A Few Reasons for Enabling Secure Printing

Lurking in the shadows of your office is a disgruntled employee, he or she has already interviewed for other sales jobs and last week accepted a sales job at a competitor. But this sneaky son of bitch negotiated that he or she can't start for another 30 days. 

Why is that?

Or how about this one, you printed out an account list to work or some additional support documents for accounts you went to the printer and the prints were not there. Where did they go, did they ever print?

Most likely someone has stolen that printed data, account list or intellectual property. In the above case it was the person who is making plans to leave the company and in the mean time is gathering information on as many accounts as possible from as many reps or managers as possible.

Let's not stop there, this employee may also be picking up invoices or information that has personal or business credit card information. 

Everyone has put up such a fuss over the securing their

"Green" Printing with "Eric the Office Worker"

So, you just bought a shiny new Color "Green" MFP. You know the system, your salesperson touted the "Green" features such as default auto off, default power save mode, default duplex copying, the small carbon foot print, scan2email, scan2folder, scan2UDOCX, scan2dropbox, and of course it was the end of  the month special deal just for you!

So, what good is all of this if you can't control printing?

Did you know that the average employee prints 34 pages a day and 17% of those pages are never used?

Do you think that "Eric the Office Worker" knows the cost per page of every MFP and printer in the office? What stops "Eric the Office Worker" from printing a 100 page color report to an ink jet printer (that can have a per page cost as high as 60 cents a page), all just because he didn't want to walk to the Color MFP or workgroup printer that prints at .08 cents per page.

The idea of "Eric the Office Worker" not taking the short walk just cost your company

The Transition of the Copier Industry Part V

What Can Copier/Printers Dealers Do?

You could do nothing and keep stealing pages from other vendors and have other vendors steal your pages.  There's no growth in pages!

Many traditional copier companies are now embracing and moving forward with Managed Network Services.  At one time I asked why the heck would we do that, the other day I got my answer, when it comes to on-site service and support no one does it better than copiers dealers, not IT companies, not phone system dealers nada they all stink. We are the best for on-site support within our channel.

Dealers need to diversify their offerings:

If you're just a traditional copier dealer then I might suggest adding systems where you can also can some maintenance agreement revenue along with break and fix.  Take a look at offering folding machines, folders/inserters, mailing equipment, paper cutters, scoring machines, business card cutters, and pressure sealers. I like the addition of pressure sealers because you can get more bang for your buck, you can sell the media, the pressure sealer and then reap the clicks from higher volume MFP's, light production units and even duplicators.  All of these devices will need service from time to time, most are very mechanical and with trained techs you should be able to garner a some nice margins with service.

Dang, I forgot this one, and it's huge, get on board with 3D printing, it's right up our alley, very little competition, high margins on supplies, high margins on maintenance agreements, the best is that they have to come to you for supplies. Typical users are Colleges, Universities, manufacturing, and Architects, when was the last time someone from a College or niversity call you for a product?  3D printers are on fire right now.

How about just becoming an expert with 3rd party MFP solutions?

I'm hearing and seeing  many dealers looking to add new services, but what about the MFP's that are in the office already. What about all of that neat software that can be embedded within the device that can drive BPO (Business Process Optimization). Many years ago dealers deployed specialized reps to visit accounts and sell the extras such as maintenance agreements, auto document feeders, and finisher/staplers. Why can't this be done with OEM or 3rd party solutions. New accounts are so dang hard to get, but it's your existing accounts where you can sell the extras and make some excellent margins. 

Pick 5 different solutions for 5 different vertical markets, train 5 sales people to sell these 3rd party solutions which could be programs like Print Audit 6, Doculex, Intellenetics, UDOCX. However, you also have depending on what manufacturer you represent all type of business process improvement solutions that can be embedded within the MFP. Before you jump on the MNS/Backup band wagon become and expert with your own solutions from your manufacturer.

One more idea, how about starting an hardware agnostic solution sales team that will go out and sell, install and train on 3rd party solutions. I don't have an accurate number but if I were a betting guy, I would bet that 90% of all mfp devices are not running and embedded software. There's treasure trove of opportunity!

Eat What You Cook:

If you decide to make the jump to offering BPO (Business Process Optimization) then I strongly suggest that you look at your own business processes first.  I'm sure there is pain in your organization with a process.  Look to solve those processes first, one I would fix at the place where I work is the sales process.  Here I would stream line the amount of paper needed and look into developing all of my forms on an ipad or a business type tablet, from here I would want the forms to go to my sale manager for review, he would sign off on them with a digital signature and then send them to order entry. Your company could then become an expert in that particular business process and pitch the solution process to other companies that have the same pain. I could go on and on, but look at your own company first, make the improvements and then sell the heck out of it.

