Between the Lines

Between the Lines: Your Trends and Mine

I received an e-mail earlier this month from Access Innovations, Inc., an organization founded in 1978 and whose focus is Internet technology applications, master data management, database creation, thesaurus and taxonomy creation, and semantic integration. (I know, there’s a lot
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Between the Lines: Trending Now

Welcome to January 2016. If things go according to plan, and even if they don’t, it’s going to be another exciting year for the document imaging industry. Over the next 12 months expect to see new product introductions, product refreshes, acquisitions, people coming and going,
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Between the Lines: Another Year Ends, Another Begins, and We’re Looking for More Content

It’s been another interesting year in the document imaging industry and now it’s come to an end. If you haven’t read it already, you may want to check out my article on the top document imaging industry stories of the year in the December issue of ENX. What can we expect from the
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Between the Lines: 12 Months of Dealers Giving Back to Their Communities

If there’s one thing I admire about the independent dealer community besides their successes and their spirit of entrepreneurship, it’s the importance so many place on giving back to their communities, particularly around the holidays. Yes, that’s something that makes good
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Between the Lines: Will Sharp’s Weekend Dealer Meeting Become the New Normal for Dealer Meetings?

Before I start, don’t forget to read my recap of the Sharp dealer meeting in this week’s edition. It was an excellent show and reaffirmed Sharp’s commitment to the channel despite all the financial troubles its parent company in Japan has been dealing with the past few years.
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Between the Lines: Kyocera Rolls Out New Apps and Canon Recaps 2015 and Looks to 2016

Two OEMs have been making a bit of noise the past few weeks and I thought it would be interesting to share some of that noise with you while I’m away at the Sharp dealer meeting. During the second week in November Kyocera had a Webinar to introduce two new apps that further
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Between the Lines: Celebrating Entrepreneurship in the Document Imaging Industry

Let’s talk entrepreneurship in the document imaging industry. After all, that’s the foundation of this industry stretching back to the earliest days. I’ve interviewed dozens and dozens of dealer principals in my day and what strikes me about these individuals is their focus.
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Between the Lines: Reasons to Be Thankful…One, Two, Three…

It’s a holiday week and a short one at that for many of you so I thought I’d reflect on some of the reasons that I’m thankful to be part of the document imaging industry. It’s something I think about every once in a while and although as a journalist the this wasn’t the first on
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Between the Lines: A Game Changing Sale in the Dealer Channel

You wouldn’t think that one of the largest dealerships in the country would ever end up putting itself on the market and then selling to what probably was the highest bidder, but think again. And think hard because that’s what happened with Marco, Inc. the St. Cloud,
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Between the Lines: How Much is Too Much?

I ask that question because this month’s main feature focuses on mastering new marketing methods. That means we’re mostly talking about social media. Like any new technology, and we’ll call social media a technology for lack of a better term, there’s a learning curve associated
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Between the Lines: Change Happens so Does Other Stuff…Faster Than You Think

I was going to be writing about my trip to the Square 9 Encompass conference this week, but I’m putting that off until next week with the latest news hitting the wires about Lexmark and Xerox. I was just in Lexington for a press and analyst briefing (see my article below) and all
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Between the Lines: Customer Appreciation

As I’ve been writing the Elite Dealer profiles for the December issue of ENX and comb through the responses for unique marketing programs I’m seeing quite a few dealers touting their customer appreciation events. It’s amazing how much time, effort, and resources go into events
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Between the Lines: If I’d Known I’d Be Staying…

A couple of weeks ago at The Cannata Dinner I was speaking with someone who’s been around the document imaging industry for something like 40 years working in various capacities. He’s now with a wholesaler. I’ve accumulated nearly 30 years and afterwards it got me thinking about
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Between the Lines: Always Connected

Remember the days before e-mail, laptops, mobile devices, and cell phones? Those were the days when you could truly be on vacation and not tempted to check phone messages, e-mails, etc. Those were also the days when you would return to the office and be greeted by hundreds of
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Between the Lines: High Living on the Road…NOT!

In July I wrote a column about bad bosses and referenced a bad boss that I worked for years ago. I wish I had more examples of bad bosses to write about because not only is it cathartic, it’s amusing too. But even somewhat competent bosses say and do amusing things and that’s
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