As we wind down the year I thought it would be interesting to contact 52 companies from all segments of the office technology/imaging industry and attempt to get their perspectives on what they consider their company or organization’s most significant accomplishment or highlight of 2011. Even though I started before Thanksgiving, I discovered that getting 52 responses from 52 companies during the final five weeks of the year was a daunting task–so daunting that I fell short of my goal. Despite falling short I thank those who responded in a timely manner as well as those who responded to my request at the final buzzer. For those that didn’t respond, I’m going to try again next year. And now, as we close out the year, here is the final group of 2011 highlights followed by the first two groups that we ran during the previous two weeks.
Sharp Imaging and Informatioin Company of America
“First released in Sharp Multifunction Printers (MFPs) during 2011, the new Sharp user interface brings intuitive, user-friendly technology to the MFP space. Finally, users can edit documents, drag and rearrange files from their Sharp MFP, by simply sliding a finger. Additionally, Sharp has made a wide range of OSA applications available from Partner Program Members to further customize the 10.1-inch color LCD touch control panel.” – Cliff Quiroga, Associate Vice President, Product Management
Digital Gateway, OMD, La Crosse
Jim Phillips
“If someone would have told me at the beginning of the year that Digital Gateway would be responsible for the biggest dealer management software solutions in the industry: e-automate, OMD and La Crosse, I would have told them they were crazy. And yet here we are. The thing that brought us once fierce competitors together on the same team was our mutual commitment to do what’s in the best interest of independent dealers. Once we realized our visions were so tightly aligned, everything else fell into place. It’s the biggest thing that’s happened to Digital Gateway since our creation more than a decade ago and the future looks bright.” – Jim Phillips, President, Digital Gateway
GreatAmerica Leasing
Jennie Fisher
“In 2011, GreatAmerica extended our customer-first strategy well beyond our no-voicemail policy. We reinforced our commitment to helping our dealers be more successful through traditional, but innovative financing means – like the development of our first-of-its-kind Fleet Billing solution. Our Fleet Billing solution allows dealers to outsource the meter billing and collection process on non-financed MPS contracts. In addition to our continued focus on MPS solutions for dealers, and in step with our commitment to utilizing technology and emphasis on customer service, we launched Collabrance. Collabrance is an outsourced Managed Network Services offering, where dealers can be the IT department for their customers. We have on-boarded more than 30 dealers in 2011, and we see this as a big growth area in 2012.” – Jennie Fisher, Senior Vice President and General Manager of GreatAmerica Leasing Corporation’s Office Equipment Group
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.
Mark Pollack
“Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) experienced landmark growth in 2011, kicking off the year with the January acquisition of managed IT services provider All Covered. This strategic acquisition builds upon Konica Minolta’s current offerings and allows us to further extend the reach of our solutions and services to current and new customers of all sizes. All Covered has since made several acquisitions that help expand its footprint and deliver industry leading support to clients nationwide. As a result of welcoming All Covered to the Konica Minolta family, customers are able to count on a single source for a broad range of products and services – ranging from industry-leading MFP products, digital presses and comprehensive workflow solutions, to Optimized Print Services and Managed IT Services – all while delivering the exceptional value expected of the Konica Minolta name.” – Mark Pollack, Vice President, Marketing Communications and Program Development, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.
Industry Analysts
“2011 saw one of our largest yield tests yet. Over 150 printers from different manufacturers were evaluated in order to examine the yields when the devices are used under ‘typical’ conditions. Using ISO methodology, more than 1,000 cartridges were meticulously labeled and weighed before and after printing in order to determine how much ink was used. The project was interesting in that several printer models were tested in order to examine how published yields based on ISO standards compare to yields that customers may experience. Using ISO test targets on all print jobs, we measured cartridge yields for one sample of devices using the appropriate published ISO test methodology. Another sample was tested using the printers on a set schedule throughout the week and other samples examined the impact on cartridge yields when the devices were turned on and off each day as opposed to being left on at all times. The test took four months and provided invaluable information to our client.” – Andy Slawetsky, President, Industry Analysts
The Week in Imaging
“Our Top 40 Most Influential People in the Imaging Industry and our Elite Dealer awards helped build momentum and readership in 2011. I’m still laying the foundation, but the successes of the past year have me optimistic that 2012 will be an even better year.” – Scott Cullen, Publisher and Editor
Strategy Development
Tom Callinan
“Over 2011 Strategy Development’s most significant accomplishment was helping dealers transform their business to meet the realities of the current industry environment. Our team was able to help companies adopt an effective MPS business strategy; increase their market share in the traditional equipment space with a comprehensive go-to-market strategy that reduces sales rep turnover, and increases sales rep productivity; and, optimize service operations by helping companies achieve service gross margins exceeding 55 percent. We added a substantial number of clients and had another record setting year. It has been rewarding for the team to be able to help so many in the industry—thank you!?” Tom Callinan, Managing Principal
Canon U.S.A.
