• 1 •

• 3 •

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING

Frank G. Cannata Editor-In-Chief and Publisher

Charles J. CannataSVP, Brand Strategy and Development

Carol C. CannataSVP, Client and Creative Services

Doreen Borghoff Design Director

Sharon Tosto Esker Story and Features Editor

Walter Geer III Executive Director, Digital Strategy

Karen Stewart Executive Producer, Digital Video

Charlene Piro Executive Producer, Print

Matt Stauble Events Photographer

CONTRIBUTORS

Bob Ingoglia Chief Marketing Correspondent

Bob Sostilio Chief Technology Correspondent

Tetsuo Kubo Japanese Correspondent

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Keith AllisonCEO, Systel Business Equipment

Paul HannaPresident, Blue Technologies

Steve Reding President, C.A. Reding

Andrew RitschelPresident, Electronic Office Systems

Barry Simon President, Datamax

Mark SteadmanCEO, Stan’s Office Technologies

Subscriptions I Advertising I Licensing Reprints | Questions | Feedback

cjcannata@cannatareport.com(917) 514-9501

THECANNATAREPORTTheCannataReport.com

THECANNATAREPORT (ISSN: 0889-5880) is published twelve times yearly by Marketing Research Consultants LLC, P.O. Box 180 Hamburg, New Jersey 07419. Phone: (973) 823-6314; Fax: (973) 823-6316; email: fgcannata@cannatareport.com. Editor and Publisher, Frank G. Cannata. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced in any manner in any language without the consent of THECANNATAREPORT. The information set forth herein and on its complementary website,TheCannataReport.com, has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed by THECANNATAREPORT and may be incomplete. THECANNATAREPORT’s expressed views and opinions are based on the foregoing and should be viewed in this context. Printed in the U.S.A. SUBSCRIPTION RATE for THECANNATAREPORT and TheCannataReport.com is $495 for one year. Subscribe at TheCannataReport.com/Register. POSTMASTER: Please email address changes to cjcannata@cannatareport.com.

Visit TheCannataReport.comApril 2015

COVER STORY

21 I Ricoh’s RevivalConvergence 2015 Further Rights Some Recent Wrongs

FEATURES

14 I CDA’s Power PanelTop Manufacturing Executives Enhance Dealer Group Meeting

16 I 2015 Virtual Panel SeriesSegment 4: ManufacturersDealer Business Should Include Upwards of 20% in Managed Services Revenue

27 I Convergence Resurgence Ricoh Makes Major Strides Forward Despite Missteps Along the Way

32 I A Copier Career That Can’t Be Duplicated 37-Year Metro Sales Veteran Retires with Dignity and Honor

DEPARTMENTS

6 I Hard Copy | From the Editor’s DeskNo. 15: The Best is Yet to ComeFrank Takes a Page from Junior’s Book and Leaves Audience with a Song Lyric

8 I INKIndustry Awards, Acknowledgments and Sightings The BTA Honors Bob Goldberg; Impact Networking Announces 3-Year Deal with the Indianapolis Indians; Marco Named Top Managed Services Company; “Toshiba Plaza” Announced

13 I Japanese Headlines POP ExplosionToshiba TEC’s Point-of-Purchase Strategy Increases MFP Sales by 20%

34 I Conflict AvoidancePlan Accordingly with This Up-to-Date Listing of Industry Events and Forthcoming Cannata Sightings

34 I Up NextThe Cannata Report and TheCannata Report.com Expand upon The Real Deal and KYOCERA’s 2016 Dealer Event

This Month

Quote:“Enjoy life. And be careful what you pray for — remember, you will get it all.”

Pete TownshendEnglish musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and principal songwriter and guitarist of The Who; excerpt from: Who I Am

28

12

MEETINGS

MANUFACTURERS

THIS MONTH ON

The Real Deal: KYOCERA 2016 Business and Technology Conference Accentuates AuthenticityThe dealer-centric manu-facturer celebrates 55 years of innovation progress and growth via a unique culture and multiple business units.

Toshiba Spotlights Suite of Products at HIMSS 2015Toshiba will demonstrate how its latest suite of content manage-ment products may enhance the healthcare experience for both patients and providers.

TheCannataReport.com

Check out these features and stories at: TheCannataReport.com/Live-Wire

NEW

S MACHINE

2015 Virtual Manufac-turer Panel SummaryAs a group, top manufacturing executive brass believe dealers should be deriving 20–25 per-cent of their revenue in man-aged services.

