When it comes to industry knowledge, Joe Reeves has few peers. The top executive of Smile Business Products in Sacramento, California, has logged 44 years in the industry and has forged solid relationships across the dealer and OEM stratosphere. So when Sharp pulled open the curtain on its new production press at last month’s national dealer meeting, it fulfilled an item that had been on his wish list for the entire 25 years he’s served on the OEM’s dealer council.
Once he saw the machine in Las Vegas, Reeves didn’t need to guess about the partner Sharp had stealthily aligned with—it was clearly Fuji. After the Fuji-Xerox relationship dissolved in 2020, he felt Fuji would be the best option for elevating Sharp into the high-output, multicolor production space. Earlier this year at a Sharp dealer council meeting, Reeves pleaded the case for Sharp aligning with Fuji, but the Sharp execs were tight-lipped…for good reason.
“I took it to Sharp and I said, ‘This is the machine we need, what we’ve been talking about,’” Reeves noted. “But mum’s the word. No response. They did a good job of keeping it quiet.”
Reeves, like a lot of dealers, are now mobilizing to build the infrastructure that will enable them to effectively offer the as-yet-named unit to the market. He’s counting on needing at least two service specialists, as he doesn’t believe training an A3 specialist would work for Smile. Reeves feels it will be an ideal play in the commercial printing market and for other print shops that have binderies. He was also happy to see Duplo at the national dealer meeting, as their cutters can assist in the production of business cards.
Reeves fears smaller dealers will find it more difficult to justify onboarding a specialist who can train sales and service personnel. Plus, not every market will have as strong a need, but that’s far from the case for Smile. Government entities in California—a state and a segment the dealer serves—have an abundance of bureaus, and it’s not out of the ordinary for them to have one or more competitive machines such as the Xerox DocuTech.
While he’s excited about the opportunity to move the new Sharp production press, Reeves was also impressed with the OEM’s high-level philosophy. “Sharp did a good job talking about staying in our lane, and our lane has always been the paper-based office information business,” he said. “Technologies have changed, but it’s still about controlling the information in the office. What we have, as dealers, is all of these relationships. Now we’ve just got to find all the pieces that will plug in with what we have—Dynabooks, displays, monitors and VoIP. It’s all about controlling everything that hangs on the network in the office.”
We caught up with a number of other dealer executives who provided their take on Sharp’s NDM:
“I think the flow of the messaging and the big-picture outlook from Mike [Marusic] and John [Sheehan] is super impressive,” noted Melissa Confalone, president of Fraser Advanced Information Systems of West Reading, Pennsylvania. “They’re not just thinking about today; they’re looking down the road. For me, the biggest takeaway is the security play with Bitdefender and ConnectWise. It’s the missing piece we’ve been looking for and we’re really excited about that part of it.”
Being a Sharp-only line carrier made it impossible for a company such as AD Solutions of Orlando, Florida, to compete with the likes of a Canon or Ricoh production line at the high end. CEO Moody Hamdan is thrilled about the opportunities to increase revenue and attack new markets with the production press.
“In Florida, we have a lot of customers asking about big production units like these, but there’s not a lot of competition,” he said. “Only a select few can sell and service them. We’re going to look for Xerox production specialists to add to our staff since they no longer sell this product. Since they already know the product, it will make it a much smoother transition that will help us get launched a lot sooner.”
While the high-end production unit may not ultimately be a good fit for Stone’s Office Equipment of Richmond, Virginia, Carson Stone—the firm’s product and solutions specialist—was impressed with Sharp’s diversification message.
“They’ve really made it where they can offer a full-office solution,” he said. “That’s important considering the direction the industry is heading, and that’s something we’re heavily embracing. Sharp made it very clear where they stand for the next five years and where they want their dealers to be. I don’t think there’s a better partner to be doing it with.”
Vince Puente, president, sales and marketing for Southwest Office Systems of Euless, Texas, took a moment to commend Sharp and Marusic for their handling of the supply chain issues that plagued the industry over the past two years. As for the dealer event, he was pleased to see the company is updating its A4 products.
The production press, it seems, was the biggest attraction for Puente and his fellow dealers. “They’re amazing. We’re not going to sell three of them per week, but it’s great to see Sharp making that investment,” Puente noted. “While it’s not a market we’ve been in, we’re going to be putting on our ‘lookout hats.’ We’ll start seeking those opportunities.”
