Predictive-Insight.com

A Conversation with Ed McLaughlin, Shawn Cashmark, and EKM Global's Ian Silvester

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 05:46:00 +0000

It’s hard to believe it is only three years since Shawn Cashmark and I started Predictive InSight.

We started Predictive InSight on June 15, 2020.

Both Shawn and I are passionate advocates of finding a better way to do things, and it was that mindset that led us to EKM’s Insight product and convinced us that we could help dealers improve the work environment for their employees and, as a result, improve the customer experience and retention.

There were the nay-sayers (but there is never a shortage of them) that felt that supporting the print industry on its way down was a dead-end and that there was no need for a different DCA.

This same idea of better-supporting efforts for customer development and improving the customer experience led us to our relationship with ShopBlocks, our partner in the e-commerce space.

In comparison, we have yet to have rapid acceptance of e-commerce.

There are features and process improvements that we continue to add to the Insight product with the help of EKM’s fabulous engineering staff.

As we entered our third year, we added another DCA offering, MPS Monitor.

Let me close with a statement that I couldn’’t have picked a better partner than Shawn; he is tireless in his passion and is insistent on always doing the right thing.

The Challenge of Change

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 13:05:00 +0000

Cloud computing has become a ubiquitous term in the technology industry.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as a model that enables convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

On-Demand Self-Service

On-demand self-service is the ability to provision computing resources, such as processing power, storage, and network bandwidth, automatically without human intervention.

Some cloud services only allow users to purchase pre-defined bundles of resources, which can be limiting if the user's needs do not fit within those bundles.

Broad Network Access

Cloud services should be accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, using any device.

Resource Pooling

Resource pooling is the ability to provide computing resources, such as processing power and storage, as a shared pool that multiple users can access.

Some cloud services do not provide valid resource pooling.

Rapid Elasticity

Cloud services should be able to scale resources up or down to meet changing demands rapidly.

Measured Service

Measured service refers to monitoring and measuring resource usage, such as processing power, storage, and network bandwidth, and providing billing and usage reports to customers.

Some cloud services may not provide actual measured service.

Additional Considerations

In addition to the essential characteristics outlined by NIST, several additional considerations can help determine whether a cloud service is genuine.

First, a true cloud service should provide high availability and redundancy.

Second, a true cloud service should provide security features to protect data and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

Overall, a genuine cloud service offers more scalability, reliability, security, and flexibility than a shared server, making it a better option for businesses and organizations that require high performance and uptime for their websites or applications.

Are you and your Accounts Aligned?

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 12:40:00 +0000

As an industry we are really very good at understanding the internal metrics that lead to a
well-run business and thus profitability. what are the metrics for measuring our performance against the expectations of the
customer?

Look back on the big sales you recently lost. slipped away last year, did anyone in your organization pickup on the signs of your
vulnerability?

When we were purely selling product the idea of alignment was simple. needs the product; we want to sell them ours. in a world of services such simplicity no longer applies. “Zero-Sum” environment and expectations which are continuously elevated by
other high performing suppliers, the margin for mistakes gets very slim.

Today we need to be more aligned with the business objectives of our customers, not just
our “statement of work”. communication from these other suppliers and by their own ever-evolving missions and
performance pressures.

I’m reminded of a time when I was visiting with the CFO of one of our largest customers. They were a major organization with thousands of placements. for years and I had every reason to believe we were doing an exceptional job. imagine my surprise when the first comment out of his mouth was how dissatisfied he was
with our performance. level of the departments using our product. agreement called for delivery within 30 days and we were delivering in half that. were national and complicated to arrange. doing a good job. competitors. could not understand why we could not equal their three-day delivery system.

To be candid I first felt it was an unfair comparison. than promised it should be satisfactory, and I felt blind-sided by his concern on my
performance. top of his mind. since I had been in to visit with him and talk about his priorities and newest objectives. had monthly reviews with the Account Manager, but I had fallen behind on the executive
exchanges. more vulnerable. It’s not price, or service. Communications are often left to occur without any kind of strategic management structure
around them.

