Philip Zangara (left) of Image Systems and Business Solutions, and Tom Mitchell, Connected Office Technologies
Brother International invited about a dozen journalists and analysts to its Fireside Chat presentation on April 12 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, perhaps a first in the annals of OEM gatherings where an actual Native American reservation served as the host site. But while Foxwoods itself came across as a run-of-the-mill casino, Brother’s chat with industry pundits had the flavor of a “get to know us” open invitation to the dealer community.
Brother is still in the process of developing an identity within the dealer channel. The company currently has fewer than 100 dealers on its rolls and is less than four years into its channel push. Perhaps its biggest previous coming-out party was another OEM’s event, last fall’s Toshiba LEAD conference, in which the partnership was announced.
The three-hour update on Brother’s activities and goals was solidly punctuated by a short but enlightening dealer panel that consisted of Tom Mitchell, the president of Connected Office Technologies of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Philip Zangara, sales director for Image Systems & Business Solutions of Chicago. Dealers tend not to sugarcoat their experiences, and both Mitchell and Zangara gave ringing endorsements for their experiences with Brother.
“When we first looked at Brother, they understood our challenges with printers,” Mitchell said. “We knew it would be easy for our people to sell. For the purchasing and order folks, it was a very easy process. (Brother) has a different feel than any of the other manufacturers that call on me on a weekly basis.”
Vision and Hunger
Image Systems & Business Solutions, a single-line Ricoh dealer on the A3 side, wanted to partner with a company that has a vision and is hungry, according to 
Zangara. “The team behind Brother is why we decided to carry the product. These guys are always willing to go above and beyond with you. We’ve been able to penetrate about seven or eight vertical markets, and we could not have done that without their help.”
Mitchell noted that Brother understands the dealer community and their challenges with bringing customers on board. “The support they offer to the dealer community is really unique,” he said. “We’ve had great conversations with their people.”
Zangara echoed Mitchell’s sentiments. “After their presentation, I felt like they were the company who gets it,” he noted. “When you make a phone call to them, they respond. Their team is amazing.”
Brother’s “team” began last week’s presentation with a company overview from Yoshio Nakao, general manager SMB business development. Nakao opened with a historical perspective of Brother and its 110-year history. The company first made inroads producing sewing machines and boasted a fair share of the typewriter market before transitioning to fax machines, and later, laser printers. Today, Nakao said the company’s three pillars of strength are flexibility, agility and cost competitiveness.
Nakao stressed that the 2019 iteration of Brother offers solutions and services that aid in the digital transformation, including cloud file sharing, open architecture to improve BPI, scanning/distribution and document management, print security, device management and strategic partnerships that expand its business models. Not to mention a strong product line.
Market Opportunities
Dan Waldinger, Brother
Dan Waldinger, senior director of B2B marketing for Brother, elaborated on the opportunities for the OEM. The trend toward A4 is right in Brother’s wheelhouse. In the range of 21-30 ppm, 31-44 ppm and 45-69 ppm spaces, A4 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) registers at 11.6%, 4.8% and 11%, respectively. On the flip side, of the three A3 output speeds, only 31-44 ppm has positive CAGR at a meager 1.1%. A4 color is showing stronger growth than the previous year, and even the declining A4 monochrome space is declining slower than A3.
The B2B SMB space is up nearly 9% in hardware growth, with color laser MFPs and copiers both experiencing solid double-digit growth, and scanners are up 21%. Channel growth as a whole is up 15% YTD.
Waldinger pointed out that Brother is listening intently to the channel, the OEM is hungry and investing. Perhaps most of all, Brother is reliable.
For instance, Brother’s Field Support team includes on-site sales, product, solutions and vertical market training; field sales support for end-user opportunities; regional major account managers with a vertical market focus; government major account managers who support SLG account opportunities; and a Brother Special Solutions Team (SST), Brother field engineers who provide pre-sales end-user customer support.
Brother’s Value Print Program (VPP) helps dealers capture contractual business with consistent supplies, hardware, service and field sales support. The VPP helps build value into Brother’s reseller pricing to increase their total margin. In addition, Brother’s three-year extended “hot swap” warranty covers the Workhorse business class models with next-business-day express exchange, with shipping included both ways.
