Dealer Support July 2011

July 2011 Issue 193

INSPIRING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS FOR DEALERS HEAD IN THE CLOUD Low-down on cloud computing HOME MADE UK manufacturing in the spotlight IDS LEAGUE 2011 Analysis: part one

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FROM THE EDITOR

page 14

page 32

Every cloud has a silver lining

“‘Glocalisation’ is more important, so the key task for dealers is to really get local”

Many of us often set ourselves unrealistic goals and targets, both professionally and personally. For me, whether it’s painfully clawing my way through my seemingly endless ‘to do’ list or imagining that somehow, my 20-minute journey will actually only take half the time, I am often guilty of measuring my performance against improbable expectations.

Despite my diminutive stature, you could say my head is in the clouds, and as I pulled together this July issue of Dealer Support it was – quite literally.

It’s all about clouds this month, with industry focus not on the stratus and cumulonimbus variety, but the volcanic ash types and the effects they have on supply chains. When natural events like these and March’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami impact offshore production and distribution into the UK – including of products such as pens and electronic components – it opens the floor for debate on the advantages of sourcing closer to home.

Accordingly, UK manufacturing takes the spotlight on page six.

Virtual clouds also feature (page 36). As well as shaving vital pounds from many areas of a business’s spend, creating a virtual workspace enables business to continue as usual while staff are increasingly on the move or working from home. If Trade Union Congress (TUC) research revealing that there are currently 3.7 million UK home workers is anything to go by, home office products and equipment is another lucrative market for dealers to tap into. A4 multifunctional devices are just one option and is explored in this month’s ‘grow your business’ on page 32.

Our industry one-to-one this month is with Steve Harrop of dealer group Office Friendly (page 14), who waxes lyrical about the pros and cons of joint working among other things. Collaboration in the industry is evidently becoming more common, with distributors, wholesalers and dealer groups recognising the benefits of teaming up. London dealer Total Office has implemented its own method of deriving multiple benefits from linking with other companies; director John Thurgood tells all on page 22.

I’m always keen to hear from dealers with an interesting story or some news or views to share. If you fit the bill – or if you have any comments or feedback – just give me a shout at editor@dealersupport.co.uk.

MANAGING EDITOR Julia Dennison julia.dennison@intelligentmedia.co.uk

DESIGNER Sarah Chivers sarah.chivers@intelligentmedia.co.uk

EDITOR Allie Anderson allie.anderson@intelligentmedia.co.uk

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Sinead Coffey sinead.coffey@intelligentmedia.co.uk

FEATURES WRITER Matthew Jane matthew.jane@intelligentmedia.co.uk

SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Natalia Johnston natalia.johnston@intelligentmedia.co.uk

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Vicki Baloch vicki.baloch@intelligentmedia.co.uk

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Dan Price dan.price@intelligentmedia.co.uk

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER – MEDIA SOLUTIONS Matthew Moore matthew.moore@intelligentmedia.co.uk

PUBLISHER david collingbourne david.collingbourne@intelligentmedia.co.uk

Allie Anderson, Editor

CONTACT US

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Annual subscriptions are ABC available at a cost of £68.00 for UK and overseas by surface mail, £90.00 for airmail. Subscription enquiries should be sent to the above address Dealer Support is the leading monthly publication for dealers in the business supplies industry. It provides information on the industry (both in the UK and overseas), information for and about the UK’s independent dealers, as well as information and advice on running a small business.

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers. Copyright of all the material published remains with Intelligent Media Solutions Limited.

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INSPIRING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS FOR DEALERS

26

Contents July 2011

32

INDUSTRY 06 The home guard Is UK manufacturing the way forward?

10 IDS League 2011 Number cruncher Martin Wilde provides part one of his analysis 12 What we learned this month Facts, figures and banter 14 Friendly fires Office Friendly’s Steve Harrop talks shop

PEOPLE 22 Total’s eclipse We catch up with Total Office’s John Thurgood

36

26 Cool cats The team at Jersey’s Panther Office reveals all

MANAGEMENT 32 Grow your business This month: Mobile and home working 36 Away with the cloud Why dealers should be riding high with cloud computing 38 Contracting for growth The shift from transactional to contractual sales

AND FINALLY… 40 Break time Take five and muse over these brainteasers 42 Final word QQM’s director Marc Pinner

Industry

analysis

Homeward bound Home is where the heart is, but is it also where the future of the manufacture of office supplies lies? Allie Anderson throws some light onto the debate

S

eldom does Iceland occupy the UK news headlines, but last April the north Atlantic island occupied substantial international news space for several weeks following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. The eruption ejected an enormous cloud of drifting ash 11km into the sky, closing much of the airspace over northern and western Europe and grounding flights into and out of the UK for six days.

While much of the publicity focused on the human stories behind the disruption – travellers forced to abandon their holiday plans and people stranded overseas – the commercial cost was huge, with airlines losing up to $200m (around £124m) a day. The event also had long-term implications for UK trade, with supply chains in many industries that relied heavily on air freight thrown into chaos.

Months on, and notwithstanding rises in passenger fares the disruption was largely forgotten. However, it prompted the procurement profession to re-evaluate supply chain planning; not just modes of transport but from where goods are sourced.

Speaking last year, representation manager at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Emma Scott said: “Organisations will have to look at how they do things.

There’s a big debate at the moment about local or global supply chains and maybe people will look more locally.

Organisations must have processes agile enough to change at the last minute, and not put all their eggs in one basket. You need a backup plan in place.”

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

“The advantages of local supply include boosting UK employment and economics.

In terms of security of supply, buyers may simply be pushing the problems further along the supply chain”

analysis

Mount Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland erupted last April, emitting plumes of volcanic ash up to 11km into the air and causing supply chain havoc

www.dealersupport.co.uk july 2011

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Industry

analysis

Lightening striking twice The Icelandic ash cloud’s impact on the UK office products industry may have been negligible, but almost a year later another devastating natural disaster hit, this time with further-reaching consequences. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March this year left the region not only counting its dead but also the cost to its basic infrastructure. Roads, rail lines and facilities were swept away in the aftermath and the manufacture of a range of goods – including electronics and technology components – was impacted. Japanese writing implements manufacturer Pentel was left assessing how issues resulting from infrastructural problems such as power outages affected its supply of products into the UK, although any difficulties were buffered by a three-to six-month stock holding in its Swindon warehouse, with an additional two months’ worth of products in transit to UK shores at the time of the earthquake.

However, more than three months on and the events in Japan are still rippling through the industry. Jim Bennett, group purchasing director of Vasanta Group, reports continuing problems. “A number of EOS suppliers with manufacturing in Japan have experienced some production issues,” he comments. “Most did not impact our ability to service our customers as the suppliers had buffer stock in Europe. But we are still experiencing issues with one supplier, with whom we are working to reach a solution quickly.”

Effective procurement operations are built around total cost to source, with tender and purchasing policies incorporating the supply risks associated with sourcing from far afield. “Any potential risks are mitigated prior to agreeing to source product from specific manufacturers regardless of geographical location,” adds Bennett, with sourcing from the Far East attracting additional risks around lead times and quality control. Conversely, sourcing from within the UK entails fewer risks and lower financial costs in the event of supply chain disruption.

Made in Britain Using UK-based suppliers does not necessarily mean buying UK-manufactured goods. Vasanta buys 80% of its products from home shores, with 12% sourced directly from elsewhere within the EU and eight per cent from the Far East. The group cannot verify the origins of all its products, but of those on which it holds production information a total of 73% originates from outside the UK. The advantages of using local suppliers are manifold – boosting UK employment and economics, for example. In terms of security of supply, however, buyers may well be simply pushing the potential problems further along the supply chain. A lack of supply chain transparency itself poses potential problems (how can you fully mitigate a supply risk if you don’t know where a product has been manufactured?) and emphasises the benefits inherent in engaging onshore suppliers and manufacturers.

Continuity of supply is just one of the issues forcing buyers in the industry to think on a domestic rather than a global scale. Corporate and social responsibility (CSR) and environmental sustainability are also important issues fuelling debate and encouraging the industry to weigh up the pros and cons of global and local supply chains. Stationery manufacturer Remarkable makes and supplies eco-products made from recycled waste. It boasts 98% of its products are manufactured at its ‘eco factory’ in England or sourced from UK suppliers and manufacturers, with the remaining two per cent, including pens and pencils made from 100% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber, coming from Europe. “We do not source from outside the EU as we strongly believe that we must support UK manufacturing to help

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

improve the economy as well as reducing our environmental impact,” explains Remarkable’s commercial and commerce manager Joanne Hickling. Similarly, 94% of pen brand Bic’s products that are sold in Europe are manufactured in Europe, thereby maintaining a lower carbon footprint. The added bonus inherent in such models as these is that threats to the supply chain are minimised.

Going green and counting the gold

“In an ideal world, home-made is arguably always best. But in one of budgets and cost-cutting, how important is it for commerce to begin at home?”

Concern about the environmental impact of the industry, which by nature is resource-heavy, clearly guides decisions and attempts to source from closer to home. For some, this is led by an intrinsic eco-mindset; for others, the mass consumer conscience is a greater factor. “Customers are rightly demanding more information regarding the environmental credentials of the products we supply,” says Bennett. At Remarkable, the ethos central to the setup of the organisation was green in colour, and it’s equally important to spread the message to its own customers, according to Hickling. “We are continually working with our own clients to show them how we can take their own waste stream and turn it into a useable material,” she comments. “This can then be turned back into products for their own use. The environmental impact can be hugely significant when previous waste may have gone to landfill and new products brought in from the Far East.”

The higher costs of materials that go into making eco-friendly products can make them difficult to market in competition with cheaper, more resource-heavy products. Cost can also be a considerable barrier to UK manufacturing, with labour costs the most difficult to overcome. Rising fuel prices are also making it less cost-effective to import goods that can be sourced more locally. Certain concessions, such as the cancellation until 2015 of the fuel duty escalator that adds an extra penny on top of inflation every year, outlined in March’s budget, have little bearing when pitched against reductions in import duty relief and inflated wages overseas. Such costs are increasing more quickly in the Far East, particularly in China, than in Europe, meaning the numbers of categories and products for which European sourcing provides the lowest total cost of supply is increasing.

Also noteworthy is the total manufacturing and transport costs measured against the value of the end product. As Bartlett points out, bulky items of low value relative to their size and the amount of space they take up are often more economic to source from within the UK or Europe, “especially if their production is relatively mechanised with only a small proportion of the cost going to labour”. Plastic letter trays are an example.

Coming home?

Sudden spikes in demand for particular products are best met by consistent stock availability, often optimally achieved through using local suppliers that offer shorter lead times. At the same time, domestic supply chains can minimise warehousing and storage costs and make it more feasible to order in smaller quantities. “Contract management issues can be resolved more easily without the language and distance barriers, and the ability to react quickly to changing customer trends is improved,” Bartlett adds. The resultant impact on customer care and maintaining customer relationships – a critical weapon in the independent dealer’s armoury – should not be underestimated.

