Print.IT Reseller - issue 88

01732 759725 48 VIEW FROM THE CHANNEL View from the channel Q: How’s business; better or worse than 12 months ago? And how confident are you about the future? A: Recovering! Not all operations have returned to normal – some areas of the industry will be slow to return. Because Apogee isn’t limited to one offering, we’ve been able to shine a light on some of our other offerings and solve new issues that arose for our customers due to the pandemic. We’ve also taken a long-term view to support our clients and, as a result, we certainly see an increase across our business divisions as people return to the office. We’re confident about our long-term strategy and opportunity. Q: In what areas are you experiencing strongest demand? A: The outsourced document services (ODS) market saw some terrific tailwinds with sectors benefitting including insurance, accounting, finance and legal. People turned to our ODS for mail fulfilment requirements, and we saw an actual increase in demand over the past 18 months. With businesses starting to return, we see organisations pick up the phone again. There is a positive feeling returning to our MPS operations. Q: How have you changed/are you changing business operations to exploit new opportunities? A: We’ve taken a double-pronged strategy, with changes to our approach to our clients and our people. Due to the increase in demand, we’ve made significant investments in our technology at our ODS facilities in London and Manchester. We want to provide the best quality and most reliable service for our clients; this includes a brand-new HP Latex R1000 printer. Most of our clients are MPS customers; with things returning to normal, we have an opportunity to grow our clients as we have done in the past few months with ODS and now managed IT services. People development continues to be high on our agenda. As we continue to take a more consultative style, we have invested in a sales development programme, ensuring our sales force Carl Day, Director of Sales and Marketing, Apogee are best equipped and educated as we look to come out of the pandemic in the strongest possible position. We’ve spent over £250k on a sales development and learning programme. Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? A: Supply chain shortages have been experienced across many industries. As organisations acclimate and come to terms with the impact of COVID, there is an uncertainty of what the future of the workplace means. Q: Could vendors and distributors do more to help you overcome them? And if so, what? A: HP offers excellent support, as do our other vendors throughout this challenging period. I believe they have done all they can in such difficult circumstances. It’s people that make the difference at times like this – Mark Davitt, you are a saint! Q: If you could change one aspect of your job what would it be and why? A: Place a limit on the number of video calls; need I say more!? https://apogeecorp.com Carl Day