The hardware, solutions, services, and supplies providers continue to share their 2014 highlights. These highlights, albeit brief, paint a vivid picture of the document imaging industry in 2014.
“I am pleased to note that 2014 was a very favorable year for Toshiba. Coupled with the addition of 16 new e-STUDIO™ multifunction products to address the diverse content management needs of our vast array of customers, we introduced e-BRIDGE™ CloudConnect, which dramatically improves our users’ experience by remotely managing their products. We are additionally excited to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our Ellumina™ digital signage brand. To underscore the success we have already achieved in this area, just last month, we unveiled a first-of-its-kind fan engagement destination at STAPLES Center, called LA Interactive powered by Toshiba.” Scott Maccabe, president & CEO, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.
“The past year, Sharp has enhanced support and capabilities for our dealer community. Sharp kicked off 2014 with a Dealer Road Show, giving us the opportunity to communicate our message on product and support to our dealers and their teams. Over the next three months, we met with more than 1,000 people from dealerships who do not typically have the opportunity to attend our National Dealer Meeting. Most importantly, the dealers who attended saw an impressive double digit growth with us! Since that time, our focus has been on improving our infrastructure and maintaining a high level of support to drive future growth for our dealers. Our goal is to help position our dealers for dramatic growth and profitability in the coming years.” Mike Marusic, senior vice president, marketing and operations, Sharp
“In 2014, as Katun celebrated 35 years in the imaging industry, we introduced hundreds of new imaging products, including significant color and printer products for use in HP, Dell, Canon, Ricoh, Sharp, Konica Minolta, Kyocera Mita, Toshiba and other widely placed OEM applications. We were also proud to be recognized as one of Minnesota’s Top 100 Private Companies by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.” Jennifer Lanners, director, corporate marketing, Katun
“Aside from the organization’s growth in 2014, BEI Services has expanded its value to its dealers by providing the industry’s first car stock creation and warehouse fulfillment tools that allow dealers to quickly build accurate car stocks and effectively identify warehouse inventory fulfillment needs. In addition, BEI Services has partnered with the BTA to provide a service management course tailored to helping dealers improve efficiencies and profitability.” Wes McArtor, president, BEI Services
“In addition to the launch of our next-generation bizhub PRESS C1100 and bizhub PRESS C1085, as well as our EngageIT XMedia solution, welcoming 3D printing solutions into the traditional print market, and being the pioneer to do so, was certainly one of our top highlights in 2014. It will allow us to not only expand our business into new industries, sectors and customer bases, but also guide innovation in a host of new directions. The 3D printing industry itself is poised only for growth at this point, and we are excited to see where partnering with key 3D print solution providers will take us in the future.” Konica Minolta
“Nuance Communications introduced a revamped partner program in 2014, which provides organizations with imaging solutions that automate a wide range of document processes – increasing productivity, saving time and reducing costs. This multi-tiered program expands beyond the traditional focus on hardware and helps resellers grow an all-encompassing solutions-centric business.” Dan Troup, senior director of field marketing and sales enablement, Nuance Communications
“2014 has been very good. We continue to see more growth—double digit—and and have seen that for the past four or five years.” Eric Katz, co-president, Metrofuser
“Muratec’s highlight of 2014 has been the successful development and execution of our Leapfrog Managed Services program, a comprehensive program that walks dealers through the process of transforming their business to successfully offer managed IT services to their customers. This program takes dealers step-by-step through building their support infrastructure, creating roles and responsibilities, developing a technology stack (solution offering), creating successful compensation models, customer prospecting and ultimately launching the program in their market.” Lou Stricklin, director of marketing, Muratec America, Inc.
“GE Capital is investing in technology and training to help independent dealers improve their businesses. In September, we announced our roll-out of automated meter reading via integration with the e-automate® and OMD® systems from Digital Gateway and OMD Corporation for more efficient customer payment processing. Our goal is to help dealers save time and money. Moreover, throughout the year, we provided in-depth sales training classes to help sales representatives to move beyond price and get to the root causes of end-users’ tech problems. It’s one of the latest ideas to come out of our Customer Advisory Board discussions — and the classes have been so well received that we will continue offering them in 2015.” Glen Clark, vice president and general manager of GE Capital’s OI business
“Protected Trust and Brother Corporation have partnered to offer online managed services through the business products reseller community. These cloud services are focused on HIPAA secure communications for customers and recurring revenue for the channel. http://www.brothercloud.com/Partners/.” David Bailey, vice president, Protected Trust
“While some years it is difficult to point to a single highlight, in 2014 we launched our Value Line of aftermarket toner cartridges through our Global Partnership Alliance. The addition of this line of fully qualified and certified cartridges has brought incredible unit, revenue and new account growth.” Brad Roderick, InkCycle “Lexmark launched significant horizontal and vertical software workflow solutions targeted at the SMB market for our dealer channel, capped by the launch of AccuRead Automate. We also invested heavily in workflow solutions sales training/education for our dealer network – conducting regional training, individual dealer training, and hosting our first Solutions Advisory Board.” Phil Boatman, Business Alliance Manager, Lexmark International
