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COMPANY PROFILE
Since the launch of its Premier
partner programme in 2014, the
number of channel partners has more
than doubled. Madders estimates
that across Europe, the company
currently has in excess of 300
resellers signed up.
The company extended Premier
membership via its European-wide
distribution partners – the main ones
being Katun, Toshiba (Italy), Olivetti and
Ricoh (UK), and according to Madders, this
played a key role in meeting its objective
to proactively target further expansion by
growing its network significantly.
“Across the past two years, as a business
we have enjoyed steady consistent growth
year on year,” he said. “In 2016, our overall
business grew by 24 per cent and we’re
targeting to continue that growth trajectory
through 2017.”
Madders sees much of this future growth
coming from a number of new products it
is adding to its portfolio. “We also assumed
responsibility for the Middle East and Africa
regions last year which will also add to the
growth,” he explained.
Comprehensive and scalable
The company’s suite of products is designed
to support resellers delivering managed
print services to provide customers with
the opportunity to reduce the cost and
environmental impact of printing. “Print
audits seem to have come full circle and
are very much back in fashion,” Madders
commented. “We’ve seen an increasing
number of enquiries from channel partners
for user and device assessment tools in
recent months,” he added.
The offering is comprehensive and
scalable, from Print Audit Facilities Manager,
which simplifies MPS delivery for the reseller
by remotely collecting meter readings,
automating supplies fulfilment and providing
service information across the fleet; to Print
Audit 6, which enables users to account for
every document produced per individual
user, allows limits to be set by volume, or to
restrict colour printing, and via its embedded
option tracks copying, scanning and faxing,
to permit accurate internal recharging by
department if required.
New solutions
Print Audit is introducing some new
products for 2017. These include
MySalesDrive, a new auditing tool designed
to streamline data collection. This new
solution will enable dealers to seamlessly
build proposals and produce reports on
total cost of ownership and environmental
impact. “We did a soft launch to partners
the first week of January and it was really
well received with two signing up on the
spot,” Madders said.
The company has also partnered with
a UK based company to develop a solution
that enables partners to improve how they
analyse and leverage data collected from
customers’ fleets. “We have developed a
dashboard that interrogates our device
management and assessment software and
provides business intelligence. It marries
device utilisation, user behaviour, application
utilisation and toner usage. It also updates
automatically and provides partners with a
quick view of key performance indicators,
from our MPS portfolio,” Madders explained.
The new solution which will launched
in Q1 this year, will also have the capability
to plug into other software such as service
management systems, a functionality that
will enable resellers to bring different silos
of information into one place. This can be
used internally to run the business, and as a
Phil Madders, Managing Director of Print Audit EMEA, shared
details of some exciting new product launches and explained
how the company is geared to deliver further value-added
opportunities for partners in 2017
Print Audit EMEA
expands its offer
sales tool for key accounts or winning new
business. It takes complex data and makes it
simple to analyse and present.
“Our core product range remains
extremely relevant but we are focusing
on enhancing and refining what we do,
extending our offer and giving dealers
added value,” Madders added.
Seat-based billing
One major development is within seat-based
billing (SBB) for managed print. “This is a
totally new concept and is being driven out
of head office in Canada,” Madders said.
“We have just partnered with Great America
Leasing to present the market’s first SBB
financing options for managed print. That’s
something we’re looking at closely, with a
view to rolling out across other regions.”
Whilst SBB is a model widely adopted in
the IT sector, up until now it hasn’t gained
any traction within the print world. “It’s
about aligning the dealers’ offer with the
customer need,” Madders commented.
“There is a disconnect between the
customers’ wish to print less and save more,
and the dealers’ desire for them to increase
volumes in a bid to secure revenues. What
we are proposing is a move away from
the traditional cost per page model, which
means that reductions in volume actually
benefits both parties in the deal. It’s quite
radical, but it was designed in partnership
with 29 US office equipment dealers and is
already winning business. A number of our
UK partners are looking at it as a way of
protecting margins.”
Print Audit sells exclusively to the
channel and offers partners a flexible
subscription plan that provides access to
all of its products for a low monthly fee.
Madders said: “The Premier pricing model is
totally flexible, we’ve designed it to support
dealers for whom MPS is a new area, as
well as those who require the ability to
seamlessly adjust the number of licences
they deploy as customer requirements
change.”
He added: “The biggest challenge the
channel is facing now is pressure on margin
and we can help them to add value to
customers’ businesses and ensure recurrent
revenues. We’re committed to supporting
partners in moving their businesses
forward.”
This new
solution will
enable dealers
to seamlessly
build
proposals
and produce
reports on
total cost of
ownership
and
environmental
impact
Phil Madders,
Managaing
Director,
Print Audit EMEA
