Thursday, April 15, 2010

Managed Print Services - Dressed Up and Ready to Compete - What Do You Think? Part IV

Managed Print Services - Dressed Up and Ready to Compete - What Do You Think? Part IV

PART IV - What Do You Think? How Will You Respond?

In this series, “Dressed Up and Ready to Compete - What Do You Think?” we'll look at some "MPS" indicators and market directions so that we can address the questions... or at least be aware of what's taking place.

Just one more sign that the OEM's are pushing down stream. Let's hope your part of their solution?
HP wants to bring managed print to the midmarket HP's new managed enterprise services business unit is focused on the enterprise market, but the next phase will see the channel enabled to bring managed print to the midmarket and SMB"

"Since its launch in September, Hewlett Packard Co.'s (NYSE: HPQ) managed enterprise services business unit has been focused on the enterprise market with a largely direct managed print services play. As HP looks to bring the play down into the midmarket......" Read on....

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/Home/News.asp?id=57054


So last week, in Part III of this series, “What Do You Think; How Will You Respond”, we continued our discussion about MPS, switching our attention to Oce and their move or should I say realignment in the MPS space. So now is it any surprise that the discussion is now moving down channel? Not to me. The MPS space is changing, shaping up...whatever you want to call it and we all need to be aware of the moves; positioning taking place with the big boys and how we're each positioning our own companies.

Personally, I'm excited about all the new opportunity and I think you should be too. It’s a big market with plenty of room to play, if you’re dressed up and ready to compete. But please, if you’re an HP dealer, Xerox channel dealer or Oce partner, etc., do not get caught thinking that they are out to protect their channel. They are all redefining their channels and you may just not be part of that new direction.

I'm just not waiting around to see what's next. I can't afford to...can you? HP, like Xerox, like Dell and the others have all come to play. The "channel" will be redefined and each will have aggressive divisions going direct. This is not going to make things easier for us Independents. But hey, please pick me; make me part of your strategic plan. But just in case, I’m goanna have my own strategy. And here's the truth...and a great one at that. There is "Strength in Numbers", distributed reach and leveraged expansion? Remember, it’s the Power of the Independent: Local Dealers - National Solutions.

So what's the plan? We all dressed up and ready to compete? I’m just asking the questions. I think this is an important topic; this is not going to go away and we need to be asking hard questions and getting positioned as Independents to answer the threat and capitalize on the opportunities.


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