HP’s Enterprise Printing Blog

HP Leads in Managed Print Services – For a Reason

sherri.stuart@hp.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:51:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Managed Enterprise Solutions
IPG-Americas

Onward and upward as they say! HP’s Managed Print Services (MPS) has once again been recognized as the leader in the space by a leading analyst firm.

I am thrilled to report that in a recent survey conducted by IDC, HP was identified as a leader in their "Managed Print Services – Global Market and Provider Analysis," with the highest share of new and outstanding MPS contracts among hardcopy manufacturers.

This, in the wake of recognition by Gartner as leading in MPS vision, and Photizo as MPS market share leader.

Lucky for HP? Not so much. We see this as truly a reflection of hard work and commitment meeting opportunity. As you’ve heard me say before, HP has steadily made major inroads in the business printing industry by doing the hard work up front - transforming our portfolio, software, services, programs and skills to align with our customers’ evolving needs. By successfully striving to provide customers with the best choice of partner to help them reduce imaging and printing costs, improve efficiency and reduce their environmental footprint, HP has taken the lead in the industry.

To receive accolades from top analyst firms such as IDC, Gartner and Photizo Group is a testament to HP’s commitment to its customers.

A lot of hard work, and a lot of continuous improvement are at play here. And an enormous thank you to all our enterprise printing customers for their vote of confidence in HP and for making us number one in the industry!

I can assure you that we are extremely proud of this recognition; at the same time, I can assure you that we are not apt to rest on our laurels.

Look out for more exciting news like this coming from HP!

CEO of Kaiser Permanente Engages in IT and Health Care Discussion

sherri.stuart@hp.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:58:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Managed Enterprise Solutions
IPG-Americas

Hi Everyone,

A little something to help us all stretch our thinking around a hot topic for most of us these days – health care….

After the success of our first Input/Output Webcast session with WIRED’s, Chris Anderson, I’m pleased to announce the second installment featuring the CEO of Kaiser Permanente, George Halverson – taking place tomorrow, Wednesday, November 18.

After opening up an important dialogue on technology and its importance in the traditional business world, this next session titled “IT Making the Biggest Impact in Health Care Reform,” will certainly spark a riveting discussion.

What I enjoy most about these are the interactive conversations, allowing dialogue to flow seamlessly and actively engage listeners through Twitter. By integrating social media with the exploration of IT’s integral role in health care reform, we hope to foster a profound impact and bigger takeaway from these sessions.

Halverson has written several health care reform books as well as led the effort for Kaiser Permanente to expand electronic connectivity between doctors and patients. In light of the current debate over health care reform, I am looking forward to hearing from Halverson and gaining insight into his success integrating technology and the health care industry.

Don’t miss the conversation at 2:30 pm ET on November 18th. Start submitting your questions now!

HP Offers up to 300 Consulting Hours for Insurance Companies Through HP Exstream Competitive Switch Program

tamiwebster — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:46:00 GMT

Guest Blog Entry from Scott Draeger, HP Exstream product manager.

Scott joined the digital document industry in 1997, after earning a BA from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has more than 10 years of experience in the document composition software industry as both a transactional document designer, service provider and a software vendor. He earned his EDP certification from Xplor and his MBA in 2007 from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management...

Last night as I sat at my desk working later than usual, I couldn’t help but notice the sun has already begun to set much earlier than it did even a couple of weeks ago. And that got me to thinking about the down side to “sunsets.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I love sunsets as much as the next person. But if we’re being honest, sunsets aren’t always good thing. Case in point, working in the technology industry I’ve seen plenty of mergers and acquisitions which have left countless solutions and services “sunset” – meaning the newly formed company would no longer support or invest in these products/services. In fact, you may have heard that a number of technology companies have recently announced the discontinuation of several widely-used document automation solutions, which poses a major issue for businesses in the insurance, banking, and public sector industries, among others, who rely on these solutions to decrease costs, improve productivity and enhance customer responsiveness. In today’s volatile marketplace, the value of digital documents for on-demand access and quick delivery of relevant, customized communications has never been more crucial. Now as a point of practice and in the interest of the existing customer base, many of these software vendors will offer an “upgrade” path to another solution after sunsetting a product – but is it a good idea to take it?

