Elite Dealers: Less Than $5 Million

4 the Office

Pittstown, PA

www.4theoffice.net

Year Founded: 2007

President: Carmen Pitarra

Number of Employees: 6

Primary Vendors: Authorized Xerox Gold Channel Partner, Authorized Hewlett Packard Gold Business Partner, Authorized Sharp CCR Dealer

Primary Solutions Offerings:  PrintFleet, PaperCut

Primary Supplies Vendors: SP Richards, Ingram Micro, Synnex

Primary Leasing Partners: Xerox Financial Services, Wells Fargo

Approximate Yearly Revenues: Less than $5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of 4 the Office’s Business:  Service Revenues (up 10%), Copiers/MFPs (up 149%), Print Management (up 10%), Office Supplies (up 5%)

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Growth for its Xerox Product Line in equipment and service has been tremendous, primarily because of Xerox programs that have helped build and support growth. The dealership also has been able to penetrate the production market with the C and D Series.

Why We Consider 4 the Office Elite:

• It has been extremely successful in growing all segments of its business using the vast offerings of equipment, service, and office supplies to save its customers money.
• It has been able to penetrate accounts in nontraditional ways, most notably by leading with office supplies. Once it’s in, customers have been very pleased with the dealership’s customer service, enabling it to provide them with additional products and equipment.
• A focus on Internet searches continues to provide double digit growth in sales and has brought in some very large companies for service and equipment opportunities.
• It’s been recognized by Xerox with a Platinum Award for Excellence in 2014 and has achieved HP Designjet Gold Partner Status.
• Employees have a reputation for going above and beyond for the customer and the company. It has created unique programs that allow everyone the opportunity to earn above and beyond their standard pay. The company is also flexible with family and personal time off.

 

ABC Office Equipment

Spokane Valley, WA

www.abcoe.com

Year Founded: 1952

President/CEO: Mike Brandon

Number of Employees: 52

Primary Vendors: Konica Minolta, OKI, Dell

Primary Solutions Offerings: Nuance AutoStore

Primary Supplies Vendors: Supplies Network

Primary Leasing Partners: DLL, GreatAmerica, CIT

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $3.5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of ABC’s Business: IT Services started 2 1/2 years ago with no accounts or revenue and has grown to 70 accounts, generating over $600,000 in annual revenue.

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Becoming debt free.

Why We Consider ABC Office Equipment Elite:

• The proactive nature of its IT service offering is in direct contrast to the “break fix” model used by its competitors. ABC offers a three-tiered approach, starting with monitoring-only with status updates and remediation provided to the customer. They can then facilitate the repair if they are comfortable or engage ABC if not.
• It provides hardware as a service for a complete solution to a customer’s IT requirements.
• Customers feel “safe” in their decision to do business with ABC because it doesn’t make claims about its service and support. It shares the actual metrics of its relationship with existing customers, including not only response time and first time fix, but percent of supply orders shipped from local inventory.
• For the last 3 years, ABC has hosted monthly employee lunch meetings. In these meetings, management shares the YTD financial information as well as the metrics from the departments. It also recognizes sales leads with cash incentives, announces upcoming events and new products, and generally shares the goals and achievements with the employees as a group. This initiative along with the group interaction has built a more cohesive and less “departmentalized” company.
• It has achieved Pro Tech status from Konica Minolta

 

Advanced Business Solutions, LLC

St. Johns, FL

www.goabsinc.com

Year Founded: 2004

President/Owner: Adam Gregory

Number of Employees: 5

Primary Vendors: OKI Data, Canon, HP

Primary Solutions Offerings: Control Print/Nubeprint MPS Software, Intellinetics Document Management Software, PaperCut, Drivve, Square 9

Primary Supplies Vendors: Arlington Industries, Carolina Wholesale, Katun

Primary Leasing Partners: GE Capital, CIT

Approximate Yearly Revenues: Less than $5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Advanced Business Solutions’ Business: A4 MFPs and MPS

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Expanding after 12 Years in the Atlanta, GA market into the Jacksonville, FL market with a new location and offering.

Why We Consider Advanced Business Solutions Elite:

• It doesn’t have a brick and mortar office. Advanced operates in Georgia and Florida and only uses warehouses for parts. It drop ships all supplies and orders equipment when needed. As owner Adam Gregory says, “The structure of the old copier company is 20th century and we have brought it to a different place for our employees, allowing them to be with family more and work from home when they are not with customers.”
• Customers appreciate the hands-on approach and availability of owner Adam Gregory.
• For a small dealership, it isn’t hesitant about investing in marketing and advertising, including a new website unveiled in August 2015.
• Its work culture where employees are not micromanaged, but treated as adults and with great respect.
• Advanced has been named the Top Southeast OKI Data MFP Elite Dealer and was a 2014 Georgia Small Business of the Year.

