JIm Coriddi
We have one final trend that we somehow misplaced when putting together the various trends pieces for January that we’re running now. This is from Jim Coriddi, vice president, dealer division, Ricoh Americas Corp. I think you’ll find what he has to share particularly interesting.
What are some of the trends that will drive your business and the imaging and office technology industry in 2013?
Coriddi: In 2013, successful vendors and dealers will do business in a way that is less about pitching and selling an actual product offering and more about having a meaningful conversation with the customer about their needs. This conversation will be more about the customer’s business, the customer’s needs and how a customized solution can help meet those needs vs. selling a specific product or service that may not be relevant.
This increased emphasis on solutions is foreshadowed by a huge industry shift taking place in information technology, specifically the move to software as a service, or cloud computing. Customers in our industry are likewise leading us from procurement to utilization purchasing models. OEMs (the product providers) are aggressively shifting their business approaches accordingly.
What do you have planned to help your dealers be successful in 2013?
Coriddi: In 2013 we expect to expand our CHAMPS dealer program. We started CHAMPS about a year ago to support our dealer network and enable them to add more capabilities to their portfolio of offerings without the infrastructure startup costs required to create services from scratch. Through CHAMPS we offer our dealers a menu of IT networking capabilities, professional services and commercial imaging services. In 2013 we are excited to be able to offer production services as well. As with the more solution-centric customer relationship we expect relationships with our dealers to be about their business needs and desires and how we can help them meet these objectives.
What are some of the challenges you expect to experience over the next 12 months?
Coriddi: Any time you ramp up a new program, as we are with our dealer partnerships, you can expect to find areas for improvement or increased efficiencies. Because our dealers are so diverse, both in size and offerings, we want to develop a process that works well from the start and is repeatable. Once we have this in place, we are confident we will have the resources to add new dealers per quarter. This is an aggressive goal and will be challenging, but we believe we can do it if the demand is there and that customers will benefit from having more dealers across the country.