Think about this for a second. you're selling BPO, curing a customers pain and then when they are ready to order you hand them sheets of paper to sign, DUH!


-=Good Selling=-

Top 5 Trending MFP & Printer Solutions

Those of us in the know are always trying to catch on the latest and greatest MFP & Print solutions.  Here's my top 5 from the last year with a short overview on each. When was the last time you hugged your copier solutions rep, cause if they are bringing these solutions to the table then you owe it to them to reach out and hug them!

1) PretonSaver:  Need to get more bang for the buck out of your toner cartridges?  Take a gander at Preton Saver software, Pretonsaver will eliminate those pesky little extra pixels of toner and can offer toner savings of up to 25-45%!

Hey, maybe it's not a bad idea to go back to selling maintenance agreements, not include the toner, but do include licenses of PretonSaver.  Just think about the talk track to the end user.  You buy the toner, we'll do the service/maintenance but we'll also sell you "x" licenses of PretonSaver that can save you 25-45% of your toner costs for your MFP and your printer fleet!  Thus you would have the extremely low cost per page of service/maintenance coupled with an almost 50% savings on the toner.  Look at it this way, if manufacturer is stating 6% coverage for toner, and the toner cost is $32 for 8,000 pages that puts the retail toner cost at .0032, using PretonSaver you could lower that cost to .00144.  That's a savings of .00176, over the life of the MFP if you printed and copied 400,000 pages you would have a savings of $704 and that's only for one MFP! Can you image the savings on the fleet? 

2) Print Audit:  I've always been a fan of Print Audit, even before they became a Print4Pay Hotel sponsor.  Plain and simple their software works, day in day out, simple to use, simple to install and the ease of use is second to none.  Print Audit has a wide variety of print management software that is designed for the end user of the office equipment dealer.  I can't tell you how many calls I get from customers claiming "my color volume has gone through the roof", "this machine is costing me more than the payment on my car", and those customers are right. They have no way of controlling printing, whether it's color or black. It's not the dealers fault, nor is it the manufacturers fault, the end user needs to take some accountability and place limits on printing or re-direct printing to lower cost devices.  Print Audit 6 will do all of that plus more, and it's done behind the scenes, once you set the print rules it like "set it and forget it", Print Audit 6 will insure that limits are enforced and re-directing to lower cost devices is now the norm. Copier Dealers, there's never been a better time to become a Premier Print Audit partner, everyone is looking to reduce costs, prints and their Premier SaaS model allows you to sell software by the click, by the seat or just a flat monthly fee!

3) Doculex: Doculex has been a mainstay in the office equipment industry for many years. Doculex my first introduction into Document Management Software. If you had to ask me name the first document management company that comes to mind then it would be Doculex.  By no means am I document management guru,  however Doculex has roots in the MFP industry, long before other DMS companies were soliciting their wares to MFP dealers Doculex was already there with a very impressive channel of MFP Dealers.  "By becoming a DocuLex Reseller, you can provide your customers a complete document management solution, increasing your recurring revenue and customer retention. Attract new customers and add value to your existing customer base. DocuLex can provide direct support for you and your customer, and customers can get started with the DocuLex Archive Studio Content Management Software solution for as little as $ 40 per user per month."  Just and FYI Doculex is a sponsor for the Print4Pay Hotel and we'll have a guest blog posted for them soon along with webinars for our members.


4) Nuance:  In particular their ecopy paperworks, sometimes you just need simplicity right?  I just love showing ecopy paperworks to my existing customers and potential new accounts. eCopy paperworks is one of those rare software programs that you can fully understand all of the icons and master after 5 times.  With ease you can whiteout/blackout text, add lines with arrows (color lines too), highlight an area in different colors, add digital notes, add signatures, OCR a document (drop back into word or excel), .pdf a document, use the TWAIN scan feature, draw freehand notes, move pages, delete pages, cut, copy, paste and even add hyperlinks to a document.  I use ecopy every day and can't think what I would do if I did not have paperworks anymore.   Over the years I demo'd this product many times and I've never had someone tell me that they didn't like it. Take it from if you're in need of software that will convert documents to .pdf's and you need to do markups on documents the ecopy paperworks is the best I've seen in years!

