Since January 2 we’ve been presenting the Document Imaging Industry Year in Preview in ENX/The Week in Imaging with brief comments from industry players representing the hardware, solutions, services, and supplies side of the document imaging industry as well as key industry associations about their plans for 2015. We began soliciting this input late November 2014, sending e-mail requests to representatives from 70 different companies and organizations. Additional e-mails soliciting input were sent out in December through January 16. Apparently, many of the companies we asked to share this information with us preferred to maintain a low profile when it come to what’s new for 2015. That’s okay, we’ll just report on those announcements and initiatives as they happen. In the meantime, here are all the responses we’ve received to date from those who heeded our call for what’s new in 2015. We’ll continue to add more to this article as additional input comes in.
“Recognizing the importance of a service-based business model to our dealers’ futures, we plan to continue to emphasize the importance of our bundling capabilities for MPS, Managed IT and emerging technologies. We plan to educate dealers even more about how our technology integrations can help them efficiently administer their MPS and Managed IT programs. We continue to take a holistic approach to helping our customers move down the Managed IT path through our suite of Managed IT offerings, including S-L GAMIT Managed IT peer groups, HaaR™ financing, Collabrance, Managed IT Navigator business planning and other trainings, PathShare HR Services Managed IT Success Profiles for hiring, and SLIQ software. And we plan to remain on the forefront of understanding emerging technologies so that we can provide flexible financing programs in this ever-evolving marketplace.” Jennie Fisher, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Office Equipment Group, GreatAmerica Financial Services Corp.
“One of the greatest areas of growth that we see for 2015 will come from our holistic approach to doing business, with a focus on content management as one of our key directions in the coming year. While we are still in the hardware business, we will continue to deliver solutions that address all the processes around the document, including: print optimization; security and storage; file-sharing and mobile strategy; as well as the IT services that provide infrastructure service and support.” Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President, Marketing Konica Minolta
“EverBank Commercial Finance is re-naming its Office Products group, Office Technology, to better represent our ever-evolving industry and is expanding its originations team with IT specialists who have deep domain expertise in the products and services now being sold by today’s dealers and VARs.” Fred Carollo, GM of Office Products Platform, EverBank Commercial Finance
“Products and training are the two big deliverables next year. We will once again support our products with road shows and trainings to make sure the dealers have everything they need to be successful.” Mike Marusic, SVP, Marketing, Operations & Service of Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America
“In 2015 Strategy Development will launch a consulting program for smaller BTA dealers that might not be in a position to take full advantage of the intensive SD consulting engagement. The program will use monthly webinars to introduce and educate on specific areas of focus in sales management such as compensation, territory design, and benchmarks as well as a one-on-one monthly call with an SD consultant to discuss the dealerships specific questions on the subject matter. This program will be cost effective and highly valuable for dealers with under $10 million in revenue.” Tom Callinan, Principal, Strategy Development
“We’re going to bring new solutions to the entire dealer channel collectively with our customers for MPS and address some of the problems that have historically plagued that marketplace.” Bryan Bonacum, Static Control Components
“In 2015 BEI Services and ENX Magazine will launch the Office Technology Service Excellence Award program, recognizing dealerships for outstanding service performance; any dealership can submit data to BEI Services for award consideration free of charge. In Q1 2015, BEI will launch our Technician Assessment program geared to help managers manage technician by setting goals focused to reduce services calls. In Q2 2015, BEI will launch the Manager Accountability Module that will set assist managers establish schedules addressing key performance areas within the service organization.” Bud Karakey, Vice President of Operations, BEI Services
“Print Audit will host the first Top 100 Summit. This unique event will be a gathering of business owners from the largest and most progressive office equipment dealers in the industry. The Top 100 Summit is not a trade show, but rather a working forum that will create a new business model and redefine how office equipment dealers will make money in 2015 and beyond.” West McDonald, VP of Business Development, Print Audit
“Muratec will help our dealers compete in the exploding industrial color label printing market in 2015. We’ll be launching a specialized solution that will enable dealers to bring professional-grade, affordable industrial label printing to their customer base for short-run, in-house label printing applications.” Lou Stricklin, Director of Marketing, Muratec America, Inc.
What our resellers can expect from us for next year? Continued expansion of the Value Line. After all, when resellers tell you, ‘You are making this business fun AND profitable again,’ who wouldn’t want to add to the capabilities!” Brad Roderick, InkCycle “Innovolt-as-a-Service. Innovolt now allows customers to protect all their valuable office equipment with minimal upfront expenditure, moving power protection from an upfront capital cost to an operating expense.” Brady Murray, Innovolt
“As I look to next year, I expect there will be new trends to take advantage of. First, I expect the delivery of security services, and in particular managed services, to be an increasing need among SMB’s and an opportunity for solution providers. Cloud has established itself as a leading delivery platform, and many SMBs will continue to embrace it, extending their abilities with further investment in mobile. Solution providers have the opportunity to deliver on another increasing need—business consulting services focused on delivering business outcomes over raw technical capabilities. I continue to remain bullish on the channel, and think solution providers are best positioned to take advantage of the continuing and coming opportunities. Dave Sobel, MAXfocus’s Director of Partner Community
“The Lexmark Dealer Meeting is scheduled for Oct 12-14, 2015 and we’ll have a continued focus on NEW horizontal and vertical software workflow solutions tailored for the dealer channel in 2015.” Phil Boatman, Business Alliance Manager, Lexmark International
“Katun is committed to partnering with customers in 2015 to save them money and enhance their bottom line. High-value customer programs include Katun’s Partnership for Profit program, KAP and the Katun Dealer Fleet Management (MPS) portfolio.” Patrick LaVone, Marketing Communications Manager, Katun Corp.
