The document imaging industry is driven by trends. For those in the midst of the fray it certainly helps to be on top of what’s happening and an understanding of the impact certain trends may have on one’s business or product, services, and solutions offerings going forward.
In the June issue of ENX we’re exploring “What’s New for 2015,” detailing new products and programs from the various leasing and finance companies. At the time we also asked them about the trends that they are watching and reacting to and here’s what they had to say about that.
Nick Small, managing director U.S. for CIT Equipment Finance, identifies 3D printing as one major trend, acknowledging the importance of the existing distribution channels and how OEMs are leveraging the BTA channel, for example, to provide distribution for the 3D printing companies.
“We’re working with our partners who have entered into distribution agreements to be a financing partner for those 3D products whether on a standalone basis or aggregated with their traditional offerings,” reports Small.
Two products that Everbank Commercial Finance sees trending are digital signage and smartboards.
“At this point in time, from a residuals standpoint, it’s kind of tough to get your arms around,” acknowledges Fred Carollo, vice president of originations for Everbank’s Office Products Platform. “We’re already financing digital signage and smartboards, but are looking to do more, and for lack of a better word, do it smartly.”
Managed Services and cloud-based solutions are two other trends Everbank is watching.
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- Nick Small
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- Fred Carollo
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- Glen Clark
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- RJ Grimshaw
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- Phil Buysse
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- Jennie Fisher
GE Capital Office Imaging also has 3D printing on its radar even if most of the products it’s been financing are primarily used in industrial applications where machine tools are involved. “GE corporate does quite a bit with 3D printing, particularly on the industrial side of the business,” reveals Glen Clark, executive VP, general manager.
He says GE Capital has a number of dealers who are interested in 3D printing. “We certainly have the ability to finance it, we just haven’t seen a lot of demand generation associated with that product in the office equipment world. We see where it could be in the future depending on the application.”
That said, GE Capital has already closed a couple of deals associated with engineering firms that used to have a wide-format printer and ended up purchasing a 3D printer for modeling. “We may see more of that, ” reports Clark. “Where we are seeing a lot of activity is IT and IT Services.”
When Clark says IT Services he’s talking about everything from providing IT equipment to break-fix service, to using the dealership as their Help Desk.
“Where we see future growth is in this group of companies we call the middle market—companies with $10 million up to $1 billion in revenue; that group of companies tend to not get a lot of press, but it represents a significant amount of opportunity,” notes Clark.
UniFi Equipment Finance is always trying to get a handle on what’s going to be the next disruptive technology.
“Everybody is talking about 3D printing,” says RJ Grimshaw, president & CEO. “I’ve been funding 3D printing for the last five years. I don’t see 3D printing as the next big thing. To me if you’re not involved with it now, you’ve probably missed the boat.”
Instead, UniFi is focused more on the cloud and the document management side of the business as well as the services side. “It’s all about the services and the wrap around the box and how do we make sure that’s a financeable product that the marketplace will [want], and secondly from a banking perspective, is financeable,” states Grimshaw.
Phil Buysse, SVP, general manager, Office Equipment Vendor Services for U.S. bank reports that his company continues to adapt to the trend of a softer solution sale with less reliance on hardware and a higher recurring pass-through revenue for its dealers entering managed services. Supporting this trend are its IPA (Installment Payment Agreement), EPA (Equipment Finance Agreement) and pass-through billing features and financial reconciliation tools.
“The trending to solutions needed for alternative products like 3D printing, production print, digital signage, cloud solutions, MPS, MNS; not only for the initial financing/leasing, but solutions to bill, collect, remit, and manage recurring revenue streams on behalf of our dealer clients continues to be a marquis strength of ours,” adds Buysse. “There are also a significant number of dealers with internal lease portfolios and we have successfully helped several dealers manage their capital needs through seamless portfolio sales.”
Speaking of 3D printers and digital signage, those two trends are front and center at GreatAmerica Financial Services Corp. The company is rolling out products to accommodate this trend and has entered into digital signage financing in partnership with Toshiba. Although the initial offering is via a Toshiba partnership, it’s not branded for Toshiba and will be available to anyone in the channel looking to finance digital signage.
GreatAmerica is looking into financing the content development piece as well. “We’re evaluating how to come up with a financing solution to fund ongoing blocks of content,” reports Jennie Fisher, Sr. VP, general manager, Office Equipment Group of GreatAmerica. “We need to make sure that as we venture into some of these newer areas that we have financed in the past that we have our arms wrapped around all the legality and risk factors that come along with that.”
There you have it, the trends impacting the leasing and finance companies. No surprises here, but plenty of validation for the trends most of the industry is monitoring.
