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Sponsored by

February 14th, 2022

Arcoa Group

Why partnering with ARCOA makes sense
Electronics Recycling is an important and profitable part of the IT asset lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming with all you already do, varying state regulations, and the limited resources at hand. That’s where ARCOA comes in. When you partner with ARCOA, you get all the benefits of a big company without any of the capital investment. We’ve been doing this since 1989 and have the expertise, certifications, and nationwide resources to get the most for all your clients’ retired IT assets. Plus, positioning your clients as environmental stewards not only elevates their appeal to consumers, it meets government requirements and avoids fines.

What partnering with ARCOA looks like
Our role is to make it easy for you to bring more value to your clients. We work with you to help stretch your clients’ IT budget by reducing the total cost of ownership of their electronics. We’re experts at identifying and implementing the solutions your clients need for the end-of-use remarketing, recovery, and recycling of their technology assets. The sooner you involve ARCOA, the sooner you and your clients.

Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Kyndryl for Solutions that Enable Fast, Seamless Migration and ...

• Frost & Sullivan recognizes Kyndryl (NYSE: KD) with the 2021 Global Managed Enterprise Resource Planning Enabling Technology Leadership Award
• Of its nearly 90,000 employees, 96% complete a variety of learning programs and technical certifications annually.
• Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that has developed a pioneering technology that not only enhances current products, but also enables the development of new products and applications

N-able Exec: MSPs Want A Cloud-First Approach

• Reported on CRN
• Solarwinds spin-off N-able trying to capture the fast-growing backup market aimed at MSPs
• Focusing on cloud-first solutions and as-a-service models
• N-able is the Burlington, Mass.-based Solarwinds MSP business spin-off that focuses on security, management, monitoring and ticketing

TNS Announces Independent 'Managed Services Versus DIY'

• A new independent report ‘Colocation of Financial Markets Trading Infrastructure’, released and identifies the pros/cons of in-house management (a “DIY” approach) versus a managed service model

Cloud Print Survey

• https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SXK96PQ

Semiconductor shortages to lessen in 2H of 2022

• Report published by IDC (International Data Corporation)
• Expects tight semiconductor supply to continue through the first half of calendar 2022
• Industry will build up inventory to normal levels in near future
• Forecasts fabless semiconductor revenues will grow from 41% of the market in 2020 to 49% in 2025
• 68% of the foundry market is in Taiwan
• New factories will not come online until after 2022

Ricoh announced it has acquired Axon Ivy Software of Switzerland

• Maker of digital process automation platform
• Also has offices in Austria, Germany, Singapore and the U.S.A.

Xerox announced it has acquired Powerland of Canada

• Managed IT services company

CSP Inc. Reports Improved Fiscal First Quarter Financial Results

• First Quarter Operating Highlights and Recent Achievements
• Total revenue increased 9% year over year and 24% compared to Q4 fiscal 2021 driven by higher services revenue
• Services revenue grew 22% compared to the year-ago first quarter
• Continued focus on higher margin products and services lead to overall gross margin of 29.2%

Managed IT Consulting Firm Techmedics Opens New Location in Dallas

• Announced they have opened a new office in Dallas at 3400 Oak Grove Ave. Ste. 362 Dallas, Texas 75204
• Texas is becoming a new boomtown for many in the tech-related sector
• Techmedics was founded in 1999 in Los Angeles by James and Helen Moon

Apogee to Host Webinar on Feb. 24, 2022: How Three Colleges Innovate and

• Will present a webinar on Feb. 24, 2022, focusing on how colleges and universities can effectively innovate and address budget challenges with managed IT services
• Led by Apogee Executive Vice President Matt Loecke, a panel of campus leaders from Centenary College, Eureka College, and Ithaca College will discuss how they partnered with Apogee
• Established in Austin in 1999, Apogee is a provider of managed technology service for colleges and universities

Kodak Alaris rolls out new scanners to help organizations meet new upcoming FADGI requirements

