PRINT
IT
RESELLER.UK
INTERVIEW
29
Lexmark has changed its logo for the
first time in many years, replacing its
grey and red diamond with a square
aperture in shades of green and
rotating the x in the company name.
It has also consolidated all acquisitions,
including Perceptive Software, under
the Lexmark brand for the first time. The
Perceptive name will now only be used
in product names, such as Perceptive
Content, Perceptive Intelligent Capture and
Perceptive Search.
The new brand identity, including the
tagline 'Open the possibilities', is designed
to reflect Lexmark's broader offering as it
continues to evolve from print specialist to
software solutions and services provider.
Since 2010, Lexmark has made a
series of strategic acquisitions, gaining
expertise in intelligent capture, enterprise
content management, healthcare content
management, financial process automation
and enterprise search.
Following the unveiling of the new
logo,
PrintIT Reseller
Editor James Goulding
spoke to Danny Molhoek, Managing
Director & Country General Manager for
Lexmark in the UK and Ireland, about
the company's new brand and strategic
direction.
PrintIT Reseller:
What is the thinking
behind the new brand identity?
Danny Molhoek:
We have a new logo
and a nice new colour to go with it, but
the bigger message is that we are now
positioning ourselves in the marketplace as
one big brand that incorporates everything
we offer. Previously we kept Perceptive
Software as a global brand, but we feel
now is the time to change that and make
it clear to the market that there's one
Lexmark and one brand.
From now on, everything that is under
the flag of Lexmark is going to be named
Lexmark, including future acquisitions –
we are incorporating Readsoft now and
have made a bid for Kofax. All software
brands are going to be part of the Lexmark
enterprise software division. But we are
not going to throw away the Perceptive
name completely; it will still be used in
several product names like Perceptive
Content, Perceptive Intelligent Capture and
Perceptive Search.
Perceptive has been part of Lexmark for
five years. It is time to make this change.
PrintIT Reseller:
Why didn’t you do it
before?
Danny Molhoek:
It's something that's
been on our minds for a while, but there
were benefits in keeping the Perceptive
name, especially in the US where it's
a very, very strong brand. Also, buying
an organisation the size of Perceptive
is something that we needed to learn
lessons from. In the last 12 months we
have become much more agile and quicker
about these kinds of things. We have
learnt from our experience with Perceptive
Software and will use that wisdom
going forward by incorporating the other
companies.
PrintIT Reseller:
Do you think that
before there might have been a
stigma about being a hardware
company but now you are far enough
down the line as a solutions provider
for that no longer to be the case?
Danny Molhoek:
I joined Lexmark at the
end of the '90s and even in those days I
never regarded Lexmark as a typical print
company. We always positioned ourselves
as a company that would tie everything
together from a network point of view,
and we were very early with managed
PrintIT Reseller
talks to Danny Molhoek about Lexmark's
new brand identity and what it represents
New look,
same vision
print services (MPS) and the software and
support services that we've always brought
to market. So, I don't see it like that.
But from a marketing perspective, I can
understand why people might say 'You are
comfortable now because 30% of your
revenue on a worldwide basis is tied up
with software services and managed print
services, so that part of your company is
big enough to make the change'. There
probably is some truth in that.
PrintIT Reseller:
With all your
acquisitions, it’s surprising that still
only 30% of your revenue comes
from software and services.
Danny Molhoek:
I would beg to differ.
It comes down to how you classify things.
A click contract for us is not MPS. All our
straight-out click contracts – and we do a
lot here in the UK through the channel –
are not classified by us internally as MPS.
For us, MPS means the worldwide accounts
that we handle ourselves.
PrintIT Reseller:
Are you finding
it difficult to expand your MPS
business because the customer base
is limited? You are not going to turn
the whole market over to MPS.
Danny Molhoek:
Lexmark divides MPS
into four different levels: you have standard
device consolidation, fleet optimisation
Danny Molhoek,
Managing Director
& Country General
Manager, Lexmark
UK and Ireland
Continued...
Perceptive
has been part
of Lexmark
for five years.
It is time to
make this
change