 

Allied Business Solutions

Boise, ID

www.digitalallied.com

Year Founded: 2003

President/Owner: Tom Beeles

Number of Employees: 22

Primary Vendors: Toshiba, Lexmark, FP

Primary Solutions Offerings:  M-Files, PaperCut

Primary Supplies Vendors: Toshiba, Nectron, West Point, Aster Graphics, Arlington

Primary Leasing Partners: U.S. Bank, GreatAmerica, EverBank

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $3 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Allied Business Solutions’ Business: Enterprise Content Management

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Implementing sales, service, and administrative training programs.

Why We Consider Allied Business Solutions Elite:

• Allied Business Solutions ensures premium customer support by offering a replacement guarantee on all products. The company is also well known in the Boise area for its service. Service techs are friendly and often are asked for by name.
• Its “Lunch & Learn” program where the company invites customers in for a free lunch and door prizes, along with a brief presentation on one of its product offerings. This has proven to be a successful way for company representatives to meet with clients while introducing them to a product in a fun social setting.
• It targets a specific market each month by promoting and focusing on the aspects of the chosen industry.
• Its employees volunteer each month at the Ronald McDonald house in Boise by cooking a meal for the families.
• It supports Ducks Unlimited (a non-profit wetlands conservation group) by hosting a yearly dinner in which all proceeds benefit the charity.

 

Barlop Business Systems

Miami, FL

www.barlop.com

Year Founded: 1983

President/Owner: Jose Lopez

Number of Employees: 35

Primary Vendors: Ricoh/Lanier, OKI Data, Samsung, Martin Yale, Formax, Lexmark, Fujitsu

Primary Solutions Offerings: Nuance, Equitrac, Ademero, Print Audit, EFI, RSA, MarcomCentral, Objectif Lune

Primary Supplies Vendors: Ricoh, Samsung, OKI Data

Primary Leasing Partners: GreatAmerica, GE Capital

Approximate Yearly Revenues: Less than $5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Barlop’s Business: From December 2011 to December 2014, Barlop Leasing has increased 249 percent, and service revenue has increased 80 percent.

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Moving to a new building without interrupting its regular work schedule or its customer service. In August 2013, Barlop Business Systems acquired a new 15,000-square-foot building. After more than a year of remodeling, it was finally able to move in this past October. The new building has made employees more comfortable and productive, and most importantly, customers are now able to visually see and interact with all the products it sells.

Why We Consider Barlop Business Systems Elite:

• Its re-branding initiative and making a transition to business process enhancing solutions and a services-led high-tech company. With this transition, the dealership has shifted to Managed Services, including MPS, Managed Network Services, Managed Document Workflow, Business Process Optimization services, and Specialty Production Print services—all targeted at the mid market. To build this new market brand, it is leveraging social networking and email marketing to position the company as a client-focused, solutions-driven company. It also has revamped its sales process so that sales professionals lead with document workflow not speeds and feeds.
• It sponsors its technicians with company paid training to enhance their graphic arts knowledge and computer inter-networking skills to support and implement its new solutions offerings. The goal is to integrate all these changes into one cohesive and well-aligned Sales/Marketing and Service organization that is reflective of the changes in its local marketplace by vertical market—all focused on helping Barlop’s customers connect employees to the most relevant information in a timely manner.
• It is a family-oriented dealership and holds monthly meetings and gatherings, including yearly picnics and holiday parties where employees are encouraged to bring their families.
• Each client gets their business assessed by a trained solutions specialist and sales professional. After the installation and training of the equipment, the client is introduced to their service specialist; supplies are sent to them automatically and meters are sent remotely to Barlop via the print audit data collection agent. In summary, Barlop’s services allow the customer to continue doing what they do best without having to worry about their office equipment.
• The aforementioned exponential growth in leasing revenue.

 

Consolidated Copier Services

McDonough, GA

www.consolidatedcopiers.com

Year Founded: 1987

Owner/President: E. Patrick Nunnally

Number of Employees: 16

Primary Vendors: Konica Minolta, KIP, Muratec, MBM, Fujitsu

Primary Solutions Offerings: Konica Minolta Dispatcher Phoenix, Nuance, Equitrac, Pharos

Primary Supplies Vendors: Katun, Arlington, Color Imaging, Precision Roller

Primary Leasing Partners: GE Capital, DLL, GreatAmerica

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $3 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Consolidated’s Business: Color Production Equipment grew 643 percent in May 2015 and Network and IT Services has led to a consistent increase in revenue of up to 50 percent monthly in 2015.

