Q&A technologyreseller.co.uk 25 bang in the middle of those three and a half years. There are two things there: a) the marketing angle, changing the perception of the business; and b) transforming the account managers who have the relationships with those SMEs from being able to sell a product to being able to sell, or position, a service. That's a big transformation. And we’ve got to do that throughout Europe. There’s a very big divide between selling, knowing about and being experts in print and suddenly being able to talk about IT and services rather than a product with an 18 pages per minute print speed and 2p per copy. TR: Will account managers also have to develop relationships with different people within their customers’ businesses? CB: They will, absolutely. But that’s also very important for protecting print revenue because we're finding that the people who own the print relationship now are increasingly IT people and not office managers or facilities managers. It's often the tech department, the IT department that’s responsible for printing. So, by owning the IT relationship, because that’s ultimately what we at Sharp want to do, we will protect our print revenues as well. TR: Do those customers you have done business with have any needs or characteristics in common? CB: Not on the IT services side, but one thing we have noticed is that a large proportion of those clients have bought our telephony service. One of the reasons why we've been more successful there, I think, is that it's more of a product than a service. We’ve found that account managers are more comfortable talking about a cloud telephone system than an esoteric IT service. Within IT services, clients have a whole mix of needs and requirements. What we want to do as an IT partner is to help them make the right decisions when it comes to IT. TR: For someone who likes simplicity, the wheel of services concept is appealing, but are some clients resistant to the notion of a one-stop-shop? CB: What we're hearing is that companies As an MSP, we should be able to create a more exciting employee value proposition and career for an IT professional than an internal position in a non-IT company. We are better placed to attract people, in terms of training, access to expertise, colleagues etc.. And being part of a bigger company has benefits. We've seen some good career opportunities for our team outside Sharp IT Services, within the wider Sharp organisation in the UK and sometimes in Europe as well. Recruitment is still a big challenge and it's a very competitive market. We have seen dramatic salary increases coming out of the pandemic. TR: Has Complete I.T./Sharp IT Services grown since you were acquired by Sharp in 2019? CB: When we were acquired, I think we had 175 people and we’re at 210 people now. We’ve sold our services despite the pandemic. I make a bold statement that if we get the cross-sell right we will be the largest provider of IT services to SMEs in the UK and across Europe, if we manage to replicate the model successfully there. TR: So, 90% of your revenue still comes from your relationships rather than Sharp’s customer base in print, AV and other areas? CB: That is correct, and it just shows the potential we have. That cross-sell opportunity is something to be very, very excited about and something that Sharp in the UK is now investing in. For example, we're creating a new graduate scheme for business developers who can sell and position what we call the wheel of services. I think we're unique in the UK in our ability to sell almost everything a prospect or an existing client needs for the workplace and the future workplace – traditional print, managed print, IT services, platform, telephony, business applications, document management, GDPR, signage – everything. Security obviously is an important part of those services as well, and on the print side Sharp has some fairly unique print security offerings that combine nicely with our security offering. The wheel of services is quite a compelling proposition. TR: I'm surprised you've only sold to 90% of Sharp’s customers so far, because as you say that wheel of services is compelling. CB: Don’t forget we had the pandemic continued...
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