us that they had been billed for a fleet of MFDs at a location that had not had that equipment for over a year. And it took Ikon 9 months to give them their money back.

The great thing about working at a large regional dealer is we have a great back room. Billing issues are few and far between, and they get resolved in days not months. One of my major account reps said that a terrible back room was the reason that they left Danka. It made it too hard to call on customers that were mad at your company for constantly screwing up their billing and then not resolving it even when the sales rep would get involved. The sales reps at Ikon & Danka have “no juice”. They are simply a small cog in a big machine. They can’t get it done, they can’t get these back room problems resolved and their custopmers know it. It is not because they are bad people or even bad sales reps (they aren’t either). they are just in a system that is broken, and people who try to fix it get beaten down until they just don’t care anymore. Unfortunately it is the only way to survive in that type of environment.

But if you are a customer of Ikon or Danka and you think that ALL Office Technology Companies do this, then you are in for a pleasant surprise. Your large regional dealers do it better. Their Sales Reps do have the “Juice” to get your issues resolved. Give ‘em a call and see how much easier your life can be when you have an Office Technolgy Dealer with a compitent and responsive back room. If you are an Ikon or Danka sales rep who has never had a compitent or responsive back room you too should call your regional  dealer, resume in hand. See just how easy it is to sell to a customer who isn’t pissed off at your back room.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

How can I reduce my printing costs? (Let’s start with what’s easy to do)

In today’s economy every business that I know of is looking for ways to reduce cost.

Many of these companies have long studied how they could reduce their companies printing costs, but due to internal political struggles these studies have often not been implemented. Now these same companies are dusting off those studies and finding the courage to make the needed changes. What changed? Two things; they finally have the support from the highest levels of their company and the end users are nervous about keeping their job, and their company financially healthy in this difficult economy. So there is very little push back today. This makes it an ideal time to implement a plan to help your company reduce it’s printing cost. But which plan?

There are both strategies that you could employ on your current equipment, as well as more dramatic changes that can be made. Some of these can be done without ruffling any feathers, the rest will require that you “break a few eggs, to make that omelet”. So let’s talk about what’s easy to do first. I am a big fan of picking the “Low hanging fruit” first. If your company has not considered the following then shame on your dealer for not at least bringing it up.

1) Set all of the Color or Color \ B&W MFDs to default to B&W (BOTH when your end users print & copy). This can be easily done on the MFD for copying, and on the Print Server when you print. Here is a hint; You can’t just set the Properties of the MFD’s print driver on the print server to default to B&W, that will NOT push the settings down to the End users. Your dealer should be able to show you how to do it.

When you default both the printing and the copying to B&W on MFDs that can do both, you immediately see a savings because you are no longer getting color email’s being printed out. People don’t print those in color on purpose, they just click print before they think to change it to B&W. There are a few departments (like Marketing typically) that may require the default to still be color, because 90% of what they print is in color, and they would only waste time and resources when they accidentally print in B&W what they need in color. But that is the rare exception.

2) This next step is a little more radical and will drive a few end users crazy, but the people who handle your company’s Green Initiative’s will love you for it. You can also make BOTH the printing and the copying on your MFD default to double sided. This could cut your paper use by 40-50%. How much paper does your company use? How much does it cost? Now notice I said “default” to duplex, not make it so that you can’t print a single sided document. There will be times when it will be appropriate for documents to be printed simplex, but the end user will need to make a conscious choice to do so, just like when they print in color. So if they print without thinking first. I know that it is hard to believe that your end users could possibly print without thinking first, but it really does happen…. sometimes,…… at least in some companies, ……. but maybe not in your company But when they do they will get by default a B&W, 2 sided document and that will save you money. How much? That depends upon how much color single sided printing you are doing now, but those nickels add up quickly.

3) One last thing that you could do, at least with most major MFDs is set up people to print to a Mailbox, or a hold queue (on the MFD) and then have them go to the MFD and release the print job. Typically we set these up to purge the stored print documents every 3 hours – 3 days. You might be surprised at how many people print jobs and then never go and get them. Have you ever printed directions from MapQuest only to run out the door and drive away before you realized that they were still sitting in the printers output tray? You can do this with the Canon Mailboxes or the Konica Minolta User InBoxes, and I am sure that many other MFD manufacturers will have a similar feature.

Maybe in the next post we can talk about what to do if you have already done these steps, and the myths and realities of Managed Print Services.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

How can I reduce my Printing costs? – Part II

Let’s say you already did all the things that I mentioned in the first blog article, or at least as much as you could within your current environment. http://theconnectedcopier.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/how-can-i-reduce-my-printing-costs-lets-start-with-whats-easy-to-do/

What else can be done? There are 3 different strategies that you could look at, and we will discuss the pros and cons of each in this article. First let;s look at the three strategies:

1. Managed Print Services
2. Moving as much print volume as possible from your Printers to your MFDs
3. Rules based printing

Managed Print Services: Either your current MFD dealer, or a company that specializes in this will knock on the door of your CEO or CFO and ask them “How much do you pay for printing?” To which the CEO\CFO will respond “I don’t know”. The Managed Print Services company or MFD dealer will offer to do a free analysis if your CEO\CFO will simply agree to let them come back in and present their findings. They will often make the claim that if I can’t save your company 25 – 40% of what you are paying now for printing then I will not bother you again. The CEO\CFO will typically agree and send them to work with someone high up the food chain in the IT Dept. to get this free study done. This top down selling works well because the Director of IT is not use to saying no to the CEO or CFO when they ask them to do something. If your company is not doing anything but letting your end users print to anything they want, and buy any printer that they want then managed print services will save you money.

This strategy often competes with the next one that we will discuss, although you could do both. If the Managed Print Services company does not also sell & support MFDs they may try to get you to minimize or in some cases remove completely your MFDs and print only to the printers or printer based multi functional printers (MFPs), that they will provide, all for the same “low price of 2 – 4 cents a page (B&W). The argument that the Managed Print Service Company makes is that IF we get rid of your Copier based MFDs you get rid of your leases and that will save you money. That would be true IF a printer or a printer based MFP could do everything that a copier based MFD can do. Can it? They can be equipped with the same basic functions Copy, Print, Scan, Fax, and even the newer printer based MFPs can add applications (like eCopy or AutoStore) just like their Copier based MFD counterparts. What they don’t do well is hold up in year 2, 3, 4, and 5. What they have never done well is handle the pounding that the end users typically give a copier based MFD. The Document Feeders and the Finishers on the printer based MFPs have always been considerably weaker than their copier based MFD counterparts. The truth of the matter is a Copier Based MFD can do everything that a printer can do, but a printer based MFP struggles to do all that a copier based MFD can do. It may be OK in year one, and you may be a hero for showing savings on paper. But when year 2 1/2 – 5 rolls around and they are just not holding up to the work load that your end users put on them gird your loins and prepare for an end user uprising. I would caution you not to remove all of your Copier based MFDs. it is in the best interest of the Manged Print Services company to get all of your clicks, but it is NOT in your best interest.

Moving print volume from printers to MFDs: Now you may have an MFD dealer (AKA: a Copier Company) that currently sells and supports your MFDs. They too want to do a similar study. And even if you are using Managed Print Services they will make the argument that if you move as much volume as possible from the cartridge based printers  to the toner based MFDs you will save significant amounts of money (or even more money if God forbid you are paying for Ink Jet, or Solid Ink Printers). Typical cost for a B&W click on an MFD is under a penny. Typical cost on a manged Print services printer is 2-4 cents. Typical cost on an unmanaged B&W printer is even higher, especially on the older ones.

The MFD dealer will do a pencil sell. They will show you a copy\print center on one of your floors. There are usually 1 or more of these on the floors of most large companies. And they typically look like this; a connected “Copier” (that also scans) sitting next to a High Speed B&W Printer, Sitting next to a Color Printer, Sitting next to a Fax machine. If you were to replace these four devices with one Color\B&W MFD you will save money in several ways. The first is the cost of a toner based MFD will be significantly cheaper than a cartridge based printer. You will see even more dramatic savings on the color side, and many of the small fax machines have astronomical supply costs. You will also save by not having separate maintenance agreements, or buying separate supplies for each of these devices. There is also the cost of power consumption especially on the older non energy star compliant devices. This will also help your companies Green Initiatives. We haven’t even addressed the soft cost of not having 3 print queues and 3 print drivers for your IT Department to support (for EACH one of these copy rooms). Even if you have a managed print program you will save money of you move as much print volume as possible from your cartridge based printers (Color and B&W) to your multi functional devices.

Some MFD dealers will try to get you to remove all of your printers. This is not a realistic goal, but maybe you could remove 90% of the printers, or at least move 90% of the print volume from the cartridge based printers to the MFDs. You might want to consider a combination of both plans above. Move as much volume as possible to the MFDs, and the printers that you can not remove you could put on a manged print plan. Ideally with the same dealer who handles the MFDs.

How can I implement this plan and then check to see if it is really working? It is said that you can’t manage what you don’t measure! So whatever strategy you decide to employ it is important that you continue to check to make sure that the policies that your company put in place are continued to be followed after the initial push. Unfortunately unless you continue to monitor these practices and the associated cost the environment that you fought so hard to fix will quickly deteriorate to it’s former state.

So you could simply use the initial tool that either your Office Equipment (Copier) Dealer or your Managed Print Services dealer used to do the initial study. Most of the companies that do these studies will want to keep these monitoring tools running on your network to automatically capture the printing clicks for billing purposes, usually for minimal to no charge to you.

Finally, you could choose to implement Rules Based Printing: This can be done with a number of different solutions, Canon’s UniFLOW solution, or Print Audit’s solution come to mind, there are of course others too. What rules based printing allow you to do is set up rules and responses to different printing situations. For instance if someone wanted to print 1-5 pages they could do that at their local desktop printer. But if they wanted to print 5 – 199 pages that would go to a workgroup MFD that was in their department. If they wanted to print 200 pages or more that would be sent to the companies Print Center. This is just one example of a simple set of rules.

This can be done typically in three ways, some more “heavy handed” then others. The lightest touch is to simply set a policy that the company wants the end users to print all of their larger jobs to the MFDs and then simply track the end users, and have a conversation with those who do not follow this policy.  The next lightest touch would be a pop up message that simply tells the end user how much his\her print job will cost, and also show how much they will save the company if they redirect the job to the less expensive, recommended alternative. With this level of enforcement you can allow the end user to choose to override the recommendation. Their choice to override is duly recorded in a report and they may be called upon later to explain their choice, which may or not have a legitimate business reason behind it. The last way, the most heavy handed way, does not give the end user a choice and simply informs them where they can pick up their print job. You will really need buy in at the highest level of the company to enforce this form of rules based printing, because there will be some push back from the end users.

I hope that this gives you something to think about regarding some of the other things that your company can do to drive down it’s cost of printing. I would recommend that if you are planning to do any of these that you form a task force or a comity that includes Purchasing, Operations, and the IT Department. If you have an Office technology dealer that is a real business partner with your company they will be more than willing to provide their expertise to help you do this study.  Once you have done the initial cost savings analysis present it to your CEO or CFO and get there blessing before you implement it.

Hope this helps!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

A Box is a Box, or is it?

I recently heard a Purchasing agent say “a box is a box”. He was attempting to make the point that (in his mind, at least) one manufacture’s MFD was the same as another. Is this true?

I can understand why a Purchaser would want to say this, and even why at some level that they may believe it to be true. The primary job of a Purchaser is to get the best price for the right equipment or product. So the Purchaser REALLY wants to compare “Apples to Apples”. They want to reduce it to a commodity so they can simply say, all else being equal (If it truly is) they can go with the best price. WOW, that was easy what’s next on my list of things to do today. Unfortunately this is an over simplification of a complex decision.

To be fair to the Purchaser there is an arguement to be made that one box has the same basic function as another. Each MFD, Multi Functional Devices have the “same” basic 4 or 5 functions; they can all 1) Copy, 2) Print, 3) Scan, 4) Fax, and more and more each of them can 5) load additional software on the MFD that can enhance and extend the capabilities of the MFD (like the Canon MEAP platform).

When a Sales person from company “A” shows up and says my box (MFD) can copy, scan, print, fax, etc. And I am a nice guy and I work for a good company please buy my box. Then right behind them the sales person from company “B” walks in and says my box (MFD) also can print, copy, fax, scan, etc. And I too am a nice guy, who works for a different good company please buy my box (MFD) instead of the Box that Salesman “A” tried to sell you. Add to that Salesman C & D with the same speach and the only logical question left for  a Purchasing agent to ask is the dreaded “Who is the cheapest”? If you are a sales person who finds his/her self constinatly battling to be at the lowest price then you are either talking to the wrong person (just the Purchasing agent) or you have not shown the Value that your company, your products, or you yourself can add to this deal. Shame on you.

Even with all of the “Boxes” (read MFDs) having the same basic functionality there are a few things that would and do still differentiate one Box from another. They are:

1) How easy is it for your End Users to Copy, Scan, Print, Fax, or use the additional software loaded on the “Box”? This is one of the things that BLI (Buyers Lab) said about the Canon product line when they awarded Canon the MFD line of the year for 2008.

2) How reliable will that “Box” (MFD) be in year 2, 3, 4, or 5 of your lease? They all work pretty well when they are brand new, just out of the box. But how many customers buy the same brand again and again and again because they are happy with how it performed not just at the begining of the lease, but at the end of the lease. This was the other main point that BLI (Buyers Lab) said about Canon when they awarded them the MFD Line of the Year for 2008.

3) Finally, how well does this “Box” (MFD) integrate with your network, or servers? How well does the company who sells this box, support it not just before the sale, but after it as well? This is what really separates the “Players” from the “Posers” in our industry.

These are the things that do differentiate one Box, one MFD, from another. While the Purchaser may hate to address these subtle value adds because they skew the Apples to Apples comparison, they are extremely important to how well this equipment will work in your environment. Which will have a direct correlation on how happy your end users will be for the term of the lease. This is the reason why only a few MFD vendors continually take up the lion’s share of the Pie Chart year after, year after year for MFD Sales in the US. You can’t be in that top tier group without making a pretty decent product. But even more to the point why do you think certain MFD manufacturers who have been selling MFDs for the past 10 – 20 years still have little to no discernible market share? A good sales person could convince a new Purchasing agent to buy a “Cheap” MFD simply on price, well at least once. But when that Purchasing Agent has to live through 3 – 5 years of their end users hating the “Box” (MFD) and blaming them for the purchase they begin to see the importance of the Value Adds that I speak of. Isn’t life hard enough without having to go to work every day in a place where everyone hates your guts for making them use difficult or unreliable equipment?

I often tell customers early in the sales process that WE WILL NOT BE THE CHEAPEST vendor that you look at. We will be competitive on price, but we will not be the cheapest. If you are looking for “Cheap” then you shouldn’t be looking at us. We don’t sell “Cheap” products. What I can offer you is the best value for the money that your company spends. And isn’t that what most of us look for when we shop for anything, Value! On occasion I see a purchaser put in a “Straw dog” Vendor. That is a vendor that is strictly selling on price, but is not really able to support this customer or offer them any of the real value add that we are talking about. This Straw Dog vendor is just being invited to bid to drive down the price. If this customer is truly considering doing business with them then they really don’t want what we can provide. After all does someone shopping for a new car compare a KIA to a Lexus? Aren’t these two very different people looking for very different things? If you are looking to buy a KIA or a Hyundai do you even look at a Lexus, or a Cadillac, or an Infinity? Not seriously!

