It’s time to clean up the wrapping paper, un-trim the tree and pop a couple of bottles of bubbly in anticipation of the ball dropping/curtain closing on 2022. It’s been a long, strange 365-day journey, but we somehow managed to plod through during the worst of circumstances. We offer you a toast for good health and prosperity and hope to bring you more positivity in 2023.
Tis better to reflect upon the smiles and laughter rather than dwell on the negativity. You can handle the former; we have a few closing thoughts on the latter. Our 2022 Elite Dealers were gracious enough to provide their thoughts on the greatest challenges they endured during the year, and we were tasked with sorting through and breaking them down into categories. About 40% cited supply chain and another 30% pointed to hiring/retention issues, so this week (and last) represent a grab bag of various problems. So, pour a drink and prepare to empathize with your fellow dealer comrades.
Employee allocation has proven to be a substantial challenge for Pearson-Kelly Technology (PKT) of Springfield, Missouri. It’s been a balancing act of ensuring PKT has the right employees on staff, slotted into their proper, most effective positions that align with their desires, understanding of expectations and the capacity to execute those duties.
PKT scrapped its organizational chart and crafted a new one built around its mission, values and goals. While there was turnover, the company feels better positioned moving forward.
“During that process, several employees chose to leave for other opportunities, which was difficult in the moment,” the dealer wrote. “What we’ve seen since implementing the new structure, though, is a group of highly-engaged and happy employees.”
Ongoing Consequences
While the pandemic produced almost immediate and sobering results from a mortality standpoint, its lasting impact on business continues to be felt. At Spectrum Technologies of El Paso, Texas, the feeling is that the overall impact on the reduction of print volume is yet to be determined.
“The increasingly rapid pace of change in technology, recruiting and developing a sales force designed to sell in that environment and providing non-commoditized service offerings across all lines of business are challenges we plan to meet and look for opportunity,” Spectrum reported,
When considering the robust market for IT talent, dealers are finding their geographic hiring pools dissipated by the scourge of expansion from other business concerns. Growth-minded firms are seeking boatloads of IT professionals to stock their newly created offices.
Centriworks of Knoxville, Tennessee, saw several large government agencies expand their technical hiring, and the University of Tennessee partnered with an IT firm to unveil a new IT delivery center calling for 300 new jobs. This impeded Centriworks’ efforts to expand its managed services business.
Needless to say, headhunters have invaded the region in search of quality talent. “We have also had existing staff poached by these concerns,” Centriworks wrote. “We have addressed the challenge by increasing recruiting efforts, utilizing our employees for testimonials, and adjusting pay levels to the new market. These efforts have been implemented with varying degrees of success.”
All things considered, 2022 was a banner year for TOPP Business Solutions of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Sure, TOPP had to wrangle with some of the common issues, from inventory shortages to escalating prices and rising finance rates. However, all eyes are focused on the bottom line.
“Our primary challenge is the same as all dealers which is the need to focus on generating new revenue to offset the shrink in margins,” the dealer reported.
ISO Office Space
Growing pains can take on many forms, and in the case of Associated Business Technologies of Salt Lake City, a physical expansion that can accommodate future business goals is hampered by the premium on industrial space in the Utah market, which has less than 2% available inventory. And while there is ample new industrial space being constructed, the builders are less willing to accommodate the amount of square footage and parking space to address the dealer’s needs.
Instead, Associated Business Technologies yielded to the notion that it needed to move farther away from its centralized location, with the tradeoff of maintaining good freeway access from all directions. “We also aligned with a commercial real estate agent whose team represented a large number of the industrial buildings, eventually allowing us to gain first access to a building that had not yet been listed as available,” the dealer wrote. “It was a good fit between our needs and the landlord’s wants in a tenant.”
As the rapid growth of new revenue streams and lines of business created infrastructure challenges in keeping up with demand, RJ Young of Nashville, Tennessee, took a two-pronged approach. “Part of our strategy was to increase the pace of hiring, but we also pursued a strategic acquisition to reinforce the foundation of our managed IT infrastructure and support,” the dealer wrote.
Some dealers have taken a surfer’s mentality to maneuver through the changing business currents they encounter, and Pulse Technology of Schaumburg, Illinois, fits that description. Its leadership team continually assesses the needs of its clients and recalibrates what to emphasize at different times.
“As demand for print declined, the company expanded IT and software services,” Pulse wrote. “As companies begin to look at resuming in-person workspaces, there continues to be an increase in office furniture and office products.”
