March 2023 Office Technology

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CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES

10 Fabulous Phones

Three dealers discuss the VoIP opportunity

by Brent Hoskins

Office

Technology Magazine

Have you taken a look at VoIP phone systems lately? They provide functionality superior to legacy phone systems, savings for customers and greater reliability than you may realize. Here are profiles of three dealerships focused on their VoIP-based offerings.

16

Applying AI to Capture

Carving out a successful IDP strategy

by Ralph Gammon Infosource Software

Infosource has been ranking capture software vendors and analyzing the market for more than 20 years. However, what used to be a limited set of vendors competing with a limited set of applications has exploded in the past five years, primarily due to the introduction of AI.

20

Q&A: Chris Polek

A look at the heritage & focus of Polek & Polek

Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

The company reflects the names of John Polek and his son, Chris Polek, who has served as president and CEO since 1999. Recently, Office Technology magazine had the opportunity to interview Chris about the heritage of his company, its focus today and his thoughts about the dealer channel.

DEALERS HELPING DEALERS

24

MPS Compensation Plans

How are your fellow dealers structuring them?

Compiled by Brent Hoskins

Office Technology Magazine

This article includes a question submitted by a dealer member as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource, and several of the answers received. These answers and many others can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website.

PRINCIPAL ISSUES

26

Epson’s InkBoldly Manufacturer sees inkjet as the ‘future of the office’

by Brent Hoskins

Office Technology Magazine

Focused, in part, on expectations for the continued rise of inkjet printing in the office environment, Epson America hosted the InkBoldly Epson Partner Conference Feb. 6-7 in Huntington Beach, California. The event included general and breakout sessions, Q&As and event activities.

COURTS & CAPITOLS

27

Email Standards

Some best practices to follow in the digital age

by Robert C. Goldberg BTA General Counsel

In the digital age, every electronic communication you send is retrievable and, in litigation, will be demanded. Emails need to reflect your professional standards. Remember that electronic messages are nearly permanent. Write as if either your mom or a judge is reading them.

SELLING SOLUTIONS

29

Commit to Memory

How to create presentations on the spot

by Troy Harrison

Troy Harrison & Associates

What the customer wants is to be made better than he (or she) was when you first contacted him. This means your salespeople need to be mentally agile enough to create and deliver presentations tailored to customer needs on the spot and in their heads.

28

Dealer Groups About Helping One Another

Ihave written in this space in the past about the BTA Dealers Helping Dealers Discussion Groups. There are five groups in place: three for owners and senior management; one for sales management; and one for service management. The groups, comprised of non-competing BTA member dealers, meet via Zoom. I host the calls and serve as moderator. Two of the groups meet every other week; the other three groups meet monthly. To date, combining all five groups and all of the calls, there have been 194 calls with total attendance of 2,251.

In each call, attendees discuss all aspects of their dealerships, asking questions of one another, sharing ideas, reviewing best practices, reporting on success stories, etc. The groups perfectly illustrate a primary purpose of BTA — to facilitate dealers helping dealers.

One of the things I have been pleased to see is the dialog of group members outside of the calls. They have one another’s email addresses and, so, can easily communicate. Below is an excerpt from a recent email chain among members of one of the groups, to give you a sense of the value of participation beyond the Zoom calls. These are dealers who now know one another well and can lean on the group members for counsel.

n Dealer One: “If you are willing to share, what is your starting pay for these positions? Here are mine. My managers and senior level are all salary positions but converted to hourly for this request. Add anything to the list as needed: Customer service/receptionist, $15/hour; bookkeeper, $17/hour; controller, $26/hour; entry service technician, $17/ hour; experienced service technician, $22/ hour; service manager, $24/hour; IT help

desk, $17/hour; IT lead, $19/hour; IT manager, $26/hour; entry sales, $17/hour; experienced sales, $26/hour.”

n Dealer Two: “Customer service/receptionist, $18-$20/hour; bookkeeper, N/A; controller, $35/hour; entry service technician, $18-$20/hour; experienced service technician, $22-$25/hour; service manager, $27$30/hour; IT help desk, $18-$20/hour; IT lead, $20-$25/hour; IT manager, $30-$35/ hour; entry sales, $18-$20/hour; experienced sales, $20-$24/hour (we usually do low hourly and high commission percentage).”

n Dealer Three: “Great list and I would say for the positions we currently have, I am in line with [Dealer One’s] initial numbers. Experienced sales or service can vary greatly, but entry levels seem right ... I am currently looking for a controller and I am hoping [this person] can be a strategic asset to the company and a part of the leadership team, meaning [he or she] will proactively look for and research potential areas of focus and be able to present potential improvements; not just someone to enter A/R, A/P and manage contracts, which I would define as a bookkeeper. I wanted to clarify since we all might define those roles differently.”

n Dealer Four: “Have you considered a fractional CEO or controller? We use a company called Fahrenheit, which helps companies accomplish these goals without full-time pay. Many are previous business owners or top executives. There may be a company in your market that [offers] this service.”

Are you interested in participating in one of the BTA Dealers Helping Dealers Discussion Groups? If so, email me at brent@ bta.org. I will then work to get you into a discussion group that has no competitors to your dealership. n

— Brent Hoskins

Executive Director/BTA Editor/Office Technology

Brent Hoskins brent@bta.org

(816) 303-4040

Associate Editor

Elizabeth Marvel elizabeth@bta.org

(816) 303-4060

Contributing Writers

Ralph Gammon, Infosource Software www.info-source.com

Bob Goldberg, General Counsel Business Technology Association

Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates www.troyharrison.com

Business Technology Association

12411 Wornall Road Kansas City, MO 64145

(816) 941-3100 www.bta.org

Member Services: (800) 505-2821

BTA Legal Hotline: (312) 648-2300

Valerie Briseno Marketing Director valerie@bta.org

Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org

Photo Credits: Adobe Stock. Cover created by Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2023 by the Business Technology Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published material. However, the publisher assumes no liability for errors in articles nor are opinions expressed necessarily those of the publisher.

FLASHBACK

The association’s magazine cover 51 years ago this month — the NOMDA Spokesman, March 1972.

BTA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Learn MITS Strategies With GAP’s Chris Ryne

Can you relate to any of the following statements?

