{"id":7971,"date":"2014-09-18T13:38:34","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T20:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=7321"},"modified":"2016-09-15T09:53:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T16:53:19","slug":"between-the-lines-a-five-minute-recap-of-btas-grand-slam-baltimore-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2014\/09\/between-the-lines-a-five-minute-recap-of-btas-grand-slam-baltimore-event\/","title":{"rendered":"A Five-Minute Recap of BTA\u2019s Grand Slam Baltimore Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Camden<\/a>I spent the first part of this week at BTA Grand Slam in Baltimore, home of the MLB Eastern Division Champion Baltimore Orioles.<\/p>\n

For a regional event, this had all the substance of a national event, or at least the sessions I attended did. What\u2019s nice about this event is that you\u2019re not forced to choose between concurrent sessions. There is no freedom of choice, and for those of us who have a hard time making up our mind when presented with multiple choices, this format works well.<\/p>\n

If you remember the early days of Saturday Night Live<\/em> and Father Guido Sarducci\u2019s Five-Minute University (Remember, for economics all you need to know is supply and demand), I\u2019m going to recap everything you need to know from the first day and a half of this BTA event (I missed the afternoon session on Tuesday because I had to get home to work on this issue of The Week in Imaging<\/em>.) \u00a0in less five minutes so if anybody asks you what happened this week at BTA Grand Slam, you can reference this information and it\u2019s almost like being there without the networking component.<\/p>\n

Keynote Address<\/strong> – Scott Maacabe, President and CEO of Toshiba discussed driving revenue in the less print era. \u201cIndustry economics are changing, megatrends have a significant influence on how we live and the behaviors of how we conduct commerce, and that goes all the way through to our business,\u201d he said. \u201cThose mega trends are real and we\u2019re immersed in them even though you might not necessarily fully appreciate or understand them. Unit sales and document volume are decreasing, single-function printer volume is vulnerable, and smart dealers are focusing on color and MPS. Partner well to deliver managed services to your customer. That can be digital signage, it could be word capture solutions, it could be workflow, it could be security solutions, but partner appropriately and work your partners to provide you with the education and the services that you require to be successful. Stay connected, participate in events such as this, understand the value that\u2019s brought to you, understand the knowledge base and the thought leadership that\u2019s out there that you can draw on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dealer Panel on What is Your Diversification Strategy?<\/strong> It\u2019s all about alternate revenue streams. For Cindi Gondek of ACT Group in Cromwell, CT, it\u2019s 3D printing. For Mike McCurdy of Integrated Technologies in Twin Falls, ID, it\u2019s Managed IT, and for David Scibetta of Copier Fax Busineess Technologies in Buffalo, NY, it\u2019s document management. Bottom line: Diversifying into 3D printing and Managed IT is hard, document management not as difficult.<\/p>\n

Manufacturer Panel on Navigating a Changing Office Landscape \u2013<\/strong> Dennis Amorosano of Canon, Phil Boatman of Lexmark, and Jim Buck of OKI Data Americas discussed the transformation going on in their organizations, how they remain committed to print even as they focus on new opportunities or on bridging the gap between the new (solutions, services, apps) and old (hardware), as well as the promise and challenges that A4 technology brings to the channel.<\/p>\n

The Shifting Office Technology Industry \u2013<\/strong> Bob Palmer, analyst with BPO Media, underscored many points made in the earlier presentations while noting three elements driving this are mobile technology, how we work, and who\u2019s coming into the workforce (Gen Y). He made a good point when he noted that we are all mobile workers if we\u2019re using mobile technology. Regarding the future of print, it\u2019s tied to existing document infrastructure and we are seeing a transition from print to display, which is inevitable and only going to increase. As far as mobile printing, Palmer reports that most users want that capability, but few are actually printing. Workflow is also key to the transition and it\u2019s important for dealers to identify how and where digital mobile workflow will change existing business processes. It\u2019s also important for dealers to get ingrained in their customer\u2019s workflow because that\u2019s how to become an important provider long term. One final point from Palmer\u2019s presentation: \u201cOur industry needs to work harder at positioning and explaining the value of color.\u201d<\/p>\n