When I went over to a direct _BS branch of a manufacturer I was able to convince a few of my former Canon customers to give us a try. And they did because they liked me, or one of the sales people that came over with me. Now that I am back with NECS many of those clients are returning to Canon because they now see the difference between the Value that the Canon “Box” offered and the cheaper _BS box that their end users hated! These _BS Boxes did not stand up as well towards the end of the lease. Now I know that the _BS sales person would be happy to “upgrade” those boxes early, at “no penalty” to you. Sure they would. Let’s get those _BS boxes out that aren’t working well in year 2, 3 or 4 and replace them with other _BS boxes that will work OK the first year they are there and then the cycle will start all over again. BTW, No Penalty doesn’t mean you still don’t have to pay off the rest of your lease, they will simly roll it into the new lease, but there is no penalty. Wouldn’t it be a greater value to your company if you could actually use the Box, the MFD for the whole length of the lease and not have to “upgrade” it because it is not working well. I am not against upgrading equipment early if it helps my customers. For instance they may need a new feature that wasn’t available on the original model, or maybe they have grown their business and need higher volume machines. But they shouldn’t be forced to upgrade because the box, the MFD just isn’t holding up at the end of the lease.

If you really want to compare Apples to Apples then you should compare a Tier 2 MFD manufacturer with a 3 year lease to a Tier 1 MFD manufacturer with a 5 year lease. You will find that the better equipment will be very competitive and will work well till the end of the lease.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Xerox’s Print Around Technology – A Rose by any other name…

If you have been competing with Xerox in any deals recently you have probably heard them tout their new “Print Around Technology”. They like to tell customers that this is a Xerox exclusive technology and that they (the customer) can’t not possibly live without it.

Let’s look at this objectively. First, what exactly is Xerox Print Around Technology. This is a feature on an MFD that allows print jobs to continue to print even if the job in front of it has a paper mismatch. So if an end user grabs a European document off of the web and it happens to be a A4 paper size what has traditionally happened is it stopped your MFD or Printer from printing anything out behind that A4 print job until someone went to the printer and either canceled the A4 print job or was smart enough to override the paper size to a size that the printer or MFD actually had. The same thing would happen if someone chose a legal or ledger size paper and the printer or MFD didn’t have either of those paper sizes loaded.

So the Print Around feature that Xerox is promoting”IS”pretty cool. It basically suspends the print job if there is a paper mismatch. Which is what Canon calls the same feature “suspend on mismatch”. So Print around technology is NOT a Xerox exclusive? The feature isn’t but Xerox has probably copyrighted the term, so if you call it Print around technology instead of suspend on mismatch then you can say it is exclusive to that manufacturer. But in the words of the Bard (William Shakespeare) “A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. After all does your customer really care what the feature is called or are they simply looking for the functionality. I think we both know the answer to that question.

I will say that Xerox’s marketing folks win the terminology battle, at least for this round. The name “Print Around Technology” does sound a lot cooler than the “Suspend on Mismatch” term that Canon came up with. Canon does have this feature on certain MFD models that are currently available today, and this feature (I am told) will be available across the entire new line of Canon ImageRUNNER-Advanced products that are being shown in Las Vegas this September. More on that later.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: I also see that EFI seems to have the same “suspend on mismatch” on their System 7 and System 8 print controllers (Rips). Do any other of the manufacturers out there have a diferent name for this same “print around” feature? Please leave your comments on this post if they do. Thanks!

What is Ikon trying to hide???

I recently heard from a large Ikon \ Canon account that was concerned about Ikon loosing their Canon Authorized status. For some strange reason they want to have their Canon equipment serviced by an Authorized Canon Dealer (go figure). And they were unsure if they could legally break their Ikon Service contract.

We sent them the eight questions to ask Ikon regarding Canon service. and they asked their Ikon Sales Rep these questions. We were told that the Ikon Sales person said yes they can do all that. To which we were told the customer said that’s great can you put that in writing. The ikon salesman said no, he could NOT put it in writing. When pressed for a reason he said he would call them back (BUSTED). He finally called the customer back and said that his boss and his bosses boss wanted to come in and meet.

If the Ikon salesman was telling the truth that they can answer yes to each of the eight questions that an Authorized Canon Dealer can answer yes to, then why wouldn’t they put it in writing. Hummm? That’s a real head scratcher Could it be that the ikon sales person might have “mis-spoken”? What do you think?

So here is my challenge to Ricoh \ Ikon why don’t you come clean, stop the spin and just answer the questions that all of your loyal Canon customers want answers to. What do you have to hide? If nothing has changed as we keep hearing. if Ikon’s support for their Canon customers is as good or better (as some who have written to this blog would like you to believe) than why not put it in writing. Just publicly answer the eight questions in writing, and everyone will know where they stand with Ikon (Ricoh) servicing their Canon equipment. Is that too much to ask? I think not!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
www.necs.biz

What color is your blue?

Have you ever heard a customer tell you that the color on their new MFD is “wrong”? I always think, but never say “based on what?” Color is relative, what most people mean when they say the color of their new printing device is wrong is that it is different than the way their old printer or MFD use to print. Or maybe it is different than the way they would like it to print. Even if it is demonstrably better, it’s different, and different makes it “wrong” to the customer. At least that will be their initial response.

Many years ago I was called in on a new installation of a high end color copier\printer. It was a Graphics House with a Father \ Daughter team of Graphic Artists (GA). They told me that they did not like the out of the box color that they were seeing and I told them not to worry we can adjust the color. After discussing what they wanted to see, I did a calibration and then made a few initial changes in the settings of the Fiery Rip. But when I printed out one of their files and showed it to both of them they gave me the following response at the exact same time.

Father: “That sucks!” -vs- Daughter: “That’s perfect!”

Welcome to my world, as I said, color is subjective. I responded to the both of them, when the two of you figure out which one of you is “right”, let me know and I’ll fix it. Who do you think won that argument? Right, The daughter did. It was perfect, because she said it was. It was what she wanted, or what she expected. That made it “right”, at least in her eyes.

I have also had a customer show me a Pantone color, a JPEG Image, and a CMYK color, and say “this”is our company Blue. Which one? Because each of these is a different color (space). And they will often print differently. There are of course great color management tools, especially on the Fiery rips. But even Canon & Konica Minolta (as well as some other Manufacturers) are getting better at being able to give us better color control. The OEM controllers have come a long way, but for critical color I will still recommend as Fiery Rip.

But it is just as important to educated our customers about color. One of the things I am seeing is more WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) color than ever before. I show up and have an irater customer telling me the color is “WRONG” on their brand new MFD. Then I look at it and compare it to what I see on the screen and it is WYSIWYG. The customer may even acknowledge that it looks just like the image on the monitor but they still insist that it is “WRONG!!!!”. But what they mean is it’s different. They took great pains, and a lot of trial and error to get the image that they don’t like on the screen to look right on their old printer. So when the new MFD prints out just like it looks on the screen they’re upset because they don’t want to have to rework all of their old documents to make them look they way they use to on their old printer. You can liken it to a person who learned to ride a bicycle with crooked handle bars. When you give them a bike with straight handle bars they have a tough time riding it because even though they know its the way its suppose to be, it feels wrong to them.

Color is also an emotional issue to most people, so you can’t expect people to be completely rational about it. Even if they know that the color is better they may not want to acknowledge it because that would mean more work for them to correct their old files. So they will say it’s wrong, to make it your problem, and not their problem. And since they probably have not yet signed the D&A, guess what, it IS your problem. I hope you have a talented SE or Color Specialist (we have several).

The good news is we can often set up profiles or even custom color curves that the customer can call up ‘on the fly” to print their old files so they will look pretty much the way they use to, but allow them to take advantage of WYSIWYG color going forward. While it may take some time getting use to riding the bike with straight handle bars, it’s worth the effort. And if the customer is willing to work with their SE or Color specialist it will make the transition easier, and very much worth the trouble.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWWNECS.BIZ

RGB CMYK, what does GM have to do with it?

I miss the Canon TechNET Conferences. Canon use to hold them in Florida and California every year in August.  Yes it was Hot, Damn Hot to be in Florida in August but they were a great learning experience. i even took my young family to Disneyland a couple of times. But It was a working trip for me. It was where I learned much of my trade in a real world sense. IMHO there was no better technical training for an SE. The scope and depth of what you could get exposed to in a few days was unparalleled. From theory to hands on workshops I have never experienced a better run technical conference.

When Canon started doing the TechNET conferences EFI provided much of the technical expertize. But by the time they finished running them (thanks Arnold) Canon was doing most of the technical presentaions themselves, and doing a fine job. They use to do technology “primers” the first day. Stuff that was considered too basic for the experienced SE, but very, very important to those who were starting out.I personally attended these for the first few times I attended TechNET (I felt it was worth my time)

When it comes to color management, and color theory, especially on how it applies to the real world I will always remebr a phrase that I learned at one of my first Canon TechNET primers:

“Red Car BY GM”

What the heck does General Motors (GM) have to do with color management? Nothing, but if you remember that phrase and if you know how to draw triangles you will understand the relationship between RGB (Monitor) color and CMYK (Printed) color.

RGB (Monitor) color is represented by this first triangle

CMY (we’ll talk about K later) is represented by this second triangle

The relationship between RGB and CMY is best described by

Red Car BY GM

The relationship is R (red) to C (cyan), B (blue) to Y (yellow), and G (green) to M (magenta). Hence Red Car BY GM. When you draw your first triangle simply put an R, a G, and a B at separate points of the triangle. Now draw an inverse triangle so that is forms what looks like a star (or a star of David). And put the C (Cyan) opposite of the R (red), and the Y (yellow) opposite of the B (Blue), and the M (magenta) opposite of the G (green). So that your Color Star looks like the one above.

Now we can talk about the relationship between what we see on a Computer monitor (RGB) and what we see on a printer page (CMYK). The colors on each side of a color are directly proportionate. The Colors across from each other are inversely proportionate. What does that mean? Well if  the Graphic Artist says I want this to be more RED, most people will increase the Magenta because they think Magenta is directly proportionate to Red. But you only have it half right. Red is made up of Magenta AND YELLOW equally. since M & Y are on either side of R they are directly proportionate. So if I want more RED, I could increase BOTH my Magenta and Yellow. But I also could do something else. I could decrease my C (Cyan). Since C is across from R, they are inversely proportionate! I can reduce Cyan to shift the print to more Red. I still use this today, in fact I did use this today to help minimize a green hue in what the customer wanted to be a neutral tan.

So what about the “K” in the CMYK. What the heck is K anyway, and why doesn’t “K” show up in the triangles. . K = Black. And The triangles are theory. If you have R=0, G=0, B=0 you have black. And , in Theory if you were to mix equal portions of CMY together you would have Black at least at the maximum densities, at least in theory. in practice (read the real world) you most often get a muddy brown. So they add K or Black so that they can get a real, true black without mixing CMY.

Now this does not address a “cool black” or a “warm black” or a Pantone black versus an RGB Black vs a CMYK Black, And you thought that black was just black. Just for fun take Quark Express, or Indesign a draw a number of boxes and put each of the a fore mentioned blacks in them. Then print them out on your preferred MFD or high end printer and notice just how different they look. (Full disclosure: this was a Canon TechNET hands on exercise). It will be a learning experience.

Let’s consider this a Primer, a very basic instruction in the relationship between RGB and CMYK color. You can thank the folks who brought us the Canon TechNET conferences. I do wish they would bring them back. I think that the newer SEs could benefit greatly!

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

IKON – Struggles to flip their Canon customers to Ricoh equipment.

As of March 2009, only 20,000 of the Canon’s that IKON had in its MIF (Machines in field) had been replaced by Ricoh product.

IKON still has 300,000 Canon machines in its MIF (a target rich environment for Authorized Canon Dealers)

I think that this illustrates that while it is easy for Ikon to SAY that a Ricoh is just as good as, or better than a Canon, Their customers are not buying it. At least that is what the numbers are saying.

Some will stay with Ikon because they like their Sales Rep, or they like their technician. Or maybe Ikon has spent a lot of money taking that Purchasing Agent to their Luxury Box at a ball game, or on a Golf Trip, and that Purchasing Agent likes the way they are treated. OK, I get that, but what happens when their End Users first see the Ricoh MFDs that they are getting to replace their Canons? We have seen some significant push back from loyal Canon customers. They can make the Purchasing Agents life “hell”! But the initial End User acceptance, or not, of the Ricoh MFDs is only the first hurdle for Ricoh \Ikon. But apparently that is a hurdle that Ikon is struggling with since they have replaced less than 7% of the Canon MIF (as of March 09).

The next big hurdle for Ricoh \ Ikon will be when the first Ricoh equipment lease comes up for renewal. Its easy to flip a lease of a customer that likes you, and likes your product. you can even use the good will that you have built up over the years to get them to trust you when you say “The Ricoh is just as good as the Canon”. But If your Ikon Sales person  is smart they will try to write these leases for 60 or 63 months the first time. Because the further out they go the less the End Users will remember the good old days when they had reliable and easy to use Canon MFDs. That would be good for the Ikon Rep but definitely not for the Purchasing Agent, who will have to live with their hostile end users until the lease is up. When I worked at _BS I was involved in bringing over a couple of good Canon customers to Ricoh. We have recently gotten them back after their first lease expired and they would not even consider renewing with Ricoh equipment. Ricoh was not even invited to bid. That’s how much these customers hated the Ricoh products.

The Authorized Canon Dealers are seeing an influx of loyal Canon customers who previously got their Canon equipment from Ikon. But there have been some (less than 7% according to the numbers above) that have been loyal to Ikon and that’s OK. The Authorized Canon Dealers can afford to be patient, we’ll see you when your first Ricoh \ Ikon lease is over, or has 9 months left. It is amazing the effect a unhappy group of end users can have an a Purchasing Agent. When the End User community “ain’t happy” they tend to make sure that the Purchasing Agent “aint happy either”. We shall see!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon to provide multifunction printers to HP

Canon to provide MFDs to HP

Here is the Reuters Link, so that you can read the story for yourself. This is a move that a number of industry analysts predicted after Ricoh bought Ikon. No one expected Canon to sit on their hands and not try to take back the market share that Ikon provided to Canon.

HP & Canon are two of the biggest and most respected names, each in their own space. This agreement could have interesting effects on the market place. HP has long desired to enter the MFD space. They have had several of less than successful attempts with the Mopier, and more recently their Edgeline MFD products. But this deal will help HP overcome one of their two major hurdles. It will provide HP with a great product line of MFDs to sell. A product line that is well established and well respected. Initially labeled as Canon MFDs, but eventually HP will put their own label on these MFDs.

But there still remains one other significant hurdle that HP will need to address if they are going to be successful in this space, and that is service. I am talking about MFD service, not traditional printer service. There is a difference between the two. End users have come to expect a 4 hour or less response time for their MFDs. MFDs are typically a little too big to have one in your trunk so you can swap it out, and then repair the printer\MFD when you get a round to it. That won’t work in this space.

Maybe they will take a page out of their Mopier play book. When the Mopier was first introduced HP invited a number of large Independent Canon Dealers to come out to Boise, Idaho and take a look at it. They were looking to put together a ready made service department for their new product. I was one of the people invited by HP to look over the product. Unfortunately the Mopier did not get picked up by a large number of dealers, and those that did pick it up did not have great success. This was a brilliant  move by HP, they just didn’t have a product that would really shine in the MFD market space.

But now they do have a great, proven product line (The full line of Canon MFD products). There are also a number of very large regional independant Canon Dealers that HP could approach to solve their service issue. It could be an interesting discussion for both HP and the large independent Canon dealers. They were smart enough to do it once, but maybe they were just ahead of their time.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Will Ikon sub contract Canon service?

Apparently the eight questions to ask Ikon regarding Canon service has made an impact. Ikon has recently sent out a letter (dated August 2009) that states “Ikon may contract with authorized Canon service providers to enable us to continue to provide any support needed for firmware upgrades, patches, and access to technical support”

So if we apply a little deductive reasoning (ALA Sherlock Holmes) we can conclude what we have long suspected that Ikon does  NOT have access to these things on there own. So some of the smoke (screen) has begun to clear. And it has also become even more apparent just how much the Ikon customers lost when Ikon lost their status as an authorized Canon service provider.

