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HOW EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS CAN REDUCE COSTSJanuary 16, 2012
There is no doubt how today’s educational institutions are being driven:
Key challenges revolve around many items:
Paperwork is inherent in the flow of information between students, staff, alumni, donors and the community. Genesis Technologies’ Corporate LaserCare Managed Print Services program can have a significant impact on the market. Our Corporate LaserCare programs:
With a Corporate LaserCare Managed Print Services program from Genesis Technologies, your technology will improve without decreasing your bottom line. By having us manage your printer fleet, we can reduce your costs up to 30%. Our programs help you increase productivity because we make sure the right device is in the right place. This also contributes to your environmental goals by helping your print more responsibly. For more information on how we help educational institutions, please visit us at: www.gentechol.com/industries_education.html. To view our video on YouTube, please visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FnZgchMPJ0. Thank you to Eric Gottsagen, Sr. Managed Print Services Consultant for his participation in creating the YouTube video! Posted in Uncategorized Tagged blog, blogging, copiers, cost, Customer, customer service, customers, education, educational, educational institutions, environment, Genesis, Genesis Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, higher education, HP, K-12, Kyocera, managed print services, MFPs, MPS, printers, save money, service, social media, video, Xerox, YouTube Leave a commentHow Can You Reduce The Environmental Impact Your Office Makes?November 29, 2011Genesis is committed to providing solutions that reduce environmental impact. Through our managed print services programs we present clear environmental and economic advantages for any company. After a complete assessment of your document infrastructure, we will find ways to implement a sustainable program designed specifically for your company. We have aligned our goals in three key areas to make an impact on the environment. Together with our suppliers, customers and employees we strive to maintain the highest standards of products and services to protect and enhance the sustainability of the environment in which our communities function and thrive. Prevent and manage waste Reduce energy consumption Eliminating paper-based processes
Care About Cost? Look Beyond Price!October 13, 2011By: Rob Nelson Director of Sales For many organizations today, cost is critical. Operating costs, capital expenditures, expenses, DSO, et.al. are being looked at as a way to run more lean and efficient. When it comes to office equipment, organizations ask, “what’s the price?” Sure this matters, but it’s the proverbial tip of the iceberg. What you save on price can be spent ten-fold on operating costs if you don’t engage in an eyes-wide-open approach to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Price is but one component of how much it will “cost” your company. The price reductions / savings you negotiate on equipment is a moment in time benefit. The ongoing cost of operation is where the real opportunity is. Consider this…you reduce the price of an office equipment purchase by 14% through savvy negotiations with your chosen vendor. No competitor could match their “price.” Let’s say that equates to a $20,000 savings. Your new equipment gets installed, your employees get trained and off you go. Now consider some questions:
If you didn’t pay appropriate attention to these and other cost factors, that $20,000 in savings could be overshadowed by as much as $200,000 worth of excess cost over the life of usage. These are just several of dozens of cost considerations that go well beyond how much you paid for the hardware. Myriad stories exist of companies who purchased or leased equipment at a reduced price and then paid far more than necessary for service, support, supplies, reliability, effectiveness, inflexibility, acumen and more. TCO must be part of your vocabulary and process when making office equipment buying decisions. “The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.” - John Ruskin Posted in Uncategorized Tagged copiers, cost, Genesis, Hewlett-Packard, HP, Kyocera, managed print services, MFPs, multifunction, price, printers, printing, service, technology, Xerox Leave a commentThe Cure for the Daily Blues: A Good Corporate CultureSeptember 12, 2011
One way we beat the blues is through weekly and monthly team outings or internal employee events. We have hosted everything from ‘Breakfast in Your PJs’ to a ‘Cinco de Mayo’ party… It’s an outlet we use to get to know each other better and build better relationships so we can enjoy our days and survive the ones that are a little more challenging. We talk about new restaurants we’ve been to or the favorite places that everyone “MUST go to.” Our days are practically planned by when we are going to get together next. By 9:30am, the menus come out and plans for lunch are made. Recently, we celebrated our 20th Anniversary at El Jardin in Glenview – we shared a lot of great stories from the past 20 years and celebrated our successes. Every single employee showed up for the event – something that rarely happens at corporate functions. And it is all a product of just building that good corporate culture – with everyone wanting to come to work each and every day. The next party in the line-up is a ‘Back-to-School Homemade Soup and Grilled Cheese’ lunch. Hope everyone is hungry! - Contributed by Cassie Martin, Accounting Manager and unofficial company event planner Posted in Uncategorized Tagged anniversary, blog, company culture, copiers, corporate culture, culture, employee relations, events, Genesis Technologies, managed print services, printers Leave a comment Don’t Lose Site in Service!!!August 24, 2011