“Continuing with its long tradition of providing educational workshops specifically designed to help office technology dealers boost the bottom line, the Business Technology Association is introducing two new workshops in 2015. The new BTA Dealer Marketing Workshop, taught by Darrell Amy, Lindsay Kelley and Jon Mitchell of Dealer Marketing, will launch Jan. 14-15 in Plano, Texas. Then, on March 18-19 in Orlando, Fla., the association will launch the new BTA Service Management Workshop, taught by Ken Staubitz of BEI Services. We are very pleased that these industry experts have partnered with BTA to share their insight and guidance with the association’s dealer members.” Brent Hoskins, Executive Director, Business Technology Association
“Looking ahead to 2015, dealers and resellers should focus on automating workflow through Managed Print Services and capture solutions. This is probably the most significant opportunity organizations have to reduce costs and drive efficiencies in the document environment.” Chris Strammiello, Vice President of Global Alliances and Strategic Marketing, Nuance Communications
“Mid-size companies are changing their view of IT from a back-office function to one that’s critical to the financial health of the overall enterprise. As a result, CIOs are rethinking their historical relationships with vendors, looking for ways to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and create novel sources of customer value. In 2015, we hope to expand a specialized training course we first offered on a limited basis last year. We’re providing coaching that should guide sales reps in their customer conversations. It can help them talk to CIOs and come away with ideas to address their bigger business needs — needs that very likely go beyond document imaging. As CIOs are pushed to look for new sales channels, new product ideas, new delivery methods and new revenue generation models, the OI industry can help make these trends actionable by suggesting where to deploy the enterprise’s precious capital.” Glen Clark, Vice President and General Manager, GE Capital’s OI business
“Compass Sales Solutions, Your Complete Sales ERP, will be introducing a cloud based version of Sherpa via Microsoft Azure, Document Storage feature, additional SherpaGo functionality including GPS, forecasting and other new enhancements to utilize the newly completed and redesigned user interface, as well as new Dashboards with drill- down functionality. We look forward to helping [our clients] succeed in 2015!” Jim McMeel, VP of Sales, Compass Sales Solutions
“In 2014, DLL launched two programs that demonstrate our commitment to provide the best tools and people in the industry. We began piloting our mobile application—Express Finance—a unique technology tool that simplifies the sales process, providing our customers with increased speed and flexibility of doing business with DLL. Additionally we welcomed the first group of Generation Next, a new recruiting program developed in direct alignment with the Office Technology business strategy that gives high potential, young professionals an accelerated and comprehensive start to their careers in sales. We look forward to advancing these programs even further in 2015.” Bob Hunter, SVP, US Sales, DLL
“Square 9 looks to another big year in 2015 with the release of its next generation browser based content management and business process automation software. This release will be accompanied by a new analytics module designed to provide users with a means for reporting on their levels of document efficiency. This exciting new technology platform will be launched in conjunction with an enhanced education program being delivered by the Square 9 Institute of Learning. Check the Square 9 website at www.square-9.com for more details.” Scott Worroll, Marketing Manager, Square 9
“IBPI will continue to search for potential vendor programs to make our 350+ member dealers stronger and more profitable. We will look for products or services that our members are currently using or plan to add to their offerings, and reduce their costs in the process. We will also increase our total membership, increasing the collective $4.5 billion annual sales of our group, to leverage better pricing and enhanced benefits for our members.” Randy Horshok, Executive Director, IBPI
“This year MaxxVault LLC is adding a Private Cloud option to its entry-level solution, MaxxDocs. Dealers will now be able to provide a complete, cloud-based document management system that is truly affordable. MaxxDocs helps dealers strengthen their hardware sales with great professional service and ease of use.” Bruce Malyon, President, MaxxVault
“We plan to build upon our 2014 Channel’s Choice award selection for Outstanding Performance as a Secondary Product Line Provider from the Business Technology Association (BTA) through continued Dealer recruitment efforts and continually improving our go-to-market strategy based on inputs given to us by our BTA Advisory Council. OKI will be delivering new programs to the entire dealer channel, including an expansion of its online dealer marketing solutions content, the introduction of our new A4 mono MFPs that incorporate our smart embedded solutions framework plus 7″ color touch panels, and a new online ordering website dedicated to BTA dealers.” Carl Taylor, Vice President of Marketing, OKI Data Americas
