Well baseball is back and with it the big story this week in our hometown was the opening of the new Marlins Park in Miami.  And we were there. We’d been invited a few times by the Marlins during construction to check it out – but nothing compared to being there on opening day. Just amazing.

We went with friends from HP and Telefonica (That’s Felix Gonzalez Jr. from Telefonica with me and Anthony) and got there early to stock up on commemorative tickets, bobble heads, shirts, beers, and just about anything else with a Marlins logo.  The retractable roof, which is expected to be closed for all but about 10 games this season, was opened 30 minutes before the first pitch (which Muhammad Ali threw out amazingly – though he looks terrible these days).  That roof is going to be key. South Florida is brutally hot in the summer and its no fun to sit out and watch baseball in 95 degree heat with 100% humidity.

One of the coolest things at the stadium is the rotating concession stand offering favorites from the visiting team’s home city.  Which meant on opening night we got to have barbecued St. Louis spareribs. Fantastic. Great idea. I’ll be excited when the Cubs are in town and I can finally get an authentic Chicago-style hot dog in Florida.

One funny highlight of the night, Alicia Gutierrez from HP her lip swelled up and everyone thought I had punched her (what??)  But it turned out it was just allergies.  Why am I the first one suspected?

Anyways, all in all a spectacular night of baseball, great food, and of course a Cards win (I’m from Missouri originally and a life-long Cardinals fan – sorry Marlins).

Thanks to Supplies Network and HP, I managed to get an invite to an all expense paid summit on MPS (managed print services) at the amazing Amelia Island Resort outside Jacksonville, FL.  And if you’ve never heard of this resort, you only need to know one word – Golf.

The conference was informative and definitely educational – we discussed MPS best practices, shared some ideas on new ways to leverage technology, lots of good stuff. Supplies Network has come out with some great new programs that will really let us service customers better than ever. And that of course is good for business.

But lets get serious. The highlight of this trip was golf.  Incredible golf.  Good thing I’ve been hitting the links lately and can manage to shoot under 100, because this golf course was unbelievable.

That’s me on the course with David Reinkemeyer of Supplies Network (oh, and I won by a lot of strokes).

Thanks Dave it was a great time.

We were really excited a month ago when we found out we were a finalist for the Best Place to Work in South Florida. But yesterday at the awards luncheon, we actually won! Unbelievable.

When they were counting down the companies in the small business category I really didn’t give much thought to where we’d finish.  Just getting named a finalist was a win in itself.  I was eating my salad and quietly chatting when Anthony (see above) mentioned they just announced #8 and started hyperventilating. I wasn’t fazed yet.

But when they called the #3 company I realized we had a chance.  Seriously? Ummm…….wait for it……wait….. then the #2 company’s intro mentioned they have family bowling nights…..well that wasn’t us.  We don’t bowl.  So…..ummmm…..we’re going to win?  Really?  Yup. First place – Mosaic Business Solutions is named Best Place to Work in South Florida in the Small Business Division. Sweet!

Thanks to the South Florida Business Journal and thanks especially to my dedicated staff who make coming to work every day a blast.

Now….get back to work.

Some other great companies on the list to, and congrats to all of them. Shoutouts to:
Dade County Federal Credit Union
Kaufman, Rossin & Co.
Popular Community Bank
Goldstein Schechter Koch

We’ll see everyone February 23rd at the event at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six!

With over 4 years experience in MPS (managed print services) and almost 10 in the industry he is poised for a big year. He is currently engaged with some of the largest banks and law firms in the state.

He also dresses better than anyone else in the office, but that’s because he’s the new guy. He and his family of 7 moved here in late December from 10 inches of snow in Nevada to sunny South Florida. (snow in Nevada?? really??)

In many cases though, adopting a greener strategy can yield cost savings benefits as well. As it did for one of America’s favorites: Disney.

With a long history of conservation, Disney has continued to raise its environmental profile over the past several years, setting ambitious environmental goals and targets, and rolling out a set of “Green Standards” to guide planet-friendly employee workplace practices.

Recently, Disney partnered with HP to roll out a new managed print services program across its corporation that had some incredible results:

- 59% reduction of the number of print devices in the company

- 18% reduction in energy usage

- 1.5 million LESS pages printed monthly

- CO2 emissions reduced by 407,000 lbs over 36 months

- 100% recycling of toner cartridges

It’s really a great success story for both Disney and the environment – in an area that most businesses don’t ever give a thought to: Printing.

If you want to see everything they did – you can read the full Disney case study here

Thanks,

Grant

They tell me they are sending $1,000 of AMEX gift cards. Seriously? Twitter scam? (probably not because it was a verified AMEX twitter account but still I was a bit suspicious…)

Well, it was true. Cards and a nice letter showed up in the mail yesterday. Thanks AMEX guys. Now about that 60″ Samsung flat screen……..

Some of the group went down on the field but I didn’t make it.  Though we did have a couple celebrity sightings – Alonzo Mourning & Jennifer Lopez. If you didn’t already know, half of Hollywood owns part of the Dolphins. Guess it gives them an excuse to party in South Florida.

Overall it was a ton of fun, great people/food/and seats.  And the Redskins lost so I got to give Anthony a lot of static (big Skins fan). Dolphins look surprisingly better, but I wouldn’t exactly pick them for the playoffs.

Our business with Xerox has been growing every year and after our recent trip to Chicago (where we met Mike Ditka), to take part in the Xerox partner certification programs, we’re pretty excited to achieve this new status. Thanks to Xerox and all of our customers who have made 2011 a very strong year for us in a difficult US market.  And if you want to check out the press release we sent out this morning – it’s here.

-Grant Sadowski

Bill O’Dowd, president of Dolphin Digital Media (didn’t know who they were, but turns out they make kids shows for Nickleodeon and Disney – pretty cool) gave the intro presentation and he premiered a trailer for an upcoming post-apocalyptic, tech web series called ‘H+’.  It’s directed by Bryan Singer (Whoa. Yes, the X-men’s Bryan Singer). Looked good. Story’s in the near future and everyone gets chips implanted in their brain that lets them facebook & surf the web all day while walking around (I can see it happening). So they turn into mindless all-time-connected people that all start dropping off like flies when there’s a problem with the software (which of course there is, it’s a movie). I’ll probably watch it.

So turns out we were #8 in the top 25 in South Florida, which was pretty exciting and unexpected.  Here’s me on stage getting my plaque.  That’s Wanda Styles of NPR announcing.  There were some impressive companies on the list too with us – BrokersWeb, Jenoptik, Investar, MasTec were a few. Congratulations to them. Hopefully we’ll see you next year.

Group photo, should have held my plaque up, but look how tall that guy on the far right is?  What??  And fyi – trying to write on a picture using your mouse is a pain in the ass.