I was being a bit facetious, but it is true that most of what we do as a Service Department is respond to problems that customers are having with their printers or MFP’s. We are charged with the task of responding quickly to those problems and repairing the issue as fast as possible so that we minimize the amount of downtime the customer experiences because of that device failure. But just as importantly, we need to carry out that task in a customer-friendly manner. I am quite proud of the technical staff that we have assembled at Genesis, because they not only have the technical expertise to diagnose and repair printer issues that range from the ordinary to the complex, but they take equal pride in making sure the customer is completely satisfied with entire repair experience. In the grand scheme of things, it is not a successful call if we completely repair a printer or MFP, but treat the customer rudely, or in a condescending manner. If we leave and the printer is fixed, but the customer is still frustrated, we have failed! So, what is does it take to make sure that happens? We focus on the following 4 things:
Someday, we may reach a point where printers and MFP’s are so reliable that there is never a need for repairs and people will have time to call us and tell us just how well the printers are working. Until then, we’ll continue to focus on the above objectives to make sure our customers are satisfied with the entire repair experience. Posted by Kurt Nelsen, Director of Service, Genesis Technologies Posted in Uncategorized Tagged blog, call center, copiers, customer service, customers, fixing, focus, Genesis Technologies, HP, managed print services, printers, service, Xerox Leave a commentContributing Article: Social Media Goes Mainstream for Channel MarketersAugust 17, 2011By Lindsay Taitel, Marketing Communications Program Manager, eCoast  Photo courtesy of: BtoB Magazine
For even the largest global corporations, social media is now an essential part of brand recognition, customer relationship building, employee relations, sophisticated marketing campaigns, and buzz building. Today, social media is being used to sell enterprise IT products and services just as effectively as it is being used to market the latest Lady Gaga Billboard chart-topper. Channel marketers and VARs should eagerly embrace this new opportunity. Forward-thinkers are already engaging third-party social-media managers — or dedicated in-house personnel — to execute social media setup, strategy, and campaigns. When talking about marketing within the framework of social media it should be observed that, although social media has yet to realize unanimous acceptance in the realm of traditional marketing schemes, it far surpasses traditional practices due to its richness and unique real-time response capabilities. Companies that are astute enough to recognize its value can use social media to very effectively build a genuine community among customers, employees, and the customers’ identification with a company’s brand and culture. The acceptance and enterprise use of social media has vastly accelerated over the last three to four years. Interestingly, the reason for social media’s success of springs from traditional marketing truisms: Social media — mainly Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter — has “gone mainstream,” and has proven to be very effective when professionally managed. The mediums are low-cost (largely free, in fact) and they are extremely scalable, popular and fun to use. And that’s to say nothing of the built-in audiences that have wholeheartedly embraced them. Even as the U.S. Postal Service is curtailing operations and shutting down locations, there is a rising use of social media with user numbers in the hundreds of millions, and the BtoB sector is no exception to these growth trends. Social media marketing spending for BtoB is expected to grow to $54 million in 2014 from $11 million in 2009. According to BtoB Magazine, “93% of all BtoB marketers are engaged in some form of social media marketing, with most putting their focus on the most popular channels (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter)”. Social media’s effectiveness in BtoB outreach certainly comes as no surprise to marketing professionals who have experienced social media’s power, even if they themselves initially used social media purely as a social networking tool. “I would have never dreamed of the prevalence of Facebook today when I opened my Facebook account seven years ago to keep up with my college buddies,” said Stephanie Yarborough, Account Manager & eCommerce Director, Herald Office Solutions. “But