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*Personal Branding Accelerator* Internet Lead Generation Coach*Digital Printing* Graphic Business* Out of Home wide format Printing* Billboard Banner* Brokerage* E Marketing* Western Eastern Europe* Middle East Africa* Corporate Account management* Sales Coaching* Brand Coaching*Negotiation skills.*Help software companies globalize their solutions

Lucien Moons Business Accelerator current mission with Scitexvision-NUR-Colorspan (Now a HP company since Nov 2005) is to market High Volume large format digital printers and help accelerate the analogue to digital revolution for silk screen, offset and packaging companies in Central Eastern Countries. (Pol, CZ SK HU RO SLO Cro BH Ser Mace Bulg.)


Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy, happy Christmas,

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!  ~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836


For me Home it is the house from the rock where this picture was made.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Your *TBA Consultant. We deliver the IT European SMB market to you.*Trusted Business Advisor.


Collectively, the US and Canada account for 58%* of the global $1.3 trillion IT industry. Of this $750 billion in purchases, $320 billion worth is sold to businesses through 85,000 Reseller** organizations; about $300 billion worth of this is purchased by what we define as SMBs, with $240 billion flowing through Resellers.

We define SMBs from an IT Channel perspective. Companies with less then 10 employees tend to purchase IT products from the superstores, or online using price as the primary criteria in product selection. Larger enterprises that have a CIO as part of the management team, use Resellers as a source for purchasing IT products at a low price.

Between the really small companies and the large enterprises, are the 10 million evasive, hard to reach SMBs with about 10 to 500 employees. Vendors sell products, whereas SMBs need technology-based solutions – solutions that give them a strategic advantage in the daily operation of their business, as well as help reduce costs and increase revenues. Much in the same as enterprises depend on their CIOs, Resellers create a symbiotic relationship with SMBs whereby, instead of being viewed as a supplier, they have become a Trusted Business Advisor (TBA).

Trusted Business Advisors

TBAs provide SMBs with recommendations on what solutions they require and then determine what they need, purchase the technology on their behalf, install it, ensure system integration, train employees and provide 7x24x365 service and support to keep the technology up and running. Simultaneously, TBAs refresh and update the technology.

SMBs do not want to know how the products work or why; they just want someone they trust to make sure they have the technology-based solutions they need. TBAs very effectively replace the FUD factor (fear, uncertainty and doubt) with a comfort zone.



The only effective way to reach, service and support SMBs is via their Trusted Business Advisors. TBK core competence is delivering the SMB marketplace to Vendors. We do this by reaching, educating, enabling, motivating and ensuring TBAs have the business knowledge, tools and vehicles required to effectively reach and service SMBs.

Since 1980, we have developed and implemented cost-effective, strategic, go-to-market programs for 350 IT companies. This experience has allowed us to accumulate a wealth of intellectual channel marketing knowledge in direct, channel, hybrid, retail, etail, managed services and SaaS go-to-market models.

We leverage our relationships, experience and knowledge on how to reach, recruit, engage, motivate, educate, enable and collaborate with TBAs to help Vendors enhance their channel relationships and increase their sales.



Using a systematic process, we provide Vendors with the structure, experience and contacts required to:
  • Define channel objectives
  • Evaluate current channel marketing expenditures
  • Perform a SWOT, gap and needs analysis
  • Position, segment, target and profile customers, resellers and distributors
  • Develop a customized, strategic, complete end-to-end channel marketing plan based on the Channel Sales Cycle: recruiting and engaging, enabling, collaborating with and maintaining strong relationships with appropriate Channel Partners to help them build their business and yours
  • Align objectives and audiences with distributor-funded and corporate marketing programs
  • Define parameters and criteria for evaluation of current activities and ongoing performance measurement
  • Implement partner recruitment, engagement, education and motivation programs
  • Create and execute all channel marketing programs, including: launch strategies and rollouts; Channel product seeding, awareness and branding programs, demand creation and lead generation programs; partner and/or customer retention programs; etc.
  • TBK and Computer Profile Channel Enablement Program:
    1. VAR Recruitment
    2. VAR Training
    3. VAR Enablement
    4. End-User Leads
    5. End-User Marketing
    6. Measure performance and track back results to ROI based on individual program components and/or back to the performance of specific partners

*All statistics quoted are best estimates developed by TBK based on a combination of research, industry knowledge and extrapolation.