“In 2011, Canon U.S.A. announced the launch of the imagePRESS C7010VPS series digital presses. The imagePRESS C7010 VPS represented the first jointly-developed product from Canon and Océ and helped advance our positioning as the global leader in the print industry with an unparalleled portfolio of products and development capabilities.” – Junichi Yoshitake, senior vice president, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A.
GE Capital
“This is a dynamic period in the office imaging industry. In 2011, GE Capital expanded its office imaging dealer sales team by 27 percent to better help our customers capitalize on the managed services trend. At the same time, we continue to provide innovative financing products, state-of-the-art online tools and 20+ years of industry expertise.” – Glen Clark, National Sales Director for Office Imaging, GE Capital, Americas
Supplies Network
“Trust and managed print are main stream ideas at Supplies Network. Supplies Network has not wavered in terms of its core business – strong relationships with customers. In fact, they are presenting a refresh of their brand in January 2012 with a new tagline – We Supply Trust. The launch of the new logo and tagline describes exactly what Supplies Network has provided its customers for decades – a true partnership. From a managed print perspective, MPS went mainstream in the organization in 2011. This is extremely unique for a distributor. No other distributor has integrated MPS into every function like Supplies Network – providing education and online tools for their resellers to manage their customers print environment more effectively.” – Greg Welchans, President
Managed Print Services Association (MPSA)
Joe Barganier
“We tripled our funding revenues; increased Foundation corporate membership by 700 percent; increased paid membership to 500; established MPSA Linkedin group; held first leadership awards reception; held first member reception at ITEX; exhibited at ITEX, MPS Global Conference, and CompTIA Breakway; and are launching our first event to be held Jan. 16 in Las Vegas,” – Joe Barganier, President
Dealer Marketing Systems
“Social Media defined 2011 as we began helping dealers execute strategies to use social
Darrell Amy
media to generate conversations with current and potential customers. Our Chief Web Architect, Corey Smith, released his first book, Do It Right: A CEO’s Guide to Web Strategy (http://tinyurl.com/86ug8r9). An increasing number of dealers benefited from being on page one in Google for key search terms in their marketplace through our Search Engine Optimization services. Finally, we helped dealers in the U.S. and Australia launch new Websites to promote their MPS Initiatives.” – Darrell Amy, President
Photizo Group
Ed Crowley
“This will be the third year in a row we’ve maintained above a 60 percent year-over-year revenue growth rate. We’ve added a number of major new clients this year. Just from a standpoint of what’s been a really tough business environment, we’ve been able to maintain steady growth. – Ed Crowley, President
Parts Now!
“Parts Now! has really moved beyond just printer parts to fulfill the need of the hard copy imaging industry. As our customers change to service broader and larger fleets, our product and service offerings have followed that. 2011 and 2012 is the story of diversity for Parts Now!” – Matt McLeish, Vice President of Sales & Marketing
FMAudit
Darrell Levin
“2011 has been another record growth year for FMAudit. In March, we were acquired by ECI Corporation which has provided us with countless resources and opportunities to extend the reach of FMAudit into the Eautomate, OMD, LaCrosse, and DDMS client framework. Our development team added many new product features to our software this year that has enabled our dealers to move beyond simple MPS processes and meter billing automation to more advanced supply and service alert and workflow capabilities. In 2012, we will continue to work hard to aggressively develop the tools and technology to deliver the highest ROI client value. We are also very focused on further expanding ERP integration to improve our clients business process efficiencies in supply fulfillment and service delivery.” – Darrell Leven, Vice President Sales and Marketing, FMAudit
OKI Data Americas
“In 2011, OKI Data Americas launched an expanded Managed Print Services (MPS) solution—Total Managed Print (TMP), and later announced an alliance with Agiliant, Inc. on the expansion of the offering within the BTA dealer channel. This turnkey and brand-agnostic MPS offering from OKI allows channel partners on either the MSP or the BTA dealer side to provide a comprehensive suite of services to the end user. All will then have the ability to realize immediate returns and recurring revenue streams while helping the customer realize immediate cost savings and greater document output efficiencies. As the convergence of MSPs and BTA dealers continues given the proliferation of PS, OKI’s TMP solution remains a comprehensive and effective solution for the channel.” – Tim Brien, Director, Managed Print Services
The Print4Pay Hotel & MFP Solutions Blog
Art Post
