Thursday, March 29, 2012

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/28/2012

M-Files to Provide Solution to Publicly-listed Mining Company for Management of Exploration Documents, Financial & HR Information and Workflow Processes Dallas, TX (PRWEB) March 28, 2012 M-Files Inc., the developer of M-Files flexible enterprise ...
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BTerrell Group, LLP received the 2012 Partner Excellence Award by extending the functionality of their clients' Sage 300 ERP (formerly Sage Accpac) software with the Sage endorsed document management solution. Altec Products, Inc., a leading provider ...
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Recall, a global leader in document storage, secure document destruction, digital document management and data protection, today announced that Edward Hospital & Health Services has selected Recall for ...
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Mediscribes, a leading provider of Medical Transcription Services and document management systems all across the globe, as members of Health Story Organization have vowed to stand by each and every Health ...See all stories on this topic »

Jeff Weaver, Managing Partner at WAVS IP says, “We made the decision to go paperless last year. While we looked at general document management systems, we were concerned with the amount of customization they require for an IP firm.
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BRAMBLES, the world's biggest pallet supplier, says the sale of its US document management business valued at about $2 billion will take one to two months longer than expected. The company had planned to sell the Recall business by March 31, ...
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Through this partnership with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), ColumbiaSoft enhances its development of Windows-based document control solutions that help businesses manage information and processes for greater efficiency and to avoid financial ...
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-=Good Selling=-

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/28/2012

Chris has the experience and expertise to help guide UniPrint's expansion into the printing virtualization and managed print services market as a major enterprise player." "As enterprises look for new ways to reduce costs, they are realizing they can ...
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National Service & Support: Samsung PrintIQ™ provides full technical support for all of its customers through a national network of service partners. Mr. Joe Barganier, the president of the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA), said about this ...
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In the first, the Government Procurement Service has selected the UK arm of Xerox as sole supplier for an estimated £150m multifunctional devices contract and as a preferred supplier of managed print services in a new framework agreement, ...
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Leasing opportunities can be managed on the GreatAmerica industry-leading web portal, Info-Zone.” MSPmentor first heard about GreatAmerica through its work in the managed print services market, helping channel partners and customers to finance printer ...
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-=Good Selling=-

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/27/2012

ROCHESTER, NY, Mar 27, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- For the third consecutive year, Xerox (NYSE:XRX) earned the top position in managed print services (MPS), according to analyst research group Quocirca's 2012 report. Xerox maintained its leadership, ...
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By Robert Dutt Major managed print services provider alliances in Canada and the United States are coming together to increase their ability to do cross-border business. Canada-based National Print Services Alliance (NPSA) has announced that it will be ...
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Opt2Vote supplies electronic vote counting solutions to the 32 Scottish local authorities as well as managed print services to UK councils. It is based in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. IDOX will pay an initial consideration of £2.7m, with a further ...
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As a hosted service, Intellivue(TM) can also complement our Managed Print Service offering by using Multi-Function Device printers for scanning. The shared device approach combined with the efficiency gains inherent in routing documents electronically ...
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Manchester, UK - 27 March 2012 - M2, the UK's leading independent managed print IT services company, today announced that it has been appointed to the Government Procurement Service, YPO and ESPO agreement for print audit ...
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The move was prompted by Danwood's acquisition last May of Document Express, a £10m-turnover managed print services provider based in Oldham. Document Express, which installs and maintains printers, copiers and other equipment, was founded in 1994.
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-=Good Selling=-

Monday, March 26, 2012

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/26/2012

Grow from YFM Equity Partners (through its managed fund Seraphim Capital) and MMC Ventures, to drive growth of its email and document management solution for enterprises, the first to be fully integrated with Microsoft Outlook. See all stories on this topic »

CRM and Zoho Docs for Android Pleasanton, CA (PRWEB) March 26, 2012 Zoho today announced it has expanded its portfolio of mobile applications to include its project management, customer relationship management and document management solutions. See all stories on this topic »

The EPA conducted the equivalent of a roadshow for its concept across the federal government last fall, soliciting requests for features, which its project managers are incorporating into the system. Presentation documents created by EPA staffers say ...See all stories on this topic »

The award ceremony, which was attended by 140 document specialists across all industries, took place on March 21 in Paris. The 1er Prix de l'Editique, the premier prize for document management and document production, has been awarded to Informatique ... See all stories on this topic »

We're used to seeing Microsoft, IBM and occasionally others pushing TV ads that increasingly mainstream the professional use of data management tools and software. Others, like Xerox or Intuit talk about discrete services for document management and ...
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The meeting approved the programme plan outlined for NRAA in building the private document management system for authorities, besides approving the programme plan in applying the work system in the joint documents, which have been approved by the ...
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Located in Boston, Massachusetts, ASE is the developer of Riptide Server, the preeminent output management software for ECM systems such as IBM FileNet P8, EMC Documentum and Microsoft SharePoint. Riptide allows ECM users to output documents of mixed ...
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-=Good Selling=-

Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Birth of Managed Print Services "According to Art"

So, I'm just about to pack it in for the weekend after having to doggie sit for my sons dog while he's off at drill for the weekend.  "Nutbuster", that's my name for my sons dog cause she's just big enough to jump on you and well, the name states the rest. 

