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VOX POP
20
2016 was an eventful year
in the print industry, what
has impacted most on your
business?
Mark Smyth,
Operations Director,
Vision
:
“In our financial year 2016, Vision has
seen some great wins from all sectors. We
have also experienced some slowdown
in the months leading up to Brexit with
economic uncertainty impacting on and
delaying some decisions. Plans to leave
the European Union has also resulted in
currency fluctuations and we have been
impacted by price increases from supply
chain and vendors, resulting in some
increases being passed on to clients,
something we always aim to avoid where
possible.”
Phil Powell,
Managing Director,
Midshire Group
:
“Thankfully our
business hasn’t really been affected by
anything so far this year. The news of Brexit
did suggest that maybe there could be
some uncertainty about buying decisions
being delayed, but the reality of the
situation is that growth remains steady
across all of our businesses, at around 11
per cent year on year.”
Matt Goodall,
Service Director,
Office
Evolution
:
“The Brexit decision impacted
prices from suppliers. Although we did not
choose to pass these on to our customers,
it was evident that customers were more
cautious when making decisions about
purchasing or leasing equipment.
“The other big impact this year was
customer awareness of controlling costs
and wastage at their offices. We have seen
a huge increase in the supply of software
such as Papercut and this has increased
our customer base and its security.”
Colin Griffin,
Managing Director,
Blackbox Solutions
:
“Looking back,
the past year has certainly been eventful
for Blackbox Solutions. The business
has continued to grow and our close
relationship with Samsung has seen us
move to third in Samsung’s UK dealer
rankings, up from 30th just two years ago.
“We moved to new headquarters in
Maidstone at the start of the year, which
has given us plenty of opportunities for
new business growth, and we’ve launched
a Copy Shop in the centre of town to
expand the range of services we can offer
to local businesses.
“We see the integration of document
solutions and IT services as vital to our
ability to sustain continued growth.
Blackbox launched our in-house IT division
early in 2016 and we’ve seen increasing
demand for IT services from our clients,
who have consolidated their document
solutions and IT accounts with us, as well
as picking up new accounts which is very
encouraging.
“The new premises have also given us
the opportunity to launch an in-house data
centre which has allowed us to provide
additional services to our customers.”
Clive Hamilton,
Group Managing
Director,
Pinnacle Complete Office
Solutions
:
“Developments in technology
have enabled us to generate new revenue
streams in security, cloud services and
Print Predictions 2017
content management, however this is very
much all wrapped in document workflow
opportunities.”
Steve Hawkins,
Managing Director,
Xeretec
:
“Interestingly, the thing that
impacted our business most isn’t related
to any political or economic turbulence,
but something far closer to home;
managed print service.
“Specifically, the number of companies
that have come to us because they
have been dissatisfied with their current
managed print service provider where
they haven’t realised the benefits they
were promised. We’ve seen considerable
growth from those clients and anticipate
this trend will continue in 2017.”
What are the biggest
challenges facing the
channel currently?
Mark Smyth:
“Our market and the
channel, remains fiercely competitive, with
margins squeezed continually and this
means you must remain as efficient as
possible in all areas. Currency fluctuations
and economic uncertainty, are adding
to pricing pressure and this will further
expose any business weakness and
inefficiencies.”
Phil Powell:
“Some of our suppliers
have announced price increases, which so
far haven’t affected us due to the stock
we are holding and the availability of
alternative suppliers. Unless the pound
does recover, I do feel that our long-term
buy prices will increase. However, all of
our competitors will be facing the same
challenges as us.”
Matt Goodall:
“The channel faces
challenges from companies that aren’t
traditional imaging suppliers, offering
machines that have alleged lower running
costs and simpler maintenance, but as
we have seen in the past, these often
result in high TCO and greater waste, as
units cannot have individual components
replaced.
“Dealers need to focus on the
associated products such as software
As we begin another New Year,
PrintIT Reseller
asked a panel of the UK’s leading dealerships to
consider what 2017 holds for the print and IT sectors
Continued...
Mark Smyth,
Operations
Director,
Vision
Colin Griffin,
Managing
Director,
Blackbox
Solutions
We see the
integration
of document
solutions and
IT services
as vital to
our ability
to sustain
continued
growth