A former colleague of mine recently moderated a very informative podcast on the subject of “sunsetting” lead by a couple of industry-leading document composition experts who provided great insight into what companies can/should do in the face of product “sunsetting.” Among some of their recommendations:

· Use this as an opportunity to evaluate what else is on the market. After all, if a solution/service is being sunset, then it probably means there are other solutions with more robust capabilities –just don’t assume the upgrade your vendor is touting is the best one.

· Take time to perform due diligence and see what other offerings are available. It’s important not only to evaluate functionality, but also look for a solution that can consolidate disparate systems and establishes a solid enterprise platform for your future business needs.

· Look for a technology partner who is reliable and committed to continued innovation – that’s the only way to know you won’t find yourself in the same situation later down the road.

So if you’ve been informed that the sun will soon go down on your beloved solution, do not fret – help is just a click away. You can hear the podcast in its entirety at www.hp.com/go/exstreamfreedom. And here’s hoping you emerge from the darkness to face a brighter day.

Luis Casado Colour Blog – post 4 – A league of nations in print!

LuisCasadoOnColour — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:22:00 GMT

Bringing this blog back from the sports arena into the workplace I will now take a deeper look at how printing is perceived around the world. Living in Germany it is easy to point out cultural differences from my Spanish roots but looking at a recent study I am beginning to think we are a lot more similar than we think. At least when it comes to colour printing!

This past summer a study was conducted comparing similar groups of people in seven different countries all over the world to understand their needs and perceptions of printing. When and why people print, when does paper become essential and what makes them print in colour? HP quizzed businessmen and women from the US, Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Thailand and India and the compiled results were quite insightful.

When measuring the type and volume of printing being conducted in the workplace we typically apply two types of analysis:

Print volumes - in terms of either the raw number of pages printed, or the number of print jobs completed (ie. the number of times individuals actually 'hit print')
Use of colour - either entirely back and white (monochrome), entirely in colour or mixed (monochrome and colour content within the same document)

Monochrome remains the most common form of printing across all countries, largely due to the nature of the content (administrative/memorandums) or its intended use (draft or internal, for instance).

Not all 'print jobs' are the same . . . .

A prime example is Germany where 60% of the print jobs are entirely monochrome compared to only 28% in colour. However, when comparing page volumes, the proportions are 42% and 36% respectively.

What does this all mean? From the results we can see that monochrome print jobs are happening frequently but are shorter in terms of page length. Colour printing on the other hand does not happen as often, but when it does the number of pages printed is quite high.

These differing usage patterns have implications for the printing hardware, supplies and software used. High volumes of short print jobs will place different demands on a printer than a smaller volume of continuous print jobs in terms of supplies utilisation and, even, the level of energy consumed. HP's Instant-on Technology found in LaserJet printers, dramatically reduces the time (and energy) required to "warm up" a printer at the start of each individual job (http://h20271.www2.hp.com/SMB-AP/cache/380437-0-0-14-121.html); ideal for those frequent monochrome print jobs!

Another trend - revealed from the US market - is a greater use of mixed colour printing. In the US 32% of print volumes are produced in a mixed monochrome and colour format, compared to just 22% in Germany. This difference could be due to a difference in working patterns or style - mixed printing is typically found within illustrated reports and Word-based documents dominated by text but with accompanying graphics and images. It is possible that this format suits one country's working style more than another. It could also be a question of user awareness or market education; perhaps European users are simply less aware of the possibilities of mixed printing and, therefore, use it less. Each trend will exert specific requirements in terms of print and supplies management.

Making the right impression

From some of my previous posts specifically my first and second blog we know that colour plays a huge role on how customers perceive your business. Whilst I could speculate all day on why Germans prefer green and Britons prefer red, one thing is clear, colour helps businesses make a good impression. Emerging markets such as Russia, Brazil and Thailand scored higher than all other countries on using printed documents for selling themselves and their business to potential and current customers. Brazil's number one request was for printers that produced documents that looked professional. Somehow I think HP can help with that!

Even though German respondent's didn´t score as high as Russians or Brazilians they still know the importance of printing. In fact 72% of those surveyed use printing to communicate with the customer and 39% of all printing volume is used for printing client presentations and marketing efforts. Recent trends are showing that most countries are choosing to print marketing communications in house. Germany only outsources 19% of creative printing development tasks and the United States scored similarly with 21% of respondents outsourcing creative development tasks. In developing markets this number rises slightly. For example, respondents from China outsource 31% of creative development tasks.