“We are thinking about getting into the managed IT services business and want a proven path.” “We are new to the business and need to make up for lost time, accelerate and avoid mistakes.”

“We are in the business today and looking for additional tools, tactics and perspectives to keep progressing.” If one of these applies to you, I encourage you to register for the BTA On-Demand Managed IT Services Workshop, led by Chris Ryne of Growth Achievement Partners (GAP). For the last 13 years, the workshop has provided dealers comprehensive education and training by addressing relevant, industry-specific opportunities and issues appropriate for all levels of managed service provider (MSP) maturity.

Chris, an office technology veteran of more than 20 years, created the workshop specifically for — and used results from within — the office technology industry. Each session contains guidance for what you should do with the information presented based on whether you are “entering,” “entered,” or already “materially in,” the managed IT services (MITS) business.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the workshop became a virtual offering and, today, it is now available on-demand. You can now download videos of all of the sessions and watch them whenever and wherever works best for you and your team members. During the sessions, Chris shares his experience in both the office technology and MSP spaces to allow attendees to walk away with strategies, processes, tools and metrics for capitalizing on this market opportunity.

The workshop has been constructed to optimize remote delivery, provides a library

of curated and developed material for your use that supports each recorded session, and includes the opportunity to schedule a 45-minute Q&A session with Chris after you have completed the workshop to help with your specific questions.

The topics that are covered in the 60- to 75-minute recorded sessions include:

n Introduction: Workshop overview & eight numbers to help deliver MITS success

n Session 1: Market overview, business model & KPIs, pricing & packaging

n Session 2: Operations & service delivery

n Session 3: Sales process, sales specialist & virtual CIO (vCIO) roles & development

n Session 4: Marketing, list development, copier/MFP rep & account engagement

n Session 5: Hiring, third-party partners, trends & strategies of MSP acquisition, a blueprint for establishing & executing your strategy

n Live Session 6: Ask-me-anything session to help with your specific needs

Dealer feedback from the workshop over the years has been very positive:

n “The timing is now right to get into managed IT services. It can be very confusing and expensive if a dealer does not have the right consultants in place ... Managed IT services can be very complex; Chris helped us get to the simple side of complexity.” — Jerry Carlisle, Business World Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas

n “We are in the business and are looking to grow it. The best practices shared will allow us to tweak and improve in areas needed.” — Larry Perry, MMIT Business Solutions Group, Urbandale, Iowa

Member tuition for this on-demand workshop is $950 per dealership, and you can have an unlimited number of viewers from your company. For more information or to register, visit www.bta.org/MITS. n

— David Polimeni

2022-2023 Board of Directors

President

David Polimeni RITE Technology Sarasota, Florida dpolimeni@ritefl.com

President-Elect

Don Risser DCS Technologies Corp. Franklin, Ohio don.risser@dcs-tech.com

Vice President

Adam Gregory Advanced Business Solutions LLC St. Augustine, Florida adam@goabsinc.com

Immediate Past President

Tim Renegar Kelly Office Solutions Winston-Salem, North Carolina trenegar@kellyofficesolutions.com

BTA East Mike Ardry Automated Business Solutions Warwick, Rhode Island mardry@absne.com

Mike Boyle BASE Technologies Inc. Bethel, Connecticut mboyle@baseinc.com

BTA Mid-America

Brantly Fowler Zeno Office Solutions Inc. Midland, Texas bfowler@zenotx.com

Greg Quirk JQ Office Equipment Omaha, Nebraska gquirk@jqoffice.com

BTA Southeast Debra Dennis CopyPro Inc. Greenville, North Carolina ddennis@copypro.net

Jim Buck Carolina Business Equipment Inc. Columbia, South Carolina jimb@cbesc.com

BTA West Dan Bombard Yuma Office Equipment, a Fruth Group Company Yuma, Arizona daniel@yumaofficeequipment.com

Mike McGuirk ProCopy Office Solutions Inc. Mesa, Arizona mmcguirk@procopyoffice.com

Ex-Officio/General Counsel

Robert C. Goldberg Schoenberg Finkel Beederman Bell & Glazer LLC Chicago, Illinois robert.goldberg@sfbbg.com

Fabulous Phones

Three dealers discuss the VoIP opportunity

by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

Have you taken a look at VoIP phone systems lately? They provide functionality far superior to legacy phone systems, savings for customers and greater reliability than you may realize.

To provide you with a better view into the opportunity, below are profiles of three dealerships focused on their VoIP-based offerings. Perhaps their comments will provide you with some welcomed insight and guidance.

DSI

After 13 years as an employee of Lanier Worldwide, Phil Houser decided he was ready to start his own business. Like a number of other new entrepreneurs in the office technology industry at the time, he began with cartridge remanufacturing. “We literally started in a 10-by-10-foot office with zero customers,” he says. “So, there has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears over the years to develop what we have today.”

Yes, Houser’s hard work and that of his team has paid off. Today, 25 years later, DSI (previously branded as Document Solutions Inc.), a Konica Minolta, Sharp and Epson dealership headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has 70 employees and six locations. “We have five divisions — DSI Imaging, DSI Technology, which is our IT company, DSI Security, DSI Finance and we have an AV/solutions division,” says Houser, who serves as CEO. “We’re not a traditional dealership anymore; that’s for sure. There are so many solutions and products that we support in today’s environment.”

That includes VoIP phone systems. About four years ago, Houser was introduced to Crexendo Inc. He did look at other VoIP providers at the time. He cites a prospective sales opportunity with one VoIP provider he was considering as a vendor partner, but the company “wasn’t ready to look at anything outside of certain parameters; they were a little stricter on what they could do.” So, Houser turned to Crexendo. “They said, ‘Yes, we can do that.’ That opened the door for us. Plus, we had heard nothing but really positive things from other dealers who were selling Crexendo.”

That first customer was a school district. “When we start something new, we don’t start small,” Houser says. “Our first VoIP phone installation was 1,200 phones. They had some contract language they were requesting that was a little out of the norm. However, Crexendo was flexible enough to come in and make it happen. They did all of the heavy lifting, helped us respond to the RFP and, lo and behold, we won the deal [Crexendo also handles the VoIP billing for DSI]. This deal has offered an amazing annuity stream on 1,200 phones every single month.”

