Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
HP Sees Resurgence In PC And Printer Sales
Thursday, 18 February 2010
By Peter Lavelle
Electronics brand HP has encountered a resurgence in PC and printer sales, generating a 25% leap in net profit for 2010’s 1st fiscal quarter, which closed in January.
PC sales for Hewlett Packard rose 20% to $10.6bn, while printer shipments increased 16% - compared to the same period in 2009. The figures suggest the technology market is recovering, having fallen flat during the global recession.
Hewlett Packard reported net profits of $2.3bn for the first quarter – more than $0.4bn more than last year. Net revenue was up 8% from last year and totalled $31.2bn.
Given this, the company has raised its fiscal forecast for 2010, from $118bn revenue to $121.5bn.
Speaking in the press release, HP CEO Mark Hurd said: "The strength of our portfolio, leaner cost structure and accelerating market momentum give us the confidence to raise our full-year outlook.”
However, revenues were not up across all Hewlett Packard’s portfolio. The Services sector – largely responsible for bolstering HP’s finances in the recession – saw a 1% fall in revenue. Revenues at HP Software were stable at $878m.
Sources
Austine Modine, ‘HP’s PC and Printer Sales Back from the Depths,’ TheRegister.co.uk, 17 February 2010.
Antone Gonsalves, ‘HP Profits Jump 25%,’ InformationWeek.com, 18
By Peter Lavelle
Electronics brand HP has encountered a resurgence in PC and printer sales, generating a 25% leap in net profit for 2010’s 1st fiscal quarter, which closed in January.
PC sales for Hewlett Packard rose 20% to $10.6bn, while printer shipments increased 16% - compared to the same period in 2009. The figures suggest the technology market is recovering, having fallen flat during the global recession.
Hewlett Packard reported net profits of $2.3bn for the first quarter – more than $0.4bn more than last year. Net revenue was up 8% from last year and totalled $31.2bn.
Given this, the company has raised its fiscal forecast for 2010, from $118bn revenue to $121.5bn.
Speaking in the press release, HP CEO Mark Hurd said: "The strength of our portfolio, leaner cost structure and accelerating market momentum give us the confidence to raise our full-year outlook.”
However, revenues were not up across all Hewlett Packard’s portfolio. The Services sector – largely responsible for bolstering HP’s finances in the recession – saw a 1% fall in revenue. Revenues at HP Software were stable at $878m.
Sources
Austine Modine, ‘HP’s PC and Printer Sales Back from the Depths,’ TheRegister.co.uk, 17 February 2010.
Antone Gonsalves, ‘HP Profits Jump 25%,’ InformationWeek.com, 18
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Faster is not Always Better
The Faster the Better- Heard this before?
By Andrew Miller
This statement is not always true when it comes to life or business. You cannot treat every road the same, so accelerating to maximum speed is not always going to provide the most benefits to your business. You cannot treat a hairpin turn the same as a straightaway. You cannot treat a one-lane country road the same as a six-lane highway. You need to know the speed at which you are comfortable moving forward and try to maintain that speed for as long as possible.
Too Fast Too Soon
Many experts are suggesting that the reason that Toyota is having so many issues with product recalls is because it grew too fast too soon. Growing too quickly can cause you to change the principles that allowed you to have success in the first place. Toyota was always focused on quality and efficiency and now they seem to have gone away from those principles and focused on growth. Everything has a trade-off, just make sure you are not trading quality for speed. We have all seen where that leads.
By Andrew Miller
This statement is not always true when it comes to life or business. You cannot treat every road the same, so accelerating to maximum speed is not always going to provide the most benefits to your business. You cannot treat a hairpin turn the same as a straightaway. You cannot treat a one-lane country road the same as a six-lane highway. You need to know the speed at which you are comfortable moving forward and try to maintain that speed for as long as possible.
Too Fast Too Soon
Many experts are suggesting that the reason that Toyota is having so many issues with product recalls is because it grew too fast too soon. Growing too quickly can cause you to change the principles that allowed you to have success in the first place. Toyota was always focused on quality and efficiency and now they seem to have gone away from those principles and focused on growth. Everything has a trade-off, just make sure you are not trading quality for speed. We have all seen where that leads.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Managed Print Services more than Purchasing decision
By Clint Bolte on February 10th, 2010
Recent posting by Purchasing.com to suggest that growth in Managed Print Services is being facilitated by the Corporate Purchasing Department is a shallow interpretation.
The Managed Print Services concept had its beginning with the management of corporate copier fleet(s). It began three decades ago with the bulk procurement – often leased – of remote analog monochrome copiers throughout multi-floor corporations or the corporate campus. In-plants were part of the successful implementation in many installations as they provided the daily operational management of delivering supplies to departments and monitoring the maintenance performed by the equipment manufacturer or distributor. The bulk buying contracts moved quickly to include the procurement of associated supplies and maintenance.
The copier technology improved and expanded in four directions; (1) inexpensive (under $100) desktop units that got hidden in the “other” column of departmental budgets and purchased by the user, (2) the integration fax, scan, copy, and print capabilities into a multi-functional device (MFD) or a multi-functional printer (MFP), (3) networking of these disparate units as the intranet took off, and (4) more cost effective multi-color digital printing.
Innovative corporate server mounted software escalated the “management of the copier fleet” to include (1) charge-back accountability, (2) feature usage for potential future upgrade justification, (3) and forewarning or “red-flagging” of needed maintenance back through the network to the copier manager. The current Managed Print Services definition has taken on a green tinge, as the next level of corporate administrative document strategy is to print less and therefore save trees.
This is accomplished by (1) training users to utilize the scanning and electronic faxing of documents on the MFDs to reduce the number of hardcopies made and later thrown away, (2) getting rid of the small desktop units altogether as their toner cartridges and therefore cost per copy are relatively expensive plus leaving a huge carbon footprint, (3) utilizing MPS software, which converts all digital copiers to a duplexing default mode rather than single sided copying (simplex) further saving paper.
