01732 759725 20 their solutions journey and this gives me a great feeling of satisfaction. PITR: And what are the biggest frustrations or challenges? AJ: There are no frustrations, I guess the challenges are that in the copier world it’s been all about the device for so long. My role now is to broaden the way our partners think about things, some embrace it more than others, but the world of solutions can be daunting. ‘We don’t have the resource’ or ‘we don’t have the knowledge’ are the most common responses I get, but DSolutions gives our partners everything they need, from educational webinars and joint end-user customer meetings to training and installation of the solution. So, they can be confident we are with them every step of the way. PITR: What (or who) do you think has had the greatest impact in the sector in recent years? AJ: This has to be COVID, it turned the print industry upside down, but out of this it’s made businesses speed up introducing new solutions, especially cloud. We are in a world where we can work from anywhere – introducing cloud solutions is a gamechanger to business whether its cloud printing, document management or even e-signature – customers can increase security, collaboration and productivity. PITR: If you could speak directly to someone who inspired or challenged you most in your career, what would you want to say to them today? AJ: It’s not just someone for me; it’s a lot of people who I’d want to say: ‘I’m so glad I met you’. Some are sadly no longer with us. Life is about meeting people and surely you do a better job if you enjoy working with those around you. I’ve worked and continue to work with the best people. Every one of them has and continue to inspire me to be who I am today. Why Brother? I’m a Manchester City fan! Once I left school I did an IT course at college, I knew my future was in an IT role – I’d driven past the Brother building many times, I knew they did some kind of IT so I thought let’s give it a go. I remember applying for a job in technical support and having an interview with Howard Roberts. It went well but I didn’t get it, I was gutted, however, about eight months later Howard contacted me as there was another role in his team and the rest is history, I quickly realised the fact they sponsored City wasn’t important because it was clear I’d been lucky to join an incredible company which gave me so many opportunities. PITR: What excites you most about working in print today? AJ: Exactly what I’m doing excites me; looking beyond print and introducing our partners to the world of solutions. Print isn’t going away anytime soon, despite all the noise about it declining, however, print alone isn’t enough anymore. I feel really lucky to have joined another incredible company here at Develop UK, they have given me the platform and freedom to bring together an extensive solutions portfolio – DSolutions – focussing on areas that are seeing massive growth – cyber security, AI, cloud adoption, document management, document security and more – all our partners now have access to these. I love it when we help partners sell a solution for the first time, it doesn’t matter if it’s one Bitdefender licence on a Develop device, they have started PrintIT Reseller (PITR): What was your first job in print? Andy Johnson (AJ): This takes me back a bit as I’ve been in the print industry since 1997. My first role was at Brother UK where I was in the technical support team (what a team that was, some incredible characters that helped shape who I am today). My role was helping customers with any issues they had with fax machines, printers and MFDs – it was a great introduction to the world of print as I got to understand how the devices and software worked. This helped massively for future roles within corporate support, training, product management and my current role at Develop UK where I help our partners to increase revenue by selling solutions. PITR: What led you to enter the sector? Did you choose print by design, or accident? AJ: I 100% chose the company by design, print just came with it! Andy Johnson, Solutions Sales Manager, Develop UK, shares details of his life in print, what he’s learned, and the highs and the lows of our unique and challenging industry My life in print INTERVIEW Andy Johnson
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