No longer just printing

Epson marketing and communications director, Mike Pleasants, says in the corporate environment customers are looking for a provider that is more ‘solution oriented’.

Essential to this, he believes, is successfully targeting and demonstrating expertise in specific vertical markets. "Resellers will be respected, listened to and will end up winning if they can demonstrate knowledge of the segment they intend to target," he says.

According to Yeung, "the channel may adopt more services-related offerings with the printing hardware in order to provide a one-stop shop service for the customers. It depends on their strengths and which market segments they are focusing on". This has in turn driven sales of printing-related software, now an essential part of services and integration in the printer market.

"Services and integration is usually driven by the reseller understanding a particular market segment and probably also supplying some sort of software into that segment as well," Pleasants says.

More than hardware

Derek Austin, corporate sales manager A/NZ with Nasdaq-listed document management software company ScanSoft, says companies that try to sell hardware alone are left in the dangerous position of having nothing to compete on but price. "The need to provide more than the hardware is rapidly becoming a given. Once you can offer more than the device itself as a reseller you are buying into the customer’s problems," he says.

Epson's Pleasants: Vertical market skills are key

"It’s solutions sales and it’s having a relationship with the customer."

ScanSoft is one of the world’s leading providers of printing software. It has development and supply agreements with most of the leading printer manufacturers and will soon announce the expansion of its international deal with Kyocera to Australia.

The company believes that there is a lack of attention paid on the part of resellers to the nuances of customers’ printing requirements, presenting massive opportunities for those that can quickly mobilise to do so.

"I would say less than 5 percent of businesses are using document management and archival devices such as optical storage," Austin says. "The market is huge, especially now that multifunction devices are more affordable."

In terms of niche verticals, ScanSoft sees a big opportunity for document management and workflow solutions. "There is a real opportunity for resellers to understand the processes their customer has and provide value by addressing what those processes are in terms of work and document management needs. That’s much more than selling in a multi-function device," he says.