New opportunity for resellers!
Enabling supplies, service and information for all assets of the customer is the new opportunity for our resellers. Read what Mark Dawson has to say.
Previously, I wrote how imaging supplies resellers are ideally positioned to pivot out of the bloody red ocean of toner and ink cartridges, into the lucrative blue ocean of monetising information relating to all assets at the customer, all users of those assets, and all providers of those assets.
I remember many years ago, when I first started to learn about MPS, one of the surprises for me (I was much younger and somewhat naïve) was that most enterprises did not even know how many copiers and printers they had, let alone how efficiently these were being used.
I remember how seductive it was for a reseller to present the CFO and/or CIO with a tool that identified all these hard copy output devices and showed who was printing what, when and where. Such information was very powerful in helping C-Level executives understand and reduce costs.
These days, enterprises must manage a myriad of assets. It varies from enterprise to enterprise, but typically, if there are 100 printers, there are usually about 500 users and about 2,000 assets. These include coffee machines, water coolers, AV equipment, servers, PCs and many others. It usually works out at 4 assets per FTE.
There are multiple providers. Some perform well: others less than well. Some may operate a call centre, others a web portal. Some may offer both. In any case, the user is faced with multiple different contacts and methods of communicating. Some are automated. Some are manual. None are streamlined.
It is not easy for enterprises to get an overview of which assets cause the most disruptions to workflows, which providers deliver good service, and which users are a nuisance.
Imagine a tool that allowed enterprises to streamline all of this into one collaborative platform that facilitates intuitive management of all assets and service contracts. Imagine if this tool were available as a mobile technology app that could be used in any type of business setting including environments where no PCs or desktops were present.
Imagine a tool that enables both end-users and service providers to directly communicate with each other, thus eliminating unused/badly used portals, telephone calls and e-mails, a tool that interfaces with existing systems, including CRM, ERP, Helpdesk and Job-Ticketing. Frustration would be reduced, productivity would increase, and employee wellbeing would improve.
For our imaging supplies resellers, there is a lucrative opportunity to increase sales and take out costs at the same time. Customers will “stick” when satisfaction levels increase. Customer Experience (CX) has now become the key battlefront. According to Gartner’s Customer Experience Survey of 2017, more than 80 percent of companies recognise they must improve their CX game.
The Forrester Analyst Group says that 72 percent of companies have set CX improvement as their #1 priority. CX Specialist firm Walker says that by 2020, CX will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Salesforce.com says that 70 percent of buyers have said technology makes it easier for them to move their business. Microsoft says that 68 percent of buyers have higher expectations of service compared with one year ago.
Print may be flat or even in decline. But most organisations still print something and therefore our resellers have an opportunity to use technology to make existing cartridge customers stickier and simultaneously reduce dependency on cartridges for revenue, by generating new revenues from providers of other assets to their customers. Now our resellers, directly or indirectly, can seduce the CFO/CIO with valuable information about all the assets.
For more information about this opportunity, please contact me at mark@iopbv.com
We are living in a period of unprecedented change, driven by technology and changing social habits. Some call it the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Change brings lots of exciting opportunities to look forward to. However, there are several elephants in the room… and they cannot be ignored. The biggest one is volume. The market is flat, evidenced by HP’s latest quarterly investor earnings call. It acknowledges that we are entering the end game with further consolidation inevitable. Two more elephants: By 2020, 50 percent of the global workforce will be millennials. Gen-Y prints less. Gen-Z doesn’t print. Two outcomes: Reduced consumption as these habits arrive in the workspace 
We have all read the OEM-sponsored white papers telling us that print is not dead, that physical documents remain critical to modern business processes and that our industry has a bright future.
The Internet has entered our lives and has changed them forever. At first glance it appears that it is all for the better. Useful and necessary information can be found within seconds: bus and train schedules, restaurants, local, national and international news, and updates on what your friends and relatives are up to. You can also quickly connect with your commercial partners to discuss and coordinate plans, make sales and promote new products and services.
Since I joined the hardcopy supplies industry in 1987, I have held a variety of positions in a variety of organizations exhibiting a variety of cultures. I have reported to, and worked with, a variety of people with different “styles.” I have had the privilege of working with inspired leaders and benefited from their mentorship and vision. I have also experienced the “boss,” someone who demands compliance by virtue of their position and title, and where response is based on authority rather than goodwill. I know which culture I prefer! And I know which is more effective. As our markets become ever more challenging, transformation is required for companies to grow again. Our industry needs fewer “bosses” and more leaders. These leaders must create and deliver transformational change. “Knock on more doors.” “Be more aggressive.” “Make more calls.” “We need more volume.” “Look, just sell more toner, will you?” These are not the solutions for toner cartridge (re)manufacturers whose value propositions have become stale and outdated. Such an approach does not address the changing nature of the market, the increased role of technology, the changing procurement habits of generations Y and Z, and the myriad of other challenges that I have referenced in previous columns. The model for “transformational leadership” focuses on visionary thinking and bringing about change. It is needed more than ever, given the current state of our industry. Transactional leadership, in which management attempts to maintain and steadily improve current performance, isn’t going to cut it. If your sales teams do not have new tools, new talk tracks, new solutions, new ways to engage new customers, complaining about the numbers on the weekly sales report is not going to fix it. Transformational leaders always have a vision. This is a realistic, convincing and attractive picture of what the business should look like in the future. This vision provides direction, sets priorities, and has mileposts for measuring progress. Analysis, creativity and intuition are essential for a vision to be realistic as well as stretching. Good analysis would include: the organization’s core competences, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; the intensity of competitive rivalry; bargaining power of both suppliers and customers; and crucially for our industry today, the threat of new entrants and substitute products and solutions; and knowledge of the macroenvironment, political, economic, social and technological. By understanding the current situation, thinking about how the market will evolve and by predicting how the competitors will behave, it is possible to develop the vision, and formulate innovative strategies to achieve that vision. Creating the vision and designing the strategies is one thing. Execution is something else entirely. This is where good leaders are worth their weight in gold. Transformational Leaders are successful because they motivate their teams. They explain the vision in a way that can be seen, felt, understood and embraced by all those that are needed to make it happen. They use the vision to create shared values that are meaningful and relevant for all team members. Transformational leaders successfully execute by coaching, guiding and mentoring. They don’t direct. They encourage rather than criticize. They recognize and optimize natural talent rather than point out weaknesses. They focus on the team and not on themselves. They inspire performance instead of demanding results. They develop rather than manipulate their people. Goodwill replaces authority. They generate enthusiasm not fear. Are you in a leadership position? Do you have a transformational vision for your organization? Are you motivating and inspiring your people to achieve it? Dwight Eisenhower said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he or she wants to do it.”
According to the World Bank, aging populations, low investment and tightening monetary policy will constrain global expansion. In 2017, the world’s economy grew three percent. It is expected to maintain that level to 2020. But then it will get tough, says the bank. Major reforms are required to release further potential.
