Following a year’s hiatus, the ITEX Imaging & Technology Exposition finally had the opportunity to roll out its 20th-anniversary show to roughly 400 registered attendees at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas from Nov. 9-10.
In the words of Marc Spring, ITEX founder, the seemingly endless Zoom and Microsoft Teams conferencing parade that dealers have endured during the pandemic’s nearly two-year saga underscored the need for company executives to come together and gain valuable insight on the trends and issues that confront their businesses during this unprecedented time.
“I was really hoping to bring together a group of people who shared a common goal to be stronger after COVID,” Spring told ENX Magazine. “I could not be more proud of how the industry came together at ITEX. The show proved its value as the premiere event dealers turn to when they want unbiased information.”
Ordinarily, a rite of spring, the annual gathering of office technology dealers and resellers were treated to a wide-ranging program of educational seminars, punctuated by a two-plus hour state of the industry report, delivered by Randy Dazo, chief strategy officer for Keypoint Intelligence. Dazo provided an in-depth portrayal of what COVID-19 has wrought to open the event on Nov. 9, and used Keypoint Intelligence’s bottomless statistical and analysis font to help the packed conference room carve out a business plan for how to approach a post-pandemic business landscape.
Dazo noted that industry manufacturers have faced substantial challenges even prior to the pandemic—the 17 OEMs that make their financials public have witnessed a 22% decline in imaging/print revenues between 2014 and 2020, with operating profits down 44% for 16 OEMs reporting. He then provided a more detailed look into select major OEMs to illustrate the downward trend.
Supply Chain Issues
He transitioned to an overview of the supply chain challenges that have exacerbated business disruption, from COVID-induced limitations of production and shipping, the shortage of materials and the resulting uptick in demand for goods. Dazo also pointed to what he called “bad luck,” e.g., the Konica Minolta factory fire, extreme weather events and the Evergreen/Suez Canal fiasco—all seemingly conspiring to create a Murphy’s Law-type scenario.
Dazo also pointed out that page volume losses have been triple those that are ordinarily experienced during a recession. He noted that office page volumes will level off somewhere around 600 billion annually by 2025 and won’t return to the pre-pandemic 800 billion baseline; likely a factor of a continued decentralized workforce. Keypoint Intelligence projects that 56% of office workers will operate in a hybrid fashion, with an average of 2.7 days spent in the home.
On the topic of workplace transformation, Dazo noted three of the leading priorities for the office environment: adopting smart workplace technologies (38%), utilizing cloud solutions (39%) and improving security and compliance (59%).
The Need to Diversify
Following a break, Dazo polled the audience on the types of channel services they offer beyond traditional office services, including IT and audio/visual, which segued into the topic of diversification as a necessity for dealer survival. From cloud and security services to workplace infrastructure, digital transformation/analytics services, mobility services and VoIP, Dazo performed a deep dive into the non-device world at the dealer’s disposal. He also cited the opportunities that exist for dealers in the world of production print, particularly inkjet and wide-format devices.
Dazo concluded his presentation with an overview of the generational shift in the office, with millennials taking over as the largest represented in the workforce, along with thoughts on the changing buying habits and offices rethinking their workspaces. Contact Dazo if you would like to learn more.
The full-day session offered attendees a mix of educational seminars and the opportunity to walk the expo show floor and engage with a number of solutions providers to the industry. Both components spoke to the overall puzzle that is the ITEX value proposition: managed IT, security and telecom (cloud, disaster recovery); managed print (hardware, 3D printing, wide-format, mobile); reseller automation (ECM, document imaging and scanning, document workflow); and Smart Office technologies.
Mike Stramaglio, president and CEO of Stramaglio Consulting and an educational presenter at the show, was pleasantly surprised by the show’s turnout, not to mention the opportunities it presented attendees.
“We all know the past 18 months have proven to be monumentally challenging and especially so in the trade show industry,” he said. “My hat is off to Marc Spring and his staff for pulling this one off as well as they did. Yes, we can all agree the show needs more dealers to show up as the dealer attendance is what makes any event successful or not. (But) I saw and felt enthusiasm and optimism for next year, and if ITEX works more closely with the dealer community and with a fresh set of eyes, I believe ITEX can continue onward and upward. Imagination and initiative will rule the day!”