LEADERSA Personal Tribute to Exemplary Industry Advocate and True Friend Bob GoldbergThe Cannata Report underscores Bob Goldberg’s dedication and esteemed service contribution to the independent dealer channel in response to the BTA’s establishment of the Bob Goldberg Legacy Award during the BTA Southeast’s winter break event in Orlando, Florida.

BTA Southeast Hosts Successful Winter Break EventThis educational and network-ing BTA event broke atten-dance records, with more than 100 registrants.

EFI ISA Exhibit Products Deliver New InnovationsThe EFI exhibit at ISA 2015 the week of March 6 focused on new inkjet productivity, greener LED imaging and new work-flow innovations.

PRODUCTIONDEALER GROUPS

• 5 •

• 6 •

No. 15: The Best is Yet to Come

There was quite a bit of excitement in our industry during the first quarter of 2015. We attended six events that covered everything from new products in industrial print to IT’s role in managed services and everything in between. For much of the last three months, we have been traveling, visiting, pre-senting and just plain listening.

Everywhere we went, attendance was up, and the atmosphere was very positive, with the exception of ITEX in March. While the major manufacturers and vendors were not present, we thought ITEX offered numerous resources for dealers to take a hard look at. In the past, I was never a big fan of this event. I considered it a recharger show. But this year, I came away feeling differently. The premise of ITEX is a good one. The problem is the meeting does not attract a sufficient number of dealers. According to the vendors we spoke with, the result is they were not overly happy with the lack of traffic at their booths. The sad part is that dealers need events such as these where they can see competitive manufacturers, software entities, leasing companies and cartridge remanufacturers. With all the emphasis on MPS, the latter is especially important. In addition, dealers (aside from those belonging to independent dealer groups such as the BPCA, BTA, CDA and SDG) have no place to experience an agnostic environment. For the most part, the meetings they attend are those of their current manufacturers and vendors. Those meetings certainly do not provide the best snapshot of what is going on in the rest of the world. Our strong belief that dealers need to look beyond their immediate focus is just one of the reasons we are such big advocates of MWAi’s Executive Connection Summits. These meetings — three to date — are providing dealers with a broader perspective of our industry. In a machine agnostic world, dealers can learn a great deal about what is going on from SAP, Cisco, EFI, Intel and so many others. Dealers need additional resources to stay on top of our industry’s constant evolution. In our March issue, industry expert Frank Romano advised our dealer audience to keep informed by reading publications that cover the most important happennings in our world. Promoting that advice may seem self-serving, but we wholeheartedly agree. At a time when content is king and there is so much of it, dealers need to know where to find accurate information and pointed guidance on how to evolve from trusted, proven resources. Our entire focus here at The Cannata Report — through our monthly publication, TheCannataReport.com, Twitter handle and LinkedIn page — is to provide dealers with that exact type of informa-tion. We are in the process of updating our website, the results of which should be live by Memorial Day, if not sooner. Moving forward, we will also be making regular updates to our site every four months. We will continue to prioritize digital media, as we look to grow and improve our business. As we look forward, I’d like to take a page from CJ’s book and leave you with a timeless line from a song. You most likely have noted that CJ often quotes musicians and lyrics in his articles, as well as in the Table of Contents. I am more of a Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett type of guy. And as Frank used to sing it so well, “The best is yet to come and babe, won’t it be fine” (music by Cy Coleman/lyrics by Carolyn Leigh).

Sincerely,

Frank G. CannataEditor-In-Chief and Publisher

HARDCOPY From the Editor’s Desk

• 7 •

On March 20, the BTA announced its establishment of the Bob Goldberg Leg-acy Award. This award acknowledges the BTA’s General Counsel for his long and exemplary service to the association.

BTA President Ron Hulett presented Goldberg with the award during the BTA Southeast’s Winter Break at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa in Orlan-do, Florida, where Hulett also announced

BTA’s donation of $100,000 to the BTA Scholarship Foundation.

According to Brent Hoskins, the BTA’s Executive Director and Editor, The BTA will likely present the Bob Goldberg Leg-acy Award to others (in the future) who deserve recognition for their many years of esteemed and dedicated service to the dealer community.

