There are significant changes taking place at Dove Technologies. Evolutions generally can be difficult to spot, because they’re not all driven by acquisition, rebranding or new headquarters construction. Some, as is the case with the Florence, South Carolina-based dealership, are structural and philosophical, but the impact can be keenly felt. And for CEO Rogers Coxe, the vibe created by the transformation has been palpable.
It all began with the dealer’s January 2025 rollout of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and the driving force behind it, Gino Wickman’s seminal bestseller, “Traction.” Coxe had received the book from an industry friend, GoodSuite’s Dan Strull (they’re both members of the peer Pro Dealer Group), and the year-long effort to implement the core elements of the platform represented a watershed period in the history of Dove.
Of all the changes brought about by EOS, Coxe feels the introduction of a higher level of accountability and transparency has resonated well with team members. “We now share much more information about what’s happening at the company, and [employees] understand—to a finer level than before—why certain things are important and why we make the decisions we do,” Coxe said. “Part of that was the rollout of our IMPACT initiative, an acronym for our core values. It rewards employees who are spotted doing good things that embody those core values. It’s helped us strengthen our culture to the point where we announced our first-ever profit-sharing program last December. There were a lot of happy people around here [in December].”
The changes are ongoing and entirely positive for Dove, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. A multi-brand dealer that carries the HP, Toshiba and Lexmark (Xerox) product lines, the company initially debuted as a printer ribbon remanufacturer. When HP unveiled its laser jet printer, Dove pivoted to remanufacturing toner cartridges, and it instantly widened the company’s customer base well beyond the southeast corridor.
Founded by Coxe’s father, Rick Coxe, Dove continued to refine its product and service portfolio. The first MPS contract followed in 2001, another notable milestone, as was the addition of document management in 2017. The younger Coxe also saw an opportunity to elevate Dove to the next level by introducing managed network services to its client base of retail, automotive, health care and up-and-down-the-street business.
Managed Magic
His instincts were correct. Managed IT represents the most fertile growth area for Dove with a 38% increase from 2024 to 2025. The print division enjoyed a 12% year-over-year boost, and both areas contributed to 25% recurring revenue growth. Coxe called 2025 “phenomenal,” buoyed by multiple large takedowns that pushed overall revenue to the $25 million plateau. EOS’ contributions to operational improvements also factored into generating higher customer satisfaction and reducing account churn.
By the end of the summer, Dove had already eclipsed its IT recurring revenue goal for 2025. Coxe credits the performance, in part, to the dealer’s customer success manager executing on the company’s long-term plan. Another key was the addition of a dedicated IT sales position. But one catalyst in particular came from a somewhat-unexpected source: customer referrals.
“The level of referral growth was kind of surprising,” he noted. “We’re still going to continue to develop and grow that IT salesforce, because we have some pretty ambitious growth targets that we want to hit.”
Dove introduced managed IT in 2020, certainly a difficult period for any type of service rollout. The road to profitability has been a bit longer than Coxe anticipated, and he feels he underestimated the labor and resources needed to deliver on the value proposition. That’s no longer the case; it’s changed the dynamic and tone of customer conversations, elevating Dove in their eyes. The dealer’s able to set customer expectations and deliver on the promises.
“We communicate with them on a regular basis to let them know how we’re executing on our plan, and that creates a successful partnership,” he added.
Dove will also deepen its reach into cybersecurity solutions and dedicate the necessary resources toward advancing the platform. The sales reps have done a great job in selling both cybersecurity and the traditional managed IT, and Coxe believes the dedicated IT salesforce will yield huge dividends when fully staffed.
Last Line of Defense
One of the newer offerings in the Dove catalog is physical security—cameras, alarms, access control and guest management—via the cloud. Branded DoveGuard and launched in 2022, clients can benefit from advanced tools such as unlimited cloud archiving, cameras with built-in license plate recognition and a customizable level of site permissions. There’s an app available for anywhere monitoring, and users can share live feeds to emergency services for faster response times. From guest management to intrusion detection and air quality control, DoveGuard clients can benefit from the bow-to-stern security package’s ease of use.
What’s interesting, the CEO notes, is that constant customer demand prompted Dove to enter the field. It’s a bold venture that Coxe believes actually grew too fast, and there were some hard lessons learned. Improvements to the platform are being rolled out this year, which will enable the dealer to better execute on it.
One of the benefits of this nontraditional offering is that it stands on its own as a selling point. While existing clients are being introduced to it, account representatives have found it to be a terrific conversation opener. “Our approach is that any of our offerings can appeal to any existing or prospective clients,” Coxe said. “We’ve been seeking out new clients with it, and I see it as an integral part of our overall offerings. It’s a great opportunity in just about any line of business.”
