Louella Fernandes explains how information managed services (IMS) can help
organisations improve the way they process, share and manage information
throughout its life-cycle and, in doing so, enhance communication and
collaboration in the digital workplace.
PRINT
IT
RESELLER.UK
43
INTERVIEW
In many
businesses,
the easy
collaboration
and exchange
of information
desired by
millennials
is being
frustrated by
inadequate
information
management
and processes
Delegates at Sharp’s bi-annual dealer
forum offered other suggestions for where
improvements could be made. “One of
the areas dealers said they wanted us to
improve was technical support. Another
was training. So we put our hands in our
pockets and put extra resources into those
functions. Again, that has worked really
well,” said Sykes.
Sharp has strengthened its training
team with three full-time appointments;
completely overhauled its technical support
capability so that the direct sales support
team can now take calls from dealers’
engineers; and, perhaps most importantly,
doubled the size of the product planning
and marketing department. This is enabling
Sharp to implement a long-term growth
strategy, rather than simply fire-fight,
whilst also making sure that dealers have
all the co-branded marketing assets they
need to win business.
2
Changing perceptions
About 90% of Sharp’s turnover still
comes purely from MFP sales, despite
the long-standing availability of printer
solutions and, more recently, related
technologies like large format displays,
videoconferencing and collaboration
solutions and cloud services.
This indicates that dealers and
customers have been slow to embrace
the possibilities for integrated, connected
technologies encapsulated in the ’Inspiring
Ideas from Technology’ tagline launched
last year. On a more positive note, it also
reveals the great scope that exists for
Sharp and its dealers to increase sales of
these products.
The challenges facing Sykes are, first,
how to change the way Sharp is perceived
so that customers see it (and its dealers)
as technology partners rather than simply
MFP providers; and, secondly, how to
package solutions so that they are easier
for the channel to market and implement.
“Manufacturers are famous for saying
‘here’s a new product, now go and sell
it’. But today, it’s very difficult to give
someone a new piece of technology and
a price list and say ‘go sell it’ because
there is a lot of work that needs doing in
the background. The template we have
followed with our visual solutions, which
we are going to replicate with IT Services,
is to launch to the direct team first, take
it to the marketplace, find the sweet spot,
identify difficulties, learn from our mistakes
and find partners who can help us with
supplementary or complementary products
and services that help us add value to the
customer,” explained Sykes.
“After nine months of selling visual
solutions through the direct business, we
were in a position to go to our dealers and
not just hand them a screen that hangs
on the wall but give them an ‘oven-ready’
package and show how we have done it,
where we sold the solutions, what partners
we hav found to help us and also the
things we have done wrong. And we can
involve people from our direct side to
talk to dealers about what they did. That
relationship and collaboration is quite
unique.”
Backing up this approach is Sharp’s
new Integrated Technology Partner
Programme (ITTP), introduced in April
to identify dealers that are ready to go
beyond MFPs and print solutions and
embrace Sharp’s expanding range of visual,
collaboration and cloud solutions. From
an initial cohort of six, the number of ITTP
dealers has now expanded to 18.
Sharp is now taking its services
capability to the next level with the
roll-out of IT services that enable SMEs
to outsource essential functions, such as
help desk, backup, disaster recovery and
hardware break-fix. These services are
currently being fine-tuned and proved by
the Sharp direct sales arm before being
packaged up and offered to the channel.
3
Foxconn
Much of these developments are made
possible by the financial shot in the arm
Foxconn delivered in the summer. Sykes
describes Foxconn as ‘the biggest business
you’ve never heard of’, pointing out that it
is the third largest IT company by revenue
(according to Forbes) and that in some way
it touches 40% of all consumer products
worldwide. This, he says, gives Sharp real
strength in depth.
It is easy to see why Sharp might be
excited about the relationship. But what
is the attraction for Foxconn? When
the manufacturing giant announced its
investment in Sharp, there was some
speculation about the future of the
company’s Document Solutions business.
At a time of consolidation in the printer
industry, notably the acquisitions of
After nine
months of
selling visual
solutions
through
the direct
business, we
are now in a
position to go
to our dealers
Continued...