3D Printing \u2013<\/strong> I\u2019m going to present a more comprehensive recap on Airwolf 3D President Mark Mathews presentation on 3D printing next week. But if you\u2019re wondering whether or not to get into this market, Mathews offered some sobering thoughts. \u201cIt\u2019s unlikely your copier rep can make the sale. He isn\u2019t<\/em> going to make the sale. It is a huge market, it\u2019s growing, it\u2019s fascinating, and it\u2019s fun, and if you have the right skill set and are willing to make the investment, it\u2019s worth it.\u201d However, compared to MPS on a scale of one to 10 as far as difficulty of the sale, Mathews says MPS is a 3 while 3D printing is a 10.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent the first part of this week at BTA Grand Slam in Baltimore, home of the MLB Eastern Division Champion Baltimore Orioles. For a regional event, this had all the substance of a national event, or at least the sessions I attended did. What\u2019s nice about this event is that you\u2019re not forced to choose between concurrent sessions. There is no freedom of choice, and for those of us who have a hard time making up our mind when presented with multiple choices, this format works well. If you remember the early days of Saturday Night Live and Father Guido Sarducci\u2019s Five-Minute University (Remember, for economics all you need to know is supply and demand), I\u2019m going to recap everything you need to know from the first day and a half of this BTA event (I missed the afternoon session on Tuesday because I had to get home to work on this issue of The Week in Imaging.) \u00a0in less five minutes so if anybody asks you what happened this week at BTA Grand Slam, you can reference this information and it\u2019s almost like being there without the networking component. Keynote Address – Scott Maacabe, President and CEO of Toshiba discussed driving revenue in the less print era. \u201cIndustry economics are changing, megatrends have a significant influence on how we live and the behaviors of how we conduct commerce, and that goes all the way through to our business,\u201d he said. \u201cThose mega trends are real and we\u2019re immersed in them even though you might not necessarily fully appreciate or understand them. Unit sales and document volume are decreasing, single-function printer volume is vulnerable, and smart dealers are focusing on color and MPS. Partner well to deliver managed services to your customer. That can be digital signage, it could be word capture solutions, it could be workflow, it could be security solutions, but partner appropriately and work your partners to provide you with the education and the services that you require to be successful. Stay connected, participate in events such as this, understand the value that\u2019s brought to you, understand the knowledge base and the thought leadership that\u2019s out there that you can draw on.\u201d Dealer Panel on What is Your Diversification Strategy? It\u2019s all about alternate revenue streams. For Cindi Gondek of ACT Group in Cromwell, CT, it\u2019s 3D printing. For Mike McCurdy of Integrated Technologies in Twin Falls, ID, it\u2019s Managed IT, and for David Scibetta of Copier Fax Busineess Technologies in Buffalo, NY, it\u2019s document management. Bottom line: Diversifying into 3D printing and Managed IT is hard, document management not as difficult. Manufacturer Panel on Navigating a Changing Office Landscape \u2013 Dennis Amorosano of Canon, Phil Boatman of Lexmark, and Jim Buck of OKI Data Americas discussed the transformation going on in their organizations, how they remain committed to print even as they focus on new opportunities or on bridging the gap between the new (solutions, services, apps) and old (hardware), as well as the promise and challenges that A4 technology brings to the channel. The Shifting Office Technology Industry \u2013 Bob Palmer, analyst with BPO Media, underscored many points made in the earlier presentations while noting three elements driving this are mobile technology, how we work, and who\u2019s coming into the workforce (Gen Y). He made a good point when he noted that we are all mobile workers if we\u2019re using mobile technology. Regarding the future of print, it\u2019s tied to existing document infrastructure and we are seeing a transition from print to display, which is inevitable and only going to increase. As far as mobile printing, Palmer reports that most users want that capability, but few are actually printing. Workflow is also key to the transition and it\u2019s important for dealers to identify how and where digital mobile workflow will change existing business processes. It\u2019s also important for dealers to get ingrained in their customer\u2019s workflow because that\u2019s how to become an important provider long term. One final point from Palmer\u2019s presentation: \u201cOur industry needs to work harder at positioning and explaining the value of color.\u201d 3D Printing \u2013 I\u2019m going to present a more comprehensive recap on Airwolf 3D President Mark Mathews presentation on 3D printing next week. But if you\u2019re wondering whether or not to get into this market, Mathews offered some sobering thoughts. \u201cIt\u2019s unlikely your copier rep can make the sale. He isn\u2019t going to make the sale. It is a huge market, it\u2019s growing, it\u2019s fascinating, and it\u2019s fun, and if you have the right skill set and are willing to make the investment, it\u2019s worth it.\u201d However, compared to MPS on a scale of one to 10 as far as difficulty of the sale, Mathews says MPS is a 3 while 3D printing is a 10.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[1710,1711,1457,1712,1680,134,1713,749,750,163,169,1714,1715,228,233,238,1716,259,278,294],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7988,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions\/7988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}