Seldom the cheapest, but always the best…

When I got back into the business-to-business technology sales game about 9 months ago I wasn’t overly surprised to find that the Xerox product line that I am representing is seldom the low-price bidder for business. Xerox is the last American manufacturer left in this segment (Xerox still manufactures more than 50% of its product line in the U.S.) and at the low-end of the market products manufactured in Asia by Asian companies are the price leaders. The same thing happened with computers and most consumer electronics years ago. Once a product set becomes viewed by the buying public as a commodity it immediately becomes a lowest price wins game.

One thing that I now have to spend quite a bit of time on with potential customers is educating them about why these essential office machines are not a commodity and what to look for to differentiate between similar looking devices, especially as it relates to real value. There has to be a defensible reason for someone to pay more to buy my product, even though “Buy American” is at least a good reason to pause and look at the products in some detail.

I generally explain the Xerox differences by focusing upon two main categories of real value to the buyer – product features/functions (how they impact the buyer’s work environment) and business practices (how dealing with Xerox gives buyers some very real and tangible benefits). If the potential customer can’t see the Xerox differences and value in those two broad categories, then they are really not a prospect, just a shopper and I don’t do well with shoppers.

Xerox spends a lot of design effort and money on making sure that our machines are the most effective machines that you can buy. A major part of that is the designed in capability for multitasking. All modern machines, from all the vendors can make a valid claim to be multifunctional; that is, they all have the ability to do copying, printing, scanning and faxing. The palce where most, if not all of the Xerox competitors fall down is being able to do more than one of those things at a time or being able to multitask. In order to be able to multitask the machine has to be designed with separate resources for the separate functions. Xerox machines are designed that way. Others are not.

In most Xerox machines thee are separate, dedicated resources (processor, memory and other resources) for the print engine, the san engine and the fax engine. That means that you can start a large print job (either sent as a print job from a PC or a large copy job) and still make use of the scanning capabilities of the machine or send a Fax. Those resources aren’t tied up by the big print job. On toerh machines, once that print job starts, everyone with any other job will just stand around and wait – the whole machine is consumed by that one job. It is this designed-in ability to do multiple jobs at once that gives Xerox machines such a big edge when they are tested for effectiveness using typical work scenarios. That is why year after year Xerox models show up as the most effective machines in the tests run my independent tester Buyers Labs Inc. There are other designed in factors that I can discuss with you at length.

The second big category of difference is in the Xerox practices, especially as they relate to leases, which is the most commonly used way customers get a multifunction machine. Xerox leases come without the many hidden charges that other vendors don’t tell their clients about until the bill arrives. It’s “Oh, did we forget to mention the delivery and set-u charges?” Or, maybe, “Well, of course, you have to pay for insurance while you have t machine and for property taxes, too; didn’t we mention that up front?” Or maybe, “Certainly, you have to pay for shipping of your supplies. You didn’t expect not to, did you?” Those are a few areas that other vendors use to recoup some of the money they may have lost by appearing to be the low-cost vendor.

So, the bottom line here is that these devices are not commodities. They are not all alike. And, other company’s business practices may add significantly to what you thought was going to be the lowest cost. Call me and let’s explore this further.

Are you ready for the Blue Button?

Background -

On August 3rd President Obama announced the advent of a new button: The Blue Button. The Blue Button is a health data download button. Consumers can presumably click on the Blue Button and their medical records will then commence downloading to their computer (securely, of course). Anybody can get a complete medical record on demand; with no delays from the busy medical records department and no special fees and no rims and rims of paper records to carry around. Sounds like an awesome step forward for medical records portability.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will make Blue Buttons available for Medicare beneficiaries and so is the Veterans Administration (VA). The Markle Foundation issued a policy paper and a challenge to developers to do something meaningful with the Blue Button data (in partnership with Health 2.0). Statistically about about 30% of the U.S. population will have full electronic access to their medical records by virtue of a Blue Button.

