In reading the new article in CIO magazine, “IT in 2011: Four Trends that Will Change Priorities”, finding the budget for more bandwidth will be increasing difficult in 2011 for most CIO’s. Add to this, the adjacent pressure now placed on the IT staff to make printing capabilities available from a plethora of mobile devices. Where can the money, in an already squeeze budget, be found? One solution to consider is MPS (Managed Print Services). By allowing a qualified print services provider to take over managing your printer and output devices, most companies are realizing 20 to 30% savings! When you consider that most companies spend between 2 -4% of their total revenues on printing, these savings can be quite substantial. Not to mention the ability to reallocate your IT staff’s time from printer break/fix to projects designed to enhance your company’s competitive edge.
As important, engaging in an MPS solution does not necessarily mean you have to buy anything. Driving costs down on your existing fleet is the first phase of any long-term MPS strategy. Intelligent deployment going forward, minimizes “printer creep”, right-sizes the fleet, and can assist in transitioning to printing solutions that support your growing mobile print demand.
“Doing more with less” as the article explains is at the heart of the MPS value basket. Doing some quick math, if you are CIO for a $10M company, your company is spending around (2%) $200,000 annually on printing. Even if MPS in your organization only captures 10% savings (well below the average), that equates to $20,000 annual savings. Most providers can deliver FIBRE for around $1,000 per month. That still leaves $8,000 for server or other infrastructure upgrades. If you would like to find out more about the benefits of MPS and the other ways MPS can impact your bottom line, download this free ebook.
Okay, we’ve all been there. I have 15 minutes for lunch so I turn into the nearest fast food dive. I give my order to the talking box, drive up to the next two windows, get my meal and split to my little, lunch get away parking lot for a few minutes of talk radio or to decompress. The bite of microwaved burger requires a quick shot of my drink to reduce the chance of blistering the roof of my mouth. But, as I look through the bag, there is no straw! They didn’t put a straw in the bag!! Really? Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to drink my drink without a straw? How could they forget something that miniscule? That simple? By now, I am teed off at the burger joint AND I have to make those weird breaths where you feel like you are actually blowing off the food that is still in your mouth.
So, I take the lid off the drink and guzzle it half down all the time thinking how inconvenienced I have been (Can you say high maintenance?) I feel like they just don’t care about quality customer care – And I am the customer they just don’t care about! That got me thinking. Do we forget to give our clients “the straw”? What are our “straws”? What little thing, if left out or ignored, would force a similar reaction with one of our clients? Because I drink too much chai tea, I even went as far as to create an acronym for STRAW’s (Simple Things Really Aggravating Without).
Of the entire cost to make the meal, the straw has to be least expensive component, but without it, I could not fully enjoy their product. As a customer driven organization, what simple thing if left out or ignored, keeps our clients from fully enjoying us? A phone call not returned in a timely manner? Having a client that spends thousands of dollars a month with us put on credit hold for a $30 open invoice? Not knowing key information about a new prospect before making an initial sales call on the CEO? Having a competitor introduce MPS to one of our key clients? Not having a $3 dollar part in inventory?
Let’s get real. For $5.00, I expect to repeat my order at least twice to the talking box, have the person taking my money taking the order of the car behind me, and on a good day, maybe get a thank you without any eye contact from the person handing me my meal. However, we ask our clients for significant sums of money and long-term contractual engagements. In many instances, if our product is not working correctly, our customer’s revenue is impacted. As we continue to forge our way into the world of MPS, we must know what those new, potential straws look like if we are to successfully navigate the thirsty waters of MPS – without us, or our newest customers, getting burned along the way.
If you feel your current office solution vendor has left you without a straw one too many times, or you are interested in hearing more about MPS, maybe we can help.
I ran across an old parable the other day. It had been years since I had heard this story but it struck me as being as relevant and instructive as ever for those of us in business—or for anyone, in fact.
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told the contractor who had employed him for years of his plans to leave the home-building business and live a more leisurely life. He and his wife planned to take it easy and enjoy their extended family. Sure, he would miss the paycheck, but he wanted to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his excellent, longtime worker go and asked him if he would be willing to build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter initially said yes, but it soon became clear that his heart was not in the project. He resorted to shoddy workmanship, took shortcuts, and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a career.