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Doubling the size of its sales team with expectations to triple it by the turn of the year. As an example of how well its sales team is doing, one of Consolidated’s top senior sales reps is closing 99 percent of all forecasted revenue this year.

Why We Consider Consolidated Copier Services Elite:

• Its partnership with a major media firm that is now responsible for Consolidated’s Internet presence, ad campaigns, and online marketing. The firm has drastically increased both quality and quantity of web-generated leads. Many of these leads have been converted into sales, maintenance agreements, or IT service calls. Overall, Consolidated is receiving an estimated 200-300 percent more leads and is able to convert them into a sale or service around 300 percent more often.
• It is moving beyond providing customers with simple solutions into more complex solutions and is focused on training its team to be able to achieve greater success in this area.
• It has won Konica Minolta’s Pro-Tech Service Award for six consecutive years and has been honored as Konica’s Fastest Growing Dealer in a Small Market.
• It listens to ideas from all its employees and implements them when possible, which helps everyone understand they are valued and trusted. Each department has regularly scheduled meetings to provide opportunities for problem solving, swapping ideas, asking questions, and making suggestions. For each meeting, notes are sent out to ensure follow-up is completed. Consolidated also gives each employee decision-making authority in their position and trusts them to do their jobs well. It also encourages employees to be involved family members and is flexible with time for their families. Time off to attend children’s school-related activities is not deducted from anyone’s vacation time.
• Its corporate and community involvement, including sponsorship of Oneheart Ministries, a local organization for helping at-risk youth. It also makes donations toward causes such as help for domestic violence, teen mothers, sports for kids with disabilities, and much more.

 

Imagine Solutions for Business, Inc.

Portland, OR

www.goimagineusa.com

Year Founded: 213

President: Craig Knouf

Number of Employees: 30

Primary Vendors: Toshiba, Samsung, HP, Brother

Primary Solutions Offerings: Abby, Docuware, Microsoft/SharePoint, OpenText, Drivve

Primary Supplies Vendors: Azerty, LMI, Supplies Network

Primary Leasing Partners: U.S. Bank, EverBank

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $4-$5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Imagine Solutions for Business’ Business: Color and A4 MFPs and Managed Print Services

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Imagine Solutions successfully completed its merger with Quality Office Systems and Infinite Solutions while opening branches in Eugene and Roseburg, OR.

Why We Consider Imagine Solutions for Business Elite:

• In the company’s initial year in business, it attained almost $4 million in sales revenue.
• The dealership has a family-oriented atmosphere while fostering a sense of ownership for its employees.
• It uses social media to connect with its community and customers. Each Monday the company highlights and shares unique information on helping increase customer ROI via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It offers a full suite of solutions and products while touting its own programming engineers.
• Through its branch operation, NOVO Expert Solutions, Imagine Solutions ties directly into its customers’ professional services and high-end ECM (enterprise content management) programming needs. Imagine Solutions also helps organizations manage the mounds of internal data and documents, as well as the constant stream of external unstructured information.
• The dealership and its staff donate time and money to Portland Union Mission throughout the year while Imagine also donates time and products to the Chelsea Hicks Foundation as well as participates and provides sponsorship money for the annual United Way Greater Douglas County golf tournament.

 

Mid Ohio Strategic Technologies

Columbus, OH

www.bizmachines.com

Year Founded: 1979

President/Owner: Karen Hoskinson, President /John D. Hoskinson II, Vice President

Number of Employees: 16

Primary Vendors: Toshiba, Lexmark, Muratec, Fujitsu

Primary Solutions Offerings: Intellinetics, SentryFile, Toshiba Re-Rite

Primary Supplies Vendors: Imagestar, ACM, Polek & Polek

Primary Leasing Partners: GreatAmerica

Approximate Yearly Revenues: Less than $5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Mid Ohio’s Business: The dealership has seen revenue growth within Document Management & Workflow Solutions and placement of high-speed color multifunction products.

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: As a family owned and operated business, it is imperative to prepare for the next generation of ownership. Through the help of the company’s attorney, accounting firm, and the Conway Family Business Center in Central Ohio, Mid Ohio has taken steps to prepare for the transition and is working on its succession plan. As a result, Mid Ohio is now owned by the families founding and future generations. Daily operations have been turned over to J.D. Hoskinson, II the next generation owner. This has been a smooth transition as the company’s succession plan is in full operation.

