Dave Perrotta
As long as office imaging technology requires electricity to operate, power issues are inevitable. What’s not inevitable are solutions to those power problems. One vendor that provides a variety of solutions for monitoring, diagnosing, resolving, and preventing power-related issues is ESP/SurgeX. Earlier this week I spoke with Dave Perrotta, VP of operations, engineering, and manufacturing for ESP/SurgeX to get a refresher on some of the common power-related issues affecting office imaging technology and how office imaging dealers and resellers can benefit from offering those solutions.
How’s your business doing in the BTA channel?
Perrotta: Very well. We’ve seen a lot of growth this year.
What do you attribute that to?
Perrotta: We just tapped into some new business, new markets, and helped our existing customers expand their offerings.
Specifically, what markets or new business?
Perrotta: We’re getting more heavily into the IT space and gaining in kiosks. Some of it is through the OEMs and a lot is the dealer channel where they’re looking for more offerings. If we can give them the tools and products to get into those verticals, that’s helping us.
Let’s talk power, as a company focused on power protection, what do you see as the biggest power-related threat to imaging equipment and businesses?
Perrotta: The biggest power-related threat is what happens within the facilities themselves. Everybody believes it is lightning [or some other weather-related issue]; actually the source of 80 percent of power problems are from within the building. Because of the addition of equipment, changes in wiring, things that get hung on to the different circuits as businesses move equipment around or add new equipment, and the type of equipment added, all those things contribute to power problems within the facility.
Is this something that most office imaging dealers are aware of before they start carrying your products and you educate them about these threats?
Perrotta: It did take a lot of education in this market for people to recognize and understand what a power problem looks like. In the past would you have thought a color print quality problem as a power problem?
I’m running a print job and by the time I get to print 50, the reds are now oranges, my yellows are now faded, and I have banding across the printed page. The first thing I’m going to do is replace the fuser, but lo and behold it doesn’t solve the problem. A lot of times it is a power problem. Electrical noise can impact the color quality and performance of that printer. When you put protection on, the problem goes away.
Those are the types of things we’ve seen over the years. Or when the latest and greatest piece of equipment gets installed and then it’s throwing error codes every few hours and shutting down. Why is that happening? As the equipment gets more sophisticated, it’s become more sensitive to power issues. The older equipment was less sophisticated and didn’t have a problem. Now, because of its level of sophistication and sensitivity, the same issue that might have been going on power wise is affecting this equipment. A lot of people in the industry have come to realize that yes a lot of these things are related to power.
Until you educate them about these issues, can some dealers and resellers go years without realizing this?
Perrotta: A lot of them did. It’s now general knowledge in the industry that power is a big issue. [Technicians] have been instructed to look for certain parameters and make sure that when they take electrical readings to prequalify an installation that the environment needs to look like this. The problem occurs when that environment changes. It looks fine when you installed it on day one, but since then something changed.
We know power protection is a critical consideration to keep imaging equipment functioning properly, what else should businesses be doing to protect themselves?
Perrotta: The main thing is to gain an understanding of what the power problems are and how they affect equipment, and what do symptoms look like. Number two, make sure they understand the environment going in. Having a device that gives them that knowledge is helpful. Our diagnostic power protection gives them that information going into the installation. Is there a missing ground? Is there reverse polarity? Is there neutral ground voltage that’s too high? All these things can affect the operation of the equipment.
How can a dealer selling ESP products present this option to their customer?
Perrotta: If they have a need to educate the customer as to why they’re putting this on, it’s all about uptime. ‘We are going to guarantee you the highest possible uptime and this helps us do that. It helps us shorten the time it takes to diagnose problems and also extends your warranty because we cover those things the normal warranty doesn’t.’ Those are great selling points if they’re not adding it automatically to the device and have to sell it to the customer.
And when is the best time to bring this up?
Perrotta: After everything has been finalized about what they’re agreeing to. Then it’s a very small amount to add to something that’s usually on lease. ‘Would you like to add power protection and receive an extended warranty?’ It’s pennies on the lease payment.
Seeing is also a great way to help customers believe, isn’t it?
Perrotta: Dealers can do a power analysis and explain to them about the quality of their equipment in a simple, straightforward way. With our diagnostic power protection this gives them the ability to do a power analysis and let them know what the conditions are in terms of hooking up the printer or MFP and also the rest of their office, which can then give them some insight into potential problems. We’ve had instances where we’ve been on a showroom floor where a dealer had multiple pieces of equipment hooked up and then plugged in one of our devices to demonstrate it and it indicated a problem he never knew he had.
What is the role of power management and energy intelligence in running a business more profitably and efficiently?
Perrotta: It plays a key role in the sense when you’re talking about the margins you need to make on a sale, and if it’s related to the service contract, you want to keep service visits as low as possible and this helps you do that. Without the knowledge that you’re walking into a power problem you don’t have much to go on other than the equipment is not functioning. When that happens, you’re replacing parts, probably coming back because you didn’t solve the problem, and you still have no idea that a power problem is what caused the issue.
Saving on service visits and parts replacement, and understanding that you have a power problem and not a machine problem, that’s huge for reducing expenses and increasing profit. If you combine that with remote access capability, you can actually fix a customer’s power problem without rolling a truck. This saves a lot of time, effort and dollars.
Are these messages that the dealer’s customer tends to welcome; do they get it?
Perrotta: I think they do and a lot of it stems from the ability of that dealer and his techs going in and being able to solve their problem without multiple calls.
How do you train dealers to service and best use this equipment?
Perrotta: We have a network of sales managers, including our own in-house tech support. We offer Webinars for training dealers and service techs on the use of our products. In addition, we can interpret the data based on the information they collect and help them pinpoint the problem.
Specifically, how do remote capabilities and diagnostic solutions reduce operating expenses for a business?
Perrotta: The remote capability gives you one less step in having to visit a site. If you have remote sites that are having issues, instead of driving 50 miles to check it now you can sit in your office and when a customer calls you can immediately get into the device.
What other actions can a business take to reduce the effects of power-related problems?
Perrotta: Outside of the diagnostics, making sure you’re buying high-quality power protection. There’s a lot of low-end power protection that doesn’t do much of anything in terms of protecting the equipment.
How can ESP help dealers be successful selling ESP products?
Perrotta: We have various tools, videos, and training material that helps them understand the product and all its benefits and helps them explain to the customer why it’s important to have power protection and talk about extended warranty, improved uptime, and a better customer experience.
What’s the difference between dealers who are successful selling ESP products and those who are not?
Perrotta: The biggest difference is their level of understanding of the product and how to use it.