When the carpenter finished his work the employer came to inspect the house. Instead of looking it over, the owner simply handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you for your years of excellent work.”
The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.
So it is with us. Some build lives, a day at a time, often putting less than their best into the building. Then with a shock they realize they have to live in the house they have built. If they could do it over, they’d do it much differently.
It’s a sobering thought, but each of us is a carpenter. With today’s character, attitudes, and choices we build the “houses” we’ll be living in tomorrow.
Standley Systems was the presenting sponsor of the 2012 Oklahoma’s Top Executive Assistant contest and its January 12th awards ceremony held at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. The contest, hosted and promoted by The Journal Record, honored executive assistants from businesses and organizations across the state.
Honorees were selected from over a hundred nominations by a panel of businessmen and women. Pamela Jones, executive assistant with Oklahoma City-based Integris Mental Health, was chosen to receive the top honor from a group of 27 other executive assistants from businesses and organizations across the state.
Honorees were selected by an industry panel from dozens of nominations. Jayna Anderson, Senior V.P. of Marketing at Standley Systems presented the award to the winner.
This award recognizes the tremendous commitment and dedication of these important members who are essential to building a great team. It’s a pleasure to say ‘thank you’ to those who raise the quality of their respective organizations by their hard work each day. In that spirit, congratulations to all the finalists and especially to Pamela Jones for being named the 2012 recipient of this special award.
The term “hated” was a little misleading. The survey it cited measured customers’ levels of satisfaction (or dissatisfaction as the case may be.) I scanned the companies with the highest percentages of unhappy customers for common denominators.
Frequently cited complaints were unreliable service, incorrect billing, bad customer service, and unexpected extra fees. All of these are simply failures to treat clients or customers the way we all want to be treated. I’ve learned that great customer service is no more complicated that following the old “Golden Rule”—do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
As consumers we want our providers to send us accurate bills, answer our questions when we call with a problem, resolve our complaints with a good attitude and in a timely way. Why would your customers expect less from you?
Regular readers of this blog may remember that my company has an ongoing program that allows Oklahoma businesses to obtain office machines wrapped in the colors of their favorite Oklahoma major college football team. (See here.)
This promotion has been very popular, and on September 3rd, we took it to the next level. On that date, the Oklahoma Sooners faced the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and my company, Standley Systems, was a proud sponsor of the game.
Invited guests attended a pre-game reception with food and drinks, highlighted by a special appearance by OU legend Joe Washington—a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Our guests were able to obtain a personalized signed football by Joe Washington and have their pictures made with him and their families.
Tim Elliott and son with Joe Washington
We’re a proud Oklahoma company. And this promotion has been a fun and productive way to tap into that Oklahoma pride and serve our customers in an innovative way.
Regular readers know we’re pretty passionate about our home state. It should then come as no surprise that our dedication extends to Oklahoma’s two big state universities—the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.
Graduates and fans of OU and OSU are fiercely loyal. Partisans of these great schools tend to decorate their cars, their homes, and even their bodies with either OU’s crimson-and-cream or OSU’s trademark orange.
That led us to a discussion about how to help businesses express their loyalties in the office space. What we came up with was our school-logo-branded equipment program. We sought and received the exclusive rights to use the media marks of OU and OSU Athletics to create vinyl wraps for office equipment.
In other words, we decided it was high time to take printers and copiers out of the realm of “boring” and make them exciting again by wrapping them in the colors of Oklahoman’s favorite home teams.
And what about workplaces with fans of both schools? We got that common occurrence covered with our “house divided” versions. They feature both brands!
So far, it has all the makings of a big hit with Sooner and Cowboy fans. You can find out more here.
Here at Standley Systems, we got a wonderful, unsolicited letter of thanks and endorsement the other day. One that actually made me chuckle.
The letter was from Gaytan Broadcasting, LLC, a Tulsa-based company that owns several Spanish-language radio stations. The kind note from Operations Director Allen McLaughlin said, in part (emphasis in original):
Months ago we were approached by Standley Systems regarding our printing needs. Truthfully, I endured the sales call as a courtesy with absolutely no interest in making any type of change.
