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www.printit
reseller
.co.uk
Print.IT Reseller
Initially set-up as a Selex reseller,
the advent of digital technology saw
Elmdale also adopt the Kyocera range.
But it was the colour revolution that led
them to approach Olivetti to become an
authorised dealership in 2003.
According to Sales Director Stuart
Fielding, the opportunity for growth in colour
was massive and Olivetti’s colour portfolio,
which they saw as being among the best on
the market, exactly met their needs.
Over the past eight years, Elmdale has
tripled its spend with Olivetti, achieved Elite
dealer status and is positioned among its
top three dealers. “Pre-colour, our turnover
was healthy at around £750K, but since we
started to offer Olivetti colour technology,
sales have rocketed and our turnover has
increased almost three-fold,” said Fielding.
Drivers for growth
One of the biggest drivers for growth has
been Elmdale’s stringent focus on customer
service, as Fielding explained: “We’re focussed
on delivering value to our customers and not
just in monetary terms. It’s not enough to
simply install the machine and walk away.”
Perhaps unusually for a dealer of this
size, the business growth has not come in
the main from the delivery of managed print
services. “We have flirted with MPS but it’s
not a huge part of our business. Our focus
is on streamlining customers’ fleets and
installing high-end, high volume MFPs that
enable them to shift towards a more efficient
centralised print infrastructure. We also
provide them with complementary software
solutions such as ‘find-me’ printing and
PaperCut print management tools that save
23 years of
sustained growth
them both time and money,” said Fielding.
Over the years Elmdale has embraced
change and diversified into new and
synergistic areas where it sees an
opportunity for growth. Around 18 months
ago it entered a new and emerging
marketplace – VoIP telephony – a move that
came about as a direct result of the directors
having identified this as a great solution
to offer to existing customers and one that
would enable them to win new business.
Customer service
Customer service is front and centre of
Elmdale’s business strategy. The firm has
a number of customers with multi-sites
and, according to Fielding, another great
advantage of being part of Olivetti’s dealer
network is that by partnering with other
dealerships they can service customer fleets
nationwide.
In addition, it has its own team of service
engineers headed up by Service Director Jon
Palin, whose focus is firmly on the customer
experience. “Customer retention levels and
first-time fix rates remain consistently high,”
said Fielding. “And that’s something we’re
particularly proud of.”
www.elmdalemaintenance.co.uk
Established in 1990, Elmdale
Maintenance is Olivetti’s
Elite dealer for Berkshire,
Hampshire and Oxfordshire.
The firm provides high
performance business print
and IT solutions, telecoms
and document management
systems and prides itself on
customer service. Having
enjoyed sustained year-
on-year growth, Elmdale
has just recorded its most
profitable year to date.
35
profile
(l-r) Stuart Fielding,
Sales Director
and Jon Palin,
Service Director
Customer satisfaction
– the driving force
The Motor Insurance Repair
Research Centre, better known as
Thatcham, first became involved
with Elmdale when it was looking
to streamline its printing and
copying systems. The IT department
is responsible for the management
of all systems costs so it was
vital to bring everything into
line. According to David Maskell,
Thatcham’s IT Manager, prior to the
systems they have in place now,
things were very different.
“At the time, we had two suppliers
and somewhere in the region of 20 to 30
different types of device. Almost everyone
had a printer on their desk so the system
was becoming impossible to manage.”
Thatcham had a well prepared wish-
list: cost effective and reliable multi-
functionality. They wanted to simplify
their printing and copying systems,
introduce scan-to-email and replace their
mono machines with colour solutions.
Elmdale’s proposal was to install
eight Olivetti d-Color MF models
which allow greater flexibility through
a centralised print queue system that
enables staff to print from their desktop
PC and collect the prints from any
machine on the network. Access via a
PIN code maintains confidentially.
Where the machines have made a
huge impact is in The Training Academy,
which had traditionally outsourced
manuals and course documents at great
expense. Bringing the task in-house
saved costs, time and effort.
Maskell highlighted some key points
as to why their partnership with Elmdale
has been so successful. “Communication
is good between us. We regularly discuss
ideas for improving and managing
our systems, which gives us complete
confidence. Admittedly, the machines
tend to run themselves and we can
manage changing our own consumables,
but their support is very good and their
technicians are very knowledgeable. The
equipment they have supplied fits our
requirements very well and has given us
greater functionality, cost effectiveness
and reliability.”