Companies operating in the printer manufacturing space have talked for years about diversifying their product inventories. This was true even before the pandemic, given the overall decline in printing. However, after the year we’ve just been through, entering new categories has never been more vital or more relevant.
Ultimately, diversification benefits manufacturers, dealers and, ultimately, our shared end-users. It allows office technology providers to demonstrate a larger value proposition, and it offers the flexibility to address issues their end-users are facing today and moving forward.
Customer needs are evolving as their work environments continue to transform and more employees settle into hybrid or fully remote workspaces. As such, technology providers and dealers need to look more closely at expanding their product portfolios into information and collaboration solutions, including displays, laptops, software and other similar products.
The COVID-19 Ripple Effect
Despite the hesitance in many industries to fully make the switch, we’ve been anticipating and preparing for the day when the world would fully embrace the move to remote and mobile work. COVID-19 forced our industry’s hand, and businesses had to adapt quickly. This hasn’t proved easy, as we’re still in the midst of a purgatory of sorts, in between our traditional physical offices and our virtual workspaces. Ultimately, the long-term business effects of the pandemic mean we’re looking at an accelerated decline from historic print volumes, exacerbated by companies deciding to eliminate the rent that comes with brick-and-mortar facilities in favor of operating in full remote mode.
But despite these inherent challenges, our new normal also presents significant opportunities for dealers to step in as true partners, demonstrating to customers that they can help make the adjustment smoother by providing the right technology. Dealers that are in it for the long haul know they need to reinvest in their business where it makes sense—it’s no longer just about helping customers move from paper to digital, but from in-person to remote work. The ones that best demonstrate how nimble they can be in this environment position themselves for greater success and growth as they expand offerings into complementary areas.
Some document imaging dealers have already pivoted successfully, highlighting their well-roundedness and ability to sell a wider variety of technology solutions. It’s exciting to see how many dealers jumped right in, aggressively expanding their business and figuring out how to do it quickly.
So far, those that have showcased a strong managed IT services business to match their printer side are proving to have a powerful differentiator against competition. This is crucial in its own right because it demonstrates that diversification should not be for its own sake. While it helps the dealer close the revenue gap from a decrease in printer sales, it also directly addresses an overall concern for many businesses: how can I ensure my office is working better and smarter?
Embracing Additional Technologies as a Linchpin for Change
IT solutions are a common theme among dealers, and also provide them with a much broader view of a customer’s environment and needs. This often opens up even more ways to diversify and help those customers in new ways. Given the skill sets our business has, there are many other solutions, such as display technology, we can deliver to clients that also fit our industry’s business model.
In fact, Sharp had already been addressing this shift in customer needs prior to many businesses closing their physical doors in the spring of 2020. For example, we introduced the Windows collaboration display from Sharp, which is changing the way we work and turned into the perfect solution for remote environments due to its optimized Microsoft Teams experience. With virtual meeting applications skyrocketing in use over the past year, this collaboration made day-to-day grinds easier and showed customers that you can help them attain greater ROI from their videoconference systems—something that represents highly beneficial prospects for dealers. We expect this trend to continue in a post-pandemic world.
In addition to displays, laptops are another category in which dealers can help customers with their remote/hybrid set up. Having the right laptop that is adjustable to your needs is now table stakes for home offices and will continue to be critical throughout 2021 and beyond. That’s why we placed an even greater emphasis last year on our Dynabook laptop products, which have become a key part of our business. They offer the power, transportability and reliability a hybrid workforce demands, and have been greatly successful for us, creating vast opportunities for dealers to offer solutions that address both tech and comfort.
Expanded Conversation
Dealers that delve into these new areas with customers gain a considerable competitive advantage. For example, when a customer’s copier lease expires, the conversation won’t just touch on cost per copy, pages per minute and price, but about the total value of the information-sharing technology offered to a client.
Because this is a major adjustment that can produce many benefits for dealers, we’re also adjusting as a manufacturer so our dealers have these options available to offer. At Sharp, we’ve been preparing for this for years, bringing all the software and hardware pieces together, keeping a rigorous launch schedule and planning aggressive training so we can set our dealers up for success.
Despite such a difficult year, we’ve been pleased to see our dealer community embrace other technologies to support their customers. Moving forward, we need to build on that and make it a more integral part of our industry’s business model. End-users will increasingly look for a one-stop shop where they can buy all their MFPs, displays and laptops. As a result, it’s never been more important to embrace a new way of business.
We anticipate positive long-term effects of product diversification as more manufacturers and dealers look to help customers maximize their existing home and office tech investments. We look forward to supporting our dealer and reseller community on their path towards diversification as we continue through 2021.