5) UDOCX:  A couple of years ago before I even knew that web browsers could be used in MFPs, I had a thread posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums from the marketing person for UDOCX. The thread pointed out that in Europe on Ricoh devices with enabled web browsers users could now scan2sharepoint, scan2MS365 without the need to have a software installed on a server. This was genius, the UDOCX is software as a service, users would pay a monthly fee and you were off and running with a powerful web based scanning solution (with no server hardware or software to maintain) from the MFP. Now, web enabled MFP browsers took a little longer here in the states, but at least with all of the new Ricoh MFP's you're good to go.  It's my understanding that you can also use the UDOCX service with Xerox, Sharp & Canon systems.  UDOCX will also support cloud printing and scan2fax.  Scan2fax, think about it, no MFP fax option to purchase, no telephone line charges, no call charges, no taxes and no FCC charges.

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh New MP6002, 7502, 9002 "Print Features Reveal"

Last week I posted Ricoh MP6002, 7502, 9002 series "Scanner Reveal" , this week we're going to cover some of the exciting new print features for the Ricoh MP 6002SP, 7502SP and the MP9002SP, keep in mind that these light production systems can also be purchased with out the network print and scan. 

Tip:  If you really want to know what a system can and can't do, go to the manufacturers web site and download a copy of the operators manual.  I've won a few deals because I pointed or specific advantages that I had over another product, showing the end user prints/copies from the manufacturers owners manual will provide proof that you are speaking without forked tongue.

Here's a few hardware print specs for review:

• 250GB Hard Drive
• Integrated USB 2.0 Type A port and SD card slot
• System Memory = 1.5GB
• Print Controller = Celeron M @ 1 Ghz
• PDF Direct Kit
• Print from USB & SD card slot
• Up to 1200x1200 dpi
• Optional Adobe PSIII Genuine
• Optional Parallel, Gigabit, Wireless LAN and Bluetooth
• Optional Genuine IPDS
• FPOT (First Print Out) MP6002SP = 3.9 seconds, MP7502SP = 3.2 seconds, MP9002SP = 2.9 seconds
• USB 2.0 Type B High Speed
• USB 2.0 Type A High Speed (used to connect external devices such as card reader, keyboard or Bluetooth
• Standard HDD Encryption  & DOSS

What I like:

Top 7 Solutions @ Transform 2012 Print Audit Premier @ #4

Remember the Photizo Global transform Conference in Orlando?  Many vendors had excellent solutions for MPS and MFP vendors or as I like to say "We help companies put information on paper". 
Print Audit especially their Print Audit Premier Program is far an away the best SaaS solution that I've come across for MPS and MFP vendors!  Print Audit had the vision to package licenses of  Print Audit Facilities Manager, Print Audit 6, Print Audit Assessor, Print Audit Secure, Print Audit Embedded, Print Audit Rapid Assessment Key for one low monthly fee!  If you'd like to know more about the program please click Print Audit Premier .

So, where's the value?  The value to me (I used to own a dealership) is that I can sell the software for a monthly fee per device or I can built the software in to my current maintenance agreement billing. The model that I like best is the cost per page, you've gotta do the math, however adding .005 or .01 for every page printed or copied can generate a lot of revenue in a short amount of time.  Not only does this provide an ongoing revenue stream but your dealership will remain sticky in the account, meaning when the lease of the copiers or printers comes up for renewal, do you really think that the customer will go to another vendor if they lose the licenses to anyone of the Print Audit programs that we offered? 

As MSP amd MFP vendors manage the prints on the device, why can't we manage the software charge to the customer for a low monthly per device fee or the cost per page billing?  There's zero up front cost to the customer!  As vendors we could bill the maintenance, installation and professional fees for a monthly fee, charge the customer a one time fee or build it into the cost per page billing.  On another thought, let's say you're in on a new account, they have no need for MPS, hardware or services, but you've got a hit with let's say Print Audit 6.  They need 50 licenses, what would be easier to get approved a purchase order for $10,000 (guesstimate) or $4 per month per license for 60 months?  My quess and what I'd like to present is the $4 per month per license.

What I've seen over the years especially with lean times still among us (did you know that Obama stated the other day that "the private sector is doing fine", let him work my job for a month or so and then tell me how the private sector is) companies would like to have the benefits of the software solutions but are holding back because of the upfront cost.   Print Audit Premier gives us a unique way to have a creative financial software solution that will benefit the customer and the dealer.

BTW, yes Print Audit is a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel and I'm proud that the Print4Pay Hotel is partnered with one of the best Managed Print Corporations in the world!