**References to Resellers include VARs, System Integrators and System Builders. Retailers and etailers are not included.

Five big tech innovations coming in the next five years: IBM

As we turn the calendar to the next year -- and decade -- IBM is unveiling its fifth annual "Next Five in Five," its perspective on five innovations it believes will change how people work, live and play over the next five years. Several years ago, when mobile phones were purely for voice, IBM projected the strong uptake of mobile devices and smart phones and 'carrying your business in your pocket.' That's all with us now. So bearing that in mind, what do IBM's soothsayers predict now is in our future?
Batteries will Breathe Air to Power our Devices
This means that batteries in electronic devices will be smaller, lighter and last 10 times longer than they do today.
"In looking at the history of battery improvements, we've seen about 7% improvement on a year to year basis, and that clearly doesn't match demand," said Don Campbell, Chief Technology Officer for Business Analytics at IBM. "We've been very seriously working on all aspects of the technology to get better performance. For certain batteries, carrying a device around all day, that simple motion of walking around with the device can be leveraged to bring energy back.
"We are also looking at ways to take ionization out of the air chemically, to take advantage of what's in our atmosphere," Campbell said. "We have some ways to go there. Eventually, a battery that never runs out is the goal, but if we get 10 times the life we do today, this will still change how we use these devices."
You'll Beam up your Friends in 3-D
No, it's not quite Star Trek time, but with the rapid advancement in 3-D technology IBM says you'll soon be able to interact with your friends through 3-D holograms -- in real time -- from your phone.
"Some of these trends are already starting in the consumer space," Campbell said. "3D TVs are becoming a potentially popular item. And the addition of holographic technology, which would eliminate the need for special glasses, will change the adoption rate."
Holographic technology involves the reproduction of the splitting and scattering of light to represent a 3D image.
"You can see that light from different angles, move your point of view, get a much more natural feel from the perspective of what you are looking at," Campbell said. "From an enterprise data perspective, it's adding a third dimension of data without having other data items get in the way. We are attuned to looking at information in 3D, and when we can turn that on for people, they get a lot of value back."
3D Projection in this format is likely to come out of tabletop devices, as what you see in 3D appears on TOP of the event, not instead of it. For straight commercial applications, Campbell said to look for this in interactive kiosks -- "kiosks with 3D navigation capabilities rather than an awkward projection into 2D, which is what we look at today."
Computers will help energize your city
The philosophy here is already apparent in IBM Smarter Planet initiatives, but there's more to come, Campbell said, specifically energy being harnessed from computer heat, then used to heat and cool buildings.
"In the data center, 50% of the energy is cooling the data center, and a lot of that heat is just lost to us," Campbell said. "A micro approach to passing water across the chip, pulling heat out of the chip and instead of getting rid of it, capturing, extracting and repurposing it, can lead to something as simple as driving a coffee maker in the lunch room, or as massive as heating a building in winter."
You won't need to be a Scientist to Save the Planet
People are walking sensors, and in five years, sensors in your phone, car, wallet and even your Tweets will collect data that give scientists a real-time picture of your environment. A whole class of "citizen scientists" will emerge, using simple sensors that already exist to create massive data sets for research.
"We have all kinds of ways now of putting in place a sensor that will collect information," Campbell said. "People carry devices with GPS chips, motion detectors, accelerometers, that can shut down hard drives about to crash. If we can leverage that to learn other things about our environment, we can really gain an advantage."
Campbell doesn't think privacy issues would become an issue here.
"People would agree to be part of this, and wouldn't give up any personal information," he said. 'The law now requires mobile devices to be able to communicate GPS location in emergencies, and this is no different than that."
Your commute will be personalized
This one sounds like GPS, but it goes much further, combining predictive analytics with real-time travel route information to recommend better ways to get to your destination.
"GPS tells me how to get from my home to the office, and traffic conditions, but what it doesn't do is predict for me based on all kinds of other things what things might be like as my commute commences," Campbell said. "For instance, it could predict how many parking spots in nearby garages are likely to be available when I arrive, so I know where to go first. And it might consider, if there is an event or a major disruption, if I should just take public transit, and redirect me to a drop -off place if that's the case."
Campbell said the limit of GPS is that it's not personalized.
"If you add more personalization and data sources, I think these devices can be much smarter," he said. "I'm happy to have GPS tell me how everyone should get from my place to work but what I would really like is to know MY information based on my preferences."
In summing up the philosophy behind the projections, Campbell said that predictive analytics is critically important in understanding how we use data in various firms, both structured and unstructured.
"Long gone are the days where we just collected information and spewed it back out into decision making reports," he said. "We need to understand how people communicate, using both trusted and untrusted sources, and distil it all down."

