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mobile printing
Upwardly mobile
Earlier this month, Samsung outlined
its future growth strategy at
Germany’s CeBIT exhibition and gave a
more detailed explanation of its plans
for the newly independent business
unit Printing Solutions Business.
Faced with ambitious growth targets –
$400 billion revenue by 2020, up from $185
billion in 2012 – and a price-driven, price
sensitive consumer market with low barriers
to entry, Samsung has made it a priority to
strengthen B2B sales across all its divisions.
In Western Europe, B2B currently accounts for
about 30% of turnover.
Unlike other Samsung business units, the
printer business already generates 96.5% of
its revenue from B2B, but it is still under-
represented in key areas of the market.
Following the launch last year of its second
generation A3 devices, Samsung wants to
step up a gear and repeat the success it’s
enjoyed with its A4 devices in the more
sophisticated business and enterprise space.
It aims to do this by investing in four key
building blocks:
• Product
– with a focus on good design;
leading edge technologies, such as the
all-in-one board in its latest devices; and
an expanded range of A3 devices (Samsung
plans to launch 50ppm + A3 devices next
year);
Although they have only just formally
announced their alliance, Samsung and
IT services provider Getronics have
been working together for more than
two years – closely for six months – and
have already won six international MPS
contracts including a 25-30 million euro
deal with German supermarket chain
Kaufland.
Mark Cook, Getronics CEO, said that with
six global service desks and field engineers and
service personnel deployed in 70 countries,
Getronics is able to deliver managed print
and other ICT services to Samsung customers
internationally. “We are able to deploy services
and machines as an MPS on behalf of Samsung.
We procure devices, set them up and service and
maintain them over time,” he said.
Getronics sales teams and Samsung deal
generation teams will initially focus on the
European market, but they plan to expand into
other regions in the future. They are targeting
sub-FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies with
operations in multiple countries and are focusing
on Getronics’ existing customer base and new
prospects identified by Samsung.
Cook said: “We will look at our existing
customer base of hundreds and hundreds of
companies globally and go in there to embed
MPS in a current solution or a bid for new
business where we would not have had a robust
offer before. For example, where there is a public
sector IT outsourcing deal we are now able to
offer Samsung’s solution.”
Like Samsung, Getronics is adapting its
offering in response to the growth of mobility
and cloud computing. Its core services revolve
around service desk, but it now offers a much
wider portfolio of ICT services that Samsung
can leverage to enhance its own offering to
enterprise customers.
“Globally, there are some key priorities for us
as a result of what we call portfolio shift,” Cook
explained. “Our core is field engineers, break-fix
and service desk, but the new world is about
cloud, unified communications, infrastructure as a
service (IaaS), consulting and MPS. Our plan over
the next 3-5 years is really to focus on these core
portfolios. That’s why Samsung talk about the
perfect partnership: they could have chosen a larger
company but we are embarking on the same path.”
www.getronics.co.uk
Samsung wants
to step up a
gear and repeat
the success it's
enjoyed with its
A4 devices...
Samsung is putting mobility at the heart of its printer growth
strategy. James Goulding reports
• Service
– investment in service and
support, including dedicated hotlines for
print; more field engineers and training;
improved parts availability; and efficient
delivery;
• Solutions
– with a particular emphasis
on the cloud, mobility and security; an
expanded range of embedded solutions; and
a stronger managed print services offering;
and
• Channel Partners
– Samsung remains
100% committed to the channel and aims
to build deeper relationships with channel
partners.
Global agreement
The early fruits of this approach could
be seen on Samsung’s busy exhibition
stand where Ringdale was showing an
embedded version of FollowMe; Stethos was
promoting its forms management solution
(sold in the UK by Fontware); and PrintFleet
was demonstrating its fleet management
software.
The latter is particularly significant for
Samsung’s channel as PrintFleet has just
signed a global agreement to manage, host
and administer a cloud-based print fleet
monitoring solution for Samsung resellers.
This will make it easier for Samsung resellers
to offer managed print services (MPS) to
customers and enable them to benefit from
lower prices achieved through Samsung’s
global purchasing power.
Another example of Samsung’s strategy
to grow through partnerships with solutions
providers and channel partners is its alliance
with international IT solutions provider
Getronics, which for the first time will enable
it to put together global MPS agreements for
multi-national organisations and wider ICT
solutions (see box for more details).
The X factor
The other aspect of Samsung’s approach
– its X factor – is mobility. Unsurprisingly,
this is an area where the smartphone
leader believes it has an advantage over
competitors.
Dr Kiho Kim, president of the newly
A perfect fit