• 8 •

INduSTry AWArdS, ACkNOWlEdgMENTS & SIgHTINgS

BTA Establishes Legacy Award in Honor of Industry Advocate Bob Goldberg

I N KBY CJ CANNATA

CR

CR

On April 7, Impact Networking an-nounced a three-year partnership with the Indianapolis Indians for the 2015 – 2017 seasons. The Chicago-based dealer is now the official sponsor, copier and document management partner of the Indianapo-

lis Indians. The sponsorship and overall deal will provide Impact Networking and its manufacturing partner, KYOCERA, with several branding opportunities at Indianapolis’s Victory Field. Additional-ly, Impact Networking will exclusively

provide Victory Field with KYOCERA printer and copier equipment. Impact Networking’s sponsorship benefits also specifically include naming rights to Vic-tory Field’s Suite Level, which will be re-named the “Impact Suite Level.”

In addition to the aforementioned ele-ments of the arrangement, the Impact Net-working logo will be displayed through-out the ballpark, including the inside of Victory Field’s main entryway, lobby and elevator doors. Impact Networking will also receive logo recognition on furniture in the Third Base Lounge, Veranda and Media Deck. The outfield and scoreboard will also be branded with both print and digital signage. KYOCERA’s logo will be incorporated into furniture branding, and the third-level terrace Party Deck ar-eas have been renamed the “KYOCERA Party Deck.”

Impact Networking Announces a 3-Year Corporate Sponsorship with the Indianapolis Indians

Bob Goldberg

• 10 •

I NK

CR

Mason Olds received some well-deserved recognition on January 16 when Canon U.S.A., Inc. (Canon) announced that he was one of six who received senior ex-ecutive appointments and promotions for 2015. Olds, formerly VP and GM of Sales of Business Imaging Solutions Group (BISG) at Canon, is now SVP of BISG. He was also appointed to Canon’s Ameri-cas Board of Groups Management.

Other Canon appointments and promo-tions announced by the manufacturer on

January 16 include the following: Joseph Warren, from SVP to EVP and GM of Corporate Human Resources; Hiroyuki Imamura, to VP and GM of BISG; El-len Pitchford, to VP and GM of Imag-ing Technologies and Communications Group; Eliott Peck, former SVP and GM of Imaging Technologies and Communi-cations Group, to Chairman and CEO of Canon Information Technology Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Can-on, U.S.A.; and Kenji Kobayashi, to SVP and GM, Latin America Group, as well

as being appointed to Canon’s Americas Board of Groups Management.

Canon’s Mason Olds Receives Well-Deserved Recognition

Mason Olds

CR

Marco Inc. (Marco) won yet another prestigious award. The leading Midwest dealer influencer has been named a 2015 MSPmentor 501 Top Managed Services company by Penton Technology in its 8th annual MSPmentor 501 Global Edition. Ranked Number 20, Marco is identified as one of the world’s top 501 managed service providers (MSPs).

MSPmentor gathers information each

year through the participation of both managed service providers and IT ser-vice providers for its annual survey. The organization conducted the survey from December 2014 through January 2015, and rankings are based on Penton Tech-nology’s unique criteria for MSPs such as annual recurring revenues, total revenues and more.

Other dealers would very likely be doing

themselves a strong service by prioritizing consistent and cohesive publicity efforts in a manner similar to what Marco does. Aside from the company’s press releases providing valuable content, one of the rea-sons we diligently pick up virtually every release that markeing manager Patty Funk consistently sends us is because we feel Marco is ultimately elevating the playing field across — and the strong appeal of a career in — the independent dealer chan-nel. What’s next for the dealer who is the most adept at publicizing its substantial accomplishments? That’s something we can’t predict, but we will certainly be wait-ing, watching and reporting.

Marco Named a 2015 MSPmentor 501 Top Managed Services Company

On April 7, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (Toshiba) and Coca-Cola announced that they have entered into formal, multiyear agreements to become a “Founding Partner” of the new AEG and MGM Resorts International (MGM) Las Vegas Arena, scheduled to open in spring 2016.

A central component of Toshiba’s agree-ment was securing the naming rights part-nership for the two-acre outdoor public plaza in development outside the Arena’s main (north) entrance. With extensive and customized brand integration designed by Toshiba, AEG and MGM, Toshiba Plaza will be an integral part of the guest ex-perience. The 75,000 sq. ft. entertain-ment space will have a performance stage and a variety of video screens and digi-tal signage, as well as other interactive content and display areas, which will be programmed before, during and after Las Vegas Arena events.