• introducing a new line of Kodak i5250 and Kodak i5850 Scanners
• To meet upcoming image quality standards required with the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI)
• All text-based records submitted to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for permanent archival must be FADGI 3-star compliant by January 1, 2023
• Kodak i5250 and Kodak i5850 Scanners, users can toggle between FADGI and non-FADGI compliant modes

BCM One's Mike Nowak Captures Coveted 2022 CRN Channel Chief Recognition

• Announce that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Mike Nowak, Senior Vice President of Sales, to its 2022 Channel Chiefs list
• Panel of CRN editors selected the honorees for their channel dedication, industry stature and accomplishments as channel advocates
• CRN's 2022 Channel Chiefs list will be featured in the February 2022 issue of CRN Magazine and online at CRN.com/ChannelChiefs.

All Covered Achieves CRN Triple Crown Status

• Announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named All Covered, its IT Services Division, as a 2021 Triple Crown Award winner
• Award celebrates standout solution providers for the impressive accomplishment of being featured on three of CRN’s prestigious lists
• Fast Growth 150
• Tech Elite 250
• Solution Provider 500

IT Systems Engineer Wanted

Stratix Systems

IT Systems Engineer

King of Prussia, PA

Employer est.:$50K - $75K

IT Systems Engineer

2021 brought dramatic growth to Rochester-based business-intelligence consulting firm

• Founded in 2015, Cause + Effect Strategy is a business intelligence and analytics firm that helps clients achieve data-driven transformations and make more informed business decisions
• roared back into its customary growth pattern in 2021, driving revenue up 88% over 2020, and nearly doubling its staff, from 8 to 15

What is Business Intelligence Software? Top BI Tools of 2022 - Analytics Insight

• Business intelligence (BI) software is a collection of business analytics tools used by businesses to retrieve, analyse, and turn data into meaningful business insights, typically in the form of easy-to-read visualisations such as charts, graphs, and dashboards. Data visualisation, data warehouses, dynamic dashboards, and reporting capabilities are examples of BI tool

Onit's InvoiceAI Wins the Business Intelligence Group's Award for Innovative Technology Products

• announced today that its InvoiceAI has won a 2022 BIG Innovation Award
• annual business awards program acknowledges organizations, products and people worldwide that bring new ideas to life in innovative ways
• InvoiceAI uses artificial intelligence to help increase savings and reduce the time corporate legal departments spend on invoice review.

Cyber security market to grow

• Report published by Technavio
• Cybersecurity solutions/services market to grow $189.7 billion through 2025
• CAGR (cumulative annual growth rate) of 14.97%

John Sheehan and Bob Madaio of Sharp Once Again Capture Coveted 2022 CRN Channel Chief Recognition

• The Channel Company, has named John Sheehan, Senior Vice President of B2B Channel Sales and Bob Madaio, Vice President of Marketing, to its 2022 Channel Chiefs list
• CRN's annual Channel Chiefs project identifies top IT channel vendor executives who continually demonstrate expertise, influence and innovation in channel leadership
• CRN's 2022 Channel Chiefs list will be featured in the February 2022 issue of CRN Magazine and online at CRN.com/ChannelChiefs