Some Early Blue Button Implementations –

The VA delivers health care and it has an EHR (VistA) and gigantic amounts of electronic medical records to share. The VA also has a website, My HealtheVet, where members can access their latest medical records, view benefits and perform simple transactions, such as requesting meds refills and updating information. My HealtheVet, which is truly a PHR, will now be sporting a Blue Button, so members can download their electronic medical records in ASCII text format. The VA has a sample download file and it looks very useful.

CMS, on the other hand, is basically a payer. CMS will be adding the Blue Button to their member portal, MyMedicare, where claim data will be available for download and also, what seems to be, Self Entered clinical data. Presumably Medicare beneficiaries will update their clinical histories and then push the button to download the file, also in ASCII text format. Unlike the VA, CMS is not quite ready to allow beneficiaries to download this data to their own computers, but prefers that the data is transferred to a commercial PHR instead (e.g. Google Health, Microsoft Health Vault).

Getting Ready for the Blue Button –

Before your can offer blue button Electronic Medical Records (EMR) access to your  patients, you need to get one of our “green button” scanning solutions in place in your office. Why? Because most practices still have tons of paper-based records and a Xerox document scanning solution, based upon one of our modern multifunction devices is the fastest and most reliable way to turn those documents into electronic images that can be stored and retrieved by blue button applications. Xerox, along with numerous solutions partners offers everything from simple scanning and forwarding software all the way to sophisticated, fully features EMR applications. And they all start with the Xerox Green Button. Call me and let's discuss how you can get ready for the demands o fthe Blue Button.

Things that don’t show up on bid response spreadsheets –

I get involved in a fair number of bid situations - bids that are let by local governmental bodies, such as Counties, Townships, Villages and Cities or libraries and senior centers. I always know that wining in those situations will be tough, because so many of the decisions are made off of some spreadsheet that somebody creates from the bid responses. Spreadsheets have their place in the decision making process, I suppose: however, they also lead to oversimplification of the analysis that should be taking place. The issue really is that spreadsheets have no way of accounting for some of the very real differences that add or subtract value from the solutions that were bid.

Most bids have a few criteria defined, such as copy/print speed, features like two-sided copy/print and scanning, perhaps faxing and maybe will ask for variations on pricing for different lease lengths. Few if any of the bids that I've seen have any real provision for differentiating between vendor offerings in several key categories. Those differences can be costly, but those cost are often hidden in the vendor responses, if they are mentioned at all. Most vendors follow a "don't ask - don't tell" policy. If the bid documents don't ask the question about something like the charges to take out the machine at the end of the lease, then don't tell. Not all things that can't be easily shown on a spreadsheet are cost items. Some are performance items caused by real differences in the design and engineering of the machines.

All modern multifunction machines tend to look pretty much alike and most vendors make many of the same claims about capabilities. Below are some areas that you might want to look further int, since they just don't show up on the normal evaluation spreadsheets.

Customer Benefits that come from Xerox hardware design –

Efficiency - Xerox multifunction devices are designed to be more efficient than our competitors, often as much as 30% more efficient in tests by Buyer’s Lab International.

Effectiveness - Xerox Smart Controllers support true multitasking operations which allow the devices to do more than one task at a time. Smart Controllers also support features such as smart paper trays, which identify the paper size in each tray and  print around which allows jobs may have stalled because of a lack of resources to be skipped.

Increased uptime – Xerox Smart Kits are user replaceable components that make it easy to replace the components that most often wear out in the devices. Xerox users can keep their devices up an running, rather than placing service calls.

Security - Xerox is the only manufacturer to certify their complete devices, to earn Common Criteria Recognition Agreement certification. Xerox devices support disk overwrite as well to insure that critical sensitive data is not left on the disk drive.

Earth Friendly - Xerox devices are EnergyStar™ rated, use earth friendly toner and produce less waste.

Customer benefits that come from how Xerox does business -

No Hidden Costs - Xerox does not charge extra for delivery and set-up of the device or for delivery of supplies. At lease end Xerox does not charge extra for removal of the device.

