I spent the first part of this week at BTA Grand Slam in Baltimore, home of the MLB Eastern Division Champion Baltimore Orioles.
For a regional event, this had all the substance of a national event, or at least the sessions I attended did. What’s nice about this event is that you’re not forced to choose between concurrent sessions. There is no freedom of choice, and for those of us who have a hard time making up our mind when presented with multiple choices, this format works well.
If you remember the early days of Saturday Night Live and Father Guido Sarducci’s Five-Minute University (Remember, for economics all you need to know is supply and demand), I’m going to recap everything you need to know from the first day and a half of this BTA event (I missed the afternoon session on Tuesday because I had to get home to work on this issue of The Week in Imaging.) in less five minutes so if anybody asks you what happened this week at BTA Grand Slam, you can reference this information and it’s almost like being there without the networking component.
Keynote Address – Scott Maacabe, President and CEO of Toshiba discussed driving revenue in the less print era. “Industry economics are changing, megatrends have a significant influence on how we live and the behaviors of how we conduct commerce, and that goes all the way through to our business,” he said. “Those mega trends are real and we’re immersed in them even though you might not necessarily fully appreciate or understand them. Unit sales and document volume are decreasing, single-function printer volume is vulnerable, and smart dealers are focusing on color and MPS. Partner well to deliver managed services to your customer. That can be digital signage, it could be word capture solutions, it could be workflow, it could be security solutions, but partner appropriately and work your partners to provide you with the education and the services that you require to be successful. Stay connected, participate in events such as this, understand the value that’s brought to you, understand the knowledge base and the thought leadership that’s out there that you can draw on.”
Dealer Panel on What is Your Diversification Strategy? It’s all about alternate revenue streams. For Cindi Gondek of ACT Group in Cromwell, CT, it’s 3D printing. For Mike McCurdy of Integrated Technologies in Twin Falls, ID, it’s Managed IT, and for David Scibetta of Copier Fax Busineess Technologies in Buffalo, NY, it’s document management. Bottom line: Diversifying into 3D printing and Managed IT is hard, document management not as difficult.
Manufacturer Panel on Navigating a Changing Office Landscape – Dennis Amorosano of Canon, Phil Boatman of Lexmark, and Jim Buck of OKI Data Americas discussed the transformation going on in their organizations, how they remain committed to print even as they focus on new opportunities or on bridging the gap between the new (solutions, services, apps) and old (hardware), as well as the promise and challenges that A4 technology brings to the channel.
The Shifting Office Technology Industry – Bob Palmer, analyst with BPO Media, underscored many points made in the earlier presentations while noting three elements driving this are mobile technology, how we work, and who’s coming into the workforce (Gen Y). He made a good point when he noted that we are all mobile workers if we’re using mobile technology. Regarding the future of print, it’s tied to existing document infrastructure and we are seeing a transition from print to display, which is inevitable and only going to increase. As far as mobile printing, Palmer reports that most users want that capability, but few are actually printing. Workflow is also key to the transition and it’s important for dealers to identify how and where digital mobile workflow will change existing business processes. It’s also important for dealers to get ingrained in their customer’s workflow because that’s how to become an important provider long term. One final point from Palmer’s presentation: “Our industry needs to work harder at positioning and explaining the value of color.”
3D Printing – I’m going to present a more comprehensive recap on Airwolf 3D President Mark Mathews presentation on 3D printing next week. But if you’re wondering whether or not to get into this market, Mathews offered some sobering thoughts. “It’s unlikely your copier rep can make the sale. He isn’t going to make the sale. It is a huge market, it’s growing, it’s fascinating, and it’s fun, and if you have the right skill set and are willing to make the investment, it’s worth it.” However, compared to MPS on a scale of one to 10 as far as difficulty of the sale, Mathews says MPS is a 3 while 3D printing is a 10.