That annuity stream is the primary appeal of VoIP, Houser says, noting that DSI Imaging receives revenue from the sale of the equipment and DSI Technology — providing the SME or vCIO — receives the annuity portion from VoIP deals. “It provides an additional resource for your customers without a lot of heavy lifting on your part,” he says. “How often do our customers change their phones? Not very often. So, you have this annuity stream from now until eternity. It’s one of the most beneficial revenue streams that you can get.”

At DSI, Crexendo products are offered through the DSI Technology division. Today, that division contributes approximately 15% of the dealership’s overall revenues, Houser says, acknowledging that the VoIP contribution is currently a “very small” percentage within that 15%. “But, again, it’s recurring income,” he says. “Say, for example, you are receiving $10,000 a month from VoIP installations. You do very little to receive that annuity stream; that’s $10,000 a month you didn’t have previously.”

Despite the revenue contribution from DSI Technology today, Houser predicts a substantial increase in the future. “Our IT division should be as big as our imaging division in the years to come,” he says. “IT is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s just like VoIP systems. Businesses don’t want to have to change their IT infrastructures. They want to keep you in place as long as you are providing great service and support.”

Looking to the future, Houser says “there is a huge

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opportunity there for us,” regarding the market for VoIP systems. “Analog phone systems are completely going away, so there’s a transition underway,” he says. “Something like 65% to 70% of the population is using analog lines. They will be transitioning from analog to digital and, in many cases, moving to ‘soft phones,’ eliminating desk phones all together.”

GoodSuite

“

... There is a huge opportunity there for us. Analog phone systems are completely going away ... They will be transitioning from analog to digital and, in many cases, moving to ‘soft phones’ ... “

At GoodSuite, a Sharp and HP dealership headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, with additional locations in Fresno and Pismo Beach, California, there are two primary reasons to sell VoIP phone systems. “To deliver VoIP services correctly, you have to review the prospect’s network and evaluate whether or not it will adopt your VoIP solution seamlessly,” says Brent Portera, vice president of technology services. “This newfound familiarity with the customer’s network nearly always leads to an IT services opportunity. So, the two primary reasons GoodSuite offers VoIP services: to deliver a world-class communication platform and start the managed network services [MNS] conversation.”

The strategy has paid off. “VoIP has become one of our primary sources of leads for our IT contracts,” Portera says. “If a customer is legitimately sourcing a new VoIP system, we close nearly 75% of those deals — and nearly 80% of those clients turn into IT clients.”

It wasn’t always that way. When he joined the dealership in 2018, it “had been delivering some IT agreements, but they were primarily break/fix and time-block models,” Portera says. “This is commonplace in many traditional copier dealerships when transitioning to managed services.” A lot has changed since then. “In 2022, IT accounted for nearly 20% of our total business. In 2019, it was less than 4%. So, yes, we had that kind of growth over the last two years, and what’s impressive is GoodSuite did not relinquish its imaging sales focus; we had growth in both areas.”

The IT services growth was, in part, the result of a major revisioning of the company. Until 2019, GoodSuite was Copier Headquarters. With the transition to the new name came a new way of doing business. “The foundation of the new name is this: We want to be a company that provides one hand to shake when it comes to technology guidance, support and evolution within our customers’ organizations,” Portera says. “So, 2019 was a year of building, branding and finding the right partners for GoodSuite.”

One of those “right partners” is Zultys, a provider of VoIP phone systems. “GoodSuite set out to find a partner in the VoIP space that places service before everything,” Portera says. “Zultys was the most attractive.”

The appeal of Zultys is multitiered, Portera says. “For example, they provide the ability on every deployment to have access to a ‘cloud desk’ with a one-touch support button that answers calls live,” he explains. “That one-touch button provides an average hold time of 16 seconds for live support, keeping VoIP service issues off the IT desk, driving a boutique level of service.”

Portera also shares two other areas of praise for Zultys. One: “From their vice president down to their day-to-day manager, they are willing to jump in and do sales calls. They are willing to negotiate pricing and do whatever it takes to help GoodSuite win the deal.” Two: “They handle the onboarding without GoodSuite having to get involved. So, we can hand the client off, saying, ‘You have an onboarding specialist at Zultys who is going to walk you through everything.’ The onboarding is crucial because you cannot overcome a negative first impression on phones even if the system is amazing.”

More dealers should be considering selling VoIP phone systems, Portera says. “If you are not selling VoIP to your clients, somebody else is — and that allows competitors to sell your clients services that you already provide them today,” he says. “If you own the network, you own the environment. And since phones, nowadays, traditionally live on the network, you have to own that part of the network, too. Fortunately, it’s the easiest technology sale for any dealership. It requires the least amount of training and business acumen, and is the one thing no company can say they don’t use. There is no way a client legitimately says: ‘We don’t use a communication platform.’”

Verticomm Technologies

Like that of many dealerships, All Copy Products’ focus on managed IT has evolved through the years. It began about 12 years ago with the establishment of ACPIT, the result of the dealership’s imaging customers seeking IT support from the company. “About 10 years ago I came on board,” says Calvin Wanner. “At the time, we were known as a copier company trying to do IT.”

Fast forward to 2023. All Copy, a $130-million-plus Konica Minolta, Sharp and Canon dealership headquartered

— Phil Houser DSI

in Denver, Colorado, with 11 additional locations in Colorado, Arizona, Kansas and Nebraska, now has a new IT division, Verticomm Technologies. The IT division also serves customers of Gobin’s Inc., with seven locations in southern Colorado; Gobin’s merged with All Copy in April 2021. Wanner serves as director of IT sales at Verticomm.

“We provide managed network services, VoIP phone systems, security cameras, ac cess controls, cloud infrastructure, etc.,” Wanner says. “The division represents about 10% of All Copy’s business right now. We were at about $13 million last year. We expect to be at about $16 million to $18 million next year.”

About four years ago, Verticomm selected Intermedia as its VoIP phone systems provider. “Their price point and

products are among the best,” Wanner says. “In addition, they are a leader in innovation. They also rank pretty highly in the Gartner Magic Quadrant.”

Intermedia has proven to be “an awesome partner; they essentially provide unlimited support,” Wanner says.