• 11 •

I NK

“Toshiba Plaza” in Las Vegas Announced by AEG and MGM Resorts International

1

2

• 12 •

On non-Arena event days, Toshiba Plaza guests will enjoy a variety of other unique events. These experiences will provide additional showcase opportunities such as community gatherings, concerts and music festivals, awards show pre-func-tions, fan festivals, fashion shows, char-ity events, holiday celebrations, conven-tion-related activities, and food and wine festivals, among others.

As a Founding Partner, Toshiba will be the Arena’s exclusive supplier for digital signage and displays, as well as multi-function printers and copiers, enabling them to expose the arena staff, executives and guests to its full line of products and

systems. The Arena will also feature tra-ditional and digital signage by Toshiba, interactive concourse displays and cus-tomized digital exposure, including offi-cial website and social media presence.

This initiative substantially expands the marketing, sales and end-user engage-ment strategy inherent in Toshiba’s part-nership with AEG and the Los Angeles Staples Center to develop LA Interactive, powered by Toshiba, which our audience can read more about in “Toshiba LEADS with Digital Signage (Part 1),” published in our December 2014 issue and on The-CannataReport.com

I NK

CR

Preceding Page: 1. Rendering of Toshiba Plaza and Las Vegas Arena; 2. Model of Toshiba Plaza entryway. Current Page: 3. Las Vegas Arena construction site; 4. Las Vegas Arena suite design; 5. Scott Maccabe, President and CEO of Toshiba, addresses the construction crew and press; 5. Toshiba plaza and entryway construction site.

3

5

6

4

In an effort to expand its applications to offset dwindling demand from of-fice use, copier and printer manufac-

turers are directing their focus to print-on-demand (POD) in commercial printing and the digitalization of label printing. In the midst of the competition, Toshiba TEC’s strategy involves leveraging its relationship with the retail distribution industry, realized by its 52 percent share of the Japanese point-of-purchase (POP) market, to increase POP printing in retail locations with its e-STUDIO color MFP. The unit sales of its color MFP in the third quarter of 2014 was 119 percent, improv-ing by almost 20 percent year-over-year.

“Our company frequently deals with large distribution firms, so we highlight the e-STUDIO color MFP’s feature of com-patibility with various types of specialty papers to grow sales of MFPs for POP printing use at our customers’ retail loca-tions,” said Yoshitsugu Takatori, Deputy General Manager of Office Solutions Op-erations at Toshiba TEC.

Moreover, Toshiba TEC has partnered with a paper manufacturer to develop “magnetic eco-crystal” paper, which in-fuses magnetic materials in the water-re-sistant “eco-crystal” paper. This new product began shipping on March 9. Us-ing the e-STUDIO color MFP, it is now possible to print on both sides of the pa-per. With its magnetic effect, it can also be attached on metallic boards and walls, flipped over to be reattached, and easily peeled off. Certainly, it can be used for POP materials on a repeated use basis. For example, at an office, a picture of an executive’s face and directives can be printed on one side and then flipped over to feature a picture of that same executive

swinging a golf club, showing the exec-utive outside the office. Similarly, there are certainly many various applications to excite the workplace.

A wide range of specialty papers can be used to create POP materials with the e-STUDIO color MFP. There is the thick, water-resistant “eco-crystal” paper in “matte” and “glossy.” Additionally, there is the “Re-POP” paper, which is a clear film that can be applied on showcases and glass surfaces, which can also be easily peeled off. The “eco-crystal label” pa-per has adhesive properties on the back side, and the water-resistant fabric paper, “leather cloth.”

The “eco-crystal label” paper has two types with its strong and medium adhe-sive properties. The “eco-crystal label” with the strong adhesive is suited for la-bel printing for the GHS. The GHS stan-dardizes the pictographic labeling crite-ria for chemical and medical products on a global level and is a huge prospective market, especially noteworthy for the la-bel printer industry.

Furthermore, using the e-STUDIO color MFP, it is possible to print the names of customers on specialty papers such as a “clear folder” and the lower-cost “paper folder.” The market exclusively for POP color printers is expanding. With the e-STUDIO color MFP, not only can us-ers print POPs, but they can also use it for everyday office duties in the shops. Its high-utilization efficiency has resulted in praise by the end-users at retail locations.