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh’s PCS Director Embedded Now Compatible with the Latest Generation of Ricoh MFPs

 

Ricoh's PCS Director Embedded Now Compatible with the Latest Generation of Ricoh Multifunction Devices

The print management product is one of very few solutions to be released to the field as compatible with Ricoh's latest line of multifunction devices, which feature the new GW+ architecture.

Calgary, Alberta - April 2, 2012 - Ricoh's PCS Director Embedded, a print management solution powered by Print Audit®, has been tested by the Ricoh product testing team and confirmed as compatible with the newest line of GW+ multifunction devices officially released in February of 2012. 

Ricoh's testing of PCS Director's compatibility with GW+ began on March 1st and was completed on March 12th, which was more than 2 weeks ahead of schedule.  Ricoh PCS Director is one of only a handful of embedded applications that as of March 30th had successfully completed the GW+ testing.
Ricoh PCS Director Embedded is a software application that runs directly on the touch panel of Ricoh multifunction devices allowing organizations to easily track and charge for all of their walk-up copying, faxing and scanning.  Embedded integrates seamlessly with the desktop version of PCS Director, providing a comprehensive print, copy, scan and fax tracking solution that is compatible with all types of printing devices.

PCS Director is a Ricoh OEM software tool that can help Ricoh sales branches and independent dealers win more deals and keep more customers by offering a high-demand print management solution that adds thousands of dollars in savings to their proposals.

For more information on PCS Director Embedded, click here to contact a Print Audit Solutions Consultant today.  

About Print Audit®:
Established in 1999 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Print Audit is the fastest growing managed print services company in the world. By providing businesses with innovative and practical print management software solutions, the company has helped customers recapture over $200 million in printing and photocopying expenses while saving an estimated 190,000 trees a year. Print Audit has offices located in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

-=Good Selling=-

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!
Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile,  Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN

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

Go here and register for a FREE Print4Pay Hotel Membership or go here for our Premium Membership!
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=-

MFP & Copier Industry Weekend Notes 2/26/2012

March will see the end of the first quarter of 2012 and I hope we're all doing well! I'll be off to Cabo San Lucas in 10 days for our companies Presidents Club Trip. I'm looking forward to relaxing with no web, no phone, no calls!

So, what's big for this week? Well Ricoh launched new C4502/5502 and what's really cool is that we now have the ability to connect to cloud services. I'm looking forward to getting our first one and setting it up with UDOCX, can't wait!!!

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!

You've heard it before, we need your help in clicking on the banner ads, these banner ads support the P4P and keep the basic membership FREE, give them a click to see what's new, you maybe surprised at what you find.

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!

Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile, Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN, Pahoda Imaging, Dealer Marketing Systems, Industry Analysts, The Week in Imaging

Recent Blogs of Note
SMART MFP's 2the Cloud
 I dare you...
Managed Documents "The Next Big Thing"?
7 Tips When Competing with the Direct Channel
Chip Crunk Talks About RJ Young’s Acquisition of Ricoh Direct Branches

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum Threads

New from Ricoh the C4502/5502
Profit Breakdown Question
New Samsung 11 x 17" Colour MFPs due Oct 01 USA
Can you trust the Cloud?
Oce cutting my throat in every deal!!!
Charging for computer related calls
Integrated cloud environment
RBS Takedown
New Ricoh 4410SPF "brainshark" review
Tell us About Your Best Sale this Month!

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library
Customer Expectations 770 Digital Color Press v1-03 For Launch
Oki MPS files
"Unlocked" Winning Proposal Generator for MPS & MFP's
Production Print Study Excel Guide
Effective emails for obtaining appointments
5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact

Press Releases
Top North American School Districts Choose Print Audit®
Industry analysts from BERTL, Inc. award Canon for "Best Wide Format Product Line of
Research shows decision making swing toward individuals, says Ricoh
Konica Minolta to Exhibit Healthcare Solutions and Managed IT Services at HIMSS 2012
Paper-Intensive Businesses Use New Xerox DocuMate 4760 to Easily Scan Piles of

P4P Poll Questions
January 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
Ohio
Texas

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & Quotes
End User Report for Xerox 700 vs KonicaMinolta
konicaminolta bizhub c360
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Ricoh S5200 proposal
Ricoh C751 proposal

The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

Weekend Copier & MFP Updates for 2/12/2012

Seems Kycoera now has a cost per page billing model based on coverage, similar to Xerox's Cube. Plus, could there really be a move by Direct to start selling off Direct Banches that are Losers? You can read more on this in the forums and the blog.