Anyway I came across this article The Origin of Managed Print Services: Xerox or HP? by Jennifer Shutwell.

Anything with Managed Print, Xerox or HP in the title will tempt me enough to give it a read.  Jen puts some excellent points across about the economics of Managed Print.  The article is an excellent read and two statements stood out for me "With the continuous incline and growth of printing volume between 1991 until 2007" and "The origin of MPS was from neither Xerox nor HP, but created from people seeing a need for management".

I wanted to elaborate on Managed Print and where I think the origin was.  Now, I'm not saying that this was a Jersey idea, however back in the mid eighties there was a Canon dealer that went by the name of Duplifax.  I hated when I crossed paths with them because they had a unique offering for their maintenance agreements for copiers.  Once sold, the copier was put on a "managed care" plan.  That plan worked off the yield of the toner cartridge.  What Duplifax did was to package four or five toners together and build in the cost for service.  For example, four toners had a yield of 40K copies.  So instead of selling the toner for $80, they would sell the "managed care" pack for $800 and include service, parts and supplies for as long as the toner lasted. If you got the yield of 80,000 pages then it was a good thing for you and if you fell short on the yield it was then a better deal for Duplifax.

To me, a seasoned copier professional the term of managed prints means to manage output from systems that print.  Analog copiers print, but they were printing an analog image from a photoconductor, fax machines made prints, and of course laser printers made prints also.  Somewhere in the mid 90's we saw our first digital copy machines that were able to print, copy and fax (scanning came later).  For those of us in the copier industry that knew what the cost per page was for fax machines, and laser printers (some of the first laser printers that remember came from a Canon print engine, I remember the engines well because the low end canon analog copiers used the same type of toner cartridge, those of us in the industry knew that these cartridges had a high cost per page when compared to traditional analog copiers) we were presented with a treasure trove of accounts that we could migrate to one system while lowering the customers cost for "printing".

In effect in the late 90's copier dealerships were already starting to migrate prints away from printers and managing the cost with maintenance agreements that covered everything but staples and paper!

So there we have it Jersey invented the "Managed Care" approach for copiers in the mid 80's and Jersey again led the industry by offering a "Managed Print Service" with their All inclusive Maintenance Agreements for Digital Copiers in the late 90's!

Did we make you laugh, groan or smile yet?  It's my perception that Managed Print evolved from the elite core of Copier Dealers from the 90's, even though most were not servicing or supplying laser printers then, the idea and concept transplanted to the printer industry.

-=Good Selling=-

Why RFP for Copiers don’t work anymore. Who’s buying just copiers?

Vince McHugh is our guest blogger for this month and he kinda doesn't know it yet!  Vince McHugh has been a Valued Premium Member of the Print4Pay Hotel forums for some time now.  Along with that he also has a blog where he enlightens end users and those of us in the indsutry with some great articles.  Please read his blog below and please make sure you click through to his blog at the end for the remaining article.

Actually if all your company needs is a “copy Machine” then an RFP (Request for Proposal) WILL work for your company.

But when was the last time your company or organization purchased a “Copy Machine” – a machine that JUST MADE COPIES?

Don’t you buy MFDs or even Smart MFDs? Do they Scan, Print, and do Network Faxing? Are you leveraging the power of your Smart MFDs by loading software on them that extends and enhances their capabilities to connect into your network infrastructure or back end servers? If not than you are missing out on the REAL SAVINGS that a Smart MFD can bring to your company. Have you ever heard the phrase “strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel” that describes the process as it relates to a traditional copier RFP. Because the focus is on trying to make all of your vendors look exactly alike, so you can force the cheapest price for the dumb down comparison that the RFP requires. There is a better way to do an RFP.

If you work in purchasing and you are responsible for the “Copier RFP” and your biggest concern is replacing like for like features (50ppm and duplexing) at the cheapest price then you really need to update your process, and broaden the input you receive from other departments like IT, Compliance, Governance, Security, and Operations. If you don’t get their input as to what they need then you will buy the cheapest “copy machines” that will NOT meet any of these departments needs, so they will need to go out and purchase other devices that will cost your company more than necessary because your Copier RFP did not consider their needs. Or worse yet, you actually thwart their projects or requirements because the bargain copiers you bought can’t do what they need.
Please go here for the rest of the article

-=Good Selling=-

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Servicing Copiers & MFP's "Retain Customers with Excellent Service"

I started in the industry as a copier technician, well kinda. After 90 days I had a review and the owner of the company told me I did a great job at taking the machines apart, however not so good a job at putting them back together. Thus was the beginning of my sales career.

