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CHANNEL STRATEGY
channel but also within the classical
channel,” he said.
“We are not a mass vendor. Our
approach is to work with partners, and show
them how they can do more business and
secure more margin with our products,”
he said. “Dealers that sign up as Business
Partners are not set rebate targets but
have access to exclusive OKI offers. We aim
to grow our share within that partner to
upgrade them to Premium status,” he added.
Channel recruitment
Hagiwara said that whilst OKI is looking to
increase the number of business partners
it currently has, its focus is on quality not
quantity. “The UK channel is polarised,”
he said. “We have a good presence with
direct market resellers who take online and
telephone orders directly from end users
and whilst this transactional business is
important, we are heavily focussed now on
building our VAR channel.”
The company has recently appointed a
new Head of Sales, Dylan Haworth who has
joined from Brother. “Dylan is charged with
business development across the board
– graphic arts, wide format, dealer and
end-user,” he said.
Hagiwara pointed out that OKI does
not conduct direct business. “The challenge
[for Haworth] is to develop the channel
and in particular he will focus on winning
new business that we will fulfil through the
channel.”
Double-digit growth
OKI is targeting double-digit growth in
the next financial year. Hagiwara sees the
key drivers for growth coming from the
traditional office print market, solutions,
graphics arts/print on demand sector and
wide format.
“With our new Smart Solutions, OKI
partners can add more value to their
customers. Our new range of colour printers
and MFPs has been designed to transform
the way printers are used within businesses
of every size and opens up new market
possibilities for our partners,” he said.
The new portfolio is designed to change
perceptions of what a printer can do for
businesses and organisations. Through both
face to face and web-based channels, OKI
says it will educate and encourage end-
users to take a fresh look at the potential
of these affordable devices to help them
build their brand, save time and money and
enhance productivity.
Solutions for every industry
“Our products are easy to use, that’s our
key strength,” Hagiwara said. “They can
also help develop a streamlined and secure
document workflow and management,
enabling businesses to enjoy the benefits of
a digital organisation.”
OKI’s open platform, sXP, allows for
connectivity to other solutions, for example
to an existing pull printing fleet or to third-
party software applications for example
PaperCut, Drivve Image, Ringdale FollowMe
or YSOFT SafeQ. A software development
kit is also available for software developers
allowing a rapid development of tailor-
made solutions.
Hagiwara argues that OKI’s free
embedded solution, proprietary software
SENDYS Explorer provides partners with a
competitive edge. “It enables businesses
and organisations to capture, convert to
searchable formats, distribute, upload
to cloud solutions and print documents
across a whole range of departments
and industries for example in healthcare,
retail and in office printing, while its
optional Output Manager connector allows
administrators to manage all users’ print,
copy and scan jobs, as well as protecting
document confidentiality,” he said.
Developing new solutions and driving
channel sales in this area is very much
front of mind for OKI. “This forms part of
revenue recognition, we count solutions
sales to give more rebate to our partners,”
he added.
In conclusion Hagiwara said: “Our
key message is that we are empowering
business to make a big impression. We are
giving the traditional channel the power
to add value over the online operators.
We can offer them a value-added solution,
apps can be plugged in, they can tap into
OKI’s MPS programme and we can tailor
solutions for each customers’ needs – all of
that adds value.”.
Thomas Seeber,
Vice President Channel and Distribution EMEA