Mamoru Nomura, Group Manager of Solutions Planning Group in the Planning and Solutions Department of Office Solu-

tions Operations, claims that “the allure of the e-STUDIO color MFP is in its dual abilities to be used at retail locations to create POP labels and for printing gener-al office documents. With the increase in retail customers, the half-year sales of the ‘eco-crystal’ paper are growing at a rate of 120 percent.”

• 13 •

POP ExplosionToshiba TEC’s Point-of-Purchase Strategy ncreases Color MFP Sales by 20%

JAPANESE HEADLINES BY TETSUO KUBO

CR

1. From let to right: Yoshitsugu Takatori, Deputy General Manager of Office Solutions Operations and Mamoru Nomura, Group Manager of Solutions Planning Group of Planning and Solutions Depart-ment of Office Solutions Opera-tions; Toshiba TEC; 2. Samples of POP materials printed using the e-STUDIO series.

1

2

• 14 •

A few months ago, CDA President (and President of Applied Imag-ing) John Lowery and I discussed

assembling a panel discussion for the CDA’s March CEO meeting in Scotts-dale, Arizona. With the right topic, partic-ipants and audience, panels can be pow-erful educational vehicles for dealers.

Ultimately, we came up with the idea of featuring a major manufacturing pan-el that would include senior executives from the top companies in this segment of the business. With the goal of provid-ing maximum value to the CDA member audience, we collected questions from CDA members and selected the most ap-propriate ones for our panelists to answer. Seeing that our panelists were also com-petitors, there certainly were some con-cerns about how any discussion would pan out. We wanted our panelists to an-swer questions in a substantive way for the audience, while retaining a certain comfort level for them. There were some concerns about just how well this would turn out.

After mitigating manufacturer trepida-tions, we brought together a compre-hensive and authoritative panel, com-prising Doug Albregts, President, Sharp Imaging and Information Company, Inc.(Sharp); Jim Coriddi, SVP, Dealer Divi-sion, Ricoh Americas Corporation, Inc. (Ricoh); Nori Ina, President, KYOCERA

Document Solutions, Inc. (KYOCERA); Scott Maccabe, President, Toshiba Amer-icas Business Solutions, Inc. (Toshiba); Frank Mallozzi, SVP, Worldwide Sales, EFI; Mason Olds, SVP, Business Imag-ing Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A., Inc. (Canon); and Rick Taylor, President and COO, Konica Minolta Business Solu-tions, U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta). Now, if that isn’t a full house in sev-en-card poker, I don’t know what is.

During the 90-minute panel session, we were able to ask 15 of the dealer-submit-ted questions, as well as two from us. We also incorporated a brief Q&A where a handful of dealers had the opportunity to ask unvetted questions. For the most part, the panelists addressed many of the critical issues of the day, including 3D printing, positioning in managed services (which includes IT), success in produc-tion print and dealing with increasingly lower CPC rates.

While listening intently as panelists gave candid responses, I watched the audience. They were riveted. Smartphones and other devices went silent. The audience appeared truly interested in everything these executives were saying. In fact, af-ter the panel, several dealers approached CJ Cannata and me about speaking with Frank Mallozzi (who succinctly ad-dressed industrial printing) about attend-ing EFI Connect 2016.

The business technology industry is very fortunate to have such able leaders at this very challenging time. Our manufactur-ing panelists affirmed their belief that independent dealer distribution is very critical to their success.

Over 100 CDA members and empoyees, including at least 50 dealer principals, at-tended the panel discussion — an impres-sive turnout. If you are an independent dealer and are not a member of the BTA, BPCA, CDA and/or SDG, you are miss-ing a great deal. Speaking from our long experience, these meetings are always in-formative. We typically speak at three to four of these meetings per year. They are all worthwhile and very beneficial to the health of independent dealer distribution.

Panel Projection:

• Doug Albregts addressed several is-sues. However, his answer to my ques-tion about the recent negative press from the Wall Street Journal and an In-ternet blogger regarding Sharp’s finan-cial condition was spot on. It was like throwing a belt-high strike down the middle of the plate to Joe DiMaggio. He hit it out of the park.