Human Change Is Significant To Take Full Advantage of MPS
While each of these steps may seem to be incremental improvements, the overall MPS program is being perceived to be a significant cultural shift for many corporations. As a result of the human change magnitude and yet potential cost benefit, the MPS concept is gaining attention of specialized consultants to justify, prepare RFPs, and select the most qualified, full service digital print engine manufacturers or value-added resellers (VARs). Outsourcing of the management function is another issue on the table.
The inaugural gathering of 150 copier fleet aficionados committed to better control, cost reduction, and improved knowledge worker efficiency met this past spring in San Antonio, Texas. Digital print engine manufacturers, specialty software vendors, value-added resellers, consultants, and a few corporate end users heard Managed Print Services presentations on best practices and successful case studies. The MPS market research and strategic consultancy, the Photizo Group, organized this first topical conclave.
Corporate in-plants were not mentioned during this conference as playing any real or potential role in the successful implementation of the next level of distributed digital copier fleet management or Managed Print Services. The reason why is simple. The 16 digital print engine manufacturers, value-added resellers, and consultants all want to sell the implementation services along with the hardware and software.
The lessons learned of firms who are embracing MPS are simple. It becomes very obvious that the skills leading to successful implementation are often resident with in-plant organizations. This is an opportunity that in-plants must proactively and aggressively pursue well in advance of their corporation’s copier fleet renegotiation cycle.
The Photizo Group pegged the 2007 MPS market in North America to be $5.2 billion or about 14% of the total NA imaging market. They expect a 20% year over year growth for the next five years with MPS climbing to 35% of the total imaging market in 2012. One to three percent of corporate revenues, depending upon SIC category, are being spent on hard copy printing.
Converting a stagnant market to one of growth suggests a shifting or broadening of objectives by the corporate end users and an enlightened new business model by the manufacturing channel. Here are the proposed change elements from the low hanging fruit all the way up to moving the mountain;
1. Corporations of virtually all sizes have no idea how much they are spending in this space. The low cost of some desktop devices are under the corporate asset radar. Hence, most firms have much more equipment than they realize. As larger pieces of leased copier equipment come up for renewal, the clear, knee-jerk objective is to get control of this growing amoeba.
2. Contacting any of the sixteen hardware manufacturers and many of the VARs selling and servicing the equipment, a firm’s purchasing and/or IT departments learn that free equipment utilization assessments are available. Surprisingly simple software is linked to the print network and USB data capture ports are added to the stand alone devices to determine how much simplex/duplex, mono/color printing and by whom and how much downtime is experienced.
3. Proven cost savings venues are plentiful:
a. Economy of scale buying of equipment and supplies,
b. Moving the assets off the balance sheet as part of a cost per copy (cpc) contract,
c. Reducing head count by outsourcing the service,
d. Utilizing pop-up software on all equipment to encourage users to save money, such as default duplexing and sending the job to the least expensive device for printing, is a user behavior change initiative,
e. Utilizing the scan and fax features of the multi functional printers (MFPs) reduces unnecessary printing by capturing and moving documents electronically, and
f. Total chargeback capability via user code or card, i.e., no free copies, also contributes to fewer copies being made.
4. Process improvement adds to knowledge worker productivity:
a. Office mapping to assure that the appropriate equipment is convenient to all employees adds to efficiency and savings,
b. Client productivity and satisfaction climb with automatic software feedback embedded in the hardware; (1) forewarning potential maintenance problems improves up time and (2) controlling supplies reduces idle inventory investment,
c. Software queuing work (with user permission) to low production demand periods (nights) increased hardware utilization and
d. More energy efficient hardware, fewer copies, and recycling add to the corporation’s overall environmental efficiencies.
Free Assessments Aren’t Free
Ken Roche, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Print Operations Group (POG), offered several best practices for MPS benchmarking and assessment. Realize that “free assessments by VARs and/or manufacturers are not free” because of their inherent conflict of interest. They want to replace the prospect’s existing equipment with their own and prospect’s supplies sources also with their own. A clear and concise request for proposal (RFP) and service level agreement (SLA) based upon the actual current spend, integration with the corporate wide strategic objectives, quantifiable and continuously monitored key performance indicators, and issues addressed with the supplier on at least a quarterly basis are essential to a successful relationship. POG is one of several independent MPS consultancies with no ties to manufacturers or suppliers.
Measuring and compiling the key performance indicators of the copier fleet is the job of the specialty software. While some hardware manufacturers offer their own solutions, the independent VARs hold a strong market share. They include PrintFleet, PrintAudit, MWAi, fmAudit, Netaphor Systems, DocuAudit, and Compass Sales Solutions. The costs of their software can vary from $150 down to $9 per workstation depending upon the total volume of stations. This annual fee is typically rolled into the cost per copy (CPC) agreement. Many of these software vendors also provide training and marketing services to VARs, who are constantly improving their MPS skills. Hence, the end user may find this to be negotiable. Why can’t in-plants serve this same valuable monitoring and training function as the VARs?
Some best practices for MPS programs include gap analysis of where the user is and where they want to be. It includes four critical steps: (1) measuring the current state, (2) gathering end user input (and buy-in starting at the C-level), (3) identifying industry benchmark metrics, and (4) setting measurable objectives. He added that the end user input “was not creating a wish list.” A reliable source of metrics can be independent consultancies such as POG, Print Access, Newfield IT, and Photizo. Because the bar is always rising with users reaching for the business process enhancement stage, Crowley recommended that the MPS contract length not exceed three years. Again how much of this task cannot better be performed in house by the in-plant?