According to their recent letter they lost their ability to directly obtain firmware, patches, or technical support from Canon. But they can hire an Authorized Canon dealers to do all these things for them. REALLY? What Authorized Canon dealer is going to do this for Ikon? Do you really think that an Authorized Canon dealer will help Ikon service Canon MFDs until Ricoh \ Ikon can replace them with Ricoh MFDs? Who would that be? It smells like more smoke to me! They could try and pull a fast one on some customers and bring in a “C-Level” Canon Dealer. A Canon dealer who is not full line authorized, but is only Authorized on the lower end Canon MFDs. But they could say that they have an Authorized dealer under contract, and that would be technically correct. But that would be misleading their loyal Canon customers and Ikon would never do that, would they?

Even if they do pay some full line Canon dealer enough to want to do this for them, how will that work? Well for starters Ikon will likely only bring in an Authorized Canon Dealer as a last resort, because it will be costly? So this will delay the customer from getting their needed firmware, patches, or Canon technical support. And since there will be an added layer of support it will cost more. It will have to just to cover the cost that Ricoh \ Ikon will have to pay to get an authorized Canon Dealer to show up. Once the call does go out, how high of a priority do you think it will be for an authorized Canon dealer to respond to Ricoh \ Ikon’s service request? It’s not like they will have a lot of other options to get authorized Canon service support.

So it’s really not much of a response, but I guess Ikon had to say something? Had to give some response because they got tired of their Canon customers pushing them for the truth about what they no longer had when they lost their authorized status. Customer’s aren’t stupid! They saw right through the last Ikon smoke screen, the one where they said nothing is different, and nothing will change. Since that line of bull didn’t work, they now have moved to the second level of smoke screen. They say that they “MAY” hire an authorized Canon service provider to do for their Canon customer what they can no longer do themselves. Really? Ask them “who”? And get it in writing on Ikon letterhead.

Let’s stop the spin! Even if they actually do hire some mercenary Canon Dealer it will be more expensive, and it will take longer to deliver the Canon service that these customers have paid for. After all when they bought their Canon MFDs and entered in to a service agreement with Ikon they WERE Authorized Canon service providers, and now they are not. So they lost real value when Ikon was purchased by Ricoh. This is no longer in question. The only question I have now is what will Ikon’s Canon customers do about it?

By the Way, the original Canon Ikon letter said that Ikon would receive certain technical support from Canon for at least one year. That letter was dated 10-31-2008, that One year will be up in about a month. Hummm?

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon’s New Line of ImageRUNNER Advance MFDs (with Corrections)

I went to Las Vegas last week to see the official unveiling of Canon’s new smart MFDs called ImageRUNNER Advanced. I was impressed with what I saw. Here are a few of the highlights. I have received some info to correct some of my observations. I have posted these corrections in PURPLE.

The new line of ImageRUNNER-Advanced will have: the product name is actually imageRUNNER ADVANCE

The availability for an optional USB Keyboard that will either sit right in the middle of the MFD or on its own mount.

Large Full Color Touch Screens – The Operations Panel (UI) is very customizable. There is a Main Menu and a Quick Key Menu (where you can program complex tasks into one button workflows)  It’s hard to believe but Canon made their new Op Panel even easier for end users than their current Canon Op Panel.
The new line is more eco friendly (both in how they were manufactured, and how they run)
Advanced Box (A-Box) which will be a type of File Server on the MFD for collaboration
Access Management System (AMS) – which will allow you to limit what functions each user can do on the MFD
All of the new line have (optional) Security card authorization built in to the front of the MFD.
Scan to USB Thumb Drive (This can be disabled by an Authorized Canon Technician for high security environments)

Print From USB Thumb Drive
Suspend on Mismatch (print around functionality) – If a Print job can’t print because it doesn’t have the correct paper loaded, the jobs behind it will continue to print.

All of the line has two separate processors, Even  faster response from MEAP Apps (like UniFLOW or Authorized Send)
There is a new Print Driver Customization Utility being released. It will allow us to customize a Canon PCL 5 or PCL 6 driver. CORRECTION – Canon Driver Configuration Tool:  The CDCT will allow for customizing PCL 6, PCL 6, PostScript, and UFR II drivers for Canon controllers, vs. just PCL 5/6 That’s great news!

So you could REMOVE the option for color, or make double sided mandatory BEFORE you push it out from your Print Server to their end users. Both Network Admins and CFOs will love the ability that this will give them to enforce the Corporate policies on cost savings and “Green Initiatives”.
All ‘I” series in the new line will come with “Canon Essentials” which will include: ImageRUNNER ADVANCE Essentials:  The three components of Essentials are imageRUNNER ADVANCE Desktop, Tracker, and Workflow Composer with 3 standard WFC Connectors (SMB, FTP, and SMB Index Connectors).  imageWARE Document Server (not Document Manager Server) is a separate option which uses imageRUNNER ADVANCE Desktop as a front end.

• A 5 user license of the Canon Desktop Software (similar to eCopy Desktop)
• Tracker – replaces ImageWARE Accounting Manager for MEAP  (helps track who is doing what on each MFD)
• WorkFLOW composer to set up those complex tasks into one button workflows on the quick men
• Document Manager Server
• Dashboard – which allows you to see the MFDs screen remotely (on a PC) – good for training or remote troubleshooting. The “Dashboard” referred to is actually the Remote Operation Kit, and is also a separate option as well.

There will be a couple of new Universal Send options:

• Reader Extensions (for PDFs) – allows a basic Acrobat Reader to mark up a PDF created with this option
• Office Open XML format (OOXML) – Scans in this format can be opened and edited in Powerpoint

There will be an optional Document Scan Lock & Tracking that will embed an almost invisible 3D bar code on the Document that can make it not possible to copy it unless you are the owner.
Canon is the only MFD manufacturer currently to have a connector that ties directly into Adobe LiveCycle Server. This Server allows you to apply security policies to scanned PDFs right from the new Canon IR-Advanced. So you might not allow anyone to print this PDF, or only a certain group of people. It can also have a PDF “time out” so that it no longer opens after a certain date . I spoke to the Adobe Rep at the show and he tells me that Adobe LiveCycle is very big in government circles. Adobe:  LiveCycle is a fairly large platform that’s modular in nature. The integration with the Rights Management module of Adobe LiveCycle ES.   Good description on what it does, though. It’s also big in finance areas, both finance companies and finance-related sections of businesses.
There also a new MS Office plugin for the ImageProGraph Wide Format Printers. It adds a nice tab to MS Office apps (like Word, Excel, Powerpoint) that provides easy to use wizards so the end user can easily print posters from these MS Office apps. I believe that this can be downloaded now.

Overall there is a lot to like on the new Canon ImageRUNNER Advanced line of MFDs.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Nuance aquires eCopy

Here is the link so you can read it for yourself. Congratulations Ed & Crew!

The first thing that came to my mind is finally eCopy will get a better OCR engine. It’s no secret that I have NOT been a fan of the ReadIRIS OCR capabilities. And the “answer” has always been that you can use OmniPage if you want, the problem has always been the cost to upgrade. Now that Nuance owns both OmniPage & eCopy I am hoping that the default OCR engine will be greatly improved. I am not sure that they will have a choice, because from what I am hearing ReadIRIS dropped eCopy (like Canon droped Ikon) once their chief rival bought them. Go figure?

There has been increasing pressure on eCopy to separate their offerings from what the MFD Manufacturers now include in their own embedded scanning solutions. There have also been a lot of other companies nipping at eCopy’s heals with similar Scan stations (like EFI’s SendMe).

eCopy’s strengths are their extensive connector catalog for their SSOP  product (over 250) and now an emerging connector catalog for their Desktop\PaperWorks product. Their other strength is a unified End User Scanning interface across platforms. For dual line dealers (for instance we sell & support Canon & Konica Minolta) this can be a powerful arguement to lead with an embedded eCopy solution. Now with Nuamce strengthening their OCR engine, as well as possibly other Nuance technology making its way into the eCopy product line this could help them stay relevant even as the manufactures close the gap on their own scanning solutions.

One thing that I would like to see added to both eCopy’s SSOP and their Paperworks product is Nuance’s Dragon Naturallyspeaking voice recognition capabilities for Indexing!!! If it worked as advertised that could revolutionize indexing documents before committing them to a document Management system. Indexing, adding the meta data to the scanned image, is the key to making a Document Management System work. But everyone is always trying to make indexing easier (read less typing). Voice recognition (if it works well) could be a quantum leap in document indexing, both in speed and ease of use.

I really love it when two solid technologies come together in a previously unconsidered use to solve a real business problem. Sir Isaac Newton said “If I have seen father than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” Nuance & eCopy, You have a real opportunity here, I hope that you have the vision to make it work. Good luck!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: The only sad note, for me personally, is since I turned down that job offer from eCopy a few years back, I won’t be cashing in on any stock options, I hear that there are some happy folks over at eCopy tonight. Good for you!

Xerox Color Cube fails the scratch test!

Xerox has been talking about their NEW Color Cube as if it was the second coming. There has also been a lot of negative feedback on the web about this product (some of it untrue – for instance I had heard early on that the Xerox Color Cube could NOT do PC faxing, but we had a customer tell us that this is no longer true, even though BLI said it was).

I have been dying to get my hands on some Color Cube sample output so I could see for myself what the hub-bub is all about. And today one of my sales guys came back with a full color sample. Honestly, I was not impressed by the quality. The Canon ImagePRESS series blow this output away. it is not even close.

This is my first hand account of what I see when I look at and handle a Color sample off of the Xerox Color Cube. First of all it feels cheap, waxy. I am the son of a butcher, so I know what wax paper feels like. It has a crayola crayon feel to it. When I LIGHTLY scratched it the colored wax came off with little effort. Can you imagine printing up a million dollar proposal and then putting it your bag to fly to another city only to find the not to gentle baggage handler on the airline damaged your delicate wax based proposal? I will stick to color prints that are a little more durable thank you very much!

After the Xerox Color Cube failed the scratch test, I figured I would fold it and see how it held up. One fold and the Wax based toner cracked. I now have a nice white line running through my full color print. We were also told (though I have not yet personally confirmed this) that you can not laminate these prints because the heat of the laminater will melt the wax based toner. That makes sense, but you should ask your Xerox rep if you can laminate the output form the Xerox Color Cube. And lastly I have been told that the Wax based toner does not like coated paper. The person I spoke to said the Wax does not stick well to coated paper. You should test this for yourself before you buy one.

So to recap the Xerox Color Cube is great (not), just so long as your don’t:

1) Scratch it

2) fold it

3) Laminate it

4) or try to put it on coated paper stock

Other than that the color is “just OK”. Truthfully, I think Xerox is trying to pull a fast one on all of us. This sure looks to me like the output of their old Phaser (wax based) Technology. I guess because Xerox owns this technology (and no one else seems interested in using it) that they feel it gives them something to talk about. Around here the Xerox sales force has clearly “drunk the kool aid” and our hyping this up as must have technology. Now that we are actually kicking the tires it seems like there is a lot more bad than good. but don’t take my word for it put it through the scratch test for yourself! Just make sure that you have something with you to clean the wax out from under your finger nails.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

The problem with the Xerox ColorCube pricing model

Xerox has been touting its new color cube pricing model.

On paper it sounds great! It sounds like you could print some color documents for little more than the price of a black & white page. The Xerox sales force has been showing off three sample pages and giving the following costs per page

.0089 -(under a penny) for a B&W page with just a small color logo
.029  -for a page with a little more color
.059 -their highest rate for a color page. (BTW, both Canon & Konica Minolta have a lower per page color price)

The .0089 seems unbelievable to the Customer, they can now do color for the price of black & white (so says Xerox). In fact, at this cost why would anyone even care if their end users print everything in color? And THAT IS WHAT XEROX IS HOPING FOR!

Because if Xerox can get the customer (and especially the CFO) to not care if their end users print color then they WILL print color, and the cost will rise, and Xerox will make more money, because their customers will spend more money.

How you ask? Let’s look at how we set up most of our customers now. When one of our customers buys a Color MFD we default BOTH the Copier and all the Print Drivers to B&W. We set it up in such a way that when an End User copies or prints without thinking it comes out in B&W. If they want color they must choose color. They must actually make an effort to switch from the B&W default to Color when they copy or when they print. And guess what? That keeps the price EVEN LOWER than the lowest color price of the Xerox Color Cube.

And if that is not enough we will lock down the color capabilities so that only certain end users can do color at all. If certain end user’s jobs don’t require them to print or copy in the color then they don’t get the ability to do so. While other end user’s jobs do need this ability. So we give them the codes to do so. This strategy works to keep the cost of color printing truly low for our customers.

Xerox is trying to remove these safe guards, but I believe that Customers who do allow their End Users to print everything in color will find that these amazing savings that Xerox is promising will be as illusive as “free health care”.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon’s UniFLOW tames the Wild West (of Networks)

About 3 Months ago we installed a Canon uniFLOW solution at a prestigious International business school in the Boston area. We had tried to provide a solution that would meet the needs of their very diverse network using a number of different technologies but each fell short, until we proposed and installed Canon’s UniFLOW.

So what was so unique about their network? Here are some of the challenges that we faced.

The School is looking to track their students (~250/year) copy & print on three Canon MFDs. The following criteria need to be met:

1. There is no Active Directory Login for the Students – Local Authentication. This caused several “solutions” to be non-starters. In the spirit of full disclosure their actually is an Active Directory, but the students are NOT forced to login to it before printing.

2. The system needs to track prints & copies (faxes or scans are optional). It also came to light during the install that only the students would be charged, the faculty & staff would not be charged, but they did want to still track their print & copy usage. No Problem with Canon’s UniFLOW.

3. Student bring their own Computers with a wide variety of (OS) Operating Systems (several Flavors of, XP, Vista, Home & Pro, MAC  OS  X.4 & 5, both 32 & 64 bit systems) The Home versions of XP & Vista caused a couple of Solutions to drop out of the running.
4. Minimal prep work should be done to the students Computers. – Good documentation was the key! Screen shots and simple instructions allowed the diverse student population to set themselves up with minimal support from the IT Dept.
5.  Students should have an initial level of access (dollar amount or clicks) across all 3 Canon MFDs. We (NECS) were the first Canon uniFLOW install in the USA to integrate with PAYPAL! This allowed the school to give the students an initial printing allowance, and then the students could replenish their printing budget as needed with little to no IT involvement.
6. Students should be able to go to a specific staff member to add value to their account and have the staff member reactivate their account or add value to an active account. UniFLOW \ PAYPAL integration made it unnecessary for the staff to be involved in this process. Causing significantly lower support overhead for the school. this was a HUGE benefit to the school.
7. The Canon MFDs currently have eCopy SSOP embedded. There should be no conflict with this app. Because there was a sensitivity to cost, the initial implementation met this criteria but we did NOT integrate the two apps. This has been proposed as a future enhancement so that UniFLOW will pass forward the student or staff login credntials to the embedded eCopy SSOP app. This would allow the students \ staff to login to BOTH UniFLOW & eCopy SSOP when they tap their school security card on the MFD proximity card reader.
8. There are 6 Lab PCs that will need a Pop Up type of authentication so that multiple students may use it while still billing their prints to their accounts. This knocked out another solution we looked at. We loaded the Canon UniFLOW client with a pop up on the Public PCs in the Lab so that each student would get a pop up for their credentials each time that they printed.

9. It would be nice if the solution would provide true follow me type of Printing. Where a student could use a universal print driver and pull down the job at any Canon they chose to use. Canon UniFLOW allows Students & Staff to simply login to any Canon MFD running the UniFLOW MEAP app. by tapping their school issued security card on a proximity reader attached to the Canon MFD. The first time they tap their prox card it asks them to login to the UniFLOW system which will import their user info from the Schools Active Directory. They NEVER need to login again unless their AD pasword changes. Once they login in to ANY Canon MFD running the UniFLOW MEAP app they can then release their print jobs. Thus the print jobs “follow” the student(s) to whatever Canon MFD that they choose to login to.