By Mark Cox

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Simpsons Group Extends it Digital Services with New HP Scitex FB7500 Printer



HP today announced that Simpson Group has invested in an HP Scitex FB7500 Printer to offer a short-run, high-quality, quick turnaround digital service for point of purchase  (POP) and point of sale (POS) applications.

Simpson Group was established in 1972 as a conventional screen printer. It operates from two productions sites, its head office, based in Washington, Tyne and Wear and Heathrow, Middlesex, where it installed its new HP Scitex FB7500 Printer. Simpson Group specialises in the design and production of high-quality, branded in-store adverting for well-known retailers.

Offering its customers a range of screen, lithographic and digital capabilities, the company decided to purchase its new equipment after establishing that up to fifty percent of the jobs it was producing on its conventional equipment were ideally suited to digital production, with limited runs of between 150 to 250 copies.

The HP Scitex FB7500 offers high application versatility with its ability to print on both flexible and rigid media.  Offering a combination of adaptability and high-productivity it also has a range of features designed to maximise throughput. Its three quarter automation and the highly accurate and intuitive loading mechanism provide the productivity and efficiency needed to complete jobs quickly.

“We first invested in a digital printer eight years ago and since then we have seen the technology develop and mature as a robust industrial tool,” said Mark Simpson, chairman, Simpson Group. “With our FB7500 there are no compromises on quality. With the printer’s high levels of automation, we are able to get instant feedback, ensuring that colour consistency is easy to achieve. Other benefits to our customers include, fewer wasted prints – compared to conventional printing and streamlining our workflow by eliminating the lengthy process of plate-making for quicker turnaround times on short-runs.” 

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

FESPA's World Wide Survey on digital printing

FESPA's World Wide Survey 3, in partnership with InfoTrends is a detailed report highlighting the dynamics and trends within the wide format printing industry.

The report was conducted by participants from over 30 different countries between February and March 2010.

The World Wide Survey Report is available to all FESPA Association Members free of charge in a number of different languages; alternatively if you are not a member of your local FESPA Association the report can be purchased for €2,000.

To download a copy of the executive summary please click here 

or ask info at
info@fespa.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Published in FESPA Publications

Another Attack on the Use of Solvents?

There is a concerted effort on behalf of the European Union (EU) and other nations to reduce the level of greenhouse gases (GHG) that are emitted into the environment as it is believed that GHGs have a major adverse impact upon climate change. One of the major classes of substances included within the scope of GHGs is volatile organic chemicals (VOCs). Typically solvents, obviously excluding water, used within the printing industry in inks, cleaners, thinners and retarders are VOCs.
Why are they deemed as being hazardous to the environment? VOCs are environmentally significant mainly because of their role in the formation of photochemical smog in the lower atmosphere known as the troposphere (0 – 20 km above the earth).While in the stratosphere (20 – 50 km above the earth) VOCs react to destroy stratospheric ozone needed to shield the earth's surface from harmful ultra violet radiation. It is the breakdown of this UV shield that leads to global warming.

How have GHGs been controlled by the EU? There are two major directives; the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) and the Solvent Emissions Directive (SED). IPPC covers all forms of pollution, land, air and water and the massive range of industries from mining, energy, chemical production, waste management, poultry production and printing with a consumption of greater than 150 kilos per hour or 200 tonnes of VOCs per year. SED deals with specific industries that use VOCs and that covers printing where VOC consumption varies from 5 tonnes per year and upwards. Limits are set on the quantity of VOCs that can be released that in many cases requires abatement equipment to convert the VOCs to carbon dioxide and water. This equipment is expensive to purchase (up to €1,000,000) and requires technical expertise to run. Aside from rotary screen printing, sheet fed screen printing and all forms of digital printing are excluded. However, in some EU countries over zealous bureaucrats have invoked subsiduarity and included these printing processes into the VOC control mechanism. For those who may be unaware of the doctrine of subsiduarity it is means by which the Government of any EU state can include legislation that requires commerce or industry in that country to meet tighter rules than a prescribed EU directive; colloquially known as “gold plating.” 

