If there’s one thing that many office equipment dealers take pride in, and rightly so, it is the extensive experience many of their employees boast. Dealers often use this as a selling point, and those familiar faces have helped dealers forge longstanding relationships with their Read More

The question “How many pounds of methamphetamine can a Lexmark toner cartridge hold?” would probably not be found on a standard Trivial Pursuit game card. But apparently, the answer is “Less than six pounds.” Last week, deputies with the Fayette County (Texas) sheriff’s Read More

Ah, the joys of being a service technician during the age of COVID-19. Face mask? Check. Hand sanitizer? Check. Gloves? Got ‘em. Disinfectant spray for machines? Right here. Maybe disposable work mats and booties, or anything else that makes a tech look more like a surgeon? Sigh. Read More

The industry and business in general find themselves in an era of belt-tightening and adhering to a wait-and-see mentality when it comes to investments, particularly in acquisitions. It seems John Lowery never received that memo. The president and CEO of Applied Imaging, Read More

Imagining a time before face masks, incessant hand washing and social distancing is becoming increasingly difficult. It was around this time last year that people could be observed wearing PPE in supermarkets and convenience stores, though it was largely seen as being needlessly Read More

As change management confronts many dealers and providers to the office technology realm alike, perhaps it is equally important to maintain the processes and procedures that worked prior to the pandemic (and still hold true) as it is to recognize the evolved needs of end-users Read More

Throughout the pandemic, developing and maintaining strong relationships with manufacturers, suppliers and related vendors has been stressed as a key to dealers working through the myriad of challenges presented during this unprecedented period. It’s hardly shocking that office Read More

As a complement to this month’s State of the Industry report on technical service, we canvassed the industry’s leading manufacturers to solicit their opinions on the optimal qualities of an office technology dealer’s technical service platform. We asked our panel of OEMs to Read More

There is little doubt that Canon U.S.A. should take no small amount of pride in the many awards its product and service portfolio have garnered from third-party assessment organizations throughout the years. But perhaps the greatest triumph in validating the value proposition of Read More

There have been times during his professional career when Cliff Kilman confesses he was scared. For more than 10 years, Kilman routinely helped consummate the sale of $25 million companies and acted as a consultant for start-up companies. When that many zeroes are involved, it’s Read More

The quaint, Rockwell-esque portrait of the service technician wearing grease-covered overalls while lugging a toolbox hearkens back to the golden age of American manufacturing. But unlike the Maytag repairman, this ideal isn’t quite on the road to obsolescence. It does, however, Read More

Our collective vocabulary saw something of a boost in 2020, as did the office dealer’s product portfolio. Outside of the health care world, few people were familiar with the term personal protective equipment. Face masks were for professionals and the ill. And hand sanitizer’s Read More

In the movie “Captain Phillips,” there’s a scene where the U.S. Navy tries to draw the line by pressuring the Somali pirates who have taken Captain Richard Phillips hostage to end the standoff. Phillips used a ruse to jump into the Indian Ocean in an escape attempt, but the Read More

Mindful of two past attempts in joining forces that eventually didn’t pass muster with the Federal Trade Commission, The ODP Corporation—parent company of Office Depot—formally rejected the $40 per share acquisition offer put forward by Staples last week. In the process, ODP held Read More

The oft-repeated adage about life, that it gives you the test first and teaches the lesson after the fact, certainly holds true. During 2020, we learned on the fly from the comforts of home but certainly weren’t always thrilled with how adversity was reconciled on a broader Read More