But I'd like to talk more about the guys and gals that keep the copier systems running for me.

These are the service engineers that have to be polite and hear comments like "Oh, the copiers broken again", or "You're here so much we might as well put you on the payroll", "You're here again" as they walk past you snickering. Being a copier Service Engineer is not a glamour job, but you do get the chance to be out of the office and some of the systems will pose a challenge and I guess there is a reward when you fix the system and it's your expertise that enables the system to run well.

I for one can appreciate how hard they work and what they have to put up with on a daily basis. They have to deal with some unpleasant customers at times, field questions from sales people (yeah they call us the dummies), make sure the correct parts are ordered, follow up, diagnose issues, manage calls and answer to the Service Manager, plus do six or seven calls a day, while always being on the road (that's a chore in itself). Some Service Engineers are now even tracked by GPS, so the company knows where they are at all times. Oh, thank goodness I'm not being tracked!!

The Service Engineers (I hate calling them techs) that service the systems in my territory are great. They are great to the customers, and they are extremely knowledgeable in their field. Lets face it after the machine is sold, who sees the customer more often that the technicians. I have a team that will bend over backwards to keep our customers satisfied! Customers will perceive your company by the expertise and professionalism your Service Engineers.

My guys are always watching my back, and keeping tabs on the customer and informing me if some customers maybe having some difficult issues.
So, if you're a Service Engineer in the copier business, my hats off to you. You guys and gals have to deal with a lot of stuff, while still maintaining your composure and professionalism. Those of us in sales would not be able to get repeat sales if it weren't for you.

Here's one of my favorites for copier repairs reads (I pretty sure it was posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums:

When the office photo-copies began to look faint, the office manager had the receptionist call in a local repair service.

The friendly technician, after inspecting the equipment, informed the receptionist that the machine was only in need of a good cleaning. The copier tech suggested that someone might try just reading the operator's manual and perform the job themselves, since it would cost much if he did the work.

The receptionist said she would relay this info back to the office manager, but she was truly surprised by his candor so she asks, "Does your boss know you are discouraging business?"

"Actually, my boss demands we explain this to all our customers," he replies to the receptionist. With a wink he adds, " Anyway, after people try first to fix things themselves, we end-up making much more money on repairs."

-=Good Servicing & Selling=-

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/22/2012

However, seeing the benefits of document management is often easier than understanding what should be saved, how long it should be saved for, and what can be tossed. To aid those looking to clean out their file cabinet, M&I, a part of BMO Financial ...See all stories on this topic »
Autonomy's solutions, built on the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), provide IKEA Italy with a single platform for document management and business process automation across the company's multiple repositories. IKEA chose Autonomy's platform to ...See all stories on this topic »

Under the terms of the agreement, WorkflowOne will provide HealthTrust with traditional and digitally printed documents as well as value-added services to manage document lifecycles. “By providing a blend of technology solutions to reduce costs and ...
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The event will focus on building a filing structure in a document management solution. Specifically, MES Hybrid will discuss how to use fields for searching, indexing and modifying valuable index and meta data. Although it can be a daunting task, ...See all stories on this topic »

Since SAP and OpenText signed reseller agreements to sell OpenText document management and enterprise CMS under the SAP brand name, they've been steadily building the product portfolio and adding new functionality.See all stories on this topic »

Tim McBride, VP and general manager, Secure Destruction Services, Recall North America Recall, a global leader in document storage, secure document destruction, digital document management and data protection, today announced a free shredding event to ...
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CTLS, which manages, monitors, and maintains the documents and data that lenders, law firms and corporations use in lien and asset management is part of Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services. iLienRED offers mortgage lenders, servicers, and attorneys ...
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-=Good Selling=-

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/21/2012

Xerox's efforts in managed print services are paying off, as its maintaining a strong leadership position in the emerging segment according to a new IDC report. The IDC Worldwide and US Managed Print Services and Basic Print Services (BPS) 2012-2015 ...See all stories on this topic »

The catch here -- and whether or not it is a big one remains to be seen -- is that the core message of IPG's broader integration into other aspects of HP's business is now managed print services. For instance, at GPC Scott Dunsire, Vice President, ...
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With newly added intellectual properties, Lexmark is optimistic about taking a larger share of the Managed Printing Services (MPS) arena of the printing industry. As a new development in the printing business, MPS is attracting major industry players.
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Additional features include managed print services, cloud monitoring and power management. “Managed Workplace 2012 further extends Level Platforms partners' lead in delivering innovative IT services to meet the rapidly evolving needs of their customers ...
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-=Good Selling=-