• Jim Coriddi fielded the toughest ques-tion of the day. He addressed Ricoh’s position in certifying its numbers. His answer was clear and delivered a ratio-

CDA’s Power PanelTop Manufacturing Executives Enhance dealer group MeetingBy Frank G. Cannata

65421 3

• 15 •

nale that dealers could accept. Also, from a very strong experience base, he spoke of the growth in production print. Coriddi has been with Ricoh for 33 years and he has done an excellent job in very difficult circumstances for his employer.

• Nori Ina eloquently addressed the question of shrinking margins and price compression. Ina was the first Japanese executive who has ever participated in a panel discussion moderated by an inde-pendent American. As you can imagine, the language barrier can be difficult — and with my New York (really, Brook-lyn) accent, it can sometimes be difficult for non-native speakers to understand. By that, I mean anyone living outside of the New York City Metro area.

• Scott Maccabe described what he thinks the industry will look like in three-to-five years. Giving a meaningful description of his take on the near-term future, his answer was candid, concise and to the point.

• Frank Mallozzi addressed one of my questions about industrial printers, which strongly resonated with the deal-er audience. Without question, Mallozzi is one of the most articulate executives I have encountered in the area of produc-tion print. He has spent 19 years with EFI, after a very successful career with Canon and Ricoh selling color with Fi-ery controllers.

• Mason Olds fielded questions on Can-on’s effort in managed services and pro-vided enlightening responses. Olds also talked about the more successful Canon dealer performance in that area. For me, having Olds on the panel was another first. In recent years, the only executives from Canon I have interviewed have been Murase and Mitarai in Japan.

• Rick Taylor, per usual, was the most hu-morous, but his responses also contained a great deal of substance. He specifically addressed 3D printing and how KMBS is supporting dealer growth, despite the decrease in page volume.

1. Doug Albregts; 2. Jim Coriddi; 3. Nori Ina; 4. Scott Maccabe; 5. Frank Mallozzi; 6. Mason Olds; 7. Rick Taylor; 8. Scottsdale Resort & Conference Center; 9. Frank Cannata (center) moderates panel; 10. CDA Members in attendance.

CR

10

9

8

7

8

• 16 •

Rick TaylorPresident and COO of Konica Minolta Business Solutions,

U.S.A., Inc.

Mason OldsSenior Vice President of

BISG, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Doug AlbregtsPresident of Sharp Imaging and Information Company

of America

Scott MaccabePresident and CEO of

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.

2015 Virtual Panel SeriesDealer Business Should Include Upwards of 20% in Managed Services Revenue

Segment 4: Manufacturers

By Frank G. Cannata

Editor’s Note: Jim Coriddi, Vice President of Ricoh’s Dealer Division, was slated to partic-ipate in the panel. However, with our exten-sive coverage of Ricoh’s Convergence 2015 in this issue, we felt the panel’s questions were adequately answered in those articles, rather than in this particular panel discussion.

• 17 •

For this fourth installment of our an-nual Virtual Panel Series, we wel-come some of the leading executives from the industry’s manufacturing

segment: Doug Albregts, President of Sharp Imaging and Information Compa-ny of America (Sharp); Scott Maccabe, President and CEO of Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.(Toshiba); Mason Olds, Senior Vice President of BISG, Can-on U.S.A., Inc. (Canon); and Rick Taylor, President and COO of Konica Minolta Business Solutions, U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta). Each of these dynamic panel-

ists contributed thoughtful and insight-ful responses to our questions, and we extend our thanks to each of them for taking the time to speak with us.

While Albregts, Maccabe and Tay-lor have participated in previous panels, Olds is a newcomer. It has been quite a while since a Canon representative has participated in one of our panel discussions, and we are grateful to include him here.

While we normally follow the same general line of questioning with each

of our panels, I wanted to use this op-portunity to specifically focus more on

managed services and production print. These are widely considered to be the two most important growth areas of our busi-ness. Clearly, how manufacturers are ap-proaching these areas is extremely import-ant to our dealer audience. We’re all looking to see where this business is going.

As you read, please understand some of our panelists are restricted from sharing specific numbers or percentages of reve-nue in certain areas. Even though num-bers aren’t disclosed, you will still gain a good understanding of what these compa-nies are accomplishing in the U.S. and on a global level.

CR Let’s begin with an assessment of how your independent deal-

ers are doing in managed services. Does their activity include both print and IT? As a follow up, what percent-age of their revenue do you believe

dealers should strive to attribute to MPS and MNS in 2015?

