October 2008 Office Technology

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November BTA Education Courses

Do you crunch the numbers,

or do the numbers crunch you?

T

he BTA ProFinance course will teach you how to set the strategy, track critical performance measures and manage your assets according to a proven business model designed to improve the profitability of your company.

Instructors John Hanson and John Hey of Strategic Business Associates take a holistic approach to the redirection of your business — from sales rep compensation and projecting service revenues to inventory management and an action plan for implementation — with the short-term goal of achieving a minimum of 14% operating income. You can achieve these results by monitoring 24 key benchmarks and making strategic shifts as discussed in the program.

Start planning for improved profitability today! Send all of your strategic decision makers to ProFinance — it’s an investment in your company that will help you relieve the end-of-the-month crunch.

To register for ProFinance or get more information on pricing and quantity discounts, visit www.bta.org or call BTA at (800) 843-5059.

BTA members may apply their $250 coupon received with their membership toward this class. Redeem your coupon upon registration.

Upcoming ProFinance courses: Nov. 19-20, 2008

Las Vegas, Nevada

ProFinance is designed for owners and executive-level staff who make the critical business decisions that impact your company’s success. Some OEMs reimburse for ProFinance tuition through advertising co-op or professional development funds. Check with your OEM.

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CONTENTS Volume 15 No. 4 G

FEATURE ARTICLES 10

2008 Software Buyer’s Guide Have you found the right vendor partners?

COURTS & CAPITOLS Office Equipment Leasing My perspective — first in a two-part series

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Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

by Robert C. Goldberg BTA General Counsel

Are you overwhelmed by the number of independent software vendors (ISVs) in the office technology industry? You are not alone. To help you better understand the capabilities of the various software products now available, Office Technology invited a number of ISVs to provide a brief overview of their products. While most offer software for end-users’ use, some provide software for use within the dealership. Perhaps it is time to either consider adding to your product offerings or improving your internal processes.

For decades, leasing for end-users has been the most popular method of acquiring office technology.

Dealers have found that increased customer control and low cost of entry are the greatest benefits of leading with a leasing recommendation.

PRINCIPAL ISSUES Managed Print Services Integrating the strategic model in your dealership

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by Kevin Flood Kyocera Mita America

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Interviewing 101 Debunking the myth of the great interviewer

Some 10 years ago, a man named Spencer Johnson wrote a fascinating and useful book about change. Its underlying message — change happens whether you want it to or not — is true and applicable to just about anybody in just about any field.

by David C. Ramos Strategy Development

A standard, consistent hiring process starts with a job profile and ends with a reference check prior to on-boarding the new hire. Interviewing is a big part of the hiring process, but it is not the entire process. Too often I hear hiring managers talk about “sizing people up” and how their “gut feeling” can project whether the person they are interviewing is the right person for the position.

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‘Winning Together’ Kyocera Mita America hosts FY09 dealer meeting

By Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Ranging from the announcement of the company’s first dealer council to the launch of a new B2C MFP line, officials at Kyocera Mita America Inc. (KMA) had plenty to share with attendees of the company’s FY09 National Dealer Meeting. Held Sept. 15-17 in Dallas, the meeting drew more than 1,200 Kyocera Mita dealers, Copystar dealers and guests from the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and Japan.

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SELLING SOLUTIONS Competitive Selling Strategies The campaign for the mind of the customer

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by Tom Kramer CATALYST Performance Learning

Our basic premise is that the goal of sales is to defeat the competitor by gaining uncontested ownership of the mind of the customer.

Competitive selling is about finding a place or a niche to win the attention of the customer.

DEPARTMENTS Business Technology Association

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G G

November/December Education Calendar BTA Highlights

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Executive Director’s Page

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BTA President’s Message

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Advertiser Index

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S PAGE

Dealers Share Plans For Facing Disasters new resource to members on th e Bu sin e ss Technology Association (BTA) Web sit e (www.bta.org) — the BTA Idea Exchange — allows dealers to share their insight and ideas with fellow dealers.

The comments shared are in response to email surveys. Collectively, these comments serve to further fulfill a core goal of BTA — to facilitate dealers helping dealers.

When BTA President Ronelle Ingram submitted her column for this issue of Office Technology, a recent BTA Idea Exchange survey question came to mind. The question was: “What steps have you taken to prepare your dealership for a disaster (i.e., fire, flood, hurricane, tornado) in terms of your employees, data, suppliers, customers, etc., to minimize its impact on your business?” Below is a sampling of the responses.

Perhaps they will provide you some insight that will help you better prepare for the unexpected.

“We do data backups twice daily and full backups over the weekend. Those are taken off site each day. We also have a generator to produce enough power to run the phones and a couple of workstations to allow us to continue with our work at some level and support our clients. Also, we have established procedures for employees to follow in the event of a catastrophe. We have not had to face one as of yet so I can only hope that we have things covered.” — Ron Hulett, managing director, U.S. Business Systems Inc., Elkhart, Ind. “We upgraded our computer systems and are making sure backups are done

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nightly and put in a fire safe. We have also established a plan for off-site backup. Our second office would act as the main office should it become damaged (it is 30 miles away) and we are also starting the process of installing a backup system for our servers at this location.” — Allen Grenz, president, OASYS Inc., Burlington, Wash.

“We have a comprehensive plan that includes: tape backup for our software, electronic storage and retrieval, phone tree for employee communication, a bad weather number for the local television stations, communication backup phones and a good relationship with our insurance provider.”

— Steven L. Cobb, president, Dean’s Office Machines Inc., Greensboro, N.C. “We have an emergency list of all employees with cell phone numbers and home telephone numbers. All employees have a list of these numbers. Our employees are instructed to call into our office number in case of snow, etc., to see what time we will open or not be open. We program the answering machine with a message no later than 6:30 a.m. on that day. We have backup tapes of all our programs and company data in a fireproof safe. We do a backup tape every night to another drive. Once a week a backup tape is taken off site and rotated every four weeks.” — Charmel Newton, president, Miller Services, Charlotte, N.C. Additional responses to the survey question can be found by clicking on “BTA Idea Exchange” on the home page of the BTA Web site. You will need your member login and p assw ord to ac c e ss thi s m emb er resource. Do you have a question you would like to ask of your fellow dealers? If so, email it to me at brent@bta.org.

— Brent Hoskins

Executive Director/BTA Editor/Office Technology Brent Hoskins brent@bta.org (816) 303-4040 Associate Editor Elizabeth Marvel elizabeth@bta.org (816) 303-4060 Contributing Writers Kevin Flood, Kyocera Mita America www.kyoceramita.com Robert C. Goldberg, General Counsel Business Technology Association Tom Kramer, CATALYST Performance Learning www.catalyst2performance.com David C. Ramos, Strategy Development www.strategydevelopment.org

®

Business Technology Association 12411 Wornall Road Kansas City, MO 64145 (816) 941-3100 www.bta.org Member Services: (800) 505-2821 BTA Legal Hotline: (800) 869-6688 Valerie Briseno Membership & Marketing Manager valerie@bta.org Mary Hopkins Database Administrator mary@bta.org Teresa Leerar Bookkeeper teresa@bta.org Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org ©2008 by the Business Technology Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published material.

However, the publisher assumes no liability for errors in articles nor are opinions expressed necessarily those of the publisher.

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BTA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ®

Always Be Prepared For The Unexpected afety first” is an age-old saying.

As an owner, manager or worker, what are your responsibilities to provide a safe working environment?

Having lived in earthquake-prone California my entire life, safety from earthquakes is a bit daunting. There is no warning when an earthquake strikes and fate often seems to have more to do with survival than planning. So, how can you create a business plan for the safety of your employees?

The key word is “plan.” Every company should have a disaster recovery plan.

A simple Google search for “disaster business plans” offered more than a million hits.

Run by the Department of Homeland Security, www.ready.gov offers an easy-to-use seven-page sample emergency plan that will get you thinking in the right direction.

