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48
INTERVIEW
As a wholesale
partner, people
trust us to get
the right goods
on the shelf,
accurately
pick, fulfil and
deliver their
orders on time
service and initial interest was high – some
78 per cent of the resellers who attended
the launch event signed up.
“We built on this, invested heavily in
people and infrastructure, to develop a
VOW-led managed print solution,” Butler
said, adding: “We invested in category
specialists, internal sales support, and a
team of administrators as well as people
to take first line calls, monitor and manage
the MPS contracts.”
The service delivery was provisioned
through Cura Technical, who according to
Butler, provided a first class service.
“We really felt we’d got something
there and we did see some deals won. 18
months on, some partners were confident
running their own contracts, but overall we
weren’t seeing sufficient traction. We had
to look at the business case, and this led
us to take the hard decision to cease what
was essentially a non-core activity and
divert the investment back into our core
business,” he said.
Butler explained that experience
has shown that dealers trust and
have confidence in VOW, but are not
comfortable in handing work over to a
third-party. “When it comes down to
delivering managed print services, we’re
not positioned to deliver it all in-house.
The only real way to become an expert is if
you acquire a business and that’s not our
core,” he said.
“As a wholesale partner, people trust
us to get the right goods on the shelf,
accurately pick, fulfil and deliver their
orders on time, and so we made a strategic
decision to stick with what we’re best at
– being a great wholesaler from a service
point of view,” he added.
One could argue that by pulling out of
MPS, the wholesaler could potentially lose
the revenue associated with consumables
fulfilment. But Butler disagrees: “If our
resellers can make money through MPS,
then ultimately that makes their business
healthier. As a wholesaler that means I’ve
got a healthy profitable reseller.
“I suppose you could look at it from the
point of view that if a reseller has an MPS
contract and isn’t fulfilling toner through
you then they’re moving away from you.
But I don’t see it that way. It’s not always
about VOW getting more spend, it’s about
longevity and with over 2,200 resellers, we
have a very healthy client base, the channel
is a lot more resilient than people think,”
he said in conclusion.
around for a number of years, and
deployments were largely within the top-
end mid-market and lower end corporate
sector, a dealer’s sweet spot.
“However trends showed that it had
come down a level and was becoming ever
more prevalent within businesses with one
to two devices, there was a market there
for our customers and so we did something
about entering it.”
He added: “Most of our resellers have
a top tier of clients who are prime for MPS,
but as a wholesaler we didn’t have the
infrastructure in place to provide a complete
end-to-end solution. We didn’t have any
service engineers or a team to handle first
line calls for example, so we partnered with
M2. This partnership with M2 worked really
well and we enjoyed and continue to enjoy,
a successful business relationship.”
VOW saw some early successes with a
number of its partners signing up, however
over time it became evident that not all
were content with the offer. “In essence,
the end-users’ contract was with M2,
the reseller got a commission on each
deal, but as time went on, many weren’t
comfortable with the fact that they didn’t
own the customer relationship, an issue
that’s problematic across any number of
areas, and one which is not exclusive to
MPS contracts,” Butler explained.
VOW-led MPS
With contraction in both the OP and EOS
markets, VOW saw MPS as an opportunity
for its resellers to plug revenue gaps and
increase customer wallet share. With this
in mind, in 2014 it structured a new offer
in consultation with the MPSA (Managed
Print Services Association). Its aim was
to provide a more flexible and accessible
solution, with improved invoicing, reporting
and communication tools which would
enable resellers to secure customers and
expand the services they currently provide.
The initiative was designed to help
resellers derive all the benefits of a brand
agnostic, customer-focussed managed print
...continued
There was
a market
there for our
customers
and so we did
something
about
entering it
