There’s a wealth of educational opportunities for the independent dealer, many of them invaluable. Recently I attended one of these events, the Strategy Development 2012 Client Symposium, Sept. 12-13, 2012 in Radnor, PA. This was an opportunity for clients to learn new business and management strategies and initiatives as well as perspectives on current trends from a host of speakers. For those who weren’t there and those who wish they were, rather than provide a blow-by-blow recap of the event, I’m going to share with you some of the following words of wisdom from some of the speakers on the first day of the event that should provide you with some insights of what was discussed.
“Clients are scared of the cloud because [they think] it’s going to be like the Roach Motel, they’ll be able to check in but never check out.”
Deb Oberly, partner account manager, Microsoft
“Most folks I sit down with say I want to get away from hardware.”
Deb Oberly, Microsoft
“If you’re not talking about the cloud, somebody else is.”
Deb Oberly, Microsoft
“Color is the growth engine for a very mature office equipment industry.”
Pat Sepnieski, national strategic accounts manager, Katun
“Color value per page is expected to decline by 26% from 2009-2015…There’s no guarantee that color cost per page will decline at the same rate or at all as the rate of value decline.”
Pat Sepnieski, Katun
“Some will get approved, some won’t, but most don’t,”
Dave Turner, director of sales, USBank, on lease approvals for the production print marketplace
“The hottest thing in the industry right now is mobile business process automation.”
John Reardon, group director, Office Document Technology Services, InfoTrends
“If they’re not printing, we need to be engaged on the workflow side of the ledger sheet.”
John Reardon, InfoTrends
“Total [hardware] placements have declined annually for the past four years from 30.2 million units in 2008 to 27.1 million in 2011.”
Jon Reardon, InfoTrends
“Managed print services is reducing the size of the vendor MIF.”
Jon Reardon, InfoTrends
“If Xerox or Sharp announced tomorrow that they sold their copier divisions it wouldn’t surprise me….There’s no way there will be seven copier manufacturers in five years. There’s just too many players in the industry.”
Tom Callinan, managing principal, Strategy Development
“Get serious about MPS as the opportunity is 5X the copier business with less competition.”
Tom Callinan, Strategy Development
“There aren’t 25 dealers in the country who are doing MPS well.”
Tom Callinan, Strategy Development
“Signature capture is a big trend on the service side. It’s a trend coming our way. Our industry will be there.”
Ken Staubitz, Strategy Development on trends impacting service
“You have to shore up your billing if you’re going to pursue new revenue streams.”
Ken Staubitz, Strategy Development