The key is to actually have a workable plan that you hope you never have to use. The more employees, vendors and customers you can get involved in the preparation process, the greater their buy-in will be. You may even sell some new equipment when you make new disaster preparedness contacts.

Your emergency preparedness program can use the equipment, software and networking backup that your company sells.

This win-win situation can take care of the disaster needs of your business while generating additional sales for your company.

When your employees, clients and community get involved, your business is viewed as a forward-thinking member of the community. This will instill trust and respect in those individuals who work for you and with you. When your business takes the time and

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energy to figure out the answer before the test is given, everyone gets a higher score.

Recently, Southern California had a magnitude 3.7 earthquake. Most telephone services (land lines and cell phones) were out of order for several hours, even though no equipment had been structurally disabled.

The outages were caused by too many Southern California residents calling friends or relatives at the same time.

Many companies lost all contact with their in-field workforce. Those with no plan in such a situation lost irreplaceable billable labor hours. As it turned out, little damage took place. Roads were undamaged. There were no large-scale utilities issues. Traffic lights, gas pumps and cash registers continued to work, though many credit cards and ATM machines were unable to process transactions.

Those who wanted an excuse for not continuing with their daily work could easily find reasons to stop working. It was not their fault the management of their company had never told them what to do if they were unable to contact the office. If management had not planned effectively, why should they worry about trying to be an efficient worker?

Having your staff prepared to focus on safety first and then be able to continue working efficiently starts at the top. If owners and managers do not think there is a need to plan for the unexpected, their workers will happily follow this lackadaisical attitude.

Now is the time to start preparing for the unforeseen. Have a plan. Share it with all your employees. Make sure every member of your staff understands what should be done during an unforeseen situation. Planning can turn a potential emergency into a manageable inconvenience. I — Ronelle Ingram

2008-2009 Board of Directors President Ronelle Ingram Steven Enterprises Inc. 17952 Sky Park Circle Ste. E Irvine, CA 92614 ronellei@msn.com President-Elect Bill James WJS Enterprises Inc. 3315 Ridgelake Drive Metairie, LA 70002 bjames@wjsenterprises.com Vice President Rock Janecek Burtronics Business Systems Inc. 216 S. Arrowhead Ave. P.O. Box 1170 San Bernardino, CA 92408 rjanecek@burtronics.com BTA East Tom Ouellette Budget Document Technology 251 Goddard Road P.O. Box 2322 Lewiston, ME 04240 touellette@bdtme.com BTA Mid-America Mike Blake Corporate Business Systems LLC 6300 Monona Drive Madison, WI 53716 mblake@corpbussystems.com BTA Southeast Bob Smith Copiers Plus Inc. 408 Chicago Drive Fayetteville, NC 28306 bobsmith@copiers-plus.com BTA West Greg Valen Hawaii Business Equipment Inc. Toshiba Business Solutions - Hawaii 590-A Paiea St. Honolulu, HI 96819 gregory.valen@tabs.toshiba.com Ex-Officio/General Counsel Robert C. Goldberg Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg LLC 222 S. Riverside Plaza Ste. 2100 Chicago, IL 60606 robert.goldberg@sfnr.com

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2008 Software Buyer’s Guide Have you found the right vendor partners?

Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

re you over w h elm ed by th e number of independent software vendors (ISVs) in the office technology industry? You are not alone. To help you better understand the capabilities of the various software products now available, Office Technology invited a number of ISVs to provide a brief overview of their products. While most offer software for end-users’ use, some provide software for use within the dealership.

Perhaps it is time to either consider adding to your product offerings or improving your internal processes.

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American PrintWare Inc. www.apwi.com APWI has been servicing the network and high-volume print market for more than a decade, offering a broad range of software products and custom engineered solutions that manage a broad array of printing needs. APWI products effectively manage print networks, lowering end-user cost, increasing employee productivity and increasing dealer revenues. It provides free technical support to its authorized dealer partners.

Apago Inc. www.apagoinc.com Apago Inc. is an innovative software technology company changing how people use and profit from electronic documents. Consumers and businesses of all sizes use Apago’s workflow tools to transform, optimize and automate electronic documents for print-on-demand, publishing, rich media and archiving. The company provides retail products, custom development, OEM solutions and consulting services to industry leaders, including Hallmark Cards, Crane & Co., Hewlett-Packard, Bondi Digital, MOD-PAC Corp., OneVision and Pindar.

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Bull Valley Software www.bullvalleysoftware.com Scalable for organizations of any size, DocumentLOK from Bull Valley Software combines secure content management, compliance management and workflow management in one application, and integrates with virtually any Windows or Web-based application to provide immediate, single-click access to documents and electronic content from within an organization’s primary business application(s).

Captaris Inc. www.captaris.com Captaris provides software products that automate business processes, manage documents electronically and provide efficient information delivery. Its products (Captaris RightFax, Captaris Workflow, Captaris Alchemy and Castelle FaxPress) are distributed via a global network of technology partners and are installed in all Fortune 100 companies and many Global 2000 companies.

ClearStory Systems www.clearstorysystems.com ClearStory Systems provides high-performance content management solutions for digital media communications.

Its software manages the enterprise digital media supply chain — from creation and collaboration to lifecycle management and delivery — to give companies a competitive advantage, marketing agility, cost avoidance and maximum efficiency.

ColumbiaSoft www.documentlocator.com ColumbiaSoft is a leading provider of enterprise document management solutions deeply integrated with Microsoft Windows and Office applications. Users can

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capture, manage and share electronic and paper documents, e-mail and faxes to improve efficiency and collaboration, and reduce risk by meeting higher standards of compliance and business continuity.

Compass Sales Solutions www.compasscontact.net Compass Sales Solutions offers advanced sales-force automation, solution selling and fleet management software systems, along with in-depth consultative services provided by industry-recognized experts. Designed from a sales perspective, Compass merges the abilities to manage your prospective database, complete detailed TCO analysis, price service contracts, generate thorough, professional proposals and sales paperwork, all at the touch of a button. Compass offers complete integration with your ERP and Outlook.

Daybreak ICS www.daybreakics.com eCapture Suite from Daybreak ICS is a distributed document capture solution that enables scanner and MFP users to scan and deliver documents to multiple ECM repositories from a single interface. You can scan to SharePoint, Documentum and ApplicationXtender in a single step.

Digital Gateway www.digitalgateway.com Digital Gateway provides total business management software solutions for imaging and business equipment dealers. Its flagship product, e-automate, helps dealers better manage common business processes like accounting, sales, service, inventory and more. While robust and sophisticated, the system has an eye toward being intuitively easy to learn, understand and use.

DocuLex www.doculex.com DocuLex provides instant document access. With the software creator’s PC-based Archive Studio, dealers can provide clientele both paper and electronic document capture capability with image processing, content indexing and custom foldering functions fully automated for ease of use via Goby Capture (suitable for use with any document scanning device). DocuLex’s WebSearch provides access to server-stored documents from any Internet-accessible location with the operational simplicity of a search engine.

DocuWare www.docuware.com DocuWare offers integrated document management solutions that improve efficiencies by automating daily business processes through electronically managing and 12 | w w w . o f f i c e t e c h n o l o g y m a g . c o m | O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8

sharing documents, regardless of their format or source.

Whether personnel are at headquarters, across town or across the globe, instant access to information is easy and secure via the Web. DocuWare solutions are available in 15 languages and are known for their easy installation, integration, administration and operation, as well as an exceptionally low total cost of ownership.

ECi www.eci2.com ECi provides management software and related technology to help equipment dealers manage customer equipment and printing, on-site service and internal operations.

