01732 759725 44 VOX POP continued... leverage AI to help businesses analyse and interpret their data, as well automating certain processes, such as service ticket routing and inventory management – saving our customers time and money. Catherine Kennedy: The two challenges that we see end customers facing are cost reduction/efficiency savings and staff retention. Businesses are looking to counter a range of economic pressures from cost inflation, a reduction in consumer spending, and pressure on wages due to cost of living demands. Margins are being squeezed and organisations therefore need to be more efficient. In terms of staff retention – using people for more productive tasks and removing repetitive paperbased processes from organisations to increase employee satisfaction. These two trends create a requirement for channel vendors to diversify into new areas such as digital transformation. Traditional print contracts, like all legacy solutions are seeing margins squeezed. We need to offer innovation to our resellers and make it easier for them to sell new growth solutions around ECM and digital workflows. Michael Lloyd: MS Teams has become a key player in the UC and contact centre space, this is giving opportunities for resellers, who previously would have kept away from comms, to take full advantage and offer that ‘full MS experience’ with the support and guidance from an experienced full services distributor, as we have a professional services arm of highly experienced and qualified engineers. PrintIT Reseller: What in your opinion are the key challenges facing the print and IT channel at the moment and how can you help? Nigel Eaton: Personally, I believe the key challenges are based around the two key elements of change that we have seen in the past three years. The pandemic has led to a huge increase in hybrid working, it has also speeded up the move towards digitisation. Then in the last 12 months, rising inflation and utility bills have meant organisations are looking very hard at their available funding and some tough decisions are being made as a result. This is what is leading to longer contract extensions, fleet size reduction and the drive for greater efficiency. The server room is now a target to cut costs and migrate to the cloud as long as this change continues to fit the needs of the business. Many organisations are also trapped with outdated and not fit for purpose solutions that they feel they cannot afford to replace. MyQ has seen this situation developing and after discussions with our partners we have recently introduced strong new initiatives to help resellers to target and gain business in this increasingly difficult marketplace, feedback so far has been excellent with lots of new opportunities identified. Ryan Mitchell: Product saturation is limiting growth in some areas, certainly in accessories such as display and components. We have all enjoyed the boom in the market, but this is not sustainable. We are supporting our partners in identifying refresh opportunities from large historic deployments, providing them with upsell drivers. Driving and connecting services, most are looking at this, but it requires a change in approach, Selling via OpEx is not the same as CapEx. Having the systems such as billing platforms takes investment. This investment was made via our Westcoast cloud division many years ago, it enables partners to bill seamlessly onto their customers. In addition to this, our XAAS and FLEX portals allow partners to build out a quote, wrap in additional services, such as asset tagging, installations and even their own professional services. Once this is done simply apply their margin, a few end details and apply for an instant credit decision on financing over a selected period. Richard Wells: There is always challenge and the last three years have shown just how uncertain it can be! This sense of uncertainty is, and will continue to remain for some time, and this in turn offers both risk and opportunity. The risk comes to those not delivering innovation, adaptability, and focused only on maintaining a past that may never return, while opportunity comes to those ready to embrace the postpandemic market where sustainability, productivity, efficiency and reliability are the fixed currency for success. The compact, precise, and efficient innovation from Epson technologies, together with people that put planet before profit, is an operation I’m confident is leading the IT channel in the right direction. A further challenge facing the IT sector, specifically the print industry, is consolidation and cannibalisation from some vendors maintaining market share through acquisition and direct sales in a shrinking market. There is a firm consensus from industry watchers that certain brands will disappear or merge in the near future and that does seem likely, whilst in the channel there is much activity from the larger resellers to grow installed bases to maximise revenues. In such an uncertain world where competitors can often be those considered partners, Epson continues to offer a channel-only approach, ensuring resellers can collaborate with us and increase their chances of winning without fear of us quoting against them via either a direct salesforce or a vendor purchased reseller. Peter Lunn: The skills shortage will continue to be an issue for partners as well as their customers. We are helping by making the OpenMPS service available and easy to access and use – and by providing the unrivalled access to print solutions from top vendors, credit services and online tools and resources that they need to run their everyday business. A further challenge facing the IT sector, specifically the print industry, is consolidation and cannibalisation from some vendors maintaining market share through acquisition and direct sales in a shrinking market Catherine Kennedy
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