This was a tall order from a good customer, after trying a couple of “solutions” that failed to meet all the requirements, Canon UniFLOW tamed the wild west (of networks). It was a true “solution” for this school. We combined Software, Hardware & Know How to solve the school’s business problem!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon USA ceased providing (all) technical support to IKON on 12/01/2009

Canon sent out a letter to all of it’s Authorized Canon Dealers to confirm that Canon has ceased to provide all technical support. The letter goes on to say:

“,,,we are aware that certain materials circulated by IKON state that “…Canon has agreed that Ikon may contract with authorized Canon service providers to enable us to continue to provide any support needed for firmware upgrades, patches and access to technical support.” This sentence misconstrues the terms of the October 30, 2008 confidential agreement between Canon USA and IKON.” (Red font & bold type are mine)

It seems like the Questions to ask IKON about their Canon Service posted on this blog finally got to the truth. In response to these question IKON sent out a letter that apparently misstated their capabilities to service and support their customer’s Canon equipment. So in response to that letter Canon sent out their own letter (12\1\2009) to clarify their relationship (or lack their of) with IKON (a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh).

And if you read the letter it makes it perfectly clear to both IKON and all the Authorized Canon Dealers that neither IKON nor an Authorized Canon Dealer are permitted to enter into a “behind the scenes” agreement to service Canon equipment in partnership with IKON. Apparently that was an IKON pipe dream.

So now all the cards are on the table IKON can not get firmware, patches, updates, technical publications, or Canon tech support on any of the Canons that they service or support. The last spin IKON will likely make is that they have “all that stuff’ for the Canon machines that they use to be authorized to sell & support. While that was true a year ago, Canon like all manufacturers continue to send out new firmware, & patches, etc for equipment that is currently in the field. I believe that each manufacturer is required to support a product for a minimum of 7 years after it ceases production. So if you have Canon equipment being serviced by IKON you likely do not have anything that Canon has released for it in the last year. That is one of the main reasons that a Canon customer chooses an Authorized Canon Dealer to service their Canon equipment.

A final thought to those Customers who have and like their Canon ImageRUNNNER equipment. If you like your Canon ImageRUNNER you are going to love the Canon ImageRUNNER-Advance!!! The new line is unbelievable.  You should call an Authorized Canon Dealer to see it, especially if IKON is trying to push you into Ricoh equipment. At the very least come see a demo so you can see what you are going to be missing.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Should you buy a copier (MFD) off of eBay?

There have been a number of times over my 20 years in this industry where I have come across someone who bought (or was going to buy) a copier (MFD) off of eBay or the Internet. Usually they tell me that they are being offered a great deal. They got an unbelievable price that they feel like they couldn’t pass it up. Honestly we all want to get a good price for what we buy. BUT, if all you consider is the purchase price you may not have considered what the true cost will be. So let’s consider honestly what the total cost will be.

For starters, what is it going to cost you to ship it to your office?  A dealership has relationships with professional moving companies that specialize in moving high tech equipment. If your equipment gets shipped by someone who has no idea of how to do it correctly there may be significant damage in route. I have seen it happen. One company gave a new meaning to the term “drop shipping”! If it is damaged who is responsible? Is it insured? By Who? Who do you call if it shows up damaged? These are all things that a dealership ensures are done correctly and your Account Manager resolves any of these issues so you don’t have to waste your valuable time and energy. How much is that worth to you? While this may be a soft cost, the headaches will be very real to you.

But let’s say that the Copier\MFD that you purchased off of eBay arrives without any noticeable damage. Now that you have it in your office who is going to set it up? You will need to call for Service from a local Dealer and pay to have it set up (this would be included if you bought it from the dealer). So a Service technician comes out and you pay to have it set up. Because you didn’t buy it from this dealer you have little to no leverage to negotiate price.

Much of the equipment offered on the internet is used. So, If you want to put your eBay Copier under a service agreement with this same Dealership that service technician will inspect the Copier\MFD and write up a list of what parts that this bargain copier\MFD will need to bring it up to spec BEFORE they will put it under a service contract. I have seen this run into several thousand dollars in parts and labor. This is the biggest single expense that you should consider and yet because you can’t inspect it before you buy it this cost is an unknown. Some customers have gotten really burned.

But let’s say that you get it to your office and you get it set up as a copier by a service technician, but you would like to set it up as a network printer, and a network scanner (scan to email or windows shared folder) or maybe you want to integrate it into a Document Management System that you have. So that you you can really get the most out of your multi functional device (MFD). You will need a Systems Engineer from that same dealership to come out and set all of this functionality up for you. And this again will cost you. This would be a service that would be included in the sale if you had purchased it from your local dealership.

But let’s say you paid out of pocket for each one of these services for your bargain ebay copier\MFD and now you or your staff need a little training on how to use this equipment. Who is going to train you? Your local dealership’s Sales person? No! You don’t have an Account Manager \ Sales Person because you bought it from eBay. Will the person you bought it from in Missouri or California come out to train you, not likely. So what happens now? You either figure it out yourself or you and your staff don’t really get to know how to use all the functionality of this Copier\MFD. I have been to customers that had equipment for years and yet they never knew that they could do PC faxing or some other function. Another soft cost.

When you add it all up you could possibly save a little money but not near as much as it would first appear. And if anything goes wrong there will be no one to turn to, to get help. It is at best a roll of the dice, and at worst a nightmare. It may turn out that your eBay bargain may not be much of a bargain after all.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
www.necs.biz

Updating your MFD’s firmware – Canon gets it right!

Canon’s Content Delivery System (CDS) is a quantum leap for updating the MFDs firmware. It makes it too flippin’ easy! Below is a screen shot of an actual Canon ImageRUNNER-Advance that I updated today.

I have done a firmware update on the ImageRUNNER-Advance with a USB Thumb drive and I thought that was easy. Do you remember that we use to have to burn and install ePROMS to update firmware. Then after that we needed a laptop and special software to update the firmware. Both of these required a trained service technician.

But being able to enter service mode and download the firmware right from the MFD touch screen was just too easy. There could come a time when a service technician may not be needed, but for now you still need the secret handshake to know how to get into service mode (and no I can’t tell you what that is).

The coolest part is you can schedule when to download the firmware (maybe in the middle of the night) and if you would like, even have it automatically update it. Or if you are more conservative you could have it stored on the hard drive of the Canon IR-Adv waiting for the service tech to install it on his\her next visit. Think about how much time that could save!

Canon has made the updating of firmware as easy as patching your PC or Server. But best of all is it can be configured to your comfort level as to how and when it should be installed. Canon’s new content distribution system is a break through and keeping your firmware and security patches up to date is just the beginning of good things to come! What’s next embedded (MFD) applications?

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

The six greatest security dangers that every IT professional should know about their Office “Copier”

First some history & background of the Office Technology Industry:
Xerox Corporation invented the copier in 1949, and led the office equipment industry until the 1970s when Japanese rivals entered the market. Companies like Canon & Minolta & others offered cost effective alternatives to Xerox.

The 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s saw the rise of Independent Copier Dealers in the US market place, providing their customers with great local service on a wide variety of office technology products. In the late 90’s we saw a large consolidation in the Industry. Holding companies like Ikon, Danka, and Global began to buy up a large number of independent Copier Dealerships around the country.

The 2000’s
In the next decade (2000s) two of these three national holding companies struggled financially, and by the end of the decade all three had been sold off to specific Copy Manufacturers (Ikon to Ricoh, Danka to Konica Minolta, and Global to Xerox). During this same time there were a number of large regional Independent Dealerships that not only survived but thrived by continuing to provide quality products and great service to their customers.

The Copier becomes an MFD (Multi Functional Device)
In the early 90’s the digital copier was introduced to the US market. Initially these were sold as standalone devices, but it wasn’t long before the Manufactures began to add functionality to them. The first breakthrough was the addition of printing & faxing to the “copier”, and scanning soon followed. Now manufacturers offer a plethora of software options that can be installed directly into the MFD further extending and enhancing the capabilities to integrate these devices into the network and with your back end servers.

Why should your IT Department care about the “Copier”?
For most of the life of the Copy Machine it was completely and totally in the domain of Purchasing. But when the Copier became an MFD and we put it on your company’s network it now involves the IT Department. Today the IT Department must be involved in the purchase and installation of the Multi functional devices (MFDs). These are not your father’s copy machines.

What type of support does your company need for a Multi Functional Device (MFD)?
Your Office Technology Dealer needs to have a proven track record in not only servicing the actual device, but also has the resources to install & support them on your network.  This support is most important to your companies IT Department. It is crucial that you make sure that your Office Technology Dealer has this type of support.

The 6 greatest security concerns your IT department should have regarding the MFD

To secure the Copier \ MFD we need to consider the following topics:

1) Securing the Data on the Copier \ MFDs Hard Drive
a. Real time (while the MFD is on your network)
b. End of life (before you decommission or repurpose your MFD)
2) Controlling Access to the Copier \ MFDs (Is your cleaning crew making copies at night?)
a. Security & convenience has arrived (integrating the Active Directory with the MFD)

3) Controlling Access to the functions of your MFD (who gets to scan to email, scan to a thumb drive,               print securely, or access the MFDs web page? And what ports are open?)

4) Securing the Data that is sent from your copier (email is not an inherently secure media)

5) Securing the MFD on your network (settings & protocols to harden your MFD)

6) Updating the Copier \ MFDs firmware (how to stay current with security patches, bug fixes, & firmware)

The following three security themes also need to be discussed to understand the organization’s culture & needs.

• Confidentiality: Prevent the disclosure of data to unauthorized users

• Integrity: Insure data is not altered either maliciously or accidentally

• Availability: Maintaining data availability to legitimate users

Let’s look at each of these topics and themes in more detail.

Multi Functional Devices (MFDs) = Copier or Network Node?
Modern day MFDs have Hard Drives, RAM Memory, Operating Systems, and Display monitors. They are more like Computer Nodes than old time Copiers. And as such the IT Department needs to be aware of how to secure the MFD while still making it functional for your end users.

Topic 1: Securing your company’s data on the hard drive of your MFD.
There are two separate concerns about data on the Hard Drive.

A.    The first is real time, while the MFD is currently in use and on your network. Whenever a document is copied, faxed, scanned, or printed an image of that document is written to the hard drive of the MFD. That’s the bad news. The good news is that on some MFDs (like Canon) even the basic hard drive with no options does not keep the image on the hard drive on contiguous blocks. And the data is compressed in a proprietary file format (not readable outside of MFD).
But if this is not enough Hard Drive security there are a few other options that make meet your needs. There are Encryption Kits, Disk Overwrite kits, and removable hard drives (that can be locked up when not in use). It is not likely that you will need all of these, or even any of these on all of your company’s Hard drives, but you may need one or more of them on specific MFD based on the type of data being placed on the MFDs hard drive daily (Legal Dept, or HR could be possibilities).  While no one particular security technology can make a company meet their security compliance regulations (like HIPPA or SOX) they can be a part of the company’s compliance strategy. Note: Canon has recently added a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) on the new line of Canon ImageRUNNER-Advance, once it is turned on the Hard Drive, as well as several other components will work in no other Canon Device.

B.    Each of the above technologies is designed to keep your data secure while the MFD is actively in use. The next concern is what you do with the Hard Drive when you are ready to decommission or repurpose the MFD (like moving it to a new department). Most companies have policies they enforce on the decommissioning of their PC’s hard drives, but these policies are not typically enforced on their MFD Hard Drives, they should be! At the very least service technician should be called before the MFD is turned off and removed so s/he can format the hard drive.

If you have a Disk Overwrite option or an encryption kit on your hard drive you will have less of a concern returning the hard drive than if it is simply the standard hard drive.  Some companies actually buy brand new hard drives and install them on the MFD before they decommission them. They then have the hard drives that have been removed and have them “chipped”, run through a chipping machine to physically destroy the hard drive. You may ask why not just destroy the hard drive and be done with it? If you own the MFD this is an option for you, but most companies lease their MFDs. And at the end of a fair market lease you need to return the MFD to the leasing company (who actually owns it) in working condition. If it shows up in non-working order they charge you a premium price to get it back to a working condition. This is not a cost effective decision.

Note: You could also consider “secure erase” technology where the hard drives are guaranteed to be wiped beyond forensic ability to recover any data off of them. But no matter which option you choose you will need an Authorized Service technician to reload a clean copy of the Operating System (OS) on to the hard drive that is being sent back to the Leasing company.

Topic Two: Controlling Access to your Copier \ MFD
For many companies the copier is wide open, available to anyone to walk up and make a copy. In other companies it is locked down completely. You cannot use any of the functions without first Identifying yourself in some manner (ID Code, Active Directory Login, Security Card, other). With some of the latest crop of MFDs you can lock down only certain features (like Scan & Email, Color Printing, or the ability to add an email address that is not already in the MFDs address book).

The biggest drawback to securing the copier \ MFD has always been the inconvenience to your end users. Anyone who has to login to the copier 12 times a day to make a simple copy will likely lead an armed revolt against the person or people who secured the copier. In all but the most secure environments it has been extremely difficult to do. But that was before we were able to combine an Active Directory Login with a Security Card (Proximity, or Magnetic swipe typically). This allows us to bring together on the MFD two separate security technologies that are often already in use to give the end users and the company “security with convenience” (two words that have rarely used in the same sentence). The addition of real, physical keyboards to the MFDs have also added to the ease of use for the End Users when they need to log in to the MFD.

Authentication is the foundation of securing the MFD. If you don’t identify who wants to use a resource (like an MFD) you can’t make an informed decision as to what they should or should not have access to.

Topic Three: Controlling Access to the functions of your MFD
MFDs can either greatly enhance your company’s productivity or be a license to steal confidential company information. How you choose to configure it can make all the difference.
Once you have Authentication in place on your MFD you can set up policies as to who gets to access what functions (Color, Scan to email, Fax, Printing) on the MFD. For instance many companies want to make Color \ B&W MFDs available across their enterprise but they are afraid that the use of color printing will get out of control. Once you have defined who or what group(s) job description entitles them to print & copy in color they can be given the access where others can only print or copy in black & white. You may allow everyone to scan in color, since it does not cost the company anything more to scan in color.
Another simple example could be “guest” usage of your MFD. You may have visitors that you want to give the courtesy of using the MFD to print or copy in black & white, but you don’t want to give them the ability to fax or scan & email sensitive document outside of your company. Security on the new batch of MFDs is much more granular where the older ones were more all or nothing security. An added benefit of authentication is the ability to track & audit end users and what they are doing on the MFDs.
Some companies only lock down the functions that they want to control, like color or Scanning. And they leave the functions that they don’t need to control wide open. When an end user approaches the MFD they can copy, print, or Fax in B&W without any login, but if they want to do it in color or scan & email they must authenticate or enter a ID code.

Topic Four: Securing the Data that is sent from your copier
Compliance drives many companies to implement better security measures. If your company sends confidential information you will need to add security measures before you can implement Scan to Email.
Scan to eMail: Email is inherently an insecure media. The MFD can have added security measures to either encrypt the PDFs or even assign profiles (by tying it into Adobe LiveCycle), or simply limiting the email so that it can only scan to the companies email server but the MFDs cannot scan THROUGH the email server. This will allow the email to get to the internal users, but not out to the rest of the world unless resent by the company’s email client which may have encryption built in. You can also add an Adobe Digital Signature to certain MFDs to guarantee the integrity of the PDFs you send.
MFDs Address Book(s): A modern MFD can easily be set up to search the Companies Active Directory to find an email address or fax number. Making it less necessary to set up a local address book on the MFD. Leveraging the company’s LDAP or Active Directory will lighten the work load on the IT department as people join or leave the organization.
Adding Software Clients to your MFD: Modern MFDs can also be loaded with client software which can make them on ramps to company servers. Many companies have invested in Fax Server or Document Management systems that they would like to be able to easily access on an ad hoc basis. These MFD clients can make the same security policies and functionality available to the end users even when they are sending documents from the MFD.
Secure printing: Secure printing can be implemented in a number of ways. Print to a secure Mailbox on the MFD and then enter a pin code to release the job. It is also possible to secure the print stream (via encryption) so that it cannot be intercepted.

