{"id":12938,"date":"2015-05-27T09:37:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T16:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=12938"},"modified":"2016-09-15T10:04:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T17:04:37","slug":"cloud-control-the-champs-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/2015\/05\/cloud-control-the-champs-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud Control: The CHAMPS Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12144\" style=\"width: 232px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12144\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12144\" src=\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Jim-Coriddi-New-222x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jim Coriddi\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-12144\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jim Coriddi<\/p><\/div>\n<p>After writing about this industry for as long as I have it\u2019s a given that whether it\u2019s an OEM or a solutions and services provider they can talk a good game about their hardware, solutions, or services offerings, and that\u2019s exactly what Jim Corridi, vice president, Dealer Division, Ricoh U.S. was able to do when I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago about the recent introduction of CHAMPS Cloud IT Services.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a Ricoh dealer you know all about it already, but if not, the offering, available through Ricoh\u2019s CHAMPS dealer services program leverages technology solutions from mindSHIFT, the company that Ricoh acquired last year and a worldwide leader when it comes to providing cloud services to SMBs. CHAMPS Cloud IT Services includes such services as Total IT Help Desk, Server Management, Hosted Exchange Email, and Email Archiving\u2014the types of services one would expect from a cloud services offering. The cloud IT services will be provided from a variety of recognized industry leaders through a web-based control panel that provides automated service activation and account management.<\/p>\n<p>Components of the CHAMPS Cloud IT Services portfolio include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Total IT Help Desk: U.S. based, quick and efficient technical support to manage end-user devices 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.<\/li>\n<li>Server Management: Whether the customer\u2019s servers are on premise, in a datacenter or in the cloud, mindSHIFT\u2019s highly skilled server management technicians know how to manage and proactively support them.<\/li>\n<li>Hosted Exchange Email: Enables customers to benefit from business email without the IT management hassles. Email, calendars, contacts and more are available at their fingertips.<\/li>\n<li>Email Archiving: Enables users to safely archive and easily access email for storage, compliance, eDiscovery and disaster recovery requirements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What this announcement does is expand the number of services dealers have access to via the CHAMPS program. One of the aspects of this program that should appeal to dealers is that they can pick and choose the services they want to use from the program and aren\u2019t forced to provide the entire menu of services offerings. For example, a dealer such as Repeat Business Systems in Albany, NY that already offers Managed Services can select the components of the program necessary to supplement what they already offer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CHAMPS program is unique in the industry because a lot of what the industry considers these types of initiatives are either Managed Services or Managed IT Services,\u201d explains Coriddi. \u201cBut CHAMPS is much more than that; we have our production services, our commercial imaging services, which is back file conversion, and then what we call professional services&#8211;software and support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He adds that this\u00a0 announcement of the Cloud IT Services\u00a0 solidifies CHAMPS as a whole and is the next big piece for Ricoh&#8217;s dealers to leverage.<\/p>\n<p>This additional CHAMPS offering broadens Ricoh\u2019s dealer\u2019s offerings and its dealer\u2019s abilities to penetrate into a customer\u2019s business with minimal upfront investment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Dealers are\u00a0able to leverage these world class resources that we have within mindShift and in a way that\u2019s transparent [to the customer],\u201d notes Coriddi. \u201cWhen mindShift goes in and provides these services, they\u2019re acting on behalf of the dealer who holds the relationship and does all the billing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another key element of Cloud IT Services offering is the level at which Ricoh can support the dealer. mindShift has been around and successful for the last 15 years and provides a U.S. based 24\/7 Hot Line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd they\u2019ve been doing it with a partner reseller program so they have a lot of experience working as that invisible third party,\u201d adds Coriddi.