Xerox does not charge for insurance on leased devices.

Fixed operational cost - The Cost-per-Copy rate for Xerox maintenance can be fixed for the life of the lease.

No charge for scans - Scans on Xerox multifunction devices are free. Other vendors may charge for scans.

No double charges - Xerox charges only a single-page rate for copies/prints based upon 11 X 17 in paper. Other vendors may charge double for those pages.

Award Winning Service - The Xerox service organization has won the coveted J D Power Service Excellence Award four years in a row

The Xerox Total Satisfaction Guarantee - Xerox offers the only guarantee offered by any vendor that allows the customer, not the vendor, to make the decision on when the device needs to be replaced because it just isn’t performing to the customer’s satisfaction.

Buy Local/Buy American - The Digital Document Store is a local business, based in Milford and Xerox is the only American manufacturer of office equipment.

10 Questions To Ask Before You Lease A Copier/Printer

Are you getting ready to lease a multifunction copier for your office?  Beyond the proposal from your vendor there are several items that need to be considered.  Most local vendors operate as resellers for major manufacturers in the imaging industry.  These independent agents may have their own set of rules on how leases and other services are structured.  This is typical because vendors support their clients locally and work with leasing companies that are not tied directly with the manufacturer of the office equipment they sell – otherwise known as 3rd party leasing companies.  Understand your local vendor’s rules (and costs) associated with a lease before you enter into any long term contract to protect your organization from hidden expenses.

1.  How are 11 x 17 prints calculated if I have a Cost per Copy (CPC) plan?

Many vendors charge differently for prints or copies made on tabloid or larger sized paper.  In the imaging industry, most vendors use some sort of cost per copy calculation.  For larger print output most charge 2 “clicks”, but some vendors only charge 1 “click.”

2.  Who pays for service copies or prints ran during service calls?

Will you have to pay for impressions being made when a service person is working on the equipment?  During service visits it is normal for a technician to run several hundred impressions.

3.  Do you charge for delivery on supplies that are part of your CPC contract?

Are you the customer paying for the supplies going into your machine?  Most leases are between 3-5 years and if you have to pay for shipping for routine supply items such as toner, drums or imaging units costs can add up quickly.

4.  Is there any charge for making scans on the equipment?

More and more multifunction devices are being used for document archiving and email transmission.  Having to pay for scans made is not a common practice, but nonetheless a good thing to check.

5.  What happens at the end of the lease?

How does your vendor address lease expiration and removals?  Normal shipping costs back to a leasing company can cost anywhere from $500 – $2,000 per machine.  It’s standard procedure for the customer to be responsible for the return fee, crating, and packaging prior to the return.  In addition, understand what happens if you don’t declare your intentions before the lease ends with your equipment.  In other words, does your lease automatically renew for a year, or does it go month to month?

6.  How does insurance work on the equipment you lease?

1/4% of the asset value is the industry average per month.  Ask if you have to take the 3rd party leasing company’s insurance or if you can use your own.

7.  Is property tax extra on a lease?

This varies from state to state, but ask your vendor about the local rates.  This can inflate your base monthly lease price if it is not already included.

8.  What is your guarantee if you are not satisfied after the sale?

What happens if you get a “lemon” after the lease is executed?  Does your vendor honor giving you a totally different machine if something goes really wrong?

9.  Are there anymore fees I should be aware of?

Other items to address up front are lease administration fees, UCC filing fees, delivery and setup, network connectivity, fuel surcharges, color calibration and system overhauls.  Every vendor operates differently, so try to outline what is or isn’t covered.

10.  What happens to my hard drive after lease termination?

With the recent reports of security breaches in the imaging industry, it is important to understand exactly what happens to your machine’s hard drive if you return your equipment at the end of a lease.  There may be additional costs associated with removal or destruction of this accessory before it is sent back to the leasing company.