now, on behalf of Herald Office Solutions, I’m posting as often as possible, even uploading product pictures and Tweeting. It’s become core to building customer relationships.” Social Media = Positive ROI Given its rapid path to acceptance, social media has forced an examination of its uses and how its value can be measured, even as most marketers recognize that social media has become essential. “Your business needs to mold social media to fit the way you do business,” said Brad Hurley, President, Blackhawk Inc. “Social media can — and should — be used differently by every business. The best part is that you can be unique as a business, and be rewarded for that. Moreover, as the younger generation begins to fill more management positions, you will see social media used in ways we haven’t even thought of.” One part of embracing social media as an effective marketing tool requires recognizing that its value can be felt through a direct and vital exchange with a conscious audience. By comparison, take print ads as an example: Unless an advertiser offers a campaign-specific destination for a print ad campaign, they accept the fact that simply displaying a brand has its own value. With social media, companies are not only building brand recognition; they are rapidly developing a rapport with their current customers and any potential customers who are hanging outside their proverbial wall. Social media can place these prospects within reach. As for measuring social media campaign effectiveness, a number of ROI calculation methods and sophisticated outreach tools are now being offered by social media leaders such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as third parties. In fact, some of these third-party providers are often bought by the companies they add value to. For instance, Twitter just bought the popular Tweet management service TweetDeck. It will be increasingly easier to calculate the incremental business social media creates. Though there will always be naysayers in the expansion of any new technology, social media marketing professionals are finding it exponentially easier to educate skeptics about social media’s incurred value, often converting them into viable social media success stories. “Many established professionals do not follow social media, or they use it only to connect with friends and family,” said Laura Studwell, Director of Recruiting & Marketing, Genesis Technologies. “Educating traditional decision makers on the value of personally following a social media account is difficult. Yet there is so much real value to gain for their companies, in terms of discounted marketing outreach capabilities and promotions. And there is no doubt that these can significantly impact their bottom-lines. Through social media, we have generated interest in our products and services and have closed several deals. That will get anyone’s attention.” Social media is a platform that will certainly have a learning curve to it — there will be some trial and error. However, with time, one will find with daily usage, that it is fairly easy to navigate. What’s more, upon digging a little deeper, you will find valuable backend tools within each medium’s platform that allow you to track how each of your initiated campaigns are behaving. This will allow you to gather a full understanding of which campaigns are successful, and which ones need tweaking. It’s a vast world out there on the Internet. There are a lot of places where people can focus their attention. Social media is a contained way to aid in sorting out what’s new, what’s interesting, and what is coming down the pipeline. Tune in. You’ll be excited to have an audience learning from and about you, and you’ll be even more excited from what you’ll learn from them. eCoast is a business process outsource company specializing in sales and channel marketing programs for the technology industry. eCoast holds numerous technology certifications, and has developed proven methods of increasing pipeline revenue, shortening sales cycles, and building long term relationships with clients. With a best-practices approach to creating and executing customized programs that result in a measurable ROI for technology clients, eCoast has developed a solid reputation for success, and is the primary marketing firm for hundreds of technology manufacturers, partners, and value added resellers. eCoast’s service offerings include appointment setting, marketing outsourcing, channel sales, and inbound marketing. Is it just me… or is everyone way too busy???August 11, 2011It seems these days that EVERYONE I talk with lately is way too busy! It seems with the current economic environment, layoffs have occurred in the last few years and most folks who are working are “over employed” and are performing the tasks of their primary job as well as part (or all) of another’s job. How can one stay on top of, or even increase, one’s productivity while maintaining some sense of sanity? Your first instinct may be work harder (or longer hours). This strategy might work for some time but eventually you will crack and need a mental health day – or worse an extended mental health vacation! So the real question is, “How can I maximize my time?” Following are a couple of strategies that you can use to help increase your