PRINTITRESELLER.UK 37 https://uk.access4.com BUSINESS BRIEFING Margin Is the New Battleground for MSPs Margins have always mattered in the channel, but they have rarely been under as much pressure as they are today. Rising vendor costs, increased customer expectations and the rapid expansion of service portfolios are all happening at once. MSPs and print focused resellers are expected to deliver more value across IT, communications and customer engagement, oten without any tolerance for operational ineciency. Growth opportunities remain strong, but protecting profitability has become far more dicult. The challenge is not lack of demand. It is lack of control. Most partners are now delivering far more than print and core managed services. Unified communications, contact centre platforms, customer experience solutions and user experience tools are now central to customer operations. UC, CC, CX and UX have moved from being optional conversations to business critical requirements. The problem is how these services are delivered and managed behind the scenes. Each new service oten introduces additional vendors, separate portals and di erent billing models. Manual processes quickly become unavoidable. Errors increase. Billing disputes follow. Internal teams spend more time managing systems than focusing on customers. For print focused MSPs, this is particularly frustrating. Managed print has always relied on discipline, predictability and structured service delivery. As portfolios expand into UC, CC and CX, that discipline is oten lost through fragmented platforms rather than poor strategy. Automation is what restores balance. Provisioning that happens automatically rather than through tickets. Billing that accurately reflects deployed users, licences and services. Stock ordering that is triggered by real demand rather than spreadsheets. This level of automation turns communications and experience services into scalable and commercially viable o erings. This is where platform choice becomes critical. At Access4, our focus is on enabling partners to sell best of breed UC, CC, CX and UX solutions through one pane of glass. Our vendor agnostic approach allows partners to expand their portfolios without inheriting unnecessary operational complexity. SASBOSS sits at the heart of this model. It integrates provisioning, billing and stock ordering into a single automated workflow, giving partners commercial control as they grow. This protects margin while reducing risk and overhead. Print focused MSPs are well positioned for this shit. They already understand lifecycle management and recurring revenue. With the right platform, expanding into communications and experience services becomes a logical extension of existing customer relationships. The next phase of the channel will not be defined by who sells the most services. It will be defined by who delivers them with the greatest eciency and control. Because sustainable growth is not about selling more. It is about protecting margin while you do. Jonathan Walker, CEO UK & Ireland, Access4 EVENTS directly with the OEM will find that working with a Xerox concessionaire is effectively the same. There’s not much difference. “Many Xerox partners have a large installed base, but the average MIF per customer is small. Historically, they handled the smaller opportunities, while Xerox direct handled the larger ones. Now, Xerox sees a bigger opportunity for partners. Some concessionaires are already in the process of landing significant opportunities and are becoming more comfortable with that shift,” he added. Value of channel-led engagement More than 60% of legacy Lexmark business went through partners, including in the enterprise space, demonstrating the value of channel-led engagement. It stands to reason that Xerox’s fresh partner-first approach will open doors for partners to access larger accounts they may not have been able to reach alone. Molhoek said: “If a partner calls me on Monday and we decide to work together on an account; we will work together. And if the customer calls me and says they want to work direct, I will tell them no, I’m working with my partner. We have a track record of doing that. We’ve even stuck with partners in situations where the customer was unhappy because that’s our obligation to the channel. If you break that trust, partners never forget,” he said. In conclusion, Valjak said: “Many partners are asking for change, but to be clear, I don’t want to force anyone to change how they do business. I want to show them options, give them pathways, and help them get better.” www.xerox.co.uk More news from the Channel Forum to follow next issue.
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