Anthony Toope, sales operation manager with Fuji Xerox Printers (FXP) Australia, concedes resellers have their work cut out in trying to compete with direct- selling manufacturers, especially for bigger customers.
“You have vendors that have a direct selling arm and also sell to the channel as well,” he says.
“Partners get a little bit left behind with MPS.”
There are more than 800,000 small businesses in Australia, with only about 5 percent engaged in any form of MPS. In contrast some 75 percent of companies with 500 or more staff have deployed MPS in some form.
According to analyst group Gartner, companies spend on average 3 percent of their total earnings on printing and document management. However, it has been shown in many cases that the deployment of MPS solutions can shave up to 40 percent off these costs.
And it would appear the message is well and truly getting through, with Gartner also reporting Australian MPS revenues were a little over $200 million in 2009 and expected to reach $326 million by 2012 based on a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent. Gartner projects that the Asia Pacific market will be worth more than $942 million by next year, surpassing $1 billion by 2013, at which point the US market is expected to be worth almost six times that.
Despite concerns about the ability of resellers to compete head-to-head with direct-selling manufacturers, most vendors are quick to highlight the channel as one of their most important weapons to meet what is expected to be a big surge in demand amongst SMBs for more sophisticated print services.
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