I attended the Ricoh dealer show Oct. 28 – 30 and my head is swimming. Held at the beautiful Aria hotel in Las Vegas, Ricoh had about 1,200 attendees at this show from over 800 dealerships.
Here are some of my initial thoughts on the show after the first day:
• Dealers experienced 10% YOY growth in a flat market.
• They addressed their “streamlining” and while it was painful and difficult, they have eliminated a lot of redundancy and made themselves much more efficient and easier to do business with. Dealers are now sharing the same programs and support system as the branches.
• Ricoh is openly calling on their dual line dealers to become single line.
• They’re launching a new competitive training program called Monster in a Box (just in time for Halloween) and it promises to be very popular based on the reaction from the dealers.
• Ricoh’s new user interface looks great and while it took forever to upgrade the UI I sold back in the ’90s, the new 10.1″ WSVGA 1024 x 600 screen is customizable and so simple even my dad can use it!
• Ricoh’s lab, one of the few competitive testing labs in our industry, is becoming a resource for dealers and helped Ricoh grab a 6,000 unit deal at a major hotel here in Las Vegas. They customized a printer solution where several other vendors failed. Ricoh’s use of their test lab is a huge advantage and their ability to customize so quickly is impressive considering how hard it is for companies this large to make changes to hardware.
• Ricoh is making a major push on services, despite the fact that they keep reminding us they’re still a Japanese box manufacturer.
• CHAMPS is finally ready and they have an actual playbook (more on this to come).
• White boards and displays are a new opportunity and Ricoh is coming out with (and already has) some unique products in this area.
• ICE cloud services will be a major opportunity for Ricoh dealers and they’re targeting medium size businesses with offerings that will firmly address mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets.
• Ricoh is entering the sub $100 printer market to go after SOHO customers. Printers will be sold by dealers and through alternative channels.
• Ricoh printers will soon have AirPrint and many are going to be WIFI enabled.
This was the first dealer show for the new Ricoh executive team and the changes are refreshing. The new team is forthcoming and approachable and the 3+ hour analyst session was highly interactive. Executives were candid and the panel was great. CEO Martin Brodigan no longer sits in the background. He was up front with his team and fielded a great number of questions himself. I always thought of him as more focused on headcount and the bottom line, but he clearly understands the business and he’s really turned things around.
Ricoh has a ton of new products I’ll be writing about shortly. While the show has been a bit light on numbers and performance targets, there has been a great deal of discussion on strategy and I have to say I’m excited for the direction they seem to be heading in.
