01732 759725 48 Q&A View from the channel Q: How’s business; better or worse than 12 months ago? And how confident are you about the future? A: Our business has increased in revenue and customers over the last 36 months. This is due to strong account management and also the variety of services we support within the office and remote working spaces. Earlier this year we acquired BMI Solutions which has added scanning solutions to our offering and provided us with a new opportunity to upsell and cross-sell to our joint customer base. I’m delighted that Director Jason Orchard has joined us to drive the business forward. We are optimistic about the future. We are currently working with a partner in Dubai and exploring a new opportunity to expand our presence into the region. Our client base is growing, and we look forward to continuing to work with our customers this year to support their business growth. Q: In what areas are you experiencing strongest demand? A: We provide a wide range of products/ services from printers and MFPs, telecoms, furniture, IT through to mailing solutions so demand in any one day here is very rarely the same. That said we are seeing demand for cyber security and remote solutions – among customers we are supporting with a move back into the office as well as a number of businesses looking to scale. Q: How have you changed/are you changing business operations to exploit new opportunities? A: As mentioned above, the acquisition of BMI Solutions will play a key role in the business’ growth strategy. We are actively going outbound to those clients and capitalising on the opportunity to crosssell and upsell new ideas and the wider range of products in our portfolio. We are also about to launch a new e-commerce platform which will see us selling online David Warrington, Director, Office Fox for the first time. We have also opened an Amazon business account and we are exploring a number of new opportunities right now. Moving forward we will be looking to complete further acquisitions particularly within the IT space and we are interested in hearing from likeminded resellers looking to sell. Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? A: Maintaining quality customer relationships. Finding an effective brand. Marketing in a saturated marketplace I would say is a big challenge, everyone essentially is offering the same product, but in a slightly different way. Q: Could vendors and distributors do more to help you overcome them? And if so, what? A: Yes, I think so. They could think on their feet, look at how to connect the dots re introductions to their own networks and provide marketing support to help generate new business. Too many simply offer money and then walk away expecting an immediate result. We’d like to see suppliers use their own teams to help grow our business and communicate better. I think it’s also fair to say that while everyone wants to win the business, not many are willing to step outside of their comfort zone to try new things in order to get a different result. Q: If you could change one aspect of your job what would it be and why? A: I wish I had another five hours in the day that would help me greatly! https://officefox.co.uk David Warrington
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