With a portfolio of products that includes La Crosse, OMD and DDMS, ECi offers fully-seamless, end-to-end solutions for dealers of every size and business model — which is why more dealers rely on ECi software to improve efficiency and profitability than all other industry-specific software providers combined. eCopy www.ecopy.com eCopy is a provider of document imaging solutions that rapidly integrate paper-bound information into existing business processes and applications. eCopy ShareScan and eCopy Desktop provide a standard document imaging platform that easily and securely transforms paper documents into business value through the use of multifunction peripherals and scanners.

EFI www.efi.com EFI, a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, offers integrated solutions that deliver increased performance, cost savings and productivity — including Fiery servers; MicroPress and Fiery Central for production workflow; Colorproof XF and Fiery XF proofing solutions; Digital StoreFront Web-to-print; DocSend/SendMe and embedded Fierys for corporate environments; and PrintSmith MIS. emFAST Inc. www.emfast.com emFAST Inc., publisher of the FACSys® Fax Messaging Gateway, is an industry pioneer in network fax messaging. emFAST has been constantly advancing network fax technology since 1989. Continuous customer-focused enhancements ensure that FACSys provides a reliable, efficient and scalable fax messaging solution, with a significant return on IT messaging investments.

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How’s this Dispatcher Saving her Company Money every day?

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Reduce Double - Entry Work orders created in Miracle Service are exported directly to your existing accounting application.

Proactive Service Access all the details of your customers’ equipment with a touch of a button including service history, alerts and preventative maintenance due.

We Make it Easy…

“After evaluating the various field service management solutions on the market it was clear that Miracle Service was the best value as it gave us all the features we needed at a much better price.

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It was very easy to get started. They imported our information for us and we were up and running that day. Miracle Service touches every aspect of our business from sales to dispatch to inventory, and it’s integrated to our existing accounting software. It’s a great product.”

Ken LeNeve Duplicating Products Inc.

Call us today at 1-866-639-3681 to find out what savings we can generate for you.

www.miracleservice.com Registered trademarks are property of their owners.

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Equitrac www.equitrac.com Equitrac Office 4 is a solution for print and copy management that enables effective networked control of an office’s entire printer and copier fleet. Providing real-time device monitoring, black-and-white and color print quota management and automated reporting for accurate and detailed analysis of device usage, Equitrac Office is compatible with every major office equipment manufacturer.

ImageTech Systems Inc. www.imagetechsys.com ImageTech is a full-service enterprise content management solution provider. ImageTech can provide both J2EE and .Net-based solutions to provide a turnkey solution for all of its clients. Its specialties include automating document and data capture, document imaging, workflow and business process redesign, report archival and electronic forms solutions.

FabSoft www.fabsoft.com Reform Enterprise by FabSoft streamlines business workflow by automating document management, enhancement and distribution. It can capture forms from any operating system, application or device, enhance them and automatically route them to printers, fax, e-mail and archive systems all around the user’s office and/or the world.

InfoDynamics www.infodynamics.com Intact SMART by InfoDynamics has made things simple without compromising any of its robust features. It is a powerful solution that turns MFPs and scanners into the center of productivity for any business. It is a feature-rich and all-inclusive solution. Think of all the applications needed for effective document management — scanning software, barcode printing, auditing software, database management, copier integration, file cabinets, etc. With version control, inter-application connectivity, instant searching and its other features, Intact SMART makes you look intelligent just by using it.

Falcon Technology Solutions www.efalcontech.com Falcon Technology offers the Soaring suite of SQL server-based sales and business management software designed specifically for the office equipment industry.

With more than 7,000 users, Soaring Sales is a leading sales force automation program in the copier industry. Soaring Bu sin e ss Man a gem ent i s a c ompl et e ERP s of tware program encompassing accounting, dispatch and field service, inventory management, contract management and online tools.

FMAudit www.fmaudit.com FMAudit has a proven track record of innovation and leadership. Since 1998, FMAudit and its partners have pioneered cost recovery solutions that helped define the managed print services industry. Today, the company has assembled a portfolio of remote meter reading and managed print services tools. Some of their innovations include Webbased data collection, “local printer” data collection, supplies-triggered marketing and automated supply fulfillment, as well as total cost of ownership reporting.

Hyland Software Inc. www.onbase.com Hyland Software Inc. is the developer of the OnBase enterprise content management (ECM) software suite.

OnBase helps organizations create greater value from the content driving their business processes. With OnBase, organizations can streamline operations and improve business outcomes while lowering costs and minimizing risk.

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Laserfiche www.laserfiche.com Laserfiche creates simple and elegant digital document management solutions that help organizations run smarter.

Since 1987, Laserfiche has helped more than 25,000 organizations — including state and local governments, financial services firms and healthcare organizations — streamline processes for managing documents, records and workflow.

In addition, Laserfiche Rio, an enterprise content management solution, transcends product boundaries to unite document management, business process management and transparent records management in a single enterprise solution that can handle extremely high volumes of information from disparate sources throughout the enterprise.

Meadows Publishing Solutions www.meadowsps.com The DesignMerge Professional Bundle is a suite software module for Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress that provides sophisticated variable data printing and data publishing features. The software works within the application for ease of use and is compatible with most popular VDP output formats. Used by professionals worldwide, it simplifies marketing personalization for both the novice and expert.

Miracle Service www.miracleservice.com Optimize your service operation and meter contracts with this full-featured dealer software. Features include:

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service calls and technician scheduling; service contracts; inventory; meter billing; preventative maintenance; management reporting; QuickBooks and other accounting integration; route optimization and mapping; and Web and wireless access.

tions manage information for all types of business, compliance and industry requirements in the world’s largest companies, government agencies and professional service firms.

Open Text supports approximately 46,000 customers in 114 countries and 12 languages.

MWA Intelligence Inc. www.mwaintel.com MWA Intelligence Inc. delivers enterprise-class and leading-edge M2M (machine-to-machine) and M2P (machine-to-people) solutions and services that center around managing companies’ employees, systems and physical assets. MWA Intelligence offers dealers and end-users greater operational efficiencies, reduced expenses, additional revenue capture and improved customer satisfaction.

Solutions include: Intelligent Service Management, Intelligent Workforce, Intelligent Managed Print Services, IntelliDashboard and Intelligent Device Management.

Pharos Systems www.pharos.com Pharos Blueprint Enterprise is a solution for managing print and copy that helps companies immediately save money, create secure document output environments and reduce printing waste to support sustainability goals. It incorporates industry-leading tracking technology that provides a complete picture of printing across the enterprise.

Pharos Blueprint is integrated with more than 85 MFP models from major equipment manufacturers.

Notable Solutions Inc. www.nsius.com Notable Solutions Inc. (NSi) is a leading provider of distributed content capture workflow and business automation solutions. NSi’s flagship product, AutoStore, enables users to automate their business processes by capturing paper and electronic documents from a variety of sources, processing them into usable information and storing that information into business applications and databases for fast, easy retrieval and distribution. nQueue www.nqueue.com nQueue provides software-based solutions to help professional services firms manage and account for their digital transactions. nQueue offers a complete line of expense recovery and production workflow systems designed to track, manage, report and charge back costs associated with office equipment and other administrative services.

Objectif Lune www.objectiflune.com Objectif Lune develops and commercializes solutions for transactional and promotional variable-content document printing with the added benefit of advanced automated workflow for output to local and remote printers, e-mail, fax and archives. The company’s solutions portfolio includes PlanetPress Suite, PrintShop Mail and PrintShop Web. Open Text www.opentext.com Open Text is an independent provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software. The company’s solu16 | w w w . o f f i c e t e c h n o l o g y m a g . c o m | O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8

Print Audit www.printaudit.com Print Audit develops print management solutions that enable office equipment dealers to sell more hardware and increase their post-sales revenue. Since its inception, Print Audit has helped office equipment dealers sell more than $450 million in additional hardware by allowing them to uncover additional sales opportunities and add value to deals.

