LEXMARK SPYING ON IT’S CHANNEL PARTNERS

[Anonymous]

Lexmark Rolls Out Assessment Tool For Channel
 Dec. 02, 2005
Lexmark, trying to drive more document and workflow consulting business, is offering solution providers an “assessment tool” to evaluate customers’ production costs.
The Lexington, Ky.-based maker of printers and multi-function products said its Document Needs Assessment (DNA) consulting tool is available to partners who complete online training and want a new assessment offering to their lineup.
“It’s a partner-led, professional services offering,” said John Linton, Lexmark’s vice president of solution provider channels. “We give them all the tools, we provide them all the experience we have in a vertical market.”
The DNA offering assesses document workflow costs in a variety of vertical markets. Lexmark said earlier this year it would work with solution providers in the lucrative and emerging space for document consulting, where it will compete with Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif., and Xerox, Stamford, Conn.
“The output (of the assessment tool) is a customer-focused document,” Linton said. “It’s a document for the end customer that would show the customer what their current (document workflow) environment is, and costs associated with their current output environment.”
At the same time, the DNA tool will allow solution providers to show customers where costs can be saved by taking measures such as consolidating print devices or adding MFPs, Linton said. The DNA offering was rolled out earlier this year in a pilot program, and is now available to all authorized Lexmark partners who complete web-based training.
Mike King, a sales manager for Dove Data, a Florence, S.C.-based Lexmark partner, said his company took part in the pilot program. The DNA tool, he said, worked so well it helped his company close one deal with an Atlanta-based health care provider for between 17 and 35 new units. The assessment report is essentially a “plug and play” data analysis tool that provides a clean, understandable report after clients are asked a series of questions, he said.
“It was a great opportunity, and a toll that could be used by just about everybody,” King said. While Linton said the DNA tool is such that solution providers can perform an assessment and consulting service, and add billable hours, King said he will employ it as a means of winning over clients.
“This will be more of a tool to help me close business,” King said. 

[Author]

December 9, 2005 at 11:46 AM