Some would argue that adding another manufacturer line, at face value, would not be a priority for Impact Networking. After all, the dealer—with reported revenues just shy of $200 million annually—is better known for its managed IT, cloud services and cybersecurity, with a boost from its DOT Security spinoff concern. In fact, the company made significant investments in assessment and other measurement tools.
What’s more, Impact Networking already counts Konica Minolta, Kyocera and Ricoh among its hardware lines. With that strength of lineup, bringing aboard another logo seemingly isn’t in the cards.
Speaking of assessments, the above one is incorrect. For the second time in as many weeks, a heavy hitter in the dealer realm has highlighted a manufacturer’s bold entry into the North American dealer market. Impact Networking is the first authorized reseller for Katun Corp. and its new Arivia line of 11 A3 color and monochrome MFPs. Katun, better known as a purveyor of parts and supplies to the industry for nearly 50 years, joined Fujifilm as new entries into the U.S. A3 market (last week, Fuji snared Marco as its first authorized U.S. dealer). Katun said it did not have any plans to sell directly to end-users, instead relying solely on its dealer partners.
Frank Cucco, CEO of Impact Networking, noted that he met with Katun during a conference and was impressed with the OEM’s strategy. Although he wasn’t necessarily in the market for a new manufacturer line, Cucco identified the opportunity to forge a “win-win partnership” that sees Impact adding Katun, and the OEM leveraging Impact’s managed marketing division for its U.S. and global websites.
It’s a matter of rethinking the dynamics of relationships, according to Impact’s CEO. “We feel that right now in the copier industry, the dealers are wielding the power,” Cucco noted. “In the past, OEMs were able to own relationships. But the disruption in this industry is that there are now more choices than ever before. That creates a fairer situation for dealers.”
The advantages of using a company formerly known just as a distributor of parts and supplies is that it’s easier to use the full Katun line without worrying about OEMs cancelling contracts. “It makes it a much more profitable situation long-term,” Cucco added.
The new line consists of six color models (C2125, C2130, C3135, C4155 and C4165) that range between 25 and 65 ppm, and five monochrome (M2125, M2130, M3135, M3145 and M4155) available in 25 ppm to 55 ppm. They also come with finishing options including stapling, hole punch and booklet making capabilities. The line also boasts enhanced security features, among them remote update restrictions, IP address filtering, password-protected secure print and standard SSD data encryption.
The Arivia has been independently tested and certified by Buyers Lab, and is undergoing compatability testing with popular managed print applications including ECI Software’s e-automate and Printanista, PaperCut’s MF, NDD Print, KPAX, MPS Monitor and Katun’s own KDFM.
Katun’s Katalyst dealer program is slated for launch at the end of the month. It will include a partner portal, and as part of the program, Katun is partnering with PrintReleaf on a reforestation initiative that will plant trees based on end-user output volume. This dovetails nicely with environmental-conscious verticals including education, government, defense contracting and publicly traded companies.
Ron Petrucci, general manager of the North American business unit for Katun, noted the company talked to various dealers and conducted surveys before the launch. Fortified with information regarding the common pain points dealers cited, the OEM was able to address those issues within its product and programs. Impact Networking, he said, was impressed with the points of differentiation Katun demonstrated and an approach that stands in stark contrast to the traditional way OEMs have conducted business for 50 years.
“The size of the order was substantial. [Impact] is jumping in with both feet with our organization,” Petrucci said during a press conference announcing Katun’s A3 entry. “The Katalyst [dealer] program and the new approaches that we’ve had to the business that makes them more profitable and makes business easy to transact, and it had as much to do with [Impact signing] as the features and benefits of our equipment, although they are also very robust. The aspects of what we put into programs, pricing concepts and so forth made the difference in them wanting to come on board with us.”
The Arivia line is the culmination of a two-year co-development project with an unnamed manufacturing partner. In terms of the most compelling aspects of the new line, Tony Ko—the director of printer business development for Katun—noted the design of the platform is an enabler of efficiency for dealers partners in a number of areas, from serviceability to consumables and supplies requirements to the wealth of configurable options at their disposable.
“A lot of what we are looking at does allow for improvement in a dealer’s ongoing business with these machines,” he said. “From an overall performance perspective, we believe they do offer some impressive color capabilities, color reproduction capabilities that can be quite disruptive against some of the OEMs competing in the marketplace today. There are elements of the products and the Katalyst program that can be disruptive as well, in terms of supporting the machines and their ongoing sales.”
Katun has invested much of its energies in ensuring the Arivia line reached fruition, from poring over every element of its design to the testing phase. “It’s been a long journey, to say the least,” Ko added.