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/21/2012

based document-management service that assures compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, has moved to the Windows Azure cloud platform to deliver its services to customers worldwide...See all stories on this topic »

Cabinet NG (CNG), provider of electronic document management and workflow management software, today announced the release of CNG-WebSync, a desktop application that integrates its CNG-SAFE ...See all stories on this topic »
Treeno Software, a leading provider of Electronic Document Management systems, today announced the addition of Superior Business Equipment Inc. (SBE) to its team of resellers. Headquartered in Great Falls ...See all stories on this topic »
Colligo Networks, the leader in email and document management solutions for Microsoft SharePoint, today announced the appointment of Kerem Karatal to the newly created position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Kerem is a 20-year software industry ...See all stories on this topic

Formtek, Inc., a leading provider of document and content management solutions, announced today the availability of five new Software Extensions for the Alfresco Open Content Platform.
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SurDoc(TM) Corporation ( www.surdoc.com ) - a leader in cloud document and storage technology, today announced the general availability of its SurDoc online document management portal...See all stories on this topic »

Integrated Custom Software is now shipping FormSprint Version 201201, a new release of its electronic document management software for the IBM i server. With this release, the company has added several new features that should be useful ...See all stories on this topic »

-=Good Selling=-

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/20/2012

MMRGlobal, Inc., a leading provider of Personal Health Records (PHRs), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare ...See all stories on this topic »
Metafile Information Systems ( www.metaviewer.com ), a leading independent paperless accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR) and human resources (HR) document management and workflow solution provider, is addressing this need by implementing ...See all stories on this topic »

Navigate provides both Security and Emergency Preparedness departments with a highly secure platform integrating Incident Management, Emergency Management, and Document Management, as well as Learning and Training. Authorized personnel can access the ...See all stories on this topic »
Quadrant Software, LLC the leader in Document Output Management (DOM), today announced the appointment of Barbara Snyder Martinez to the position of Director, Channels and Strategic Partners... See all stories on this topic »

“I suppose counsel could not go wrong by always operating on the basis that this court's document management system will fail and always bring duplicate copies of everything. “The real solution. Consign our paper-based document management system to the ...See all stories on this topic »

Whether you are farming out CRM, document management, contact management or procurement, you probably have some locally hosted applications that you want it to work with. It might need to manipulate local datasets, or use functions embodied in locally ...See all stories on this topic »

S4i Systems, Inc., a leading electronic document automation and disk space management software provider for IBM Power™ customers, announces today that Jon Fortner has joined the team as Technical Support Representative...See all stories on this topic

-=Good Selling=-

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Toshiba Does its best David Blaine!

Last week we saw two major stories from Toshiba with the press release of copier/MFP that has disappearing toner (erasable), and then a program that will magically reformat your pre-printed pages along with claims to save toner and paper (Adobe Lean Print). Erasable toner, great idea, but who the heck wants to print in blue? Do you get the feeling that this is may be the last hurray for Toshiba?  What happens if Lean Print and Erasable Paper do not increase Toshiba’s MIF (machines in field)?

Existing Toshiba copiers will not be able to erase the toner on the paper, in order to have the erasable toner feature you’ll have to shell out some shekels for a new Toshiba MFP.  Plus, it’s been reported that a latent image will still remain on the page even after the toner has been removed.  Personally, I don’t think the Feds will be buying any of these systems. I’m not sold on either one of these new releases from Toshiba. It seems Toshiba has created some traction in recent weeks, but I doubt either of these new features will increase sales for the long term.  Adobe Lean Print at $99 per user seems a little pricing and what happens if you don’t like the way lean print will magically reformat your pages, you’ll have to print the documents again and again.  Where the heck is the savings now?   One of the videos that show the reformatting of twelve pages to four, Adobe Lean print reformats the single pages to three columns per page looking more like a news paper article.  You can get a better view here of what the pages look like.  I’m finding hard to believe that the font size will not be smaller from the original document.  I going to check give the 30 day trial a shot and see what happens, more importantly I’m trying to think of applications that I would use this for, as of right now I got nothing.
As far as the erasable toner goes, when was the last time you ran the same sheet of paper through a copy machine five times?  The Toshiba MFP system uses heat to remove the toner image, I can only think after using the same sheet of paper times there’s going to be some degrading of the paper. 
 Here's paragraph from House of Japan
"This is a special kind of toner that loses its color when heated, so this technology makes it look as if the printing has disappeared. With this system, one sheet of photocopy paper can be used at least five times, so this product combines economy with ecology."
So back to my initial thoughts, both of these releases have some WOW & Sizzle factor to them.  With Toshiba at a paltry 3% of the US market share I’m thinking it’s more of a flash in the pan and Toshiba may finally wave the white flag when it comes to manufacturing copiers.
-=Good Selling=-

Windows 8 Consumer Beta Review

Rick Backus is our Guest Blogger for this month. Rick's been a verteran in the industry for years and consults for Office Equipment Dealers on how to improve their business technology industry experience and enable increased productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction and competitive advantage for our clients by helping them get the most out of technology with Cybercon Services.