Topic 5: Securing the MFD on the network
At one prestigious university they told me that the average time it took for a new MFD to get hacked on their network was six minutes. Another Ivy League University set a security policy for their MFDs before any new MFDs were put on their network: Here is a sample of some of the things that can be done to harden your MFD.
•    DHCP must be turned on for all MFD (reservations by MAC address are common)
•    The firmware in use on any MFD must never be more than two revisions old
•    If remote configuration and support is to be utilized, utilize secure protocols (https over port 443)
•    Any unused ports must be disabled (FTP service must be disabled)
•    The SNMP community string must be changed from the factory default (public)
•    A PIN, password, or passphrase must be used to protect the configuration menu on the MFD
•    Access controls to the MFD should be IP filtered, MAC filtered, or through the use of network print servers

Topic 6: Updating the Copier \ MFDs firmware
All manufacturers release updated firmware, security patches, and bug fixes over the life of the device. These are only available to Authorized service providers. It is one of the main reasons that you want to make sure your Office equipment is serviced by an Authorized Service provider.
You wouldn’t consider putting or keeping a non-patched Server on your company’s network, neither should you have MFDs on your network that are not patched with the latest firmware or security updates.
Some MFD manufacturers have begun to make it significantly easier to update the firmware. In some cases the process can be automated like a Windows Update, or a technician can flash the MFD from a thumb drive.  Making it easier ensures that it will be done regularly.

In Closing: There are many security features, functions, configurations and options that can help your company better meet your security goals. A partnership with an Authorized Service Provider should be leveraged by the IT Department. With your IT Departments expertise regarding the company’s network environment and corporate policies and the Authorized Dealers expertise on the equipment and options a comprehensive security policy can be developed and implemented for your Multi Functional Devices.

Is there new trouble looming for Ikon???

I just saw that Canon has filed a lawsuit against a company called Densigraphix on 01/10/2010. From one article that I read it stated that Ikon has become Densiggraphix’ biggest customer since they lost thier Canon Authorized status. it is reported that Ikon has been buying non-OEM toner for the Canon MFDs that they still support. Canon is claiming a patent infringement against Densigraphix. So how does this affect Ikon?

It’s not that Canon won’t sell toner to Ikon, It will sell Canon OEM toner to Ikon. But it will cost them more than an Authorized Dealer pays, so Ikon would have to pay more for Canon Toner.  If Canon wins the lawsuit, IKON would be forced to buy supplies from Canon, most likely at list price. Ouch!!!

This is the last thing that Ikon \ Ricoh needs in these difficult financial times. If Canon does win this lawsuit Ikon will face a dilemma, will they, or can they, pass on this additional cost to their Canon customers? I am also wondering If Ikon’s Current Canon customers are OK with them sending out non-OEM toner for their Canon MFDs?

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon says that there is “no difference” between CBS and the Independent Canon Dealers!

I read a letter today that Canon has sent out that states that there is no difference between CBS (Which is owned by Canon) and the Independent Canon Dealerships. Canon treats both the same, they get the same pricing, and the same training, the same support from Canon.

The reason that it was necessary for Canon to send out this letter was that CBS was (IMO) misrepresenting themselves to some customers as if they were Canon. We did the same thing when we were at RBS. We would also say why would you want to deal with a dealer when “we” are the Manufacturer…..WRONG! So whether it is CBS, RBS, KMBS, TABS, or any other _BS organization they are NOT THE MANUFACTURER, they are a sales channel, just like the Independent Dealer is a Sales Channel.

Where the Independent Dealerships shine is in our flexibility and responsiveness to our customers. We do not answer to share holders we answer to our customers. And let’s be honest you can not be an independent dealer and have survived and thrived for the last 20-30 years without doing a lot of things right. In some cases “The Branch” (read _BS) are the new kids on the block. They have have only recently hung their shingle in our market place. They are like the classic Hollywood western town, all front and no real structure behind it. Ask their Sales Rep where their Warehouse is? where is their Dispatch located? how long have they been with _BS?

Then ask them if you (as their customer) were REALLY IN A BIND and needed them to get you ________ (fill in the blank with an MFD, a Toner Cartridge, a Service tech to show up in a hurry, etc.) could they do it???? Do they have the Juice? Because as a customer you want to know that your Account Manager \ Sales Person has juice! That s/he can get things done in their organization for you! In most _BS organization the sales person isn’t even allowed to speak directly to people in other departments. They need to go through their Sales Manager who has to talk to the manager in the other department who then has to talk to the person in that department who can actually help you. You could grow old waiting for this to get done, if they can get it done at all. Because our Independent Sales People have juice! They can talk to the Service Manager, or our Back Room Manager, or they can and will drop off a Toner cartridge to you so that you don’t have an emergency. You (Our Customer) are our priority!

So the next time some ex-ikon rep shows up and says I am with _BS and “we are the manufacturer”, you’ll know that they have truly earned the “BS” in their name.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Is Your Universal Print driver REALLY UNIVERSAL???

Follow me printing,  follow you printing, secure printing,  or rules based routing…. for these to work correctly we need to have EITHER all the same type of Printers OR a Universal Print Driver. Since I don’t know any company that has all the same model(s) of Printers or MFDs, lets look at the Universal Print Driver option.

What is a “Universal Print Driver”? For starters there are two flavors; Postscript or PCL. I will spare you all the gory details but let’s just say that these are two different printer languages. But once we have a PCL Universal Driver or a PS Universal driver what do you actually have? That depends on who you ask.

You may only be able to determine the capabilities of your vendors “Universal Print Driver” by asking a series of pointed questions. Why, you ask is this necessary? Because different vendors use the same term BUT mean different things by it. If we are going to have an intelligent conversation, it is incumbent upon us to first define our terms.

What the Vendors want you to think of when you hear the term “Universal Print Driver” is a single print driver that will print to any printer, right? Not so fast. The Sales guy will tell you that “YES we have a UNIVERSAL PRINT DRIVER”, and “A UNIVERSAL PRINT DRIVER CAN PRINT TO DIFFERENT MANUFACTURER’S PRINTERS”. So you say that is great we can load one driver on our end users PCs and they can print to various printers correctly (Oh no, you added the word “correctly”, Huston we have a problem).

This is where we separate the men from the boys when it comes to “Universal Print Drivers”. Once you purchase a solution that says it will provide a Universal Print Driver and you begin to impliment said solution you meet the system integrator (the technical guy) and you ask him the following questions, you may find out that the “Universal Print Driver” that his company sold you is not so Universal. What? Really? How come the Sales Person didn’t tell me this? (owwww…..That is the sound of me biting my tongue).

I am a fan of people making a fully informed decision. I am not a fan of misleading terms. So Let’s define a REAL UNIVERSAL PRINT DRIVER as one that (once the language is picked PCL or PS) it can print to any printer that supports that language (PCL or PS). Then it begs the question, does the “Universal Print Driver” that your vendor is pushing meet this standard? Here is a hint, don’t ask your sales person, ask their Systems Engineer, and make them look you in the eye when they answer.

Q1. Is it possible with your vendors Universal Print Driver to print to ANY make or model printer on your companies network and have it print correctly?

If they answer Yes to the above question please follow up with Q2 to see if they are lying.

Q2. How do you ensure that the user will get the output that they are expecting if there job is routed to a different Make or Model Printer than they originally chose?

What normally happens at this point is you find out the limitation of your vendors (not so) Universal Print driver. One vendor’s technical documentation states “If you want a print job generated for one printer to output successfully on another printer YOU must ensure that the other printer can understand all of the print commands included in the data stream from the driver.” A different vendor states that “the system does NOT check that the spool queues you select have compatible drivers, you must ensure this yourself”

What they are actually saying is that their Universal Print Driver is very limited. And unless YOU make sure that all of the printers that your end users want to print to are all compatible that their follow me \ you print solution is NOT going to work well.

So you ask…What is the alternative? Don’t all these follow me, follow you, secure printing solution all have this limitation? NO! The Canon UniFLOW solution has a TRUE, REAL UNIVERSAL PRINT DRIVER. Please ask Q1. The Answer is Yes! Now ask Q2. to see if we are lying. The answer is the Canon UniFLOW solution does NOT apply specific printer commands UNTIL the job is called for from the specific printer the end user wants to release the job at. So YOU do NOT have to ensure that each printer understands the print commands of another printer. The Canon UniFLOW Universal Print Driver is truly a  UNIQUE UNIVERSAL PRINT DRIVER! Because the printer commands are not applied until the job is released you can change the properties when you release it (B&W to COLOR, Simplex to Duplex, etc.)

Don’t let your sales person say oh yeah, universal print driver, yep! We have that too! Press them to define their terms so that you will know just how Universal (or not) their Universal Print Driver really is.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchug@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Will Ricoh & / or Ikon be at the “On Demand” show in Philly this year?

When I went to Philly last year (2009) for the On Demand show I ran into a couple of folks from Ricoh, but not very many. When I asked one of the Ricoh folks where are all the rest of you? He said that Ricoh was afraid that their best & brightest would use the show as an opportunity to hand out resumes, so they did NOT allow most of them to attend. (smart move)

If that was true in 2009 how much more so will that be true for BOTH Ricoh and IKON at the On Demand / AIIM show in 2010! So what is the over and under at how many folks Ricoh & Ikon will have at the show this year? 12? 25? 40? (Post your guess)

If you work for Ricoh or Ikon and you are going to Philly this year (2010) feel free to say so here! You can remain anonymous. Oh one more thing….polish up that resume, and bring lots of copies!!!

The On Demand \ AIIM show is one of my favorite shows of the year. It is worth my time to see all the new technology & strategies from both my Vendors and Competitors. Besides that it is like old home week! You get to see just about anyone that you have ever worked with in this Industry. They are just wearing a different logo, or name tag or standing in a different booth. We are a small industry!

Maybe I’ll see you there!
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Is Ikon purposely letting their Canon MFDs run poorly?

Maybe I am cynical (I know that you find that hard to believe), but I have heard and seen a number of Canon MFDs that are serviced by Ikon not running well. My question is are they doing this purposely for strategic reasons, or is it simply an economical decision by Ikon to put in less parts since they are more expensive for Ikon buy (since they lost their Canon Authorized status)?

Why you might ask would Ikon purposely do a poor job on servicing a Canon MFD. As you know Ikon can no longer sell Canon MFDs since they were purchased by Ricoh. But they still have a lot of customers that have and love their Canon products. In fact a number of customers have said to me that they are not sure now if they loved Ikon or loved the Canon products that Ikon carried.

When it comes to the last year or so of an Ikon \ Canon lease customers (and Sales people) begin to want to demo new equipment. Usually the incumbent dealer \ product has an edge IF the servicing dealer has done a good job, and IF the current product has done well. In my 20+ years of experience it is rare that a Canon MFD runs poorly over a 5 year (or less) lease. I know there are lemons in every product line but Canon MFDs that are well serviced have been historically VERY RELIABLE. That is one of the points that BLI made when they awarded Canon MFD line of the year.

So how does it help Ikon (as an incumbent) to let the Canon MFD that they sold to the customer run poorly? Well it is a gamble but what if the Canon runs great? Will that help or hurt Ikon when it comes time to upgrade the equipment? It could very well hurt Ikon because IF THE CUSTOMER REALLY LIKES THEIR CANON, Ikon is screwed because they can not sell them new Canon MFDs. But if the Canon MFDs begin to run poorly for the last year or more of the lease, the Ikon Sales rep can at least make the case that Canon and not Ikon is at fault. If the Sales rep is on friendly terms with the customer, and if they have done a good job servicing the equipment in the past the customer may give them the benefit of the doubt.

This came home to me when I went to visit a current Ikon \ Canon account and the Customer said that they had always liked their Canon equipment, up until the last year it always ran great. But they had one Canon 50ppm MFD that Ikon told them that they could not fix BUT offered to give this customer a loaner Ricoh (at no cost) to get them to the end of their lease. When I heard this from the customer (I heard the guys from the Guinness commercial say “BRILLIANT!!!”).  What a smart, albeit devious way to get the customer to do a long term demo of the Ricoh product. And of course the tech will make sure that the Ricoh runs great and the Canon does not. So when the lease is finally up the Ikon sales rep can make the case that the Ricoh is just as good as the Canon. Hmmmmm? Am I being too cynical, you decide.

It could just as easily be that the Ikon techs are not putting in as many parts, or not updating the firmware as needed. That could explain it too. But knowing Ikon as I do I would not put it past them to actually be setting up this scenario. If a customer wants to test whether or not their Ikon Sales \ Service reps are “pulling a fast one” when they say they can’t fix this particular Canon, call in an Authorized Canon Dealer and give them a crack at fixing this Ikon problem MFD. Then you’ll know whether you love Ikon or actually love Canon.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

On Demand Show 2010

I just got back home from Philly. I spent two days at the On Demand \ AIIM 2010 show. It was a good show, but not a great one. It was reasonable well attended and there were definitely a couple of things I really wanted to see. But I was surprised at how few Copier companies were represented.

On Demand Sponsors

The 3 big Copier manufacturer booths were Konica Minolta, Canon, & Xerox. They were in my opinion the big winners at On Demand.

The Big losers were those who didn’t show up (for what ever reason), No Sharp, No Toshiba, and Ricoh had an anemic appearance with IBM at their Info Print booth. Come on guys are you In or Out? Pick one.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: I couldn’t seem to find the IKON or Danka booths? Strange? I also didn’t see any Ricoh or Ikon employees….Where were you guys? At the Ricoh Non-Demand show in NJ?

CBS is NOT Canon!

No more than RBS is Ricoh or KMBS is Konica Minolta. But that is what the _BS Branches would like you to think. When I worked for Ricoh Business Systems (RBS) the Sales Reps would often say “We are the Manufacturer” (meaning Ricoh) which was a bold faced lie. In fact when anyone from Ricoh corporate would be in a meeting with RBS they would make sure that the customer would know that they were not RBS, they were Ricoh (corporate). Because there is a difference.

Canon apparently feels the same way. I have heard that in a recent letter to certain large Canon customers they have stated that there is no difference between CBS and the Independent Canon Dealers. But in the same letter Canon does state that their is a difference between buying direct from Canon vs CBS. When a customer buys direct from Canon they are referred to as a Canon National Account. And they have a Canon National Account Rep who works directly for Canon, not CBS. So if you don’t have a Canon National Account Rep then you are NOT dealing directly with Canon, no matter what your CBS sales rep says.

I was in Boston today, Yes on a Saturday (partially doing work, and partially sight seeing with my Fiancee”) and I purposely walked by the CBS office. I was curious about how they handled their signage. Because I have been hearing that Canon is very particular about how Authorized dealers use the Canon name on their signage. So when I walked by the CBS (Canon Business Solutions) office guess what I saw for signage????

Canon     Canon    Canon    Canon    Canon   Canon

I was confused to say the least. I could not see any indication from the street that this was the Canon Business Solutions office. It seems to be representing itself as if they were “CANON“! The signage screams it. I am sure that this is what CBS wants to communicate, but is it what Canon wants to communicate? I am not sure, I seem to be hearing mixed messages from Canon.

So what I would suggest to Canon is clean up your own house first. If you REALLY mean that there is no difference between CBS and the Independent Canon Dealers than start by insisting that CBS accurately represent themselves as a Canon Business Solutions Sales, and not Canon, “the manufacturer! And a real good place to start is with the CBS signage. Instead of having just “Canon” across all of the external window signs. It should read:

Canon Business Solutions

Canon Business Solutions

Canon Business Solutions

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

If you can’t earn the business maybe you can buy it?

There have been a number of recent events where one of the Direct _BS Branches have tried to purchase business that they could not earn. I thought I would share a couple of them with you.

