{"id":7127,"date":"2014-07-10T09:14:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T13:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=7127"},"modified":"2014-07-10T09:14:07","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T13:14:07","slug":"meet-the-newest-member-of-the-office-imaging-finance-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2014\/07\/meet-the-newest-member-of-the-office-imaging-finance-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Newest Member of the Office Imaging Finance Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UniFi<\/a>That headline is a complete misnomer. UniFi Equipment Finance isn\u2019t exactly a new member of the office imaging finance community rather it\u2019s a rebranding of the former Ervin Equipment Finance, a company whose financing roots date back 35 years. During that time, Ervin, now UniFi, has funded more than 9,000 vendors, totaling in excess of $1 billion.<\/p>\n

In addition to changing its name to Unifi Equipment Finance, the company has a newly developed logo and Website. The rebranding went into effect July 1 and is a culmination of events that began in January 2013 when Ervin Leasing became the vendor financing division for Bank of Ann Arbor. Later on in 2013, the company changed its name to Ervin Equipment Finance to better reflect its services offerings to the channel.\u00a0 The latest name change takes the rebranding one step further.<\/p>\n

Last week I spoke with RJ Grimshaw, CEO\/President of UniFi Equipment Finance, about the rebranding. \u201cThere was probably 100 names we looked at, is because we\u2019re a vendor-driven shop. We get up every morning focused on helping our partners grow their business and we view that as mission critical to what we do. That is our \u201cWHY\u201d hence the new company name. UniFi signifies that we\u2019re unified with our partner, we\u2019re unified with the customer, and we\u2019re unified with our employees and we all come together with one mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new UniFi logo is embedded in a round circle, and according to Grimshaw, \u201crepresents the way we want all client relations to go smoothly, flawless without interruption, forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although UniFi Equipment Finance had been growing since reemerging on the office imaging financing scene a little over a year ago, it hasn\u2019t had as high a profile in the office imaging dealer community as many of its larger competitors. \u201cWe\u2019ve had pockets of success, but there still needs to be brand awareness of who we are and what we offer,\u201d acknowledges Grimshaw. \u201cErvin was very good at flying under the radar, but we\u2019re changing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One question Grimshaw is often asked by dealers is what makes UniFi different?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes us different is we\u2019re a company that\u2019s been in business for 35 years and made it through the downturn, UniFi now has a parent that can provide the capital to support our growth in the business,\u201d responds Grimshaw. \u201cThe average tenure of our employees is 22+ years. We still pick up the phone when it rings and we\u2019re extremely proactive in helping our partners. That\u2019s what resonates with partners who we partner with. There\u2019s great competition in this space, and if they want to do business with another company, and that\u2019s okay. We try and choose partners where UniFi can add value and be relevant. When dealers learn about UniFi and review our programs, and give us a shot in terms of processing their deals, they are impressed with the great job and we win them over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides the rebranding and the various activities surrounding that rebranding, there are other changes taking place. The company recently implemented a new leasing platform to provide dealers with the tools they need to be successful, particularly in the copier space, including bundle pass through capabilities and web portal for portfolio management.<\/p>\n

UniFi is also embarking on a new social media initiative that will add more value in supporting their partners.<\/p>\n

Social media is an area that Grimshaw feels some dealers have a difficult time understanding how to leverage in their business. \u00a0We have developed\u00a0 a new tool \u201cIt\u2019s like social media in a box where we can help support their initiatives and give them content, a Google+ \u00a0page and show them how to use those tools,\u201d states Grimshaw.<\/p>\n

UniFi is actively using social media and Grimshaw contends it\u2019s time dealers acknowledge the importance of social media. \u201cDealers might not think it\u2019s as relevant today, but in five years it will be,\u201d he says. \u201cYou will need a presence across all social media. The bigger dealers understand it. BTA is trying to educate the dealers, but the dealers have to participate on a regular basis. What we\u2019re finding is they don\u2019t do it, or if they\u2019re doing it, it\u2019s haphazard.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that a lot of what dealers are using today for social media is mass produced, which means people are seeing the same exact content from eight different dealers across different geographies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s word for word the same thing,\u201d laments Grimshaw. \u201cThere\u2019s no value in that because it\u2019s a broadcast of content and doesn\u2019t speak specifically to that dealer. That\u2019s something we\u2019re working on where we can add value to the dealer other than being just another leasing company but a partner on many fronts.\u201d<\/p>\n

