MFP & MPS Dealers Have Options in a Tough Economy

At a recent BTA event I was able to finally meet Chris Polek (CEO) of Polek and Polek.  Many years ago when I had my own dealership (13 years) we relied on Polek & Polek for imaging supplies.  Just this past fall when Hurricane Sandy devastated Highlands, NJ.  Polek & Polek and their employees sent boxes upon boxes of much needed supplies to my church (with out a call from me).  I urge you to include Polek & Polek as a valued vendor for your imaging supplies and I'm proud to have Polek & Polek as a long term sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel.

 Polek & Polek, a family owned wholesale distributor of parts and supplies for copiers, faxes, and printers in business since 1974. Take a good read of Dan's article, its quite good!

You Have Options in a Tough Economy

The headlines of today’s economic news are adding to the already challenging environment in the imaging industry. OEM’s, now more than ever, are operating in your territory. This is bringing concerns to dealer management all over the United States. Pricing pressure coming from CPC pricing in the .0029 vicinity is challenging even the best dealers to search for ways to compete and reduce costs. Here are some other forces that are creating serious headwinds for the dealer community.

 OEM quotas are demanding on your resources, stuffing warehouses all over the country to the benefit of the OEM and to the detriment of the dealer community.

 Cash flow is slowing down as a result of this and the slowing economic environment.

 OEM’s threaten cancellation or to open competing dealers down the street.

 Color printing and page coverage is squeezing the dealer between the customer and the OEM supplier more than anyone else in the supply chain.

 OEM direct competition is still going on at or below your lowest price with all discounts included at retail.

 Some dealers are seeing machine placements, copy counts and new business slowing to a trickle.

 Operating expenses are all going up.

 Tech salaries are being challenged and competed for from the IT industry.

 The burden of producing profit is on service and supplies.

There ARE ways to overcome these tough setbacks and situations.

Become part of a buying group or Industry organization ‐ IBPI, BTA, BPCA, CDA or SDG groups.

These groups provide buying

Dealer Event of the East for October 2nd & 3rd & AL East Pennant Race

Back in the grand old days of the copier industry, there were no dealer events and shows. 

Once every year a National Office Equipment Show would be held in the US, every other year the show rotated from an eas to west venue,  Back in the day the show was called NOMDA (National Office Machine Dealer Association).  I had the chance to only go to one NOMDA show that was held in Atlanta in the early nineties and it was an awesome experience.  Every copier manufacturer was showing their latest and greatest in copiers, fax machines and duplicators.  The after hour parties were also exceptional.  I can remember crashing a Ricoh party one night were the theme was to something to do with the Wizard of OZ.  Years ago when sellling copiers when someone told me that they were considering a Ricoh my favorite response was "whats a Ricoh"?  My times do change right?

Time changes everything and NOMDA is now known as BTA (Business Technology Association), BTA is the trade organization for Office Equipment Dealers. BTA has a long laundry list of exceptional services that are available to the Office Equipment Dealers such as legal services, advocating for the dealer channel (this would include many new laws that may be coming to states for hard drive data destruction and deletion), monthly webinars, education and a BTA Market Place.  The Print4Pay Hotel is now a BTA member and I'm excited about having access to additional information that can help me grow a bigger and better Print4Pay Hotel.  I've only scratched the surface of the BTA offerings, I recommend you go here and take a tour of their web site and become a BTA member.

With many manufacturers now offering their own dealer shows, the National type show has not been around for sometime, however BTA does a really awesome job of presenting District BTA shows and events.  One such District event is schedule for October (2012) the 2nd and 3rd in Rye, NY.  This event will open at 3:30 PM on the October 2nd with a keynote by Norihiko Ina, President and CEO of Kyocera Document Solutions (I'm going to ask him if they purchased the Sharp MFP division, hehe).  A welcome reception will follow at 5:30PM where attendees will get a chance to network and visit exhibiting sponsors (more than 30). October 3rd will see breakfast from 7AM-8AM, followed by opening comments and three education sessions. Lunch and then another 2 education sessions and then closing comments.

The BTA event is unique in that all of the events, seminars and exhibiting sponsors are all in the same room.  Exhibitors will also have door prizes and you'll need to be present to win, this creates an extremely fun atmosphere at the end of the show. After the show about 5:30PM buses will leave for Yankee Stadium where attendees will be able to take in one of the last ball games of the regular season and by all accounts it could be an awesome experience with the pennant race being so close! If you're interested in signing up, click here.

As we all know, we can never stop learning, knowledge is the key to driving profit and building your business, BTA provides an important service that will help dealers build their business while keeping dealers up to date with the latest trends and market information.  I will be at the show, I'll do some live tweeting, some blogging and an excited to be a part of the BTA experience.  If you're a Print4Pay Hotel Member or a reader of the mfpsolutions blog please make sure you say hello. I'll be looking forward to shooting the breeze with everyone!

-=Good Selling=-

My Thoughts on KonicaMinoltas Aquisition of Officeware

I had an email last night from a P4p'er that wanted to know my thoughts about this acquisition by KonicaMinolta.

I took a visit to the Officeware web site and was surprised with the MPS tone and strategy of the site, but as I dug a little deeper I realized that the copier dealer message was still embedded in the web site.

In a blog I posted at the end of 2010, I had predicted that copier manufacturers like Xerox, Ricoh and KonicaMinolta would start to buy MPS organizations.  Officeware seems to be one of those hybrid dealers that is playing in both worlds (MPS & Copiers) and there's nothing wrong with that because I firmly believe Hybrid dealers like Officeware can make a difference with a MFP's and MPS.

Who loses?  Canon and Ricoh as far as placements, Officeware customers for support as the company starts to sell and support more of the KM product.

I'm sure there are some disgruntled employees, but you'll get that with any changeover.  KonicaMinolta Business Systems wins a major portion of coverage from Midwest central Ohio, all of central Indiana and Midwest Illinois.  I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking one of the reasons they purchased Officeware is because there was not enough coverage of KM in this area.

At this time I believe the entire Copier Industry is still changing through acquisition, it's the only way to grow and the only way to preserve market share. With that I believe all of the manufactures are spread very thin with support and this purchase at this time could be challenging for the buyer and the seller.

As you can tell, I really don't have a lot on this. The competitors of Officeware that carried either Ricoh, Savin or Canon will be delighted to see the acquisition and give them a chance to secure the customers who are brand loyal to Canon and Lanier (Ricoh).  As with all purchases from a manufacturer tomorrow will be no different from yesterday, but as time rolls on turmoil will mount with parts support, tech support and solutions support from Lanier (Ricoh) and Canon.  It's no doubt that Officeware will do it's best to get the major portion of the non KM systems out of the field in a short amount of time.

Our industry is…well…driving our own demise so to speak.  We’re selling MFP hardware to reduce clicks, reduce cost per page, those dealers that are not the Hybrid (Professional services, MPS) or do not have a plan for a Professional Services model will sell themselves out of business. 

-=Good Selling=-