2012

Last week I blogged the “Death of the Direct Copier Channel”, in less than one week there were over 1,400 views. I’m guessing we hit a hot spot with many of those in the Direct and Dealer Channel. The Print4Pay Hotel forums also posted many comments like Read More

Chip Miceli, president of DPOE in Des Plaines, IL, discusses his most notable sale of the week. What was your most notable sale this week? Miceli: The Sharp PN-L702B 70” Electronic Touch Screen LED Display Whiteboard. Who bought it? Miceli: A company in the Services Industry Why Read More

Businesses in all industries are contemplating more and more to add social media to their marketing plans. As a dealership, you may be wondering if there is really any value in using social media. If any of the following statements illustrate your worries about social media, then Read More

Before I talk about something new in The Week in Imaging, let’s go back to beating the dead horse, meaning the story of RJ Young’s acquisition of Ricoh direct branches. Art Post has some interesting comments from dealers regarding the acquisition you’ve got to read. Scroll down Read More

Last week’s announcement that RJ Young Company, based  in Nashville, Tennessee, had acquired multiple Ricoh direct branches (Huntsville, AL; and Columbus, Tupelo, and Gulfport, MS) represented a huge win for the independent dealer channel, a channel that has long been a Read More

The other day I received an e-mail from Monte Jensen of KBA Docusys and a Print4Pay Hotel member on the West Coast. He was pretty excited because they were releasing a new color page model being billed for ‘as low as 2 cents per page!’ This is for their Kyocera line of color Read More

Newly located in the famous Lipstick Building in mid-town Manhattan, The Copy Room has been serving clients in New York and the Tri-state area for more than 30 years. George Dispigno, owner of The Copy Room, has a distinguished client base of high-end clothing, shoe and leather Read More

Last week I commented on RJ Young’s acquisition of a number of Ricoh direct branch operations. It was also the subject of Art Post’s column here and on his Print4Pay Hotel MFP Solutions Blog. It’s not typical for the tables to be turned in this way, which is why neither one of us Read More

Ray Belanger, president of Bay Copy in Rockland, Mass., reports on his big sale of the week. What was your most notable sale this week? Belanger: This week, we completed a large sale, a total of 47 units. In all, the sale included 35 Lexmark small multi-function units, along with Read More

Last week Print Audit announced what they call “a disruptive new business model” for print management. Print Audit Premier is a subscription plan for office technology dealers, providing them with access to all of Print Audit’s products for a monthly fee. Premier subscribers also Read More

This week Frank Grasso, president of CEO of TGI Office Automation in Brooklyn, New York talks about his dealership’s big sale of the week. What was your most notable sale this week? Grasso: A complete solution encompassing managed print and elimination of HP printers with four Read More

Oh, how those of us in the dealer channel long for the days when the copier manufacturers sold only through dealers. For those not in the copier business that long, yes that was the case. If you needed a copier, except for Xerox, you had to go through an authorized dealer. Read More

The explosion of mobile devices represents both the biggest trend and the biggest challenge to document imaging and print management in 2012. Thanks to cloud services, all the statistics point to an increase in the use of mobile devices for capabilities once reserved for the Read More

Not to take the steam out of Art Post’s column below on “The Death of the Direct Copier Channel,” but RJ Young Company’s acquisition of Ricoh direct branches certainly is an interesting development. I just finished watching RJ Young President and CEO Chip Crunk’s video message to Read More

Let’s agree from the get go that the only constant in the office technology industry is change. However, one area in that world that is often slow to change is sales rep compensation, especially as the industry moves towards a services and solutions model. I speak to a fair Read More