PrintFleet Inc. www.printfleet.com PrintFleet Inc. is the leading developer of print management software solutions, training and support programs for dealers in the BTA and imaging channels. Managing 2.2 billion pages monthly, across 300,000 imaging devices, PrintFleet offers vendor-neutral data collection, data integrity and backend support within its family of print management software.

PrintMIB LLC www.printmib.com PrintMIB LLC is a provider for managed print services that provides precise data collection from printers, digital copiers and MFPs. PrintMIB collects and reports its data to a USB key or server-based software database. Data can be merged into backend software or a total cost of ownership calculator.

Prism Software www.prismsoftware.com Prism Software is a one-stop shop for electronic document software solutions. Prism’s products are richly featured, highly competitive and low cost. Prism’s four advanced software products are: DocSystem for printing and document workflow; DocRecord for document management; DocForm for variable data communications; and DocTransform for print and data stream transformation.

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Ribstone Systems Inc. www.ribstoneusa.com Ribstone Systems Inc. is a copier-based scanning and printing software provider with solutions tailored for the legal profession. Sold with Canon and Xerox copiers, Ribstone has advanced document workflow for this market with intuitive solutions at a reasonable price. The marriage of Ribstone software to high-performance MFPs provides a solution of unparalleled power and functionality.

Rochester Software Associates www.rocsoft.com Since 1986, Rochester Software Associates has enhanced the print workflow of thousands of enterprises. RSA delivers on the promise of convergence and an automated print center through electronic and hardcopy job submission (WebCRD, QDirect.SCAN), legacy datastream transform (M.I.S. Print, IPDSPrint, RDOPrint), enterprise output management (QDirect), plus legal solutions (BatesPrint, CDPrint).

SalesChain www.saleschain.com SalesChain is a leading provider of sales management software. Used by successful office equipment dealers across the United States and Canada, its integrated suite of products includes telemarketing, CRM, customer intelligence, lease portfolio management, product configuration, deal pricing, proposal and order documentation, commission management and its industry-exclusive Delivery Desk Automation solution. SalesDispatch technolog y ensures your sales reps are calling the right accounts at the right time.

Solimar Systems Inc. www.solimarsystems.com Solimar Systems Inc. is a leading developer of enterprise output management solutions for digital document creation, production and distribution environments. Installed in thousands of worldwide sites, including nearly 40 percent of the Fortune 100, Solimar solutions offer integrated connectivity, datastream transforms, print optimizations, document re-engineering/repurposing and sophisticated print queue management with secure Web-based document presentment, distribution and tracking.

Square 9 Softworks www.square-9.com Square 9 Softworks is a leading developer of software solutions for the office equipment industry, including SmartSearch Content Management Suite. Square 9 Softworks designs solutions built on the .NET platform using 18 | w w w . o f f i c e t e c h n o l o g y m a g . c o m | O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8

open architecture and cutting-edge technologies. With solutions that are affordable, powerful and easy to use and support, Square 9 helps dealers to increase value for their customers as they differentiate themselves from their competition.

StructuredWeb www.structuredweb.com StructuredWeb offers a comprehensive suite of Webbased, managed marketing automation, sales enablement and e-commerce solutions delivered from a fully integrated platform and single database with full tracking capabilities.

This unique approach to integrated solutions allows small and mid-size businesses to benefit from professionally managed marketing programs that realize measurable, rapid results.

Technesis www.technesis.com Technesis Print Control System is a single solution delivering three value propositions: automated print assessments, rules-based messaging promoting efficient printing and cost accounting for MFPs and plotters. Technesis has API/embedded solutions for Xerox, Ricoh, HP, Canon, KIP and Océ output devices.

Westbrook Technologies Inc. www.westbrooktech.com Serving more than 136,000 customers worldwide, Westbrook Technologies’ Fortis document management software provides lifecycle management for paper and electronic documents from capture, indexing and archiving to Webbased retrieval and automated purging. With Fortis, your organization gets fully searchable documents and images, automated workflow and effortless integration with other business applications.

ZyLAB www.zylab.com ZyLAB helps users secure their data, enhance efficiency and operate according to compliance initiatives. ZyLAB’s ZyIMAGE Information Access Platform offers a comprehensive document archiving, searching, retrieving, organizing and sharing solution for professionals in the legal, security, corporate governance, local, state and federal government, and financial fields.

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine.

He can be reached at brent@bta.org.

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Interviewing 101 Debunking the myth of the great interviewer by: David C. Ramos, Strategy Development

standard, consistent hiring process starts with a job profile and ends with a reference check prior to on-boarding the new hire. Interviewing is a big part of the hiring process, but it is not the entire process.

Too often I hear hiring managers talk about “sizing people up” and how their “gut feeling” can project whether the person they are interviewing is the right person for the position. Selecting and assessing talent is not about “gut feeling.” By conducting the interview portion of the process properly, and after reasonable exposure to the candidate with additional exercises, one should be able to articulate the strengths and limitations of candidates and accurately project which candidates are the most talented and likely to be successful. The goal is to obtain enough information to evaluate the competency of the candidate and determine if the candidate’s experience will provide him (or her) the opportunity to be successful in the role for which he is vying.

Preparation for an interview will equip you with questions that will help you get to know and evaluate candidates.

There is also plenty more to do both during and after the interview. Let us review a process you can follow to make a quality hire and avoid the “gut feeling” approach to finding the right people for your organization.

A

Beginning the Interview Build Rapport — Interviewing can be stressful, so do your best to help the candidate relax. Start with low-key questions that are prepared and allow for a free exchange of information. For example, select an interesting topic like a hobby he has listed on his résumé (nothing too personal, i.e. religious or political in nature) and ask him to tell you about that hobby.

Bias: Judging on the First Impression — We have all met them or at least heard the stories — people who do not

make a great first impression but end up being great employees. Withhold judgment until you have had the chance to thoroughly evaluate a candidate’s capabilities and potential.

The Interview Explain the Purpose and Process of the Interview — Set the tone and agenda by following a standard interview template. If you do not have one, I know a great consulting firm that can help you with that.

Explain the Job — While you do want to control the interview, you do not want to dominate the interview time (another common pitfall). You should start with a brief summary of the position, including the prime responsibilities, reporting structure, key challenges and performance criteria. This will help the candidate provide relevant examples and responses.

Dig, Dig and Dig — Having a planned set of questions is good. Even so, do not feel you must ask only those questions you have chosen in advance. Be responsive to what the candidate tells you and build new questions off his answers.

Digging with second- and third-level questions can uncover great skill sets the candidate possesses that might not be listed on a résumé. The reverse is also true; it can uncover red flags that allow you to avoid a bad hiring decision.

Get Beyond the Canned Answer — Behavioral interviewing requires candidates to respond with specific examples of past experiences rather than generalized or hypothetical responses. At the root of this interview style is the belief that past performance is the most accurate predictor of future performance. Typical behavior-based questions begin with “Tell me about a time when ...” or “Give me an example of ...” and require candidates to provide a complete, three-part response in a format known as SAR: situation, action and result. w w w . o f f i c e t e c h n o l o g y m a g . c o m | O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8 | 19

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tell him you will get back to him when Get Candidates to Ask Questions A standard, consistent clearly that will never happen.

— This is a valuable part of the interview.

Why does he want to be here? Is it the Consensus Rules — The postprocess will allow you challenge of the job, advances in the inter view evaluation is the time to to base hiring decisions industry or something specific about compare notes and advance the hiring on an honest evaluation your company? Alternatively, is the candidecision. Each interviewer should be of each candidate’s date fixated on salary, benefits and time prepared to back up remarks and reccapabilities and not off ? In the new movie “Step Brothers” ommendations with specific examples your “gut feeling.” starring Will Ferrell, we can find an and notes from the interview.