Look, I've added BLI reports for FREE, get the full report, these are limited to what I found and they are in the Competition Lounge & Street Pricing II forums.

You've heard it before, we need your help in clicking on the banner ads, these banner ads support the P4P and keep the basic membership FREE, give them a click to see what's new, you maybe surprised at what you find.

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!
Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile, Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN

Click the headline link to access the log in page, if you're not a member please register while it;s still FREE!

Recent Blogs of Note
Death of the Direct Copier Channel? "part two"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "Color Cost Page for 2 Cents"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "From Rags to Riches for 20 cents a Day"
The Death of The Direct Copier Channel?
Selling Copiers & MFP's "P4P Hotel Members Are Quota Busters"

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum Threads
ITEX 2012 OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE DEALER EDUCATION INCLUDING
... and you thought copiers were boring!
RICOH/IKON sales merge
Canon shaking up the great white north
Konica Minolta 10% Price Increase April 01/12
Using email to set appointments
Ricoh 2352 & 2852?
Print4Pay Hotel TV
ELP New Product Video

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library
Effective emails for obtaining appointments
5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact
FREE Xerox® Phaser® 6280DN vs. Lexmark C544dn
FREE KonicaMinolta bizhub PRESS C8000 BLI Production Print ReviewFREE
FREE Kyocera TASKalfa 7550C BLI Test Reports

Press Releases
Canon U.S.A. Receives Seven Winter "Pick" Awards from Buyers Laboratory LLC
Fuji Xeroes in on rivals with 'revolutionary' new printer
Japan's Ricoh & group companies downgraded to 'A'
Konica Minolta Launches bizhub C754/C654 Color MFP Series Featuring New INFO-Palette
Print Audit® Welcomes INNATO to its New Premier Subscription Program

P4P Poll Questions
January 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!
GENERAL OFFICE EQUIPMENT (MFD’S) FOR THE CITY OF
REQUEST FOR COPIER PROPOSALS The School District of University
12 MFp's in Illinois
MFP & MPS RFP in California
17 MFP's in Michigan

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & Quoteskonicaminolta bizhub c360
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Ricoh S5200 proposal
Ricoh C751 proposal
Kyocera 3500 Quote

-=Good Selling=-
The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

Calgary, Alberta - October 19, 2011 – With nearly 7,000 employees and a new facility being built, NHS Hospital’s IT Management team was tasked with developing a plan to move the entire IT infrastructure to the new location in a timely and efficient manner. However, the team had little visibility and understanding of the print environment as its current print tracking tool only provided a high level overview of network printing.  “Looking at the overall IT requirements of the move, it was important we understood the printing behaviour of both users and departments, a more powerful and robust tool was required,” recalls Mohandeep Randhawa, Technical Services Officer,...read more

After looking at the aspects of cost, security and control, the IT team decided that it was more feasible to opt for a Managed Print Services (MPS) model, and outsourced these services to Canon. Canon evaluated the printer landscape at MindTree, ...read more

Is Dell making another move to enter the managed print services market? Several announcements made today indicate that Dell is certainly taking on a more solutions focus with their new product lineup. Dell announced version 2 of OpenManage Print Manager (OPMP), a printer fleet management tool to monitor, manage and report on the status of networked printers. The tool is available online and can be accessed from any Windows-based PC.  Updates in version 2 include an easier-to-use interface, increased security; expanded functionality in regards to bowser and OS support and optimized discovery performance. OPMP is a no-cost, brand agnostic tool available for download online....read more

A report published by research firm IDC in November 2010 predicted that companies the world over will spend more than £2.5bn a year on managed print services (MPS) by 2014, with 20 per cent of UK companies employing 500 or more staff already using MPS. While those figures imply growing interest in outsourced printing services, it is important to remember the model does not fit every firm’s requirements: plenty of IT departments still either prefer to keep control of their own print environment, or just do not print enough pages to justify outsourcing management and maintenance to a third party....read more

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Print Audit Secure $1.00 per month per...

Tonight I was able to get a sneak preview of Print Audit Secure before the official launch tomorrow.

Here's what I can tell you, if you're not selling it, then your competitor is!

Print Audit secure allows for secure printing to MFP's and Printers. Plus it can be released via pin, swipe or passcode from any browser enable device! That's right, your smart phone, your iphone, your tablet, your andriod, and blackberry. Plus if you have a browser unit in the MFP, the print job can also be released by accessing the browser of the MFP.