Recent posting by Purchasing.com to suggest that growth in Managed Print Services is being facilitated by the Corporate Purchasing Department is a shallow interpretation.
The Managed Print Services concept had its beginning with the management of corporate copier fleet(s). It began three decades ago with the bulk procurement – often leased – of remote analog monochrome copiers throughout multi-floor corporations or the corporate campus. In-plants were part of the successful implementation in many installations as they provided the daily operational management of delivering supplies to departments and monitoring the maintenance performed by the equipment manufacturer or distributor. The bulk buying contracts moved quickly to include the procurement of associated supplies and maintenance.
The copier technology improved and expanded in four directions; (1) inexpensive (under $100) desktop units that got hidden in the “other” column of departmental budgets and purchased by the user, (2) the integration fax, scan, copy, and print capabilities into a multi-functional device (MFD) or a multi-functional printer (MFP), (3) networking of these disparate units as the intranet took off, and (4) more cost effective multi-color digital printing.
Innovative corporate server mounted software escalated the “management of the copier fleet” to include (1) charge-back accountability, (2) feature usage for potential future upgrade justification, (3) and forewarning or “red-flagging” of needed maintenance back through the network to the copier manager. The current Managed Print Services definition has taken on a green tinge, as the next level of corporate administrative document strategy is to print less and therefore save trees.
This is accomplished by (1) training users to utilize the scanning and electronic faxing of documents on the MFDs to reduce the number of hardcopies made and later thrown away, (2) getting rid of the small desktop units altogether as their toner cartridges and therefore cost per copy are relatively expensive plus leaving a huge carbon footprint, (3) utilizing MPS software, which converts all digital copiers to a duplexing default mode rather than single sided copying (simplex) further saving paper.
Human Change Is Significant To Take Full Advantage of MPS
While each of these steps may seem to be incremental improvements, the overall MPS program is being perceived to be a significant cultural shift for many corporations. As a result of the human change magnitude and yet potential cost benefit, the MPS concept is gaining attention of specialized consultants to justify, prepare RFPs, and select the most qualified, full service digital print engine manufacturers or value-added resellers (VARs). Outsourcing of the management function is another issue on the table.
The inaugural gathering of 150 copier fleet aficionados committed to better control, cost reduction, and improved knowledge worker efficiency met this past spring in San Antonio, Texas. Digital print engine manufacturers, specialty software vendors, value-added resellers, consultants, and a few corporate end users heard Managed Print Services presentations on best practices and successful case studies. The MPS market research and strategic consultancy, the Photizo Group, organized this first topical conclave.
Corporate in-plants were not mentioned during this conference as playing any real or potential role in the successful implementation of the next level of distributed digital copier fleet management or Managed Print Services. The reason why is simple. The 16 digital print engine manufacturers, value-added resellers, and consultants all want to sell the implementation services along with the hardware and software.
The lessons learned of firms who are embracing MPS are simple. It becomes very obvious that the skills leading to successful implementation are often resident with in-plant organizations. This is an opportunity that in-plants must proactively and aggressively pursue well in advance of their corporation’s copier fleet renegotiation cycle.
The Photizo Group pegged the 2007 MPS market in North America to be $5.2 billion or about 14% of the total NA imaging market. They expect a 20% year over year growth for the next five years with MPS climbing to 35% of the total imaging market in 2012. One to three percent of corporate revenues, depending upon SIC category, are being spent on hard copy printing.
Converting a stagnant market to one of growth suggests a shifting or broadening of objectives by the corporate end users and an enlightened new business model by the manufacturing channel. Here are the proposed change elements from the low hanging fruit all the way up to moving the mountain;
1. Corporations of virtually all sizes have no idea how much they are spending in this space. The low cost of some desktop devices are under the corporate asset radar. Hence, most firms have much more equipment than they realize. As larger pieces of leased copier equipment come up for renewal, the clear, knee-jerk objective is to get control of this growing amoeba.
2. Contacting any of the sixteen hardware manufacturers and many of the VARs selling and servicing the equipment, a firm’s purchasing and/or IT departments learn that free equipment utilization assessments are available. Surprisingly simple software is linked to the print network and USB data capture ports are added to the stand alone devices to determine how much simplex/duplex, mono/color printing and by whom and how much downtime is experienced.
3. Proven cost savings venues are plentiful:
a. Economy of scale buying of equipment and supplies,
b. Moving the assets off the balance sheet as part of a cost per copy (cpc) contract,
c. Reducing head count by outsourcing the service,
d. Utilizing pop-up software on all equipment to encourage users to save money, such as default duplexing and sending the job to the least expensive device for printing, is a user behavior change initiative,
e. Utilizing the scan and fax features of the multi functional printers (MFPs) reduces unnecessary printing by capturing and moving documents electronically, and
f. Total chargeback capability via user code or card, i.e., no free copies, also contributes to fewer copies being made.
4. Process improvement adds to knowledge worker productivity:
a. Office mapping to assure that the appropriate equipment is convenient to all employees adds to efficiency and savings,
b. Client productivity and satisfaction climb with automatic software feedback embedded in the hardware; (1) forewarning potential maintenance problems improves up time and (2) controlling supplies reduces idle inventory investment,
c. Software queuing work (with user permission) to low production demand periods (nights) increased hardware utilization and
d. More energy efficient hardware, fewer copies, and recycling add to the corporation’s overall environmental efficiencies.
Free Assessments Aren’t Free
Ken Roche, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Print Operations Group (POG), offered several best practices for MPS benchmarking and assessment. Realize that “free assessments by VARs and/or manufacturers are not free” because of their inherent conflict of interest. They want to replace the prospect’s existing equipment with their own and prospect’s supplies sources also with their own. A clear and concise request for proposal (RFP) and service level agreement (SLA) based upon the actual current spend, integration with the corporate wide strategic objectives, quantifiable and continuously monitored key performance indicators, and issues addressed with the supplier on at least a quarterly basis are essential to a successful relationship. POG is one of several independent MPS consultancies with no ties to manufacturers or suppliers.