All factors must of course be taken into account when making sourcing decisions. How much weight is given to each of the issues will vary according to the types of products in question, consumer demand and the priorities of individual organisations. In an ideal world, home-made is arguably always best. But in one governed by budgets and cost cutting, how important is it for commerce to begin at home? That still remains to be seen. DS

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E

xaClair, formerly Tollit & Harvey, has launched a major new campaign to help dealers and retailers promote and sell the notebooks and filing products of one of the industry’s best-known brands, Europa.

The campaign gives end-users entry into a free prize draw with the opportunity of winning one of 10 iPads.

James Mead, sales and marketing director of ExaClair, explains: “The notebooks and filing products segment is increasingly competitive and we wanted to find a way of incentivising consumers to buy our product and for dealers and retailers to see even greater value in the support we can provide.”

To be entered into the draw, consumers simply send their name, address and the last six

digits of the code on the back of their Europa product to ExaClair. The promotion closes on 31 December when the draw will be held.

Suitable for retail customers to run in-store and for dealers to offer via monthly or quarterly mailers, the campaign is supported by eyecatching promotional materials, including shelf wobblers, ceiling hanging boards, posters and floor-standing display units. Artwork can be provided to enable dealers to personalise mailer campaigns for their customers.

“We wanted a prize that is aspirational and would appeal to both genders of any age,” Mead adds. “It was also important to offer the prize in sufficient quantities that the customer genuinely feels they have a chance of winning.

“Fundamentally, however, it is about giving dealers and retailers additional tools to sell more product – and specifically the Europa notebooks and filing products from ExaClair – during the important ‘back to school’ and ‘back to college’ selling periods.”

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Industry

ids league

Keep calm and

carry on The results of the 2011 Independent Dealer Success League signal a steadier market, yielding improved performance in the channel, as Martin Wilde, MD of Martin Wilde Associates finds in part one of his analysis

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

ids league

T

his is the twelfth year of Dealer Support’s annual health check of the UK dealer channel, and mercifully the UK office products (OP) market is showing a little more stability than it has for a while. The year of unremitting misery that was 2009 – when the UK OP market shrank by around 17% – was followed in 2010 by a further decline in value terms, but this time of only about five per cent.

However, compared with the rest of Europe, UK OP demand still lagged behind in 2010: across the continent, the market in fact grew about one per cent in value terms, with many major economies reaching the previously unthinkable dizzy heights of two per cent growth.

They may not know how fortunate they were with even this modest performance: the markets in both Ireland and Spain continued their downward plummet last year as their shattered economies failed even to match any possible uplift on market value caused by a hefty round of paper price increases.

Meanwhile, back in Blighty, the dealer community was keeping calm and carrying on, with some doing more than that. This year saw a resurgence in entries for the IDS League, indicating that there were still opportunities for dealers to push ahead of the field.

Sample composition This year the proportion of IDS entrants from dealer groups – 75% – was exactly the same as in last year, but slightly down on previous years. Once again, Integra, Office Friendly and Superstat were all well represented among the entrants.

The average turnover of this year’s dealer sample (£4,538K) was slightly higher than the 2010 average (£4,062K), as the following table shows:

one dealer reported growth of 48% and another smaller entrant charted an astonishing 76% increase. The small number of dealers whose turnovers fell in 2010 reported a decrease of only between one and 10%. In summary, the top line results from this year’s IDS League appear to herald a return to the growth of previous years, with average entrant growth being well ahead of market demand.

Margins up, costs down, profits up Of course, shifts in turnover are one thing, but changes in profitability are quite another. Dealers this year reported that gross margins had increased slightly – from an average 32.5% in 2009 to 32.8% in 2010. These average margin figures are somewhat lower than last year’s league, when entrants recorded average margins of 33.6% in 2009 and 34.4% in 2008. But no inferences can be made from this comparison, given the different composition of this year’s sample.

Suffice it to say that the 2011 figures are similar to the median figure for average gross margins in IDS studies over the years.

However, as usual, average gross margins varied enormously across this year’s sample. One dealer claimed to be making less than 25%, while two others were enjoying average gross margins of over 46%. So what about costs? The good news is that, on average, where entrants were able to give this level of detail, virtually all the major cost elements had fallen and none had increased:  Sales and admin costs fell from 17% to 16.7%  Distribution costs were steady at 4.5%  Establishment costs have reduced from 4.9% to 4.8%.

The top line results from this year’s IDS League appear to herald a return to the growth of previous years, with average entrant growth being well ahead of market demand

Turnover range (£)

Base 2010 (%)

Base 2011 (%)

<1m

18

27

1 – 1.9m

18

7

2 – 2.9m

9

7

3 – 3.9m

27

20

4 – 4.9m

9

13

Even taking into account those dealers that were unable to give this cost breakdown, operating profit for IDS 2011 entrants increased from 5.5% to 6.6% on average. Indeed, once again, all of this year’s IDS entrants made an operating profit in 2010, with three dealers boasting operating profits of more than 10%. So, along with increases in turnover there has been growth in average gross margins, a decline in costs and a positive bottom line – the kind of story any business would like to share in.

5 – 9.9m

9

7

Investing in people

10m+

9

13

No data supplied

0

7

TOTAL (rounded)

100

100

Average turnover (£k)

£4,062

£4,538

Once again, the table shows few major differences in the sample profile year-on-year: for example, 34% of this year’s entrants have a turnover of less than £2m, compared with 36% last year. Some 74% of this year’s entrants have a turnover of less than £5m, compared with 81% last year.

Average staffing levels among this year’s IDS entrants increased slightly from 23 in 2009 to 25 in 2010. This increase comprised a slight rise in the average number of sales staff (up from 10 to 11, with a greater emphasis on telesales rather than field sales), a steady number of delivery and warehouse staff (five) and a small increase in the average number of ‘other’ staff. This suggests that these successful dealers have been investing in sales resources in order to grow their businesses during the recession.

Alongside this increase in staffing, sales per employee among IDS 2011 entrants increased from £180k in 2009 to £184k in 2010 – substantially higher than the £151k average recorded in last year’s study and the £144k of the year before. Once again there were wide differences within the sample, with 13% of dealers claiming sales per employee of less than £100k, but the majority resided in the £140-200k bracket. However, one dealer recorded sales per employee of over £500k, which may well be unprecedented in IDS history. DS

Let the good(ish) times roll again

www.martinwildeassociates.com

More relevant, though, is comparison between the 2009 and 2010 turnover figures of this year’s entrants, which pleasingly revealed an average increase of as much as 8.5% in 2010 over 2009, compared with an average year-on-year decline of 0.8% among last year’s applicants. This marks a welcome return to the consistent positive growth indicators that were a feature of the IDS League before the recession began to bite. Given that the overall UK market declined in value terms in 2010, this year’s crop of entrants have performed very creditably.

Indeed, 80% of entrants reported an increase in turnover in 2010. Of these, most recorded very healthy double digit percentage increases of 14-25%, although

In the next issue, Martin Wilde examines the significant changes in the use of warehousing, product sourcing and the two more recent categories for IDS – e-commerce and the environment

www.dealersupport.co.uk july 2011

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Industry

What we learned this month

What we learned this month A round up of tidbits and trivia STATS AND FACTS

3,146

In the news the number of trees it takes to consume the annual CO2 output of one average-sized office server room

30% of firms reported an improvement in printing industry trading conditions in Q1 2011

Stationery’s future is penned in ink A boom in sales of pens and writing paper is signaling a renaissance in old-fashioned ‘snail mail’, according to an article in The Independent last month.

Central to this trend is what the newspaper called “the art of saying thank you” and a reaction against electronic communication and technology, coupled with a resurgence in crafts.

Retailers have witnessed soaring sales of traditional stationery, including writing sets and fountain pens, with John Lewis reporting a year-on-year rise in writing paper sales of a whopping 79%.

It seems there may be little truth in the adage ‘manners cost nothing’ after all – but they could perhaps lead to a nice little earner for stationery dealers instead.

quote unquote We’ve had that moniker as ‘the wholesaler that goes direct’, and clearly, in some parts of the channel, VOW and Supplies Team were competing with each other. We’re taking that away now and removing the noise and the principal issue that dealers had with our old channel model Robert Baldrey, Vasanta CEO, on eliminating its mid-market Supplies Team business

well I never...

Making a cuppa for colleagues can increase an employee’s chances of getting a promotion, according to a study by Viking.

A willingness to make a round of drinks is an attractive quality that highlights thoughtfulness and consideration – qualities sought when promoting staff

12

july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

Back to the drawing board for government OP buyers The Department for Work and Pensions is reportedly spending £75m a year on stationery and phone calls – a staggering £15m more than it spends on the Youth Jobs Fund, launched in May to get young people back to work.

The Daily Mirror report was published as ministers unveiled plans to centralise government procurement of office supplies and stationery in a bit to slash £10bn from its costs.

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude claimed the price public sector organisations had paid for the same laptop varied between £350 and £2,000, with identical printer cartridges ranging between £85 and £240.

A centralised system would put a stop to the dozens of different notebooks currently being bought, instead giving a choice of just three types.

Dealer Support’s advice for cash-strapped government departments? Go independent for the best deal.

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Industry

interview OFDA

Office Friendly MD Steve Harrop says dealers have to work together

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

interview OFDA

A f r i e n d ly fa c e MD of dealer group Office Friendly Steve Harrop has his own ideas about how the independent dealer channel should adapt to changing times, as he tells Allie Anderson

How do you see the channel at the moment?

There’s no way I’d underplay the difficulties some dealers are facing. I think they’ve fared quite well but they’re facing some challenges now. The distribution channel in the UK market has been phenomenal and the amount of work the wholesalers and distributors have done is great, but it’s not been without issues. For smaller business, it’s about profitability and cash; for the larger concerns, they’ve got to a size and scale that’s putting them under pressure as ways to market have changed.

The internet, of course, has changed things somewhat.

Everyone knows the internet has had a massive impact, both on the basic online ordering processes and the way in which distribution models are handled. We’ve seen this recently with Advantia doing a deal with office2office. I think this way of working to leverage what’s available will increase, particularly with regards to the supply chain.

That’s an issue for us too. Having said that, I think we were ahead of our time in the way we built the model at Office Friendly, which is based on a close relationship with

“There is too much focus on transactional cost, so we need to look at how we can help dealers go to market”

www.dealersupport.co.uk july 2011

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Industry

interview OFDA

Kingfield, Kingfield Heath and latterly, VOW. This model was all about low transactional cost from the beginning. I think there is too much focus on transactional cost a lot of the time, so actually what we need to do is to look at the way we can go to market and how we can help dealers go to market.

How do you adapt that support as the marketplace changes?

We try to do that with our added value services, but at the moment the biggest pressure is on getting a good price to the consumer, and the consumer has got the upper hand.

Everywhere you go, people and organisations are looking at their costs and one of the first areas of cost reduction is office products – it’s a simple fact. And of course, the fact that EOS and machines have such significantly lower margins than stationery creates massive pressure on dealers, so they’ve got to look at how they can make savings in their own businesses. It’s never been the most lucrative market, but we’ve been through recessions before and survived, and now, for the first time, the model has been questioned.

Do you think the model is outdated, given the way the current market is?