productivity while at work. The first strategy that may help boost your productivity is the Zen method, borrowed from Mahayana Buddhism. With this strategy you will take your top three activities (or action items) each day and do them, do them first and do not let anything get in your way of completing them until they are finished. Then you are free to work on other less important tasks. This strategy is effective because of the Pareto Principal, you know the old 80/20 rule (also known as The Law of the Vital Few or The Principal of Factor Sparsity). This proven rule holds true in almost every business (or personal) environment and simply states that you will get 80% of your results from 20% of your actions. Therefore, if you concentrate your activities on the “vital few” you crowd out less important activities and must, by extension, produce more. In my personal business the rule is actually closer to the “90/10” rule. In the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey introduced us to the next strategy a four quadrant method described in his third habit-Putting First Things First. He asserts that everything you do, relative to achieving your daily goals, is either important/not important and urgent/not urgent. The key to using his method is to divide a square with an X/Y axis. label the X axis with urgent at one end and not urgent at the other. The label the Y axis similarly with important and not important. Now there should be four distinct quadrants. One will be urgent/important. One will be not urgent/important. One will be urgent/not important and the last will be not important/not urgent. Now place your action items into one of these related four quadrants. Once completed, you should spend your time taking care of the tasks in the important/urgent quadrant first. Follow this by doing the important/not urgent. If you have time left complete (or delegate) the unimportant/urgent tasks. Finally try hard to delete or delegate the items in unimportant/not urgent action items. At first this may seem difficult, especially ignoring the urgent/ but not important things. However, you will be surprised that, when crowded out, these things usually are truly not that urgent and they will oftentimes take care of themselves. Finally, if you work best from visual queues, then you could use a list written on paper. Keep this list with you and cross your tasks off once they are complete. There are several preprinted systems that are very good and commercially available. Day Planner, Day-Runner, or Franklin Planner are just some of the options that come to mind. This is also a good way to keep “score” on how you are doing throughout the day. While all of the paper list options mentioned above have merit I like the Franklin Planner methodology. Using this method you make a list of every task you have to do in your agenda book. After the list is exhausted you will need to go back and rank them by order of priority A, B, C, or D. The A’s are your day’s most important tasks. These are things critical to your career and professional success and may include things like collaborating on a project, scheduled meetings, software updates, prospecting…you get the idea. Follow that with the less critical (important but not urgent) things to do and label them with a B. The things which are needed to be finished in your personal life should be labeled with a C. Finally anything that is left over can be deleted or delegated. Label these items with a D. Now go back to the “A’s” and rank them most urgent with a 1, next urgent with a 2 and so on until you are through your “A’s”. Next go back and rank your B’s do this until you are through with your ABC&Ds. Now you know where you need to begin (with your A list) and finish (the D list) your day. Do not worry about not completing your “C’s” somehow they always get completed-almost, as if, by magic. Have you ever woken up after during a restless sleep at 3:00 in the morning with your mind racing with a problem or with all of the things you need to get done later that day (or week)? This is your subconscious telling you that you are out of balance. Make a list of everything that is running through your mind. You will relax and soon go back to sleep. Oftentimes you will even have the answer to your problem manifest itself when you wake up. All of the strategies above do come with a commitment of time. A small amount of time spent planning will help save you much time throughout the day. Other than 3:00 AM, when is your best time to plan? Everyone is different so you need to discern when your “sweet spot” is. So, when is the best time of the day for you? Some people are morning people and some are definitely not! Other people will plan better in the early afternoon – or at night. The sweet spot is the best time for you to do your planning. These are some of my thoughts on the strategies of becoming more productive or “Doing More With Less”. Try one, all or a combination of them and use the one that works best for you. I hope you’ll find them useful and feel, if used, you will definitely become more productive. Tom McIntosh is a Sales Consultant and Senior Account Manager with Genesis Technologies. He earned a BS of Economics from the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah. Posted in Uncategorized