Print.IT Reseller - issue 51

PRINT IT RESELLER.UK 41 VOX POP Continued... Jeremy Spencer, Marketing Director, Toshiba TEC “The market continues to be challenging with the need to deliver a compelling and competitive customer experience is paramount. “Research undertaken by Keypoint Intelligence last year found that the top business priorities are document security, digital transformation, mobile solutions and enhancing green credentials, and importantly the study identified solutions and services as key to growth. “SMBs provide the largest opportunity, yet, the user group is behind enterprises in the digital transformation path. The good news is that suppliers can learn from adoption processes around digital transformation within enterprises and adapt these for SMBs. “Optional print will sustain print volume for a few years to come, revenue streams are shifting rapidly to electronic forms and as an industry we all need to be ready, if we aren’t having the conversations with SMBs around IT services and solutions, then we should! “Offerings can easily be adjusted for all customers and at Toshiba and we’re working with our dealer channel to support them in serving the SMB market, delivering appropriate solutions and services.” www.toshibatec.co.uk Nigel Allen, Marketing Director, KYOCERA Document Solutions UK “Quocirca’s findings aren’t particularly surprising, and mirror what we’ve been hearing from discussions with partners and customers. “Innovation and print don’t tend to be mentioned in the same sentence, and that’s a pretty damning indictment of the industry over the years. Innovation has, in reality, been a driving force in the shift away from print towards document management and, more recently, towards digitisation of the workplace. KYOCERA has a history of innovation in ceramics stretching back almost 60 years and our competitors boast innovations of their own, so the idea that we’re unable to solve today’s business problems is just not true. “We’ve been changing our business over the past few years to counter this perception that our industry is all about speeds and feeds. Our acquisition of Annodata last year gives us the platform to extend our reach beyond managed print to IT services. But to capitalise on the potential this gives us, we’ve also needed to change our mindset to move away from talking about specific solutions and find our relevance within the bigger picture by asking what SMBs are trying to achieve. Whether it’s mobility, digitisation or enhanced security we’re innovating, either internally or alongside partners, to ensure that KYOCERA can help SMBs to achieve this. “We strongly believe that this approach, alongside our long established heritage of innovation, quality and sustainability are helping to build credibility and reputation as a provider of IT services.” www.kyoceradocumentsolutions. co.uk Chas Moloney, Marketing Director, Ricoh UK & Ireland “In order for SMBs to thrive in today’s marketplace, they must be agile and flexible. The smallest change to their workforce or technology will have a large impact on their bottom line. SMB business leaders recognise this and want a partner that is able to advise on what technology they should invest in and how to enable their employees to work faster and smarter, thus making their business more agile. “At Ricoh, we’re thinking far beyond managed print services and embracing technological innovation to deliver enhanced value for our clients and customers. As a business, we’ve become more services-led and diversified into complementary areas to better support people in the workplace. “We’re now in a position to support and advise businesses of all sizes in transforming their workplaces into a digital environment that supports collaboration and knowledge-sharing to enhance productivity and creativity. This includes optimising business processes, from how information is stored and managed, through to what IT infrastructure a business has in place.” www.ricoh.co.uk John Hawes, Director, NCS Group “I think that it depends on the type of channel partner/vendor you are and how you have evolved. We started life as a traditional photocopier dealer concentrating on the feeds and speeds, but recognised a while ago that with convergence in the print market between printers and MFDs there was a change occurring in the market place from supplying a single source product-based solution to a wider base complete solution supplier to included unified communications, mobile and IT services. “In terms of customers and who they Nigel Allen John Hawes Jeremy Spencer Chas Moloney