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IT
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BULLETIN
LumeJet supports the Beard Season
‘Interesting characters who just happen to have beards’ is how photographer Brock
Elbank describes the celebrities and civilians featured in the Beard exhibition at Somerset
House, London. The 80 portraits on display, including this one of actor Sir John Hurt, were
shot by Elbank as part of the the Beard Season #Project60 campaign to raise awareness
of melanoma. The charity is using the initiative to encourage men to get a professional
skin check, grow a beard, publish their beard photos on social media and become a
Beard Season Ambassador. LumeJet print technology has been used to produce prints of
individual portraits and special edition coffee table books.
SMEs shy of taking on
more debt as access to
external finance eases
SMEs are becoming more successful at
securing external finance for investment,
but their appetite for it remains limited as
they focus on paying down debts rather than
taking on more borrowing.
BDRC Continental’s 15th quarterly SME
Finance Monitor shows that the proportion of
SMEs using external finance fell to 37% in 2014,
down from 46% in 2011. More than seven out of
10 (71%) aim to remain debt-free once they have
paid off an existing debt.
Meanwhile, access to external finance has
improved, with just 6% rating it as a major
obstacle, down from 12% in Q1 2013. In the last
18 months, more than three quarters (76%) of all
loan and overdraft applications have been fully
or partially successful, up from 67% in the 18
months to Q4 2013.
However, success rates are lower for first time
borrowers. Almost all (99%) loan and overdraft
renewals are now successful, compared to 62%
of applications for new money. In addition, first
time applicants for new money remain less likely
to be successful (57% in 2014 to date) than
those who have borrowed before (73%).
External finance is just one part of the
picture. When you include Trade Credit
and injections of personal funds, the
proportion of SMEs using ‘business
funding’ in 2014 increases from 37%
to 64%. Three in 10 SMEs reported
receiving Trade Credit from customers in
the second half of 2014, with two thirds
of these saying that it had reduced
their need for external finance.
drupa now every 3 years
The drupa Advisory Board has announced
that from 2016, the leading print trade show
is switching from a four-year to a three-year
cycle. Dates have not yet been finalised, but it is
expected that drupa will take place in Düsseldorf
in the traditional drupa month of May in 2019,
2022 and 2025.
Danwood to put the
customer first
The Danwood Group has established a
43-person Customer Care Team as part
of a £5 million commitment to improve
customer service and meet guaranteed
service commitments highlighted in a new
customer charter.
Instead of having first call resolution targets
to meet, Danwood’s Customer Care Team is
focused purely on solving incoming enquiries to
the complete satisfaction of the customer. Each
enquiry will be allocated a dedicated customer care
team representative, who will keep the customer
informed of developments and only close a case
once the customer is 100% satisfied.
As well as handling inbound enquiries,
Danwood’s Customer Care Team aims to contact
each of the company’s 17,500 customers every
few months, with the objective of forging stronger
customer relationships, developing a closer
understanding of their needs and identifying any
issues before they become problematic. The team is
currently contacting 450 customers daily.
Steve Francis, CEO of Danwood, said: “One of
the key requirements uncovered from our extensive
industry and customer research is that customers
just want to have trust in their print and document
services supplier. So our overriding objective is to
simply put the customer first and deliver on our
promises to them. We are already seeing a hugely
positive response from our customers to this
new programme and are confident a more happy
customer base will provide strong foundations for
our vision to enable the workplace of the future
through innovative print and document services.”
France overtakes UK
The UK slipped from being the second largest
printer and multifunction (MFP) market in Europe
to the third in Q4 of 2014, as sales fell by 8.6%
compared to the same period in 2013. In France,
now the second largest market, sales fell by
3.6%. The largest market, Germany, enjoyed
sales growth of 6% driven largely by a 61.6%
year-on-year increase in business inkjet sales
(source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Hardcopy
Peripherals Tracker February 2015)
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BULLETIN
A positive response: Steve Francis, Danwood CEO
Canon Europe turns to
BNP Paribas
Canon Europe has appointed BNP Paribas
Leasing Solutions as the Canon Preferred Partner
for financing direct sales of office equipment
and printing solutions in Europe. The Number 1
provider of finance in the European leasing market
will provide Canon Europe with vendor financing
capabilities for its customers across all main
printing groups.