One prestigious Ivy League University dismissed a _BS bid because it was “too low”. You heard me correctly, they came in too low on their bid. The Purchasing Committee felt that they could not possibly provide the type of quality service that they were looking for at the ridiculously low price that they bid. They were right, and I respect them for having the balls to call _BS out.

In another deal, a college in Boston accepted  a large donation from “the Vendor” to get the Service contract. Now they would not publicly make the connection between the two, but off the record we were told that this was the key factor. In fact it was suggested that we should make a similar “contribution” as well. We chose not to bid. I know integrity is old fashion but it helps me sleep at night.

The final recent example came from a woman from a mid west company that emailed me after reading this blog. She said that she was on the MFD Purchasing Committee that was looking at Ricoh or Pitney Bowes to provide all the MFDs (and FM) for all of their locations. We ended up speaking on the phone and she told me that Ricoh was offering them a substantial check, and a very low bid price. She said that the Ricoh Rep was even bragging that “they were not making any money on this deal”. She couldn’t understand how any buisness could stay in business operating this way. She said isn’t that illegal dumping? I responded that it sounds like it to me.

As we spoke I asked her if Ricoh was currently serving any of her companies equipment. She said yes, a few, but she said that the service had been very poor. To which I replied THAT is why they are trying to buy your business, because they haven’t earned the right (by giving you good service) to ask you for a fair price at a reasonable margin. She also said that Pitney Bowes had a good reputation for servicing their account. I said that is why their proposal costs more than Ricoh’s, because good service costs more than poor service.

So if you can’t (or haven’t) earned the business, maybe you can buy it? Or better yet maybe you can find another line of work, and let those of us who can do this job and make a reasonable profit do our job.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Will removing the hard drives from old MFDs adversly affect the resale of used equipment?

Recently We have pulled a number of hard rives out of our customers old equipment. We refer to this as our hard drive surrender program. Some customers just don’t care what security options you can provide, they want to keep their hard rives. I get it, because it is the most secure option, and gives the customer the greatest comfort level, but also gives them the greatest responsibility (to properly dispose of the hard rives they keep).

Speaking to my operations manager removing a hard drive from an MFD renders these MFDs all but worthless for the secondary wholesale market. Of course we can only do this (without replacing the hard drive) on equipment that our customers own outright (in other words, NOT LEASED).Otherwise the Leasing Company, who actually owns the equipment will WHACK your customer with an outrageous charge to restore there MFD to working condition.

How will this affect the resale of used equipment, whether wholesale, or refurb’d equipment. How will it effect the sale of new equipment? This will definitely diminish the amount of used equipment on the market in three to five years. It will take that long to get through a lease cycle before the impact will be fully felt by the market place, but it will be felt.

Not sure how many MFDs are having their hard drives pulled before they are being decommissioned but it IS happening on a number of them, maybe 20%, maybe 30%, maybe only 10%. While the impact is yet to be felt it will be felt.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

What does Matt Espe know that would make him leave Ricoh so quickly?

I am sure that by tomorrow both Ricoh & Ikon will spin this 10 different ways, all to try and minimize the damage, but as one wise old man said “You can’t put a shine on a turd!” I mean WTF? Mr Espe had the top spot, he was the top dog at Ricoh Americas. All the industry pundents were saying that this is a “sign” that Ricoh is going to have the Ikon top brass run Ricoh Americas. Now what? There is no way that any thinking person could say that this is good for Ricoh. The shear brevity of Mr Espe’s reign is sure to suck the air out of the room for at least the short term. And IMHO demands an answer to the question that is screaming in all our ears… What does Matt Espe know that would cause him to flee from Ricoh\Ikon after being given the reigns?

At best this is a no confidence vote on the part of Mr Espe. He voted with his feet! But the question hangs in the air like the proverbial “elephant in the room”, and will continue to until we either get a reasonable answer or they find the next savior for Ricoh to hire. It has to shake the confidence of those faithful Ricoh folks who were thinking that he would be the future of Ricoh\Ikon! Hey guys get those resumes polished up if the top rat just jumped ship it may be time to start looking for a soft place for you to land.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Before you buy a Xerox ColorQube…read this!

I recently received a document from Konica Minolta that reviewed the Xerox ColorQube and I was alarmed by some of what I read. Now I am sure that you would not expect KM to say nice things about the Xerox ColorQube (or is it ColorCube)? But what impressed me is they simply quoted two independent reports. These 2 separate reports were compiled, the one by BLI and the other by SpencerLab. It was reported that Xerox actually paid for the report by SpencerLab.

You should consider the following shortcomings (listed in these two reports) before you sign the Delivery & Acceptance:

The amount of stair stepping in diagonal lines was greater than competitive models in copy mode.

Black Text in Standard Mode was rated at a lower quality and density when compared to like models.

Black Lines were fuzzy and broken in Standard mode and Fast color mode, these lines appeared broken resulting in a loss of detail.

Solid black tints in standard and fast color mode exhibited streaking.

Images printed in standard or fast color mode exhibited graininess.

(the above statements add up to poor image quality for your companies documents)

The Xerox ColorQube slows down considerably when it detects an image quality problem.

Users have to empty the ink that is collected in the Waste tray

This report even said that the Xerox ColorQube 9203 fails to offer PC Faxing (can this be right????).

The good news is Xerox offers 3 different warm up modes…

…the bad news is they are slow, slower, and slowest.

1. Sleep Mode = 3 minutes & 30 Seconds
2. Standby Mode = 4 minutes & 5 Seconds
3. Power Off Mode = 18 Minutes & 16 Seconds (in most offices this would cause an armed revolt)

So it is unlikely your office will be powering this down, so much for the companies green initiatives.

Additional Short comings that the report revealed about the Xerox Color Qube that may drive your end users or your IT staff crazy:

Users are not able to send to multiple types of destinations when they scan a document (This is a major step backwards, to not be able to in one scan send the document to an email, fax, and shared network folder).

Only One LDAP Server can be set up to access destinations.

End users can not save an LDAP search to the address book. Which wouldn’t be so bad if they could easily add an address, but according to this report an Admin has to create a .csv file and import that file into the ColorQube to update the address book (say it ain’t so).

The print driver does not offer an easy way of selecting a paper draw. (seriously?)

The Color Qube 9203 can only achieve its fastest speed in Fast Color Mode (which has poor quality) and only with the Postscript driver, which according to this report outputs an error when it is used for Booklet mode (sounds like it is not ready for prime time).

On top of all of this the report said that the Xerox ColorQube is priced higher than the average models that are comparably equipped!!! Wow…what’s not to love ;-\

Seriously folks this solid Ink technology which Xerox is presenting as advanced, was first introduced in 1986 by Tektronix which Xerox acquired when they bought Tektronix. Don’t be blinded by all the Xerox Hype, ask for an in house demo (They will NOT want to give you one), test it with your own company documents, and in your own environment.

Look closely at the quality of your companies documents (text, images and line art).

Feel the documents (waxy), try to write on them with a ball point pen, fold them, leave them in a pile on your cars dashboard on a hot summer day and see if they stick together. Feed them back through your MFDs document feeder and see how they fair on the 2nd, 3rd, or 10th time. Will they hold up over time?

Then ask your end users for their honest feed back after they have copied, printed, and scanned, & faxed and see what they say before you spend more to get less.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

What is the true cost of the “free” Xerox printer?

The Xerox “Free” Color Printer program states that they will give a customer either a “Free” Xerox Phaser 8560 DN Printer or a Xerox Phaser 8560 MFP/D IF they will do the following:

They must buy the supplies, and maintenance kits (at a higher price) for their “Free” Xerox Printer from www.freexeroxprinter.xerox.com and if they fall below the monthly minimum of 2,000 color pages (for the 8560 DN Printer) or 3,500 color pages (for the 8560 MFP/D) they will have to pay a “under usage fee” of $100/ month for the Printer or $200/month for the MFP\D. This is a 3 year agreement that includes service.

The Xerox web site where customers must buy their supplies states that the cost for a color page is “about 9 cents”  http://www.freecolorprinters.xerox.com/free-color-printer-supplies.jsp but when you divide the # of pages into the cost of the supplies it comes out to be around 12 cents.

According to www.office.xerox.com/latest/SUPGL-01.pdf on page 4 it says that the ink coverage is “just below 5%”. While I understand that every manufacturer has traditionally used a 5 – 6% coverage for comparison purposes, we also know that the industry standard for color coverage on a typical page is 21%. Using these figures we can determine the TRUE cost of Xerox’s Free Printer.

The true monthly cost of a Xerox Phaser 8560 DN Printer:

2,000 (minimum color pages) x .12 (cost of supplies @ 5% coverage) = $240/month
2,000 (minimum color pages) x .24 (cost of supplies @ 10% coverage) = $480/month
2,000 (minimum color pages) x .48 (cost of supplies @ 20% coverage) = $960/month

The true monthly cost of a Xerox Phaser 8560 MFP\D

3,500 (minimum color pages) x .12 (cost of supplies @ 5% coverage) = $420/month
3,500 (minimum color pages) x .24 (cost of supplies @ 10% coverage) = $840/month
3,500 (minimum color pages) x .48 (cost of supplies @ 20% coverage) = $1,680/month

If a customer is printing the industry standard of 21% toner\ink coverage on their color pages than they will be paying about 50 cents a page. No wonder Xerox is “giving them a free printer”.

When I worked for RBS\Boston we had a customer who came in that was printing 5,000 pages a month to a Xerox Phaser (mostly Powerpoint). They started the conversation by saying what a GREAT DEAL they got from Xerox, because they got a FREE PRINTER. They were good enough to give us all of their bills that they paid for supplies and maintenance kits. Based on the actual numbers that they gave us, We were able to show them that they were paying 52 cents a page!!! I told them that for that price I could install a Color MFD the size of the Conference table and I would save them money the first month and every month there after. You can do the math, they were paying $2,600 a month for 5,000 prints a month, but whoohoo who cares they got a free printer. We sold them a 55 page a minute Color MFD and saved them money.

The problem is you don’t want to make the customer to feel foolish for falling for this “free” printer program.Technically the printer IS free, but Xerox more than makes up for it on your supplies & maintenance costs.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Paypal + UniFLOW = Less burden on School’s IT Dept.

We just set up another campus with a Canon UniFLOW solution that we integrated with PayPal.

What a cool solution! By integrating Canon’s UniFLOW solution with Paypal the students can:

1) Set themselves up to print by simply tapping their School Security card on the RFID card reader (attached to the Canon MFD) and logging in ONE TIME to their AD Account.

2) Students can print from MAC or PC without being logged onto the School’s Domain (this was a real deal killer for several solutions we tried before UniFLOW). Students show up to school with anything from Windows XP HOME EDITION, to 64 bit Windows Vista, Windows 7, or several flavors of MAC OS X. They can ALL print from the school’s wireless network WITHOUT being logged on to the School’s Domain, and they still get charged for each print or copy they make (color & B&W have separate charges). Whoo Hoo!

3) Students can even print from the public lab PCs without logging in to the Domain, a simple POP UP allows each student to easily and quickly identify themselves when they print and then pick up their print job from ANY Canon MFD. Their print jobs follow them and they release them by simply tapping their proximity (Campus) card at the Canon MFD.

4) Simple “How to” documents allows most students to set themselves up without any help from the IT Department.

5) Students can recharge their own printing budget from their Paypal account with NO IT or Admin intervention anytime day or night, and the school immediately receives the payments.

The best part is it works, with minimal support and training! The first campus has been up and running about a year, we just set up the second campus (in another city) this week. The proof is in the pudding!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

What does an IT Manager do when the VP of HR asks him who printed a list of the companies salaries to a public printer?

That very question was posed to an IT Manager of a large Manufacturing company that I know. He told me that he would spend hours pouring over spool files trying to figure out who printed this inappropriate file to a public printer in the hallway. What a waste of his valuable time!

When he told me his dilemma, I told him that with the Canon UniFLOW (Statistics) Solution we could put a report in his hand in 2 minutes that would tell him exactly who printed what to that Public printer for any time period that he specified.

For example, If your HR person found the the print job (of all the salaries of the employees of the company) on a Tuesday at 9 AM, you could run a report from Tuesday at 5 AM – 9:15 AM for just that printer or Copier\MFD on your Canon UniFLOW server for that time frame and see exactly who printer what files and when.

When the IT Manager hands this report to the VP of HR that proves exactly who printed this file (either by accident or for more nefarious reasons) he will be a hero. And the company that provided the Canon uniFLOW solution will be a value added partner.

That’s worth a lot more than $0.02
IMHO
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz

WWW.NECS.BIZ

PS: We did get the order and will be installing the Canon UniFLOW solution for this company the end of this month.

Unethical Behavior or Sour Grapes – You decide

We were recently involved with a RFP bid from a large Law Firm. It was NECS, RBS, Toshiba, and CBS. I had worked with this firm when I was over at RBS, so we knew each other. They had indicated on more than one occasion that they valued the technical expertise that we brought to the table.

They were an eCopy house, using ScanStations to connect their MFDs (currently Ricohs) to their Billback system, Interwoven, eMail, etc. They seemed happy with eCopy, but not particularly happy with the Ricoh equipment or RBS service & support. So we brought them in for a demo and proposed embedding the eCopy SSOP into the new Canon ImageRUNNER Advance MFDs. With large touch screens and real, physical keyboards, and separate processors that Canon uses to run the eCopy MEAP App, it gave them the look and feel of eCopy ScanStations (without the headaches of the separate PCs). We did however recommend one eCopy ScanStation for a remote office because we didn’t want them to be scanning across their WAN links.

Initially CBS bid eCopy ScanStations. I know the sales guy, I have worked with him in the past. He is a decent salesman, but he pushes boxes, like for like, and then comes in very low to win the deal on price. I was told that the firm gave CBS our configuration and asked them to change the technical specs of their bid to match our proposal. They naturally came in lower.

I have no problem if RBS, CBS, or Toshiba came in with a better solution, or provided a better value, or won because they were just plain the cheapest. But to have my technical solution given to my competitor to price out smacks of unethical behavior to me, maybe I am just old fashion (I think a hand shake still means something).

So our technical proposal was selected, but CBS won the deal. I don’t blame the sales guy, of course he is going to do everything he can to win the business. But is it ethical for a potential customer to take our technical proposal (my work product) and hand it to my competitor, and ask them to price out my solution?

We asked the firm how they would feel if they developed a legal strategy for one of their clients and that client took that strategy to a law firm down the street and asked them to represent them using that strategy but for a lower price. No reply.

So my technical solution won, but we did not. I all fairness the firm denies doing this. And I understand that there is no way that the guy who managed the RFP would admit to it. At least not publicly.

So you decide, is this unethical behavior on the part of the firm? Or just sour grapes on our part.
I will tell you this, I have spoken to our sales force and any proposal, at least any proposal that I am providing the technical solution for will include a non-disclosure clause, that by accepting this proposal the customer agrees to keep the contents of said proposal confidential, and agrees to not share any of the enclosed information with any other vendor, or manufacturer. It won’t necessarily stop those who are intent on behaving unethically, but it may give those with some sense of conscience pause before doing so.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
WWW.NECS.BIZ
vince.mchugh@necs.biz

How to write a great RFP!

What is a great RFP? It depends upon who you ask. A traditional Purchasing Agent will say a great RFP is one that makes all the vendors propose the exact same thing, to make each a commodity, and by doing so force all the vendors to compete on price alone. This type of RFP will often result in the cheapest price.

But is that what you want the “cheapest product”? Really? Let me ask you this; Do you drive the cheapest car you can find? Do you wear the cheapest suit or buy the cheapest TV that you can find? I think not! I think that you shop for the best value. You want a car, a suit, a TV that has value, so why not your copier?

I received a GREAT RFP about a month ago. What, you ask made it great? The verbiage of the RFP was written to allow each vendor to tell the client what made them different, or unique, or special. It asked us to answer the question “Why should we pick you?”

Here is a sample of some of the questions in this RFP:

Describe your company’s core capabilities and business approach.

Please describe the key elements of your proposal. Highlight any major features,
functionality, or areas of support that differentiate your specific service offerings from your
competitors.