After reviewing our current printing system and our actual needs, a recommendation was made by Standley Systems. It was well-founded and made solid business sense. More importantly for KXTD it helped solve more than one business problem. Yes, we could save money by using a greatly improved system. And yes, we could save man-hours in the time our staff spent going to buy supplies. But we received much more.
The transition was seamless and, frankly, we are now able to do the type of printing functions that have actually made money for our company.
The reason I take the time to write this recommendation is because of what was not expected in the change. Standley Systems helped us make money.
What busy business owner can’t identify with Allen’s reluctance to listen to what he assumed was going to be another dry sales pitch? What he discovered is that we approach selling consultatively. In other words, we go in as experts in the field of workflow and information/document management and invariably have some insights that will help any business owner willing to listen.
And as Mr. McLaughlin discovered, we can often find multiple ways to add to a business’s bottom line.
Some recent reading in the book of Proverbs put me in remembrance of some key advice for business owners. I came across Proverbs 27:23 which states “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds.”
Proverbs is a wisdom book. And at first blush, a verse seemingly aimed at sheep and goat herders might not appear to hold much relevant wisdom for a 21st Century entrepreneur. But it reminded me of the importance of being diligent as a business owner.
For us, the modern day equivalent of “flocks” and “herds” is our staff, our resources, our growth strategies, and other assets.
The problem is, the busy-ness of life can make it easy to lose a fix on the condition of the things that have been entrusted to you. As business owners we are often pulled in a number of directions.
The demands of family, community, church, and friends all lay a valid claim to our time and attention. But in all of the “good” things we are doing we must keep a diligent eye on our core responsibilities.
I have learned the hard way that it’s easy to confuse being busy with being diligent. Now more than ever, success in business demands the quality of diligence.
Eighty years ago, in the midst of a deep economic crisis, tens of thousands of Oklahomans headed west for California in hopes of improving their quality of life.
Today, something quite the opposite is taking place. Each month since the beginning of the Great Recession in the fall of 2008, thousands of Californians have relocated to Oklahoma or Texas seeking better opportunities and a lower cost for better living.
A recent article in the Daily Oklahoman carrying the headline, “Migration stats indicate reverse ‘Grapes of Wrath’” pointed to this trend:
According to the Internal Revenue Service, Californians relocating to Oklahoma is a growing phenomenon in a sort of reverse “Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck’s Depression-era account of Okies moving from the Dust Bowl to work in the California orchards.
Based roughly on tax return exemptions, the number of Californians moving here outnumbered Sooners moving there by 21,376 from 1999 to 2008, the latest data available.
I’m not surprised. Our pro business climate, affordable housing and lower cost of living make for an appealing quality-of-life proposition.
Here is a map, generated using a special utility built by Forbes.com that graphically shows household moves to and from Oklahoma in 2008.
The graph shows significant movement to Oklahoma from the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle areas. This trend has only accelerated over the last two years. In fact, an Economic Development Group in which I am a member was recently told by a recruiter that one half of all new private sector jobs last year were created in Texas.
I’m convinced that Oklahoma has many of the same strengths as our neighbor to the south. And that means more and more Californians are going to discover what a lot of us have known for a long time. That is, Oklahoma is a wonderful place to live, work, do business, and raise a family.
In reading the new article in CIO magazine, “IT in 2011: Four Trends that Will Change Priorities”, finding the budget for more bandwidth will be increasing difficult in 2011 for most CIO’s. Add to this, the adjacent pressure now placed on the IT staff to make printing capabilities available from a plethora of mobile devices. Where can the money, in an already squeeze budget, be found? One solution to consider is MPS (Managed Print Services). By allowing a qualified print services provider to take over managing your printer and output devices, most companies are realizing 20 to 30% savings! When you consider that most companies spend between 2 -4% of their total revenues on printing, these savings can be quite substantial. Not to mention the ability to reallocate your IT staff’s time from printer break/fix to projects designed to enhance your company’s competitive edge.
