Breezy’s ‘Definitive Guide’ Makes the Case For Secure Mobile Printing
On January 16, 2014, Bay-area-based software firm Breezy, one of the emerging leaders in the ecosystem of mobile printing, announced the publication of an ebook entitled “The Definitive Guide to Mobile Printing.” It’s an attractive, well-written and informative document that should move the needle of common industry understanding. And, while not unexpectedly making the case at the end for Breezy’s particular solution for secure mobile printing (the usual “price” for a free download), I recommend the ebook as an informative and, dare I say, “fun” read.
The book’s press release includes a Table of Contents:
“The Definitive Guide to Mobile Printing includes reliable, actionable facts about:
- The Consumerization of IT
- What the Analysts Say
- Who Needs Mobile Printing?
- Employee Behavior: The Weakest Link
- Types of Mobile Printing Solutions
- How to Protect Company Data
- Mobile Printing Compliance Issues
- Making the Business Case for Secure Mobile Printing
- Comparing Mobile Printing Solutions”
Breezy has a market focus and value proposition, as stated in the document’s final pages, of “secure mobile printing for enterprises and mid-size businesses that value ease of use, scalability and security.” Its emphasis on describing mobile printing customer requirements (as well as some of the other solution providers/competitors), is what especially stands out for me in the “Definitive Guide,” and it provides insights into Breezy’s areas of market focus. And with Breezy this means, of course, that life is complicated a bit by having two different customers to understand and serve — the IT managers, who are dealing with security and compliance in their new world of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and the Consumerization of IT, and the end users, who are actually doing the printing. The “Definitive Guide” covers both with brevity but also acumen.
History of Breezy
Breezy first came to my attention nearly three years ago when I was writing for The Hard Copy Observer. I wrote my first article in March 2011 describing the story behind the company. Breezy had come on my radar via articles in Venture Beat and TechCrunch, which reported on its raising $750,000 of venture capital, and I was immediately intrigued, for two reasons: first, that any entrepreneur was doing something with printing from mobile devices, and second, because of founder Jared Hansen’s personal story of building the company. I found it compelling that Hansen, trained in the law and working as a corporate lawyer, had been so frustrated with the dearth of good printing solutions for his BlackBerry that he started a company to do something about it.
Since then, I have observed Breezy’s steady progress in filling out its product/solution offering along with becoming a leader in steering the direction of secure mobile printing for the enterprise. Hansen remains as company CEO today and, previous to chatting this week about the ebook and its launch, he and I talked at length in late 2013 as I was preparing for my mobile printing seminar at December’s Business Imaging Expo in Las Vegas. In that presentation, I quoted Hansen and Breezy’s view of the mobile printing world and used his intriguing graphic comparing maturation of the market to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Customer Focus and Segmentation
Looking back just a few weeks and building off that December seminar, I wrote a year-end analysis titled “Mobile Printing 2013 — The year in review — We’re getting somewhere!!!” where I not only noted some major industry progress during the preceding 12 months, but I also issued my plea to the industry to become more customer-focused beginning in 2014. My reaction was based in part on the oft-repeated “challenge and opportunity” research data many firms have offered up — numbers about how many millions and now billions of smart devices are out there and how users report needing/wanting to print from these devices but who are, in large, unaware or at least confused by how to do it. The logic follows that given the education and tools to do this printing easily, the number of pages printed will soar, making hardware and supplies vendors happy and offering an escape route from the “death of the PC” trends that are so prominent in today’s technology and business press.
As a printer imaging veteran and now part-time marketing professor, I have observed over many years how important it is to delve into a deep understanding of true customer needs while identifying the hows and whys of meeting them. I shared, in point #3 in the aforementioned blog post, this advice (plea?) to the industry at large: “Get back to the marketing and economics basics in 2014!” Breezy’s ebook makes good on that direction, I am happy to report. (Clearly though without my chiding – the guide has been in its development stage for months.)
As I should also mention, in what will come as no surprise to regular readers of Jim Lyons Observations, I also enjoyed the ebook’s “setup” featuring a brief historic perspective of the industry, starting with printing itself and leading into today’s explosive growth in the mobile space. The “Definitive Guide” also provides history and background on data security and related compliance issues.
“Cool Company,” Great Book
Near the end of the ebook (page 36 of 38), the guide takes the expected turn of becoming more of a sales document, but this is handled in a forthright style that continues to add to the overall mobile printing story, especially in its comparison chart on the final page. Also included is the news, at least to me, that Breezy is one of Gartner Group’s “Cool Companies” in Imaging and Printing for 2013. (As an aside, I have always enjoyed seeing this “cool” award granted to other companies I cover, including Greenprint and Memjet as well as one of 2013’s other honorees, Eurosmartz, another pioneer of the mobile printing space.)
After downloading and reading it (and yes, this was after printing it!), my impression is that the guide offers the industry a valuable resource. I encourage my readers to download it from Breezy.com. The download requires you to provide contact information, also as expected. I asked Hansen how this will be used and, from the security-oriented leader of this security-oriented company, he replied in an email, “We will, per our terms and privacy policy, add them to our newsletter, which goes out twice a month at most and always includes an unsubscribe link.”
Breezy’s ebook, a 38-page PDF, is probably reaching by calling itself “The Definitive Guide,” but I found the length “just right” in terms of getting into some, but not too much, depth behind the important topics in the business right now. None of those is more important than the customer needs — again those being both the needs of IT managers and end users.
Jim Lyons
Jim Lyons has been writing, analyzing and blogging about industry developments since 2006. In his monthly Observations column he comments on business and marketing developments in the printing and imaging industry, combining many years of experience with an ever-enthusiastic eye on the future. In the Jim Lyons Observations column on The Imaging Channel, highlights from that blog appear monthly. Lyons is also a faculty member at the University of Phoenix, teaching marketing and economics at its school of business, and writes the “Goin’ Mobile” blog for Workflow online. Follow him on Twitter @jflyons and read more of Jim Lyons Observations at http://www.jimlyonsobservations.com/.
Posted on 02/05/2014