Mike Stramaglio
Mike Stramaglio, CEO of MWAi answers our questions about the trends that will be affecting his business and the imaging and office technology industry in 2013.
What are some of the industry trends that will drive you business and the imaging and the office technology industry in 2013?
Stramaglio: Certainly there are going to be quite a few trends that will drive the industry and along with it MWAi’s business in 2013. No doubt that the connected world will continue to explode around us. Linking everything is the new normal and it will embrace everything from home appliances to business appliances. The technology advancements and the amount of information and or Big Data will accelerate how people operate their business operations and strategies. As the old saying goes, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”
I see new and exciting growth opportunities for our channel (including the IT/VAR’s) in almost every sector of our industry. Just consider these new technologies in various combinations for new revenue streams. I might add that it is not just the technologies that drive opportunity but more importantly the new business models that support them. Oftentimes, it is not the technology, but the delivery mechanism striking the right chord with the end user client. The list of opportunities is endless and frankly this is why my excitement and enthusiasm for our industry is at an all-time high.
Please allow me to suggest a number of marketplace accelerators:
1. 3D printing
2. Big Data and Little Data
3. Mobility continues to grow in importance (service, sales, consumer usage, business functionality). The BYOD (Bring your own device) to work concept is a big thing now and it will continue to grow in importance.
4. Mobile printing
5. Personal and hybrid cloud accessibility
6. Fully integrated systems, or for easy explanation “seamless and open architecture” capable of pushing real-time functionality into the B2B or end user experience.
7. App stores that will include easily accessible tools available for supporting network management, MPS, supply chain automation, security, and a long list of others.
8. Security will grow in importance and capability. The more tools we have available the better the entire industry will be. However, growing technology offerings must be balanced by and with exceptional variations of security.
9. Real-time data and analytics are essential to our industry success.
10. Open and protected eco-systems will become the norm. Anyone who is driven by proprietary software will quickly become a dinosaur and fail the marketplace. It is all about value and delivering a powerful array of the best software and or appliance capable of curing pain thresholds for the customer.
What are the challenges you expect to face the next 12 months?
Stramaglio: As CEO of MWAi I will be exercising a great deal more discipline in the financial areas of our industry. Service call avoidance, supply chain automation, and other areas remain critical to our collective profitability. Printing is down and will continue a slower, but downward trend as machines themselves become less relevant. I see this as an opportunity as we see other media and services come forward.
I believe we will all be faced with the challenge of doing more with less, and by this I mean fewer people. This means that technology tools must continue to expand our internal capability in order to drive our business forward while providing greater services, response times, engineering development schedules and greater customer care, and do so with better trained and motivated personnel. Technology and services cannot be inhibited by entrenched management and pure resistance to change. As an engineering company our mission is to build or partner with the companies and partners who can push us and or join us as we move toward the best and most stable solutions. For example COBOL, the computer language that had people rack their brains for so long, is now 53 years old! Does it work? One can make the argument that it does, but so does a Model T and I don’t see too many people driving them these days.
To be more specific, the dealer community has a tremendous number of technologies available to them that can and will help them protect and or grow their new business streams. I believe our collective challenge is to assist them in prioritizing what they do best and by extension determine which products and partners can accelerate their adoption and their profitability. One of the more curious things I hear every day is how someone just doesn’t get it. They need to understand the fact they may not get it is not a problem with the product or the partner, but could very well be a problem within the individual and the dealership. I can assure you more often than not the end user is ahead of the game. So educate, educate, educate, and apply what we have learned.
One thing I find interesting is the whole social media and marketing of this new generation of marketing. This is another huge challenge for the industry and in order to accelerate business growth and enhance the customer experience the channel MUST and I mean MUST create and drive their media efforts and not just for marketing but of sharing
information regarding service or trends or other critical opportunity initiatives. People must learn and adapt to this brave new world!
What do you have planned to help my customers and the dealer community to be successful in 2013?
Stramaglio: I preface my answer with my firm belief that our business is about to move up the technology ladder in big steps now. We will provide a significant improvement in our visible commitment to assisting our customers grow and or manage their business with greater tools to build profit and value. One effort I am proud of is the impact of the Technology United program. This brain trust delivers for the dealers a portfolio of products and services that will work together with product integrity, corporate ingenuity, and a whole lot of collaboration directed toward meeting the ongoing needs of a dynamic distribution channel. I am bullish on this program because of the very clear “force multiplier” strategy everyone can see the benefit of for the long term. Imagine companies such as Intel, LMI, Green Hills Software, ESP, Green Print, Intellinetic’s, Barristers, GreatAmerica, and others all working together to deliver the best on premise or cloud-based solutions. Just imagine these and others all working in harmony for our mutual benefit.
I am even more pleased with our new-found relationship with SAP. In my mind the marketplace has needed a leading edge, well-known brand, powerfully engineered and an appropriately based business model that has been born to be verticalized for the imaging channel. SAP Business One is truly the foundation for easier and better integration with partners who can deliver real time, multi-path, multi-entity capability and put “you the customer” in the driver seat. You will own your data, you will be able to manage the look and feel and you will have partners such as MWAi and many others who will become a part of the integration which means you do not have to worry about multiple and disconnected rev upgrades etc. SAP is the #1 ERP software company in the world and they have 35,000 customers up and running on Business One.
Another exiting thing MWAi will be hosting in early 2013 is our long overdue Executive Networking Summit. This Summit will be held mid January (22-24) in Scottsdale, Arizona and I will go on record to say that this is going to be THE event for our industry in 2013. MWAi will host this Summit in combination with the Technology United team. The dealer community is going to enjoy the best possible learning experience with speakers from some of the most prolific technology companies in the world. Our mission is to provide a unique array of technologies in combination with presentations from industry visionaries, technology thought leaders and some with some very practical “on the street” type of input. Our goal is to provide the dealer community with an experience created for them, with them and they cannot find anywhere else—plus have a lot of fun.
Last and certainly not least, MWAi is going to continue to invest in our internal Customer Care/Process Improvement programs. We are deeply committed to enhancing our customer experience, develop better programs for faster and more effective response times and provide further training for our personnel and management teams. We are on a mission to serve our customers with skill, integrity, humor and the best possible performance.
