Technology Reseller v20 2019

37 SCANNERS technolog y reseller.co.uk playbook; training and certification; value proposition development; sales and marketing collateral; market development funds; deal registration and special pricing; rebates and rewards; and social selling training and tools. “We are really challenging our partners, particularly hardware-centric VARs, to get into solutions. It’s not easy – you need skills, you need people – but, as a vendor, we can help with training, with use cases, with bundles. A partner doesn’t need to build that capability themselves. They can take what we offer and use what they are good at, which is relationships and understanding their customers.” Software and services Alaris is doing a lot to help partners win more business; what would Kelliher like to see partners doing more of to fulfil their side of the bargain? “We want partners to look at both software and services. Where a customer has our hardware, which they really value, we want a partner to find out why aren’t they considering us for their capture software? If they are using somebody else’s solution, which one have they got, how much does it cost, what is it linking into, what’s the end-to-end environment? We did a study with a consultant in Germany and he worked out that it cost a BPO 12 euro cents to scan an A4 page, 4 cents of which was in the digitisation process. There’s an opportunity for partners to discover what makes up that 4 cents. Challenge the accounts. Say ‘What comes out of the scanner that I put in your environment and where is that going?’,” he said. “Likewise, on the service side, make sure that customers are taking service contracts, because it’s good margin for partners and very easy for them; we take the customer calls, we put our engineers on site; we manage any issues; and the partner gets to renew that service contract every year.” Kelliher says that service too often gets overlooked, especially with A4 devices and entry-level A3 scanners, where customers tend to defer decision-making until later. “That’s a missed opportunity, because that scanner is driving a business process. I remember someone in South Africa telling me the most valuable document in their hospital was the indemnity form – the form you’re presented with at the reception desk to sign away all your rights. What’s that scanned on? Typically, the cheapest scanner available, because they need one on every reception desk. Where does the scan go? It goes from the reception desk through to the operating theatre. Imagine if it gets lost. SIs sit up and take notice when they hear that. If a hospital is looking for 400 entry scanners, ask what they are needed for and what software they will be using. With our Capture Pro software, we can detect at the point-of-scan if the form wasn’t signed properly. If the patient has to sign every single page, we can validate if one was missed,” he said. “This is the value we want partners to think about – the workflow and the value of the data. We talked to a bank in Turkey and they said there are fraudsters who get credit cards by not filling out the forms correctly. They know there are 48 hours between getting the card and the mistake being noticed and the card being cancelled.” Kelliher points out that even where paper volumes are declining or a workflow is paperless, information still needs to be validated. “Take a mortgage application form, for instance. Two years ago, you may have had to produce huge amounts of paper documents to go with that. Now, a lot of it will be digital, but you will still need something signed and you still have to validate this myriad of stuff that you might have sent from your phone – pictures of your marriage certificate, utility bills etc.. Banks still have to check these details. Our software might not have to scan the image of your marriage certificate, but it will have to validate that it is a marriage certificate. It will do that and recognise what other documents are needed and stop the application moving to the next stage until they have been received,” he said. By looking beyond scanner hardware and embracing Alaris software and services, partners can develop new revenue streams and future-proof their business as customers continue to bridge the gap between digitisation and automation. Partner success for PFU EMEA Scanner manufacturer adds almost 400 new partners in EMEA in the last 12 months PFU (EMEA) Limited, a specialist company within the Fujitsu family dedicated to information management solutions, has registered 396 new channel partners with its Imaging Channel Program since April 2018, 77 of which are from the UK. The Imaging Channel Program provides partners with all the collateral they need to support their sales funnel and incorporate image capture devices into their solutions to end customers, including marketing material, offers and training services. It includes a loyalty scheme, Imaging Rewards, which recognises partners for their engagement, commitment and sales, with rewards such as business-building services, travel and the latest consumer electronics and experiences. In November 2018, PFU EMEA also launched the Japan II competition, which gives partners the chance to win a trip to Japan to visit PFU’s head office. To have a chance of winning, entrants must register sales secured between November 2018 and the end of March 2019. Neil Walker, Senior Manager, Channel Marketing, PFU (EMEA) Limited, said: “The channel is and continues to be our core distribution mechanism in EMEA, and we’re excited to see new partners across the region recognise our market leading solutions. With organisations increasingly seeking solutions that will enable them to undertake digital transformation projects, it’s important that their providers can rely on their vendor partners to provide them with best-in-class solutions and all the supporting material they need, as well as recognising and rewarding them for their continuing commitment and loyalty.” PFU (EMEA) Limited is responsible for the marketing and sales of Fujitsu document scanners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The European company was established in the United Kingdom in 1981 and has offices in Germany, Italy and Spain and a Knowledge Suite in France and Russia. It launched its Imaging Channel Program in April 2016. www.fujitsu.com/uk Gerry Kelliher