VOW and Spicers have got these huge, expansive distribution models that lend a hand to getting goods where they need to be – most of the time on time and very accurately. Despite what a lot of people say, these guys do a fantastic job. Having worked in that wholesale environment for most of my career, I have a good understanding of how that model works, but it does need to be changed and adapted.

How do you do that?

My views are my own views and might not be those of Office Friendly or the wholesalers. Westcoast’s Alex Tatham recently made a claim about his cost to serve – I wasn’t convinced by it but maybe it is exactly what he says. But the wholesalers definitely have to do some work to reduce their costs in order to help to make us more profitable, but equally, I want them to focus on being world class logistics companies and delivering everything we need where and when we want it, while providing us with support. My view is that Office Friendly – and other dealer groups and individual dealers – should be providing our own marketing service solutions ourselves, because that allows us to effectively differentiate.

So the wholesalers have a role by providing value-added services, but some of those services they’re providing aren’t necessarily the right ones?

I’m not saying they’re not good services; I just think there’s a bit of replication going on, because the groups are trying to provide some of these services ourselves in a very cost-effective way. In some cases we do it at no cost to members as it’s all part of the membership fee, which typically is fairly low. Some of the wholesalers’ services are great and some, they can only provide because they’ve got the size and scale, which we don’t. But you have to ask: Can they truly focus on producing a service and solution for members? That’s what we’re there for. It’s about

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

cooperation and competition, where people who compete with each other, like office2office and Advantia and VOW, all work together. In their own ways they’ve been competitors but they’ve got together. In my view, we need to work with partners in a real partnership.

“So-Go-Eco had to be a clear and practical solution and a profitable way to do business.

Ultimately, it’s all about pounds in the pocket”

Dealers might be concerned about working with firms that might previously have been competitors? How do you marry one with the other?

You need an excellent working relationship with these partners and look at ways to develop the market so you can both be satisfied. The vast majority of independent dealers in the market today would struggle to get a contract worth £1m or more. There are some independents that are very good at that, that are innovative and look at areas of the market that other people don’t. But they’ve been brilliantly supported by Kingfield, Kingfield Heath and VOW to get to where they are today. Office Friendly has been in the mix there too. They can fight in that marketplace and where they need the tools and support, we let them have it. But the vast majority of our members are SMEs so how do we get them to maximise what’s available? Again, product mix is key but also, making sure they can be price competitive.

In such a traditional industry that has been accused of being resistant to change, do dealers need to move with the times a bit more?

I don’t necessarily agree that they’re resistant to change; they sell traditional products through a traditional logistics network. It’s not a highly technical industry and what we do isn’t rocket science. It’s phenomenal how much of our business is transacted through the internet and that is going to increase. It’s also phenomenal how some companies like Euroffice are running such effective models, and that some huge multinational players like Amazon and Tesco are all dabbling in office products. But we have a route, tradition and history in the channel of understanding our customers and the local, community-based ideal, and I think that’s coming back. But things are changing and the industry has been very adaptable, and in some cases it’s been at the forefront of quite a lot. If it was that archaic and dinosaur-like it wouldn’t be around in the guise it is today, with about a third of the UK market, which is not insignificant.

Equally, some dealers are incredibly innovative and interesting, whether on a small or large scale. The challenge we’ve got is producing very specific rifle-shot marketing for some of our members, when we’ve got the wider group for the economies of scale. We’re launching some things that will help and technology will be crucial. I can’t believe how often I see and hear the same expression – ‘people buy from people’. The concept of ‘glocalisation’ is becoming more important, so the key task now for independent dealers is to really get local. They can do the distribution anywhere they want, and get some nice, national contracts and distribute to 20 or 30 sites across the county using the distributors. But if they get into the heart of their local community – not just supplying office products but really being a part of that community, which involves everything from families and sport to education and health – that’s where their businesses will develop and continue to thrive.

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All trademarks are the property of their respective manufacturers.Your calls may be recorded for training and demonstration purposes. Copyright © Midwich Limited 2010. Midwich Limited,Vinces Road, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4YT. Job No: 1225-Q3-11

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interview

Industry

interview OFDA

Some have been doing that for a long time anyway.

Yes, and that’s an advantage the independent dealer model has over the corporates, certainly if it’s used to good effect.

McDonald’s is a good example. It’s a huge, iconic brand and if you go into a store, you’ll see a board that says ‘local community’, where it shows its sponsorship of local sports etc., and the people who own franchises are local people.

The office products industry is never going to get scale like that, but the local, independent dealer can get involved with the local community. If they’re looking for new business to develop more, doing that on a local basis is cost-effective and fits in with the concept of the sustainability model, which is massively important to Office Friendly.

People are wising up to the environmental aspect of sustainability, and programmes like Office Friendly’s So-Go-Eco scheme help. Is it a harder job to increase awareness of the social aspect?

One of the things we’re starting to do is take the So-GoEco programme to the next level, which is doing two things: it’s extending it beyond the dealers to their SME consumers, and it’s also making the point that the programme and the wider agenda is more than just the environment. In the last year and a half, So-Go-Eco has received a number of high profile awards, one that was shared with the big conglomerate that is Office Depot.

And that’s a great example to set to members, because they’re a big part of it.

They’re a massive part of it – 92 members are on the scheme, and eight have already reached the gold level.

They’re doing fantastic things and one of the key aspects to that is communication, through working in the community

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“We’ve been through recessions before and survived, and now, for the first time, the model has been questioned”

with their customers, talking about sustainability. For example, a dealer might go into primary or secondary schools and talk about how office supplies and the environment can help them. There’s obviously another reason for that, which is to generate some sales volume.

Selling office products is not going to solve the world’s climate issues, but it’s a contribution. And the fundamental principle behind the setup of So-Go-Eco was that it had to be a clear and practical solution, and it also had to be a profitable way of doing business. Ultimately, it’s all about pounds in the pocket.

And presumably, every value-added service, whether it’s accessed via the wholesaler or the dealer group, has to be simple as well as cost-effective, so dealers can focus their attentions where their expertise lie.

Dealers are focused on their day-to-day job and if the van driver doesn’t turn up the guy running the business has to get in the van and do that sometimes as well. We don’t always invest in our own people, so we created a training programme last year called Stimul8. It’s an online portal that’s at a point where it has to be pushed out even further.

The biggest asset we have as a channel is the knowledge of products and of the industry itself. You can go to some multinational companies that know very little. Dealers, though, have this vast knowledge but a lot of the time, that’s all in the proprietor’s head and we need to filter it down.

Some of our members are very creative, and like to try things out and involve everybody, which is terrific. We have a broad church of members of different sizes, skills and different ways to market. I’m really excited about the market and what we can do to continue to help dealers, whatever their size and business model, grow and succeed. DS

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VENDOR PROFILE

RICOH

Partnering for success When it comes to providing a package of support for its customers, Ricoh realises that one size does not fit all. UK channel head Steven Hastings explains how the new Ricoh Reseller Partner Programme, due to roll out in August, embraces this idea

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JULY 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

RICOH

F

rom its position as a leading technology provider with the largest multifunction printers (MFPs) market share in Europe, Ricoh’s success results from thriving and strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, generating reciprocal growth.

This model is fundamental to the future direction of Ricoh and underpins its Reseller Partner Programme, which launches next month.

The programme stems from the desire to extend this philosophy of mutual gain based on long-term working relationships, while recognising that each reseller partner has varying needs and therefore requires a different level of support.

“We wanted to differentiate between resellers,” explains UK channel head Steven Hastings, “but without splitting them into a hierarchy, with level one, two and three or gold, silver and bronze, whereby the level resellers achieve is based purely on the financials they generate.

“We wanted to have different partner levels that would have equal weight with us, and that would reflect the type of company those resellers are. It was clear that the programme should be based on the recognition that not every reseller or VAR works in the same way. Some will require certain services of Ricoh whereas others will need something different. We can then tailor the support we offer according to different needs.”

Under the programme, resellers are assigned as Approved, Preferred or Solutions partners, following a full assessment and discussion of their fleet and service requirements.

Solutions partners – These will be resellers who are aiming to provide a full solution and additional services for their customers over and above the core distribution channel through:  Ricoh’s full, comprehensive managed print services package  A potential to offer a balanced deployment of printers alongside MFPs  Access to other parts of the Ricoh organisation, for example software solutions  Specific, closed-off bid programmes.

Preferred partners – Typically, these resellers will focus their businesses on selling lower value boxes in higher volumes by:  Building up fleets and maximising their customers’ printer businesses  Maintaining focus on transactional sales rather than managed services  Accessing Ricoh’s alternative incentives and solutions.

Approved partners – These are resellers with whom Ricoh has had limited interaction to date, but who wish to explore opportunities for developing a strategic relationship with Ricoh. This would be

achieved through meeting with the reseller to discuss their needs and prospective areas for mutual growth, with the potential to become a Preferred or Solutions partner. Approved partner status gives resellers access to a dedicated portal through which they can download images and specifications.

To meet the varying requirements of reseller partners, Ricoh has developed a number of MPS solutions under the banner of Ricoh Click. Click is a very straightforward yet profitable offering, giving end-users the security of a contract period of up to five years supported by 1,000 technicians throughout the UK. “The end-user chooses the type of contract they want, what type of call out they want and the duration of the contract,” explains Hastings.

“We put that in place with the end-user via the reseller and pay a rebate on that contract over its full term, which can vary between one and five years.”

Another option is Click Lite, a slightly different MPS offering based on a fixed two-year contract. Rather than receiving a rebate on a quarterly basis throughout the contract term, they receive an upfront payment at the offset.

“In essence, a Solutions partner will typically engage with a longer-term MPS contract – like that offered by Click – to offer as broad a solution to their customer as possible,” Hastings adds.

“Our Click Light solution, however, may be more suitable for our Preferred partners. The Partner Programme and the initiatives available through it reflect that there are different companies working in different ways to similar ends. The concept is to look at what all of our customers require from us, rather than telling them: ‘This is what you get.’”

In addition to a comprehensive managed print service, Solutions and Preferred partners have access to a bid programme that allows them to put in specific bids for ranges that will be closed off for them.

With the programme rolling out next month, the Ricoh team is currently engaged in extensive discussions with its existing resellers.

Solutions and Preferred partners will be confirmed and announced to coincide with the programme’s launch. While fundamentally, resellers that work closely with Ricoh will generate more business and become more profitable, the paradigm shift behind the programme means the support underlining their growth is not based on a finite measure of how much business they do.

As Hastings concludes: “It’s more a relationship than simply a buyer/supplier set up. Elsewhere in the Ricoh family group, we’ve provided that kind of service very well – an accomplishment that has led us to the position of MFP supplier with number one market share in Europe.” DS

Follow us @RicohPrinters ricoh-reseller@ricoh.co.uk

www.dealersupport.co.uk JULY 2011

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dealer interview Total Office

july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

dealer interview Total Office

Total’s eclipse London’s Total Office is embracing the appetite for industry change, while staying focused on the three Cs – CSR, charity and the City.