Tagged blog, blogging Leave a comment 5 Fatal Flaws of a Customer Service DepartmentJuly 28, 2011Last week, I had the unfortunate experience of being involved in a car wreck on Western Avenue in Chicago just blocks from my home. As per standard MO after the wreck, I exchanged information with the other driver and called 311 (non-emergency response line for Chicago, IL). The person on the other end said that in the city of Chicago, police do not respond to accidents where the vehicles are in drivable condition and no one is hurt… Neither really applied to either of us except my side view mirror was hanging by a thread. I would have probably been pulled over for that any other day… So you actually have to drive to the precinct. He said he was going to “transfer” me to the nearest precinct, which I took to mean he would transfer my call there. Instead, all I got was “good luck”… *click*… The next day, I was supposed to receive a call from the precinct for some follow-up police report information so that I could call my insurance company to get my claim started. Since the other party involved did not have proper insurance, he was to return with the correct insurance and the person at the desk assured me she would call me once that had happened. I waited and waited and finally called the precinct. When I spoke to the person who was familiar with the situation, she said “Oh…. The other party was supposed to call you with that information… Sorry.” This cheesed me off pretty bad. What if I had been waiting and waiting for them to call me back? I had to wait an extra day for my rental car and to get my claim started, not to mention inconveniencing my spouse who had to drive me to work the next 2 days. All in all it soured me on the whole deal. I thought, “Is this where my taxes are going?” When answering calls or completing various tasks for our customers, I try to make my team see it from the customer’s standpoint. Have you ever had a customer service experience that just really got under your skin? I’m pretty sure we all have. I always try to instill the mantra in my team of “Treat others how you would like to be treated” by being courteous, flexible and knowledgeable. The top 5 customer service mistakes I have experienced with other companies are the following:
There you have it….. 5 of what I see are fatal flaws a customer service department can have. What are some roadblocks that YOU have experienced? - Written by Giles McVay, Account Management Representative Manager, Genesis Technologies Posted in Uncategorized Tagged blog, blogging, call center, copiers, Customer, flaws, Hewlett-Packard, Kyocera, managed print services, MPS, printers, service, technicians, Xerox 32 CommentsSEE MORE. Do more. Save more. AND CHEER MORE WITH HP and Genesis!July 20, 2011Join HP and Genesis for the Explore More Seminar Series and a Chicago Cubs game on August 10, 2011. HP and Genesis are hosting a series of informative seminars on how to use managed print services to streamline your printing environment and save money. Following a day of demonstrations, insights and engaging discussions, we will head to Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs take on the Washington Nationals.
This event marks the perfect opportunity to see what solutions Genesis offers, to discover how you can do more and most importantly, to learn how you can save significantly with help from us. Along with an overview keynote presentation, we will break into sessions to address to specific needs of your industry and how our solutions can address these requirements. Topics include:
We hope you make plans to join us for the informative day of seminars and an evening at the ballpark. Contact your Genesis sales representative today to reserve your spot at 800.436.1994. Agenda:
Meeting will be held at the Gleacher Center, 450 N Cityfront Plaza Drive, 6th Floor, Executive Dining Room, Chicago, IL 60611. The ballgame will be held at Wrigley Field in the Grand Slam and Double Play suites, 1060 W Addison Street, Chicago, IL 60613. Posted in Uncategorized Tagged copiers, customers, event, Genesis, Genesis Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, HP, managed print services, printers, save, streamline 46 CommentsHow excited is Genesis Technologies to have an official blog?July 11, 2011
Just a quick note as we make our first blog post… one of our biggest initiatives right now is to promote our great company and get the Genesis Technologies name out to the market. We are moving forward to utilize social media tools to offer our customers special promotions, access to sporting and entertainment events and access to industry news. You can find us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/GenesisTechnologies; Twitter at: @GenesisTweet; and LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/genesis-technologies. Thank you to all of our employees, partners and customers that have supported us throughout the years! July 7, 2011 marked our 20th Anniversary in business under the same ownership – and we are looking forward to another 20 years!!! Posted in Uncategorized Tagged blog, blogging, Genesis Technologies, HP, introduction, Kyocera, managed print services, MPS, official, printers, welcome, Xerox 1 Comment |
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