“Let’s say we’re working on an opportunity, and we need them to jump in at both a technical and consultative

“If you own the

you own the environment. And since phones, nowadays, traditionally live

the network, you have to own that part of the network, too.“

— Brent Portera GoodSuite

“We’ve achieved a 50% compounded growth rate year over year. We’re generating about $250,000 monthly in recurring revenue with our VoIP-based products.“

example, they bill us and we bill the customer,” he says. “We really appreciate that, because we want to own the customer.” With some VoIP companies, he says — advising fellow dealers who may be considering adding VoIP — there may be the perception of a “slight of hand”; that is, customers are led to say: “‘Hold on a second, you sold this to me and now you’re telling me I’m working with another company?’” In those cases, “what you are doing is you’re selling the product, but all the service and support goes directly back to the VoIP company,” he says, noting that the selling dealership could “get a bad name” if that service and support is poor. “Instead, you want the customer to know that you provide the solution and service, and they will call you if they are having any challenges.”

Verticomm has experienced substantial growth with VoIP over the past four years with Intermedia, Wanner says. “We’ve achieved a 50% compounded growth rate year over year,” he says. “We’re generating about $250,000 monthly in recurring revenue with our VoIP-based products.”

Today, VoIP phone systems, through the IT division, fit well into All Copy’s current cross-selling initiative, Wanner says. “We are heavily involved in making sure our copier customers have our VoIP-based or IT products, and that our VoIP-based and IT customers have our copiers,” he says. “Everyone is pounding the pavement asking customers the same five questions: ‘What are you doing for copiers? What are you doing for IT? What are you doing for supplies? What are you doing from home? What are you doing for security cameras?’ They all blend together nicely. The days of just being a copier company are becoming outdated. Diversifying your portfolio with the right solutions and the right strategic partnerships is now the norm — being that one-stop shop.” n

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at (816) 303-4040 or brent@bta.org.

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Applying AI to Capture

Carving out a successful IDP strategy

Infosource Software is currently compiling its annual ranking of vendors to be published in its 2023 Capture & IDP Vendor Matrix. Infosource (and, previously, HSA, which Infosource acquired in 2000) has been ranking capture software vendors and analyzing the market for more than 20 years. However, what used to be a limited set of vendors competing with a limited set of applications has exploded in the past five years, primarily due to the introduction of AI into the capture software space.

What exactly is capture software? Infosource defines it as applications that understand and extract meaningful, accurate and usable information primarily from unstructured and semistructured input. This input can include scanned and electronic documents (such as PDFs), as well as fax and other electronic inputs like social media feeds, voice messages, video and still images. Capture acquires, classifies and converts information into enhanced usable data for business transactions, analytics, records management, discovery and compliance applications.

Capture software has been around for a long time. It first emerged as a way to onboard images into electronic document management systems. Optical character recognition (OCR) was applied to help index these images, and then utilizing OCR to capture from imaged forms became a market in and of itself. Eventually, the data- and image-capture markets merged, and more advanced recognition technology was applied to enable capture of data from semistructured forms like invoices, as well as to enable auto-classification of mixed document sets. That is where the capture market sat until about five years ago, when intelligent document processing (IDP) showed up.

At its heart, IDP is the application of AI and machine learning to capture data from documents. The previously mentioned advanced recognition applications also utilized AI and machine learning to some extent, but IDP has taken

by: Ralph Gammon, Infosource Software

it to a whole new level. The impetus behind the birth of IDP was a combination of more powerful processors to run AI algorithms (including better and less expensive cloud computing options) and more AI expertise and algorithms coming to the fore.

At first, we heard about a couple of AI specialists who decided to use document processing as a proving ground for their technology. Once they started having some success — oftentimes in applications that had been deemed impossible with legacy capture solutions — we started to hear about more and more AI specialists launching dedicated IDP businesses.

Because it was one of the first practical applications of AI, funding soon followed. From 2019 through 2021, we saw venture capital pour into IDP vendors at a rate we had never seen the likes of in our 20 years of covering the capture market. A few companies even raised more than $100 million. This is not even considering well-funded RPA vendors that quickly

recognized the parallels between IDP and their technology, which is designed to move structured data between computer systems.

The bottom line is that a market that once featured less than 50 vendors has now expanded to several hundred. See the graphic on page 16 for an idea of what today’s capture and IDP market landscape looks like.

The vendors in the sky blue (Pure Play) and purple (ECM) bubbles are the two you are probably most familiar with if you have played in the capture and ECM market. Working our way counterclockwise, we are all familiar with the leading enterprise software vendors who have historically participated in capture on some level either through their own applications or through partnerships. The P2P vendors focus on accounts payable and procure-to-pay applications with some specific integrations and workflows related to that.

RPA vendors entering the capture market, as well as IDP startups, are listed in the bubbles on the right-hand side of the chart. It is no coincidence that this then brings us back to the Pure Plays, due to the close relationship between capture and IDP.

What Makes a Top Capture & IDP Vendor?

What are we looking for in a leading capture and IDP vendor and what should you be looking for if you are considering a partner in this space? We consider many factors, including vision, technology stack, market share, partner channel and more. Boiling it all down for you, here are three major factors that I consider most important to becoming a “star” in our rankings:

(1) Size — Most of our leaders are names you might be familiar with and they appear in the ECM and Pure Play bubbles. These companies have large installed bases and support teams, experience in and an understanding of the market, and established partner programs. They also have resources to develop their own IDP technology and most of them have done just that, so far eschewing the opportunity to add more AI and machine learning through the acquisition of IDP startups.

(2) Cloud strategy — Historically the capture market has been slow to transition to cloud services, with perpetual software licenses outselling cloud services more than four-to-one as recently as 2018. But a number of factors — including the growth of IDP, the COVID-19 pandemic and an overall greater trust of the cloud — reduced that ratio to less than two-to-one in 2021. That said, a significant portion of capture and IDP sales still go into security-sensitive

markets like financial services and government, so there will always be some demand for on-premise solutions. Software as a service (SaaS) is a great way to efficiently deliver capture and IDP, but it is not for every application. Some sort of hybrid strategy is probably optimal going forward if the vendor has the resources to support it.

(3) Intelligence — There is a reason IDP has become such a hot topic. It really does some cool stuff, like expanding the types of documents automated processing can be applied to and helping reduce notoriously long and cumbersome setup times — both for new implementations and for adding new document types to existing applications. IDP has helped bring the concept of low code/no code to the capture market, which is an important piece of the technology stack going forward.