Doug Albregts (DA): For MPS — at least with the Sharp-only and dual-line deal-ers — we find them moving away from MPS to MNS, with not a lot in between. It seems to me there is no one methodology in MPS, and everyone does it differently. What we hear from everyone is that they want to move into the IT environment. The irony is that some of them [the early adopters] are so much further ahead, and our task is to figure out what can we do to facilitate that transition to the IT envi-ronment. Outside the progressive dealers well-entrenched in IT, it is roughly about 5 percent in MNS. We have announced a road show coming up in May and June. We are planning on being in a position to demonstrate how we are approaching MNS in our branches and use that as a guide. We wanted to make sure we had it right, and it would stick for our dealers. On the MPS revenue side, even consider-ing those that have a 70/30 percent split [with the 30 percent on the services side], MPS would still average out between 15 to 20 percent.

Scott Maccabe (SM): Probably in a per-fect world, they should have a balance with about 20 to 25 percent of the business in MNS and MPS. Going forward, I believe it needs to be 30 percent. Managed services is little bit of a misnomer. Whether they are managing or outsourcing, it does not mat-ter, as long as they can offer a higher level of productivity with finite services. Those dealers are going to do very well. There are those who are doing very well, and I believe it is only the beginning.

Mason Olds (MO): We hold up 20 per-cent in managed services as the goal, and what we see is different. Taking our inde-pendent dealers as a whole, the breakout of their revenue is 50 percent in hardware, 40 percent in break/fix and 10 percent in software. On the IT services side, there is not a lot of repeat business. It is a lit-tle less predictable. They are probably achieving 10 percent in IT Services. The size of a dealership has a lot to do with it,

and the smaller ones do not participate in that area at all.

Rick Taylor (RT): I do not think it is very high. We have a lot of medium- to high-revenue dealers. For that group, I would have to say it is 10 to 15 percent of the business [on average]. While that is a fair question, I would think that the better question is how many are entering the ser-vices space. From what I have seen, it is pretty high. If I had to give a number, it would be about 65 percent. We have many of those dealers working with All Covered.

CR Looking ahead, what are your projections for your perfor-

mances in those same areas of man-aged services?

DA: Currently, MNS has been light and represents only 5 to 8 percent of our busi-ness. That said, the volume of contracts is doubling every month. For MPS, we part-nered with Continuum and Barrister. The ideal portion of our business into MPS/MNS would be 25 percent, but it is not there yet. On the dealer side, we believe we will see a lot more activity in managed services. The old model is not going to al-low dealers to survive, and the dealers are aware of it. As I said before, some dealers are doing quite well, and copiers hanging on a network is a complex product instal-lation. Compared to other products that hang on the network, it is a huge growth opportunity for dealers and a way to grow the business. What I am saying is once you diversify into MNS and secure the accounts, there are less bids because you have control of the network and the client will look to you to take care of that piece of the business. But that does not fully answer the question, and I am sorry if I digressed. For us and for our dealers, our projection is 25 percent of the business to be in managed services.

SM: Toshiba has not been in IT or man-aged network services at all. Going for-ward, we are going to provide a set of ser-vices that addresses the IT environment. I don’t have a percentage of the total busi-ness in mind, but I believe that we need

• 18 •

storage companies in the world. The larg-est corporations in that area buy from us. We also have a storage organization that encompasses the retail space. In addition, we have a $2.5 billion division known as Toshiba Solutions, generating cloud opportunities. That company is currently only serving the Pacific Rim. The ques-tion for Toshiba is how to most effective-ly harness all the technology we possess and determine how we can best help our dealers and partners get more than their fair share of a burgeoning market.

MO: I am going to be very broad in my re-sponse to this question, because as a com-pany we are encouraged to speak more toward what is published in our public financial reports and not go beyond that. On a global basis we generate $1 billion in services. In Japan, they were early adopt-ers and acquired a company in the IT area.