What's the most popular reason people will give to hold on to their printers?? We've all heard and replied with a golly or a schucks, that reason would be, "I print confidential financials", or "we print HR documents all of the time". With Print Audit secure there's no more excuses especially with "follow me" printing. I'm at the mpf or printer on the 3rd floor, no problem I can release the prints via my smart phone on the printer I'm at!

What's one of the most annoying and wasteful items in the office? Well, it's those darn prints that were never picked up. Wasted paper, wasted toner, wasted time, lost pages, shredded pages, what happened to my document and let me re-print it again! Print Audit Secure solves it, the page is never printed unless it's released and there's a really nice purge feature if the document is not released in "x" amount of time.

Another outstanding feature is that Print Audit Secure is OEM neutral, that means all of us can sell it!!

Ok, ok, you may say but I've got locked print and I can do the same thing right? Well kinda, but wouldn't you much rather have a cool knockout feature, a different talk track, follow me printing, and excellent support (and we all know what support is like know from the manufacturers)for $1.00 per device per month! What!!??? Thats's what I said.

Print Audit Secure seems to be at the right place at the right time.

Here's a few webinar dates, I suggest everyone take a real good look at this game changing lockout solution!!

Be one of the first to check out Print Audit Secure!

Beginning September 15th, Print Audit's President and CEO, John MacInnes, will be conducting weekly informational webinars to introduce Secure.

Please register now at http://www.printaudit.com/securewebinar

Introducing Print Audit Secure!

Introducing Print Audit Secure! On September 15, Print Audit will be launching its highly anticipated pull-printing solution, Print Audit Secure. Join a free webinar to learn how Secure will help you drive more volumes to your machines and win more deals. Benefits Enables users to release their print jobs from any device with their smartphone or a web enabled computer. Easy to install with no reliance on print servers, print queues or port monitoring, which means no modifications to your customer's print environment. Low-cost per-device pricing model which makes it easy to bundle with your service and MPS contracts. Integrates with Print Audit 6 to maximize cost savings for your customers. Be one of the first to check out Print Audit Secure! Beginning September 15th, Print Audit's President and CEO, John MacInnes, will be conducting weekly informational webinars to introduce Secure. Please register now at http://www.printaudit.com/securewebinar

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Daily MFP News from around the world!

NORWALK, Conn., Aug 18, 2011  -- Xerox Corporation's  board of directors today announced that Sara Martinez Tucker has been elected to the board effective Sept. 1, 2011.  "Sara brings to our board impressive credentials and experience as an accomplished leader. Her success in both the public and private sectors will greatly benefit Xerox and our shareholders," said Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns. read more

Fake $100 bills, and all the tools needed to make more. A College Station police officer found that and more during a traffic stop. The officer was patrolling in the 2100 block of Texas Avenue when he saw a woman leave a store, and get into a 2011 Dodge Charger. read more


Lexmark International South Africa has announced a three-year global services agreement with Woolworths. The contract, as part of a Managed Print Services initiative, will enable Woolworths to achieve both savings and efficiencies through its print output management. Following a rigorous competitive review, Lexmark was selected because of its thorough approach to total cost of ownership, its worldwide service and support capabilities and its comprehensive set of product features. read more

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, recently introduced the latest addition to its award-winning lineup, the imageFORMULA DR-C125 document scanner. The innovative space-saving design and ease-of-use of Canon's DR-C125 scanner improves information accessibility, management, and collaboration, making it a viable option for a variety of office environments. The DR-C125 scanner features intuitive face-up feeding with top feeding....read more

LONG BEACH, Calif., Aug. 17, 2011 – iDatix, an emerging leader in the development of document management software, is simplifying the workplace and increasing profitability using Epson WorkForce Pro document scanners. Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 and GT-S80 scanners are certified for use with iDatix iSynergy® and ScanDox read more

Calgary, Alberta - August 18, 2011 – With an aging printer fleet and users relying on their expensive desktop devices, the City of Avon Lake was facing increases in its printing costs and resource consumption. To gain control of the city’s finances, a new budgeting structure was implemented so all costs were allocated by department. However, the current printing environment did not have a print management system to track costs so the city sought the help of its office equipment dealer, Ace Business Solutions. read more

Nashville, TN (August 18, 2011) – Océ Business Services, a leader in document process management and electronic discovery, will demonstrate eDiscovery, records management and document imaging solutions at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference. Océ will also address topics covered at the show including: emerging eDiscovery technologies, document management strategies to deliver better client value and streamline operational efficiency, and the importance of applying records retention policies across all electronic records repositories. read more

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MFP Solutions to the Table and Hardware will Follow!