Account Forensics, an Atlanta based account diagnostic firm for many Fortune 500
companies has an extensive database of information formed from doing the forensics on
account health. following:

“Account support encompasses the total support from the service provider’s account team
to the buyer, including both executive and direct client-facing teams. that corporate teams took on a significantly pronounced role in causing client accounts to
shift from strong to vulnerable in 2014. of concern in 2014, 58% cited an insufficient level of corporate involvement from the
provider as the main reason for their disappointment.

So what should we do?

Build senior executive involvement into the account plan.

Schedule senior executive client meetings and make these part of the account plan. company’s senior executives should visit accounts at a frequency that is appropriate given
the client’s size, growth potential, and overall strategic importance.

Share the load.

It might make sense for multiple executives at your company to share the load. it may be advantageous for the vice president of sales to visit during one quarter and the
chief financial officer during another. involvement with the client, but by introducing different disciplines it may introduce
additional approaches to address issues and increase opportunities for performance
dialogues and sales.

Establish a system to archive and share ideas.

It is difficult to proactively communicate ideas to your client if you don’t have a system to
store, organize, and share ideas. accomplish this, but very few have really developed a process that ensures they are really
capturing the data that will help improve the relationship. the sales force is forced to use to track activity rather than a management tool to archive
customer knowledge, it will fail. archive and share ideas with your client, both executive and sales teams are able to
systematically see which ideas have already been shared, as well as determine gaps so you
can proactively make recommendations which strengthen relationships.

Listen to your customers at all levels.

Your client’s needs can be driven from many levels within the organization, and these may
be in areas where you are not routinely involved. and indirect influences that are impacting the expectations of your customer.

Evolving to a services business does not mean simply engaging in IT services, or offering
MPS. focused on their core issues and competencies. communicating, analyzing, and reporting issues and metrics that will help them reach their
goals.

Understanding the measure of our clients’ expectations is every bit as important as the
metrics we call benchmarks. then the internal metrics we spend so much time on are just meaningless numbers.

It’s Not About Data; It’s About Knowledge

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 12:40:00 +0000

Many people have asked me, “Does the industry need another DCA?
All men are created equal, but all data collection applications are not.
What we didn’t know was that, around the same time, there was a company setting out to find a way to extract the MIB data in print devices with another purpose in mind — managing the whole account.
EKM Global was the company that developed this newer approach.
It’s been six months since Shawn Cashmark, and I launched Predictive InSight.
Let’s look at a few of the problems that an intelligent DCA solves and its impact on that critical people to process ratio.
Falling Off the Network

The most common complaint we hear from dealers is that the DCA falls off the network and essential billing data is lost.
It is the architecture of these non-intelligent DCAs that is at the root of these issues.
There are a couple of issues with .
Then, the only method of data transfer is over port 443, a target port for hackers.
Insight from EKM is the only DCA that does not use the .
The value is that there is less disruption to the back office, eliminating frivolous use of service technicians’ and administrators’ time.
Turning Data into Knowledge

Intelligent data collection starts by collecting the right data in the correct priority.
The loops are:

Heartbeat lets us know the printer is online and reporting.
Alerts are fully processed via the rules engine.
Meters are not only collected, they are analyzed and cleansed at the point of collection.
Trays.

With the data categorized and cleansed, algorithms start creating the tools to enable account management.
Consumable management is key to the profitability of any account.
Algorithms also analyze and adjust rapid use consumables to ensure that the customer can continue to make prints and take the pressure off your staff trying to trace erratic page printing.
A Final Thought

After a demonstration the other day, as we were recapping our meeting, one of our technical people stopped and commented, “During this meeting, it struck me that we are truly an enterprise-level platform built on enterprise architecture, which means we are fully scalable from the smallest to the largest of resellers.
Some would still say that changing out a system is time-consuming, and unless they are experiencing real pain, they are happy to put it off.

A Conversation With Ed McLaughlin & Andy Slawetsky

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 12:40:00 +0000