Creativity

Speaking of creativity, colour and creativity go hand in hand. Most people surveyed from all over the world felt they were a creative bunch. Seventy percent of Russians felt they were creative and 65% love to explore new ideas. Sixty one percent of the Chinese agree that creativity is core part of their business and India responded that printing helps them feel smart and can help leave a good personal impression.

Overall printing helps share ideas and can help your company leave a good impression. But by adding colour that impact can be increased exponentially. Even though we may come from different places we all can agree that colour printing works when applied in the right way at the right time.

Chris Anderson of WIRED to Kick Off HP's Input/Output Web Series on September 30

sherristuart — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:06:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Managed Enterprise Solutions
IPG-Americas

Hi again everyone,

I want to bring your attention to another great virtual HP event that is sure to spark your strategic thinking.

As you know, the business environment we face today looks different than years before. Reflecting on HP’s own personal experiences and listening to our enterprise customers, we know that there are different rules, unique approaches and new opportunities to seize.

This is a challenging but exciting time to navigate a business, which is why HP is launching a series of web interviews called Input/Output with the foremost thinkers in economics, management, technology, culture and more to discuss the impact of the new “normal” on the business environment.

I am looking forward to listening to Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of WIRED Magazine and author of “Free!” and “The Long Tail,” who will be the inaugural speaker in a live webcast event next Wednesday, September 30. We can anticipate Anderson lending his expertise on the topic of “How new technology is affecting the traditional business world.”

The best part is that dialogue during this online event will be free flowing and interactive. Leading up to and during the webcast, followers can submit interview questions @IO_Mod under the hashtag #hpio.

Don’t miss the conversation at http://inputcreatesoutput.com at 3:00 p.m. PST, September 30 and start submitting your questions now!

Changing the Economics of Technology: Register today for HP Virtual Image Print 2009!

sherristuart — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:53:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Managed Enterprise Solutions
IPG-Americas

Hi everyone,

As you can tell, there’s a lot happening in here in the land of HP Enterprise Printing, and I want to make sure you all have the details you need to register for an incredibly cool new event we have coming up…. HP’s Virtual Image Print 2009! When? October 7-8. Where? Attend from the comfort of your home, your office, your conference room – explore HP’s first virtual tradeshow ‘Changing the Economics of Technology’--- wherever you find yourself on October 7-8.

Virtual Image Print promises to be a ‘not to miss’ event for those of you thinking about your IT and printing infrastructure and paper intensive workflows.

Vyomesh Joshi, Executive VP of IPG; Bruce Dahlgren, Sr. VP of Worldwide Sales and Services, and I will be delivering the keynote address on October 7th at 11am ET in the Virtual Auditorium. We’ll be sharing our ideas to help you cut costs, boost productivity and implement green printing initiatives, as well as sharing our thoughts on our newly announced solutions.

I hope that you will register today: http://bit.ly/HPVIP09

I look forward to meeting with you on the 7th!

Live from Berlin - Day 2: Jean-Pierre Le Calvez Reports from Enterprise Printing Launch - Influencing the influencers

Jean-PierreLeCalvez — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:59:00 GMT

Part of the day has been focused on liaising with (and receiving feedback from) industry analysts. This community provides a vital service - not merely for corporations looking to assess and validate vendor offerings, but also for vendors looking for qualified feedback and impressions about a new service or offering.

Our senior vice president of Imaging & Printing, EMEA, Bill DeLacy, prioritised meetings with the analyst community as part of yesterday's launch and the feedback was particularly insightful. The sessions were extremely interactive and here is a sample of what they are saying:

Naser Sha'sha'a - IDC

With the current portfolio of service and solution capabilities, HP could be taking over accounts from Xerox and other players in the region

Leigh Worthing - IDC

HP's new strategy announcement follows a logical progression in its aim to drive the business of printing

Fiona Macbeth - epMI

Broadening of product line with Canon MFPS and the establishment of MES as a global business unity shows commitment of HP to managed print services business

Barry Hickley - epMI

HP presents a strong argument for customers to call upon HP's MES team

Peter Maude - CharisCo

Through its new alliance with Canon, and expansion of its solutions capability, HP is plugging the longstanding gap in its portfolio effectively with a solution that will allow it to compete in the market on a far broader base than previously possible

Zac Butcher - Infotrends

With the formation of the MES global business unit HP is demonstrating the company's level of commitment to Enterprise Managed Print Services

Live from Berlin - Day 2: Jean-Pierre Le Calvez Reports from Enterprise Printing Launch - Adding services to the print equation

Jean-PierreLeCalvez — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:48:00 GMT

An interesting point from yesterday's announcements in EMEA was that the biggest roll out in the history of HP's Imaging and Printing Group didn't cover any new range of printers, multi-function devices or scanners, in fact, we didn't unveil any new hardware at all in Berlin. Like supplies, printer hardware remains core to our activity and market dominance, so why the absence? Was this some form of oversight? No, I can assure you it was not!

Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group gave a clue in yesterday's satellite broadcast and Bill DeLacy, senior vice president and general manager of IPG EMEA picked up the theme this morning.

In short, of the global digital and printing market currently valued at $121 billion, $57 billion is covered by hardware (devices) and supplies. And what constitutes the other half of this market . . . . . ? Services and solutions - exactly what we announced yesterday:

An alliance with Canon to enhance our managed print services offering (to cover the office production centre environment)
Launching a global business unit dedicated to the needs enterprise print environment, thus consolidating our leadership of this space
Rolling our Managed Print Services Payback Guarantee across EMEA - literally, we'll save your company money, absolutely risk free
Nine new industry specific software solutions to enhance workflows, streamline business processes and generate even more efficiencies - our biggest solutions roll our ever

Today, a solid device portfolio is literally just the 'entrance fee' to the enterprise market. For these companies, printing is simply a means to an end, and that end is measured in euros and centimes. HP IPG is not merely aware of this reality - as yesterday's announcements confirm -we are driving it. Put into this context, these data points from VJ and Bill's addresses speak for themselves:

The average working spends 40% of his/her time looking for information
Every $1 spent printing a page requires $9 to manage it, 90% of document costs lie outside the device
Enterprises spend the equivalent of 6% of their revenue on printing and digital imaging
90% of enterprises to not track print costs
50% of Fortune companies will spend more on energy than print hardware
Of the €120+ billion global printing and digital imaging market, more than half has nothing to do with hardware or supplies

Live from Berlin - Day 2: Jean-Pierre Le Calvez Reports from Enterprise Printing Launch - On top of the world with Swiss Post

Jean-PierreLeCalvez — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:36:00 GMT

Today, I'm moderating a series of discussions with one of our clients, Swiss Post, around the latter's implementation of managed print services to support its 55,000 employees. I use the word 'moderate' advisedly, since the presence of eager analysts and journalists in each session meant that I was simply required to remember the order and content of each question. I felt like a barman working my way through a Friday night trying to ensure everyone was sufficiently served in something like the right order! Our client, I may add, courteously and carefully responded to each questioner adding detail and anecdotes as appropriate.

The statistics (see below) make a powerful and compelling argument for managed print services, but it was the human impact which really struck a chord with our audiences. We even learned that print patterns were seasonal with September generating the highest volume of A3 colour prints, a fact explained by the piles of holiday photos which regularly appear on desks during that time of year. The beauty of the centrally managed MPS programme is its transparency, detailed reports on the print volumes and formats are produced on a daily basis - since these costs are allocated on a departmental basis most non productive behaviour is self-regulating.

We also learned that user confidence is crucial for true savings to be generated. Despite the roll out of new hardware and a fully automated supplies replenishment programme, staff members were still stockpiling toner cartridges in the event of a shortfall or emergency. Confidence was soon restored when the efficiency of the system became apparent (as part of the MPS programme, supplies are automatically ordered when toner levels reach a specified level; the timing of delivery is based on the volume of activity being undertaken by the device and the time required to deliver (ie the location of the site)). Staff satisfaction levels soon reflected these new levels of confidence moving from below 6/10 to well above 8/10 - the local caches of 'emergency' toner (together with the associated costs) have virtually disappeared.

