Mike Noffsinger, RJ Young
As we put the wraps on this month’s state of the industry overview of new technologies that dealers are bringing to their client’s office, one thing’s for sure. It’s kind of hard to top a telepresence robot, 3D printing systems and atmospheric water generators.
Still, there are no bonus points for high degrees of technological ingenuity—dealers are in the market to bring technologies that will simplify the customer’s work life, perhaps solve common issues they’re facing, and most importantly, provide some type of recurring revenue/managed service opportunity. Clearly, not all of these futuristic gizmos accomplish this, but they do expand the conversation and offer that opportunity to provide boxes and managed services for a number of key verticals.
A robot might get clients excited, but boxes are what keeps the lights on, for now.
RJ Young, the pride of Nashville, TN, is coming off a successful rookie campaign in offering the Ricoh interactive flat-panel displays, placing them with educational, engineering, law and manufacturing spaces. They fit well into conferencing and A/V systems. After a slow start, sales picked up considerably, and RJ Young led all Ricoh dealers in placements for the first half of the year.
According to Mike Noffsinger, vice president of sales, that success has the dealer looking toward at other technologies including Ricoh’s Theta M15 360-degree camera, as well as their full line of projectors and other cameras. The M15 can produce full panoramic images with the use of two lenses that stitch the images together seamlessly.
“These other technologies tie into the flat panels and have really opened our eyes to other opportunities,” he said. “We definitely want to build upon that.”
Product Integration
Chris Clark, RJ Young
Chris Clark, director of hardware sales for RJ Young, notes the dealership sets up its demo room to look like a complete technology and display offering, including projectors and white boards. What really sells, as Noffsinger alluded to, is showcasing how these products interact with one another. This is critical, especially for the needs of the educational vertical.
“You can mirror the displays and see how someone’s working out a problem or working out a mathematic equation as they go through it,” Clark said. “That’s really helped out a lot. And to be able to take a picture with one of those cameras, and immediately put that on a display, it really ties everything together. That’s been critical to the success of all these offerings.”
The Sharp AQUOS Board and video wall displays have found a groove with Des Plaines Office Equipment, which was a confluence of several factors, including an improved economy and available resources for renovating office spaces, and the dealer’s calculated venture into office furniture and supplies with the acquisition of a furniture company late last year. Thus, the Illinois-based dealer has the ingredients to do a full makeover, from chairs and desks to white boards and video walls.
Fully Furnished
Chip Miceli, DPOE
“Companies that have had the same desks for 20 or 30 years are making money and the economy’s good, so they felt it was time to step up and make their places look more modern,” noted President Chip Miceli. “If you want to attract millennials, they want a modern look in the company they work for. A stodgy, dated look doesn’t communicate that you’re a technology company.”
Another area DPOE has embarked upon is voice over IP (VoIP), and Miceli notes the offering is starting to gain traction. They partnered with Crexendo, which handles all of the technology, leaving DPOE to sell the systems. While it’s not a huge money maker, Miceli notes it provides a foot in the door of new accounts.
“I’m a tech geek,” he said. “If there’s a technology coming out that I can do well in, it’s worth investigating.”
Donald Mihalevich, Paladin Managed Solutions
It’s tough for Paladin Managed Solutions to come up with an encore to the Double 2 Telepresence Robot, the iPad-on-wheels camera system that enables users to have a virtual presence. It’s found a real niche in school environments, allowing students to go class-to-class and communicate with students and teachers while house-bound due to illness or injury. But the Springfield, MO-based dealer is keen on sprinkling in Konica Minolta’s Workplace of the Future technologies into their offerings in an ancillary fashion, augmenting its bread-and-butter portfolio.
Looking ahead, Paladin CEO Donald Mihalevich sees embellished print as a potential source for added revenue, as specialty work is one of print’s true growth areas. “We’ve invested in training to do a lot of that stuff,” he said. “We’re looking at the MGI-level equipment from Konica Minolta, the UV wide-format machines, those types of units. Specialty print is a solid area and we do some of the industrial printing equipment. We’re hoping to grow into these areas.”