We value creativity and originality. Please note that we are not looking for a generic approach or boilerplate, rather for a description of how you would approach the scope of work specifically for (Customer’s Name)

Define how you will ensure a secure printing network.

Describe how your proposal will improve cost-effectiveness. Please be as specific as
possible.

These kind of question allow each of the Vendors responding to the RFP by showing why you should do business with them, rather than their competition. And that is WHAT MAKES IT A GREAT RFP!

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Data Collection is NOT Managed Print Services (MPS)

It has been said that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. Which is true, but it doesn’t mean that simply collecting data (measuring) is the same thing as managing. Managing means analyzing the data and making informed decisions that put in place best practices.

Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control is a cycle of improvement used for process improvement. When we attempt to apply this to MPS by traditional Copier dealers it usually starts out fine with define & measure.

Define – The traditional copier dealer wants to move into Managed Print Services (MPS), and offer this service to their customers.

Measure – The dealer acquires a Data Collection tool or process, such as… Printfeet, or FM Audit, or even uses the old fashion “Print Wise” study. In a Print Wise study an MPS specialist does two walk throughs (separated by 30 days) of a clients office and prints out config pages for each printer, manually gathering a months worth of print data. Each of these tools or method gather the desired data needed to move to the next step of MPS.

Analyze – The Dealer can either hire an experienced MPS specialist or try and train their Sales force to sell MPS (Not an easy task).

Here is where it gets more challenging for the traditional Copier Dealership and it falls between the transition from Analyze -> Improve. Once you have a client’s printer data it needs to be analyzed and a proposal needs to be developed to show how you can “improve” the client’s printing environment.

And finally “Control” – a system needs to be left in place that continues to monitor these improvement and ensure that the effort expended to bring about the improvement was not wasted on a short lived improvement. Things left to themselves often return to their previous level.

These last two areas “Improve & control” are the most challenging and require either an investment in staff & technology or a partnership with a company that specializes in MPS that has already made the investment that you can leverage (for a price).

I believe that too many dealerships try to wing it on Analyze & Control trying to “make do” with the infrastructure that they have. This is a mistake, and will retard the dealers ability to be successful in the MPS arena.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon ImageRUNNER-Advance and Google Docs

Canon has developed a new MEAP application for Google Docs. It allows Users to Scan directly to Google Docs, and Print directly from Google Docs. When I say directly I mean directly with no PC needed. They also have developed a MEAP app to allow the same for MS SharePoint Online.

Check out these Web links:

mfgdigest

prlog.org

Wow! Pretty cool apps! It hasn’t been released yet in the US market, but it is not unusual for Canon to test things first in Japan or Europe.

Why is this cool? Because Google Docs & Google Mail are making major inroads into business, not just SMB (Small, Medium Business) but larger organizations are outsourcing their email to Google. When you have a Google Mail account you automatically get a Google Docs account with a free Gigabyte of storage space. Additional storage space is very reasonably priced, for instance you can get a Terabyte for $256.00/year.

Not only could a small business use this for storage space, but this would work well for any size business that needs to deliver current versions of business critical documents to their remote offices or stores without the need of a PC.

The delivery of current documents via Google Docs to a Canon ImageRunner-Advance wouldn’t probably need more than the standard (free) 1 Gig of storage space. As long as it was used to simply deliver the most recent, updated documents and not to store older versions.

The other thing that I think Canon did well is they didn’t try to setup their own proprietary system (like Ricoh’s Document Mall) but instead they integrated the Canon iR-Adv with two established cloud apps; Google Docs & Microsoft SharePoint Online. This allows each entity to do what they do best, and leverage each others strengths! Good Job Canon!

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

(IKON) – I Know One Name and it’s Ricoh

Many years ago Alco Standard decided to buy up a large number of Independent Copier Dealerships. Then they merged these separate companies into IKON. The most common story that you heard as to why they chose the name “IKON” was it was an acronym for I Know One Name.

Today I stopped by the Dunkin Donuts across from what was the IKON office in Boston and all of the many IKON signs that use to adorn the generous store front windows were all gone, replaced by Ricoh signage. Only the one metal IKON sign that is attached to the side of the building remains, and I doubt that it will be there long.

IKON was quite a well know name not just in the Northeast, but nation wide. their strength was both the size of their nationwide distribution, and the diversity of their product line (Canon, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, HP, Kyrocera Mita). Soon the once mighty IKON will exist only as a footnote in the “copier” history books, the Borg-like entity that assimilated so many, has itself been assimilated. The first noticeable change was the loss of their diverse product line, now it is the name. So I guess that IKON still stands for I Know One Name, the only change is that name is now Ricoh.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Our prayers are with our Japanese colleagues during this tragic time

As members of the copier industry we all have ties to Japanese companies and colleagues. as a part of this community we offer our deepest sympathies to all of the people of Japan for their loss and troubles, especially to those who have lost loved ones.

Sincerely,
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

an ALMOST brilliant move by ITEX!

I was excited that ITEX was going to be a part of AIIM / On Demand this year. It was a great idea, poorly executed.

There was no actual integration between the ITEX show and the AIIM / On Demand shows. They just took place at the same location (Washington Convention Center). But they didn’t even over lap the same days. ITEX closed a day earlier.

If you had an ITEX badge you could get into AIIM / On Demand, but it was not reciprocal. Which is unfortunate for ITEX because as far as I could tell both shows were ill attended.

There seemed to be a conscious decision by ITEX to keep their show separate. To get from one show to the other you had to go up a stairs through a long hallway and back down a set of stairs. You could look into the show from the windows in that long hallway. And from what I saw ITEX also had poor attendance.

I heard two major manufacturers that said they didn’t think it was worth the money they spent for their booth. And they didn’t think they would be back next year. That’s too bad. We need one show where all of the manufacturers of digital MFD’s want to show there wares. I think that next year it Could be a combined ITEX / AIIM / On Demand show BUT ONLY IF THEY TRULY MAKE IT ONE SHOW.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
Vince.Mchugh@NECS.Biz
www.NECS.biz

The Cloud, Tab Computing, and Canon’s Google Docs App.

Last week in our weekly sales meeting I asked how many people had heard of “the cloud” and every hand went up, but when I asked who knew what the cloud was, or what businesses can do with cloud computing not one hand went up. I was happy they they were honest because they are not alone. Every current business and technical magazine talks about the Cloud, or Cloud Computing, but business people are still unsure how it will help their business, or why they should use it.

The concept of cloud computing is pretty simple; instead of companies investing in their own Servers, Software, and IT staff they buy the functionality that they need. For example a large University on the east coast moved their .edu email services from in house to Google mail. So instead of the Universities IT Staff buying, installing, upgrading, and maintaining their email servers it is now handled by Google for a per person fee. They also get to retain their University.edu name. This just one example of an organization using cloud computing to meet a business need.

Another driving force that will help us embrace the cloud is how the personal computing experience is changing. I don’t mean “personal” as opposed to business, but how each of us personally interacts with a computer. For the longest time I had to take a laptop when I traveled,  but once I was able to get both my email and my calendar on first my Palm phone, and then my Blackberry I no longer felt compelled to take my laptop on short trips. While its still true that a smart phone doesn’t handle email or calendar as well as a laptop it does the job well enough (at least for a couple of days).

Now with the introduction of Tablet Computing (iPads, & such) email & calendaring as well as many other functions can be handled just as well as on a laptop. With the notable exception of printing. Both mobile computing (smart phones) and Tablet Computing dramatically change the end user computing experience, but neither has had great functionality when it came to printing. Maybe it was because the manufacturers of these mobile devices believed or thought that a paperless office was an imminent reality, maybe they even believed that their devices would usher in the paperless office. Unfortunately for them, printing has not, and is not going away anytime soon. Enter Google Docs and the Canon Google Docs App! A perfect fit for mobile computing for several reasons not the least of which is printing. With Google Docs you can easily upload documents and then print them to a Canon ImageRUNNER Advance with a Google Docs MEAP application anywhere in the world.

I was just at the AIIM\On Demand show in Washington DC, and while I was on the floor of the show I was able to Scan to, and Print from my personal Google docs account that I had set up a month ago. I did this on the fly with no set up ahead of time by me or Canon. When I got back to one of my offices I downloaded and set up the Google Docs App on one of our IR-Advance in about 10 minutes and proceeded to print PDFs, Word Docs, Excel files, and even PowerPoint files that were stored in their native format and converted to PDF automatically by Google Docs when it is sent to a Canon MFD to print. This means that you can now print not only PDFs, but also Office documents that have been uploaded to Google Docs WITHOUT USING A COMPUTER! I don’t know of any other Multi Functional Copier that can print a Word or Excel file.  It makes Google Docs a perfect application for Mobile or Tablet computing not only for printing, collaboration, and file storage.

Google Docs and the Google Docs MEAP App for the Canon ImageRUNNER Advance MFD is beyond Follow me printing, because it is not limited to your network, since you can do it from any MFD that can access the internet (which most connected MFDs are) it is follow me anywhere in the world printing!

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Another IKON letter on Canon Service… So now we know what IKON “may” do (LOL)

On April 1st 2010 IKON sent out yet another letter trying to tell their Canon customers that they can still service their Canon equipment, Here is some of the beautifully written verbiage: (The Red font and Bold type, an Underlines are added for emphasis)

•    As of December 1, 2009, Canon USA will no longer provide technical support to IKON.
•    IKON May enter into arrangements with authorized Canon service providers. including authorized Canon retail dealers, pursuant to which such authorized Canon service providers will provide service and technical support to IKON customers, including firmware upgrades and patches, as well as maintenance and repair services.
•    If IKON enters into such arrangements with authorized Canon service providers, the provision of such service and technical support by such providers to IKON customers shall be in their capacity as subcontractors of IKON. To avoid any potential confusion, IKON and Canon USA agree that such providers shall not be held out to the public as part of IKON’s internal service organization.
•    IKON may continue to provide maintenance and repair. services. for Canon-brand business equipment, in accordance with the October 31, 2008 announcement quoted above.
•    IKON may continue to purchase spare parts and supplies from Canon USA, in accordance with the October 31, 2008 announcement quoted above.

So what have we learned from this letter,,, “IKON May… IKON May… IF IKON…IKON May…” WOW could you be a little more vague? I am sure that a dozen of the best IKON lawyers and PR people spent hours and hours of their expensive time pouring over each sentence of this letter so it would imply what they could not LEGALLY say. (A Lawyer never says in 20 words what he can say in 200). What a load of poop!

Now that we have heard the IKON Spin (Again), let’s consider the facts:

Only an Authorized Canon Service Provider can provide “current firmware or patches”

IKON is NOT an Authorized Canon Service Provider, so IKON can not get or install current Canon firmware or patches. IKON has on at least two occasions told a customer that I know that they could update their Canon MFDs to the latest firmware. The IKON service tech came in and upgraded the firmware. NECS was called in afterwards to see if the  firmware was indeed upgraded to the latest version and it was NOT! So when you put the above statements to the test, IKON was NOT able to get and install current Canon firmware.

I was told by a customer that a regional service manager from IKON actually said to him that IKON was talking to NECS about doing this for IKON. (LIAR!!!!) Not only has no one from IKON ever approached NECS about servicing Canon equipment as a “Sub-Contractor” even if they did, why would NECS or any Authorized Canon Dealer do this to help IKON???? The truth is, an Authorized Dealer wouldn’t. Because there is no benefit for an Authorized Canon Dealer to help IKON.

It really doesn’t matter what IKON MAY do, or what happens IF IKON does something. If  you have Canon MFDs being serviced by IKON put them to the test. Demand that they install the latest version of firmware on your current Canon Copier, Then have a REAL Authorized Canon Service Provider come in a verify that it is or is NOT the current version of firmware. If a IKON Service tech did the firmware upgrade, then I can guarantee that you will NOT get the latest version of firmware because the IKON Service tech can not legally get it.

IKON gets points for crafting a very crafty letter, but enough of the B___S___, The facts of the matter are simply that IKON can’t get current Canon firmware, and that no Authorized Canon Dealer that I know of or have ever heard of, would do this for IKON\Ricoh. If IKON says that they have an Authorized Canon Service Provider willing to do this for them, have them put it writing. Because that is where the BS stops. Once it is in writing they will have to legally defend it. So they just won’t put it in writing. If IKON \ Ricoh cannot get you the current firmware or patches for your Canon equipment then they can NOT service your Canon equipment like they could when you signed your Service Agreement, so why are you still having them service your Canon equipment?

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
www.necs.biz

Tsunami finally hits the USA

But it wasn’t water, it was economical.  The Tsunami that so devastated Japan has had a ripple effect on industries that sell Japanese products, specifically automotive and office equipment.

I am by no means comparing the great tragedy and loss of life that the Japanese people have suffered to what we are experiencing. Instead I want to look at the economic impact of that terrible event here in America.

We keep hearing stories of how different dealers and branches are having trouble getting equipment. It has also effected the dealership I work at. We have heard mixed reports on how long this will last. Thankfully, we have a warehouse that has stock, and we are a two line dealer (Canon & Konica Minolta). Konica Minolta seems to be less affected and is pretty much still giving us what we order.

Canon USA had a large layoff & reorganization last week. A lot of good people were let go. Rumors of large Ricoh layoffs surfaced on several industry web sites last week. Independent dealers are not immune to these same industry pressures, and I have had to say goodbye to a few good people myself.

I have to wonder what the single line dealers of effected brands, and the direct branches are going to do? If you have no local warehouse, and you have built your sales model on Just-in-time (read not in time) inventory, what are you going to sell. For example I know an independent dealer that was bought out by Flo-tech, he tells me that they closed his offices, warehouse, and demo rooms. He said that they don’t order Canon equipment until they have a signed sales order in hand. Flo-Tech’s claim to fame is they manufacture their own printer cartridges, but they became a Canon Dealer a year or two back. They still retain the mind set of a printer company. But will not having any inventory bite them in the butt.

Large Independent dual line dealers (like the one I work for) have large local warehouses, six regional demo rooms filled with equipment that we can sell, as well as the resources, experience, and talent to refurbish, rebuild, and even manufacturer pre-owned (low mileage) Canon MFDs.

We recently received a new order of Konica Minolta equipment and our VP of Service (Mike McLaughlin) had the foresight to order 6 months worth of parts. Mike told his parts manager to put together a list of the most common parts that the technicians order, and then order six months worth. So NECS will be able to take care of our customers through this difficult time.

As many of you know the problem is not with the factories that make the MFDs, most of them are in China. The problem is with the supply chain. Many of the smaller parts that go into the MFDs were manufactured in Japan. It was those parts plants that were damaged by the tsunami, and the subsequent problems caused by the tsunami. All it takes is one critical part to be missing to stop an MFD from being completed and shipped from the factory in China.

I think our industry will have a tough three to six months in front of us. It could potentially mean a shift in market share depending upon who gets their supply chain & manufacturing back online the fastest. And I don’t think we have seen the last of the layoffs or the cost cutting. This will hurt all of us, and may kill off the weaker dealers, and direct branches. We’ll see!

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

36 months and not one complaint!!!

I normally don’t do this, but I am going to take a minute to recognize an outstanding achievement by the company I work for because it will help me make a greater point regarding Service & Support in our industry.

NECS just received this certificate from the Better Business Bureau stating that NECS has not received a single customer complaint for the last 3 years. Considering that NECS is the largest Canon Dealer (and one of the larger Konica Minolta Dealers) in New England with 6 offices I would say that this is quite an accomplishment!

This doesn’t just happen, there needs to be an overriding commitment to take care of your customers, and a willingness to do your best to resolve their issues. And this attitude needs to permeate your organization. For the record this type of service and support cost a little more, but anyone who runs a business will tell you it is worth it.