Windows 8 Beta

So I finally abandoned the developer preview of Windows 8 and installed 64 bit Windows 8 Consumer Beta on my 64 Windows 7 notebook using Oracles VirtualBox. Unfortunately Windows 7 Virtual PC will not host 64 bit OS virtual machines and I always prefer 64 bit to 32 bit in an OS. The additional setup is 2GB RAM, 50GB Hard Disk, Optical Drive, Sound, etc. This runs on a 64 bit Windows 7 system with 6GB RAM with a 500GB Hard Disk.

Clearly most of you aware by now that the most prominent, new feature of Windows 8 Is the Metro Start screen. This will provide the touch screen interface necessary for mobile devices while maintaining useful functionality on a laptop/desktop system. Apple is already moving in this direction by morphing iOS features in to the latest iteration of the Mac OS. Windows 8 may help remedy Microsoft’s tardy arrival to the tablet dance courtesy of the Metro screen.

Understanding that the "Start" button we have grown used to from Windows 7 and Vista (ugh) is now replaced with an entire screen that replaces the old start button. All the application short cuts you would normally pin to your start menu now are placed on the Metro screen. For desktops and tablets this will allow you to customize the Metro screen for the way you work. All your most utilized apps will be in a single display.

Apps that are able to run independent of the original desktop will run in their own window. I have set up the Mail, People, SkyDrive, News and Weather. A simple Crtl-Esc will return to the Metro screen. Alt-Tab and Windows-Tab will page you through the open apps and the Metro screen. It is also very simple to add short-cut tiles to the Metro screen for shutdown, restart, command window, etc. After installing Office 2010 I found that all of the icons were now short-cut tiles in Metro as well. Very convenient.

For Desktop dependent apps like Office (I am writing this in Word 2010 installed on my Windows 8 virtual machine) will continue to run on the standard desktop. Even though Windows 8 is still in beta I have not had any "hiccups" as yet. I will continue testing and pushing this as much as I can.

Networking and other infrastructure setup was as expected. I joined my Active directory domain without incident. Since I am running this as a VirtualBox VM

There are numerous other enhancements to Windows 8 but they will have to wait for another article. If you have any questions I would be happy to speak with you. I can be contacted at rick@cybecon1.com . Visit the Cybercon Blog at www.cybercon1.com/blog for additional articles and technology news.


-=Good Selling=-

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Document Management can be a strange word for Copier Reps

Document Management can be a strange word.  For some, it means "scan to network" and for others it is a whole workflow solution.  Finding a solid document management provider can be a real nightmare for a small business because of the steep costs of entry.  Regardless of what solution you choose, if there is any real "document management" and not just a scan to folder scenario, paying less than $10,000 to implement it is almost impossible.

Here is where the nightmare occurs.  What happens when your company spends a ton of good money on a document management solution, but then finds it to be such a nightmare that no one really uses the technology.  Copier sales reps fight against using this technology consistently that we sell, how much more will sales reps in a non-technical field?

I was chatting with a friend of mine in Colorado who has a copier company, and they are starting to get excited about a document management system called M-Files.  M-Files is an intuitive system of storing, indexing, retrieving and archiving files in a Explorer kind of view.

Let's take an example of some of the features that might help actual users.  In a legal setting, here are some ways M-Files can help... (We'll use a Criminal Defense Attorney as an example)
A new client comes in with a charge of disorderly conduct.  The first thing that may happen is the client fills out their intake forms as well as the contract that is going to be in place.  This contract is important as it will have signatures needed and thwart off billing debates later.  So, the client may be entered into Freshbooks or whatever CRM the attorney decides to use.  These databases automatically synch with M-Files.  So, when Bill Smith is added into Freshbooks as a new account, they are replicated into M-Files as a tagging option.  When the contract comes in, there can be a process in place that it must be tied together with a current client.  So, there is a little dropdown menu that has all of the clients listed and one of those is Bill Smith.  Now, M-Files can send this over to Mary the accountant so she knows the billing rates.