Here are a few facts and figures that cropped up during the various discussions:

15 million - the number of letters delivered by Swiss post every day
2,500 - the number of post offices in Switzerland (all equipped with centrally managed HP printing equipment)
3,454 - the height in metres of the highest of them; Jungfraujoch, which is, in fact, the world's highest Post Office: http://www.wengen.com/topof.html
160 million - number of pages printed per year by Swiss Post
17,000 - the number of printing and digital imaging devices across Swiss Post's network prior to the implementation of MPS
6,000 - the number of devices following MPS implementation
140 - the number of different devices across Swiss Post prior to MPS
6 - the number of different devices after MPS roll out
€3 million - the savings generated per year from Swiss Post's MPS implementation
200 - the number of functions which are configured before devices are sent out for installation across the Swiss Post network
3-6 - the number of minutes requires to configure a device via the automated MPS programme
50-60 - the number of devices which can be configured per day by Swiss Post
1 - the number of buttons which Swiss Post post office staff have to press on their new HP devices to install them

Live from Palo Alto – HP’s Mark Hurd and Vyomesh Joshi Launch New IPG Offerings

sherristuart — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:20:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Managed Enterprise Solutions
IPG-Americas

The exciting news out of HP just keeps coming!

Right now I am at HP headquarters in Palo Alto, where some BIG news is being announced out of HP’s Imaging and Printing Group by our very own Mark Hurd and Vyomesh Joshi.

Today, in front of industry leaders, analysts, customers, partners and media worldwide, HP announced new offerings – including the expansion of its highly successful 25-year relationship with Canon, new channel programs, and an unmatched imaging and printing portfolio to help businesses streamline and integrate paper-intensive processes with digital workflows.

I think it’s pretty clear that, with all of the building we’ve done over the past few years and with the momentum we have going, HP is clearly the only partner that can drive workflow solutions based on its expertise across IT and imaging and printing. With our balanced combination of products, services and solutions, we are READY NOW to help our customers transform business processes and drive down costs by optimizing the infrastructure, managing the environment and improving document workflows.

Pretty cool news today. We announced HP’s new Global Business Unit, Managed Enterprise Solutions (MES), will be led by Bruce Dahlgren WW and I have the honor of leading HP's MES business in the Americas. We have extended the recently announced HP Printing Payback Guarantee to the EMEA, Latin America and Canada regions. And, the expanded HP and Canon alliance provides MPS customers with access to the broadest portfolio of single and multifunction devices. New channel program enhancements enable HP’s reseller partners to become even more competitive in the imaging and printing market.

All the news out of today’s press conference, on the heels of our announcement on July 13th, and the incredible energy our team, our partners and our customers are feeling --- even in this economy! --- should be some indication of exactly who the enterprise printing mojo is with these days. Who? HP - the only partner that can drive workflow solutions based on its expertise across IT and imaging and printing.

If you didn’t get a chance to check out the live replay of the press conference, you can hear a replay for yourself. Also, join the ongoing conversation on Twitter via the HP_IPG handle and #HPBizPrint hashtag.

Live from Berlin - Day 1: Jean-Pierre Le Calvez Reports from Enterprise Printing Launch

Jean-PierreLeCalvez — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:47:00 GMT

14 September '09

Day 1. Just 7 seconds away . . . . . .

Berlin, 14 September '09, 18h CEST - 45 journalists and 12 analysts from 22 countries all expectantly waiting for the video link to open; 9,100km away at HP's Palo Alto Headquarters my colleagues were about to flick the switch to connect both locations to a common global stage to announce the next stage of HP's Enterprise printing strategy.

The delay - between broadcast in Palo Alto and reception in Berlin - is just 7 seconds, but it felt like an age. Thanks to two satellites and a pair of relay stations, the link duly went live and we were joined in Berlin live and direct by Mark Hurd, HP's chairman, chief executive officer, and president, and Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group.

Their presence confirmed the significance of these announcements for HP IPG and our enterprise customers. VJ set the scene with a compelling overview:

Companies are spending the equivalent of around 6% of the annual revenues on printing and digital imaging (in some cases, that's twice as much as their entire IT budget - although 90% of companies don't even realise it!)
A few percentage points cut from these costs will go directly to the bottom line; HP's managed print services (MPS) offering is currently generating between 28% and 50% cost savings across enterprise print environments
Getting to grips with the print environment is not merely good practice - it should be a business priority

Take a look for yourself here:

http://h41131.www4.hp.com/uk/en/stories/transforming-business-processes.html

There will be more details coming through tomorrow. But the simultaneous link was sufficient to whet the appetite - not merely for tomorrow's discussions - but also for the barbecue dinner which now awaits us!