The OEM is actively seeking to add dealers to its Brother Authorized Service Dealer (ASD) program. ASD members can get access to the Brother Technical Site as well as online service training and service manuals. ASDs have the ability to service in-warranty machines and receive reimbursement from the manufacturer. ASDs also can order warranty and non-warranty parts and receive service updates.
The Brother Knowledge Center (BKC) is an online repository with 28 training modules on a wide range of topics, covering product lineups, security, mobility, solutions and vertical market information, among other elements.
The OEM is making significant investments in spreading the “At Your Side” word through a multi-million dollar advertising and PR program that covers print, broadcasting and digital channels—all intended to “make your business hum.” Inclusive in this program is an aggressive email marketing campaign. Other initiatives include a Customer Experience Center, which provides brochures and various sales support materials; vertical market education via videos; and a recently launched dealer kit.
Product Portfolio
Shelly Radler, Brother
Following a program break, Shelly Radler, senior product marketing manager for Brother, provided a walk-through of the company’s product portfolio, beginning with the BLI Buyers Lab 2017 and 2018 picks, the Workhorse series HL-L9310CDW and the MFC-L9570CDW color laser printers. New this month are a pair of black-and-white lasers, the HL-L6400DWX/MFC-L6900DWX “eXtra.” Developed based on customer feedback, the line includes a 20,000-page yield toner in-box, making it ideal for MPS applications.
Also new (shipped in January) are the TAA-compliant b&w laser products, the HL-L6400DWG/MFC-L6900DWG, with super high-yield and ultra-high-yield toner cartridges. TAA (Trade Agreements Act) compliance addresses the needs of governmental agencies.
Brother just released a new option, the SF-4000 stapler/finisher that is compatible with the HL-L6400DW/T. Slated for a late summer/early fall release, the SF-4000 has a 500-page capacity with a maximum stapling limit of 50 pages. It carries a $399 MSRP.
Radler also outlined the Brother Workhorse Series scanners, with models that fall under the workgroup and high-volume/back office spaces. They range from the 40 ppm ADS-2400N ($99.99 MSRP) to the 80 ppm PDS-6000 ($1,999.99).
Released in 2018, the MFC-J6945DW business inkjet printer is ideal for SMB needs and can be used for balanced deployment opportunities.
Radler also provided insight into Brother’s security platform, which offers triple-layer protection that addresses device access security, securing documents and data, and securing devices on the network. She noted that Brother devices can be integrated with existing security measures to help improve the safeguarding of an organization’s critical data.
She also talked about Brother’s Value Services Program, a portfolio of services and solutions designed to help mid- to large-size businesses meet their most pressing challenges. The Value Services Program improves collaboration, strengthens document security and enables digital transformation.
Radler also discussed key Brother partnerships, including one with Accusoft and its OnTask, a software-as-a-solution workflow solutions platform that is accessible from the UI of compatible Workhorse models. This business process automation tool enables users to send documents with legally-binding signatures.
Full Toolbelt
Bob Burnett, director of product development for Brother, delved into the company’s cloud service, as well as its value-added solutions portfolio, touching on the company’s custom user interface, barcode utility, Secure Print +, E-Notify, workflow automation (OnTask) and translation service (powered by thebigword)—all potential revenue streams for Brother’s dealer partners.
Bob Burnett, Brother
Burnett also detailed Brother’s aforementioned SST, a program that enables the OEM’s products to be modified to meet special requests from clients, including customized firmware and deployments. The Brother Solutions Interface, a web-based software development platform, allows developers to create and build customized print and scan solutions for Brother products.
Brother also announced scanner enhancements on all of its Workhorse ADS models, including scan preview in the TWAIN driver, file split and auto start scan.
After a review of Brother’s document security protocols, the team rolled out a number of different product demos, including creating a custom user interface. Also announced was the Brother Solutions & Services Portfolio, a web-based application that enables users to search for Brother offerings. The site, which will include a mobile version, will be rolled out later this year.
Overall, Brother should be commended for shoe-horning a day’s worth of information into a three-hour span. The manufacturer is eager to promote its value proposition to the dealer channel, and its wealth of support programs will go a long way toward establishing a foothold in the space. Award-winning machines and the partnership with Toshiba are certainly a step in the right direction, and with fewer than 100 dealer partners, there is a solid opportunity to spread the word.