By the 2009 Copenhagen Accord world-wide Governments including the EU re-affirmed their commitment to reducing GHGs by 20% the 1990 emission by 2020. This level would not be reached with the current IPPC and SED legislation. Tougher targets would be needed. How will the aspirations of the politicians be met? There will be an assault on private industries to reduce their emissions some under the guise of environmental taxes such as aircraft travel that will help to reduce the massive debts of many Governments who have squandered their resources (i.e. taxes you have paid) in the past. Another method will be to reduce the permitted VOC emission limits. Alternatively, enterprises not currently covered by IPPC and/or SED will be included either by the use of the subsiduarity rule or an update to the directives or possibly both. Without a different method for dealing with VOCs, any of these approaches are likely to have an adverse impact upon the printer.

What is likely to happen? It has started. Currently the EU has combined the IPPC and SED with another five directives; this is known as the Industrial Emissions Directive and was approved by the EU Parliament in July 2010. To quote an official EU press release: “Stricter limits will apply for air pollution for example, although Member States will have some flexibility to extend deadlines for power plants or waive the rules for other installations in special cases.” However, since the newer Eastern European member countries have been allowed a derogation on their coal fired power stations it will be private industry that will have to make up the shortfall in emission reductions. The stricter emissions will come into effect 2016.

How can the printer circumvent this problem? The answer lies in the use of technology. Since the SED was introduced in the 1990s inks using UV technology, water-based products, very low VOC level compositions or combinations of these have been developed that can be used on virtually any substrate thus removing the need for high VOC products. Agreed they are often more expensive to purchase, the curing/drying equipment can be costly but nothing like as crippling as the abatement equipment that could be needed if stricter VOC control rules are introduced. There are techniques available to reduce the use of VOCs in the cleaning processes.  Often this approach leads to a more efficient process and reduced costs.

By Paul Machin's

Paul Machin"In the hectic business life that is printing keeping up to date with health, safety and environmental issues is a time-consuming activity that frequently disappears from the "to do list."
Producing a monthly blog to inform busy printers of the important topics associated with H S & E was considered as being a useful tool to overcome this potential deficiency."

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Business will get more social in 2011, IDC says

Major vendors also expected to scoop up small social software vendors - An opportunity for quality lead generation?

By Sharon Gaudin
December 6, 2010 03:10 PM ET
Computerworld - Businesses will increasingly turn to social networking tools in 2011, but there will be fewer social platforms for companies to choose from, according to predictions from IT research firm IDC.
If that's the case, social and collaboration platforms will gain significantly more momentum next year.
Business-focused platforms won't be the only ones seeing a spike in business. IDC noted that many small and medium-sized businesses will turn to social networks such as Facebook to "establish a free online presence that improves their ability to acquire, engage, and retain customers without the hassle and cost of setting up a traditional Web site."
These expectations for 2011 come from IDC's "Top 10 Predictions 2011" report, which was released late last week.
Frank Gens, chief analyst with IDC, said in the report that social networking is one of the technologies that will move beyond early adopter status and will mature into a mainstream platform in the coming year.
Among Gens' predictions is that Jive Software Inc. , will have an IPO in the coming year. Jive is an enterprise 2.0 service that uses Facebook-like social networking tools, such as updates, people search and communication channels, and applies them to the corporate world.
Gens also predicts that major vendors such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Cisco Systems and IBM will be looking to buy up socially focused businesses to either jump into the social/collaboration space or to beef up their current offerings.
Gens went to so far as to predict that 30% of the players in the social software market will be swallowed up by other companies in 2011.
Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, also said there will be a lot of acquisitions of social networking companies this year. But he added that the market will shrink partly because companies that have been testing the social waters will fail and fall away.
"It won't be a huge year for social networking but a bigger year than 2010," Olds said. "The economy, as a whole, will definitely be a factor, holding the market back a bit. If the economy recovers, then, yeah, it might be a huge year."