Day one. . . . and still counting

I just wanted to share a few statistics from today's announcements ranging from the scale of the launch to the market opportunity which is before us :

49 - the number of journalists who were joined by a total of 12 industry analysts from 22 countries in Berlin to witness the news live
40 - the number of face to face executive briefing sessions scheduled with Bill DeLacy, senior vice president, HP IPG, EMEA and his senior executives
75% - the current worldwide marketshare (amongst enterprises) for HP's print environment management platform, Web Jetadmin (it's not merely HP customers who are using Web Jetadmin!)
25 - the number of years that Canon and IPG have been working together to deliver laser print technology to customers
$9 - the management cost associated with every $1 spent on printing
$57 billion - the potential size of the market for print services and solutions to support the business print and digital imaging environment across the globe
$5 billion - the total contract value of HP's managed print services offering worldwide
450,000 - the number of devices currently under management by HP
18 billion - the number of pages printer per year by HP's managed print services customers

Innovations in Enterprise Document Automation: HP Launches HP Exstream 7.0

sherristuart — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:50:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Sales and Services
IPG-Americas

Great HP news today! If you will recall, just a little over a year ago, HP acquired Exstream Software, the industry’s market-leading enterprise document automation technology.

Well, the news just crossed the wire that HP has just launched HP Exstream 7.0 – with more than 250 enhancements – to help enterprises drive business results and increase ROI through vastly improved customer communications.

Organizations across all industries are facing numerous challenges in today’s complex business environment. On one hand, improving efficiency and retaining customers have never been more important; on the other hand, the pressure to reduce costs is unrelenting. HP has put in place an unmatched integrated workflow solutions portfolio and end-to-end suite of imaging and printing offerings to help our customers meet these challenges head on. Adding to this, HP Exstream 7.0 offers a single solution for design through delivery of any type of document across the enterprise.

HP Exstream will also now be offered through the HP Managed Print Services (MPS) portfolio, allowing even more enterprises to provide any type of customer communications, regardless of complexity, variability, or output channel — including high-volume, on-demand, and interactive document applications.

Check out a demo of HP Exstream at PRINT 09 in Chicago from September 11 - 16, and be sure to follow the HP action at PRINT 09 at the HP Enterprise Software Booth #6658 or on the HP_IPG Twitter handle.

HP Placed in Leaders Quadrant in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services” Report

sherristuart — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:15:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Sales and Services
IPG-Americas

Wow. HP is certainly on a roll with our Managed Print Services portfolio.

I am thrilled to share with you the outstanding news from the recently released Gartner Report published this week. HP has appeared in the Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS), and as you know, this comes fresh off the heels of the Photizo Group’s report that lists HP as a global leader in their 2009 MPS Market Forecast.

Both reports are highly valued in the industry, and we believe securing these positions not only exemplifies HP’s growth in the managed print services area in just three years, but also further demonstrates HP’s ability to provide the most robust MPS offering to its customers delivering continued cost savings and increased productivity in the office.

This news comes at a great time, building the momentum around our recent HP Printing Payback Guarantee and HP Page Plan introductions for our MPS enterprise customers.

HP MPS is the hot topic, and believe me when I tell you we have never been more committed to driving forward in this positive direction.

We have a lot of good stuff coming down the pipeline. Be sure to check back with us soon for more exciting news coming out of HP!

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Luis Casado on colour – post 3

LuisCasadoOnColour — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:49:00 GMT

My previous posts have focused on the impact of colour on the decision-making process and what this can mean for businesses. But the impact of colour can be even more striking beyond the workplace . . . .

Take the sports field, for instance, or in this case the sports arena. A study published last year in the journal Psychological Science involves 42 experienced taekwondo referees who were asked to judge a series of pre-recorded taekwondo contests. In each video, one competitor wore red protective gear while the other wore blue. The referees awarded competitors wearing red an average of 13 percent more points. Next, the researchers digitally reversed the colors of the protective gear and showed the clips again. The number of points awarded increased for the competitor whose equipment was now changed to red and decreased for the one altered to appear blue - even though the referees were watching the same matches!

This 'laboratory' experiment corresponds to a small but measurable advantage enjoyed by red competitors during actual competition. Take the 2005 Athens Olympics where red contestants won in 57 percent of all taekwondo matchups, 55 percent of all boxing matches, 53 percent of freestyle wrestling contests and 52 percent of Greco-Roman match-ups**!