Measuring and compiling the key performance indicators of the copier fleet is the job of the specialty software. While some hardware manufacturers offer their own solutions, the independent VARs hold a strong market share. They include PrintFleet, PrintAudit, MWAi, fmAudit, Netaphor Systems, DocuAudit, and Compass Sales Solutions. The costs of their software can vary from $150 down to $9 per workstation depending upon the total volume of stations. This annual fee is typically rolled into the cost per copy (CPC) agreement. Many of these software vendors also provide training and marketing services to VARs, who are constantly improving their MPS skills. Hence, the end user may find this to be negotiable. Why can’t in-plants serve this same valuable monitoring and training function as the VARs?
Some best practices for MPS programs include gap analysis of where the user is and where they want to be. It includes four critical steps: (1) measuring the current state, (2) gathering end user input (and buy-in starting at the C-level), (3) identifying industry benchmark metrics, and (4) setting measurable objectives. He added that the end user input “was not creating a wish list.” A reliable source of metrics can be independent consultancies such as POG, Print Access, Newfield IT, and Photizo. Because the bar is always rising with users reaching for the business process enhancement stage, Crowley recommended that the MPS contract length not exceed three years. Again how much of this task cannot better be performed in house by the in-plant?
Oki expands managed print offering
Printerland Blog » Blog Archive » Oki expands managed print offering: "February 10th, 2010 Posted in General, Industry News
New add-on targets SMEs, corporate and public sector
Multifunction: Oki’s managed print offering aims to help organisations gain visibility into their print fleet
Oki has added another string to its managed print solutions bow, rolling out a programme called Print Optimizer, aimed at SMEs, corporations and the public sector.
Print Optimizer is part of Oki’s Total Managed Print managed print offering and will help resellers to match customer printing requirements to use patterns.
Rob Brown, managed print services business manager at Oki, said resellers offering Print Optimizer will be able to help their customers boost productivity by making the cost of printing more transparent.
“[This] will not only reduce your carbon footprint but contribute to a more secure print environment and, above all, save money,” Brown claimed.
Print Optimizer incorporates four steps – Assess, Propose, Implement and Manage – that will enable users to understand the customer’s existing printer fleet, consumable use, and printing behaviour, and use that information to help customers improve print practices and productivity.
“With a strong focus on workgroup strategies, Print Optimizer brings the right device to exactly where it is needed,” Brown claimed.
“It forms the basis for a continuous cycle of re-evaluation to ensure the customer’s changing business needs are taken into consideration and the solution adjusted accordingly.”"
New add-on targets SMEs, corporate and public sector
Multifunction: Oki’s managed print offering aims to help organisations gain visibility into their print fleet
Oki has added another string to its managed print solutions bow, rolling out a programme called Print Optimizer, aimed at SMEs, corporations and the public sector.
Print Optimizer is part of Oki’s Total Managed Print managed print offering and will help resellers to match customer printing requirements to use patterns.
Rob Brown, managed print services business manager at Oki, said resellers offering Print Optimizer will be able to help their customers boost productivity by making the cost of printing more transparent.
“[This] will not only reduce your carbon footprint but contribute to a more secure print environment and, above all, save money,” Brown claimed.
Print Optimizer incorporates four steps – Assess, Propose, Implement and Manage – that will enable users to understand the customer’s existing printer fleet, consumable use, and printing behaviour, and use that information to help customers improve print practices and productivity.
“With a strong focus on workgroup strategies, Print Optimizer brings the right device to exactly where it is needed,” Brown claimed.
“It forms the basis for a continuous cycle of re-evaluation to ensure the customer’s changing business needs are taken into consideration and the solution adjusted accordingly.”"
Purchasing's role managing print grows
Q/A with OfficeMax explains trend
Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 2/9/2010 4:16:49 PM
Even as the economy begins its recovery, there is growing interest from companies in outsourcing activities they don't consider to be core competencies, as a way to reduce costs and improve internal efficiencies. Think of sourcing processes for some categories of indirect goods and services such as MRO, travel and print. Recently, Purchasing interviewed Jim Durkin, executive vice president of North American sales at OfficeMax in Naperville, Ill. on trends he is seeing in the outsourcing of managed print services (MPS). Here are excerpts from the conversation:
PURCHASING: What is managed print services?
JIM DURKIN: We think of managed print services as business process outsourcing and, then, the fulfillment of supply, service and parts as it relates to a customer's total print environment. A customer's total print environment is made up of multifunction devices, copiers, printers, all the office devices that are attached to their network.
Services the client chooses helps determine a program and fees that are charged for it. Traditionally, this cost per page fee consists of the cost of the equipment, service over time and supplies fulfillment to keep the equipment running.
We also consider, and what is unique to OfficeMax, document outsourcing and document management. We have a business unit that is separate from our managed print services group. It's our digital print business that's branded ImPress. This is for customers who produce large runs of print documents such as presentations. They can come into one of our stores or go to our website to do this.
We talk with clients about how to optimize their print fleet. If they have people running high-velocity print jobs on their network, there may be more cost effective ways to do that. We look for ways to do the jobs at our production facility. We take advantage of services we provide outside of managed print services.
PURCHASING: There is a growing trend among companies in the recession to do more outsourcing. Is this something that you're seeing? Why the interest in managed print services now?
DURKIN: Absolutely. We are seeing a large increase and we expect to continue to see that over the next five years. Gartner has done some forecasts and they project some significant increases in how companies procure print and a big migration to the managed print solution as a way to do it. We see it as a strong and growing trend.