Stay Calm & Embrace the Future

If the introduction of IDP into the already dynamic capture and ECM/content services space seems a bit overwhelming, do not panic. I was speaking at a conference less than a year ago to a room full of document management technology users; when I asked how many knew what IDP was, no one came up with “intelligent document processing.” It is still very early in the IDP adoption curve, so there is plenty of time to get up to speed.

That said, if you are working with a capture vendor, you want to verify that it has an IDP strategy because it is the way of the future. At the very least, it expands and improves what capture can do. At the extreme, it can serve as an assist for your customers in automating the processing of all their incoming communications, saving them time and money, and freeing up resources to do more important things.

As I think we are all beginning to see, the implementation of AI is going to have far-reaching effects on businesses going forward. As an expert in the document world, IDP is a great place for you to start your AI-powered journey. n Ralph Gammon is a senior analyst for Infosource Software. In this role, he covers market sizing, trends, opportunities and leaders in the capture and intelligent document processing software space. Gammon joined Infosource in 2017 as regional manager for the Americas.

From 1998 to 2020, he served as editor and publisher of the Document Imaging Report, the premier insider newsletter covering the ECM/content services space.

Gammon can be reached at rg@info-source.com. Visit www.info-source.com.

... The implementation of AI is going to have far-reaching effects on businesses going forward ... IDP is a great place for you to start your AI-powered journey.

Q&A: Chris Polek

A look at the heritage & focus of Polek & Polek

Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

In a letter to his parents dated July 15, 1974, John Polek stated: “When I decided to form the corporation, I initially wanted to call it Polek, Polek & Polek — for dad, myself and the boys. My attorney advised against, as did the printer [of the letterhead the letter was typed on] and advertising people. They all seemed to think it became too cumbersome and long. I think I agree with them. So, we settled for Polek & Polek.”

As it turns out, the company reflects the names of John Polek and his son, Chris Polek, who has served as president and CEO since 1999. Recently, Office Technology magazine had the opportunity to interview Chris about the heritage of the company, its focus today and his thoughts about the dealer channel.

OT: How did Polek & Polek get started? What is its product focus today?

Polek: Our beginnings go back to 1974. My father started this business out of his home. At the time I was 10 years old. When he first got started, on Saturday mornings before any other activities, he would have me and my brother go to the garage with a notepad and take inventory of all the merchandise stored there for his business.

I have the old Polek & Polek ledgers from 1974; there was no such thing as computers then. It is kind of a walk down memory lane to see some of the companies that we did business with in the beginning. Looking at the first page, our revenue in the first month was $579.63. My dad was a “oneperson army” in the business for quite a number of years until he brought on some employees.

Today, our main business is high-quality, compatible alternatives [toner, parts and supplies] for dealers. A lot of dealers turn to us when they are looking to reduce their expenses or find alternative ways to be more competitive. The independent dealer community is the main community

that we serve; I would say it is 99% of our business.

OT: At what point did you start working full-time for the company alongside your father? What led to your decision to follow in his footsteps?

Polek: When my father formed the company and named it Polek & Polek, it sounded pretty cool to me to have a company with your family name on it. Early on, when I was quite young, I had little jobs in the company. When I got older and was in school, I worked summers. In fact, I worked many summers as a teenager, through high school and even into college. I had the opportunity to work in just about every aspect of the business, whether it was in the warehouse, working in the front office doing accounting, helping with customer service or helping with sales.

In 1983, I went to one of the NOMDA [now BTA] shows, which gave me exposure to working at the Polek & Polek booth and seeing how a trade show works. The next year when I was 20, my father told me: “OK, now it’s your responsibility. Ship everything to the show, fly out there early and get everything set up for our booth.” So, I learned how do to a lot of those things early on and was given more responsibility than would typically be given to a person of my age.

Since I had a lot of opportunities like that, working in just about every aspect of the business, I decided: “This could be a fit for me. I can see me working here long term.” However, when I graduated from college, I interviewed in other companies for sales positions. My father told me: “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come right out of college and come into the business. You should probably go work for some other companies and get some experience. There are probably different things that they do at bigger companies that are not done in smaller companies like ours. So, you can learn from them.”

After working for another company in New Jersey for a

little over a year, I took a job in California. I was there for about six months when my father flew out to see me from a NOMDA show in Las Vegas. He said: “I know I told you to get some experience working outside the family business, but I’ve had some people leave the company and made some other changes and I really need you to come back and help me out.” So, I agreed to do that. It was 1988. I have been back here ever since. I have actually now worked at Polek & Polek longer than my father did — and he founded the company. That is a tough statement for me to wrap my head around.

OT: Compatible cartridges are a key part of your product offering. How has that part of your business evolved through the years?

Polek: When we first got into the toner business in about 1979 or 1980, toner would just come in small bottles. You would screw off the cap and, in the machine, lift open a door and pour the toner in; that was it. It was very simple; not that bad and it was not that expensive to sell under those conditions.

Dealers who have been in the industry for a long time probably remember a company called Saxon. They went bankrupt in the early 1980s and, fortunately, we had an alternative source for producing compatible toners. We were kind of the savior to the dealers at that point since they could not buy from Saxon anymore.

We could not keep enough toner in stock. We did not have enough room in the small warehouse we had at that time. We were not a big operation at that point, so we used to take boxes of toners and stack them on the inside of our employees’ office walls. When the stacks in our offices were depleted, everybody knew that another delivery of toner was arriving soon.

Today, we have compatible toner for many MFP brands, such as Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh and Sharp. Actually, if you go to our site, www.polek.com, there is a product tab that will show you some of our newer products. And, with the e-commerce side of everything that we sell, the site ranks our top-selling products.

OT: In its promotions, Polek & Polek states: “Did you know: When your company has a net profit of 6% and is able to save $60K in expenses, then that’s the same as generating $1 million in revenue?” With that statement in mind, how do you share that message with dealer prospects interested in your compatible products?

Polek: I came up with a chart that dealers can use to determine what reduced expenses equate to in terms of revenue. I took the time to put together this resource because of what I have seen in business; we have seen our fair share of economic upturns and downturns, going through recessions, etc. When talking with the owners of independent dealerships, the thought is: When you go through economic downturns, you just sell more. Dealers say: “We’ll try and sell our way out of it.” That’s one strategy. However, there is no guarantee that will work.

