When certainties are few, the office technology dealer network must rely on the most recent of trailing data, because 2019 (and even 2020) offered a short shelf life for actionable intelligence—those expiration dates became shorter and shorter. But some of the greatest challenges of the past year are destined to continue, and they offer a glimpse at how the best attack 2022.
As always, don’t take our word for it. Courtesy of our January State of the Industry report on trends and predictions, some of the greatest analytical minds—from dealers to manufacturers and leasing companies—are here to provide their takes on what the past year’s tea leaves are trying to tell (or warn) us. We collected a boatload of perspectives, and offer part two of the lessons learned that can be incorporated into your 2022 business plans.
Bob Burnett, Brother International: In 2021, we learned that working on documents outside of a centralized location is now the norm. With that, there is an associated risk of exposure to unauthorized access or dissemination. While many dealers beefed up their architectures in 2021, there is still room for growth in terms of IT security. For example, print and scan devices have become hubs for document workflow management and expose organizations to unnecessary risk with their Wi-Fi connectivity and hard drives. In addition, many home devices do not meet the necessary security capabilities from both a technology and process standpoint. As such, dealers must invest in devices with the necessary security features amid a “work from anywhere” world. After all, devices at home are now an extension of the corporate infrastructure and workflow.
Automation is another area we will see businesses incorporate into their services to provide enhanced customer service and position themselves for success in 2022. For background, to keep up with the demand for digital transformation, an increasing number of businesses have modernized their methods for customer communication by implementing predictive messaging tools like chatbots and more. Both large and small companies rely on automation and AI to more accurately predict what support their employees need and how they can do their best work. Organizations can streamline their marketing workflows, improve predictive capabilities, and meet customer expectations by incorporating automation strategies.
Felipe Godoy, RingByName: Dealers that have begun the journey towards providing managed services (telephone, software-as-a-service, security, and traditional IT) have found that they are now able to be the single source for customer services and will continue to see higher revenue. Those that seek out partners and service providers in the space that can provide all non-customer-facing services and manage the customer on their behalf will find an easier time of entering the space. Don’t be afraid to ask partners to take on a larger share of the work and do all the heavy lifting on your behalf.
Oscar Sanchez, Kyocera Document Solutions America: An ecommerce platform – if they don’t have one already. Dealers who turn a blind eye to the reality of the world around us will be left behind. To build sustainable success, dealers need to sell online. It’s as simple as that. Providing good quality products at a competitive price is no longer enough if we are talking about longer-term growth. An ecommerce platform is not a standalone endeavor; it must be underpinned by a well-developed strategy and consistent content that guides consumers to your web page, taking advantage of all that SEO has to offer. Portraying expertise is much easier in a face-to-face conversation than on a website, but those who do it best will be those who gain the most reward. I suspect that those dealers who find the right balance between ecommerce and that vital human touch will enjoy a strong 2022.
Larry White, Toshiba America Business Solutions: Make sure you’re investing in managed print as a service. You need to make sure you’re investing in growing the solutions side of your business. When looking at your business plan, don’t be overly aggressive with ROI on the aftermarket side. My personal prediction 12 months ago was that we’d end up being around 90% (of pre-pandemic levels) at some point, but now I think it’s the max we’re going to reach. On the year over year, same-store sales in aftermarket are going to be about the same. So we need to make sure we’re compensating for that in other areas and learning how to grow. This is an amazing channel with phenomenal capabilities, and service is the main area where our channel excels. There are huge opportunities on the services side of the business that we all need to take a look at and investigate how we can best utilize those services to grow our business.
Frank Cucco, Impact Networking: The biggest area for years has been the diversification of products. Most dealers still haven’t done that, and they’ll need to do it pretty quickly, as the world is changing at warp speed. For Impact, it would be very tough if we only sold hardware during the pandemic; we’d be in real trouble. Luckily, 15 years ago we started diversifying into other areas. Selling hardware is only 50% of our business now. But for any dealers that think the hardware business is coming back, I would tend to argue that it’s not coming back to pre-pandemic levels, for sure. It’s a declining situation. Hardware will always be there, but you have to augment that with other products to be sustainable long-term. You have to make investments to grow business along other avenues because hardware is not going to be a growth engine anymore.
Jennie Fisher, GreatAmerica Financial Services: Invest in strategies for expanding your services and solutions, focus on customer retention and get creative in closing net-new business. Continue to improve your sales and marketing efforts to modernize your approach and attract the new digital buyer. Consider bundling or improving your processes related to bundling. Many of our customers who hadn’t previously bundled now understand how it could have protected their monthly pass-through revenues during the pandemic. While output declined, and net-new was so difficult to secure, they could take some comfort in the fact that their monthly service and supplies portion for existing contracts continued uninterrupted, and that recurring revenue served as a hedge throughout such a challenging window.
Be selective about the partners you choose to align your business with and hold them accountable. The programs and solutions they offer should support these strategies and contribute to reaching your objectives.
Clark Bugg, Lexmark International: Dealers should focus on working closely with their vendors, looking to them to help guide them through the challenges that will inevitably arise in 2022.
Where possible, dealers should select vendors who are more insulated from supply chain issues. Companies that own their key technologies and are less reliant on suppliers can more easily adapt to disruptions in the supply chain by making changes at the design level. Also, value-added solutions such as cloud, remote print management solutions and security should be on the top priority list for businesses and channel partners in terms of growth areas for 2022.
