Driving Demand: Dealers Talk Best Growth Segments for Production

One of the best attributes that accompany the production print portfolio is the myriad market opportunities and the subsets of offerings within them. Commercial/P4P operations, in-plants, package printers, labeling/bar coding and marketing departments are mostly well-versed in technologies, so there’s not a lot of hand-holding. They seek automation, quicker turns and great service support, because downtime can be brutal.

As we continue this month’s State of the Industry report on production print, we ask our dealer panel to share their most fertile markets as well as the roles they play in maximizing value for these clients. It’s not always about selling huge hardware, but rather providing guidance.

For Doing Better Business, the best opportunities lie in getting customers to rethink how information moves through their organization. Efficiency is at the top of organization’s want list, according to Debra Dellaposta, president and CEO. While some documents still belong on paper and others should be digital from the get-go, her company is charged with helping clients decide when to print and when to automate. Showing them how technologies like workflow automation and AI can eliminate manual processes is key for the Altoona, Pennsylvania-based dealer.

“I believe the providers that will experience the most growth over the next decade won’t necessarily be the ones selling the most production equipment,” she said. “They’ll be the ones helping customers improve business processes, automate workflows, and use technology more strategically.”

Helping clients modernize their production workflows is a prime opportunity in the eyes of Troy Olson, owner of Les Olson IT in Salt Lake City. Olson points out that a large percentage of organizations still rely on manual processes that can foster bottlenecks.

“By combining production hardware with workflow automation, finishing solutions, and software integration, we can significantly improve efficiency and reduce operating costs,” he noted.

Other fertile segments in Olson’s estimation include commercial printers seeking to bolster digital capabilities. There’s also the benefit in bringing jobs in-house, which allows clients to have better control, lowering the costs of farming out jobs and reducing turnaround times.

“As technology continues to advance, customers are looking for trusted advisors who can help them navigate those investments—and that’s where we believe Les Olson Company brings tremendous value,” he said.

At Advanced Imaging Solutions (AIS), the focus is digging deeper into existing relationships. It’s not just about  bolstering production unit sales; it’s circling back to those clients to discuss finishing equipment, software and any other items that weren’t part of an original sale, notes Stephanie Keating Phillips, director of production print and solutions for the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based dealer.

M&A movement and repositioning in both the dealer and manufacturer realms has some clients suffering the sting of change, and she sees that as an opening dealers can capitalize upon. As a multi-line dealer, AIS further benefits from an ever-expanding portfolio. Phillips noted how Sharp’s enhanced catalog has made it an even more attractive option.

Underdeveloped segments can also provide opportunities. “We must continue to grow in those worlds where we’re kind of dabbling in them but not fully entrenched, like transactional data and the inkjet world,” Phillips said. “In a couple years, we’ll have our own fully functioning team to sell digital presses that are able to do the larger formats.”

Many of Datamax’s customers on the production side lean toward the smaller side, thus tend to be commoditized. Jeff Presnall, production specialist, notes that helping them specialize in higher-margin areas has been key to success. Short-run labels, personalized packaging, envelope printing and specialty wide-format are other solid sectors.

“I believe leveraging data in their offerings is a huge opportunity for our market, which is relatively small and without many $5 million-plus print organizations,” he noted. “Using data in upstream software to increase efficiency, target specific customer groups, make decisions and connect with customers is a significant opportunity.”