Like any publication that seeks to stake claim as the number-one voice of the industry, ENX Magazine likes to think it has a fairly firm grasp on the issues and challenges confronting office technology dealers, MSPs, etc. But while we may engage with many of you on a monthly basis, the fact of the matter is we (and other media members) merely have an obstructed view of the full picture that is the industry.
What to do, then? While it would be great for us to do a ride-along with your sales reps or sit in on monthly planning meetings to get a taste of the action in the trenches, it’s simply not feasible. Thus, it falls upon the media to find new ways of approaching the talking points that matter most to our readers.
That said, we’re happy to roll out a new feature, Hot Takes, a series of first blush reactions to the issues of the day. From business conditions to new technologies and trends, Hot Takes is the dealer’s opinion on what’s taking place in the market.
This week’s question: What is your biggest takeaway from Q1 of calendar 2024?
Dave Moorman, president/CISO, Novatech, Nashville, Tennessee
At Novatech, we continue to see an increase in cyberattacks year over year. With government regulation and insurance carriers demanding more to be done to protect corporate networks, we have seen an added need to allocate more resources to the print security initiative. This will drive fleet upgrades and the print business for the next 10 years in our opinion.
Deb Dellaposta, president, Doing Better Business, Altoona, Pennsylvania
Providing exceptional customer service and a positive customer experience does lead to word-of-mouth referrals, driving new customer growth. We experienced our largest percentage of net-new customers in Q1, while maintaining our current customer base, and the trend appears to be continuing. Our forecast for Q2 is the strongest in company history.
Carter Hertzberg, president, Nauticon Office Solutions, Gaithersburg, Maryland
The consolidation trend shows no sign of slowing down despite increases to cost of capital in the economy. It’s still unclear as to who will be the winners and losers from this trend, in my honest opinion.
Dawn Abbuhl, president, Repeat Business Systems, Albany, New York
Organizations were more conservative in their purchasing decisions as they were unsure of the future of the economy in general and interest rates, specifically. But now, I am feeling the concerns wane and significant momentum for more opportunities coming!
Dan Strull, founder and CEO, GoodSuite, Woodland Hills, California
Q1 2024 was an educational quarter. That is the nice way of saying that it was tough. We were distracted with celebrating our 25th anniversary and a big charity event that we put together in the community. So, my takeaway was, let’s see what we reap from the good things we did for the community. Ask me in three months for a clearer answer.
Larry Weiss, president, Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, New York City
I’m seeing a number of things in the market:
- Less demand for business print/lower volumes
- Consolidation of assets (when leases are being upgraded, clients lease fewer devices)
- Increased opportunity for production print, especially in commercial print space, such as packaging
- Increased security/management of MFPs and printers
- Clients want their vendors to be “thought leaders” as it relates to cybersecurity, managed IT, print, UCaaS, and XM Fax or for that matter any products or services your company provides
Take AI initiatives, for example. We have had clients ask our account executives, “How will [Atlantic] embrace and capitalize on AI technology. At the moment, we are looking for ways AI can enhance client services, workflow development and improve areas that still have manual tasks. We are starting to implement these workflows internally and if it proves to be effective and productive, we hope to resell these workflows to our clients.
The bottom line is we all must always stay RELEVANT to our clients and future clients.
Hunter Woolfolk, co-president, DOCUmation, San Antonio, Texas
As the economy stabilizes, managed service providers are thriving. Many nationally recognized dealers are doing mass acquisitions and growing rapidly. However, major expansions of this kind go hand-in-hand with growing pains and slipping service standards.
Mid-sized, experienced dealers have a huge opportunity to stand out right now. Privately held companies are more than capable of rivaling industry giants while preserving reliable, exceptional service. Balancing growth and quality seems to be the key to embracing the economic stability while keeping customers and employees satisfied.
Want to be a Hot Takes contributor? Email me and I’ll add you to the list for a future panel.
