Let me give you the scoop on DSCOOP – and my take on the real value in participating in industry cooperatives from a business perspective. (Hint: see the headline.)
It stands for “Digital Solutions Cooperative” – a co-op of Indigo users and HP. We get together annually, this past February in Dallas. I was invited to lead participation in two sessions because CL&D Digital was one of the first HP digital printing installations in the U.S. back in 1995. One session revolved around educating new purchasers and potential prospects on applications of HP printing equipment; the other was a smaller roundtable networking group of about 150.
On the latter, the first thing I did was get everyone to stand up and sit near someone they hadn’t met yet so they could truly network. I threw out a question like, “How do you deal with Gen X and Y and their ‘entitlement’ mentality?”
Why? To make it easier – break the ice after the obligatory card and “What do you do?” verbal exchange. And, as I reminded the group, we all have the same problems, and while HP is great, we can benefit from really being there for each other.
People see CL&D Digital as the expert go-to people, because of my involvement – and our relationship with HP. It’s easy to see, for example, if it works at CL&D, it can work at other places, too.
Plus, the more of us out there with HP digital printers, the more costs will continue to go down.