I've had a few emails in recent weeks to try and get some threads in reference to solutions. There certainly are enough of them out there.

Just today I had an appointment with an IT Manager in New Jersey, company size is about 40 and they have numerous print, copy and fax devices.

The first thing I did was to ask for a tour of the facility. Once I had the ok, I fumbled for the pen and paper and we went to see all of the devices.

This is probably the best way to start any appointment when you're engaging with a new client, so much can be learned from seeing how the machines are placed, where they are placed, how they are used and what type of media is being used. You really can get a firm grip on how they use their machines.

When we arrived at one of the MFP's, I questioned the IT person if they are scanning the documents as search able pdf's. The answer I got was, "well we had looked at document management...", I then replied "was it the expense why you didn't move forward?", the IT Manager agreed and then stated the cost was $20K to get started. With that I brought up NSI Autostore explaining that that you can get NSI for around $1,200 or so and at least start converting all of your scanned images to search able .pdfs.

Smart MFP's "To the Cloud"

It's not often that I get excited about a third party solution provider for copier and MFP's.  Print Audit remains one of my favs, however another company has garnered my attention.

I found UDOCX (short for Unified Document Exchange) on a thread that they posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums.  In fact we were discussing cloud based MFP solutions and UDOCX was one of two companies mentioned as Software As a Service (SAAS)

You all know what I do, off to the web to check out their web site.  So, what I found out is that this seems to be be AWESOME.  Probably what I like most is that NO software is required to "Print from", "Scan2", "Print Email", "Scan2fax" and more!

I borrowed this from the brochure:

UDOCX is a cloud-based document processing service that extends your browser-embedded MFP with mail, print, store and fax features without the need to install or maintain any additional software or hardware and while protecting a company’s compliancy and security policies.

Just lately and I'm talking the last 6-12 months, I've heard more IT people say that they don't want additional software on their servers nor do they want to store/maintain an additional server.  UDOCX requires no server is sold as a monthly subscription service, buy it for one MFP of a fleet of MFP's.  You may ask, what's the cost, well,.....I know the cost however I'll leave that to the folks at UDOCX and I believe the cost is extremely reasonable for the features and service that's provided.

I was able to connect with UDOCX the other morning, we had a webex for 6AM my time from the folks in the Netherlands. So I've had the opportunity to view how the software works with the MFP browser and they were able to show me "ease of use" with the solution.

So, if you get the chance go to the UDOCX web site, download the brochure, view the site, set up a trial and above all tell em that you heard about them from the Print4Pay Hotel.

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How to Fix Your Copier Sales Problems!

Dam, Jesse submitted an awesome blog for our readers, it's brings tears to my eyes and music to my ears to hear Jesse preaching to the choir!!!

Guest Post by Jesse Harwell - Why Copier Companies are Paying More Attention to Laser Printers.

Are you walking by business everyday because you aren't paying attention to the landscape you are in? This article is to help copier reps grow their business!

If you sell copiers for a living, the writing is on the wall. Copier prints are going down and laser printer average monthly volumes are going up. The average copier rep must take a course of action which will make their business more substantial and stable. If you are in this industry, you know what is being spoken of here. What are your options if you intend to stay in the business and want to eat something other than Top Ramen?

We can think of a few ways you can improve your business without killing yourself in terms of effort!

The first thing you must consider is smarter marketing. If are still walking door to door, that may be effective, but you better have some great shoes! We think it is smarter to utilize the internet and social media ALONG with your current strategy to get more qualified copier leads. We have some great methods we have used to generate more leads. Contact me if you are interested in learning more!

Adding more devices to existing contracts -- If you sold the copier, did you bother to get all of the printers under a maintenance contract too? If not, you left a bunch of money on the table, especially because of how expensive color prints can be!

Add a secondary product like Document Management or Data Backup. If you are simply trying to sell boxes, rather than services, you are going to lose a lot of deals!

Stay educated, read blogs like the one you are on often to understand what is happening in the business.
Become a Premier Member with P4P Hotel as you will learn about leads in your area you have never heard of before. If one of these leads every 40 years leads to a sale, you'll be breakeven, a no-brainer. E mail Art for more details

Start tracking what you already own with software like Print Audit (Tell them we sent you) so you can find opportunities which exist in the fleets of printers and copiers you already own.