As we talk with clients, they are looking for innovative ways to save money and take significant costs out of their business, or if they are challenged because they have already taken significant costs in terms of headcount and workflow out of their business, they are looking to push off work to suppliers like us.
PURCHASING: What do companies spend annually on print?
DURKIN: HP and Gartner say companies spend up to 3% of annual revenue on print. One challenge, and I don't want to be misleading here, we do use the figure in our discussion with customers as a starting point to give them a sense that there are a lot of dollars spent on print, is that the numbers are really all encompassing and can include offset printers a company uses. A managed
print solution is not going to replace that. MPS can include outsourced document management. So, print as a category is very large.
It also varies significantly by vertical market. If you look at paper-based industries like healthcare and legal that print a lot of office documents they will have a much higher percent of that 1% to 3% range as sitting under the MPS umbrella. As you think of that figure, 5% to 15% or 20% of that is addressable in the MPS space.
PURCHASING: Which functions are responsible for managed print services programs and what is purchasing's role?
DURKIN: Because these devices are on the network, it is almost always IT that manages the print category. Plus, there's software on the network that helps manage the fleet that IT also oversees.
Traditionally, procurement has had very little to do with IT (which manages the network) and facilities (which manages areas like print and furniture). But what we see now is that IT and facilities are turning more to procurement for its expertise in contact negotiation, supplier selection and supplier management. So, while it's primarily an IT-led activity, we are seeing procurement more involved than in the past. I think that the driving force there is that as people are challenged to drive costs out of their operation they are turning to the professionals in the organization and saying, "Help us benefit from your expertise in terms of supplier selection, negotiations, competitive bid processes and so forth." We are seeing procurement playing an important role there but it is almost always owned by the IT group.
PURCHASING: That said, what do you find to be some of your clients' biggest challenges today?
DURKIN: Change management is one. Any time management tells employees that it wants them to use certain print devices and that it's going to benefit the company, it needs to communicate the cost impact and why it is so important. We've seen some clients do very effective internal communication campaigns to gain support for their print initiatives. Cost is a key driver. Clients tell us that while employees may be frustrated that they've taken away their printers, they respond that they rather "lay off printers than people."
We've also seen clients use a sustainability message to gain buy in to their print initiatives; they switch to devices that use less energy or they ask employees to make double-sided copies that reduce their paper consumption. Finding something that captures the emotion of their internal folks in communication and managing that change really becomes a key part of gaining support for it.
PURCHASING: What are benefits of managed print services?
DURKIN: It goes back to the driving forces for doing it. With an MPS program, companies don't consume expensive IT resources to manage the break/fix portion of the printer fleet. They can outsource that and have us do it and do it very reliably for them in a lower cost model. They reduce their cost over time by optimizing the printer fleet.
Companies may also be able to consolidate a couple of devices into one because of the new equipment that's available in the marketplace. Certainly energy consumption is another.
PURCHASING: How do you help clients meet their companies' environmental goals?
DURKIN: I think MPS plays a very big role. Often times, our clients tell us that one thing that they are challenged with sustainability initiatives is that there a tension between cost and achieving their goals. The beauty of MPS is that it reduces costs and helps achieve sustainability goals.
One way it does this is by developing a process for upgrading equipment when it's past its useful life-most new equipment is far more energy efficient. Another is by determining the optimal number of devices per employee. We often see customers with three employees to one printer. It's different for every customer but we think of an optimized environment as being 10-12 employees per device. So, we can take devices out of a print environment, which reduces energy consumption. It consumes energy when it is plugged in, it consumes energy even if equipment sits idle.
Then there's all the supplies that go into the devices. As you optimize them you reduce the consumption of supplies used in the print environment. We can suggest remanufactured toner or an OEM toner. We do it differently with different customers based on their preference but we can absolutely deploy remanufactured toner which has a sustainability and cost savings component.
The last thing I would highlight is how a company sets up its printers. The whole idea of setting defaults to black and white copies and double-sided printing which reduces paper again is cost savings and a sustainability initiative all at the same time. One of our clients has an initiative to reduce paper consumption by one ream per employee per year. They did an internal campaign around that as they were launching it and have a sustainability goal around it, but it's also has a cost-saving goal as well.
Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 2/9/2010 4:16:49 PM
Even as the economy begins its recovery, there is growing interest from companies in outsourcing activities they don't consider to be core competencies, as a way to reduce costs and improve internal efficiencies. Think of sourcing processes for some categories of indirect goods and services such as MRO, travel and print. Recently, Purchasing interviewed Jim Durkin, executive vice president of North American sales at OfficeMax in Naperville, Ill. on trends he is seeing in the outsourcing of managed print services (MPS). Here are excerpts from the conversation:
PURCHASING: What is managed print services?
JIM DURKIN: We think of managed print services as business process outsourcing and, then, the fulfillment of supply, service and parts as it relates to a customer's total print environment. A customer's total print environment is made up of multifunction devices, copiers, printers, all the office devices that are attached to their network.
Services the client chooses helps determine a program and fees that are charged for it. Traditionally, this cost per page fee consists of the cost of the equipment, service over time and supplies fulfillment to keep the equipment running.
We also consider, and what is unique to OfficeMax, document outsourcing and document management. We have a business unit that is separate from our managed print services group. It's our digital print business that's branded ImPress. This is for customers who produce large runs of print documents such as presentations. They can come into one of our stores or go to our website to do this.
We talk with clients about how to optimize their print fleet. If they have people running high-velocity print jobs on their network, there may be more cost effective ways to do that. We look for ways to do the jobs at our production facility. We take advantage of services we provide outside of managed print services.
PURCHASING: There is a growing trend among companies in the recession to do more outsourcing. Is this something that you're seeing? Why the interest in managed print services now?