Call me and let's discuss how I answer these questions - 248-763-2497. I can also provide you with a nice little comparison chart that yiou can use to compare vendor responses to these questions and bring any "hidden costs" out in the light.

Why multitasking is so important

Most vendors now offer what are called multifunction office machines – devices that have the capability to perform the functions of copying, network printing, scanning and faxing. That’s a good thing. It allows for consolidation of those functions into one device and the possible elimination of many of the old, single-function machines that were in the work environment.
What many of those machines don’t have is the ability to multitask – the ability to do more than one thing at a time. All Xerox floor model machines and some desktop devices have that ability. Why is that important? If you have a device that can send a fax and can print (or print copies) wouldn’t it make sense to be able to send that fax while the device is printing? After all, the fax only requires the scanner portion of the machine and the ability to use the phone line and process the fax. Xerox multifunction devices can do that. Most other machines can’t. See the graphic below to “see” the difference that this makes in your day-to-day work flow.

What this all means to you is that your people can get more things done quicker when they don’t have to stand around waiting for the multifunction machine to finish whatever function it happens to be processing at the time. There is only one print engine and only one scan engine, but the ability of them to work independently of each other can make a big difference.

A real life example might be that you or someone else has just started a big copy or print job, say 50 copies of a 20 page document; and now you want to scan in something else to email or maybe use the fax function to send a fax. On most competitive machines you just stuck waiting for that big copy/print job to finish. On a Xerox multifunction machine, because it is also a multitasking machine, yo can go ahead with that second job. The scanner and the fax functions have their own processors and can operate independent of the print engine.

Getting ready for the “Blue Button"

Background -

On August 3rd President Obama announced the advent of a new button: The Blue Button. The Blue Button is a health data download button. Consumers can presumably click on the Blue Button and their medical records will then commence downloading to their computer (securely, of course). Anybody can get a complete m

edical record on demand; with no delays from the busy medical records department and no special fees and no rims and rims of paper records to carry around. Sounds like an awesome step forward for medical records portability.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will make Blue Buttons available for Medicare beneficiaries and so is the Veterans Administration (VA). The Markle Foundation issued a policy paper and a challenge to developers to do something meaningful with the Blue Button data (in partnership with Health 2.0). Statistically about about 30% of the U.S. population will have full electronic access to their medical records by virtue of a Blue Button.

Some Early Blue Button Implementations –

The VA delivers health care and it has an EHR (VistA) and gigantic amounts of electronic medical records to share. The VA also has a website, My HealtheVet, where members can access their latest medical records, view benefits and perform simple transactions, such as requesting meds refills and updating information. My HealtheVet, which is truly a PHR, will now be sporting a Blue Button, so members can download their electronic medical records in ASCII text format. The VA has a sample download file and it looks very useful.

CMS, on the other hand, is basically a payer. CMS will be adding the Blue Button to their member portal, MyMedicare, where claim data will be available for download and also, what seems to be, Self Entered clinical data. Presumably Medicare beneficiaries will update their clinical histories and then push the button to download the file, also in ASCII text format. Unlike the VA, CMS is not quite ready to allow beneficiaries to download this data to their own computers, but prefers that the data is transferred to a commercial PHR instead (e.g. Google Health, Microsoft Health Vault).

Getting Ready for the Blue Button –

Before your can offer blue button Electronic Medical Records (EMR) access to your  patients, you need to get one of our “green button” scanning solutions in place in your office. Why? Because most practices still have tons of paper-based records and a Xerox document scanning solution, based upon one of our modern multifunction devices is the fastest and most reliable way to turn those documents into electronic images that can be stored and retrieved by blue button applications. Xerox, along with numerous solutions partners offers everything from simple scanning and forwarding software all the way to sophisticated, fully features EMR applications. And they all start with the Xerox Green Button.

Consolidate to save...