Show-Me Exercise — Final interexample of such a scenario. Ferrell asks his interviewer, “How much vacation time am I allowed?” The views with candidates are valuable opportunities to learn interviewer responds, “Two weeks,” to which Ferrell’s rebuttal more about them. Consider adding “show-me exercises,” is, “Can I take all that up front?” This would be an example of a such as a presentation involving a real business situation. red flag. If the candidate has no questions at all, this is also a Do not, however, select a scenario that involves specifics red flag. Make notes of what the candidate asks and be sure to about your industry. You will be too critical because you are the expert and it will make the candidate unduly nervous. follow up if you cannot provide the answer immediately.

Listen, Listen and Listen — If you are doing most of the talking during an interview, you will not be able to Create a Positive Image For Your Organization Selling your company is the last step in the interview obtain enough information to distinguish between candidates or to determine a candidate’s true competencies. A process. However, this selling takes place only after asking general “time of possession” rule is to spend 90 percent of two indispensable questions: Does this person have a burning desire to fill the role your time listening and only 10 percent talking.

Taking Notes — While you will not be able to tran- you are interviewing him for? scribe everything the candidate says, do write down the Are you afraid to lose this candidate? important points, key accomplishments, good examples and If the answer is “no” to either of these questions, you other information that will help you remember and fairly simply set him free. evaluate each candidate. An interview guide, prepared in Your process reflects the value your company places on advance, will make note-taking easier and give you a struc- each candidate and, by extension, the importance of the role ture for capturing key information. you are filling. A standard, consistent process will allow you Follow Legal Interviewing Guidelines — I am not a to base hiring decisions on an honest evaluation of each human resources lawyer. However, I do know that it is criti- candidate’s capabilities and not your “gut feeling.” This will cally important that every interviewer at your company, allow you to make better hiring decisions and minimize risk from human resources to senior staff, understand and follow while selecting and assessing talent. legal hiring guidelines. The easiest way to keep your interDavid C. Ramos is a consultant with management consulting views fully compliant is to ask only questions that relate to firm Strategy Development. Ramos has more than 12 years of the job, eliminating the potential for bias by not introducing experience in the imaging industry as a top-producing questions or scenarios that will elicit irrelevant information. business development and management professional, holding positions in the United States and Mexico. Ramos’ career Post Interview experience spans from working for Xerox Corp. as a major Next Steps — A point of contention for many candiaccounts manager to IKON Office Solutions, where he held dates is that they are not given realistic expectations for the various positions. He worked at IKON University as a senior position. They are promised a situation that never comes. If trainer and co-developed IKON’s sales training the candidate is a good fit, be clear about what the next program. He is also co-presenter of the BTA steps will be in the interview process as well as what the Sales Management Workshop and BTA Print expectations are and what real challenges he will face in the Management Workshop. Ramos can be reached role for which he is a candidate. Furthermore, if the candiat ramos@strategydevelopment.org. date is not a good fit, be honest and let him know. Do not Visit www.strategydevelopment.org.

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‘Winning Together’ Kyocera Mita America hosts FY09 dealer meeting by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

anging from the announcement of the company’s first dealer council to the launch of a new B2C MFP line, officials at Kyocera Mita America Inc. (KMA) had plenty to share with attendees of the company’s FY09 National Dealer Meeting. Held Sept. 15-17 in Dallas, the meeting drew more than 1,200 Kyocera Mita dealers, Copystar dealers and guests from the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and Japan.

“This year’s meeting theme, ‘Winning Together,’ is one of great importance to me, as it stands for more than just a headline for our event,” said Michael Pietrunti, KMA president and CEO, as he welcomed dealers during the opening General Session. “We rely upon you to be our ally within the industry, our trusted partner to the end-users. This year, we will move forward together, like never before, and this event will prove the why and the how.”

Pietrunti announced one of the recent strides to facilitate KMA and dealers moving forward together — the creation of the first formal Kyocera Mita Dealer Council. “The council will exist with the sole mission to encourage and maintain a mutual understanding between KMA and our dealer partners, by making a sincere effort to candidly acknowledge one another’s perspective and to quickly address all issues with complete integrity,” he said. “Over time, I am confident we will accomplish our mission and the three priorities I have established.”

The priorities established by Pietrunti: (1) To create an efficient communication process between Kyocera dealers and KMA; (2) To foster a spirit of cooperation between its channel partners and KMA by better understanding the product and business needs of both entities; and (3) to solve any problems through the honest exchange of individual perspectives and an examination of all possible solutions.

Jim Oricchio (Coordinated Business Systems, Burnsville, Minn.) will serve as the council’s first president. He will be joined by council members: Representing the Northeast,

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Clockwise from top: Attendees learn more about the new TASKalfa line; Michael Pietrunti, president and CEO, Kyocera Mita America (KMA); Ed Bialecki, KMA senior vice president of sales; the TASKalfa brand name and logo is unveiled in the Product Fair.

Larry Sudbay (Symquest Group, South Burlington, Vt.), Tom Lizzio (Heritage Business Systems, Moorestown, N.J.) and Randy Gould (One Stop Business Centers, Burlington, w w w . o f f i c e t e c h n o l o g y m a g . c o m | O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8 | 21

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Mass.); representing the Southeast, us past the competition in 2009,” said Ed “These exciting, new Freddy Cobb (Cobb Technologies, RichBialecki, KMA senior vice president of mond, Va.) and Mike Strum, (COMDOC, sal e s, durin g th e Gen eral Session .

8-bit clean-sheet S avannah , Ga .); re presentin g th e “TASKfalfa begins yet another exciting design B2C devices Midwest, Troy Turner (Commonwealth new era for all of us.” incorporate many Technology, Lexington, Ky.), Frank Among the TASKalfa models anadvanced features that Cucco (Impact Networking, Waukegan, nounced at the meeting, the: 500ci (50 meet the demands of Ill.) and Oricchio; representing the pages per minute [ppm] black; 40 ppm today’s business user.”

Southwest, Reed Melnick (Nevill Busicolor); 400ci (40 ppm black, 40 ppm ness Machines, McAllen, Texas), Chris color); 300ci, (30 ppm black, 30 ppm Black (RK Black, Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Kevin Horner color); and 250ci (25 ppm black, 25 ppm color). “These (PTS Office Systems, Las Cruces, N.M.); and representing exciting, new 8-bit clean-sheet design B2C devices incorpothe West, Gary Harouff (Advanced Imaging Solutions, Las rate many advanced features that meet the demands of Vegas, Nev.), Tom Rizk (Coastal Copy, Goleta, Calif.) and today’s business user,” said Bialecki. “[These include] feaTodd Moody (KBA Docusys, Union City, Calif.). tures like a color touch screen, dual scanning, a choice of While the establishment of KMA’s first dealer council was document feeders, including a 100-sheet dual scan docuparticularly noteworthy, the primary announcement at the ment processor, and advanced finishing and paper-hanmeeting was the launch of KMA’s new TASKalfa B2C Series dling capabilities. of MFPs. “The new TASKalfa line of MFPs will propel all of “Our launch plan for the TASKalfa color MFP series is both elaborate and comprehensive,” he said. “We will begin service training in October. Then, beginning in midDecember, our salespeople will begin taking orders and start the process of earning back your B2C business, dealer by dealer, region by region.”

Bialecki noted that additional TASKalfa MFPs will be launched in the next twelve months. He also announced that each new TASKalfa MFP of 25 ppm or higher will have an extended dealer warranty to 36 months or the life of the maintenance kit. “That’s right,” he said, “while many of our competitors are driving CPC levels to new depths, Kyocera Mita is the only one providing a basis for you to improve your aftermarket profitability.”

Among the other announcements at the dealer meeting: KMA unveiled HyPAS (Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions), a comprehensive software development platform and associated business strategy designed to deliver customized applications for KMA MFPs. HyPAS will be released in three phases with the first phase enabling Kyocera to seamlessly integrate select MFPs with software, such as Equitrac, through both Java and Web Services applications.