DURKIN: Absolutely. We are seeing a large increase and we expect to continue to see that over the next five years. Gartner has done some forecasts and they project some significant increases in how companies procure print and a big migration to the managed print solution as a way to do it. We see it as a strong and growing trend.
As we talk with clients, they are looking for innovative ways to save money and take significant costs out of their business, or if they are challenged because they have already taken significant costs in terms of headcount and workflow out of their business, they are looking to push off work to suppliers like us.
PURCHASING: What do companies spend annually on print?
DURKIN: HP and Gartner say companies spend up to 3% of annual revenue on print. One challenge, and I don't want to be misleading here, we do use the figure in our discussion with customers as a starting point to give them a sense that there are a lot of dollars spent on print, is that the numbers are really all encompassing and can include offset printers a company uses. A managed
print solution is not going to replace that. MPS can include outsourced document management. So, print as a category is very large.
It also varies significantly by vertical market. If you look at paper-based industries like healthcare and legal that print a lot of office documents they will have a much higher percent of that 1% to 3% range as sitting under the MPS umbrella. As you think of that figure, 5% to 15% or 20% of that is addressable in the MPS space.
PURCHASING: Which functions are responsible for managed print services programs and what is purchasing's role?
DURKIN: Because these devices are on the network, it is almost always IT that manages the print category. Plus, there's software on the network that helps manage the fleet that IT also oversees.
Traditionally, procurement has had very little to do with IT (which manages the network) and facilities (which manages areas like print and furniture). But what we see now is that IT and facilities are turning more to procurement for its expertise in contact negotiation, supplier selection and supplier management. So, while it's primarily an IT-led activity, we are seeing procurement more involved than in the past. I think that the driving force there is that as people are challenged to drive costs out of their operation they are turning to the professionals in the organization and saying, "Help us benefit from your expertise in terms of supplier selection, negotiations, competitive bid processes and so forth." We are seeing procurement playing an important role there but it is almost always owned by the IT group.
PURCHASING: That said, what do you find to be some of your clients' biggest challenges today?
DURKIN: Change management is one. Any time management tells employees that it wants them to use certain print devices and that it's going to benefit the company, it needs to communicate the cost impact and why it is so important. We've seen some clients do very effective internal communication campaigns to gain support for their print initiatives. Cost is a key driver. Clients tell us that while employees may be frustrated that they've taken away their printers, they respond that they rather "lay off printers than people."
We've also seen clients use a sustainability message to gain buy in to their print initiatives; they switch to devices that use less energy or they ask employees to make double-sided copies that reduce their paper consumption. Finding something that captures the emotion of their internal folks in communication and managing that change really becomes a key part of gaining support for it.
PURCHASING: What are benefits of managed print services?
DURKIN: It goes back to the driving forces for doing it. With an MPS program, companies don't consume expensive IT resources to manage the break/fix portion of the printer fleet. They can outsource that and have us do it and do it very reliably for them in a lower cost model. They reduce their cost over time by optimizing the printer fleet.
Companies may also be able to consolidate a couple of devices into one because of the new equipment that's available in the marketplace. Certainly energy consumption is another.
PURCHASING: How do you help clients meet their companies' environmental goals?
DURKIN: I think MPS plays a very big role. Often times, our clients tell us that one thing that they are challenged with sustainability initiatives is that there a tension between cost and achieving their goals. The beauty of MPS is that it reduces costs and helps achieve sustainability goals.
One way it does this is by developing a process for upgrading equipment when it's past its useful life-most new equipment is far more energy efficient. Another is by determining the optimal number of devices per employee. We often see customers with three employees to one printer. It's different for every customer but we think of an optimized environment as being 10-12 employees per device. So, we can take devices out of a print environment, which reduces energy consumption. It consumes energy when it is plugged in, it consumes energy even if equipment sits idle.
Then there's all the supplies that go into the devices. As you optimize them you reduce the consumption of supplies used in the print environment. We can suggest remanufactured toner or an OEM toner. We do it differently with different customers based on their preference but we can absolutely deploy remanufactured toner which has a sustainability and cost savings component.
The last thing I would highlight is how a company sets up its printers. The whole idea of setting defaults to black and white copies and double-sided printing which reduces paper again is cost savings and a sustainability initiative all at the same time. One of our clients has an initiative to reduce paper consumption by one ream per employee per year. They did an internal campaign around that as they were launching it and have a sustainability goal around it, but it's also has a cost-saving goal as well.
Purchasing's role managing print grows
Q/A with OfficeMax explains trend
Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 2/9/2010 4:16:49 PM
Even as the economy begins its recovery, there is growing interest from companies in outsourcing activities they don't consider to be core competencies, as a way to reduce costs and improve internal efficiencies. Think of sourcing processes for some categories of indirect goods and services such as MRO, travel and print. Recently, Purchasing interviewed Jim Durkin, executive vice president of North American sales at OfficeMax in Naperville, Ill. on trends he is seeing in the outsourcing of managed print services (MPS). Here are excerpts from the conversation:
PURCHASING: What is managed print services?
JIM DURKIN: We think of managed print services as business process outsourcing and, then, the fulfillment of supply, service and parts as it relates to a customer's total print environment. A customer's total print environment is made up of multifunction devices, copiers, printers, all the office devices that are attached to their network.
Services the client chooses helps determine a program and fees that are charged for it. Traditionally, this cost per page fee consists of the cost of the equipment, service over time and supplies fulfillment to keep the equipment running.
We also consider, and what is unique to OfficeMax, document outsourcing and document management. We have a business unit that is separate from our managed print services group. It's our digital print business that's branded ImPress. This is for customers who produce large runs of print documents such as presentations. They can come into one of our stores or go to our website to do this.