And the world's most popular sport it not exempt from this 'colour bias' either! In an article published in the Journal of Sports Sciences in early 2008***, researchers analysed the teams of England's Premier League from 1947 to 2003. Their statistical analysis determined that football teams wearing red had a disproportionately higher rate of both winning home games and securing the title than teams wearing either yellow or orange.

From a personal (Spanish) perspective, the red shirts of the national football team never seemed to have the desired effect on either the opposition or the referees in major tournaments; most notably in the 2002 World Cup with two 'perfectly good' goals disallowed we were eliminated in the quarter finals by joint hosts South Korea****! This trend was finally broken in the European Championships last year when the red shirts of Spain were - for the first time in 44 years - victorious. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the World Cup of 2010 for the continued dominance of the colour red!

Back to science, one explanation, according to the researchers, is that red most likely helps a football team because of its psychological effect on both teams. Extensive research confirms that red increases the pulse and heart rate and can help raise a person's blood pressure. Even looking at the colour red reduces a human's potential to perform, for instance, limiting the capacity of the opposing team to respond. Over the years, red might also attract more fans to a particular team, which in turn can make them even stronger.

Sports teams are certainly not averse to using the power of colour to their advantage. At the University of Iowa, the visiting team's locker rooms are painted a soft, feminine pink. The lockers themselves are a dusty rose, the showers have pink shower curtains, and even the urinals are of pink porcelain. The colour scheme was chosen by former Iowa football coach, Hayden Fry, who had read that pink has a calming effect on people. And according to Fry, it works - if not necessarily as intended. In his autobiography, A High Porch Picnic, he writes, "When I talk to an opposing coach before a game and he mentions the pink walls, I know I've got him. I can't recall a coach who has stirred up a fuss about the colour and then beat us!"

So beyond the workplace, colour can exert a measureable impact, particularly in a competitive situation. In subsequent posts, I will explain how organizations are learning from these types of findings and amending their choice and use of colour to help provoke a desired response or behaviour.

In the meantime - and to maintain the sporting theme - I would like to take the opportunity to dispel one of the most compelling (but completely untrue) myths associated with sport and colour from my own country, Spain. Bulls are supposed to be infuriated by red cape of the matador, but cold scientific fact and experiments demonstrate otherwise. Since bulls cannot see actually see redness what they see is motion and the contrast of light and dark between the object and the background. It is the movement of the cape which transfixes and infuriates the bull not the colour red. It would have made a fitting conclusion to the power of colour, but - in reality - there isn't too much most businesses could learn from this particular spectacle (apart from the benefits of speed and agility, I suppose;)).

I look forward to sharing with you good practices and tips on the use of colour which can be applied to a business context in my next post . . . .

*Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/sports/17iht-OLYTAE.1.15359242.html

**Source: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v435/n7040/abs/435293a.html

***Source: Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 26, Issue 6 April 2008 , pages 577 - 582

**** Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zkm097ibnw&feature=PlayList&p=78C834A87FEB2DCC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1

Photizo: HP Takes Top Spot from Xerox in Global MPS Market Share

sherristuart — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:22:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Sales and Services
IPG-Americas

The title says a lot. And apologies in advance – there is a sliver of shameless pride in today’s posting (backed by years of hard work!)….

Yesterday, the Photizo Group, an industry analyst firm focused on the Managed Print Services market, announced, “HP Takes Top Spot from Xerox in Global MPS Market Share.’

What’s more, Photizo Group’s 2009 MPS Market Forecast Report revealed that the MPS market is expanding dramatically. No surprise to us at HP.

The Photizo Stats:

The MPS market will be more than $50B by 2013, and more than 50 percent of all devices will be under MPS contract.
HP has overtaken Xerox as leader in the global MPS sector in 2008, with a 34 percent share of global market.

Do customers care about vendor market share? Yes. Market share figures are an important piece of the puzzle as companies busy sketching out their MPS strategy begin to arm themselves with all the data they can find about the space.

Read the report summary.

This quote from Tom Codd, Director of Enterprise Marketing for HP IPG, sums up our view of the research, “Managed Print Services is one of the fastest growing segments of the enterprise printing industry in today’s economy. This report from Photizo acknowledges and validates HP’s focus and commitment to be the leader in the MPS market.”

How did we get there? HP has been building out our MPS expertise for years with a laser-like focus on helping our customers optimize their infrastructure, manage their environment and improve workflow. Check out our MPS portfolio, and contact us today to find out how we can help you…