So thanks for letting me blow my horn.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs,biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

A Sales Pipe Dream

I was having a beer with a Salesman that I used to work with who has since moved on to a different position, but is still in our industry. At one point in the conversation he said to me that “pretty soon there won’t be a need for you guys” (meaning Systems Engineers). He went on to say that it will be the customer and not the Dealer or in his case the Branch that will employ us. I said “really?”

This salesman is a good guy, and a good salesman, but he is old school. He, like many sales people who started out selling single function copy machines, longs for the day when all he had to know were “speeds & feeds”. When being able to duplex or punch 3 hole paper was “a solution”, and meant you got the sale. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) those days are gone. The commoditazation of “the copier” has arrived. If all we say is my MFD can print & scan & fax & copy, and I am a nice guy who works for a good company (just like the next salesman is going to say) then all we have left to compete on is price. IF ALL COPIERS ARE THE SAME, then which is the cheapest is all that your customer has to base his/her decision on. When you get to the point where the only thing that you are competing on is price, even if you win, you lose!

So what is a Sales person or Sales organization to do? Team Selling to the rescue! Let’s be honest MFDs and Smart MFDs are too complex for the average sales person to really understand how they can be integrated into a customers network infrastructure. But when we team up these talented Sales people who are great at what they do, with a Pre-sales System Engineer who can wow the customer and handle the entire “technical sales cycle” we will win more than our share of business, and we won’t have to be the cheapest.

I was on site yesterday at a college here in New England, that the President of our company had graduated from many years ago. They have been a Xerox house since I can remember. We have done many pitches to their Purchaser over the years who would politely receive us, and politely listen to all of the great reasons why the college would be better served by going with us, but he was never willing to even put in a demo unit. Until recently when they got a new CIO. We had a meeting where they told us their desire to move away from their expensive cartridge based systems and print to their MFDs. Unfortunately they had not been able to do it with their current vendor, Xerox. They told us that Xerox had not been able to get their MFDs to print from the colleges back end system. And for the most part they set them up as single function copy machines. So they gave us a chance to put in a Canon MFD. Once the Canon arrived and was set up I made an appointment to come in and work with the different members of their staff to help them resolve their outstanding issues. The first was the woman who handles setting up the printers on the College’s educational software system. She said to me “I need 66 lines!” I said no problem, I know exactly what you are talking about, I made the adjustment to the Canon, talked to her about how to set up the queue (on a system I had never worked with before) and in 10 minutes we were getting perfectly formatted pages from their back end system. What’s next I asked? How about scanning? I worked with the staff to set up Scan to Folder, Scan to Email, and Fax Forwarding (to a shared network Folder). We had it all up and running without any significant difficulties. Granted none of this was brain surgery. But the CIO said to me that “You have done more in an hour than Xerox has been able to do since they had this account.”

This was just yesterday, so we haven’t won the account yet, but you can see how a good pre-sales SE working with your Sales professionals can put your company in the best position to win the business. If I was working for Xerox, the CIO might have been saying the same thing about them LOL.

To my point about my salesman friend saying that Dealers & Branches won’t need SEs soon, because the customers will know how to do all this. I hope that his Branch & all of my competition thinks this way, because it will make it a lot easier to steal their customers. This college had a solid IT Department, but their expertize wasn’t in MFDs, and it shouldn’t have to be! That’s our job! They tell us what they want integrate their MFD to, and we show them how to do it.

Everyone complains about shrinking margins, but the way to get better margins is to bring more value to the table. A good Pre-Sales SE does just that, and helps your sales team differentiate themselves on something other than a cheap price. I often tell a prospect that “we won’t be the cheapest solution that you look at!” We will be competitive,  and we will definitely give you the best value. But if you are looking for “THE CHEAPEST” than that won’t be us. I find that most people respond positively to this kind of honesty. So if you don’t have a Pre-Sales SE, get one! And if you have one then utilize him/her early on in the sales cycle. Once you have developed the trust that is necessary to really work as a team you will see your closing percentage and your profit margin rise.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Ricoh -vs- Ikon (still?)

The Ricoh acquisition of Ikon has been in reality the Ikon takeover of Ricoh. Ricoh has stayed true to form in allowing the management team from the company they bought (Ikon) to come in to run the show, and push out the management that Ricoh had in place. They did the same thing when they bought Lanier. Maybe that is why people describe Ricoh as “a company that hates itself”. Ricoh always thinks that the answer to their problems lie in the new management team of the company that they just purchased.

Unfortunately for Ricoh, and their employees, this methodology stirs up anger and resentment and creates an Us -vs Them mentality. The biggest kick in the gut to the long suffering Ricoh employees is that Ricoh corporate always sides with “Them”, the new company that they bought. The only explanation that I can think of as to why, is Ricoh wants the new company that they bought to do well, so people will think that Ricoh made a good decision when the purchased them (Ikon, Lanier, Savin). I just read the scathing Industry Analysis below on how the Ricoh \ Ikon merge is going, and all is not well in Ricoh-world. But don’t take my word, read it for yourself.

http://industryanalysts.com/IA10/CIO/Entries/2011/7/5_Jeff_Hickling_Out_as_Ricoh_U.S._President_%26_CEO.html

It’s Ricoh -vs- Ikon, and while the Ikon name will soon disappear, the Ikon culture and personnel seem to be alive and well at Ricoh. But, you Ikon folks may not want to get too comfortable in your Ricoh positions (like your Lanier counterparts before you) surely there has to be another company on the horizon that Ricoh can buy that will solve all their problems, there just has to be…

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

What’s included in your MFD’s Maintenance Agreement?

There are a variety of Maintenance Agreements available for your MFD \ Digital Copier.

There are MA’s (maintenance agreements) that cover parts & labor, and others that cover supplies (like toner) as well. Some are renewed yearly while others run the term of the lease. Some handle overages monthly, some quarterly, and some yearly.

Some companies (like Xerox) get cute with their maintenance agreements and they exclude CRU’s (customer replaceable units) which they say are “consumables”. They will spin this as a good thing for the customer because “you can replace them yourselves” (drums, and fuser units, etc.) What they don’t tell you is you will also pay extra for them because they are not included in your maintenance contract. So not only does Xerox NOT send out a service tech to replace these items, they charge you for them which drives up your total cost of ownership (TCO).

Besides the issue of CRUs, what about network support? Is it covered under your MA? Most maintenance agreements will cover a Network board in your MFD if it fails, but what if nothing failed on the MFD? What if you change email servers, is that covered by your MA? How about if you upgrade all of your PCs to Windows 7 or switch from a PC to a MAC, would your maintenance contract cover a Systems Engineer coming back on site to reconfigure your MFD? Should it?

The scenario described above is a common one. You come in one morning and your MFD no longer scans to email, so it must be broken right? So you call the Servicing Dealer who sold you the MFD and say “it’s broken” and I want to place a service call. But is “it” (the MFD) broken? Often the answer is no, nothing on the MFD is broken or even mis-configured. It has the same configuration that it had yesterday, and last week, and last month when it was scanning to email just fine. No boards have failed, no error codes have been generated or displayed. It just doesn’t do one function, scan to email. If you or your IT staff have changed a password that the MFD was using, or deleted an account that was thought to be no longer needed, or decommissioned the old (smtp) email server that “no one is using anymore”, does that mean that your MFD is broken? No, of course not! It simply needs to be reconfigured to reflect these changes.  This can be easily done by a trained and qualified System Engineer. The truth of the matter is networks are dynamic not static, what was in place one day is old hat next week. Servers, PCs, and infrastructure are constantly being upgraded, and replaced. But is reconfiguring the MFD to reflect these changes covered by the Maintenance Agreement, should it be covered by the Maintenance agreement (since it wasn’t the MFD that caused the scan to email to stop functioning)?

The Answer is yes, IF YOU PAY FOR NETWORK SUPPORT! Most Dealers & Direct Branches offer some kind of Network Support. This could be in the form of a block time contract ( ex: 10 hours/ per year of MFD Network support for X amount of dollars), or for an additional x amount of “mils” per click you can get phone or onsite support for you MFD’s network issues. or in some cases a flat monthly rate per MFD. And even though that nice sales person (that was for some strange reason only with the company for six months) told you that unlimited network support was included in the basic maintenance contract, the truth is if its not listed on the contract, then it is not included. New sales people are under tremendous pressure to win deals and show management that they can make it in sales. Sometimes they say things that are not necessarily true to give the appearance that they are offering more than their competition. The problem is by the time you need network support for your MFD in six months or 3 years after the sale, that “new sales person” has come and gone. and their management will fall back on what does the MA contract say. So let’s be honest with our customers and say if you want Network support for your MFD past the warranty period, in the event that something on your network changes and stops one of the functions of your Multi Functional Device (MFD) from functioning you can get it, but it is not part of the basic break-fix contract (because nothing on the MFD is broken) unless it is plainly stated on the contract, no matter what that nice young sales person said).

So ask about network support when you buy your MFD.

Does the Dealer or Branch that you wish to buy your MFD from offer Network support after the basic warranty?

Do they offer onsite support by a Systems Engineer (or does the same guy who changes the heat roller work on your Print Server)?

Do they even have a team of System Engineers on staff? Where are these SEs based out of? Are they local? Or do they come out of NJ (could be a problem in response time).

Do they offer phone support, or remote support (like Web-Ex or TeamViewer)?

What does it cost for onsite support compared to remote support? If the nice young salesman says it is free, or included get him to put it in writing and have his manager or better yet the service manager sign off on it. Because the time to find out that he lied to you is not when you have an emergency and you can’t scan to email.

Don’t penalize the sales person who is being honest with you, and telling you up front that we can include network support for a modest additional fee. And if you catch a sales person lying to you about what is and isn’t included don’t reward them by giving them another chance. There was a time when lying to win business was considered dishonorable and those that got caught where considered unfit to earn your business. Let’s not be afraid to have an honest and open discussion so that six months from now when something on your network changes (and it will), you will know who to call and whether or not it is really included in your Maintenance Agreement.

That’s My $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

Canon’s UniFLOW solution goes serverless! UniFLOW SSP (Secure Serverless Printing)

My Dealership has had great success with the Canon UniFLOW solution! The server based UniFLOW is rock solid software. It just works! The Statistics module, the secure printing (including a follow me type of printing), and the rules based routing are each great solutions.

So when Canon released the Serverless version (SSP) of UniFLOW  we quickly installed it in a couple of our demo rooms to kick the tires so to speak, and that was great, but the real test was when we did our first live install. We weren’t disappointed. The first thing that impressed me was I installed the MEAP App and had the whole thing running in our demo room in about 15 minutes.

The serverless version of UniFLOW is not as full featured as it server based cousin. But what it does, it does very well and at a very attractive price. UniFLOW SSP is Serverless Secure printing (no other additional modules) but there is an upgrade path from UniFLOW serverless to the Server based UniFLOW.

Knowing when to propose UniFLOW SSP and when to go with the Server based UniFLOW will be the key to making it work for your customer.

UniFLOW SSP (Serverless Secure Printing) requires the following environment:

50 Active Users
5 Canon MFDs
Windows Based PC only (Use the Server based version if you need Mac support)
1 subnet

How to set up UniFLOW SSP:

1) Load the Canon MEAP (Java Based) App on a Canon ImageRUNNER or ImageRUNNER-Advance. Technically you can load it on more than 5 Canon MFDs but only the first 5 that boot up will show up on the PC client.

2) Then load a Canon Print Driver on a Windows based PC (PCL, UFR II, or PS), set the printer port to any one of the Canon MFDs that have the UniFLOW SSP Software loaded on it.

3) Next load the UniFLOW SSP client on the same Windows based PC, each of the Canon MFDs with the UF SSP software on it will show up as available.

4) Now print something to the UF SSP printer you created and the client will pop up, select your authentication method (Pin #, User Name & password, or Card #), and if you are always going to use this method you can have the client “Remember forever” and you will never see the pop up again. Don’t worry if you need to change the authentication method or card number you can clear it very easily and it will again offer you the pop up client. The Secure Print job will be stored on your PC until you identify yourself at the Canon MFD of your choice, Your Print job will follow you.

We recently “upgraded” our original UniFLOW ver 3 Server based customer to a UniFLOW SSP ver 5 Serverless solution, becuase it was the right fit for this customer. They were familiar with the Server based UniFLOW solution, but they were only using the Secure Printing feature. We were able to move them to UF SSP because it met their needs and reduced the overhead (NO SERVER).

So the choice is yours UniFLOW server based, or serverless solutions in the right environment will work well and make your customer happy!

That’s my MHO (based on first hand experience)
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

How to troubleshoot a network Printer – Youtube style!

I recently posted two videos on Youtube to help people figure out why they can’t print to their network printer. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard “my printer is broken”! Only to find out that it is not the printer, but the network, or the application, or a file, or eve a page in the file that is the problem.

Here are two Technical Assistance Videos that are a basic, step by step process with tests that most people can do that will lead them to the problem that is causing them NOT to be able to get a print job to print.

I posted a more technical written version of this a couple of years back on 10/17/2008 my-printer-is-not-working-what-do-i-do-now , but I thought a less technical “how to” video would help more people.

Let me know if they prove to be helpful, and maybe we will post some more.

My Printer is not printing – Part #1

My Printer is not printing – Part #2

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ

FUD!

FUD! Have you heard the term? I am not talking about Elmer. I am talking about the sales term FUD, or more specifically the acronym FUD. It stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. When a sales person doesn’t have a great story to tell about their company, or their product, they may try to throw mud on your company or product. A seasoned sales person will try to get the focus off of what they don’t have and try to generate fear, uncertainty or doubt in the customer about your company or what you are offering.

I have no problem with a sales person accurately pointing out their strengths verses your weaknesses, that is what they get paid for, but I do take exceptions when they outright and knowingly lie. I have worked for NECS for 20+ years now (16 1/2 years originally, and now 4+ years since I came back from RBS), and it that time I have heard Sales people from Ikon, Danka, Global all say to a customer of ours that NECS is going out of business. I have heard back from customers, and even prospective employees say that Ikon, or Danka was going to “Buy NECS”. None of it was true, and if you have noticed Ikon, Danka & Global HAVE ALL BEEN BOUGHT, but NECS is still here. NECS is the largest Canon Dealer in New England. (Period) Ikon was purchased by Ricoh, Danka was purchased by Konica Minolta, and Global was purchased by Xerox.

The latest untrue rumor that I have heard was from two customers that spoke to an OCE Sales Rep. OCE was purchased by Canon. And OCE, like CBS tries to pass themselves off as “Canon”. Please see my article on CBS is not Canon! The same applies to OCE. Since neither OCE nor CBS has a 46 year history in New England, or 35 Years of selling and servicing Canons, or a local warehouse, dispatch, or System Engineers, they need to get the customers focus off of them and try to throw FUD on us. Twice in as many months an OCE rep has told a customer of ours, who in turn told our sales rep that they said NECS is going out of business. Really, at least come up with a new and original lie! After all it didn’t work for Ikon, Danka, or Global why do you think it will work for OCE.

The facts are OCE is relatively new to the Canon product line. They don’t have the local infrastructure in New England that NECS has, them’s the facts! They say when you have the facts, pound the facts, when you have the truth, pound the truth, when you don’t have either (OCE), pound the table! And that’s all this is OCE pounding the table to try to distract what we have to offer and what they don’t. The only similarity is they can sell you the Canon product, but that is where the similarity ends.

The last unfounded rumor that I recently heard, made me laugh out loud, because it is not the first time I have heard this rumor. One of my co-workers called me this week to tell me he was told that “I was leaving NECS”. After I finished laughing, I told him to have the person who told him that scurrilous lie to call my cell phone and I will set the record straight. I am very happy at NECS. I am not leaving, and have not spoken to any other company about a job. So what will the next lie be that I am terminally ill, or had a nervous breakdown?  LMAO!

I understand FUD! But when it becomes apparent to the customer that you are trying to win that you are a liar, that will be a hard obstacle to overcome. Maybe that’s why these companies cycle through sales reps so frequently.

That’s my $0.02
Vince McHugh
vince.mchugh@necs.biz
WWW.NECS.BIZ