No longer just printing

"They [pharmacies] use the laser printer non-stop from the moment they open to closing time," Kutteh says. "On average a pharmacy would print up to 400 to 500 pages per day -- for every medication they must do a printout."

Helping business even further, the state government made it compulsory four years ago for all pharmacies to have larger printers so as to meet regulations for producing CMIs (Consumer Medical Information). This has helped to phase out monochrome inkjet printers in favour of colour lasers in the pharmacy sector.

Further driving the transition, many hospitals now require colour printouts of pills on bottles, while nursing homes increasingly request colour photos of patients on their medication bottles so as to reduce confusion and errors.

"In the near future there will be a standard requirement for colour scripts to be given to nursing homes and hospitals," Kutteh says.

Currently the company makes a lot more of its revenues from actual hardware sales rather than consumables, but expects changes in the pharmacy industry will shift the balance over the next few years.

Added to this are the already large numbers of third-party software applications in the pharmacy sector that require their own servicing and upgrading, he said.

Supply the colour

Jeremy de Silva, product marketing director with OKI Australia/New Zealand, believes the growth in colour has created new opportunities for the channel to increase sales of supplies to offset declining hardware margins. "Invariably the price of the hardware, even in lower-end machines, is about a fifth of the overall costs. It is vital for the reseller to maintain that supplies business."

Added to this, he believes, the growth in multi-function devices is expanding the opportunities for resellers to market solutions arrangements, which can in turn lead to improved sales of consumables.

"Increasingly, what we are trying to do is get them to sell with the hardware and extended warranty -- they interface with the customers and keep up the supply side.

"Client retention on the supply side has become a major challenge for the channel."

De Silva adds that customers recognise services as a better alternative these days for managing their printing. "Customers are increasingly looking to a managed services businesses where they actually take on the entire service, maintenance of the hardware and supply of the consumables as well."

OKI is also trying to encourage its channel to market pay-per-copy arrangements where appropriate. "Some customers have opted for pay-per-copy arrangements, which are growing in popularity as the cost of copies declines."

OKI's de Silva

As for other opportunities, OKI is actively educating its channel on several existing and new areas.

Most interestingly, OKI is educating its channel partners on how to branch out into offering dedicated printing and label services, beyond merely supplying the relevant equipment.

This is something that de Silva says is potentially very lucrative for the Australian channel if the US is anything to go by. While the corporate environment in North America is moving quickly towards in-house colour printing, several industries, including hospitality, advertising and others, are catching on.

As part of its push into this new area, OKI has a wide-reaching partnership with print software company Impulse Logic to use its SignIQ software for creating labels, product images, bar codes, prices and messages.

"This enables our resellers to go into different verticals -- pharmacy, liquor, toys -- and provide a solution for signage as well as labels," de Silva says. "Resellers get two bites of the cherry: hardware and then supplies. Not just with toner but also with media."