“The Print4Pay Hotel forums and MFP Solutions Blog hit the one-million page view mark in early October of 2011. Since September of 2012 the Print4Pay Hotel forums and MFP Solutions Blog is averaging 150,000 page views a month. The MFP Solutions Blog will reach 1,000 blogs on the industry by the end of 2011. The Print4Pay Hotel forums continue to evolve as the world’s only secure forum where industry imaging professionals can share, maintain and increase their knowledge on hardware, software solutions, selling skills, market trends, and collaborate with their peers.” Art Post, Founder, Print4Pay Hotel & MFP Solutions Blog
Print Management Solutions Group
“Print Management Solutions Group, the exclusive office technology division of Learning Outsource Group, experienced another record breaking year in sales training volume with our advanced sales education forum, Selling Managed Print Services. A record number of participants in the company’s UK affiliate organization, Cashmark LLC, also contributed to the continued growth of the company.” – Gina Steger, Marketing and Business Development Administrator
BEI Services
Bud Karakey
“In 2011 BEI Services launched a free Service Reporting Software (SRS) that allows dealers not using an ERP system the capabilities to electronically manage their service calls. The dealers technicians can even open, dispatch, arrive, reschedule and close calls from the field with BEI’s wireless offing. This new product allows these dealers to participate in BEI’s Advanced Comparative Reporting, Technician Compensation and Territory Management leveling the playing field with dealers who have ERP systems. We also expanded our customer base by adding over 50 new dealers containing more 6,500 technicians and over 1,100,000 serials numbers.” – Bud Karakey, VP Operations, BEI Services.
Lexmark International
“Lexmark continued to aggressively grow market-share with the independent dealers by leading with advanced color, software, and solutions offerings.” – Phil Boatman, Manager, Business Development, US Dealer Channel, Lexmark International
EverBank Commercial Finance, Inc.
Fred Carollo
“This past year, EverBank Commercial Finance, Inc. sent our entire office products sales team, as well as marketing , operations, and UBB team leaders through extensive MPS training. All levels within our organization are certified and ready to help our dealers leverage this growing segment.” – Fred Carollo, General Manager, Office Products EverBank Commercial Finance, Inc.
MWA Intelligence Inc.
“2011 has proven to be an exceptional year for MWAi in that we continue to grow our overall business thanks to the growth in our technology/product portfolio leading to growth in our customer base, expanded geographic reach and exceptional knowledge “multipliers” thanks to our new development and distribution partners. During 2011 MWAi joined forces with Intel in a worldwide effort in bringing to life an entirely new Proof of Concept collaboration of Intel and MWAi technology, capable of leading the ‘50 Billion connected MFP devices’ explosion the next ten years. This effort and our relationship with Intel is undoubtedly one of the most exciting achievements for MWAi in 2011. All in all this has been a great year and a terrific launching pad for a fantastic 2012!” – Mike Stramaglio, President/CEO
BTA
“The Business Technology Association (BTA) expanded its lineup of district networking/education events from three to five in 2011, ending the year with a total of nearly 350 registrants who benefitted from 26 education sessions and the opportunity to see the latest products and services of 41 different exhibiting companies. This, coupled with the completion of another fiscal year of membership growth, helped to ensure 2011 was a banner year for BTA.” – Brent Hoskins, Executive Director, Business Technology Association
Nuance Communications, Inc.
“Nuance Communications significantly bolstered its document imaging offerings in June 2011 when the company acquired Equitrac Corporation. The addition of Equitrac allowed Nuance to expand its portfolio, adding Equitrac print management products to Nuance eCopy ShareScan scanning and workflow solutions, and to Nuance OmniPage, PaperPort and PDF Converter Professional desktop applications. Combining the best of breed in both document scanning and print management will bring more cost savings to end-user customers than ever before. The move also strengthened Nuance’s global channel partnerships with multifunction printer (MFP) vendors, including Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta, Ricoh and HP.” – Chris Strammiello, General Manager of Desktop, Mobile and Cloud, and Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Nuance’s Document Imaging Division
“Nuance Communications extended its position at the top of the global document capture software market, grabbing the number one ranking in a study by the market research firm Harvey Spencer Associates. Nuance earned the top global scanning and capture software vendor for the second consecutive year. The study found Nuance products captured 16 percent of the overall global document capture market in 2010 and that Nuance posted a 48.9 percent market share in the Ad Hoc Image segment, which includes scanning solutions for multifunction printers. Nuance’s leading position in the market underscores the true value of our solutions, providing robust document scanning and workflow features and ease-of-use across our entire software portfolio. – Robert Weideman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Nuance Document Imaging
Muratec America, Inc.