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/15/2012

A CMIS-based connector enables a Nuxeo content repository to interface seamlessly with the Liferay Document Repository, so that content, such as documents and images, from a Nuxeo Document Management or Digital Asset Management application, ...
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This website is connected to the document management system. When each drawing is scanned, a clear statement is sent back to the phone in either green or red. Green text confirms that it is the most up-to-date version of a drawing, while one with red ...
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The company will  join the Perceptive Software division as part of Lexmark's content and document management products. Brainware's main product is the Brainware Distiller, which extracts information from digital and paper documents, validates the ...
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PaperVision Capture SP makes scanning paper records into SharePoint easy and puts the benefits of effective document management within reach for smaller firms. “PaperVision Capture SP for SharePoint allows SharePoint users to begin integrating paper ...
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Congressional testimony and court documents regarding those processes, FHA claims documents, and foreclosure affidavits. They also interviewed servicer management and staff and those of vendors involved in foreclosures and claim processes.
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-=Good Selling=-

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/14/2012

Document and imaging vendor Accusoft, has announced the release of Prizm Content Connect v5. Prizm is a secure solution for document viewing, collaboration and business management system integration. This new version of Prizm Content Connect extends ...
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KMWorld is a leading content, knowledge and document management publication. The annual list of "100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management" was first established in 2000 to recognize an elite group of companies dedicated to meeting specific ...
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TORONTO--Medworxx Inc. (“Medworxx”) (TSXV: MWX), a leader in clinical patient flow, compliance and education solutions, today announces their expansion of the enterprise wide Policy and Document Management System (PDMS) license at ...
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Knowledgeone Corporation's RecFind 6 has been implemented by Waratah-Wynyard Council in Tasmania, Australia as its Electronic Document Management and Information Management system. Waratah-Wynyard Council is situated in the heart of Tasmania's ...
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PITTSBURGH, March 13, 2012  -- Solvaire, a provider of document management services, announced today that they are entering into an agreement with LegalEye Inc., a premier provider of legal management solutions.
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“Canon constantly strives to improve document security for organizations of all sizes. Information is only as valuable as a company's ability to protect it” Since imageWARE Secure Audit Manager Express exports audit data directly to a Windows folder as ...
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Fabasoft received the prestigious award in the category "DMS/Data Management" for its business Cloud service Folio Cloud. The expert jury thereby crowned Folio Cloud as the best document management system (DMS) for small and medium sized companies in ...
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-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/14/2012

SA IT Services, an industry leader in Managed Print Services, today released their most recent white paper on Managed Print Services entitled, "Managed Print Services: Key Considerations." ROSWELL,
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 Implementing a company-wide managed print service program, a global chemical company documented savings of $27M over three years. With an advanced managed document solutions strategy, a financial firm created a secure printing environment, reduced costs and increased efficiency See all stories on this topic »

OKI win Managed Print Services Contract into World's Largest Online Bike Store in Ireland TOKYO, March 14, 2012 -- OKI Data Corporation, an OKI Group company specializing in the printer business, announces that OKI Systems Ireland has won a ...
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-=Good Selling=-

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sell the Extras "Tell em you Learned it in Cabo"

I'm back from our President's Club trip to Cabo San Lucas and it is a spectacular location.  This was my first trip there and we spent 5 nights and almost 5 full days.  When you get to my age you're always thinking about where (and when) you can retire.  Cabo is surely one that's on my list but maybe a bit outta my price range.

What I really wanted to talk about is the sales people, I'm thinking that Cabo San Lucas has more sales people than they have cactus!  They have time share sales people, walking beach sales people, shop sales people, tour sales people, cruise sales people, fishing charter sales people, and I could list even more.  What I found intriguing is that everyone greeted you with a smile, a hello amigo or hello "my friend" and then had a pitch for whatever they were selling.  If you noticed I didn't call them peddlers, hawkers or shady. Each person was selling either with a smile of some sort of opening hook, matter of fact my wife and I walked past one person and he stated "are you enjoying your honeymoon"?, my quick response was "everyday is my honeymoon" and there was silence....my wife stated that he had probably not heard that before and had no prepared response for my quick wit!

In particular all of them closed early and often, most were not good at finding out "why" you did not want to buy, but they were all persistent and did not take the first "no" as the final answer.  Almost everyone in our party eventually bought something from these sales people.  I had one that was selling jewelry and I had said no at least 5 times and the final result was that I bought the piece of jewelry.  I bought because I thought I'm getting a pretty good price, the guys persistence, and he insisted that my wife would like the "fine Mexican silver" as a gift.  But what happened afterwards was something he said, he stated would you like to buy another one?  Which got me to thinking,  how often do we as salespeople make another offer to our customers during or after they are buying from us?  We know people buy from people they like, right?  Plus they are in the buying mood, right?

Many years ago and I'll be the first to admit that I get away from the basics also.  When we agreed on price and the type of equipment, I would offer a special on another piece of hardware or software right before we signed the lease. Years ago it was a small 30 ppm MFP that sold for about $600, but I broke it down to the monthly payment and then asked my customer if they'd like to take advantage of getting this additional unit as a back up or for the home for only $10 additional per month.  When I was doing this, I increase my sales and going back probably added another 25-40 units for the time that offered the item.  I made maybe $50 on each one, but I was also given a $50 Savings Bond for each machine also. Thus 25 systems turned into and additional $2,500. 

