Dennis Gorgolinski, veteran MPS player, now with Ricoh (and not with ARC)

I’m certainly “a bit behind the times” on this one (and that’s an understatement, for sure.) But, nevertheless, I thought this might be of interest to those of you who are following ARC’s MPS business development initiatives and for those of you who follow “people and players” in the MPS “sub-industry” / space.

In the spring of 2010, through some industry-related research I was doing at the time, I found that a gentleman by the name of “Dennis Gorgolinski” had joined ARC’s “global solutions” team as an “executive director”. At least that’s what appeared, back then, in his profile on LinkedIn. What I found to be of interest about Dennis was the experience he had in the MPS space, prior to joining ARC.

However, it wasn’t until today that I learned that Dennis Gorgolinski is no longer on ARC’s team; evidently, he joined Ricoh’s MPS team in September 2010. Which means that his career with ARC must have been very brief. And, perhaps that’s why, when you visit LinkedIn now, there’s no mention, whatsoever, that Dennis was previously employed by ARC.

Here’s Dennis’ current profile on LinkedIn:

Dennis Gorgolinski

Manager of Professional Services

Ricoh U.S.

Public Company; RICOH; Information Technology and Services industry

September 2010 – Present (8 months)

Director, National Accounts

OfficeMax

Public Company; OMX; Retail industry

January 2009 – February 2010 (1 year 2 months)

VP Sales West

WorkflowOne

Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Printing industry

July 2004 – December 2008 (4 years 6 months)

So, as you can see, there’s a “gap” in Dennis’ “past employment” on LinkedIn – a gap from March 2010 to August 2010. I think that Dennis was with ARC during that “gap” period.

I also found this on the Internet:

Reprographics company exec lists 4BD home for $1.199M by Carrie Reed, published June 16, 2010 (this article was published on sf.blockshopper.com)

Dennis Dean Gorgolinski and Catherine Anne Gorgolinski have listed for sale a four-bedroom, three-bath home at 562 Skiff Circle in Redwood City for $1.199 million. The 1,770-square-foot house was built in 1969 in Redwood Shores. Mr. Gorgolinski is the global solutions executive director at American Reprographics Co., the leading reprographics company in the United States. He formerly worked as national accounts director at OfficeMax, a sales vice president at WorkflowOne and a sales director at Relizon. He received a B.S. in marketing from San Jose State University.

Back on April 2010, when I first found that Dennis had joined ARC’s team, I had an e-mail exchange with a friend, about Dennis and about ARC’s MPS initiatives. I’d like to share that e-mail exchange with you:

Timeframe reference: April 2010

First, from me to xxxx (commenting on his/her most recent article about ARC):

“Hi xxxx,

"Lovely" weekend in Budapest - started out with T-shirt weather, but ended up needing a jacket (got colder and windy.)

I think I now know why you mentioned "managed print services" in your most recent write-up about ARC. Perhaps during your discussions with Suri and Jonathan you heard one of them mention the name, Dennis Gorgolinski?

I don't recall reading any articles, in the past or near term present, other than the most recent write-up you did, where people have referred to ARC as being in the "managed print services" business. The term, "FM", is always mentioned, but not "managed print services."

Doing some industry research, a week or so ago when I was home in the U.S., I came across Dennis' name on Linked-in, and saw his title and job description .... and prior work history. "Sounds like" he is a fairly recent addition to ARC's Sales Management ranks; I did not see any ARC press releases that mentioned him, nor did I see any articles on ARC's blog that mentioned him; given his "rank", I would think they'd at least like to say he's now with ARC.

As you can see by the pdf file that's attached, Dennis was with Office Max for about a year, and, before that, was with WorkForce One. Never having heard of WorkForce One before, I read up a bit about them - they are, evidently, a fairly good-sized player in the "managed print services" industry. (Another one of the sub-industries under the Greater Printing & Graphics Industry master heading; they even have their own association.) I guess ARC brought Dennis in, in part, to build ARC as a player in that (the MPS) business??? (in addition to his role of guiding the Global Solutions Sales team?).

The MPS Industry is a large one with very large players, such as HP, Xerox, OCE, Adare, Gilmore, etc., etc., etc. Basically, they sometimes provide printing equipment and manage that (fleet management, similar to FM's) and sometimes they "simply" manage the document management and printing and distribution needs of a client .... and, in doing so, will sometimes form relationships with "remote" printers. For example, we are doing printing and distribution in Russia for a U.S. "managed print services" provider/vendor for the provider/vendor's clients in the U.S. who need to distribute printed documents in Russia. (We receive the digital files, then print, then handle distribution/delivery.)

Certainly, I have no way of knowing if if ARC, in hiring Dennis, is going to get heavily involved in MPS. I would think so, but what do I know, anyway? He certainly has the necessary exposure to, and background and experience in, that segment of the industry.”

Then, from xxxx to Joel:

“Joel:

Great to hear from you. I was wondering what you thought of our latest report on the reprographics industry. I've never been to Budapest, but I hear great things about it. Definitely on my list of places to go.

ARC management brought up their "managed print services" during my most recent conversation with Suri. I don't know much about Dennis Gorgolinksi, but based on his background and his profile in Linkedin, it certainly seems like he would be the guy to spearhead the company's efforts in managed print services. I see no reason as to why ARC can't be a major player in that space given their scale and technology platform. I don't know if they're going to develop their own tech platform specifically for this product or they will license it from another vendor. I know of a few software platforms out there.”

Then, from Joel to xxxx:

“ARC CERTAINLY has the reach, size and scope .... and a software development / technology development company (Mirror Plus).... to make a push into the MPS space, but that is a space occupied by equipment manufacturers as well. I'm going to sit back and watch what ARC does in that space. [If you Google "managed print services" (if you have not already done that), you will find lots of information about that sub-industry].

Okay, that's it, just wanted to mention this to you. Just food for thought.”

To close out this article, just a couple of comments.

First, when I first learned that Dennis Gorgolinski had joined ARC’s Global Solutions team as an Executive Director – and given his previous background and experience in the MPS space with WorkFlowOne and Office Max – it was my expectation that Dennis would have a positive impact on ARC’s MPS initiatives. I certainly don’t know why Dennis did not “stick” with ARC or whether the decision to leave ARC was his decision or ARC’s decision. He was barely there long enough to have any type of impact.

Second, I wish Dennis good luck and success with Ricoh.