Markets force European sovereign debt issue – ‘Show me the money!’

A few weeks ago I wrote on the spectre of sovereign debt and the challenges it posed for those doing business across Europe. So far it seems we have followed an entirely predictable path.

As spending cuts and strike action started in Greece so Eurozone politicians were telling the World that there was no need to worry because they had a plan. That plan was to provide emergency funding but only if absolutely necessary. The politicians told us that as Greece was going to cut spending a bail out was not going to be needed so we could all get on with whatever else it was we were doing. The markets quickly decided otherwise. Hollow words were not enough, the markets wanted to know that the money was actually there. Everyone knew that it wasn’t. Read more »

HP Extends Its MES Offerings

On April 20, HP made a few new announcements to help strengthen its Managed Enterprise Services (MES) offering to its customers. HP has been offering Managed Print services through its direct organization for almost 4 years now. HP executives say that the company currently has approximately 2,500 customers and is managing approximately 18.5 billion pages under HP MPS programs. Back in September of 2009, HP formally named its program Managed Enterprise Services, in which executives reinforced the company’s Optimize, Manage, and Improve Workflow strategies with new solutions and an extended alliance with longtime partner Canon. This alliance was reinforced with an announcement made last week between HP, Canon, and Fedex Office. This new offering will bring about 12,000 devices into 1,800 locations where customers will be able to utilize these print and output solutions in a near site location. Read more »

Clover and West Point Products: A Major Development in the Supplies Industry

The supplies industry has a new player and it comes ready to play and invest, Golden Gate Capital. On April 14, 2010, Golden Gate Capital, a private equity investment firm based in San Francisco (which makes sense given their name), announced the acquisitions of Clover Technologies Group and West Point Products. This news could be arguably viewed as combining the largest and second largest aftermarket players in the supplies industry. Golden Gate has approximately $8 billion of capital under management and plans to become a perpetual fund for these two major supplies companies. Now with the backing of Golden Gate, potential opportunities include investing in research and development, new products, and more acquisitions domestically and globally. We have been told that Golden Gate does not plan to buy these two companies and then sell in a few years as sometimes happens in these situations.

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HP Scrubs Edgeline MFP Program

Not quite three years since the initial launch, HP has officially discontinued its Edgeline MFP program. The two Edgeline-based color MFPs, the CM8050 and CM8060, were introduced with a great deal of fanfare and market speculation—not only because of the unique ink-based marking technology employed in the products but also because these were the industry’s first products to offer a usage-based pricing model with a multi-tiered pricing scheme for color. HP’s intent with the Edgeline platform was to challenge traditional color laser-based MFPs, and ultimately drive color adoption in the office by lowering the per-page printing costs.

HP has little to say about the cancellation of the program, except to confirm that it has discontinued production of the CM8050 and CM8060 effective immediately. With inventory still available, HP says it will continue to offer the products as part of its MFP lineup through Spring 2010. Moving forward, HP will build out its own laser-based MFP portfolio for non-MPS customers. For MPS customers, HP will continue to sell HP-branded products and Canon-branded MFPs available through the Canon alliance. According to HP, the firm will support all outstanding warranties, including all Service Level Agreements for current HP CM8060/CM8050 customers. HP also says it will provide service and parts support for the Edgeline-based MFPs for five years after the final shipment date.

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European debt resulting in different speeds of economic recovery

Wherever I go at the moment I hear cautious optimism regarding the European economy and the prospects for business in 2010. Nevertheless there seems to be something troubling people, a sense of unease despite the positive sentiments. A couple of weeks ago someone went as far as suggesting they were seeing a multi-speed recovery in Europe; some markets picking up - others remaining severely challenged.

Today, I thought I’d take the bull by the horns, go one step further and openly talk about the enormous elephant in the room – DEBT.

OK, so I’ve said it – what now? Read more »

Canon to Acquire Océ

Today, Canon Inc. (trading symbol CAJ) announced a public cash offer for all the shares of Océ (trading symbol OCE).  Canon intends to make an offer of € 8.60 per Share (cum dividend) for 100% of the outstanding Shares of Océ, representing a premium of 70% over Océ’s closing share price of Friday 13 November 2009 and 137% to the average share price over the last 12 months, this makes the deal worth about 1.1 billion dollars.

