01732 759725 46 visibility they need, without creating friction for the end-user. Q: How do you see the print and IT reseller sector evolving over the next five years, and are there any disruptors or opportunities on your radar? A: I think we’ll keep seeing the shift from hardware-led sales to service-led and solution-led models. The resellers who do best will be the ones that position themselves as trusted advisors, not just suppliers. We’re also seeing print, IT, and security converge more and more, which creates a real opportunity for resellers to broaden their offer. And on top of that, automation and AI are going to play a bigger role in document workflows helping organisations reduce manual tasks and improve efficiency. The pace of change will definitely be a challenge, but it also brings a lot of opportunity. Q: What advice would you give a young person starting a career in the industry? A: I’d say stay curious and be willing to learn across different areas. This industry sits right at the intersection of IT, security and business processes now, so having a broad understanding really helps. And don’t underestimate relationships. This is still a very peopledriven industry, and trust matters hugely over the long-term. If you combine strong relationships with a willingness to adapt and keep learning, there’s a lot of room to build a rewarding career. Q: What excites you most about the future? A: Honestly, it’s the pace of change and what that makes possible. As organisations rethink how they work, there’s growing demand for smarter, more secure and more efficient ways to manage information. For us, that’s a real opportunity to keep innovating and to help our partners deliver solutions that genuinely improve how their customers operate. It’s a dynamic space and that’s what makes it so interesting. away from point solutions and towards platforms that can work across print, IT and security environments. By shaping our development and partner strategy around that direction, we’re in a much stronger position to help resellers and their customers solve wider business challenges, not just individual pain points. It also helps us stay agile as requirements keep changing, especially as cloud adoption grows and compliance expectations keep rising. Q: What role do partnerships and collaboration play in driving innovation and growth in your sector? A: Partnerships are absolutely central to how the industry works today. No single vendor can realistically deliver everything a customer needs on their own, so the best outcomes come when manufacturers, software providers and the reseller channel work together. For us, it’s about helping partners add real value, not just resell a product. That means making sure our solutions integrate easily into broader ecosystems, and backing that up with the tools, training and support partners need to deliver them well. Collaboration is what turns a strong product into a complete solution. Q: What do you see as the key challenges or pain points businesses are facing in today’s hybrid working model and how can you help your partners/customers to address these? A: A big challenge is keeping security consistent while also delivering a smooth, familiar user experience no matter where someone is working. Employees expect the same level of access and simplicity whether they’re in the office, at home, or on the move, but for IT teams that can add complexity and introduce risk. We help by focusing on solutions that are secure by design and easy to deploy and manage. That includes secure print release, document capture and workflow tools that aren’t tied to a single location or device. The goal is to give organisations the control and Q: What’s currently having the greatest impact on your business? A: Right now, it’s the ongoing move to hybrid and distributed working and all the knock-on effects that has on security and infrastructure. Businesses aren’t operating inside neat network boundaries anymore, so a lot of the traditional thinking around print, document handling and data security, just doesn’t hold up in the same way. What we’re seeing is a growing demand for solutions that are secure and flexible by design - things like secure print release, document workflow automation and tools that help maintain compliance across multiple sites. People want the experience to be simple for users, but they still need the control and visibility in the background, and that’s very much guiding how we’re evolving what we offer. Q: What’s one strategic decision your business made recently that you believe will pay off long-term? A: One of the most important strategic choices we’ve made is to keep investing in secure, integrated solutions, rather than building or selling standalone products. The market is clearly moving Eric Crump, Strategic Alliances Director, Ringdale and President, Managed Print Services Association Industry insight ONE-TO-ONE Eric Crump
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