Jim D'Emidio
“Muratec’s most significant accomplishment in 2011 was successfully launching and supporting our “Marking Your Territory” approach to managed print services. This simple program has helped a wide range of dealers get into managed print services by securing their current customer base, while providing Muratec with increased revenues from OEM-compatible imaging supplies, refurbished printers sales and new A4 MFP placements.” – Jim D’Emidio, President, Muratec America, Inc.
DocuLex
“Our most significant accomplishment in 2011 was enabling our document management browser application with scanning capabilities, eliminating any requirements for on-premise installation of any software…..everything can now reside in the cloud.” – David Bailey, President
PrintFleet, Inc.
“Throughout 2011 PrintFleet experienced very significant growth in all of our key markets. Our success with hiring some key staff and launching Impact/3 series product relieves the business of several stress points while positioning the business solidly for 2012.” – Chris McFarlane, President & COO, PrintFleet Inc.
Agiliant, Inc.
“Agiliant began as a startup last January and has since transformed into a rapidly growing and thriving company, including a management team with a proven track record of working together to build and grow a successful company in the industry. Together we’ve built an incredible engine comprised of all the tools, resources, processes and procedures necessary to empower the Agiliant Affiliate Network to rapidly drive sales, implementation and service delivery for the innovative MITOS (Managed Information Technology and Output Services) solution for managed output and IT services.” – Gary Stevens, CEO of Agiliant, Inc.
Copier Careers
“We produced our first sales salary survey. We surveyed 15,000 reps and received nearly 10,000 responses. What we’re really excited about is that this is something we’ve been working on for years and no one we know has ever done it, especially on this scale. It’s a stepping off point and we’ll be able to do it bigger and better next year.” – Paul Schwartz, President, Copier Careers
DocuWare
Thomas Schneck
“By the end of 2011, nearly 600 sales representatives working for our reseller partners will have completed their online certifications to become DocuWare sales advisors. This is clearly an indicator that document management is finally a mainstream topic in the office automation channel.” – Thomas Schneck, President DocuWare AG
Clover Technologies Group
“Clover Technologies Group continued to pursue its strategy of aggressive growth both organically and through acquisition in 2011. Over the course of year, Clover made substantial investments to expand its empty collections activities, introduced increased levels of automation to its best-in-class manufacturing environments, enhanced its quality testing and product development capabilities with the adoption of cutting edge testing methods, and increased its worldwide manufacturing capacity for laser, ink, and related products.” – Eric Martin, President of North America Sales, Clover Technologies Group
Print Audit
“We are very happy with 2011 as this year marks the 1 millionth user of Print Audit 6 and the release of Print Audit Secure. Secure is an innovative pull-printing solution that enables users to release their print jobs at any device with their smartphone or a Web-enabled computer.” – John MacInnes, President & CEO of Print Audit
CIT Vendor Finance US
“CIT Vendor Finance US enjoyed double digit growth in the first three quarters of 2011, demonstrating our commitment to OEMs and the channel. As we continue to focus on new and innovative ways to service our vendors and customers, we are investing in our product and service offerings, including managed print services and enhancements to our online portals, Access CIT and Quality Digital Solution (QDS).” – Nick Small, Managing Director, CIT Vendor Finance US.
Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.
Bill Melo
“Over the last 12 months, Toshiba secured three of our largest transactions ever accounting for over 11,000 Toshiba MFPs and another 4,500 partner MFPs. Additionally, we renewed and expanded the contract with our largest end user customer. We believe that these and scores of other wins validate our customer-focused strategy and solid execution. – Bill Melo, Vice President, Marketing, Services & Solutions
GE Capital, Americas
“This is a dynamic period in the office imaging industry. In 2011, GE Capital expanded its office imaging dealer sales team by 27 percent to better help our customers capitalize on the managed services trend. At the same time, we continue to provide innovative financing products, state-of-the-art online tools and 20+ years of industry expertise.” – Glen Clark, National Sales Director for Office Imaging, GE Capital, Americas
Hytec Dealer Services
“Hytec Dealer Services in 2011 published a new look Website (www.hytecrepair.com) with improved functionality. This, among other factors in the market, has enabled us to have our highest sales in over eight years!” – Robert Mitchem, Sales Manager, Hytec Dealer Services