Frank Cannata, president of Marketing Research Consultants, announced that Michael Pietrunti had earned the “2008 Executive of the Year” award, based on the results of The Cannata Report’s annual independent dealer survey.

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at brent@bta.org.

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EDUCATION CALENDAR November 11

“A Business Model for Professional Services” Free to BTA members, the November “Building My Business” webinar, “A Business Model for Professional Services,” will be presented by Mitch Morgan of CEO Focus. The professional services business focusing on software and services is the next transition for many BTA dealers.

The ability to drive incremental revenue, differentiate the business and satisfy customer needs in this growth market is very attractive. This webinar will address the many questions dealers are asking and the eight critical factors for professional services success.

19-20 BTA ProFinance

Las Vegas, NV BTA ProFinance instructors John Hanson and John Hey of Strategic Business Associates will help you understand the strategies required to become more client and employee focused — key strategies toward successfully growing your company, improving profitability and winning against the competition. ProFinance is designed for dealership owners and executive-level staff members who make the critical business decisions that impact their companies’ success.

24-25 BTA Print Management Workshop

Kansas City, MO Taught by Tom Callinan and Ed Carroll of Strategy Development, this two-day educational workshop is designed to provide dealerships with the tools they need to establish a print management strategy that will allow them to significantly increase the quantity of captured prints, lock in customers, distinguish themselves from competitors and, ultimately, sell more hardware. As a provider of print management services, the dealer can become the end-user’s “single source” for managing printed pages and the hardware used to produce them. By utilizing the services of a dealership that offers a print management program, the end-user company can eliminate the need to deal with multiple vendors and invoices and leverage the benefits of a holistic view of its printer fleet.

December 12-13 FIX: Cost Management for Service Workshop

Las Vegas, NV Successful BTA dealers use their service departments to maintain profit margins as new sales margins decline. FIX, BTA’s most popular service workshop, shows you how to compute your service cost basis and overhead rates. Workshop instructor and BTA President Ronelle Ingram, vice president of technical service for Steven Enterprises Inc., Irvine, Calif., covers proven management and customer service programs to use in your company. This is a highly interactive, energetic classroom experience. Come prepared to learn in a fun, relaxed atmosphere.

For additional information or to register for courses or events, visit www.bta.org or call (800) 843-5059.

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BTA HIGHLIGHTS The following new members joined BTA during the month of August:

Dealer Members CycleNet Inc., Winchester, VA Future Digital Imaging, Scottsdale, AZ OfficeOne Solutions LLC, Ft. Wayne, IN pcAge Inc., Malvern, PA Prime Office Technology LLC, Shelby Township, MI Service Associate Members Applied Concepts Inc., Lake Mary, FL Vendor Associate Members Image Star, Middletown, CT For full contact information of these new members, visit www.bta.org and click on “BTA Hotline Online” on the home page before Dec. 1.

Greater Bay Capital’s BTA Leasing Program The BTA alliance partner leasing program through Greater Bay Capital looks out for your longterm interests. Greater Bay Capital does this through its: • Month-to-month renewal with a 60day notification on residual leases • E-mailable documents • Customer retention plan • Incentives • Pass-through maintenance • No early payoff penalties • Stated FMV residuals • Omaha steak buck promotion For additional information on the BTA leasing program through Greater Bay Capital, visit www.bta.org and click on “Member Benefits” in the left-hand column of the home page.

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For the benefit of its dealer members, each month, BTA profiles two of its Vendor or Service Associate members in this space.

BTA Vendor Associate member Supplies Network is the largest privately owned wholesaler of IT consumables in the United States. The company focuses on independent dealers and their competitiveness against giant contract stationers and retailers. Recently, the company launched Carbon SiX, an innovative turn-key print management solution. Components include: software, hardware, service, OEM and compatible supplies, training and marketing support. Supplies Network also specializes in IT consumables, printers, multifunction equipment and accessories from 70 brands. Call us at (800) 729-9300 for more information. www.suppliesnetwork.com/bta BTA Service Associate member Industry Analysts Inc. is a marketing and management consulting firm with offices in Rochester, N.Y., and Fairfield, N.J. The company specializes in research and training program development for the office automation industry.

Because of its strong ties with office equipment dealers and its level of expertise within the industry, Industry Analysts can help dealers through every phase of their industry-based research projects. Industry Analysts’ Technical Services Division also provides comprehensive, confidential testing and technical-support services to manufacturers in the office-imaging industry. www.industryanalysts.com A full list of BTA Vendor and Service Associate members can be found online at www.bta.org.

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COURTS & CAPITOLS

Office Equipment Leasing My perspective — first in a two-part series by: Robert C. Goldberg, General Counsel for the Business Technology Association

The “book losses” on analog assets were or decades, leasing for end-users has typically covered by the surge in digital been the most popular method of Today, leasing is as originations and a handful of leasing powacquiring office technology. Dealers popular as ever, erhouses emerged. Leasing companies have found that increased customer control but the relationship knew that there was no way to pay the bills and low cost of entry are the greatest benebetween the leasing on interest-free contracts so they used fits of leading with a leasing recommendacompany and dealer additional fees and automatic renewal tion. With a 75 percent acceptance average, lacks any sign of traps to generate huge income as an offset. it is apparent that the end-users see the long-term health.

Since this typically was not welcomed by value and tax benefits as well. the originating dealer or end-user, relationToday, leasing is as popular as ever, but the relationship between the leasing company and dealer lacks ships with leasing companies further deteriorated.

If the leasing company would not waive the countless any sign of long-term health. The office equipment leasing industry has experienced very little revenue growth and is renewal payments or reduce their excessive residual value, the under constant margin pressure. The competitive battle dealers would quickly turn to paying the balance of remaining between our “would-be” leasing partners has further impaired payments and return the equipment. In the years to follow, their profitability and left the end-user as the greatest casualty. equipment return rates more than doubled and leasing compa“Why has this happened?” and, more importantly, “What nies found themselves in a financial mess. Many resorted to an can the industry do about it?” are exactly the right questions unfriendly policy that prevents a dealer from returning the equipment prior to the expiration of the original term. This not to answer to thwart this downward spiral.

First, why has this happened? Over the past ten years, there only made it difficult for the dealer to upgrade a customer’s have been some significant trends that have both shaped and technology, but it soon filled countless warehouses with leased shaken the office equipment leasing industry. Understanding gear. If that was not enough of a deterrent, many leasing companies added termination charges, restocking fees and payment these trends may help us find potential solutions. penalties — in some cases, up to a four-payment penalty.

These tactics may have temporarily plugged a hole in the Analog to Digital Far and away, the most significant trend has been the leasing company’s financial model, but they transferred the vast effects of moving from analog to digital. In the 1990s, OEMs majority of the burden to the dealers that brought them the cusaggressively introduced new digital products to replace their tomer in the first place. Granted, the dealer is also culpable analog predecessors. This had a profound impact on dealers here, having chosen the low rate in lieu of many more stable and created incredible opportunities for growth and pros- programs that were (and still are) available. In either case, their perity. Until that time, leasing companies were typically interests diverged and the gap between the partners widened. booking conservative residual values, around 10 to 15 percent, and competed primarily on their product/service differentia- Captive to Third Party tion. In a blink of an eye, the value of the analog assets colIn the 1990s, Xerox, IKON, Danka and countless independent lapsed and leasing companies began to scramble for answers. dealers reinvested their hard-earned cash back into their compaThe most widely held belief was that the new digital prod- nies and funded their own leasing portfolios. Not only was there ucts would work better, last longer and, therefore, be worth a healthy profit to be earned, but the control of their customers more in the long run. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, was clearly the highest motive. Most of these situations worked leasing companies began to book higher residuals on digital very well throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. assets, bringing their rate factors down significantly and the However, dealers and OEMs are not banks and such programs “36-month, interest-free” leasing program was born. have huge capital demands that soon became unmanageable in a

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new economy. Add undisciplined buying How Does This Impact You? habits (cancelable contracts, credit risks) Complicit or not, OEMs and dealers have As the financial model of to this and the choice soon became clear been dealt a body blow — straight into most leasing companies for most to shed their leasing businesses their bottom lines. Critical factors include: evolved into a heavy and re-focus on their core purpose: selling Cu stom er Ret ention R at e s — reliance on unpopular and servicing office equipment. This shift Aggressive collection tactics, automatic fee income, the trend added hundreds of millions of lease origirenewal traps and endless fees have never toward impairing that nations into a strained model and kept been known to create a delighted endincome began. many leasing companies’ heads above the user. Rather, they become irate and shed proverbial water line — at least temblame on the dealer first — especially porarily. Today, it is the exception to find any significant on- with private-label dealers. Since the cost of acquiring a cusbalance sheet financing at the dealer or OEM level. tomer is many times greater than the cost of keeping them, a dealer can ill-afford to lose a single customer or click due to Fee Income Impairment poor service from a leasing company.