Director John Thurgood tells Allie Anderson more

T

he office products industry has evolved a great deal over the years, something to which Total Office can attest. Now in its 50th year, the dealership has witnessed and survived its share of change, perhaps most notably when it went moved from a retail outlet in the City of London to a trade-only base in 1994. “People used to turn up at the shop with trolleys and collect their stationery,” director John Thurgood recalls. “We saw that was dying out so we decided to get into commercial sales, building on the account base the company had attracted.” A few acquisitions and one merger (with Essex-based stationery firm GS Copsey in 2007) later, things look healthy.

Location, location, location Getting to the position of a projected £5.5m turnover this year has not been without its challenges. Based on the outskirts of the Square Mile in the heart of London’s east end, Total Office targets City clients with a heavy financial focus and as such, the dealer’s performance tends to be impacted more directly by general business prosperity than others’. “We grew year-on-year until the downturn, which hit the City quite hard,” Thurgood explains. “We found that a lot of clients were laying off staff, so we took a hit of about 20%. But we saw a marked increase in business in August 2010, which seemed to be when business sentiment and demand improved.”

Purposefully targeting the City-based firms is a strategy that works for Thurgood and his team. “When we’re prospecting, we go for the postal codes in the City, west end and Docklands and we look for businesses of a certain size – anyone with over about 100 staff,” he says.

Some 37% of Total Office’s overall sales is stationery, and the dealer is also strong in print, with just under a quarter (21%) of its sales made up from printing business cards, letterheads, envelopes and brochures for its corporate clients. For this, there is an impressive print room on site.

Paper and electronic office supplies account for around 15% each, with office furniture and FM making up seven per cent and five per cent of total sales respectively.

“Our specialism is supplying larger, corporate customers,” comments Thurgood. “It’s not so much about products for us, but finding a solution for what clients want to purchase and how, based on what their objectives dictate, and putting a system in place to try to supply whatever is practical to supply.” Despite comprising only five per cent of the business, FM is a growing category and one Thurgood intends to develop and grow. However, the location and demographic of clients also means that certain product areas are automatically closed off. “I plan to build on the catering and janitorial side, although because of where we are, our clients aren’t going to be buying many high-visibility jackets and hard hats,” he adds.

“The whole FM market is going to be less important for us than it is for dealers in other parts of the country. If we were selling out in the Midlands where there are a lot of

www.dealersupport.co.uk july 2011

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dealer interview Total Office

transport and manufacturing hubs, then we would by nature be supplying that kind of product. An insurance company with 600 staff isn’t going to buy many steel toecap boots, but they do drink a lot of coffee!”

to know a provider well enough to work closely with them without jeopardising each other’s clients – and therein lies the challenge.”

Perfect timing

Service proposition While the nature of its customers’ businesses narrows the scope of potential products Total Office could expand into, it by no means restricts its growth plans. With traditional office products in decline and with no real product specialism to fall back on, the dealer is looking instead to ride on the crest of the services wave. “There’s a lot of talk about providing services, which is one of the things VOW is focusing heavily on now,” explains Thurgood. He discusses managed print services (MPS) as a potential threat to the independent dealer’s toner sales as organisations replace their machines with multifunctional devices managed by an external vendor – a threat than can be countered if dealers do their research and become proactive.

“One has to ask whether the best way to do these things is to partner with a provider that’s already in that sector or to try to undertake some of these things oneself,” Thurgood reflects, who describes the new product and service solution and the sales processes intrinsic in MPS as “quite significant” and “a big challenge for independents”.

For Total Office, a mutually beneficial partnership would be the way forward. “The synergy that would excite me is to find a partner that can provide the MPS but that also provides us with the opportunity to create them some revenue from office products,” he says. “It involves getting

Spicers and VOW, both of which are in the process of rolling out an MPS solution, are doing their bit to help the independent dealer tackle this challenge, says Thurgood, who watches from the wings to see how things transpire.

“They both have a role to play, because if they can find a provider and do it on behalf of a few hundred of their dealer members, they’re adding some value,” he suggests.

“It would be simpler to do it that way than if those few hundred dealers went off and tried to find their own partners. It’s very early days with such services and it will rely heavily on how each individual dealer approaches it.”

Also important, advises Thurgood, is timing the approach to an existing customer.

“The difficulty is that if you have a client that’s spending a couple of thousand pounds a month on toner cartridges, at which point do you invite them to consider managed print?” he questions. “You could be opening a can of worms, but on the flipside, you could risk losing their business altogether if you don’t suggest it. So there are definitely some issues for dealers to get their heads around, and there will be a lot of dealers and service providers getting to know one another and experimenting with this.”

An interesting prospect also comes in the form of secure shredding and document management, services Thurgood is keen to explore. “I’ve been asked several times if we provide that sort of thing, and while we haven’t

We grew year-on-year until the downturn, which hit the City quite hard. But we saw a marked increase in business in August 2010, which seemed to be when business sentiment and demand improved

CV Name: John Thurgood, director Company: Total Office Products Turnover: £5.5m (projected) Number of staff: 27 Dealer group: Challenge

consortium Back office system: Horizon

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

Irongate Group is powered by...

Progress

®

dealer interview Total Office

dealer bookmark

Adam Noble MD Irongate Group Derby

looked into it in great detail yet, I think it’s something we could sell,” he adds. Researching this opportunity is no mean feat, and will involve looking into the various security accreditations that may be required, and which options are most feasible – for example, whether documents would be shredded outside the customer’s building on a specialised vehicle or taken away to a separate site. However, the nature of the types of organisations Total Office sells into – with high numbers of staff and operating in financial markets – there is a potentially lucrative market for a secure document management offering.

Going green To successfully do business in the City, Thurgood reports, you must demonstrate that you are a serious, professional organisation with a viable environmental management system in place. To this end, Total Office embarked upon achieving ISO14001 four years ago and operating in as eco-conscious a way as possible has now become second nature. In February, the dealership signed up to the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code, a support service for organisations committed to reducing their environmental impact through responsible purchasing. Just two months later, it was rewarded for its efforts by achieving the Green Procurement Code silver award. “A lot of these things are common sense,” explains Thurgood. “We’ve reduced power usage across the board and removed some of the tubes from light fitments. We’re using tracking software to make sure we’re routing in the most effective way and that’s allowed us to take a vehicle off the road.”

Total Office’s green strategy follows through to all areas of the business. In the print production room, chemical-rich processes have been substituted with vegetable-based inks while reverse cycle heating has been implemented in the offices. In addition to saving the company money, the magnitude of the sustainability agenda is in the knock-on effect it has for individuals as well as businesses. “We achieved staff buy-in through our external ISO14001 training, which educated them on what they can do in their daily lives as well,” says Thurgood.

“The whole way this propagates is by businesses expecting their suppliers to take part and suppliers then engaging their staff, so it’s a very positive thing.”

A social network The green aspects of Total Office’s sustainability drive have progressed in strides, and while the dealership also embraces the social elements, Thurgood sees there is an opportunity to do more. “The public and the government are looking towards business to help with social sustainability and that’s something we’re developing,” he says. He boasts a high number of local staff – both within the business and in its external services. “Our cleaning and IT company companies are both local,” he adds. The dealer’s location – just a stone’s throw from the moneyspinning Docklands and three miles from the City – belies its position on a quiet Tower Hamlets street in one of the poorest parts of London, which Thurgood is keen not to lose focus of. “It’s important to remember, especially when dealing with large corporates, that there are people who struggle. Our social strategy is contained in our corporate and social responsibility (CSR) policy, which we adopted three years ago as part of our ISO14001 accreditation.”

For Total Office, community engagement also means doing its bit for charity. Through its work with other businesses, it is a regular supporter of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Trees for Cities, an organisation that helps city communities to plant trees and enhance their urban landscapes. “We’ve always had a meaningful budget for charity, and a lot of those contributions come from clients and staff taking part in fundraising events,” Thurgood comments. “But we wanted to be more proactive so a few years ago, we formed a partnership with three like-minded local businesses: a cleaning business, an interior plants business and an archiving business.

“We’ve created a cross-referral scheme with the aim of raising £40,000 for two very good causes. We make annual contributions and if we can get a referral into a business and an appointment from each other’s clients, we will make a further contribution.” As well as taking part in their own events – co-director James Copsey recently undertook Antalis McNaughton’s Three Peaks Challenge, raising more than £14,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer – the partnership is a profitable fundraising scheme. “Businesses are happy to get involved and clients see it as a positive thing,” says Thurgood. “If someone gives you an appointment, they know a charity is also going to benefit.” DS

Speciality

It may sound like a cliché, but we have great people, which in turn makes great teams. That enables us to keep innovating and creating new opportunities.

CV

I joined Irongate in 1990 as a salesman. Irongate was a shop then, turning over a couple of hundred thousand pounds a year. Since then it’s grown to what it is today – a £16m office supplies and print business.

Winning moment

I’ve done lots of things in sport and had some great moments with my kids’ graduations, but my biggest winning moment is Irongate’s success and what it’s achieved over the last 20 years.

That’s what really stands out.

Catchphrase

“Sell more tomorrow than you did today”

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the leader in industryspecific business software

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people

dealer interview Panther

At just three years old, Jerseyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Panther Office Products is thriving in a prudent economy. Directors Anna Davies and Vicky Langlois tell Allie Anderson how setting up in a downturn helped rather than hindered their business

Eye of the Panther 26

july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

dealer interview Panther

Tell me how you came to work together.

AD: Everybody here was at different competitors locally, and we’d all known each other over the years. So we started up together with the cream of the crop.

VL: Anna and I worked together for about 10 years, and Anna and Tony [Boyd, co-director, pictured right centre] for about five years.

What made you set up by yourselves?

AD: I had taken some time out, and when you step away from something you realise it can be done better. There was also a management buyout at our previous employers and the people who took over weren’t of management material, frankly.

VL: They weren’t supporting us as a stationery department or implementing customer service and other things Anna and I had built on and wanted to provide.

CV Names: Anna Davies (above right)

and Vicky Langlois (left) with co-director Tony Boyd Positions: Directors Turnover: £750,000

(£1m projected for this financial year) Gross margin: 33%

What roles did you have previously?

VL: I was purely in sales and Anna was involved in all sides of the business.

Was it a struggle establishing a start-up in that economic climate?

AD: Economically, Jersey is behind the UK by about six months, so when we started out we were ok for about the first six months as Jersey hadn’t hit a recession. After six months, we hit the first hurdle. People started tightening their belts and shopping around – but because people were shopping around it opened more doors for us.

Number of staff: Three full time,

Two part time Back office system: Vision Dealer group: Office Friendly Website: http://www.panther.je

So it was quite serendipitous starting out when you did?

AD: Definitely. We’re based out of town and the other dealers are in town, so they pay higher rents. Our overheads are much lower, because we were very lucky with our premises. And the prices we had from our dealer group were great, so straight away we had an advantage over other dealers.

VL: Also, having been in the industry for 10 plus years, Anna, Tony and I had built up a large customer base.

Whereas people often say customers stay with the company, the relationships we had in place, which had developed into friendships in a lot of cases, meant those customers backed us and came with us quite happily because of the reputation we’d built up beforehand.

What difficulties did you face starting out as a new business?

