The water is changing…managed print services could be your life boat
There is a story of Spanish sailors who had reached the continent of South America after a difficult and demanding voyage. As they traveled around the east side of South America they came to the headwaters of the Amazon River, an expanse of water so wide the sailors had assumed it was a continuation of the Atlantic Ocean.
Today we know the Amazon River as the greatest and second longest river in the world – first being the Nile. It is responsible for providing 20 percent of the earth’s fresh water. It is humongous – the river expands from low stage with a width of between 1 and 6 miles to 30 miles or more during wet season. Where the Amazon opens into the Atlantic, it is over 200 miles wide and discharges 8 trillion gallons of fresh water per day into the Atlantic.
The sailors didn’t realize the subtle change in the water. They had presumed it to be saline and as a result many of them died of thirst. The image of men dying of thirst even as their ships sailed on the world’s largest source of fresh water serves as a metaphor for how some in the printing and imaging industry have treated managed print services.
They have become accustomed to the way “things have always been done” and have lost sight that things have subtlety changed. Is it possible that rather than sitting in ‘salt water’ that these individuals are sitting right on top of the greatest opportunity as well? MPS is an opportunity despite the recession and economic outlooks. Business is not declining and opportunities like MPS come around once or twice in a lifetime.
It is now the way of doing business and our research confirms this. Customers are happy to outsource printing in order to gain control, flexibility, and savings. MPS providers are more than willing to help in basic and advanced MPS and become partners in this venture.
Put yourself in the driver’s seat by recognizing the world has changed, and take the time to learn more about where the “cheese has moved.” I know you don’t want to die of thirst when there is an unlimited body of fresh water ready to be consumed.
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Very good analogy. It’s also useful for many other sectors like commercial printing as well
Thanks for your comment, Hamilton, commercial printing is excellent example. Another analogy commonly used is putting a frog is cold water and gradually increasing the temperature to where it is boiling – they are boiled alive. The same metaphor holds true and that is the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually. I guess humans are just not good at identifying and reacting to change!