Paul Curlander, Lexmark

What it means: Lexmark is looking to cash in on the movement of the printing market toward distributed-printing environments, helping customers solve business challenges and reduce overall costs. Its strategy is to help clients manage the number of printed documents and streamline paper-intensive processes that slow down the pace of business. Competitively, the company has recently stepped up efforts to challenge Hewlett-Packard's printer business, including a trade-in promotion for color-printer customers looking to switch, apparently hoping to capitalize on any difficulties or confusion created by HP's recent merger with Compaq. It has also recently made a new push into the lucrative SMB space.

VARBusiness' View: When HP merged with Compaq, Lexmark lost a major OEM partner in Compaq. But the recent move by HP to drop Dell as one of its strategic partners may ultimately open up new partnering opportunities for the printer manufacturer. However, some say a move by Lexmark to build Dell-branded products would most likely hamper the company's relationship with solution providers, a group the company has actively engaged during the past year. No matter, Curlander's simple message is resonating.

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