As the financial model of most leasing companies evolved Increased G & A — Whether it is a hidden cost or an into a heavy reliance on unpopular fee income, the trend invoice you refuse to pay, the many costs passed through to toward impairing that income began. With capitalism on full the dealer are a constant drain on earnings. Here is a list of a display, the leasing companies with low fees and few hassles few areas to look for: began to grow, prosper and activate hundreds of new dealers.

1. Shipping costs of off-lease equipment With some coaching from the dealers, end-users got into 2. Broken equipment — missing accessories, manuals the fight and many class-action lawsuits were cast upon the 3. Warehouse space — storing those same machines powerful financial institutions. Not only did this cost a small 4. Sales/administration time spent unwinding complicated fortune to defend and settle, it left leasing companies with no billing issues. choice but to either limit or eliminate most fees from their 5. Time spent needlessly negotiating a “fair” termination cost. programs. The final piece was the introduction of the ELFA Whose Customer Is It? — The many challenges leasing Code of Ethics which governs (regulates, to some extent) what companies have faced have tempted them to look at the endis fair and reasonable for a leasing company to charge. In an user as a means to recover lost profits. Residual value losses industry that is characterized as anything but “fair and rea- and reduced fee penetration have tempted them to negotiate sonable,” these changes cut very deep. a better “settlement” with the end-user rather than the selling dealer. This can have a profound impact on your future relationship and profitability with your customer base.

Deterioration of Credit Quality With residual values at an all-time low and fee income nearly Elongated Replacement Cycles — Dealers, and espeimpossible to come by, leasing companies clung dearly to their cially OEMs, live (and die) by the ability to place new techone last hope: originations growth during a healthy credit market. nologies into service with new and existing customers. Analog Well, like all cycles of business, this too came to pass. Recent slow- to digital was one wave, followed currently by monochrome to down in economic growth, a housing bust, a mortgage crisis and color. When most of those customers are currently involved in an unprecedented interruption to the capital markets have put a lease agreement, return fees, penalties, restrictive return added pressure into the equation and have caused many leasing policies and excessive residual values make it very challenging companies to reassess their commitment to the marketplace. to place new technology. More problematic is the amount of As interest rates rose, the strained relationships prevented “air,” or refinanced balances, that make early upgrades nearly many leasing companies from passing a meaningful portion of impossible to overcome. the cost increases along to the marketplace. Then, the final piece In the November issue, I will further discuss of the “perfect storm” blew into port — credit losses and delin- leasing’s impact on your dealership and give quencies spiked sharply. Today, leasing companies find them- you tips for dealing with leasing companies. selves in the heart of the storm while dealers and OEMs are being Robert C. Goldberg is general counsel for the negatively impacted by the level of service and support provided Business Technology Association. He can be to their end-users. reached at robert.goldberg@sfnr.com.

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PRINCIPAL ISSUES

Managed Print Services Integrating the strategic model in your dealership by: Kevin Flood, Kyocera Mita America Inc.

ome 10 years ago, a man named Spencer Johnson wrote a fascinating and useful book about change called “Who Moved My Cheese?

An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life.” In early summer of this year, a decade after publication, “Who Moved My Cheese?” was the best-selling book in Amazon.com’s stress, stress-management and developmental-psychology categories and the 165th best-selling book overall. Why? Because its underlying message — change happens whether you want it to or not — is true and applicable to just about anybody in just about any field.

For dealers, however, Johnson’s corollary message — it is how you handle that change that determines your success — may be more important. Because that is exactly where the dealership market finds itself today. Change is descending upon dealers in the form of a relatively new, demand-driven business model called managed print services.

It is a good change for dealers (ask those who have already tried it) — one that promises increased revenue streams and goodwill from customers — but only if dealers adroitly handle the transition from the industry’s classic business model, where it is all about products, to the new-world emphasis on capturing clicks.

Rather than just selling a product and moving on to the next sales candidate, managed print services calls for dealerships to also specialize in the so-called aftermarket of maintenance and services. The front sale, moving the box, is almost gravy. That is how dramatically better the long-term benefits are for dealerships when they establish themselves in the aftermarket.

Let us look at how it works. For starters, it is clear that customers are demanding managed print services and that tells you a lot about its inevitability. At most companies, nobody tracks the aftermarket costs of a printer, for example. But increasingly, modern corporate offices, trying to wring profit or minimize losses out of every corner of their operations, are closely monitoring the cost of supplies and other similar spending and they would not mind reducing the number of contracts involved, too. IT professionals are increasingly finding themselves burdened with troubleshooting responsibil-

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ities, including the mundane — fixing paper jams, for example, when they really need to focus on what is most important: making sure the network runs, period.

The result? More and more companies are looking for someone to develop, implement and support their print-services networks (i.e., assess their print behavior across all devices, then manage their peripherals, even to the point of designing comprehensive usage schemes that maximize productivity and cut costs, while taking the heat off of company IT departments and help desks). In managed print services, a dealership can count clicks and discover that Department A does not really need that fourth printer, but Department B does need it. In fact, Department B needs an extra one — maybe even a brand-new one. That said, the dealership now has the opportunity to maintain and service both peripherals under contract.

Think of how valuable a dealer could be. In a true managed print services environment, a customer receives a call from their dealer, who, thanks to a number of state-of-the-art remote management software programs available today, will tell them that a printer is down when the customer may not even know that is the case. It could be a printer by the accounting department that is used once or twice a month, but when it is needed, it is needed badly. With this advanced software, dealers will know when toner levels are low and can automatically send replenishments based on activity. The customer is not loaded up with a whole closet of toner containers they do not need; the dealer is now handling all of that.

Managed print services can track how well each peripheral device is operating on the network and can proactively take care of issues before a customer knows something is wrong, making the dealer look great.

Put more holistically, a dealership that can offer an integrated fleet-management approach — a package of hardware, software, services, simplified billing and support — is a dealership with a considerable competitive advantage, not to mention one with a consistent annuity stream, capturing all of the customer’s consumables and service revenues. w w w . o f f i c e t e c h n o l o g y m a g . c o m | O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8 | 27

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catch up by following these tips: How much revenue are we talking about, anyway? The general rule of thumb is that First, evaluate your customer base The more your customers for every MFP in the field, there are six and determine which customers can best save, the more they printers “freelancing” their days away, gentake advantage of deploying managed are pleased with erally unmanaged and unaccounted for. For print services within their organizations. their increased fleet every page a dealership captures, another Help them understand the value proposiproductivity and the more six are out there waiting to be captured. So if tions associated with this strategy and likely your dealership you have a mid-sized dealership with a how you, as their trusted dealer and revenue will grow.