Why We Consider Mid Ohio Elite:

• It is a small, locally owned, family business celebrating its 36th year of working with other small to mid-size businesses in the central Ohio area. Mid Ohio maintains that it is just like the businesses with which it partners.
• The dealership strongly believes in creating a sense of partnership with every company it services.
• It has enjoyed ongoing success selling document management and workflow solutions.
• It regularly hosts “Lunch and Learns” to inform and educate current and potential customers about how the industry is changing and what new technologies are available to increase efficiencies and cut costs.
• The dealership employs an excellent team that loves what they do and enjoys coming to work. The company also encourages employee creativity when solving client challenges while rewarding them for such. Moreover, as a family business, Mid Ohio understands that flexibility and a work/life balance is vital.

 

On Demand, Inc.

Houston, TX

www.ondemandhouston.com

Year Founded: 1999

President: Michael Gray

Number of Employees: 25

Primary Vendors: Sharp, Kyocera, Pitney Bowes, OKI, Formax, Rena

Primary Solutions Offerings: Drivve, Paper Cut, Satori

Primary Supplies Vendors: Clover, Matrix Labels, Impressions Solutions, Kyocera, Sharp, Pitney Bowes, Katun

Primary Leasing Partners: GreatAmerica, Marlin, DLL, Wells Fargo

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $3-$5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of On Demand’s Business: Managed Services and Managed Print

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Rolling out its Managed Network Services program.

Why We Consider On Demand Elite:

• Its ability to develop custom niche solutions to meet its customer’s needs.
• It has successfully made the transition to Managed Network Services.
• Its success in offering three-tier color pricing to customers along with a new maintenance contract that only charges customers for prints used.
• It’s a Pitney Bowes Elite Mailing Dealer.
• Its charitable contributions to organizations within the community, including copier donations, support of the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show, and support of the Knights of Columbus scholarship fund.

 

Premium Digital Office Solutions

Pine Brook, NJ

www.premium-digital.com

Year Founded: 2010

Owners: Alan Schwartz, Managing Partner/Van Seretis, Managing Partner

Number of Employees: 13

Primary Vendors: Muratec, Konica Minolta, Panasonic, Neopost

Primary Solutions Offerings: Ademero Content Central Document Management and Workflow Software with e-Form Integration, CapturePoint Advanced Data Extraction Software

Primary Supplies Vendors: Muratec, Konica Minolta, Polek & Polek, Katun, Copylite, LMI

Primary Leasing Partners: GE Capital, DLL, EverBank, Leaf, Element

Approximate Yearly Revenues: Less than $5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Premium’s Business: Document Management Solutions (25% growth per year), IT Services (20% growth per year), Color MFPs (30% growth per year)

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: It now offers a full suite of IT Services, Hosted Exchange and desktops, cloud storage and security, disaster recovery, and offsite backup along with its current offerings.

Why We Consider Premium Digital Office Solutions Elite:

• Its ability to create a true business partnership where it gives back to its clients in ways to improve not only Premium’s business but the customer’s business as well through personal touch and professional contacts from start to finish.
• It doesn’t charge clients monthly or quarterly overages; instead, Premium treats it as a block of copies/prints much like a car lease with mileage, which avoids budget overruns and monthly surprises.
• It has been successful in helping clients go paperless with EDM by helping them capture, store, edit, and retrieve their documents electronically.
• It’s the winner of a Muratec Image Makers Award for being in the top 20 dealers in the country and being the number one dealer on the East coast.
• t has a work culture that acknowledges employees have lives beyond work and provides them with flexibility in their daily schedule to focus on family and personal matters. It also hosts annual events for employees such as Heritage Day, Bowling Nights, Family Barbeques, Sporting Events, Fishing Trips and its annual end of the year Holiday Party.

 

Stone’s Office Equipment

Richmond, VA

www.stonesoffice.com

Year Founded: 1970

President: Sam Stone

Number of Employees: 25

Primary Vendors: Sharp, Xerox, Lexmark

Primary Solutions Offerings:  PaperCut, Drivve, Intact

Primary Supplies Vendors: LMI

Primary Leasing Partners: GreatAmerica, U.S. Bank

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $4-$5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Stone’s Business: Solution Sales (up 500%) and Managed Print Services (increased 150% year-over-year)

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Converting from OMD to E-Automate. The dealership paired up people in the company to work together on everything from file conversion to training and implementation, which turned out to be a great team-building experience as well.

Why We Consider Stone’s Office Equipment Elite:

• Its “Customer First” approach. Every interaction the dealership has with a client is graded and customers are asked if they had a great experience.
• It has built a culture in its business model that allows employees to make decisions based on their belief as to what will fix the issue or make the customer happy.
• It has successfully built its Managed Print Services business from the ground up.
• It has partnered with CEO Juice and BEI Services to increase service performance and add metrics to track the progress. Every service it performs is followed up with a survey asking clients if Stone’s met their expectations. It also ties in every survey with the Net Promoter Scoring system and tracks its NPS score monthly.
• The tenure of its employees. Stone’s is a family business founded in 1970 and treats every employee like a member of the family. The average employee has worked at Stone’s for 15 years.

