Half (51%) of consumers are
comfortable with the idea
of buying into a single brand
‘ecosystem’ for all their
technology, communications
and media needs, Xerox claims
in a new report.
More than one third (37%) of
the 6,000 consumers surveyed
for
The State of Customer Service
2015
believe that by 2025 a
single supplier will manage their
home.
The study of consumer
attitudes in the US, UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands
reveals that technology consumers are already buying into one-
brand ecosystems. Forty per cent have at least two devices from
the same brand, and 43% of those willing to buy into a single brand
would like their chosen technology brand to be their sole supplier
for telecoms and media too.
Technology brands have the most satisfied customers, with 48%
claiming to be ‘highly satisfied’, compared to respective figures of
41% and 34% for media and telecommunications brands.
However, there are limits to what consumers will tolerate: only
one in five consumers is comfortable with brands using their
personal data.
service-2015
Supplier consolidation threat to single-
service resellers
Managed services provider Annodata warns that single-service
resellers will struggle to compete as businesses reduce the
number of suppliers they work with.
Rod Tonna-Barthet, CEO of Annodata, said: “Many clients
we serve are now actively looking to cut down on the number of
suppliers they work with. It is a nonsense, not to mention inefficient,
to use one supplier to provide your print, another to supply your
communications and someone else to provide your IT and desktop.
All of these services are connected to the same network and are
increasingly becoming unified in their application, not to mention the
fact that it’s just impractical today to rely on half a dozen suppliers
to provide these services.”
He added: “Businesses don’t want to deal with multiple points of
contact if they can just deal with one trusted and strategic partner
who can support and resolve a range of services for them. If you can
only supply one item on your clients’ shopping lists, you’ve either got
to be extraordinarily good at that one thing or extraordinarily cheap.
Otherwise, your business will become extinct.”
Service is ‘new cash cow’
Field service management solution provider ServiceMax is
describing service as the new ‘cash cow’ in an era when
manufacturers are struggling to increase equipment sales.
Dave Hart, Vice President Global Customer Transformation at
ServiceMax, claims that the integration of services with products
to create bundles that are of greater value than products alone is
causing companies to look at their service departments in a whole
new light.
He said: “There’s been a prevailing business model based
on putting a lot of effort into just optimising profits from sales.
Everything after that, including service, has been about minimising
costs. As the business landscape has changed, so, too, have
customer requirements. The shift now is towards an outcomes-
based business model, with service providers committing to
providing predetermined service levels and prices aligned with
customer requirements.”
Single brand ecosystems
gain ground
BULLETIN
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PRINT.IT
01732 759725
London Calling
success
Duplo is hailing November’s
London Calling show a success
after deals worth almost
£750,000 were signed at the
two-day event, with a pipeline
of new sales prospects created
for the print finishing leader
and its partners Antalis,
Apogee, BPIF, Fujifilm, Grafitec,
Infigo, Neopost, Proskills,
Renz and Vivid. Hundreds of
visitors attended the two-
day exhibition at Sunbeam
Studios, in Ladbroke Hall, North
Kensington.
...in brief
Kyocera on G-Cloud 7
KYOCERA Document Solutions
UK has been awarded a
place on two lots within
the Government’s Digital
Marketplace G-Cloud 7
procurement framework
– Platform as a Service
(PaaS) and Specialist Cloud
Services. KYOCERA’s Cloud
Print Service (CPS) outsources
the processing, routing and
management of print traffic.
Unlike traditional MPS,
CPS includes the hosting
of dedicated virtual print
servers, print applications
and document management
software on a bespoke cloud
infrastructure.
Sharp Ysoft agreement
Sharp Information Systems
Europe has announced a
European partnership with
Y Soft to provide customers
with specially tailored printing
solutions as part of its
Optimised Solutions Portfolio.
A BLI 2015 Winter Pick and
Outstanding Achievement award
winner, YSoft SafeQ is a server-
based pull printing solution that
enables the centralised control
and management of printers.
Danwood invests in
customer service
Danwood, the UK’s largest
independent provider of
managed print and document-
centric services, has signed a
£1.5 million, five-year contract
with Netcall for a hosted
multichannel communications
solution. The end-to-end
solution replaces a number
of on-premise systems and
provides a virtual contact
centre for six UK sites that
will enable it to improve the
customer experience.
Technology
Edition
The State of
Customer Service
2015
TheXerox InstituteofWork
UTAX showroom
UTAX (UK) Ltd, one of the
UK’s fastest growing dealer
networks, has opened a new
London showroom and training
centre at Number One, Olympic
Way, Wembley where partners
can demonstrate hardware
and software to prospective
customers. UTAX (UK) already
has showrooms in Swindon and
Manchester.
