In this installment of the greatest challenges facing our Elite Dealer family, we take a wide-ranging look at a number of talking points that have office technology dealers engrossed and looking for solutions to improve not only their client-facing processes but back-office/internal operations as well.
For TTSG of Hanover Park, Illinois, one obstacle the company faces is its ability to maintain pace with the activity of its sales team. While a good problem to have, it represents a challenge as TTSG works to keep its operations staff at capacity to maintain service levels while its newer sales talent consistently brings in net-new business.
“As we grow, we refuse to lower our expectations for a near-perfect customer experience,” the dealer wrote. “With this comes the task of finding and developing newer employees at a much higher rate than we have seen in the past. Although we have been successful at keeping up our conversion ratios of onboarding the proper talent, this will only be maintained if we continue to allocate the proper amount of resources.”
Under Pressure
While margin pressure and print declines in the traditional imaging model are vexing for most office technology dealers, XMC of Memphis, Tennessee, has directed its energies toward new ways to participate at a greater level of office share, thus helping customers solve deeper business challenges.
“Managed IT and software solutions have provided us the greatest opportunity to assist in these more complex customer challenges and provided new revenue upside in challenging market conditions,” XMC responded. “Having access to a national platform that can ultimately be influenced at the local level has helped XMC gain great momentum in these new revenue streams.”
Striking a balance between short-term growth and long-term objectives can be a tricky tightrope act. Systel Business Equipment of Fayetteville, North Carolina, endeavors to strike a balance while hedging for strategic growth and strategic acquisitions that fit into the dealer’s long-range plans.
“(It’s) not just short-term, fast overnight growth through dealer acquisitions or unprofitable account acquisition,” Systel related. “Finding the right balance is tough in a quick-moving industry. Our strategic, steady growth has proven successful for us, making us very financially sound and ready for the investments needed in the five states we now cover in the southeast—North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee.”
Cyber Awareness
Easily one of the most pressing issues garnering mainstream attention is the scourge of cyberattacks. For managed service providers such as Meritech of Cleveland, the variety and evolution of threats directed at networks and end-users is a significant cause for concern and mobilization.
“We are ensuring our clients are educated and aware of the types of threats that can impact their business,” Meritech noted. “We’re educating our clients on the ramifications of what those threats could mean to their bottom lines. We invest in training their IT teams and end-users on recognizing those treats when they present themselves to be proactive and less reactive when it comes to security threats.”
The increased level of acquisitions makes scalability a concern for many dealers, among them UTEC of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Increasing headcount is necessary to an extent, but the main thrust for the dealer is in finding and implementing ways to be more efficient.
“This year, we completed a conversion to electronic invoicing, reducing upfront processing time by 50% and back-end time by 80%,” the dealer reported. “We have also used the resources provided by our ERP system to enable automatic billing and contract creation. We are in the process of two additional automated tasks within our ERP and in the final stages of testing.”
Many dealers also struggle with ensuring all of its employees assimilate the technology and IT prowess necessary to have long-term success. According to Usherwood Office Technology of Syracuse, New York, the demand of modern office technology dealers makes this imperative.
“In the past, you could hide technical efficiencies with plain-old great customer service,” the dealer responded. “However, there has been a paradigm shift over the last 20 years that requires the highest level of technical expertise combined with industry benchmarking and all-encompassing client services.”
Garnering Efficiencies
Bolstering internal processes to gain more efficiencies along the growth path has been a critical factor for EO Johnson Business Technologies. The dealer continues to use internal technology improvements while incorporating Lean processes and methodologies to achieve its goal. Separately, the company’s imaging and managed IT businesses run on different systems (e-Automate and Autotask, respectively) and use different CRMs, and will implement a new CRM system to rectify the issue.
Finally, the evolving competitive landscape spurred on by M&A activity has opened the door to more regional and national competitors entering its markets. That is resulting in margin pressure, but EO Johnson is taking steps to enhance its value proposition.
“We are meeting these challenges by investing heavily in the Cardone University Sales Training program for our sales force,” the company reported. “We’ve also invested in our Production Print unit, as well as our solutions business (Lean and process mapping) and Locknet, our managed IT services. Providing an assortment of business solutions allow us to gain significant competitive differentiation.
