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.
OK...from the headlines last week.....Just in case nobody heard the news.....smaller announcement than the whole Dell thing yet still a pretty good size piece of "MPS" news; it certainly caught my attention.
"Oce Business Services Introduces Oce MPS Managed Print Services"
"Oce Rebrands and Extends its Current Fleet Management Service""Oce Business Services, a leading provider of document process outsourcing services and technology, today announced Oce MPS, a rebranded and significantly enhanced version of the company's current Oce Universal Fleet Management service....................." Read on....
So last week, in Part II of this series, What Do You Think; How Will You Respond, we continued our discussion about MPS, switching our attention from HP and Xerox, to Dell and the late breaking news of their aggressive entry into the Managed Print Services space; a move that surprised.... no one! I mean on the heels of their acquisition of Perot systems; the HP purchase of EDS and the Xerox purchase of Global Imaging, and newest acquisition of ACS, what would we think? These are all the giants and they are here to play in this new MPS arena; wouldn’t you? Dell, like Xerox and HP, are out to capture their share of the MPS space. So what about Oce? You think they have plans to claim their piece of the pie? And the answer is....ABSOLUTELY... wouldn’t you? Big market, plenty of profit; last unaudited financial expense in an IT budget; huge room for optimization and hardware installs; and let’s not forget the supplies and service; huge opportunities and all of the big boys have come to play "and play hard they will" (little Yoda reference).
But whether you’re a HP dealer, Xerox channel dealer or Oce partner, don't worry - they're all out to protect and support their channel - right? I'm just not feeling it any longer. Like I said, they have come to play and the gloves are off. The channel rules are getting sketchier and the lines are blurred. Everyone has divisions going straight to the end user and its not making things any easier for us Independents. Thay are all positioning themselves...are you? What’s your story? Why pick you?
So here’s the question....do you think you’re in their long term plan? I'm just not feeling it; and as "individual companies", we’re just not a threat. Can we be? Strength in numbers, distributed reach, leveraged expansion? What's your plan? Do you think that leveraged together, we got game? Remember, it’s the Power of the Independent: local dealers - national solutions.
So I just have to ask the question: Are we, the independents, dressed up and ready to compete? What's your MPS go to market strategy? If you have a strong plan, one that I can get on board with, one that we can all get on board with, I'm in...Let me know about it...share it with the rest of us. I’m just asking the questions.
MPS space is getting hot and the competition is getting hotter. Your biggest threat will be the OEM's and the Nationals. I'm just a broken record, aren't I?
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. We're not looking to put these guys out of business; that’s not happening. But this is a big market with room for all to play; including us! I want my piece; you want yours? So the questions.....Are you dressed up and ready to compete? What’s your national story? What’s your national presence? How are you positioned to leverage and compete?
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