Comments on: GreatAmerica Leasing Makes Managed Services Moves

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:05:27 +0000

James: Thanks for the questions. I promise to track down the answers for you but it may take a few days. GreatAmerica is in the process of multiple moves and I expect a complete briefing soon… though not immediately. Stay tuned.
-jp

By: James Marcois

James Marcois — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:11:59 +0000

Joe,

I had heard that Great America Leasing Company also runs and operates an IT Company. Is that True?
I would be interested in knowing what there IT Companies main goals are. Do they only work locally in there market or do they do business on a national level. If they do work outside there local market then wouldn’t the Leasing company be some what of a trojan horse to get to our clients? We have used GALC for years, but after the rumors of them owning an IT company we have stopped. I would like to keep using them for leasing but if they may compete with me later then no way. Anyways if you could get more info it would be appreciated.

By: Ed Crowley

Ed Crowley — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:56:48 +0000

Joe, very interesting, and we applaud and encourage Great America’s efforts. They have been engaged in the MPS market for some time now and have developed a very good program. I would beg to differ with one statement of yours, ” In some ways, GreatAmerica’s efforts sound similar to Photizo Group’s MPS Conference series.”

As I understand the Navigator program it is targeted specifically at the Office Equipment Dealers, and it is targeted at developing the dealers MPS business plan. This sounds very beneficial and very unique, but it is very different from the Photizo Group MPS Conference Series.

Photizo Group’s MPS Conferences (San Antonio, Barcelona, and Singapore) are major industry events which attract a broad cross section of corporate decision makers / end users, IT resellers, Office Products Dealers, software vendors, and manufacturers for over 30 sessions addressing case studies, best practices, and networking sessions over a period of three days (the first day is a pre-conference workshop). The North American event also hosts the annual meeting of the Managed Print Services Association.

So, our event is a broad, cross industry event with participation by essentially all of the major players in the market. Quite a bit different than Great America’s event. Again, the Great American event is very good, and a much needed service.

I hope this helps clarify things and I hope we will see you at our conference!

By: Greg Walters

Greg Walters — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:03:30 +0000

A leasing company?

“…will help dealers and MSPs to develop a business model and operational structure, compensation plan, and go-to-market strategy for managed print services…”

Huh – wow – seems the MPS universe is quite large, eh?

I wonder how this will compare to the De Lage MPS program I attended last week…no…wait…THERE IS NO DE LANGE program for MPS, is there?

My Bad.

This is a great idea and a great program – these “Greg’s” really are Visionaries, aren’t they?

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:23:35 +0000

Update: I just heard from a few additional sources in the managed services market, all of whom are working with GreatAmerica. More details in a few days.
-jp

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:25:29 +0000

Greg: Never a need to thank us for editorial coverage. I’ll be in touch to learn more about your strategy and focus on managed print/managed services.
-jp

By: Greg VanDeWalker

Greg VanDeWalker — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:23:40 +0000

Joe,
Thanks for the kind words and coverage. We at GreatAmerica are very excited about the future of both Managed Print and Managed Services!

Greg VanDeWalker
Sr VP of Strategic Relationships