The Datamax Thinking Blog

When your office equipment service provider isn't well-configured with necessary resources and tools, and individual technicians are not consistently spending time in online training sessions, these clichés can fall like rain.

"We deliver world-class service." Heard that before? 

The phrase is an all-too-commonly heard pitch in an advertising campaign or during the sales process. It’s a bold claim, one that’s impossible to measure or define, and a phrase that falls flat the first time an unresolved issue surfaces.

In working with your partner, how successful is implementation of new technology? Is there a Change Management Methodology that gets every employee on board safely? Or just a train wreck? 

Woodrow Wilson once famously said, “if you want to make enemies, try to change something.”

Funny, but for IT managers or business owners implementing an MFP fleet or IT-related onboarding process, perhaps a little too close for comfort.

Just as Sabermetrics is utilized by baseball front offices to gain a competitive advantage, explore just how metric-driven Datamax is; and how we showcase our service responsiveness and strength by constantly measuring powerful metrics.

America’s national pastime today is a game more and more driven by analytics.

Sabermetrics is described as the empirical analysis of baseball through statistics, used to predict the performance of players. Simple box-score elements like hits, runs and errors have given way to stats like WAR (wins above replacement), BABIP (batting average on balls in play), ISO (isolated power) and DIPS (defense-independent pitching statistics). In today’s “scouts” vs. “stats” era, these exhaustive numbers go beyond what a scout’s gut may say, to actually predicting level of success.

If your IT partner isn't doing these four things well, it might be time to look for another partner.

How is your IT service provider doing these days? Are you happy with the job they are doing?

In a perfect world, your network is running smoothly, resting safe and sound from malware attacks, and emails and communications are pinging back and forth like a well-orchestrated symphony.

We all have certain expectations when we sign on for a service, and there is nothing worse than the anxiety you feel when they don’t meet the mark — especially when it comes to IT.

If you want to successfully manage your company's information technology, the key is to plan thoroughly and completely.

You shouldn't have to be able to print money to afford your business's printers and office equipment. Yet, all too often, it seems like that is what many businesses have to do to afford their office equipment.

The easy excuse is to blame the rapid pace of technology and the unavoidable expenses of keeping up with the latest and the best. After all, it seems like technology is only good for about six months before it becomes obsolete and you have to replace it.

In the end all that is an excuse. If you want to successfully manage your company's information technology, the key is to plan thoroughly and completely. There are reasons why there are numerous clichés about the benefits of planning first to avoid the high costs of mistakes later. When it comes to IT, it is best to pay attention to those annoying, but true, words to live by.

Without change management, you won't get the most out of your new technology.

People don't even want to change their coffee order at the café in the morning, let alone the technology they've used every day for years. You want to improve productivity through new technology, such as a new customer relationship management system or digital copiers, but don't let yourself get distracted by the shiny data sheet in front of you.

You need to consider the people who are going to use these solutions on a daily basis. They don't care about the technical specifications of what you're bringing in, and they're going to dig their heels in if you don't have a plan ahead of time.

Having a plan in place with the right company that can respond as quickly as possible and get you the help you need to make those important, career changing, opportunities is key.

Have you ever played the “what if?” game? Lets play it real quick.

So what if your boss just gave you an awesome opportunity to pitch your ideas to the new clients. You have a 9 a.m. deadline and at 8 a.m. the printer breaks down. That would be pretty frustrating, right?