VL: We had a lot of help from Jersey Enterprise [an organisation that helps start-ups by providing support and guidance], and they organise a lot of networking events during the year, so we were able to get out there and meet a lot of people. That helped us build our profile.

Being based out of town and offering cheaper prices made it easier to target new accounts, too.

Q: Do you only have customers in Jersey, or does your remit extend further?

AD: We have a couple of customers in Guernsey but we try to stay within the local area. There are a lot of dealers throughout the Channel Islands so we want to focus on Jersey where we know exactly what’s going on. We also have a few clients that have offices on both islands but logistically it’s far easier to stay local.

www.dealersupport.co.uk july 2011

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dealer interview Panther

With the tax benefits of Channel Island exports – buyers paying no tax on imports of a certain value – do you sell into the UK mainland?

AD: No, because it would only have a benefit to UK customers to order from the Channel Islands if the transaction value was less than £18. For companies like Play.com, where you’re talking about a DVD worth £10 for example, it’s great. But it’s very rare that we have an order for below £18, and with the cost of carriage it’s not worth it.

Where do you source stock from?

AD: We’ve always majored with VOW, although we have grown our spend with Spicers over the last 12 months, mainly through EOS – the spend has virtually trebled – but that’s been as we’ve grown as well. We’ve grown year-onyear so our total all-round spend has increased. The other companies that are getting a lot more business are distributors like Westcoast. Compatibles is an area that is really growing for us, so we’ll be working more heavily with companies like that.

How much of the business does each category you sell comprise?

AD: Stationery, which covers all sorts including EOS, probably comprises 75% and furniture is around 25%.

sometimes go direct to manufacturers and suppliers. We get involved with specials, which is a good line for us.

When the specials department at VOW closed down, a lot of people over here started telling their customers they couldn’t get specials, but we carried it on and we go out of our way so people can get those things. We’ll always try to find ways around it.

People started tightening their belts and shopping around – but because people were shopping around it opened more doors for us

And that presumably helps with retaining accounts?

AD: Definitely. One of my biggest accounts here is a law firm and to begin with, we weren’t really supporting [their organisation] in Guernsey. Last month, they called me about a paper that a Guernsey supplier told them was discontinued. I spoke to our paper merchant, who said: “No, we can still get it.” So immediately, the customer has given up the [Guernsey dealer’s] business and that’s an extra £500 a month for us. That’s from just one company that couldn’t be bothered to look around.

What sorts of customers do you service?

Have you had any problems with account retention or people spending less over the three years since you’ve set up?

AD: Being an offshore finance hub, Jersey has a lot of law firms and finance firms, so we sell to a lot of those sorts of companies. Size-wise, it’s very mixed.

AD: We’re very lucky that we don’t really have any debtors and we haven’t lost any customers since we started, and they’ve all been growing.

VL: Like in the mainland, you never know what sorts of companies are going to crop up, and an office of just a couple of people can soon grown into an office of 20 or 30 people. Each company is just as important as the others.

VL: I think that’s because we do go out of our way to help customers with their products and make their lives as easy as possible. Everyone is so busy so we try to offer that little bit extra. An example is our deskside service, so rather than leaving stuff at reception we’ll deliver it to the specific desk so it doesn’t go wandering in reception, leaving the customer having to place another order because they haven’t got what they wanted. Anna, Tony and I all do the deliveries and muck in, because customers like to see the people they’re dealing with out and about. You’ve got to keep in touch with customers as see what the delivery drivers are doing too, by getting out there all the time.

Do finance and law firms require a different approach or different types of products?

AD: Not really. With the legal side, you have to be quite diverse with the products you supply so if necessary, we’ll source outside of the likes of VOW and Spicers and

In the three years you’ve been going, have any areas of the business grown any more or less than you might have expected?

AD: Contracts-wise, office products has definitely grown, whereas furniture hasn’t grown as much as we would have liked, purely because in a recession, refurbishments tend to get put on the back burner. Stationery is a consumable item so people have to have it to keep their offices going. If they’ve got a desk, people can make do with it – although [furniture] has grown as the brand and awareness of us being here has grown. In the first year, we missed the phone book because we started up in May, so a lot of the first year was word-of-mouth and marketing.

You mentioned stationery being a core item – are people buying more white box products instead of brands?

AD: There is a mix. You find some of the bigger companies have gone for the white box [products], whereas the law firms all like the expensive stuff and don’t like anything cheaper. We major with [VOW’s] Q-Connect but there are still strong selling lines out there for the brands.

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“★★★★ A MUST READ” Successful Reseller

“A FANTASTIC SELECTION OF TOOLS AND SERVICES” Some big Reseller

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Veto Ordinary Wholesaling

people

dealer interview Panther

VL: Also, we’ll go in and suggest the white box item, for instance with labels – if people are using 20 boxes of labels we’ll try to sell the non-branded items to try to help them save some pennies. Obviously the customer likes that because you’re really looking after them, and you’re building up a long-term trust.

What are your feelings about how Jersey is faring economically? Do you think things in the industry will improve?

AD: I think Jersey has got a lot of money but people just aren’t spending at the moment. They’re just sitting, watching and waiting to see what the UK is going to do.

VL: The finance is here for a long time because everyone has invested so much money in Jersey. Because people have been laid off and everyone is under pressure, I think people will be too busy to spend a lot of time ordering stationery – so once you’re in an organisation, people will rely on their office products supplier rather than the person actually doing the purchasing. If we can make their lives easier, it will save them [time and money] in the long-run.

What about Panther’s future?

VL: There is so much opportunity out there. We want to remain a specialist and do a good job and all three of us – Anna, Tony and I – keep our fingers on the pulse and try to do as much as possible on the customer front. Obviously we want to push the business forward and continue to grow, so we’re hopefully going to have a busy time.

What about the risks? How do you prepare for and mitigate them?

VL: We’ve grown at such a nice pace and done a lot of background work. We’re constantly cold calling and getting ourselves in front of the customer. We haven’t grown too quickly and we’re trying to be a specialist stationery supplier and build the Panther brand, so we’ll stick to what we know rather than try to diversify and go along various different paths. So I think we’ll go a long way and we’re getting a lot of referrals already. A few customers a week are getting in touch, because Jersey is a large village and word gets around. Even though there are 87,000 people, it’s a small place and people do talk.

A lot of dealers say they want to expand through diversification into different product categories, but you don’t see that as the way forward for Panther?

AD: Jersey is such a small place and there are nine dealers on an island that’s nine miles by five. That’s a lot of dealers and although we do bits of catering, for example, we don’t want to specialise in that because there are probably nine other companies already doing it.

VL: We’re not saying we won’t go out of our way to get something that somebody needs, but we’ll use another local company to provide that. For example, we work alongside a local printing firm so if someone has printing needs, we’ll act as a go-between.

That’s reciprocal as well – we’ve all got to help each other. DS

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

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MANAGEMENT

grow your business

UPWARDLY MOBILE Mobile and home working is becoming increasingly popular and it presents dealers with a great opportunity to explore new business territory, as Matt Jane finds out

M

odern working methods are constantly changing and the traditional office-based workforce is rapidly being overtaken by more flexible practices. Currently, around 38% of workforces are mobile, and this is a trend that looks set to continue. The move towards mobile working, combined with employees increasingly opting to work from home, provides office supplies dealers with a great opportunity to discuss the print solutions that can improve mobility and efficiency of workers.

“Home and mobile working is becoming part of our everyday life,” says Phil Jones from brother. “whether we are based in an office or not, we are all expected to maintain communication with colleagues and clients when we are not at our desk. Therefore, this sector will continue to grow as expectations of businesses and workers are raised further.”

The print requirements of home and mobile workers differ from those of a standard office environment and dealers should be aware of individual needs and the assorted technology available to support them. “Home and mobile workers today typically require more than just print functionality from their printing solutions,” says Alan McLeish from oKi. “in line with this there is an ongoing move from single function to multifunction devices in these environments. The home and mobile office markets for A4 multifunction printers (MFPs) are growing rapidly as a result with colour MFPs proving particularly popular.”

Jones suggests that whether a person occasionally works from home or is self-employed, the printer is still an essential tool. “They want a printer that is compact so that it doesn’t take up too much space in their home and ideally they want it to look stylish so it will look great alongside their other home technology and gadgets,” he says. it is important to consider the space constraints that home workers generally have to contend with. “Many who

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

work from home do not have the luxury of a dedicated office space, and are often restricted to a desk in the hallway or a makeshift set-up in a conservatory,” says Julia Lunn of Lexmark, who suggests an inkjet offering would therefore be a better consideration for the soHo environment. simon Hanly from epson suggests people now require technology that allows them to work efficiently and cost-effectively in any room of their home. “with this in mind, printers with wi-fi capability, high print speed at a low cost per page and features such as duplex printing that will help cut down on print and running costs are growing in demand,” he explains.

There is also an increased demand for wireless technology, as home workers need the ability to print from anywhere in their house. “This is not an issue for office workers where printers are typically fully networked, but it is an increasingly important requirement for the home,” says McLeish. “As a result, wireless printing is likely to be a growth area in the future as the trend to working from home continues to accelerate.”

T

he cloud is one of the hottest buzzwords in technology, and also has applications for home and mobile printing (see analysis on page 36). Lunn suggests the cloud is now changing the way staff, including home workers, print and share documents. “Previously on a VPn, workers were limited to scanning documents to their desktop, which proved slow for sharing purposes,” she explains. “some devices on the market now allow you to scan directly to the cloud, cutting out the laptop or PC stage, which ultimately saves time and drives a more collaborative environment. with advances in the ability to scan to the cloud, some devices come equipped with a preview screen that also promises an improved and more accurate end result when it comes to producing and sharing the document.”

McLeish agrees that the cloud will continue to have a growing influence on home and mobile print requirements,

grow your business

www.dealersupport.co.uk july 2011

33

MANAGEMENT

grow your business

suggesting that cloud-based printing will in the future allow print functionality from devices that traditionally didn’t support print, such as iPhones. “even if the user device is not physically networked to a printer, the user can send a given document into the cloud, where a pre-configured print driver manages the process, enabling the document to be output to the target device,” he explains. goLDen oPPorTuniTy The opportunities in the mobile and home worker market present dealers with a great chance to explore a new customer base, and it is a market that is in a good place at the moment.

“The rapid growth of mobile and home workers means it is a sector that cannot be ignored,” says stuart swinton from HP. “in fact, dealers should be conscious not to miss the opportunity this market creates. with the boom of start-ups and with more people working for themselves, it is vital that dealers act quickly and respond to their unique needs.” swinton suggests the rewards for engaging with home and mobile workers are potentially huge, but it requires a behavioural analysis of the customer in the first instance. “This allows the reseller to create a tailored package around that individual business’s needs and printing habits,” he continues.

