Print.IT Reseller - issue 73

01732 759725 40 VOX POP there is no-one in the workplace, but the overall level of business has been pretty much as expected. We have had more requests coming in for finance options and credit as our customers and their end-user customers look at ways to ease any additional pressure that they might see on cashflow. “Operationally, it has been quite interesting. We switched to home working a few days before the UK lockdown was imposed and we were already geared-up to do that as a business. Our warehouse has stayed open but with strict distancing rules and hygiene protocols. A big impact has been on events and here, we took the decision very early on to go virtual where possible.” Martin Randall, Sales and Marketing Director, Vision: “A considerable one, as I’m sure is the case for everyone in our sector. Whilst we are proud to be supporting many essential services including NHS Trusts, during lockdown our service revenues more than halved. Coupled with this decline in service, I don’t think you could experience a tougher environment to sell in. We made some strategic changes within sales that resulted in achieving roughly 50 per cent of our budgeted figures in April which, given the circumstances, we are pleased with.” Martin Fairman, Managing Director UK&I, Lexmark: “Like most businesses, the COVID situation has posed some challenges – not only to the way we work, but also how our customers operate during this period. Our priority is to ensure our staff are safe, whilst supporting our partners, through online education and the latest Lexmark technology to help ensure customers receive a seamless service. “Many have not been in the office over the last couple of months, however as we work with many NHS Trusts and retail customers in the UK, it has been imperative that we were able to adapt to ensure the same standard of service during this critical time whilst protecting our employees and our customers.” Liam Fitzgerald, Head of UK Distribution and Reseller Sales, Brother UK: “The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the business ecosystem and we have all felt it to some extent. The printer market is changing rapidly and our business is embracing it, ensuring our teams are at the side of our channel partners to meet significant shifts in customer demand without any interruption to the service levels they rely on.” Clive Hamilton, CEO, Pinnacle Group: “A huge amount of impact in various ways from learning to WFH as a group and learning to try and support our customers who are still trying to work in some fashion; but also to understand how to sympathise with those who are not able to, also generally learning to cope and deal with a very fluid situation which changes daily and weekly.” Anna Muskett, Channel Director EMEA, Kodak Alaris: “The global pandemic has had a significant impact on our business and the marketplace in which we operate. Much of our manufacturing is done in China, which has brought supply chain management to the forefront. Initially, there were some delays delivering orders, however we are now getting that back on track due to our manufacturing sites re-opening and running at nearly full capacity. We’ve managed to increase our scanner production from 40% in March to nearly 100% which is a great achievement. Our secondary supply chain partners are also beginning to normalise, although we continue to monitor this very carefully in certain regions to ensure we can support the business. “As expected, overall demand for products and services has slowed down and we have taken steps to mitigate the short-term impact of that. However our performance in the financial year ended March 31 was strong; mainly driven by an increase in demand for capture solutions from sectors including healthcare and logistics which have been pivotal in this crisis.” of months, something that might normally have taken a few years. In this new world, digitising paper to enable remote collaboration is an opportunity that can have a profound impact on how a business is able to operate.” Rod Tonna-Barthet, CEO, Kyocera: “The last two months have seen some unprecedented changes to traditional business practices. As with most organisations, we have been affected in a few different areas, such as our ability to provide the education sector with the latest print devices due to the closure of schools and universities. “Fortunately, we are an extremely adaptive business with a wide-ranging service offering which has ensured we have been able to continue helping business to not just survive, but to thrive in this situation. Demand for print hardware may be down, but we are making up for this in increased demand for our IT consultancy, content services and unified communications (UC) offerings.” Jeremy Spencer, Marketing Director, Toshiba: “We pivoted very quickly to a remote working model, maintaining all key technical support and administrative functions with no loss in customer support functionality. Our business continuity planning has meant that our customers and partners have had full visibility of all of our business functions and support throughout the changing situations we have all been facing.” James Reed, Managing Director Endpoint Solutions UK & Ireland, Tech Data: “The initial spike in sales of laptops, inkjet printers and other products for use in the home has been quite well-reported and we certainly saw a surge in activity there. We also saw a lot of early activity from public sector. A number of commercial IT projects have been put on hold out of necessity as We switched to home working a few days before the UK lockdown was imposed and we were already geared-up to do that as a business continued... ...continued... Phil Madders Mike Nelson