 

Team Office Technologies

Youngstown, OH

www.teamofficetech.com

Year Founded: 2003

Owner: Thomas Reeveley

Number of Employees: 23

Primary Vendors: Toshiba, Dell

Primary Solutions Offerings: Microsoft, Dell, Continuum, Symantec, Columbia Soft, Square 9, In-house custom development

Primary Supplies Vendors: Toshiba, United Stationers

Primary Leasing Partners: Leaf, GE Capital, DLL

Approximate Yearly Revenues: less than $5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Team’s Business: MFPs and Dell Servers

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Better managing operations, developing a consistent marketing message, an improvement in inventory packaging, and advanced employee training, as well as a heightened focus on integrated solutions.

Why We Consider Team Office Technologies Elite:

• Its customers appreciate working with Team due to its firm commitment to consistency, reliability, and the relationships with its service personnel.
• Its “Team Tech to the Rescue” branding campaign. Team Techs are known for being well trained, consistent, polite, and thorough. They follow a proprietary model to enhance the customer experience as a result of the company’s consistent process and delivery.
• It compensates its sales team in a manner that compels them to deliver “good” business and not just “deals.” Team believes in the philosophy of developing relationships based on trust.
• Because of the company’s flat management model, all Team staff work at the same level, which seems to be appreciated by employees.
• Team employees participate on nonprofit boards as well as on Rotary and the local Chamber of Commerce and also donate time, expertise, and products to nonprofit organizations.

 

 

 

Upstream Office Solutions

Tampa, FL

www.upstreamofficesolutions.com

President: Mark Wild

Year Founded: 2012

Number of Employees: 8

Primary Vendors: Toshiba, Kyocera, OKI

Primary Solutions Offerings: PaperCut

Primary Supplies Partners: Pollock & Pollock, OES

Primary Leasing Partners: EverBank

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $2.5 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Upstream’s Business: MPS, Medical accounts

Biggest Accomplishments of the Past Year: Moving its offices from a 2,000 square foot facility to a 3,400 square foot fully air conditioned warehouse with space to grow. Upstream also went fully cloud based on all its back-office software (ACT E-Automate and FM Audit).

Why We Consider Upstream Office Solutions Elite:

• It increased its average number of units per sale by 20 percent this past year.
• It successfully transitioned to a cloud-based back-office system while also equipping its techs in the field with tablets so they can access live information while at a customer’s location.
• The company culture where the focus is on getting the job done without contending with egos and internal drama to get the customer up and running as quickly as possible.
• Its community sponsorships, including three Chamber of Commerce customers and a large library as well as donating door prices for non-profit organizations at fundraising events.
• It continues on an upward growth curve ever since the dealership first opened its doors in 2012 and was starting out with no customers.

 

Yuma Office Equipment

Yuma, AZ

www.yumaofficeequipment.com

Year Founded: 1998

President/Owner: Daniel Bombard

Number of Employees: 16

Primary Vendors: Toshiba, Sharp, Lanier, Samsung, OKI Data

Primary Solutions Offerings:  Managed Network Services (Continuum), Cloud Backup (Intronis), Unified Communications/VOIP (Fonality), Hosted Email (Intermedia), Business Continuity (Datto, Axcient, Continuum) – All packaged as Connext Managed Services

Primary Supplies Vendors: Toshiba Encompass, MSE

Primary Leasing Partners: GreatAmerica, U.S. Bank, Marlin Leasing

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $3 million

Fastest Growing Segments of Yuma Office Equipment’s Business: Managed Services (20%), with overall growth of 4 percent the past three years.

Biggest Accomplishment of the Past Year: Won the AZ SBDC Small Business of the Year Award. Also won contract for copiers at the local community college, beating out a manufacturer by spending almost two years finding out the customer’s pain points and addressing them.

Why We Consider Yuma Office Equipment Elite:

• Its tenured employees (most have been with the company for 5-10 years) and spirit of camaraderie, driven by a team approach.
• Its Network in a Box offering, which manages a customer’s office for one price.
• Despite being a small dealership, it’s been able to compete favorably against manufacturers’ direct branches.
• It’s a three-time Chamber of Commerce member of the month and an SBDC Small Business of the Year.
• Its community involvement. Yuma supports Crossroads Mission by supplying copiers and printers at no cost, as well as various churches that it provides hardware to at no cost.