DEALERS HELPING DEALERS
Production Accessories Do dealers add costs for these additions? Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine
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ollowing is another of the questions submitted by a dealer member as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource, and several of the answers received. Six dealer respondents simply responded “no,” while two simply responded “yes.” These answers and many others can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. Visit www.bta.org/DealersHelpingDealers. You will need your username and password to access this member resource. When selling maintenance for production machines, do you add additional costs for any accessories (i.e., Fierys, GBCs and Plockmatic options)? “We try to, but we do not do it all the time. Not so much for Fierys, but we do for GBCs and Plocks.” Juan Maldonado, vice president of service UBEO Business Services, Austin, Texas “We add in $75 per month for Fiery. We have not sold the GBC or Plockmatic, but we would charge something for those; we haven’t figured out a price.” Mick Dean, managing partner SaraMana Business Products Inc., Sarasota, Florida “Currently we do not have additional charges for production accessories. These can be difficult to introduce in the light production arena. I have experienced these fees in a previous life, though these were sales from a few $100,000s to $1 million. “We are relatively new to this space. As we develop this vertical, I foresee additional charges to not only hardware, but also to analyst services.” Dan Bowie, vice president of sales Corporate Business Systems, Madison, Wisconsin “Yes, you have to. Especially the Fiery, as it takes an IT guy to fix that product.” Chip Miceli, president Pulse Technology, Elk Grove Village, Illinois “We are new to production machines and have found that manufacturer guidance on cost of maintenance is often lacking or not included in suggested pricing models. Future
maintenance agreements will include the additional costs.” Richard Hermann, president TC Technologies Inc., Tonawanda, New York “For non-metered devices, I calculate the annual amount of the maintenance is 12% to 15% of the sales price or MSRP of the actual item. For example, say a GBC has a $10,000 sales price. Twelve percent of the sales price would be $1,200 per year or $100 per month.” Matt Halsrud, director of service & operations Koch Office Group, Des Moines, Iowa “Fierys no, but yes on all GBCs and Plockmatics. We generally charge 10% of the cost as a flat monthly service fee.” Kevin Laury, COO SumnerOne, St. Louis, Missouri “These options (as well as computers and HDDs) are not included in regular maintenance contracts. We do not add additional costs to contracts because these items are expensive and may not be covered, if needed, to be replaced by the regular copy rates.” Dan Castaneda, general manager International Copy Machine Center, El Paso, Texas “We would like to add service base fees for production accessories ($25 to $45 per month), but the competition does not charge for it.” Jeffrey Ford, vice president of client experience Impact Networking, Lake Forest, Illinois “At this point we do not charge separately for accessories or Fierys, but we are looking into that.” Mike Ardry, general manager, Connecticut Automated Business Solutions, Southington, Connecticut Do you have a question for your fellow dealers? If so, email it to brent@bta.org with the subject line: “Dealers Helping Dealers.” BTA will then share your question with the full dealer membership with a request for guidance from your fellow dealers. n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.c om | M a rc h 2020 | 35
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