Cybersecurity Notes

• The feds announced that cyber insurance sales increase from 26% in 2016 to 47% in 2020, with healthcare vertical having largest spend.
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of Boston, Massachusetts notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after a cyber attack.
• Attorney General Peter Neronha of Rhode Island sent UnitedHealthcare Insurance, headquartered in Minnesota, with a number of subpoenas regarding a breach that exposed the PHI of 22,000 patients that are employees of the state of Rhode Island.
• Julie DeVuono and Marissa Urraro, formerly of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare of Amityville, NY, were arrested and charged with allegedly using stolen PHI to create and sell fake COVID-19 vaccination cards for $1.5 million.
• The federal government reported that it is aware of at least 2 million patients having their PHI exposed during month of January, 2022 due to HIPAA breaches across the U.S.
• Mecklenburg County, North Carolina is being investigated for allegedly exposing PHI of an unknown number of patients due to an email error.
• Kurt Lee Koenen of Clara City, MN has been reprimanded to illegally accessing the PHI of an unknown number of patients while working as a respiratory therapist.
• County of Kings in California notified 16,590 patients that their PHI was exposed after a “web server misconfiguration”
• Kevin Lee of Chula Vista, CA pleaded guilty to stealing identities of Department of Defense employees to gain $244,500.00.
• The Gregory P. Vannucci Dental Clinic in Ottumwa, Iowa, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after a “network security incident”
• NHS Management, headquartered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which manages 50 long term care facilities in 4 states, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Avenue 360 Health and Wellness of Houston, TX notified 12,186 patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.
• CareSouth of South Carolina was hit with a lawsuit regarding a cyber security incident that exposed the PHI of 76,035 patients.
• Dr. Malik Muhammad, a clinical psychologist in Durham, North Carolina, was sentenced to 52 months in prison for stealing PHI of an unknown number of patients to create fraudulent claims totaling $544,067.99
• Midland University of Iowa notified 13,716 students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Wormhole Inc., a blockchain bridge, reports that $320 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen after cyber attack.
• Intel Corp. admitted it has issued 226 patches to fix security vulnerabilities in its computer chips in 2021
• News Corp.(which owns Wall Street Journal, Fox News, etc.) announced it was hit by ransomware attack, which appears to be result of Chinese hackers.

• Pellissippi State University of Tennessee notified 206,000 students that their info was exposed after cyber attack.
• Injured Workers Pharmacy of Andover, MA notified 75,771 patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.
• iRise Spine and Joint Clinics of Florida notified 61,595 patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.

Show your customers some love! Check out DocuWare’s Customer Appreciation program and submit names of the customer(s) you love. Winners receive swag gifts and lots of love on DocuWare social. Raising the business profile of your customers means more potential business for them. Don’t miss out. The deadline is March 1. Check out the video for some of the fun moments from past celebrations.

This Week in the Copier Industry Fifteen Years Ago

The Third Week of February 2007

I've exhausted by thoughts for the week.  Everyone have a great SuperBowl day and a more fanstatic Valentines day tomorrow and above all Enjoy Your Week!

Some excellent copier threads from 15 years ago

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This Week in the Copier Industry Ten Years Ago

The Third Week of February 2017

Many times I will post my thoughts in my weekly "This Week in Copiers". 

Much has been said in the last two weeks about industry transforming or diversifying away from print.  We read the captions about EV Charging,  and $35K vacuum cleaners but no one in our industry is thinking past the next five years.

Well, except for me.  Our industry is still and will be a break and fix industry which includes offering service, support, parts and consumables. Let's look and prepare for the next 10 to 30 years, let's not be short sighted and let's create our own legacy and not wait for the copier manufacturers. I believe the future evolution of office technology dealers is robotics.  They will need immediate on-site service and support, software and firmware upgrade, parts, maintenance and most important will me the management of data.

MY TWO CENTS

Enjoy These Great Threads from Ten years Ago This Week

"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it."

Norman Schwarzkopf

What would happen to conversational competency if salespeople focused more on client centric conversations as opposed to keyboard driven conversations?

Stop and think about this question...

Are we living in an anti-depth world?

Tech stacks, automation, cadences, mouse-clicks and templates are robbing salespeople of true connection.

Too many in sales have dehumanized sales as "scaling" has become the corporate buzzword.

What would happen to conversations and connections if we replace the scaling mentality with a serving mentality?

Our ability to connect with people around the world has exploded. It has never been as easy as it is right now to connect with people. This has caused a huge issue inside the sales world, and it is exposing how difficult it is to truly connect with meaning, substance and sincerity.

Technology has threatened and supplanted face-to-face intimacy. With devices in hand or fingers on a keyboard, we can avoid human exchange and any potential awkwardness, fear or anxiety.

Sherry Turkle, an MIT Science and Society professor and author of the book, "Reclaiming Conversation"... Devices interfere with conversations, empathy, imagination, patience, resilience, inner life and mental health.

Professor Mike Tomasello, A developmental, comparative psychologist, and linguist. He is a professor of psychology from Duke University.