"Sell the Extras" offer them up and see what happens, the old saying "if you don't ask you don't get" means we are losing opportunities to sell more, make more and make sure you're on track for Presidents Club next year!!

BTW, for all you fishin guru's, we boated a 140lb Stripped Marlin!

-=Good Selling=-

Sunday, March 4, 2012

MFP & Copier Industry Weekend Notes 3/4/2012

I'm working on a new book titled 101 Ways to Close MFP Sales. it should be completed within three weeks and it will be posted on the Premium Forums and Amazon.  If you've got a favorite close, please send it to me and we'll give you kudos and a free copy of the book!

This week Ricoh Europe announced that they will launch a color wide format gelsprinter in 3rd quarter of this year, read the threads that have been posted so far, they are not.... Canon will finally refresh the 2008 monochrome products 2500 & 3200 series, the thread is below check it out and Sharp announces price increase for April 1st.

Yours truly will be interviewed by The Week in Imaging this week about reaching the 1,000th blog!

I've started a new forum for posting our "best sale of the month", I think it would be educational for all of us to hear you brag about the sale, how you nailed it, how you found the customer, did a solution deal the deal, how much GP of revenue you gained, and or clicks that you captured.  There's also a $25 gift card incentive for one P4P'er each from from one of our advertisers. Tell us About Your Best Sale this Month!

On another note we've posted "Effective emails for obtaining appointments", and they are great!  They are not from me, but from your peers, check em out in the P4P Document Library!
Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!
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Recent Blogs of NoteSelling MFP's & Copiers "Positioning yourself as an MFP/Copier Expert"
Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal?"
Ricoh Adds Wide Format Color "OMG not the gel"
SMART MFP's 2the Cloud
I dare you...
Managed Documents "The Next Big Thing"?

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum ThreadsOKI "MPS" series MFPs
Canon ImageRunner Advance 4025...
C651EX/C751EX Toner Shortage
W3601 Scan Software
Can a Kyocera 3640mfp copy mixed originals
Re: new C4502/5502
Profit Breakdown Question
New Samsung 11 x 17" Colour MFPs due Oct 01 USA
NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document LibraryOKI MC361 vs HP color MFP M475
OKI C330 vs HP color M451
Customer Expectations 770 Digital Color Press v1-03 For Launch
"Unlocked" Winning Proposal Generator for MPS & MFP's
Production Print Study Excel Guide
Effective emails for obtaining appointments

News & Press Releases
 Sharp Price Increase
Oce Varioprint DP Line (Oce & Canon integration)
Kyocera launches four new MFPs
Ricoh Adds Colour to Its Wide Format Portfolio (10 replies already)
NSi AutoStore 6.0 Earns Konica Minolta bEST Certification

P4P Poll QuestionsJanuary 2012 Sales Quota Poll
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!Illinois
Georgia
Colorado
South Africa
West Virginia
Southern California for KIP700

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & QuotesEnd User Report for Xerox 700 vs KonicaMinolta
xerox workcentre 5325 proposal
Toshiba estudio 2040c proposal
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Savin C9145 MFP Proposal/Quote
Ricoh C751 proposal

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The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

Selling MFP's & Copiers "Positioning yourself as an MFP/Copier Expert"

Do you feel that you're a top notch solutions & MFP sales rep? Do you consult more to the end user and then let the customer buy from you? Are you consistently producing print/document assessment reports for customers that have and instant ROI? Do you want to add more profit and value?

If so, you need to add this weapon to your arsenal. In your territory look up the 10 largest Accounting/CPA firms. Once you have them, be prepared to make the calls to success!

Accounting firms have many business clients that have trusted their services for years and years. What we want to do is to add value to the CPA's service's that they provide to their business clients, by added a new service for their customers. A customized Print/Document Assessment Report for their clients. I would recommend starting with Accounting firms that are already your customers. Have a plan that will outline how they can add value to their clients and be able to add some profit from your work also.

Positioning yourself as an expert in the field of print/document assessments, meaning you are offering your services to the Accounting firm for their clients, the Accounting firm can either bill out this service or include it as an additional service that they offer for their clients. Your goal is to sell your knowledge, expertise and nothing else. Have copies of Print Assessments that you have completed to show the accounting firm what the typical report entails, here you are breaking the mold from the common copier salesperson and establishing yourself as the solutions/MFP expert. You can even offer a FREE print/document assessment to the accounting firm to show them your expertise and your creative ideas for print/document assessment and print migration.
You can start by telling them about the high cost of printing to multiple devices and that you specialize in provided a detailed print assessment cost of what they are spending and a solution to save their clients money and or productivity. Your fees can be as much as $250 per hour plus expenses for your work. Even though MPS has been around for years, there are still many companies (and we need to find these right?) that have no clue as to what they are spending each year for copies and prints.