So, I came up with this resource to show dealers that you can reduce expenses and, depending on what profit level your business is at, reducing expenses is almost the same as generating that many dollars in revenue. A lot of people have said: “I never really thought of it that way.” The point is that when you reduce your expenses during economic downturns, you increase your profits. This is a good strategy even when dealers have diversified their offerings and are seeing growth in those areas. However, on the print side of their businesses, they are seeing a decline. That is where this resource I have developed is very helpful to dealers. Because, even if your business is flat or declining on the print side, when you can make it more profitable, it is as if it is growing. (Email cjpolek@polek.com to receive the chart.)

OT: Given the many changes in the industry in recent years, what are your thoughts regarding the dealer channel today and in the years to come?

Polek: I think that there is always going to be some level of print around. There is no doubt that the volume has declined. Going back in time, print was the only thing independent dealers needed to focus on. Today, they need to get into other areas to help diversify the ways they can help the entire office, not just the print side of the office. These new areas of diversification take a lot of hard work. It is not easy.

Looking at the OEMs and their support of the dealer channel, I think Sharp is doing a particularly good job at helping dealers with this transition. It has been very open to showing dealers: “When you go into an office, here are all the different areas that you can handle.” It is showing dealers where the profit is — “This is what you can do.” It is giving them real-world examples. 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.

Today, they [dealers] need to get into other areas to help diversify the ways they can help the entire office, not just the print side of the office.

MPS Compensation Plans

How are your fellow dealers structuring them?

Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

Following is a question submitted by a dealer member as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource, and many of the answers received. 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.

How are you structuring your MPS compensation plans?

“Sales reps receive first-year revenue credit toward their quotas for the sale. Commissions are paid one month if it is a one-year contract, two months if it is a two-year contract and three months if it is a three-year-plus contract.”

Rick Salcedo, president & CEO

KDI Office Technology, Aston, Pennsylvania

“We pay the sales rep who finds the opportunity a flat rate based on the monthly billing amount. The MPS specialist gets paid off the monthly billing and the manager gets a volume based on the revenue for the year.”

Nick Lioce, president

The Lioce Group, Huntsville, Alabama

“For the SME [subject-matter expert], we pay based on the length of the term of the agreement, as well as the number of users and the amount of the monthly recurring revenue. We also pay a percentage of the onboarding fees, as well as 30% of the hardware GP.”

Tim Renegar, president

Kelly Office Solutions, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

“Base salary, plus we pay a portion of the monthly service recurring revenue as a one-time commission. Projects and equipment/software commissions are based on GP.”

Thomas Fimian, CEO

Docugraphics LLC, Charleston, South Carolina

“We pay 8% of the annual contract (e.g., $100 contract x 12 months pays out $96). For a three-year contract, they get 4% in year two. If bundled with a copier/MFP deal (print pools on

lease) they get an additional 2.5% comp on the revenue payout of the deal plus the $96.”

Christy Gallegos, director of sales

Imagine Technology Group

Chandler, Arizona

“We are paying a month’s worth of service up front. Based on added margin, we have a multiplier of up to three times the monthly payment.”

Les Harris, vice president of sales

UTEC, Ann Arbor, Michigan

“When we added subscriptions to our MPS program, we also added a flat-rate comp per each dollar level achieved.”

Tom Minuti, president

Copy Products, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania

“We pay our reps the first month’s payment of the agreement.”

Sam Stone, president

Stone’s Office Equipment, Richmond, Virginia

“We offer a three-year compensation plan that pays for long-term agreements of 36 months or more. We have a percentage-based commission for years one, two and three, and that amount can go up if the plan increases or as more devices are added. A renewal commission is also paid for each MPS renewal.”

Brian Bence, executive director of sales

Shenandoah Valley Office Equipment (SVOE), Verona, Virginia

“The size and term of the deal determines the compensation. We pay one time one-month billing for a 36-month contract, two times for four years and three times for a five-year deal.”

Stephen Valenta, president/owner

Offix LC, Gainesville, Virginia

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.

Epson’s InkBoldly

Manufacturer sees inkjet as

the ‘future of the office’

by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

Focused, in part, on expectations for the continued rise of inkjet printing in the office environment, Epson America hosted the InkBoldly Epson Partner Conference Feb. 6-7 in Huntington Beach, California. Through general and breakout sessions, Q&As and event activities, attendees had the opportunity to engage with Epson executives and learn about Epson’s latest innovations.

During the conference, Epson demonstrated its range of solutions for businesses with a focus on the education, health care, hospitality, corporate, home office and AEC verticals through its Solutions and Technology Showcases. It also highlighted its latest inkjet printing devices powered by PrecisionCore inkjet printing technology, including the unveiling of the WorkForce Enterprise AM Series, which will be available this month (March 2023). The series includes the AM-C6000, AM-C5000 and AM-C4000 A3 printers, providing 60-, 50- and 40-pages-per-minute printing, respectively.

Among the presenters in the opening General Session was Keith Kratzberg, president and CEO of Epson America. As he began his presentation, he stated that his goal, in part, was to ensure all attendees leave the conference with an understanding of Epson’s corporate strategy in the printing environment. “We are a purpose-driven organization,” he said. “Our purpose is to enrich lives and help create a better world through compact, efficient and precise innovation. It’s a simple statement. We have been doing it for a long, long time from the very beginning of our company, and we have incredible plans for what to do with that in the future.”

Kratzberg emphasized Epson’s long history of precision engineering. “That is really at the core of the company; this is our purpose — compact, efficient, precise,” he said, citing, as an example, Epson’s heritage as a clock manufacturer. “Epson miniaturized the quartz timing device in a very few short years from the size of a commercial refrigerator to an incredibly small size that you could wear on your wrist. It was Epson engineers who developed and launched the world’s first quartz watch, the Seiko Astron.”

Looking to the future, framing Epson’s corporate strategy, “I think a strategy should be really clear, it should be simple and it should be very aggressive,” Kratzberg said. “What are some examples of that? Amazon’s Jeff Bezos said decades ago that he wanted to build what he called the ‘everything store.’ That

pretty much describes what Amazon is today. You can buy just about everything on Amazon — ‘the everything store.’ What is Google’s strategy? Google says its strategy is to organize the world’s information and make it available; that’s not easy to do, but pretty simple to understand. So, what is Epson’s strategy? Epson’s strategy is to build the world’s most advanced printing technology and to spread it across the entire market.”