This social media initiative is currently being beta tested by a few dealers and will be available to other UniFi dealers later this year.<\/p>\n

Visit www.unifiedge.com<\/a> to learn more about UniFi Equipment Finance products and services.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That headline is a complete misnomer. UniFi Equipment Finance isn\u2019t exactly a new member of the office imaging finance community rather it\u2019s a rebranding of the former Ervin Equipment Finance, a company whose financing roots date back 35 years. During that time, Ervin, now UniFi, has funded more than 9,000 vendors, totaling in excess of $1 billion. In addition to changing its name to Unifi Equipment Finance, the company has a newly developed logo and Website. The rebranding went into effect July 1 and is a culmination of events that began in January 2013 when Ervin Leasing became the vendor financing division for Bank of Ann Arbor. Later on in 2013, the company changed its name to Ervin Equipment Finance to better reflect its services offerings to the channel.\u00a0 The latest name change takes the rebranding one step further. Last week I spoke with RJ Grimshaw, CEO\/President of UniFi Equipment Finance, about the rebranding. \u201cThere was probably 100 names we looked at, is because we\u2019re a vendor-driven shop. We get up every morning focused on helping our partners grow their business and we view that as mission critical to what we do. That is our \u201cWHY\u201d hence the new company name. UniFi signifies that we\u2019re unified with our partner, we\u2019re unified with the customer, and we\u2019re unified with our employees and we all come together with one mission.\u201d The new UniFi logo is embedded in a round circle, and according to Grimshaw, \u201crepresents the way we want all client relations to go smoothly, flawless without interruption, forever.\u201d Although UniFi Equipment Finance had been growing since reemerging on the office imaging financing scene a little over a year ago, it hasn\u2019t had as high a profile in the office imaging dealer community as many of its larger competitors. \u201cWe\u2019ve had pockets of success, but there still needs to be brand awareness of who we are and what we offer,\u201d acknowledges Grimshaw. \u201cErvin was very good at flying under the radar, but we\u2019re changing that.\u201d One question Grimshaw is often asked by dealers is what makes UniFi different? \u201cWhat makes us different is we\u2019re a company that\u2019s been in business for 35 years and made it through the downturn, UniFi now has a parent that can provide the capital to support our growth in the business,\u201d responds Grimshaw. \u201cThe average tenure of our employees is 22+ years. We still pick up the phone when it rings and we\u2019re extremely proactive in helping our partners. That\u2019s what resonates with partners who we partner with. There\u2019s great competition in this space, and if they want to do business with another company, and that\u2019s okay. We try and choose partners where UniFi can add value and be relevant. When dealers learn about UniFi and review our programs, and give us a shot in terms of processing their deals, they are impressed with the great job and we win them over.\u201d Besides the rebranding and the various activities surrounding that rebranding, there are other changes taking place. The company recently implemented a new leasing platform to provide dealers with the tools they need to be successful, particularly in the copier space, including bundle pass through capabilities and web portal for portfolio management. UniFi is also embarking on a new social media initiative that will add more value in supporting their partners. Social media is an area that Grimshaw feels some dealers have a difficult time understanding how to leverage in their business. \u00a0We have developed\u00a0 a new tool \u201cIt\u2019s like social media in a box where we can help support their initiatives and give them content, a Google+ \u00a0page and show them how to use those tools,\u201d states Grimshaw. UniFi is actively using social media and Grimshaw contends it\u2019s time dealers acknowledge the importance of social media. \u201cDealers might not think it\u2019s as relevant today, but in five years it will be,\u201d he says. \u201cYou will need a presence across all social media. The bigger dealers understand it. BTA is trying to educate the dealers, but the dealers have to participate on a regular basis. What we\u2019re finding is they don\u2019t do it, or if they\u2019re doing it, it\u2019s haphazard.\u201d He adds that a lot of what dealers are using today for social media is mass produced, which means people are seeing the same exact content from eight different dealers across different geographies. \u201cIt\u2019s word for word the same thing,\u201d laments Grimshaw. \u201cThere\u2019s no value in that because it\u2019s a broadcast of content and doesn\u2019t speak specifically to that dealer. That\u2019s something we\u2019re working on where we can add value to the dealer other than being just another leasing company but a partner on many fronts.\u201d This social media initiative is currently being beta tested by a few dealers and will be available to other UniFi dealers later this year. Visit www.unifiedge.com to learn more about UniFi Equipment Finance products and services.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[1086,1089,1542],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127"}],"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=7127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7129,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions\/7129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}