“Taking time to understand your customers will keep them happy and is the key to customer loyalty. As their business grows, so will yours.” statistics prove that the use of mobile devices is growing all the time, with mobile phones set to overtake PCs as the most commonly used web device in the world by 2013. Furthermore, tablet shipments are projected to grow by over 46 million units in 2014, meaning workers using these gadgets will increasingly demand printing methods that support this, such as wireless solutions. “with more people using mobile devices for web access and the distribution of content, resellers should always look to highlight benefits related to mobile printing, such as wi-fi connectivity from any device,” says Hanly. one important factor for dealers to consider before any technology is implemented is that customers should have the sufficient back office system to accommodate mobile workers. “if not, the dealer should consider whether they can provide an outsourced service for the customer to provide the right technology and support to remote workers,” says Tracey Fielden from Canon. “Dealers also need to be able to provide more flexible web and text-based support to a mobile workforce to meet their ongoing needs.”

KeePing MobiLe in order to make the most of sales to this market and to ensure customers are satisfied, it is essential that dealers keep their target market in mind throughout. “Dealers should be aware that mobile technology is still new to many people and potential customers may be unsure about changing from a device they know and trust,” says Jones. “Demonstrations

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Many who work from home do not have the luxury of a dedicated office space, and are often restricted to a desk in the hallway or a makeshift set-up in a conservatory and trial periods are useful to allow customers to see the benefits of the printers first hand. seeing the efficiency and quality for themselves will always help to assure customers of their investment.”

T

he home and mobile office may not be the largest market for dealers to pursue, but it could offer a useful new avenue for business that could bring long-term benefits. “For example, business that historically only used standard A4 laser printers within the office environment may be interested in either upgrading to newer devices to cater for an increasingly mobile workforce, or to invest in smaller, mobile printers or scanners,” says Fielden.

McLeish sees the dealer’s role in the home and mobile print market as one of supporting customers to make a decision that will ultimately offer them best value. “Total cost of ownership is the key issue here,” he explains. “often the cheapest devices in terms of upfront purchase price can end up costing customers the most over the lifetime of the product because the devices come with much higher cost per copy. The customer’s decision will ultimately come down to page volumes, so it is critical that the dealer understands what these volumes are likely to be and, as a result, is able to provide the customer with a product that best meets their requirements.”

Jones adds that brother has proved through its independent retailer programme that price is not necessarily the main driver behind purchasing decisions. “Customers are more concerned about availability, seeing the product, quick and reliable service and set-up than the outright purchase cost,” he says. with so many options and with an ever-expanding customer base, the home and mobile worker market could be a lucrative area for dealers to explore. As technology advances to allow even greater freedom of working patterns, dealers should be ready to take advantage of any opportunities. DS

MANAGEMENT

ANALYSIS

Despite its thus far limited impact on UK enterprise, cloud computing is nothing new. Now, though, virtual working is set to explode, as Allie Anderson discovers

Heads in B

rate among UK SMEs in the next few years. “[We] found that a 94% satisfaction rate is driving 85% further investment in cloud services this year,” he commented. “Once businesses become familiar with the opportunity for cloud services to complement any on-premises capability, we can expect a dramatic increase in cloud adoption among SMEs. UK businesses in our experience are far from lagging behind the market – they are by nature innovative, probing and exploiting technology to their advantage.” What benefits, then, can be found in the cloud?

THE CUMULUS EFFECT Technophobes might well shudder at the very concept, but most people – perhaps unknowingly – have been computing in the cloud for some time. Every time you log on to read your MSN or Yahoo emails, upload your holiday snaps onto Flickr, update your Facebook status or tweet, you’re using the cloud. However, uptake of cloud computing for commercial use – particularly among SMEs – has been slow.

According to a survey conducted by global cloud and virtualisation firm VMware, UK SMEs are lagging behind their European counterparts when it comes to cloud adoption. Less than half (48%) of small and medium-sized companies in the UK have utilised cloud services, the survey found, compared with 60% across the rest of Europe. The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), however, predicts that uptake among UK SMEs will increase significantly in the very near future, even suggesting mainstream adoption in 2011. Established in 2009, the CIF sets out to bring businesses and cloud services providers together in a secure and transparent marketplace and give end-users information and guidance. Its chairman Andy Burton highlights results from the CIF’s own recent survey, which points to a 98% cloud adoption

MONEY MATTERS Top of the list of reasons to adopt a virtual workspace is its capacity to save businesses a lot of money, most notably in hardware costs. A network server is a huge drain on resources, requiring capital outlay, training for someone to be able to use it and back-up for when that person is off. On top of that, a round-the-clock power supply is needed, as well as the incremental costs of back-up tapes and a contingency for when the server breaks down. Cloud computing eliminates the hassle and cost associated with running your own server, as it’s all maintained by the provider. Of course, the provider will also have a raft of expertise and knowledge invested in its platform, negating the need to have expensive, dedicated IT support personnel onsite.

When you think about the amount of computing your organisation undertakes on a daily basis, it may seem impracticable to do so without applications and programmes that are routed to your own server or each user’s PC. The accounting department probably uses spreadsheets; the administrators will use a word processing package; the salespeople may require a database programme and the marketing team, publishing and presentation software. Typically, MS Office or a similar system will give access to all of these programmes, but will need to be installed onto every PC whose user requires access to it – at an additional cost when you buy a new machine.

Using a cloud-based system, for example Google Apps, gives access to all such programmes with similar business functionalities, hosted in a virtual environment and accessed via

usinesses traditionally have their own computer hardware and software, containing the various programmes and systems used by their workforces. This involves an often complex IT infrastructure and entails installing a particular programme onto the computer of every individual that requires access to that programme. With cloud computing, the software is instead hosted by a third party provider on its centralised cluster of computers – often known as a server farm – and accessed via the internet. In short, cloud computing turns IT into a service.

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JULY 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

ANALYSIS

the cloud an individual or organisation-wide log-in via the internet. At the front-end, the manager has control over what his or her platform comprises and who has access to what (for a nominal monthly flat fee in most cases); at the back-end, there are several web-based back office systems that come highly recommended.

The hassle of upgrading software and maintaining updates is also the responsibility of the provider.

A SILVER LINING? In a fast-paced and ever-evolving society, workers are increasingly conducting business on the move, aided by sophisticated mobile devices. As such, cloud computing is not only becoming a commercial option, but a necessity, used from a distance and accessible from anywhere at any time. However, concerns about the security of cloud services – and internet-based business models more widely – have been fuelled by high-profile and publicised cases.

With Sony PlayStation Network’s recent security incident and, perhaps more pertinently, users of Amazon’s cloud computing services ignoring basic security practices and setting up virtual spaces without adequate checks in place, the validity of the cloud as a safe platform for conducting business and hosting confidential data is being called into question. The operational failings of Sony PSN highlight the need for transparency and clarity in the cloud sector: the Amazon case emphasises the importance of user awareness.

Service providers enable different security levels for different applications and functionalities – it’s up to the user to ensure the appropriate settings for their requirements are activated.

As Burton points out, the commercial principle ‘caveat emptor’ applies.

BLUE SKIES AHEAD The scope for cloud adoption in the independent channel is expansive, particularly for dealers that don’t hold stock or have their own delivery vans. In effect, a London-based dealer could operate from a home office, with sales teams in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Devon with their own patches, delivering direct using their wholesaler’s regional distribution solution, suggests digital marketing expert Andy Strevens. The result would be an extremely streamlined and cost-minimal business with a vastly reduced overheads and infrastructure spend. “By migrating to the cloud, a dealer that’s working on a stocking and office-based model could afford to lose half its customers and still be making more money than they are at the moment,” Strevens comments. “If you think about how much money it takes to run an office, let alone worrying about everyone being there on time, you could save a fortune. It has massive opportunities in the office supplies industry.”

The channel is moving in that direction already, with partnerships being forged that naturally lend themselves to the virtual model. A case in point is dealer group Advantia and independent corporate office2office’s recently-launched Truline business, which, in conjunction with VOW, supplies and distributes on behalf of Advantia members. With the benefit of Truline’s warehousing and logistics operations, as well as access to procurement and other services, dealers will be well-placed to adopt cloud services.

For many, virtual working may prove to be the silver bullet of modern business. For others, it will remain the stuff of science fiction heresy. Regardless, it seems web-centric commerce is a fait accompli for even the most traditional of industries. It’s perhaps time for us all to get our heads well and truly stuck in the cloud. DS

By migrating to the cloud, a dealer working on a stocking and office-based model could afford to lose half its customers and still make more money than they are at the moment

www.dealersupport.co.uk JULY 2011

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MANAGEMENT

ANALYSIS

Contracting for growth The office products market has historically followed a transactional approach to selling, but a shift towards contractual sales is emerging. HP recently held a focused discussion on this step change with Allie Anderson watching from the sidelines

T

he London Business School recently hosted a panel discussion in which luminaries from manufacturer HP and print services provider Landscape mused over the trend towards contractual solutions over the more traditional transactional sales model.

Taking managed print services (MPS) as its focus, the panel, comprising HP’s channel development manager Alan Hatfield and EMEA presales technology manager Howard Roberts, as well as Landscape CEO David Smith, raised many salient points.

IT vendors and resellers have been slow to follow the shift towards contractual sales, which have proven advantages for those involved. The mobile phone market, for one, realised the mutual gains of providing a contractual service over the pay- as-you-go model long ago. Through such contracts, operators have a more robust relationship with their customers, who get a better package on a more transparent tariff, with added benefits and support services. In the independent dealer channel, facilities management is also a likely platform for contractual sales. Selling a coffee machine, for example, opens up avenues for the supply of coffee and milk refills and accessories on a contractual basis.

A contractual offering can encourage customer loyalty in a highly competitive market, which Hatfield suggested the IT industry would do well to capitalise on. The partnership inherent in this approach facilitates better integration within and understanding of the customer’s business, enabling growth. Transactional services, Hatfield added, will always fall short of such benefits, as they are by definition rooted in the moment of sale.

Crucial to any large-scale IT deployment is a sound financial analysis, and here, resellers and vendors are

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JULY 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

well-placed to highlight any workflow inefficiencies and showcase problems in the current system – like how much time and money is currently being wasted. Hatfield reported potential customer savings of 20% in adopting MPS. Smith added that the current economic situation is driving increased creativity in IT departments. This, coupled with greater emphasis on long-term return on investment and total cost of ownership versus outright single-sale cost, provides a ripe landscape for contractual deals.

Unlike ordering everyday office supplies, strategic purchasing decisions such as capital IT spend are driven from the customer’s end by senior executives – often an IT director, FD, facilities manager or CEO, with whom smaller resellers may not have an established line of communication. This can be a barrier to crossing the threshold – even for resellers with a longstanding relationship with the stationery buyer – with a referral up the organisation’s hierarchy to the strategic decision maker often holding little weight.

An added concern for resellers is the level of skilled salesmanship required to secure a contractual sale, which is a world apart from pinning down a single transaction.

Investment in the sales force is therefore essential to register on the buying organisation’s radar.

However, once solutions to combat a minefield of issues concerning ownership and management of contracts have been designed, contractual sales are a potentially lucrative source of reseller income. DS

20% potential cost and resource savings achieved through MPS

Crucial to any large-scale IT deployment is a sound financial analysis, and here, resellers and vendors are well-placed to highlight any workflow inefficiencies and showcase problems

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NS FOR DEA LERS

CALL: 020 7288 6833 EMAIL: subscriptions@intelligentmedia.co.uk WEB: www.dealersupport.co.uk/subscribe/ *TERMS & CONDITIONS In order to qualify for a free subscription, the recipient must be a director, manager, proprietor and/or buyer in dealers, wholesalers and distributors supplying office products, individuals manufacturing office products, and other individuals with purchasing authority in the UK or Ireland.