Consider joining a high quality leads group. There are tons of bad ones out there, so be picky here.
Finding more business in this economy is much more about learning how to help people do more with less, not just bringing cookies and stopping by once a week. You will find as you look for ways to help your customer and to be more efficient with your own time, your sales may actually increase rather than decrease this year!

Guest author Jesse Harwell writes for multiple sites related to printers and copiers. Read more of his writing at Denver Copier or the Laser Printer Center . Image source FLICKR - Creative Commons License.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ...Albert Einstein

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Lead with MFP Solutions to the Table and Hardware will Follow!

I've had a few emails in recent weeks to try and get some threads in reference to solutions. There certainly are enough of them out there.

Just today I had an appointment with an IT Manager in New Jersey, company size is about 40 and they have numerous print, copy and fax devices.

The first thing I did was to ask for a tour of the facility. Once I had the ok, I fumbled for the pen and paper and we went to see all of the devices. This is probably the best way to start any appointment when you are engaging with a new client, so much can be learned from seeing how the machines are placed, where they are placed, how they ........... want to read the rest, go here Print4Pay Hotel Forums and become a member for free!

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Ricoh's PPDM enables and Epiphany for Eric the Office Worker

We all know about Eric the Office Worker right? For those of you who don't, Eric the Office Worker was featured here in three blogs. Eric the "Office Worker" Gets a Supra Wide Format!, Print Audit Green with "Eric the Office Worker" and Ecopy Desktop & "Eric the Office Worker".

Eric the Office Worker seems to have a proficiency for finding time saving software and hardware products in the office.

The last we heard of Eric, he was working for BetaAlpha Corp in Patterson, NJ, since then Eric the Office Worker has honed his job skills and landed a sales job in Frostburg, MD with DigDug Systems. DigDug has been around for almost 30 years and has four locations with about 80 employees.

Eric's job is to visit existing clients and seek out new clients to buy or lease heavy duty construction equipment.

In previous blogs Eric the Office Worker had been at three other firms in the past couple years and in two of those firms he instituted the use of Ecopy and Print Audit 6. If there's one thing that excites Eric, it's software that'll help him to cut the paperwork, save time and improve his efficiencies!

Being somewhat nosey and curious Eric had peeked over his cubical the other day when the new Ricoh copier was delivered, as a matter a fact he even asked his manager if he could sit in on the tutorial. Eric had been an old hand at copier technology and with his previous experience and thought he might be able to pick up something new. Giving it sometime Eric had thought... gheesh, this copier just got this new machine and all it does it print, copy, scan and fax??? What good is this he thought?

Just when Eric was about to retreat back to his cubical, the salesperson mention the "special function" key, with that Eric took notice and moved just a little closer to the system. The salesperson then directed the operator to enable the PPDM key, the operator did so and with that Eric moved a little closer to the system.

Just to cut to the chase go here for PPDM video

What really WOWED Eric is the fact that he could now walk to Ricoh multifunctional copier with hard copies and with the touch of a few buttons he was able to increase his productivity with a few of these key features!

• He could now walk to the copier and scan documents back to MS word or MS Excel, along with that he was able to enable a data capture on his lead forms, meaning he would scan the lead forms and the data would be extracted and captured into and Excel file, thus saving him countless hours of data input.
• Eric would also be able to scan his business cards with data capture, another huge time savings.
• But the greatest time saver for Eric was the ability to create fill able .pdf forms from the scanner, yeah Eric had all of the sales forms but they were either in an Excel which was a pain the butt to fill out because who ever made the forms had locked down certain cells and he couldn't change them, and then the pdf's were not fill able. Try doing this on ecopy without the fill able forms and this is a very mundane task.

Eric was elated with the initial PPDM demonstraion  and was excited that he was able to personalize his experience at the multifunctional copier and save countless hours with forms, MS word docs, MS Excel docs and fill able forms. Matter of fact the first item Eric did was to scan his leases, sales orders, maintenance agreements, lease documents, bill of ladings, return authorizations into fill able forms and then loaded them in his notebook. Eric also took a copy of his companies’ power point presentation and turned it into an audio presentation for his clients.  BTW, another great feature that Eric likes is the ability to convert a file to .pdf while just right clicking the document. No more opening the application and then coverting the doc to pdf! Awesome.

Hey, we all know Eric the Office Worker is a fictional character for this blog, however since Eric and I were turned on to PPDM, we really didn't have an idea how this technology would help us save time nor how to present it to our clients. My works of advice, if you have PPDM or something like it, lead it with it!  It's worth your time to become and expert with workflow solutions that will enable your customers to save countless hours with the mundane task of processing paper.

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