All of the information needed is at your finger tips, companies like Ricoh offer a COG (customer opportunity generator), this software program gives you real life per page cost for about 95% of all the print devices that are on the market. For the other 5% you can do your research on the Internet. I would even go a step further and consultant on page coverage. Producing this type of report especially if your MFP is using a tiered cpp pricing can have a dramatic effect on the bottom line.
There are many print management programs around, personally I like Print Audit, however nothing is better than visiting every single print device, generating a report and then interviewing the end user for their needs. Interview can uncover tremendous saving and opportunities for all. Plus what's often left out is the type of media that each user is printing on.

After the assessment has been completed you would give this to the Accounting firm that contracted you, they in turn would give the report to their client. You would have an agreement that if the client decided to move forward this would happen with your company.

This is just another way of positioning your self as the expert, and will allow you to gain easy access to new accounts. Keep in mind while you're in the clients office that you need to remove your selling shows and provide an accurate and professional assessment.

-=Good Selling=-

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal?"

Back in January of last year (2011) I posted a poll on the blog titled Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal?" It's been  a little over a year and I thought it's time to close the poll and start a new one.

Since I'm not that well connected with Canon and Oce I can only report on what is posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums and what people have emailed me.  I've read threads on the forums that suggest OCE is practicing the art of "dumping" MFP systems (not production print systems) at ridiculous prices here in the US. In some cases Canon dealers with the same box have not been able to match pricing or won't match pricing (I can't blame them for that).  Oce unlike Ikon has it's own product line of Production Print systems, I was able to see one of these systems in action a few weeks ago at an in plant facility. The system was astounding, using large rolls of paper and processing speeds of 800 - 1,425 images per minute.  I guess when you use roll paper you don't process speed by pages but by images.

I think the acquisition for Canon was a great move, especially with recent Kodak bankruptcy filing. Plus the fact that Canon now has access to arguably the best wide format technology in the world.  However, how long can they keep operating two separate units?  I think in the near future we'll see the move in the US to migrate them into one unit, just my thoughts here and nothing I've heard or read.

Back to the poll.  We had a tremendous amount of votes, as of today there were 475.  Here's how our readers responded to Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal?"

Good Deal 183 39%
Bad Deal 208 44%
Not Sure 84 18%
475 votes total

-=Good Selling=-

Please fell free to chime in and leave a comment!


Thursday, March 1, 2012

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/1/2012

Industry leaders Supplies Network, Preo Software (TSX VENTURE:PKM), FMAudit, and NewField IT, today announced a coalition with a goal of transforming the practice of Managed Print Services. Effective use of end-user data and insights has been ...
See all stories on this topic »

"We are very excited about the partnership with Fasoo and the opportunity to provide our joint customers with the next level of Managed Print Services," said Shane Hannan, President of Print Control Software, Inc. "The opportunity lies within our ...
See all stories on this topic »

The company continued solid execution of its strategic initiatives throughout the year, focusing intently on bringing greater productivity to business customers through innovative technology and a rapidly growing software and managed print services ...
See all stories on this topic »

"If you do a Google search for info sec burnout, you'll find nothing," said KC Yerrid, an information security and managed services consultant. Yerrid was one of several panelists who took part in a talk focused on IT security burnout and stress held ...
See all stories on this topic »

-=Goos Selling=-

Ricoh Adds Wide Format Color "OMG not the gel"

I'll make this one pretty quick.  I was alerted to an email that Ricoh unveiling a unique four-colour wide format printer and giving demonstrations at Drupa 2012.  I posted the press release here Ricoh Adds Colour to Its Wide Format Portfolio.

I'm all for new products, I've still got my feet on the street and since Epson 7700 and 9700 is now being sold by others (this was exclusive to Ricoh for awhile), well we need something we can call our own, right?

Take a look at the picture on the left, this thing is ugly! right!

About two years ago, I was able to see samples from the wide format gelsprinter and was asked to rate the color samples for Ricoh.  I'm sure I was not the only one, but with my experience in wide format it was my pleasure.  I asked about the print technology as was politely told that the technology was still under wraps.  The print quality?  It was actually very good from what I saw.

Anyway, back to this new wide format Gelsprinters.  I like Ricoh products, well most of them....except for the Gelsprinters.  About three years ago I sold 35-50 of them in one year.  They were fast, had large ink cartridges, decent quality and the printers were inexpensive!  I had one myself, and then I had two and finally three. In all 3 I got the system error 0999 code (which basically means a maintenance kit is required), to this day I think there maybe two or three left that are still running. One account had the system error code in every printer (not all at once but over time).

What's my point? From what I read this new Ricoh Aficio™ MP CW2200SP is using the same print technology.  I can only pray that these systems will run much better than the gelsprinters that I'm accustom to.

-=Good Selling=-