Big companies often have people working on a lot of big things, many of them aimed at improving productivity and reducing costs. One of those big ideas that translates well to companies of all sizes is the consolidation of document-centric functions onto a smaller number of office devices. Over time almost every business has accumulated a variety of single-purpose document handling machines – printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines. In most cases this ad hoc growth of office equipment has resulted in a hodge-podge of different brands and models of equipment, each with its own supplies – toner or ink or whatever. Most are underutilized or not capable of being shared.

The solution that many larger companies have been pursuing is consolidation of these functions onto newer multi-function networked devices from Xerox that can print, copy, scan and fax. Instead of printer populations that approached 1 printer to every 3-4 workers in some companies, employees now share a single faster, more capable printer at ratios of 15 or 20-to-1, sometimes higher. This approach works well in work-group settings, in departments or smaller offices or companies where everyone is fairly close to some central point where the device may be located.

The benefit that the employees get is better print quality and faster printing. They may also be given access to color printing (if the device is color capable), which most may not have had before. Depending upon the device features employees may also take advantage of faxing and scanning, as well as using the copying functions that are standard with the devices. From the company’s viewpoint there is a tremendous potential for savings to be realized by getting rid of all of the different toner and ink supplies and from having everyone print and copy at a much lower per page rate that the bigger devices support. Many companies are discovering that they can recoup their upgrade costs in the first year or two just due to reduced supplies costs. Technical Support issues and costs are also dramatically lowered in consolidated environments.

If you really think about it, this is actually the lowest hanging fruit that can be harvested to immediately save money for your company. This does not involve changes to your existing application software and it is not some big new system that needs to be implemented. It provides better print and copy quality and speed to your employees, while optionally offering faxing and scanning capabilities to everyone. If you think this might be right for your company, give me a call. Xerox has several tools available for me to use to analyze your environment so that I can report back to you what’s in your current environment and make recommendations on how to consolidate most or all of those machines onto a smaller number of multifunction devices. Think big and let me help you work smaller (or at least for less cost).

The future is in the clouds...

The future is in the clouds, but there will always be documents…

The current “big thing” in the IT world is the unfolding role of so-called cloud computing. Cloud computing was given that name to represent the amorphous and ethereal nature of the computing environment that exists when the majority of a companies IT infrastructure is moved onto or outsourced onto private or publicly shared networks of computers and storage. Many large companies have created private clouds and there are several well-know public clouds – those available to anyone to use (at a cost of course), from Amazon and Google and Microsoft, to name a few.

Cloud computing has had a long gestation period as the technologies and standards that are necessary to allow it to work were developed. There are still a few questions to be answered, but cloud computing has definitely arrived.  The physical networks themselves took time to evolve and reach the necessary levels of standards maturity and capability to allow for the successful deployment of cloud computing. Much of the necessary hardware, software and standards has come together only in the last 2-3 years; but, now cloud computing is not only possible, it is fast becoming an imperative for IT shops.

Why? Lower cost is a primary factor. After all cloud computing allows companies to get rid of the physical infrastructure and the hardware and system software maintenance that is normally associated with running internal data centers. Company IT shops can now focus upon implementing new software and systems that create new business opportunities, rather than devoting time, energy and money towards just keeping the shop running. The second cost saver is that many cloud business models charge only for what is being used – compute power, storage, and network bandwidth – rather than what is sitting in a data center waiting to be used.

One thing that will remain largely unchanged by cloud computing is the need to deal with the documents of business, whether they are customer generated or aimed at customers. Information will still come in to the company on paper and the company will still need to generate lots and lots of documents, both internal and customer focused. For all of the hoopla about going paperless and how smart phones or other electronic devices (PCs, laptops, net books, iPads, or whatever) will replace paper; commerce still runs on catalogues and price books and order forms and bills of lading and invoices and instruction manuals and all of the thousands of other paper-based documents of day-to-day business.

