The printing solutions are no longer confined to just taking out color print copies; though the first impression always leaves a lasting impression.
The concept of ‘colorful office’ is fast catching up in India. The paper cluttered desks and the dusty files have made way for slick PCs and laptops, long back. But the India Inc offices are still undergoing a makeover and color only adds flavor to it.
Businesses of all sizes, even in C- and D- class cities, are appreciating the latent need for color printing, and have begun to look strategically at what benefits color provides.
Vendors are introducing products that will offer better print speeds, quality and consistency of print, to enable a number of businesses to print their color documents in-house. All these combine together to signal better business propositions for printing solutions and imaging, giving partners yet another stepping stone to strike gold, literally.
But there are problems owing to the inability of vendors to cope with the intake demand, both, from technological and supply points of view in many parts of the country.
Our partner friends in Nagpur have been complaining that the sales graph in printers made a sharper nosedive in the Vidharba region lately, due to a plethora of factors including lack of awareness and absence of aggressive marketing strategies by vendors.
Even from other parts of the country, we’ve received reports concurring that imaging products have seen much demand in recent times, especially in small business and home segments with not as much support from vendors.
Vendors deny these charges outright, with some saying that on the contrary, partners are themselves ill equipped and even lack the drive to pick up needful tech skills whenever these are taken to their doorstep by vendors.
Our good friend R S Anand Kumar, general manager of Brother India said that vendors in general, and his company in particular, can ignore partners in imaging and printing solution segments only at the cost of their own peril. Others say, the vendors are doing enough to cope with the market demand and helping channels prepare themselves well to face the customers.
Their argument is that in order to cater to the needs of these fast growing segments, the company will push its Multi Functional Devices (MFDs) in all segments including SMB and SOHO. “We’ve a lot of offerings in My Office series that include – inkjets MFDs and laser MFDs, laser printers, and network printers for SMBs,” said Kumar.
Meanwhile, other vendors too say that the spadework for MFDs has already begun in the first quarter of this fiscal and in the near future the focus will be on roadshows for both, corporate and channel partners.
Importantly, when it comes to digital imaging, another vital point we need to focus on is the document management industry and the printing technological evolution called Document Management Contract Services (DMS). Partners also agree that this has helped to do away with several complaints about poor print quality coupled with high costs of maintenance and consumables attached to the traditional inkjet printers.
The DMS has seen substantial changes during the past decade. The advantages offered by it are multiple and all encompassing as it enables organizations to survive and thrive in today s competitive scenario.
But, it’s also important to note that with technological strides vis-a-vis printing, the security also has emerged as a big issue at the imaging level. The simple looking printer also poses huge security threats, as it is the weakest link in networking.
Unfortunately, document management and distribution is still out of the radar of most CIOs and IT managers and perhaps therefore, the partners’ role will gain more credence.
Please grow over the traditional out of box thinking that if a machine lying innocuously in a corner looks like a printer, acts like a printer giving in occasional troubles like a printer, why should anyone think of it as a security hazard!
The much familiar networked printers are, therefore, most vulnerable showpieces around in any office – something the office managers and employees don’t care to appreciate.
What you see as a benefit is whether the printers can be connected to a whole lot of PCs in the office. This trend is particularly found among small and mid-sized companies and the partners are no exception to it and the issue of security is generally just overlooked.
This brings in added opportunities along with responsibilities for channels to deal with printing solutions. The end customers, especially in smaller towns, need to be told that printers can be virtual servers and they should be treated as company s patch program managed effectively by IT managers only, and not left to grade IV staff.
It’s in this context Document Management Services (DMS) makes sense in today s IT management. The vendors are accordingly encouraging partners to focus on the Document Management Contract Services (DMS), and are already diverting attention and investing time and money in DMS and to train partners.
Canon India, to name a vendor, has already evolved a plan under which, by 2008 it hopes to have top 50 of their 130 leading partners across India with adequate training and skills to roll out the software.
My friends in the channels, knowing well that there are opportunities, needn’t have to just sit and wait passively to see what unfolds at the other end. It’s time you give unto yourself a few proactive strategies. According to research bodies, the document solution market in the APAC region is over $ 100 billion. Partners should prepare to play a key role by developing their own niche like Bhavnagar-based KMS Computer has done by trying to specialize in the education segment.
I could be repeating in these columns, but it’s a vital lesson to learn and implement in all our walks of life – like every race, the early starters with the first well-directed move can only reap the maximum benefit.