01732 759725 48 together under one employee owned brand this year. This has created a fundamental shift in our approach to our customers and partners, enabling us to personalise and differentiate our expanded portfolio of services, whilst diversifying our service offerings to reach a much broader audience. Q: When selling MFPs, what are the most popular software solutions you provide and why? A: Workflow and automation still feature heavily in our MPS offering and are commonplace with hardware sales. We find that businesses are still navigating the DX journey and many need help and support with transformation strategies. Q: How do you spend your week – time on phone, face to face meetings with customers etc.? A: Ideally, in front of customers and partners as often as possible. On the channel side of the business, relationship development and trust is absolutely paramount to how we operate. I find this is easier to achieve when you are with people face to face. Remote meetings have their place, but a healthy blend of both, helps establish and develop relationships to their fullest potential. The rest of the time is either working on admin tasks generated from sales and customer experience activity, as well as planning and strategising for the next phase of business at FUTERA. Q: What would make your job easier? A: A few more hours in the day and perhaps a crystal ball! In all seriousness, better market education around the value of outsourcing would make a big difference. Many partners still underestimate how much they can achieve by leveraging a trusted service provider like FUTERA to manage installation, logistics, field servicing and other tech services behind the scenes. Once they experience it, they rarely go back. there is also the economic uncertainly and cost pressures we are all faced with. Channel businesses that remain lean and agile, and capitalise on the opportunities these challenges present, will be the ones that rise up. Q: Which OEMs do you partner with and why? A: From a managed print perspective, it’s typically Canon, Epson and Toshiba, although we will source the right solution to meet our clients’ needs. We find these brands give us a good blend of technological innovation, reliability and sustainability credentials, whilst providing us with fantastic support. We also partner with Microsoft, Cisco, Mimecast, Halo PSA and a number of other OEMs in the IT tech space to ensure we have a complementary managed services stack for all customer IT and device needs. On the channel side of our business, we support a vast array of technologies and work closely with OEMs for scan and print technologies across the spectrum. Q: What are your customers most interested in currently? A: We have a diverse mix of customers so this is different for each area. Cost saving, automation and threat protection is a common theme across all customer groups. For the IT and MPS side of the business, how and where to deploy AI, cyber security, sustainability and workflow/automation remain key themes. On the channel services side, you can add in agility, cost management and being able to flex and scale services in line with demand. Q: How have you changed/are you changing business operations to exploit new opportunities? A: In the same way in which most businesses are adapting, there are some obvious shifts such as hybrid working, embracing cloud technologies and innovating with AI and automation. However, by far the most significant change is bringing our group businesses Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? A: There are a few, including device consolidation and declining print volumes which we have all been navigating for some time. However, these challenges also present opportunity through managed services, automation and workflow services. Moving into 2026, cybersecurity has to be front and centre for every business. We are seeing an ever increasing number of high profile attacks in the press, and keeping ahead of the threat is challenging for everyone. The rapid rise in AI adoption is also something the channel needs to navigate with care. Like most transformational technologies, the ability to use AI for good is exponential, however the risk of it being used to advance the capabilities of cyber‑attacks is also very real. Beyond the technological impact, James Pittick, Channel Sales Director, FUTERA View from the channel James Pittick
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