For those who do not qualify there is a £68 annual fee. For details or to subscribe, contact Joanna Hartmann on subscriptions@intelligentmedia.co.uk, +44 (0)20 7288 6833 or visit www.dealersupport.com/subscribe/ www.dealersupport.co.uk MONTH 2011

39

Break time Need to exercise those grey cells? Here are a few head scratchers to get you thinking…

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ACROSS 1 Blooming tooth robber! You have the legal right to fine him (12) 9 Dostoyevsky’s Prince Myshkin gives one girl books (5) 10 Bursting in and bursting out, we hear (9) 11 Completed dub on soundtrack extraordinarily quickly (9) 12 Recent time lost makes one tardier (5) 13 Some metal boxes get returned, flattened at the edges (6) 15 Radioactive metal found in protein by one university microbiologist originally (8) 18 Composer who brought Spanish language to Italy? (8) 19 It helps produce groovy music (6) 22 Required by one sitting president at meeting (5) 24 Topless sex on Prague television initially bothered censor (9) 26 One who makes good money for his employers wouldn’t be welcome at Lord’s, perhaps (9) 27 Brad returns with a climber (5) 28 Repeatedly speak with East European corrupt dialect (6-6)

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Set by Alberich

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Pub Quiz Cooking By what other name is the edible African plant okra commonly known?

Ancient history In ancient Egyptian mythology, Geb was the Egyptian god of what?

Art What nationality was the expressionist painter Edvard Munch?

Geography In which mountain range is Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain?

DOWN 1 Bespectacled Corin somehow finds a S. American flower (7) 2 Brief moment for a lyricist? (5) 3 Give advance payment to South African province before delivery (9) 4 Non-Spanish speaker in America has to travel around to make a call (6) 5 Version of Christe eleison primarily for those with unorthodox creed (8) 6 Banish former huntsman out East (5) 7 Defective hearing result of putting one in the wind (8) 8 Worker is on the edge in Northern Ireland (6) 14 Reluctant Marion undressed for seducer (8) 16 Raised capital to support one theatre with production of Lear, among others (5,4) 17 Eskimo shaman finds English king in capital city, decapitated (8) 18 Commander in chief to the Queen has love for orator (6) 20 Leak incomplete cross-reference (7) 21 A mineral source extremely thin on the ground (6) 23 Dance graduate leaves cake (5) 25 A shortage? What a shame (5) For answers, visit http://www.dealersupport.co.uk/issue/

Answers: Cooking – lady’s fingers; Art – Norwegian; Ancient history – the earth; Geography – The Grampians.

Mathletics You have 30 seconds to complete the sum in your head – no cheating!

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

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FINAL wORD

2011:

the year of agility We’re entering the future norm – a fast-paced environment where structure counts for little and agility counts for everything

Marc Pinner, director, QQM

T

here’s a new buzzword in town – agility. It sounds simple, it’s happening all around us, but we’re not all in tune. Once again, is the industry really geared up to this phenomenon? Or, as is often the case, is it only the entrepreneurial few who will win? They’ll win for sure as they won’t see it as a phenomenon, but simply a matter of business dynamics.

Let me explain: the industry is hugely structured. Consumers buy, resellers sell and manufacturers make, so resellers can sell and consumers can buy. The structures in place many years ago are now fragile and some of us are making the necessary changes, adapting and manoeuvring to ensure they’re the winners of this future industry. We’re entering the future norm – a fast-paced environment where structure counts for little and agility counts for everything.

The disciplines of channels or the ultimate target consumer are both distant memories. Channels are blurring all the time. Whether it’s Staples taking the seemingly brave step with a full solution – retail, direct and advantage – or the dealer community simply automating its selling process, we’re all becoming agile.

Who is this target consumer? It used to be simple. The PA, the secretary, the office manager or the facilities manager. The latter is even a new phenomenon. But is it? Tesco and Amazon have taught us that the disciplines and rules can be changed. Tesco is not simply a one-format shop. It’s agile enough to adapt to the local market and to local tastes. It’s about a constant pursuit of new consumers or increasing consumption from loyalists.

So now I see our industry in 2011. Nearly 20 years after Tesco hit the number one spot, the web revolution has been, gone and come back again, China manufactures more than ever before, even at higher prices, and I still come across many set ways in our industry. Let’s also throw out the rule book.

That’s not to have chaos, but to have new rules - rules of agility. How do we tailor our offering to our markets? Create more demand? Who are our consumers of tomorrow? Do they only really buy once a year? How can we increase their basket spend, not just with flimsy promotions that look good, but ones that drive lasting increases in consumption? How can we communicate with them?

I have often thought the dealer community is in a great place. The core competition is contract stationers – are they in a good place? Years ago, big was beautiful. The web and the recession has put paid to that notion and actually, structurally, it’s not a great place to be: bureaucracy, slowness, inwardly and short-term focused.

So when you look at your business, when you plan the next sales cycle or the next budget, drop all management speak and bring agility into the language. How can I make my sales team more proactive (agile)? How can I increase that group of consumers’ spend (agile)? How can I beat my nearest competitor (agile)? How can I create an event to increase demand of a product and not just rely on Christmas, back-to-school, the January sale, etc? Yes, the answer is agile. DS

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july 2011 www.dealersupport.co.uk

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NEWS INSPIRING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS FOR DEALERS

Breaking news

Spicers sELL for £200m

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ackaging giant DS Smith is to sell Spicers, its European office products wholesaling business, to Unipapel, a Spanish wholesaler of IT and office supplies, for an enterprise value of £200m. Spicers’s UK and Ireland business has been subject to a separate binding agreement from private equity firm Becap SVP that will see it acquired for £32m.

On completion of any sale, Unipapel will satisfy its offer in cash and by the assumption of existing debt. The net cash proceeds would, in the short term, be used to reduce the group’s net indebtedness and in the long-term be reinvested in the group’s recycled packaging business with the aim of expanding its geographic coverage.

DS Smith decided to consider a sale of Spicers in December 2010 with the aim of becoming the leading supplier of recycled packaging for consumer goods.

As of 30 April, the gross assets of Spicers were £235m, the gross liabilities were £126m, and the business made an operating profit of £24m on revenues of £715m in the year preceding. DS Smith has committed to a period of exclusivity during which DS Smith will inform and consult with Spicers’s works councils.

Should DS Smith breach its exclusivity commitment or not accept the binding offer within the exclusivity period, break fees of up to £11.2m will be payable by DS Smith to Unipapel.

Completion of the proposed disposal will be subject to certain conditions, including antitrust approval, and completion price adjustments.

Miles Roberts, group chief executive, DS Smith commented: “The proposed sale of Spicers, our European office products wholesaling business, represents a key strategic step in the streamlining of the DS Smith group to become focused on recycled packaging for consumer goods.

“We will work closely with Unipapel to ensure that Spicers’ customers continue to receive a high quality of service and to ensure a smooth transition period for customers and employees.

Following the proposed transaction, our aim is to continue to focus on and build our European packaging business.”

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OFFICE FRIENDLY DEALER ASSOCIATION AND XEROX OFFICE SUPPLIES News printed on Xerox Colorprint 80 gsm

DEALER SUPPORT NEWS

OFDA takes e-Marketing to the Max

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ffice Friendly has linked up with online marketing experts InControl Marketing to launch the latest, revamped version of Maxemail, an e-marketing tool available exclusively to members.

The 2011 version lets companies get more out of their email campaigns, giving them the ability to print quality flyers and publications from one convenient location.

Maxemail’s range of exciting new features includes improved reporting and metrics measurement, spam filtering and the ability to populate content quickly and effectively by using a wizard option. An improved print facility means PDFs can be amended online and printed locally, while order pad facilities allow for sales of print without the need for an ecommerce website.

Members can currently choose from 124 content-driven promotions accessible on file, all of which can be personalised.

Available now in PDF as well as HTML format, downloaded promotions can also be priced exclusively by members.

Judy Wadsworth, marketing co-ordinator at Ask the Office, a Bradford-based member, has found it a significant improvement on the original programme. “You can reach customers with a simple press of a button now, with far less key stroking required,” she said. “I find the wizard application particularly useful with automatic insertion of basic data very easy to use.”

With a 35% increase in users, including most of its largest resellers, OFDA has been happy with take-up of this latest development. There is also the existing plug-in to all of VOW’s PDFs and distributor Beta is set to add its accessibility imminently.

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VOW

More rebates for Synaxon members

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ynaxon has launched additional rebates that will boost its members’ profits when they increase spend through the dealer group’s online procurement platform.

The extra discounts with key distributors including Ingram Micro, Entatech, CCI and Beta, together with higher rebates from vendors Fujitsu, GData, Cables To Go and Antec, were announced at the group’s recent southern regional meeting.

The agreements would mean, for example, that a reseller that spends £125,000 over a three-month period would earn more than £1,300 per quarter and over £5,200 per annum in rebates,

in addition to the normal margins and benefits associated with membership.

Chris Butterworth, head of purchasing at Synaxon, said: “At a time when every penny counts, [the rebates] will make a significant difference to our members and we are grateful to our supplier partners for providing these additional incentives. They make being a Synaxon Premier partner and making use of Egis even more attractive.”

Meanwhile, the IT and OP dealer group has announced details of its inaugural conference, which will take place at the De Vere Wychwood Park Hotel and Golf Complex near Crewe on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 September 2011.

Frontier’s political campaign

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joint marketing campaign between reseller Frontier Voice and Data and its channel partner Gazelle Consulting has achieved great success in signing up political associations as customers of its telephony service.

Gazelle Consulting had a database of Conservative Associations to target as new business and worked with Frontier Voice and Data’s channel marketing team to implement a successful direct marketing campaign.

The reseller prepared a bundled offer of free calling minutes designed to help attract the associations with the opportunity to reduce their costs during their most busy period.

The channel marketing team also produced an html email, a sales flyer for following up enquiries and sales presentations.

As a result, Gazelle Consulting has now signed up close to 60 Conservative Associations as well as MPs. Gazelle has now adopted the same model for other markets.

OFFICE FRIENDLY DEALER ASSOCIATION AND XEROX OFFICE SUPPLIES

VOW has launched its latest VOW+ initiative. The Business Development Pack (BDP) of outsourced services focuses on prospecting and new business development. VOW+ dealers will work in partnership with The BP Group to build a process for developing new business through the focus on telesales and telemarketing. The tailored support includes identifying new opportunities, receiving a pipeline of leads and planning the marketing material that will act as a follow up to the initial sales contact.

Obituary

Keith Williams, Officepoint’s director of business development, lost his battle with cancer last month at the age of 45. He fought the disease for 10 months despite being told when he was diagnosed last August that he had only weeks to live. He had been with Officepoint for 10 years.