5,000-unit multifunctional-product installed partner, will help them through this ultibase, this means you have an opportunity mate cost-savings transition. the size of 30,000 potential printer unit upgrades resident in your Second, determine how your business can accommodate account base. If each printer generates only 3,000 prints per this shift in business-model strategy and approach. Should month, the potential click base in this example’s dealership-cap- you set up a separate sales group? You could hire a whole septured MFP base is approximately 1.1 billion annual clicks. If you arate team of anywhere from one to multiple people to focus are this dealer, multiply 1.1 billion clicks by your MFP service- only on managed print services. You could take your best reps and-supply rate. How many new account customers would you from inside and ask them to shift a certain percentage of their time to this approach. Or you could just create an in-house have to sell MFPs to to equal that opportunity?

What makes managed print services so special is that your team. There is no one clear-cut strategy, but know that revenue grows while your customers save money. It is win-win. managed print services is radically different from anything The more your customers save, the more they are pleased with you have experienced before.

Instead of focusing on trying to push new product out the their increased fleet productivity and the more likely your dealership revenue will grow. (And note that, while managed door every day, you will find yourself telling your reps not to print services dealerships may not have sold the products they worry so much about selling a box and not to worry about are maintaining and servicing, they will eventually have the trying to meet their quotas. And for salespeople, compensation opportunity to generate high-quality replacement sales as cus- has to shift from selling the box to include some percentage of tomers’ lease agreements for existing infrastructure end. This the aftermarket revenue, which arguably is the province of your should expand dealership profit margins as service costs are dealership’s service side. That is a real disconnect with the minimized and soft costs are consolidated.) existing business model and it can upset staff fairly easily. So Naturally, a business model that works so well is bound to look for a comfortable fit with your vision of your company — draw many practitioners. The movement to managed print and who you partner with — before you migrate. services has already begun in earnest. Traditional copier and Third, before moving to managed print services, educate MFP dealers are squaring off against IT resellers, big direct yourself if at all possible. There are Web sites that offer online players like Dell and Xerox and full-product-line manufac- information, as well as training options through the Business turers like Lexmark and HP. Even the more progressive “re- Technology Association and other types of organizations. You man” toner companies are making their presence felt. They can also look to manufacturers that understand and are supsee what is at stake and they are actively pursuing the market porting the education of their dealers. share that could be yours. While much of the demand for Finally, perhaps the most important piece of advice is to managed print services is client-driven, solutions providers remember that you are no longer just selling a box, but proare savvy enough to go after clients with proactive contracts viding a solution. In effect, your salespeople will become for software services such as meter-reading, consumables service consultants. This is a major shift in sales strategy — tracking and replacement, direct invoicing and even service one where you as a dealer make more money, but only over monitoring. This automation leads to lower overhead costs — time, not on the day you go in the door. That and to dealership competitors offering customers highly com- is a change, but a change you can handle. petitive CPP contracts.

Kevin Flood is vice president of sales for Do not despair though, even if you are currently behind the Kyocera Mita America Inc. He can be reached at trend. Dealers who are just looking to enter the managed kevin_flood@kyoceramita.com. print services market and are unclear on where to start can Visit www.kyoceramita.com.

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SELLING SOLUTIONS

Competitive Selling Strategies The campaign for the mind of the customer by: Tom Kramer, CATALYST Performance Learning

ur basic premise is that the goal of sales is to defeat the competitor by gaining uncontested ownership of the mind of the customer.

To illustrate this point, let us use a military analogy: The Date: A distant time in history The Place: A battlefield far away The Setting: A general views the battlefield to decide his plan of attack. If he chooses well and deploys his forces effectively, he stands a good chance of carrying the day — but only if he is correct.

The Situation: His scouts tell him that the enemy is strong in the center and on the left flank, but weak on the right.

The Question: Should he attack the right or should he strengthen his defenses against the center and left?

The Answer: Attacking the right is the best strategy. Breaching the enemy’s lines and gaining a “beachhead” not only gives him competitive advantage, it becomes a strength or “stronghold” from which he can launch further campaigns or attacks. Alternatively, setting up defensive positions buys him little or nothing.

To win, the general must be proactive, not reactive.

Now let us look at a real-life sales scenario: The Date: Today The Place: A competitive sales opportunity at a prospect in your territory The Setting: The sales representative plans the selling strategy against his (or her) strongest and most entrenched competitor to win and secure this opportunity.

The Situation: The customer tells the rep that the competitor is strong on price and product performance, but very weak on support. The rep is at parity on price and product, but offers excellent support.

The Question: Should the rep “attack” on support or defend on price and product? Why? Later that same day…

The Place: The customer’s office

O

The Situation: Earlier, the customer told the rep that the competitor is strong on price and product performance, but weak on support What the Rep Did: He defended his parity on price and product performance to show the customer he was as good or better than his competitor. He also mentioned he offered good service.

D i d th e re p gain a c omp etitive advantage? The answer is “no.”

So what should he have done? He had a cl ear advanta ge in ser v ice support, which he managed to neutralize. He should have stressed his service advantage and built up the importance of the economic and operational impact that a responsive and reliable service organization can have on the customer’s business.

Again, competitive selling is about being proactive, not reactive. Competitive selling is about finding a place or a niche to win the attention of the customer.

This niche must be strong enough to win the deal over parity in other areas or over a disadvantage. That niche may be a core advantage or strength we offer that cannot be equaled by the competitor or an undefended competitor weakness (such as a weak flank). The sales strategy is to proactively make our niche advantage important to the customer so they see the economic advantage and benefit of our proposition.

The Core Advantage Every company and every sales rep has a core advantage — that is, a niche where they are most valued by their customers.

The only successful sales strategy that results in share, profit and market gains is a proactive sales campaign and it leverages a company’s core advantage. The task of the sales rep and marketer is to find prospects and customers to whom the core advantage will matter and focus their sales efforts accordingly, i.e., where to aim the cannons to gain maximum benefit.

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What is your core advantage?

To whom does it matter?

What is your proactive plan?

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Competitive selling is about finding a place or niche to win the attention of the customer.

That is, a niche that is strong enough to win the deal over parity ...

Finding Your Core When engaged in the process of finding your core, you need to analyze your competitor and realize that: They are in business because they have customers.

Their customers do business with them because they believe they offer the best value.

Their customers understand their value proposition and believe that it is better than yours.

Your competitor is a lot like you — probably not much better and not much worse.

Lowest price is not the “universal reason” your competition wins business (despite what you might think).

Competitive Analysis: The Question What are your competitors’ perceived value propositions?

The best and most direct way to discover these value propositions is to ask the customer directly. For example, you might ask, “I know that you buy from (competitor’s name). Would you tell me what it is that they did to earn and keep your business? This is the only way that I can figure out if I really have something to offer you that will make sense.”

Frankly, this is the only way you can compete on something other than assumptions.

The Competitive Offset What are the value propositions that you offer that clearly offset those of your competitors? When you are conducting

this analysis, you should look for core advantages or niches that you can proactively leverage. Consider things such as how you compare to your competitor in the following areas: strengths and established value, transactional parity and weaknesses.

Summary We began by stating that the goal of sales is to defeat the competition by gaining uncontested ownership of the mind of the customer. Here is a brief summary of the ideas expressed and the things you can do to achieve your goal: Competitive selling is about being proactive, not reactive.

Competitive selling is about finding a place or niche to win the attention of the customer. That is, a niche that is strong enough to win the deal over parity in other areas or (even) over a disadvantage.

Your niche may be a core advantage or strength that you offer that cannot be equaled by the competitor. Or, it can be a competitor’s weakness that is undefended.

Your sales strategy is to proactively make your niche advantage important to the customer.

Tom Kramer is an affiliate partner of CATALYST Performance Learning ( formerly Strategy Mapping Selling).

He has more than 30 years of sales, sales management and marketing experience with IBM, Eastman Kodak Co. and Canon U.S.A. Inc. He can be reached at tom.kramer@strategymappingselling.com.

Visit www.catalyst2performance.com.

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