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UTAX Product Demonstration Days:
October 2014 – March 2015
PRODUCTIVITY, RELIABILITY, QUALITY, YOU
PrintIT Reseller (PITR)
: How have
the European and UK managed
print services markets changed
since the last Transform Europe
conference 12 months ago?
Ken Stewart (KS):
Most OEMs have
cited softness in their 2013 numbers in the
European market especially. There is some
positive sign of growth, but it is very focused
on emerging markets. In Western Europe
the focus seems to be more on the channel
and activating that channel a little more
aggressively than in the past.
From all the signs we see, the UK may
be under stronger pricing pressure than the
US. It is a smaller market geographically, so
there is a lot more competition and pricing
pressure, even though the US is technically a
more mature market.
There are also signs that channel partners
are struggling with higher value offerings.
They want to offer higher value stuff, but
office equipment dealers are finding it hard
to do and system integrators haven’t fully
decided whether they are on board with
MPS yet. There are providers moving forward
at every stage of MPS, but it’s a case of the
strong getting stronger – the weak don’t
really know where to go at this point.
PITR:
Why has demand been soft
in Europe?
KS:
There is still a level of economic
uncertainty, which leads to indecision.
Budget decisions are being put off and
customers aren’t investing in infrastructure
or people. That said, they are looking to
outsource, so there is some traction there,
and people can’t put off budget decisions
for ever, so we are seeing some warming
in the lower end of the MPS market.
Instead of going full bore with a higher
end engagement, people are going full
bore with enhancements. They are saying:
‘Lets centralise purchasing as much as we
can; let’s reduce costs in the low-hanging-
fruit areas first’. The softness for me is
predominantly a result of the economy and
uncertainty in the marketplace.
PrintIT Reseller
talks to Ken Stewart, Practice Director, Services
at Photizo Group about developments in the UK MPS market.
Prague, October 20-22 will see a gathering of Europe’s leading MPS
practitioners as Photizo Group stages Transform Europe in the Czech
capital. The conference provides an ideal opportunity for office
equipment dealers/resellers, IT service providers, MPS providers
and office supplies dealers to share their experiences, wisdom and
knowledge with fellow professionals. Ahead of the event,
PrintIT
Reseller
spoke to Ken Stewart about key trends in the UK MPS market.
The strong
get stronger
Ken Stewart,
practice director,
Photizo Group
Regardless of
which market
we look
at, we see
three buying
profiles...
Continued...
PITR:
Is there pricing pressure
because end users aren’t so
interested in high value business
process transformation?
KS:
I am hearing different tunes from
different people, which suggests to me that
there is a mixed marketplace along the lines
of the 80:20 rule.
We’ve done a lot of research with our
Decision-Making Tracker Study
, which we
now run across nine countries. Regardless
of which market we look at, we see
three buying profiles: there are high-level
strategy customers; low-level price-sensitive
customers, who spend three times less than
the strategy customers; and middle-of-the-
road, provincial-type customers who are
really into MPS for device fleet optimisation.
When it comes to business process
transformation, the smaller percentage of
channel partners that deal with medium-
sized and large enterprises have more
traction in the business process space than
those that focus on companies of 10-49 or
50-250 employees.
PITR:
Do resellers prefer to adopt
OEM programmes than develop
their own, and are they satisfied
with what the OEMs offer?
KS:
Overall, we find that partners like to
sign up to a programme to see how vendors
run it. They then decide whether to take
elements from it or not. In the UK, 40% have
signed up for OEM programmes; 20% have
