Blackstone Research Associates Staff

Staff Background

Michael Zeis President of Blackstone Research Associates, has over 25 years of professional market research experience, helping clients track technology adoption and helping clients understand the implications of technology change. He has first-hand experience conducting and directing both proprietary and published projects whose objectives were to understand new business areas.

Custom research assignments have included:

A telephone research project to trouble-shoot the lead follow-up process for a printed circuit board maker. Enthusiasm by prospects at trade shows had not translated into requests for prototypes.
Collecting case study data to learn customer and prospect reaction to a substitute technology. In-depth interviews developed an understanding of how firmly attached customers and prospects were to the technology they were using at the time, and determined their perception of the attributes and shortfalls of the new technology.
Interviews with design/prepress professionals about the reasons behind choice of computer platform (Mac vs. PC). Client wanted to support a decision to pursue the publishing market.
A strategic assessment of the printer supplies aftermarket.

Starting with Barriers to Color Adoption in 1992, Blackstone Research Associates has published a series of reports based on primary research, concentrating on end-user document technology adoption practices. The most recent report, Colorizing the Office: The Race is On, (2005) examines the hot market for office-based color MFDs, fueled by the holy grail of color product sales, the replacement of monochrome devices with color machines.

Blackstone Research also publishes the Color Business Report, a monthly industry newsletter for strategic planners and product managers.

In the 1990s, Blackstone Research conducted the annual Technology Directions Surveys for XPLOR International. In addition, Blackstone Research conducted a Strategic Business Issues Study for XPLOR, which was based on in-depth telephone interviews with corporate technology planners.

Prior to founding Blackstone Research Associates, Zeis was Vice President of Research for BIS Strategic Decisions. At BIS (and at C. A. Pesko Associates which became BIS) Zeis built the foundation for a series of research reports published by BIS as a four-part Presses, Copiers, and Non-Impact Printers: The Print Shop in Transition. At C. A. Pesko Associates, Zeis designed the field research programs that launched the company's non-impact printer and color printer information services. Custom research assignments at C. A. Pesko Associates included advising a copier manufacturer on a distribution strategy for personal copiers, and advising an office products manufacturer on a distribution strategy for facsimile devices. Zeis began his career in market research with International Data Corporation.

Joanne Zeis As Production Manager for the Color Business Report, Joanne Zeis oversees the newsletter's printing process. In addition, Zeis is the newsletter's proofreader, and she handles the accounting and circulation functions. An author herself, Joanne Zeis wrote You Are Not Alone: 15 People with Behçets, which was published in 1997. Prior to tackling production tasks for the Color Business Report, Zeis was the forms coordinator for Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and managed the hospital's in-plant print shop.

Blackstone Research Associates
10 River Road, Suite 104
Uxbridge, MA 01569-2245
Main: (508) 278-3449
Fax: (508) 278-7975