DMO VS BLI - Clearing Up Some Confusion

It appears that our competitor BLI is telling people considering a change to our services some things about our DMO program (Printer Benchmark) that are not true.

Here’s what they’re saying and here are the facts:

DMO’s training sessions have an additional cost whereas BLI offers free training and support for your entire 12 month term.

Cost: $1,000 per brand per session for the full sales force

Cost: $399 per sales rep per session

FALSE There is never any charge for training your team how to use our service. Not EVER! We will train your reps and new hires, free of charge, any time you want. The training fees they’re referring to are for sales rep training, such as cold calling, account management, CRM, demo skills and more. to learn more about our dealer training programs.

DMO conducts user surveys at dealer locations, asking them how they like their device.

FALSE While our partner DMO does test at dealer locations, they use a rubric that is extremely comprehensive and takes hours, if not days to conduct. They do not simply “ask” the dealer how they like the device.

The surveys BLI refers to are from our publication The Office Products Analyst, which are dealer and end-user studies we conduct about the imaging market. These are not test reports and do not contain any information about specific machines and products and they have nothing to do with our partner DataMaster and their reports on DMO.

Ironically,I believe BLI also tests products outside their lab in vendor show rooms, but you should confirm that with them as I cannot speak for BLI.

Certificates and Recommended Products

Soon, DataMaster will begin publishing certificates based on their test results. These certificates will be posted for free, whether you are a customer of ours or not. There are no licensing fees associated with the certificates and it is not a revenue stream for them. In fact, DataMaster does not earn a single penny from selling certificates.

Furthermore, not every machine tested will qualify for these certificates. DataMaster has decided that a certificate or product recommendation carries a lot of weight when there are no usage fees associated with them.

Ask BLI if there are licensing fees associated with their certificates. You may be surprised by their response. I hope this clears up some of the confusion that is being put in the market by my competitor. While they have a great product, I believe we do as well. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or comments about our program.