We have all heard the saying “time is running out,” yet many people fool themselves into believing they still have time. Why is this? It’s a case of procrastination or delusion.
About ten years ago, I began talking with dealers regarding my vision of managed IT services. In those days, most dealers were trying to get their heads around managed print. Many were living in a world I defined as a “stubbornness to modify” though they knew change was needed, and in particular that their deliverables needed more value. But these thoughts simply did not translate into action. They had various excuses. Some said they weren’t getting buy-in from sales teams or from the service department. Some even claimed customers did not want this new deliverable. Well, at least not from them.
Who is going to buy a deliverable when the passion or the skillset of the seller is nonexistent? Some dealers understood the benefits of managed print, but remember it started more than 15 years ago and today some dealers know the benefits of managed IT services and IT security services. Many dealers still haven’t even started a print management program, which seems incredible.
Today, we live in different times, and the time for transitioning the office technology dealer channel, unfortunately, has expired. Over the next few years, we will see new companies and new deliverables challenging the customers’ loyalty to those who remain stuck in the past, as I continue to scream “The best time to reinvent yourself is before you have to!” After all, it makes more sense to use the resources from the old deliverable to create the new one. And many in the office technology channel do understand the need to migrate to a broader, more comprehensive deliverable.
So why don’t they? It’s not that they can’t learn IT services, have no skills, or can’t learn the skills necessary to sell IT services. And it’s not that they have no experts to call on for help. What’s missing is simple: leadership. Sorry to offend some of my friends, but the truth is apparent. Many in the office technology channel have allowed themselves to slip into what I call keep-it-going management. We are doing well enough, but what we need is a shift in attitude. The leaders in the industry must take charge and stop allowing their current good fortunes to highjack their long-term common sense.
Unlike managed print, which has evolved over 20 years, the dealers (and for that matter, the manufacturers) will not have the time to transition from print-centric to services-centric. Managed services are changing at the speed of the technology itself. In the last year alone, we have seen large corporations enter the theater. Amazon is going to disrupt the SMB technology reseller’s marketplace, as they have with OP resellers, our sister industry.
The managed IT services deliverable that dealers learned about just a year ago is different today. Managed services today are broader than helpdesk, and much more important to the ability of a business to survive and thrive. Most of the complexities which lived in the server room are now residing in the cloud. To lead an IT services company requires fast thinking and strong leadership. In other words, while you can manage a print/copy business, you have to lead an IT business.
The office technology dealer channel’s immaturity in the managed IT services realm is going to begin causing pain. The channel must stop congratulating itself on past successes. No current or future customers will care if your organization was dealer of the year. As you’re discussing possible cyber threats, these customers won’t care that you provided all their copier needs. The channel must stop believing copiers will automatically bring them to the IT sales channel. Too many still preach that managed print is the door to managed IT services. I disagree—at best, it’s a peephole in the door.
So what does a dealer do? Simple: put on your leadership hat. You can’t manage the start of a new deliverable—it must be led. Think about our friends at Sears: they fell into a disaster because they could not reinvent themselves. Sears allowed rank-and-file managers who were born in the world of bricks-and-mortar retail to “save” them from a digital apocalypse. What if Sears bought a software company, with the leaders of the future, instead of Kmart, with its managers stuck in the past?
Every day more and more copier companies are buying their Kmarts. Why would any large dealer who has the cash invest in the past? Shouldn’t they be buying software developers, security companies (both cyber and physical), technology education companies, e-commerce organizations, telephony organizations, or artificial intelligence resellers?
There are many facets to print’s continuing decline. Some see it as an opportunity to grow a bigger, temporary revenue business by acquiring more of the same. Others will choose to build their future with their current assets before they have no more assets to use. Some will stay as they are until it’s too late. Others will grab the bull by the horns and reinvent themselves, thus becoming unrecognizable to their peers.
Here’s my bottom line. The state of managed IT services is still where it was 10 years ago. Very little has changed in the state of mind of those who are supposed to be leading the charge.
There are plenty of consultants that industry leaders can talk to, but until they’re ready to feel the pain of improvement and have the ambition to lead their organization to something new, they will dabble and fail. In today’s climate of change, those who are tired of entrepreneurship or cannot revive its spirit should probably sell their business to a new leader. The future ahead will be exciting, but only to those who seek it and are willing to lead a way forward—instead of continuing to manage the past.