Kratzberg described Epson’s PrecisionCore technology as “the world’s most flexible piezo element for ejecting ink drops.” Epson has “basically miniaturized all of the important functional parts of a four-color printer into a microchip,” he said. “We are now manufacturing this technology in incredible volumes.”

How incredible? “Epson manufactures 15 million PrecisionCore micro-piezo printheads every year,” Kratzberg said. “There is no other company in the world that is even close in terms of the scale of piezo printheads — not even close.”

Within the office printer market is “a classic case of what’s known as ‘the Innovator’s Dilemma,’” Kratzberg said, referencing the name and focus of Clayton Christensen’s 1997 book. “The Innovator’s Dilemma is the challenge that leading companies have when disruptive technology is introduced. How do they balance the profits they get from their legacy technology while trying to promote the new technology? This has happened over and over again.”

Citing the example of a current high-profile disruptor, Kratzberg noted that many have said in the past that it is too late to introduce a new automobile company into the market. “The incumbents were so big and so strong it couldn’t happen,” he said. “Look at what is happening. One new company with disruptive technology, Tesla, is literally worth more than all of the incumbents combined, even with its stock down. And so now, whether it’s Ford, Mercedes, Toyota or General Motors, they’re all trying to catch up with the disruptive technology of the electric car.”

In the office technology market, “Epson is a pure disruptor,” Kratzberg said. “We are ‘100% in’ that inkjet is the future for the office market,” he said. “That is our focus. That is what we are committed to making happen. So why do we think that we are going to be successful in this? Why do we think that we can make this happen? Because we believe we have the world’s most advanced printing platform — PrecisionCore.” n

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the

Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040.

Business

Keith Kratzberg

Email Standards

Some best practices to follow in the digital age

by: Robert C. Goldberg, BTA General Counsel

It was not long ago that two people could have a heated telephone conversation and one of the participants would slam the phone down in anger. Hostile words may have been spoken. Threats may have been made. And all of it would have been spiced with profane language. But there was no record of the call — just bad feelings. In the digital age, that has all changed. Every electronic communication you send is retrievable and, in litigation, will be demanded. Emails need to reflect your professional standards.

Mistakes in sending emails are common. Clicking “Reply all” when an observation was meant for only one individual may occur. Failing to proofread the content of a message and subsequently finding errors or autocorrect changes that were not intended may prove embarrassing. Always remember that emails do not conclude with a smile or a glare, and can be easily misinterpreted.

Emails are notorious for not conveying the intended tone. Studies indicate the four most passive-aggressive phrases to begin an email with are:

n “Per our last conversation”

n “As per my last email”

n “Friendly reminder”

n “Thanks in advance”

Strong responses are best sent when reviewed again the next day. Simply writing the message may be sufficient to dissipate your anger or desire to vent.

Prior to sending an email, determine if it is, in fact, the best way to communicate a message. A phone call, letter or in-person meeting may be more appropriate. Most individuals review their received emails from the bottom up. Prior to responding, make certain you have seen the complete chain of communication on the subject.

The subject line of an email should clearly state the content and purpose of the message. It should summarize the email and indicate the urgency of the message. Designating a message as “High Priority” may separate your email from others, however, do not overuse this designation, as it will become meaningless. The subject line’s content will also assist in searching for the email in the future.

When responding to an email, often the gender or pronoun preference of the recipient is unclear. This may be overcome by addressing your email to “Dealer,” “Service Manager,” “Accounting” or some other generic alternative.

Before sending your email, read it as if you were receiving it

cold. Check to see if there are any ambiguities or the content may be misconstrued. Avoid acronyms and abbreviations. Abbreviations are not widely used or understood among different generations (LOL).

In your message, get to the point quickly. A lengthy email in a long list of unread messages may be deferred for when more time is available. Place your action item or question first and then explain. Do not draft six paragraphs and leave your action item at the end.

If you are sending an email with an attachment, ensure that it is necessary and you are sending the correct file. How many times have you clicked “Send” without attaching a document you meant to include? A best practice is to attach the document prior to creating the content of the message. A reference to the attachment in the body of the message also helps the reader know that it may be opened without concern. If you are sending a secure document as an attachment, send the password in a separate communication.

Many messages are generated from Listservs. Do not “Reply all” to a Listserv. Review the distribution list and if it is a general message with only you designated as the recipient, assume it is from a Listserv and reply only to the sender.

Finally, remember that electronic messages are nearly permanent. Write as if either your mom or a judge is reading them. n

Robert C.

Goldberg

is

general counsel for

the Business

Technology

Association. He can be reached at robert.goldberg@sfbbg.com.

BTA would like to welcome the following new members to the association:

Dealer Member

GreenTrail Solutions Inc., Lemoyne, PA Tech Assurance Inc., Huntsville, AL Business Systems & Consultants, Birmingham, AL

For full contact information of these new members, visit www.bta.org.

For the benefit of its dealer members, each month BTA features two of its vendor members.

Ask the Analyst

Seeking information and insight regarding office technology industry trends and developments? BTA can help. Through an alliance with Keypoint Intelligence, a global data and market intelligence leader for the office technology industry, BTA members can simply submit their questions for a Keypoint Intelligence analyst to address. There is no charge. Rather, BTA’s Ask the Analyst feature is free to the association’s dealer members. Just visit the website link below, fill out the form to submit your question and a Keypoint Intelligence analyst will respond. (You will need your username and password to submit your question.) Your question and the response you receive will be archived on the BTA website as a resource for other dealer members. For more information, visit www.bta.org/AsktheAnalyst.

For information on BTA member benefits, visit www.bta.org/MemberBenefits.