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12939\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12939\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12939\" src=\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dawn-Abbuhl-300x287.jpg\" alt=\"Dawn Abbhuhl\" width=\"300\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dawn-Abbuhl-300x287.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Dawn-Abbuhl.jpg 556w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-12939\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dawn Abbuhl<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Dawn Abbuhl, president, Repeat Business Systems, Inc., in Albany, New York, is miles ahead of many other dealers on the Managed Services front and fills in a lot of those gaps via CHAMPS. Repeat initially wanted to target customers with 50 to 200 users, but with this program, it can be as small as a five user network or as large as a\u00a0300 user network. Plus Abbuhl sees immediate value in the e-mail archiving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can host all e-mails for law firms who have to keep e-mails for a certain number of years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Repeat didn&#8217;t\u00a0have the capacity to do that before or the ability to provide the kind of security those types of customers require. She adds that this will also be beneficial for\u00a0Repeat&#8217;s healthcare clients.<\/p>\n<p>She also likes the 24\/7 U.S. based support. And, equally important, she says, \u201cI trust it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s critical for both the dealer and the customer.<\/p>\n<p>How will Ricoh gauge the success of this new initiative?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a couple of different metrics,\u201d explains Coriddi. \u201cWe&#8217;re starting to [establish] numbers as far as targets, number of opportunities, number of proposals, and ultimately revenue generated. Now that our dealers are making this more of a part of how they do business the best way for us to look at it is how many customers are these services touching. The short answer is we\u2019re going to have some traditional type of metrics established, and another way is what we see being generated in the form of equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That latter statement is somewhat of a surprise, but not really when you dwell on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the day Ricoh is still a manufacturer and we still want to be placing MFPs and printing devices,\u201d acknowledges Coriddi. \u201cWe also are gauging it towards what kind of growth we see in the overall business&#8230;it\u2019s still about expanding [our dealer&#8217;s] customer MIF and broadening [their] business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is just another example of the acceptance of the CHAMPS program which has started to grow in the last year after a slow start. \u201cDealers are saying if we did not have this we would not have landed this deal,\u201d observes Coriddi. \u201cThat\u2019s how we know it\u2019s starting to take hold and that\u2019s what\u2019s grabbing the attention and the imagination of our dealers. We feel like we have a solid foundation and are starting to broaden the portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And moving CHAMPS into the cloud is a natural progression for growing the portfolio as any.<\/p>\n<p>And for Repeat, well, it just may lead to repeat business. I asked Abbuhl what things would look like at her dealership a year from now with this new offering in its toolbox?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis gives us a little more leverage,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can offer them\u00a0IT support and software and can be their vendor for all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After writing about this industry for as long as I have it\u2019s a given that whether it\u2019s an OEM or a solutions and services provider they can talk a good game about their hardware, solutions, or services offerings, and that\u2019s exactly what Jim Corridi, vice president, Dealer Division, Ricoh U.S. was able to do when I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago about the recent introduction of CHAMPS Cloud IT Services. If you\u2019re a Ricoh dealer you know all about it already, but if not, the offering, available through Ricoh\u2019s CHAMPS dealer services program leverages technology solutions from mindSHIFT, the company that Ricoh acquired last year and a worldwide leader when it comes to providing cloud services to SMBs. CHAMPS Cloud IT Services includes such services as Total IT Help Desk, Server Management, Hosted Exchange Email, and Email Archiving\u2014the types of services one would expect from a cloud services offering. The cloud IT services will be provided from a variety of recognized industry leaders through a web-based control panel that provides automated service activation and account management. Components of the CHAMPS Cloud IT Services portfolio include: Total IT Help Desk: U.S. based, quick and efficient technical support to manage end-user devices 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Server Management: Whether the customer\u2019s servers are on premise, in a datacenter or in the cloud, mindSHIFT\u2019s