That’s where Xerox comes into the picture. Xerox is “the document company.” Better yet Xerox is the document company that is best positioned to play in a cloud computing IT strategy. The cloud needs inputs in electronic form, which means getting the information from all of those incoming documents into a form that applications in the cloud can understand and use. That often means scanning and no one offers a stronger set of scanning options than Xerox. Whether it’s scanning into a file, scanning into a searchable PDF format or scanning and recognizing bar codes or scanning and performing OCR to create editable files, Xerox multifunction devices can handle the task of getting the incoming customer documents into the cloud. In addition, Xerox has the best compression algorithms in the business for those scan files, so your network traffic is lower with Xerox-based scan files.

And, when and application in the cloud needs to produce a document for internal or customer use, no one offers a wider range of networked office and production level devices, both black and whiter and color, than Xerox. Whether you need to print a few thousand pages a month or a few million, Xerox has a device that can handle the load. From office documents like email or word documents or spreadsheets all the way to massive quantities of full color marketing brochures and instruction manuals. Xerox has a printing device for that. Call me today to discuss how we can help with your cloud computing initiative.

Do you have trouble with Tribbles in your enterprise?

In the 1970’s TV show Star Trek there were a few episodes that featured Tribbles – cute and fuzzy little creatures that everyone loved, but which multiplied out of control and eventually took over whatever space they were in. Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise were forced to deal with containing the spread and cost of these cute little creatures, so that they did not threaten the ship.

Your enterprise might also be threatened by cute little equivalents of the Tribbles – in this case they are network printers and other office machines – copiers, faxes and scanners. Most people love them and they seem to be everywhere. That’s part of the problem – they are everywhere.

They just sort of multiply. Many organizations have allowed networked printers to be added in an ad hoc manner, because each individual purchase was viewed as a low-cost, stand-alone decision and most organizations really don’t have a plan or strategy for networked printing.


This was not considered to be a very important issue to most companies until the current financial downturn forced all companies to look at all costs within their organizations. Now it is becoming apparent to most companies that they need to get a handle on their current office equipment costs – printing, copying, faxing and scanning - and that they need a strategy and policies for acquiring, using and managing networked office devices


The largest component of the cost of networked office equipment is often not in the purchase price of the individual device (that’s often very reasonable), it’s the cost of the inks and toners and the maintenance that drives the enterprise-wide cost of the devices. And it’s the cost of buying and storing and managing all of the various ink and toner cartridges around the organization that drives up your support costs.


So, what can you do to rein-in these costs – to contain your Tribbles problem? Well, for one, you can get your arms around what size problem you have. Many companies don’t have a good audit of what printers and other devices are being used on their networks and most have no idea how they are being used. What is really being printed on all of those printers? How many people really print using color and how much color coverage (content) do their documents really have? How many people are still using the fax vs. scanning in and emailing files? Xerox has tools and services that we can use with you to determine what’s going on in your network and what the true costs are to have all of those cute Tribbles spread out in your enterprise.


Why is an audit important? You can’t suggest alternatives until you understand the current situation. Let us help you get a handle on your network printing costs. We’ll have lots of alternatives to discuss, from simple consolidation strategies based upon utilizing our modern multifunction machines, all the way to the complete outsourcing of the management of your printing/copying/scanning services under Xerox’s Managed Print Services. But first, we need to understand together what’s in your current office network environment. Call me today to get started.

Upcoming LACC Business Expo...

Lakes Area Chamber Of Commerce Expo Exclusive!

LACC Business EXPO & TASTE FestSATURDAY, NOVEMBER 611 am – 4 pm
Walled Lake Central High School
$5 – Adults – includes 10 Taste Tickets
(50% off admission coupon – click here)
FREE – kids 12 and under

That's where I'll be this Saturday. The Digital Document Store has a booth at the second annual Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce (LACC) Business Expo and we will be showing some of our products and examples of our printing services at the show. Stop by and visit.

