technology
reseller.co.uk
FUTURESCAPE
41
You used to go to
a hotel and you
would experience
better technology
than you had at
home. Now, in a
lot of instances,
the technology in
the hotel is not as
good as what you
have at home
wall? When I was younger, you used to go
to a hotel and you would experience better
technology than you had at home. Now, in
a lot of instances, the technology in the
hotel is not as good as what you have at
home, and that’s a problem if you are a
five-star hotelier.
“We can help them overcome that
with a sales model through which we
deliver, install, maintain and refresh the
technology as frequently as they want us
to. We can provide people with an à la
carte menu of services and say ‘Not only
will we provide you with the device; we will
provide a package whereby we replace
screens when they are broken and charge
you a monthly fee’, always working with our
channel partners who will be the delivery
vehicle.”
Long added that if partners have the
service capability to do it themselves
they can, but if they haven’t Samsung will
do the servicing for them through their
nationwide support infrastructure – a
proposition that will sound very familiar to
providers and users of Samsung managed
print services (MPS).
@philjones40
Insider...
It’s 1998 and I spot this thing called a ‘Blackberry’
in a business magazine. ‘E-mail on the move to
revolutionise the way you work.’
Wow, that sounds cool.
To put it in context, life at that time meant heavy call traffic on a carphone;
downloading e-mails onto your laptop in the morning and evenings, at home via
a 56k modem (which took ages); then following up action points of the day in
your notebook.
The idea of getting e-mails on the move seemed a sure-fire way to increase our
productivity as a business and to respond more quickly to customers.
A couple of months later, after a discussion with our IT department, we deployed
Blackberry devices to our entire salesforce. And it changed the way we work. Sure,
we had to spend money, train people, put new servers in. It required time and
investment, but very quickly we were working faster than our competitors whilst
providing new value to our customers. Our people began to make good use of time
flatspots in service stations and in hotels; our productivity increased.
All that seems light years ago compared to how we work today, right?
Well, there’s a moral in this story and it’s all about continuing to keep your eyes
open for ways to increase your business productivity.
The UK seems to have a big problem with this. We are well behind the G7 who
somehow are working smarter, doing more with less or creating more value with the
resources they have.
This presents two opportunities – to make the businesses we run smarter for
our long-term competitiveness and to provide products and services that make our
customers more productive, for their long-term competitiveness.
This means doing more than business as usual. It means continuous changes,
reviewing the small things and aggregating change. It’s not always easy, as barriers
can stand in the way – people, resources, problems, systems or capital. It also
means investing some time in thought, review and action.
Speaking at a conference the other day and reaching into my pocket, I pulled out
a Blockbuster video rental card. It’s something that I keep as a constant reminder
of the need for change. It’s easy to fall asleep at the wheel if you don’t spend time
understanding external trends or changes in customer behaviour and then adapting
your offer, business structure or model.
With all industries facing change, failure to adapt rapidly can quickly lead to
irrelevance and ultimately failure. Deploying Blackberry devices back in 1998
allowed us to ride a big wave in mobile working and enjoy the benefits of working
smarter.
The next big wave for the industry is services. Recurring revenues, not box
moving. Value before volume. Consultancy, not order taking.
This requires change across the board in the way we run and structure our
businesses, thinking small and aggregating change whilst also implementing bigger
things along the way. There’s no doubt about it, the business that adapts will accrue
the benefits. Will that be you?
See you out there.
Phil Jones MBE
,
Managing Director,
Brother UK
