Mr. Kuki addresses dealers during the General Session.
If it’s April, it must be time for Kyocera’s annual dealer meeting. Just like April showers and spring flowers, Kyocera’s dealer meeting comes along just about the same time every year. Dealer meetings always tend to offer a sense of optimism and serve as a rallying cry for the troops as they head into a new fiscal year equipped with the promise of new products, solutions, and programs to ensure their success in the market. That’s exactly what Kyocera’s dealers got at this year’s event.
A lot of ground was covered at this year’s event between the General Session, the press briefing, the seminars, and the product and solutions showcase. It wasn’t easy, but let me share what I considered the 10 most notable take homes from this year’s Kyocera dealer meeting.
Positive Growth – Although the press was asked not to publish actual percentages or revenue numbers until early May when the news is officially announced, what can be revealed is that Kyocera has enjoyed four years of record-breaking sales worldwide, including strong U.S. revenue growth year over year, the latter thanks in large part to the efforts of its 750 authorized U.S. dealers. My take home: Although the growth percentages quoted were impressive in this current market, those percentages albeit large for a Kyocera would only be a blip for some of the bigger market share OEMs.
Accelerating Investment in R&D – The goal is to provide dealers with timely in demand products and services, according to Takashi Kuki, president of Kyocera Document Solutions, Inc. He reports that Kyocera is making a big investment in software, citing the development of an application that allows Kyocera dealers to provide remote maintenance and fleet management to reinforce their services. This software is stored in the cloud so dealers can implement it without making an initial investment. “We will create opportunities for you to improve your business portfolio by developing such software applications to support your existing business and investing in new areas such as ECM and BPO,” stated Kuki. “Such continued investment will surely contribute to the growth of your business.” My take home: I’m sure the remote maintenance and fleet management are nice to have for a Kyocera dealer, however, it’s future solutions related to ECM and BPO that are going to make more of a difference in the long haul for Kyocera and its dealers as the market becomes more enamored with these types of solutions.
Kyocera’s Danielle Wolowitz leads the press tour on the first day of the show.
A3-Like A4 MFPs – “This will forever change how you will look at an A4,” observed Norihiko Ina, President of KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc., about the TASKalfa 406ci Series. “With this new series, everything you thought about an A4 MFP is about to change,” added Danielle Wolowitz, senior director, corporate marketing. So what’s so special about these new A4s? For one, they’re floor standing models, two, they’re robust, three, they’re A3-like, four, they’re equipped with 3,000-sheet finishers, five, they’re dual stand, and six, they output at 1200 dpi. The lineup consists of three floor standing A4 models with speeds up to 47-ppm in color, paper capacities of up to 3,100 sheets, optional finishers, and the ability to print banners up to 46 inches long. My take home: Specs and hype aside, one of the industry analysts attending the event pondered whether or not end users will be will to paying A3-like prices for an A4 device. Kyocera dealers will soon be finding out the answer to that question as will the rest of us.
Coming Soon: 14 New A3 Models – Kyocera previewed an array of new devices ranging in speed from 25-75 ppm with enhancements such as 1200 dpi printing at full engine speed, improved paper handling and finishing, and enhanced image quality resulting in part from a new toner technology. There’s also standard Wi-Fi on select models. My take home: That’s a significant amount of products and an announcement that was warmly welcomed by Kyocera dealers, many are still enamored with A3 and will be for some time despite all the hype around A4.
Color Desktop Printers and A4 MFPs –Kyocera announced a new line of eight color desktop printers and A4 MFPs that will be launched in the first quarter. My take home: If you’re a company whose legacy is printers, then you’d better be talking about printers at your dealer meeting and that’s exactly what Kyocera did. Plus the number of dealers crowding around these products and others on the exhibit floor was a strong indication that Kyocera’s dealer channel appreciates having Kyocera printers among their product offerings.
Meet the New Business Services Division – A new headquarters and field-based division, the Kyocera Business Services Division, is focused on developing the certified TDS (Total Document Solutions) dealer skills and supporting more effective customer engagements in dealer’s respective markets. According to Peter Hendrick, vice president corporate marketing and business services, this is an initiative aimed focused on reinforcing Kyocera’s Total Document Solutions value proposition and reinforcing the support for dealers who embrace the Total Document Solutions approach that integrates Kyocera hardware, software, and services. Hendrick further explained that the Division’s mission is to build strong bonds with end users and strong relationships with its channel partners, creating and delivering value through unique and proven hardware, solutions, and services capabilities for today and for tomorrow as well as expanding Kyocera’s brand share and building brand equity with its dealers and their customers and broadening Kyocera’s TDS value. My take home: The business is changing and Kyocera is doing its part to ensure the success of its certified dealers and initiatives such as this could encourage more Kyocera dealers to pursue certification. I’ll be writing more about this in a future issue of ENX/The Week in Imaging.
Business Applications Rule – Kyocera has been doing a nice job creating its own business and print applications such as DMConnect, CentraQ, and CentraQ Pro. Although they were only mentioned in passing during the General Session they were prominently featured on the show floor. The company also announced that it was enhancing its document management connectors with direct integration for solutions such as DocuWare, Blackboard Learn, and Biscom secure file transfer. My take home: Home grown and third party business applications continue to be critical to success as the document imaging industry expands further and further beyond the box even if the ultimate goal is bundling these solutions to sell more boxes. Between its own and third party solutions for SMBs and specific vertical markets, Kyocera continues to make a strong effort to remain top of mind when one thinks about OEMs who are setting the pace through application development.
Social Media Seminar – A variety of breakout sessions seminars is a given at these events, some product or solutions specific, some interchangeable with what one might find at other manufacturer’s events, and some treading perilously close to the cutting edge. Not to say that social media is cutting edge, but kudos to Kyocera for acknowledging the importance of social media and making an effort to bring this message to their dealers. Andy Slawetsky of Industry Analysts, arguably the most prolific Tweeter in the document imaging world, and Martin Schneider, partner and creative director at SMA Advertising, did an excellent job of educating dealers on the value of social media and how to get started. My take home: The session I sat in on was well attended and attendees had a fair amount of questions, indicating a strong interest in this marketing medium.
If You’re Going to Sell Solutions, Might as Well Explain How to Do It – A smart strategy for selling solutions is to highlight previous success stories on how to best meet customer needs with a hardware and software solution. This is where Kyocera nailed it by presenting various solutions geared to specific vertical markets throughout the exhibit area in a case study format. Each of those vertical market sections on the exhibit floor featured demonstrations of the solution as well as signage that highlighted the situation, the challenge, customer needs, the proposal, and the result. (See photo.) My take home: Not to overstate the uniqueness of this approach because it has been done before, but even those with short attention spans like me could quickly see the benefit of each solution and strategies for success.
Ramping Up Training Initiatives – You can’t underestimate the importance of training in a technology and solutions driven world and Kyocera is doing its part to enhance its Total Document Solutions (TDS) training with a new instructor led course. “Its goal is simple, to assist your sales reps, elevating their capabilities using the ADIMO process to deliver a more advanced TDS solutions in new and existing accounts,” said Wolowitz. “The new course is all about real-world success, actual implementations and wins that we put under the microscope, helping you deconstruct, master and live the ADIMO process for greater success.” A seminar, “Deconstructing the Sale,” presented attendees with a preview of the new training class, which is scheduled for roll out in the first half of the year. My take home: I haven’t met a dealer yet who didn’t find value in training and this is one of those must have initiatives that any vendor selling new technologies and solutions had better be investing in as well as looking at new ways of presenting this information to their dealers. That’s what’s happening here.