Williams’s widow, Jane, requested donations to Cancer Research UK instead of flowers. Visit http://www. justgiving.com/KeithWilliams-RIP.

Spicers

Spicers has launched its dealer marketing programme for 2012, aimed at helping dealers to offer a broader range, as well as to compete credibly against other market players. Spicers’ Big Book catalogue contains the widest choice of products and incorporates a new design. It is category-based and offers a familiar navigation system in order to help end-users find what they need quickly and easily. Spicers has also extended its selection of professional publications to profile these ranges.

DEALER SUPPORT NEWS

New Westcoast infrastructure cuts costs and power usage

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T distributor Westcoast is reducing power consumption by 51% and saving £72,000 a year through a new HP and Microsoft infrastructure at its data centre.

Westcoast IT manager Andy Lyonette was tasked with coping with reduced costs and managing an infrastructure refresh. He said: “After consolidating our old server estate with HP server blades and virtualising the environment, recent results...indicate that power usage has fallen by 51%.

“This equates to £72,000 per annum and makes a significant contribution to lowering total cost of ownership. Moreover, latest estimates show that application performance increases by approximately 54%.”

Westcoast is challenging resellers to follow suit, offering £2,000 to any reseller that can reduce its own power consumption or that of one of its customers by more than 51% on a new infrastructure roll out.

Three Peaks team raises £14k

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team including Antalis McNaughton staff, Grupo Portucel Soporcel and dealer Total Office’s James Copsey have completed the ‘Pioneer Three Peaks Challenge’, raising over £14,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

The challenge took place on 9 and 10 June, starting at 6pm at Scotland’s Ben Nevis, where the team had to climb the highest mountain in the UK – some 4,409ft – in just five hours, before getting into a minibus to travel to Scafell Pike in Cumbria.

At 5am the next day, the team began the ascent up to the second peak at 2,992ft, completing it by 10am. The race then began to get to Snowdon in North Wales to climb the final mountain – peaking at 3,406ft – within 24 hours.

Tim Percival, national office trade director at Antalis McNaughton, who took part in the challenge, commented: “The team did a fantastic job to complete the Three Peaks Challenge in just 24 hours. It was an extremely difficult challenge and we had to brave bad weather, sickness, sore muscles and tiredness.

We are all very proud to have taken part in the challenge and to have raised so much money for such a good cause.”

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Superstat

Commercial among Best Green Companies

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ommercial Group has achieved fourth position in the Sunday Times Best Green Companies list.

The independent dealer placed alongside many blue chip companies which, according to the group’s COO Richard Keating, is a testament to how the company has upped its green ante in recent months.

“Commercial is firmly on track to reach its £34m turnover target for this year,” he said.

“This growth is a prime example of how the environmental agenda can underpin company growth and success.

“Interestingly, our environmental programme has been a fundamental aspect of our company since 2006. It is no longer something we do; rather it is something we are. To receive such high praise and recognition for that is a real honour.”

The company has achieved 71% reduction in its fleet emissions since 2006 and has also reduced its electricity emissions by 66% since 2007, heating by 51% since 2008 and flights by 68% since 2009 and, overall, the company hit its 75% reduction in normalised carbon emissions in 2010.

Midwich

Awards for London eco dealer

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iles Greenworld is celebrating after receiving two awards.

The dealer picked up the Premier Member of the Year award at Office Club’s recent annual conference, and was also given the 2010 Office Club Recycler of the Year gong by ERS Europe for its commitment to cartridge recycling.

In total, the team returned 9,617 printer cartridges to ERS for recycling last year.

The Superstat Group has promoted Graeme Hargreaves to its main board as merchandising director.

Hargreaves has worked for Superstat for four years, latterly as commercial director at Praxis.

The move reflects Superstat’s commitment to enhanced product management and superior supplier engagement to deliver tangible results to our supplier partners. He will be tasked with re-modelling the way in which the group brings products to market, delivering additional value to key partners.

Wiles Greenworld’s Toby Robins said: “This is a partnership that has developed over several years and it was fantastic to learn that no [UK] office supplies company sends back more cartridges than we do.”

Other Office Club winners were Strachan Office Supplies (Corporate Member of the Year); Axminster Printing (Diamond Member); Jet Tec (Manufacturer/ Supplier) and Antalis McNaughton (Wholesaler/Distributor).

OFFICE FRIENDLY DEALER ASSOCIATION AND XEROX OFFICE SUPPLIES

AV distributor Midwich has signed an exclusive distribution deal with LG video conferencing solutions.

The partnership will further strengthen Midwich’s growing videoconferencing portfolio and offer resellers an easy solution to promote videoconferencing to their customers. LG videoconferencing resellers will be able to capitalise on the customer demands due to the well-known LG brand image and use Midwich’s comprehensive portfolio of displays, TVs and monitors to make synergy with this videoconferencing system.

Honours

Kiran Mistry, MD of stamp manufacturer Colop and Sammy Bartley, category head at Vasanta, have been admitted as liverymen in the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers.

Founded in 1403, the Company represents those involved with modern communications industries, including printing and office products. Both Mistry and Bartley were previously Company freemen as well as enjoying Freedom of the City of London.

DEALER SUPPORT NEWS

Par-fect charity day for UOP

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Manley said: “It all went really well and heffield dealer Universal Office Supplies the fact that we he had good weather made swung into action last month, raising it even better. It was an excellent turn out; £4,000 for a cancer cause at its 2011 in fact, it was oversubscribed and we had to charity golf day. turn people away.”

Directors Steve Manley and Mark Universal got involved with the charity Broadbent took to the range along with when Manley took his place on the Sheffield representatives from manufacturers including Macmillan Committee four years ago.

Brother, Newell Rubbermaid and Staedtler on The directors have organised annual golf 24 June for the fourth annual golfing event the days – raising thousands of pounds for the dealership has organised in aid of Macmillan Steve Manley (left) and Mark Broadbent cause – ever since.

Cancer Support.

Anyone wishing to get involved in future events should contact Held at Hillsborough Golf Club, 29 teams of four took part to Manley on smanley@uop.co.uk. help boost fundraising activity for the charity in this, its 100th year.

VOW+ resellers to battle for ski trip prize places

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OW is launching its most popular promotion; Whiteout, the ultimate ski trip.

Until 31 December, VOW+ customers will be competing for a place on the 2012 excursion to Les Arcs in France. This year, there are 21 places up for grabs.

To win a place, resellers will need to earn points by increasing their spend with one of the seven brands partnering with VOW on Whiteout: Fellowes, Nestle, Philips, Xerox, Newell Rubbermaid, PG Tips and Samsung.

Dealers can earn bonus points if they place their 2012 catalogue order before 19 August. Every extra catalogue over last year’s order will earn a point. Additionally, holding a blitz day for any of the supporting brands will earn resellers 500 bonus points.

The 21 companies to earn the most points will win a place for a member of their organisation on the trip, which includes flights, accommodation, ski passes and more.

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P

eople working from home are placing strain on their bodies and risking back problems by not sitting at a desk and failing to adopt the correct posture, according to research by Fellowes.

The research found that 42% of home workers sit on the sofa while working and 22% work in bed. While these places may be comfortable initially, working in that way for a long period of time can put the body under strain and cause aches and pains.

With the Trade Union Congress (TUC) reporting that 3.7 million people in the UK are currently working from home, postural problems

caused by inefficient workspaces could affect a significant proportion of the UK workforce.

Moreover, even though 34% of British workers complain of backache, only 20% of all workers use footrests and only 14% have a back rest, which can make a huge difference to sitting in a comfortable position.

Fellowes is running a campaign to help people work more ergonomically, whether they are office-based or work from home. Tips include: avoid a slouching back; use wrist supports; ensure your monitor is the correct distance and height; keep accessories within reach; and take regular breaks.

Integra teams up with Vistaplan

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ntegra has partnered with drawing office equipment company, Vistaplan, giving members a further boost to their supplier portfolios and access to a wider range of products and services.

Vistaplan International has been established for over 50 years and is a market leader in the manufacture of drawing office equipment and drawing management systems with wide recognition within the construction, architectural, engineering and educational industries.

Neil Basham, Integra’s purchasing director, said: “The range of products available will provide members with increased margin opportunities.

“A dedicated account manager will be available to accompany members on customer visits and this together with complimentary product training, marketing and sales support, will give Integra members access to the back up and support they really need to maximise the potential of this agreement.”

OFFICE FRIENDLY DEALER ASSOCIATION AND XEROX OFFICE SUPPLIES

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Watch your back, warns Fellowes

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The office supplies market is still widely regarded as one of the UK’s most fragmented sectors… 186 [companies] are primed to be taken over. Buying one of these represents a massive opportunity for someone to enhance their share of the market David Pattinson, Plimsoll

ADVERTORIAL

Ricoh Europe and DocuWare partner up

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icoh Europe, a specialist in office solutions, managed document services and production printing, has integrated DocuWare’s award-winning document management software into its document solutions portfolio across Europe.

The incorporation of DocuWare into Ricoh Europe’s portfolio of document solutions provides Ricoh customers with a new way to store and manage paper and electronic documents with ease, using a single digital repository. The comprehensive solution will help small and medium-sized businesses save time and money, by replacing timeconsuming, manual document processes with efficient, electronic workflows, to capture, store, manage and print all documents.

Ricoh’s document solutions portfolio has been created specifically to support the document processes in business critical departments, including finance, HR and legal. As such, the package provides cost-effective document management to organisations that wish to introduce a system for select business functions, or across the entire organisation.

Using a Ricoh multifunctional product (MFP), documents can be scanned and indexed directly into a workflow, meaning documents are easy to search, retrieve and share.

Documents remain secure; with integrated role-based security ensuring only the right people can access the right information.

The option to access DocuWare via a web browser eliminates the need to manage software on PCs or laptops. Documents can be stored and run on a business’ own network, or the complete package can be provided as a cloud service.

Featuring electronic approvals, version management and audit trails, the packages help businesses be more efficient and

compliant in their document management.

Benefits can be clearly seen in business functions such as invoicing, where a quicker process can lead to improved cash flow; and in customer services, where faster access to customer information can lead to increased customer satisfaction.

“Ricoh’s document management solutions, which now incorporate DocuWare, are ideal for businesses that need cost-effective document management that is quickly and easily implemented,” said Emma Isichei, director of Ricoh Europe’s Advanced Solutions Centre. “For example, Ricoh has now put its complete document solutions into practice at its European headquarters in London. Ricoh’s accounting department is already realising the benefits of instant electronic access to documents, such as invoices, resulting in faster, more efficient document management.”

“We are delighted with the European Ricoh-DocuWare partnership, and especially pleased to be included in Ricoh’s in-house document management system,” said Thomas Schneck, president of DocuWare. “With DocuWare, Ricoh’s customers will be able to easily access their documents from a central, secure location, helping them be more efficient.”

DocuWare is now integrated into Ricoh’s portfolio of office workflow solutions, which help businesses to be more cost-effective, secure, productive, and sustainable. The following document management solutions are available from Ricoh across Europe: accounts payable and accounts receivable, archiving, contract management, customer services, expenses, fleet records, HR records and logistics.