Business shows like this one are always fun. There are lots of freebies being given away by various booth holders and drawings for door prizes every hour. In addition, this expo features taste of the lakes food tasting run by area resturants and a series of workshops on various topics of interest -

FREE WORKSHOPS:

12:00 PM - Lower Your Gas Bills 12:30 PM - Ask the Plummer 1:00 PM - Green Office Technology 1:30 PM - Home Renovations 2:00 PM - Health Care Reform & How it Affects Everyone 2:30 PM - Identity Theft 3:00 PM - Avon Mineral Make-up Presentation

I'll see you there. Stop by the booth and meet Carlos Allison and me. Carlos is doing the 1 PM Green Office Technology workshop, so find out what that's all about.

Other things to do or see at the Expo include:

Murray Gula, host of the popular weekend program on
AM Radio 1130
“Your First Resource for Home Improvements”

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES:Pero the Clown, RX Clowns Jennifer McCall, Freestyle Face Painting . . . and Crafts

HOURLY PRIZE DRAWINGS:$100 Home Depot Card
One nights stay at Comfort Suites
Gift Baskets
Gift Certificates
. . . and lots more!

NEW AUTO DISPLAY AREA

Ready for launch...

Welcome to the inaugural post to a whole new blog - the DigitalDoxNorm Blog. I've been an active blogger for years in a different life (don't we all have many lives). This is the initial blog concerning this life - the life of a sales rep for the Digital Document Store in Milford, Michigan. I work for Carlos Allison in a Xerox Agency role. We are agents for the full line Xerox products. We are located in the beautiful little Village of Milford about 25 miles north and east of Detroit - about half way to Flint or a third of the way to Lansing, Michigan. 

I came to this position quite by happenstance. I had "retired" after 30+ years selling IT solutions for such illustrious companies as Burroughs, Digital Equipment, Compaq, EMC and SGI (most of them names now just memories in the history of computers). After I retired I sold real estate for a living  and happened to become a user of the printing services available through the Digital Document Store in Milford. The owner asked me one day if I know of anyone who might be interested in selling copying and printing solutions and I relied , "Why not me?" I missed the Business-to-Business selling world of IT and this seemed like a good way to get back in the saddle. The rest, as they say, is history.

After undergoing the same product and selling process training as Xerox puts it's direct reps through I have been getting acquainted with the Xerox installed base in my territory and with many prospective customers, too. I cover most of Livingston County a part of Oakland County and a part of Macomb County for Carlos. It's a big territory with lots of great customers and huge potential for more. I'm excited about the challenges and the opportunities involved.

We represent Xerox as Authorized Agents of the company in the small to medium business segment of the overall market. Buying from us is just like buying from Xerox - same products delivered from the same factories, backed by the same warranties and serviced by the Xerox service organization. The only difference between buying from me or buying from a Xerox badged rep is who signs the paychecks.

One of the things that I rediscovered in this job is the impact of foreign competition and commoditization of the copier/printer business. The Xerox name is virtually synonymous with copying is America.  No one says lets go make a Ricoh of this document. Yet, cheap foreign competition has taken a huge chunk of the market and led to the decline of the proud America Xerox name in the late 1980's. 

Fortunately Xerox has had some inspired leadership for the last decade or so and the turn around has been dramatic. The main challenge now is getting the word out and getting people to look at Xerox again. That's where I come in. I'm out every day trying to evangelize the Why Xerox message. There are tons of differences that are hidden behind the similar looks of today's copiers/printers and I'll cover those here over time.

So keep coming back to read about what Xerox and what it is doing in the document handling world. There won't be a lot of specific product model information presented here. Call me and I'll come out to your shop to do that. I hope to concentrate more on broader issues and the bigger trends in the industry, share some customer success stories and insights about solutions that I work on for clients. There's a lot more exciting things happening in the mundane world of documents than you may be aware of and I'll work to change that for you.

Occasionally I'll just post about things going on in my life or things that I get a bug in my bonnet about (or a burr under my saddle about), but, hey,it's my blog so you'll just have to bear with those occasions. Fell free to join in or to comment. I may not publish your comments, especially if they are nothing but Viagra ads sent as comments, but don't let that stop you.