We talk with clients about how to optimize their print fleet. If they have people running high-velocity print jobs on their network, there may be more cost effective ways to do that. We look for ways to do the jobs at our production facility. We take advantage of services we provide outside of managed print services.
PURCHASING: There is a growing trend among companies in the recession to do more outsourcing. Is this something that you're seeing? Why the interest in managed print services now?
DURKIN: Absolutely. We are seeing a large increase and we expect to continue to see that over the next five years. Gartner has done some forecasts and they project some significant increases in how companies procure print and a big migration to the managed print solution as a way to do it. We see it as a strong and growing trend.
As we talk with clients, they are looking for innovative ways to save money and take significant costs out of their business, or if they are challenged because they have already taken significant costs in terms of headcount and workflow out of their business, they are looking to push off work to suppliers like us.
PURCHASING: What do companies spend annually on print?
DURKIN: HP and Gartner say companies spend up to 3% of annual revenue on print. One challenge, and I don't want to be misleading here, we do use the figure in our discussion with customers as a starting point to give them a sense that there are a lot of dollars spent on print, is that the numbers are really all encompassing and can include offset printers a company uses. A managed
print solution is not going to replace that. MPS can include outsourced document management. So, print as a category is very large.
It also varies significantly by vertical market. If you look at paper-based industries like healthcare and legal that print a lot of office documents they will have a much higher percent of that 1% to 3% range as sitting under the MPS umbrella. As you think of that figure, 5% to 15% or 20% of that is addressable in the MPS space.
PURCHASING: Which functions are responsible for managed print services programs and what is purchasing's role?
DURKIN: Because these devices are on the network, it is almost always IT that manages the print category. Plus, there's software on the network that helps manage the fleet that IT also oversees.
Traditionally, procurement has had very little to do with IT (which manages the network) and facilities (which manages areas like print and furniture). But what we see now is that IT and facilities are turning more to procurement for its expertise in contact negotiation, supplier selection and supplier management. So, while it's primarily an IT-led activity, we are seeing procurement more involved than in the past. I think that the driving force there is that as people are challenged to drive costs out of their operation they are turning to the professionals in the organization and saying, "Help us benefit from your expertise in terms of supplier selection, negotiations, competitive bid processes and so forth." We are seeing procurement playing an important role there but it is almost always owned by the IT group.
PURCHASING: That said, what do you find to be some of your clients' biggest challenges today?
DURKIN: Change management is one. Any time management tells employees that it wants them to use certain print devices and that it's going to benefit the company, it needs to communicate the cost impact and why it is so important. We've seen some clients do very effective internal communication campaigns to gain support for their print initiatives. Cost is a key driver. Clients tell us that while employees may be frustrated that they've taken away their printers, they respond that they rather "lay off printers than people."
We've also seen clients use a sustainability message to gain buy in to their print initiatives; they switch to devices that use less energy or they ask employees to make double-sided copies that reduce their paper consumption. Finding something that captures the emotion of their internal folks in communication and managing that change really becomes a key part of gaining support for it.
PURCHASING: What are benefits of managed print services?
DURKIN: It goes back to the driving forces for doing it. With an MPS program, companies don't consume expensive IT resources to manage the break/fix portion of the printer fleet. They can outsource that and have us do it and do it very reliably for them in a lower cost model. They reduce their cost over time by optimizing the printer fleet.
Companies may also be able to consolidate a couple of devices into one because of the new equipment that's available in the marketplace. Certainly energy consumption is another.
PURCHASING: How do you help clients meet their companies' environmental goals?
DURKIN: I think MPS plays a very big role. Often times, our clients tell us that one thing that they are challenged with sustainability initiatives is that there a tension between cost and achieving their goals. The beauty of MPS is that it reduces costs and helps achieve sustainability goals.
One way it does this is by developing a process for upgrading equipment when it's past its useful life-most new equipment is far more energy efficient. Another is by determining the optimal number of devices per employee. We often see customers with three employees to one printer. It's different for every customer but we think of an optimized environment as being 10-12 employees per device. So, we can take devices out of a print environment, which reduces energy consumption. It consumes energy when it is plugged in, it consumes energy even if equipment sits idle.
Then there's all the supplies that go into the devices. As you optimize them you reduce the consumption of supplies used in the print environment. We can suggest remanufactured toner or an OEM toner. We do it differently with different customers based on their preference but we can absolutely deploy remanufactured toner which has a sustainability and cost savings component.
The last thing I would highlight is how a company sets up its printers. The whole idea of setting defaults to black and white copies and double-sided printing which reduces paper again is cost savings and a sustainability initiative all at the same time. One of our clients has an initiative to reduce paper consumption by one ream per employee per year. They did an internal campaign around that as they were launching it and have a sustainability goal around it, but it's also has a cost-saving goal as well.
Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 2/9/2010 4:16:49 PM
Even as the economy begins its recovery, there is growing interest from companies in outsourcing activities they don't consider to be core competencies, as a way to reduce costs and improve internal efficiencies. Think of sourcing processes for some categories of indirect goods and services such as MRO, travel and print. Recently, Purchasing interviewed Jim Durkin, executive vice president of North American sales at OfficeMax in Naperville, Ill. on trends he is seeing in the outsourcing of managed print services (MPS). Here are excerpts from the conversation:
PURCHASING: What is managed print services?
JIM DURKIN: We think of managed print services as business process outsourcing and, then, the fulfillment of supply, service and parts as it relates to a customer's total print environment. A customer's total print environment is made up of multifunction devices, copiers, printers, all the office devices that are attached to their network.
Services the client chooses helps determine a program and fees that are charged for it. Traditionally, this cost per page fee consists of the cost of the equipment, service over time and supplies fulfillment to keep the equipment running.
We also consider, and what is unique to OfficeMax, document outsourcing and document management. We have a business unit that is separate from our managed print services group. It's our digital print business that's branded ImPress. This is for customers who produce large runs of print documents such as presentations. They can come into one of our stores or go to our website to do this.