In the wake of other major acquisitions in the last year, particularly Ricoh’s acquisition of IKON, there has been much speculation about what Canon will do. Now that Canon has agreed to acquire Océ, it is clear that one of its strategic options has been selected. Read more »

The Expanding Scope of Managed Print Services (MPS)

InfoTrends’ MPS service clients are aware of the impending expansion of MPS scope, which is currently focused on the office environment. In our May 2009 document entitled “The New MPS: Scope and Services” (login required), we discussed research data and vendor announcements that clearly indicated managed print in the Office would  grow beyond this scope to include virtual/remote workers, CRD, in-plant production, and even commercial print. As an example:

• InfoTrends’ Professional and Managed Print Services research indicates that only 11% of MPS prospects would not roll old hardware into new contracts, implying that MPS could quickly cannibalize currently unmanaged devices and environments.
• At AIIM / On Demand 2009, HP announced that its latest version of Web Jetadmin (device management) added support for large-format DesignJet devices. HP also announced MPS support for remote/virtual users that included a limited number of devices bundled with next-day replacement support and supplies replenishment.
• Although not formally announced, press releases regarding Xerox wins implied that remote/virtual workers and their devices were indeed managed under enterprise MPS contracts.

Last week, Xerox finally formalized its Enterprise Print Services (EPS) offering. Specifically, the announcement expands on the scope of their MPS offering to include remote/virtual workers and production-class print. Read more »

O-pinion: Oki’s MPS Portal Reviewed

In a week that’s sure to be dominated by Xerox-ACS analysis, let’s focus on another vendor that is quietly gaining traction in the Managed Print Services (MPS) market — namely, Oki Printing Solutions and their 3-tier Total Managed Print program. At the lowest tier, the PageStart option helps channel players sell Oki products  with comprehensive supplies and services under a cost-per-page (CPP) model. Nothing novel here, but Oki’s partner portal takes this offering to another level altogether.

Oki’s Business Partner Exchange (BPX) is no ordinary Web site but rather an MPS application in the cloud. Using a step-by-step process, the portal takes channel players through easy-to-answer questions:

• “Select the contract term”
• “Choose your primary distributor”
• “Input your margin for this product”
• “Choose your accessories,” and other MPS proposal fields. Read more »

Toshiba Dealer Summit

Toshiba – Committed to Your Success

InfoTrends recently attended one of two regional events for Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc.  July 28th in Jersey City, NJ. The event was a mixture of channel partners, software, supply and services vendors and analysts. Toshiba took this opportunity to discuss their company and division’s performance as well as to make some announcements regarding new initiatives regarding MPS, solutions, products and programs. Some of the announcements to come out of the meeting were:

• A new branding campaign, and redesigned website
• Product introductions – 9 new monochrome models with emphasis on ecology and security
• A multi-tiered software strategy designed to aid dealers in positioning solutions
• Additions to the software product portfolio – Prism Software’s “desk” series of products
• New partners announcements – Pharos Systems, Fasoo
• Enhancements to the Encompass MPS program – PageSmart series of options
• A newly inked agreement with HP to offer their line of printer and MFP products

Toshiba remained confident about the future of the industry and took this opportunity to once again squelch rumors of a buyout. Dealers left with assurances to the commitment level Toshiba has to its products, programs and services and of course, its channel.

HP Bets on Ben Stein (and Managed Print Services)

HP made several Managed Print Services (MPS) announcements this morning, including a Printing Payback Guarantee — official site here. The announcement took place live from a former U.S. Mint in San Francisco and was moderated by comedian and economist Ben Stein.

When you peel back the layers, HP is effectively guaranteeing that they’ll save you what they say they’ll save you (through MPS assessments). Barring large shifts in volume or print needs, MPS is generally billed as a flat monthly rate or cost-per-click; contracted over 3-5 years; and laden with pretty hefty Service Level Agreement (SLA) language. That said, the onus is often on a provider to deliver on the cost-containment promises of their proposal anyway.

Outside the marketing-speak, then, is the more important point — HP assessments will reveal significant cost saving opportunities, and HP is committed to delivering on them. InfoTrends’ studies show average cost-savings of 20%-25% across several studies, and HP’s guarantee validates these benefits. Particularly in context of the recession — a recurring theme throughout HP’s Webcast — organizations will look to these managed services benefits.

Under-discussed was the HP PagePlan program, which actually seems to be the more novel announcement. For customers “not yet ready for MPS,” PagePlan offers services, supplies, and support for HP devices. Bundled into these deals are also solutions for secure printing and job accounting, two of the most adjacent solutions to printing and print management.