Many dealers rely on third-party services for cabling and installation. Dove used to be part of that group, but now those offerings are being brought in house. The decision was motivated by the desire to assure quality and not wanting a third-party’s performance to potentially reflect negatively on Dove. Many of the deals represent significant dollar opportunities, which also means any costly mistakes can be magnified.
“When you’re dealing with security, it’s not an area where good is good enough,” he said. “You have to nail it, get it exactly right. So that’s why we decided not to rely on third parties to do the installation. There are also state laws governing what you can and cannot do with physical security, cameras and access control, which is something dealers need to consider if they decide to go this route. Security’s really a mix between IT and the construction business. It’s definitely not an offering to dip your toes into; you need a good strategy ahead of time in order to execute.”
Full Service Stack
Diversification, in general, is a strong suite for Dove. In addition to security solutions, the dealer provides VoIP; barcode printers, scanners and accessories (DoveBar); structured cabling; and document management/digitalization with archival, retrieval and storage (DoveFlow). That’s on top of the managed services (DovePrint and DoveIT) that have been driving growth. As such, Coxe doesn’t anticipate venturing into other areas and would rather concentrate on bolstering current offerings.
“Right now, I think we have a really, really strong message to customers as a terrific technology stop for them, and we can cover a lot of areas of need for them,” he noted.
AI is an area that Coxe envisions the company increasingly leveraging from an internal standpoint in 2026. Currently, Dove’s sales and marketing units rely on AI for effective email generation and other writing applications to increase efficiency and effectiveness. While Dove invested significant time in 2025 trying to identify high-value AI use cases, the results have been mixed and often frustrating to Coxe. He notes AI has been most effective when embedded within existing platforms where the data is clean and consistent and the processes are well defined and repeatable. In those environments, it delivers clear value without requiring extensive training.
“However, we’ve struggled to apply AI across broader business processes where data is fragmented, manual steps exist or information lives outside core systems,” he pointed out. “In those cases, the effort to train and adapt AI is high, and the initiatives often end up resembling traditional automation projects rather than delivering differentiated AI value.”
Dove has several factors that elevated it from a competitive standpoint. For one, it benefits from a customer base that’s geographically dispersed. Although Coxe encounters high-revenue dealer competitors in most of the markets, his fortunes aren’t tied into any concentrated segment of the country. As in the case of installing and cabling for security/access systems, Coxe prefers to have Dove control its own destiny by not parsing out work to fellow dealers. Controlling the quality and level of service and being the single-source vendor puts Dove in the driver’s seat.
From an Xs and Os standpoint, Dove’s dedicated help desk team—especially on the print side—is extremely effective. The unit can remotely triage and solve 25% of the tickets without the need to dispatch a technician.
Mitigating business downtime is no small consideration in the eyes of customers. “I think that’s a huge differentiator, and really allows us to effectively compete, win business and keep customers happy, given all the territories in which we operate,” Coxe noted.
Cultivating Satisfaction
The fruits that accompany having the right game plan in place can’t be realized without proper execution, and Coxe sees it as the key variable to attaining future growth. It’s striking a balance between prospecting for new clients while ensuring the current accounts are satisfied, and he’s focused on taking positive steps daily to improve execution and reduce client churn.
And while Dove has certainly benefitted from its diverse portfolio, Coxe isn’t ready to abandon the cornerstone print offering that paved the way for success. But he recognizes that IT and recurring revenue are the future of growth.
“We know print isn’t a growing industry, but it’s a core part of our business, and we’ll continue to compete for it,” he said. “There’s so much growth in IT services, and I think that’s where a lot of the best opportunities exist for us. We have a strong team and the ability to execute, and the demand is there. We just need to make it happen.”
Maintaining 2025’s pace and rate of growth for both the print and IT divisions is high on Coxe’s agenda for 2026. He’s pushing for greater emphasis on obtaining net-new accounts and cross-selling the expansive portfolio to current clients. The aforementioned client satisfaction and retention are important in a competitive landscape that’s constantly improving.
Building Dove’s culture and fully leveraging EOS are on the docket for this year as well. “It’s been really great seeing the transition as we’ve incorporated the different facets of EOS and implemented our IMPACT core values,” he said. “We want to continue to recognize employees when they embody those core values and allow them to share in the company’s success. I think that’s helped to create a better mentality. As we all know, when you have happy employees, you have happy customers.”