He reminds us,

"Though we share 99 percent of our genetic makeup with the apes, humans are ultra-social. We thrive on connecting with others. And we use our sophisticated social acumen to figure out just what a person meant irrespective of what she said or did. These features of connectedness are built upon a foundation of human interaction."

Think of all the breakdowns in conversational timing and the lack of meaningful interaction that takes place when we hide behind technology stacks, cadences and keyboards.

Real conversations do not take place with a machine or technology stacks that do not care.

Has device and technology dependency in sales stunted one's opportunity to build a human connection?

Why are we feeling less connected than ever during the digital age?

We are more connected, but why are we so alone?

How many of your clients are feeling alone?

How many of you are connecting the human dots instead of using bots?

How many of your clients are feeling lonely and neglected? Would you even know?

“Communication is merely an exchange of information, but connection is an exchange of our humanity.”

Sean Stephenson

TECHNOLOGY DEPENDENCY, SUPERFICIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Technology is wonderful and forever engrained into what we do, however, it is stunting our relational growth.

According to The Oxford Dictionary, superficial is defined as,

“Existing or occurring at or on the surface; not thorough, deep, or complete; lacking depth of character or understanding.”

Let's pause on the last word, understanding is the key in talking about what a superficial relationship is lacking.

You can't build upon and therefore, you will struggle to build meaningful relationships with your clients unless you talk about real issues and share real problems.

How many of you right now are being real, relevant or even relatable within your client relationships? Would you even know?

We as humans crave and value relationships. Do you believe your clients feel the same way?

Relationships are a part of human nature. It's wired in our DNA.

True connection requires curiosity, compassion and conversation... something that technology will struggle to mirror.

Are you investing in building meaningful relationships?

How much do you know about your clients?

Do you know what their career aspirations are?

Do you know or have a sense of what's important to them?

What are their values?

What pisses them off?

Technology stacks, cadences, templates and automation... They do not have heartbeats. In fact, they act as a vacuum and suck the life out of your clients.

Are you digging below the relational surface or are you allowing technology to replace your voice?

VULNERABILITY BUILDS CONNECTION, NOT TECHNOLOGY

Humans, we crave connection in our personal lives but why does this become so difficult in our professional lives?

"Connection and vulnerability are our constant reminders that we are all here for a reason. Our time here is short but our impacts are great."

Melissa Joyce

In the sales world where trust is at an all-time low, where many believe those in sales are full of B.S., it's those who are willing to love, cherish, care and show compassion for their clients that will reap the relationship benefits.

Vulnerability builds trust in a relationship. And isn't this what you want with your clients?

Heartfelt sales professionals respect their vulnerability, embrace it and act from it. They do not hide behind technology. They understand the 'why' behind technology but will never allow technology to replace deep meaningful conversations.

We must be willing to accept the gift of vulnerability.

How well are you connected to your authentic self?

It's hard to become vulnerable with your client relationships if you fail to become vulnerable with yourself!

"We must be willing to completely reveal layers of ourselves in order to reach an authentic, tangible connection with another soul. Vulnerability is in actuality connection in its invisible form."

Melissa Joyce

SALES PROFESSIONALS HUMANIZE CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS

You must find a way to connect with your clients and show them why you’re unique.

It becomes so easy to hide behind technology stacks, automation and inhumane cadences just like all the other empty suits, however; integrating compassion, caring and real conversations becomes jet fuel for strengthening client relationships.

If you hunger to achieve true sales excellence, it can't just be about you. It must be bigger than you.

You must be driven by a personal mission to make your clients business world better. This cannot be done through tech stacking them to death.

• You must care intensely about your clients.
• You must have compassion for your clients.
• You must drive meaningful conversation with your clients.

You owe your clients a world full of rich conversations. To give them that gift, you need to look into their eyes and value their contribution to the conversation.

The time is now to reclaim conversations with your clients. Celebrate the very core of what it means to be human with your clients.

Stephen Covey nails it,

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

Sales professionals keep the main thing the main thing... their clients!

I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and heartfelt strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.

Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I believe you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback, kindle and in audio.

In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps become sales professionals. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.

With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social and Selling from the Heart.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebookand on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.