Print IT Reseller - issue 60

01732 759725 VOX POP 44 our first order. That took some time and also cash as we had to invest upfront, with a mid-term return expectation. It was a strategic move so timescales and expectations were set accordingly.” Jeremy Spencer : “Subscribing to a service is still a bit alien to some of the more traditional business owners – despite the fact that at home they are probably subscribing to all sorts of services, like Spotify, Amazon Prime etc. These are now available on a month by month basis allowing us flexibility and choice and this is now the same for business services such as Office 365, IT services, cloud storage etc. “So whilst it is still seen by some as a radical departure from the more traditional commercial arrangements, I believe it’s not so much a revolution as an evolution!” Shaun Wilkinson : “The traditional print providers are finding the change to be somewhat daunting. At UTAX we already follow a ‘customer-centric’ mind-set through promoting our services, solutions and hardware as an ‘all-encompassing solution’ rather than just as products. “The traditional providers need to realise that they are already touching on the ‘as a service’ sell through the traditional three- or five-year contract basis. The big step change is the move to the easy in easy out monthly contract. This is quite an easy sell for the customer and focuses the mind-set of suppliers to ensure great support is constant. The difficulty for the supplier is financing all the products with no guarantee of payback.” Carlo Longhi : “As a mind-set it is not hard to grasp the customer-centric ‘as a service’ concept, as most people are accustomed to the model outside of work even though the divide between product and service is slightly blurred. However, to transition on a global level from the manufacturing and supply of hardware and related components on a transactional level to this type of model will prove more difficult.” Phil Madders : “This is a real challenge for all parts of the sales channel. The dealers have the challenge of providing a solution in the form of a service. Some are already doing it and reaping the rewards, some are on the way and will succeed, while others are never going to make it on their own so will work more closely with suppliers or merge with other companies who already have the John Gifford : “From a mind-set perspective I genuinely do not envisage issues for most channel partners, certainly not when selling. The greater challenge will be from a back-office, operational and financial structure point of view as it is imperative this is set-up correctly and efficiently to mitigate risk of both financial loss and customer retention loss too. Some OEMs may also find this structural change challenging, especially those used to more traditional transaction methods.” Phil Jones : “It’s bigger than you may think as it involves skills, systems, resources (financial plus other) and competent salespeople. This means investment if you want to move from a traditional box-moving style of operation and may take some time to grapple with the transition. Distributors are providing more platforms to ease the transition, that’s clear. Thinking of our own business, it meant significant investment in people, process and systems to be able to provide the platform to transact the business before we could even process capability. “It is an expensive move as well as you need the resources to provide the service. Subscription revenues are generally lower than the traditional acquisition methods in the short-term. Of course in the long-term services provide a fantastic basis for any business to thrive. Our Premier programme is designed expressly to help with this step-change.” Tony Milford : “There’s no doubt it requires effort, but firstly it requires a chance in attitude. It needs manufacturers, distributors, finance companies, technology partners and dealers to work collaboratively to design programs that support this model. I think there is little doubt though that anyone who sticks their head in the sand over this is going to find it more difficult to play catch-up when the tipping point is reached.” James Turner : “SaaS should always mean less hassle, less overhead cost and less maintenance for any product, but customers need to trust the supplier with data, support and the quality of its products. As mentioned above, the more services available for the right price from a single supplier, the better. However, this is a major change for organisations as their internal business processes are not agile enough to adapt to a new way of paying suppliers and recognising assets. In addition, commercially, marketing and sales teams have to evolve their messaging – it’s a complete shift (whilst also keeping the traditional channels open for those who don’t want to move) and keeping in mind the fact that a supplier should always be easy to do business with, whatever that means to the customer (who we know is always right!).” SaaS should always mean less hassle, less overhead cost and less maintenance for any product, but customers need to trust the supplier with data, support and the quality of its products ...continued PrintIT Reseller: How big a step-change is it to move from a product-based mind-set to a more customer-centric as a service mind-set? Carlo Longhi Phil Madders