Founded in 2000, Ninestar has been focusing on inkjet cartridge, toner cartridge and ribbon development, manufacturing and sales for more than 19 years. Headquartered in Zhuhai, China, Ninestar has established branches, warehouses and logistics platforms in the Netherlands, the United States, Italy, Malaysia and Japan to offer a quick, local response. Quality products and services are distributed to more than 170 countries and reach more than 200 million end users. So far, Ninestar holds a total of 4,163 patents worldwide — far more than any other company marketing thirdparty supplies.

http://en.ninestargroup.com

Equipment Data Associates (EDA) has improved the direct marketing effectiveness of its clients. Through a wide range of metrics and analytical tools, EDA provides accurate, equipment-based market intelligence for a variety of industries including: agriculture, construction, copier/MFPs, finance, lift trucks, logging, machine tools, printing and woodworking. EDA is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a division of Randall-Reilly Publishing LLC.

https://edadata.com

A full list of BTA vendor members can be found online at www.bta.org.

For more information, visit www.bta.org.

Commit to Memory

How to create presentations on the spot

by: Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates

At the end of my most recent article, “Creating Better Salespeople,” which appeared in the January issue of Office Technology, I made a promise — that in my next article, I would share a technique for training your team members to be better presenters. There is a reason for the sequence of articles; truly great presentations are based on the needs uncovered in questioning. So, if you have not read the January article, do it now. Without great questioning that uncovers customer needs, you are just doing what I call “spraying and praying” with your presentations.

When it comes to presentations, customers care about their needs and how well you can solve them. Period. What the customer wants is to be made better than he (or she) was when you first contacted him. If you can show him in your presentation how you can do that, great. If you cannot — or if your presentation is a canned, one-size-fits-all monologue that does not address his needs — goodbye and have a great day.

This means your salespeople need to be mentally agile enough to create and deliver presentations tailored to customer needs on the spot and in their heads. Why? Because today’s customer expects it. Salespeople can no longer do a discovery and then go back to the “bat cave” to develop a presentation. Even if a formal presentation is required at times, your salespeople need to be prepared to deliver at least a “1,000-footview” presentation on the spot — or they might not get the opportunity to do a full, formal presentation. This means you need to engage them in some serious presentation training centered on your products and/or services.

At your next sales meeting, tell your salespeople to create a list of the top 10 issues/needs your customers express. This should be easy enough that it does not have to be homework; have them do it in the meeting. If they struggle to come up with 10, they probably are not asking enough — or good enough — questions. If that is the case, reread my last article. Once your salespeople have made their lists, compile them and have them vote on the team’s top 10. Now you have a “most common needs” list.

Take the top need and assign your salespeople some homework. Have them list the three best ways that your product(s) and/or service(s) solve that need. They will need to present, in concise fashion, those three solutions the next

week. After each salesperson presents, vote on your top three solutions and then create solution statements for each. Do not ask your salespeople to memorize word for word, but memorize the ideas involved. Repeat this exercise for each of the top 10 needs.

Then, on an ongoing basis, drill your salespeople at random times on the solutions to the needs. For example: “Jim, how do we solve customer need X?” The idea is that Jim has committed the solutions to memory well enough that he can simply feed them back to you. If Jim cannot do that, he needs to practice until he can. If he cannot present the solutions to you, he cannot present them to the customer. Along with that, use this technique in role-plays during sales meetings (you do those, right?) and live sales calls when you ride along with your salespeople (ditto).

What you are doing here is creating a “modular presentation” — a mental Rolodex of solutions that your salespeople can use to present to your customers on the spot. The salesperson who can do this is the salesperson who is mentally agile enough to be a true resource for customers rather than a product peddler. Customers are much more ready to give appointments to resources than product peddlers.

Let’s talk for a moment about “The Rule of Three.” The Rule of Three is based on a simple psychological principle defined as: Three is the smallest number that can create a pattern in the human mind. One is an exception, two is coincidence and three is a pattern. In other words, if you show a customer three advantages to your product or three great reasons to buy, your customer’s mind will establish a pattern and buy into it.

So, why not four? If three is good, four is better, right? Not so much. At four, the details and issues can get lost. You have made your point at three; if you go on to four, you can lose your customer’s attention.

What if you cannot come up with three advantages or three ways you solve a need? My first piece of advice would be to think harder and find three. That is not always possible, so if you can only come up with one or two, they should be very good, very powerful and buttressed by customer testimonials (and if you can come up with three great testimonials, so much the better).

What all of this requires from your salespeople is mental agility. For many years, I have been presenting a session at conferences called “Smart Sales Hiring.” That title has always meant that you should be smart (using your head) when hiring salespeople. Now it means more. It also means that you absolutely must hire smart salespeople. Ed who goes and talks

football for half an hour and picks up the weekly order is obsolete. Today’s customers want salespeople who not only provide value through the products and services they sell, but also through the conversations they have.

Basically, in today’s sales environment, you must hire smart salespeople and then constantly train and develop them. This exercise is a great way to make your salespeople the best presenters in your market. n Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It!” and “The Pocket Sales Manager,” and is a speaker, consultant and sales navigator. He helps companies build more profitable and productive sales forces. To schedule a free 45-minute Sales Strategy Review, call (913) 645-3603 or email troy@troyharrison.com. Visit www.troyharrison.com.

ADVERTISER INDEX

11 • AgentDealer

www.agentdealer.com

23 • Amplified Solutions

(940) 465-3221 / https://amplifiedsolutionsllc.com

31 • BPO Media

www.workflowotg.com / www.theimagingchannel.com

13 • Brother

www.workwithbrother.com

15 • C2C Resources

(866) 341-6316 / https://c2cresources.com

2 • Capture the Magic

(800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/BTAEvents

25 • DealerSiteBuilder.com

(913) 717-4995 ext. 10 / www.dealersitebuilder.com

14 • DocuWare

(845) 999-6743 / www.docuware.com/partner

25 • ENX Magazine

(818) 505-0022 / www.enxmag.com

5 • Epson

https://epson.com/business-inkjet-printers

21 • FP Mailing Solutions

www.fp-usa.com

32 • GreatAmerica Financial Services

www.greatamerica.com/1nvoice

7 • Intermedia

(800) 300-1310 / www.intermedia.com

19 • Konica Minolta

www.rethinkwork.com

3 • Kyocera Document Solutions America

https://kyoceradocumentsolutions.us

17 • M-Files

www.m-files.com/partners/become-a-partner

9 • Miracle Service

(866) 463-9368 / www.miracleservice.com

23 • PriApps

(512) 553-1410 / www.priapps.com/bta

31 • ProFinance 3.0

(800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/ProFinance

customers want salespeople who not only provide value through the products and services they sell, but also through the conversations they have.