We talk with clients about how to optimize their print fleet. If they have people running high-velocity print jobs on their network, there may be more cost effective ways to do that. We look for ways to do the jobs at our production facility. We take advantage of services we provide outside of managed print services.
PURCHASING: There is a growing trend among companies in the recession to do more outsourcing. Is this something that you're seeing? Why the interest in managed print services now?
DURKIN: Absolutely. We are seeing a large increase and we expect to continue to see that over the next five years. Gartner has done some forecasts and they project some significant increases in how companies procure print and a big migration to the managed print solution as a way to do it. We see it as a strong and growing trend.
As we talk with clients, they are looking for innovative ways to save money and take significant costs out of their business, or if they are challenged because they have already taken significant costs in terms of headcount and workflow out of their business, they are looking to push off work to suppliers like us.
PURCHASING: What do companies spend annually on print?
DURKIN: HP and Gartner say companies spend up to 3% of annual revenue on print. One challenge, and I don't want to be misleading here, we do use the figure in our discussion with customers as a starting point to give them a sense that there are a lot of dollars spent on print, is that the numbers are really all encompassing and can include offset printers a company uses. A managed
print solution is not going to replace that. MPS can include outsourced document management. So, print as a category is very large.
It also varies significantly by vertical market. If you look at paper-based industries like healthcare and legal that print a lot of office documents they will have a much higher percent of that 1% to 3% range as sitting under the MPS umbrella. As you think of that figure, 5% to 15% or 20% of that is addressable in the MPS space.
PURCHASING: Which functions are responsible for managed print services programs and what is purchasing's role?
DURKIN: Because these devices are on the network, it is almost always IT that manages the print category. Plus, there's software on the network that helps manage the fleet that IT also oversees.
Traditionally, procurement has had very little to do with IT (which manages the network) and facilities (which manages areas like print and furniture). But what we see now is that IT and facilities are turning more to procurement for its expertise in contact negotiation, supplier selection and supplier management. So, while it's primarily an IT-led activity, we are seeing procurement more involved than in the past. I think that the driving force there is that as people are challenged to drive costs out of their operation they are turning to the professionals in the organization and saying, "Help us benefit from your expertise in terms of supplier selection, negotiations, competitive bid processes and so forth." We are seeing procurement playing an important role there but it is almost always owned by the IT group.
PURCHASING: That said, what do you find to be some of your clients' biggest challenges today?
DURKIN: Change management is one. Any time management tells employees that it wants them to use certain print devices and that it's going to benefit the company, it needs to communicate the cost impact and why it is so important. We've seen some clients do very effective internal communication campaigns to gain support for their print initiatives. Cost is a key driver. Clients tell us that while employees may be frustrated that they've taken away their printers, they respond that they rather "lay off printers than people."
We've also seen clients use a sustainability message to gain buy in to their print initiatives; they switch to devices that use less energy or they ask employees to make double-sided copies that reduce their paper consumption. Finding something that captures the emotion of their internal folks in communication and managing that change really becomes a key part of gaining support for it.
PURCHASING: What are benefits of managed print services?
DURKIN: It goes back to the driving forces for doing it. With an MPS program, companies don't consume expensive IT resources to manage the break/fix portion of the printer fleet. They can outsource that and have us do it and do it very reliably for them in a lower cost model. They reduce their cost over time by optimizing the printer fleet.
Companies may also be able to consolidate a couple of devices into one because of the new equipment that's available in the marketplace. Certainly energy consumption is another.
PURCHASING: How do you help clients meet their companies' environmental goals?
DURKIN: I think MPS plays a very big role. Often times, our clients tell us that one thing that they are challenged with sustainability initiatives is that there a tension between cost and achieving their goals. The beauty of MPS is that it reduces costs and helps achieve sustainability goals.
One way it does this is by developing a process for upgrading equipment when it's past its useful life-most new equipment is far more energy efficient. Another is by determining the optimal number of devices per employee. We often see customers with three employees to one printer. It's different for every customer but we think of an optimized environment as being 10-12 employees per device. So, we can take devices out of a print environment, which reduces energy consumption. It consumes energy when it is plugged in, it consumes energy even if equipment sits idle.
Then there's all the supplies that go into the devices. As you optimize them you reduce the consumption of supplies used in the print environment. We can suggest remanufactured toner or an OEM toner. We do it differently with different customers based on their preference but we can absolutely deploy remanufactured toner which has a sustainability and cost savings component.
The last thing I would highlight is how a company sets up its printers. The whole idea of setting defaults to black and white copies and double-sided printing which reduces paper again is cost savings and a sustainability initiative all at the same time. One of our clients has an initiative to reduce paper consumption by one ream per employee per year. They did an internal campaign around that as they were launching it and have a sustainability goal around it, but it's also has a cost-saving goal as well.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Canon Reports on Last Quarter
Canon reported info on its last quarter’s financials:- Net profit of 61.6 billion yen (compared with 217.1 billion yen last year)
- Sales of 954.1 billion yen down 4.1%
- Digital camera sales were up, but copier/printer sales were down
- Predicts that net income will rise 52% to 200 billion yen ($2.24 billion) in 2010
- Predicts sales will rise to 3.45 trillion yen
- Copier/printers accounted for 51% of 2009 revenue
- Predicts that copier sales will rise 7% in 2010
- Sales of 954.1 billion yen down 4.1%
- Digital camera sales were up, but copier/printer sales were down
- Predicts that net income will rise 52% to 200 billion yen ($2.24 billion) in 2010
- Predicts sales will rise to 3.45 trillion yen
- Copier/printers accounted for 51% of 2009 revenue
- Predicts that copier sales will rise 7% in 2010
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