highly skilled server management technicians know how to manage and proactively support them. Hosted Exchange Email: Enables customers to benefit from business email without the IT management hassles. Email, calendars, contacts and more are available at their fingertips. Email Archiving: Enables users to safely archive and easily access email for storage, compliance, eDiscovery and disaster recovery requirements. What this announcement does is expand the number of services dealers have access to via the CHAMPS program. One of the aspects of this program that should appeal to dealers is that they can pick and choose the services they want to use from the program and aren\u2019t forced to provide the entire menu of services offerings. For example, a dealer such as Repeat Business Systems in Albany, NY that already offers Managed Services can select the components of the program necessary to supplement what they already offer. \u201cThe CHAMPS program is unique in the industry because a lot of what the industry considers these types of initiatives are either Managed Services or Managed IT Services,\u201d explains Coriddi. \u201cBut CHAMPS is much more than that; we have our production services, our commercial imaging services, which is back file conversion, and then what we call professional services&#8211;software and support.&#8221; He adds that this\u00a0 announcement of the Cloud IT Services\u00a0 solidifies CHAMPS as a whole and is the next big piece for Ricoh&#8217;s dealers to leverage. This additional CHAMPS offering broadens Ricoh\u2019s dealer\u2019s offerings and its dealer\u2019s abilities to penetrate into a customer\u2019s business with minimal upfront investment. \u201c[Dealers are\u00a0able to leverage these world class resources that we have within mindShift and in a way that\u2019s transparent [to the customer],\u201d notes Coriddi. \u201cWhen mindShift goes in and provides these services, they\u2019re acting on behalf of the dealer who holds the relationship and does all the billing.\u201d Another key element of Cloud IT Services offering is the level at which Ricoh can support the dealer. mindShift has been around and successful for the last 15 years and provides a U.S. based 24\/7 Hot Line. \u201cAnd they\u2019ve been doing it with a partner reseller program so they have a lot of experience working as that invisible third party,\u201d adds Coriddi. Dawn Abbuhl, president, Repeat Business Systems, Inc., in Albany, New York, is miles ahead of many other dealers on the Managed Services front and fills in a lot of those gaps via CHAMPS. Repeat initially wanted to target customers with 50 to 200 users, but with this program, it can be as small as a five user network or as large as a\u00a0300 user network. Plus Abbuhl sees immediate value in the e-mail archiving. \u201cWe can host all e-mails for law firms who have to keep e-mails for a certain number of years.&#8221; Repeat didn&#8217;t\u00a0have the capacity to do that before or the ability to provide the kind of security those types of customers require. She adds that this will also be beneficial for\u00a0Repeat&#8217;s healthcare clients. She also likes the 24\/7 U.S. based support. And, equally important, she says, \u201cI trust it.\u201d That\u2019s critical for both the dealer and the customer. How will Ricoh gauge the success of this new initiative? \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a couple of different metrics,\u201d explains Coriddi. \u201cWe&#8217;re starting to [establish] numbers as far as targets, number of opportunities, number of proposals, and ultimately revenue generated. Now that our dealers are making this more of a part of how they do business the best way for us to look at it is how many customers are these services touching. The short answer is we\u2019re going to have some traditional type of metrics established, and another way is what we see being generated in the form of equipment.\u201d That latter statement is somewhat of a surprise, but not really when you dwell on it. \u201cAt the end of the day Ricoh is still a manufacturer and we still want to be placing MFPs and printing devices,\u201d acknowledges Coriddi. \u201cWe also are gauging it towards what kind of growth we see in the overall business&#8230;it\u2019s still about expanding [our dealer&#8217;s] customer MIF and broadening [their] business.\u201d This is just another example of the acceptance of the CHAMPS program which has started to grow in the last year after a slow start. \u201cDealers are saying if we did not have this we would not have landed this deal,\u201d observes Coriddi. \u201cThat\u2019s how we know it\u2019s starting to take hold and that\u2019s what\u2019s grabbing the attention and the imagination of our dealers. We feel like we have a solid foundation and are starting to broaden the portfolio.\u201d And moving CHAMPS into the cloud is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1638],"tags":[2256,2257,216,1135,2258,312],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12938"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12938"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13022,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12938\/revisions\/13022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}