They followed that strategy in Europe when Uniflow was acquired. MT Ware and IRIS, two more software companies, were added. Those acquisitions are driving a lot of our hardware sales. We recognized the need to be grounded in content manage-ment. We did not have those capabilities, and we went out and got them. That helped the European Canon companies to get into the IT business. In the U.S., we have a ser-vices division or company named CIIS. We are currently working with Oracle on some middleware and software. Our approach in services is to have the pieces that we can give to our dealers so they can engage in services with the best possible tools. We do not do a lot of third party stuff. Within the area I am responsible for, we exclude IT services. It is not in our budget. However, at Canon U.S.A., we generate $300 million in the services area. As a company, we rec-ognize hardware is not a growth area and we are building a broad solutions side to transition the business to a more services orientation. We just bought Axis Commu-nications, which provides security cameras with software for public places, but it not a printing solution. I offer that to give you

some idea about the diversity we have in approaching this market.

RT: If we take MNS as a standalone, I would say we are at $200 million. In man-aged network services, you have to include software that you are providing for the cli-ents. A case in point would be enterprise content management, and that is part of the $70 million in revenue generated by soft-ware. That does not include the core busi-ness that the MNS activity brings in, and that is a huge part of our business today. I hesitate to say what our projections are, but I believe it would be safe to say you want services and imaging to be in balance with each other, and I think it may be slightly different for every company. For some, it might be 70/30 and for others, 50/50. Are they there yet? I have to say no. However, those are the projections.

CR Production print is an increas-ingly important area. What per-

centage of your revenue is attributed to the production print space for your current fiscal year?

DA: In the current fiscal year, production print is going to account for 15 percent of our revenue. The integration of an EFI controller into a 75-PPM color device was a difficult decision, because it added a lot of cost. However, it has proven to be a very wise decision, because that product has been so successful. Our approach in the 70- to 90-PPM space is we want to pack everything into those products and make them as powerful as we can. There are four competitors that have a much broader production-print line than Sharp. The reason we are optimistic is because we were able to take 5 percent of the col-or 70- to 90-PPM space in one year. That was according to IDC. We are going to replace the mono-production product, and our mantra is to deliver devices that pro-vide more bang for the buck. Production print has been good to us. Some of our dealers questioned if we could get it right, because everyone else had a problem with their earlier releases. We feel pretty good about where we are at and what we have done. And there is more coming.

SM: We do not really fully participate

in that segment of the market. But going forward, it is an area of the business that we are seriously looking at. We see the growth and we are doing an extensive amount of research that includes numer-ous studies. It will finally come down to how we choose to address this opportuni-ty. It is safe to say we will address it, and that is as much as I can say at this time.

MO: Again, a difficult question for me to answer. When we acquired Océ it gave us all its production products, which includ-ed wide format up to continuous feed. That is a substantial business, and one of our fastest growing segments in the business. We recently released the Niag-ara product, which is inkjet and cut sheet, and we think dealers will do well with it. In the more basic digital press area where we compete with Ricoh, KMBS, HP and Xerox, we are now growing in double digits every year. The office is now commoditized, and we are moving upstream and are very pleased with how our production-print business is growing. We are not really allowed to break out the business and how we get there. All I can say is you are correct. Production print is very important, and we are doing very well with it.

RT: I would have to say it is probably about 22 percent of our total revenue. We just finished the month [March 2015] with record numbers, and dealers were a big part of that. It is also responsible for changing a lot of our business with dealers. It most certainly has been a big part of our business over the last four years. I want to clarify how we view production print. I am talking about the mid-range [volume] pro-duction-print products and do not include light-production products.

CR How do you believe your deal-ers have performed in MNS,

MPS and production print?

DA: The difficulty in answering this question is that we have 140 Sharp-only dealers. They obviously had an option to seek out products from others, but they chose to stick with us and have done very well with early production-print releas-es. Some of our dual-line dealers have

Editor’s Note: Please refer to “CANON: Broad Strokes,” from July 2014 where we recapped Haruo Murase’s breakdown of Canon’s activity in managed services across Japan, as well as globally.

• 19 •

done very well in production print. Even with our dual-line dealers, we have done well in this area. We don’t have the same breath and depth the others have, but we are there and the products work. Without fear of contradiction, I can say we have had virtually no problems. While the Sharp dealers [overall] have done very well so far, it is tough to get mindshare in that space, but we are happy with what we have done so far.

SM: MPS is still split. We have a segment of our dealers doing well in MPS with as much as 30 to 40 percent that space. It represents about 10 percent of their rev-enue. Of that group, about 30 percent are home grown and organically structured, but the rest are outsourcing for network services. In production print, I would say about 30 percent of the dealers are doing well. This would indicate there is still sig-nificant opportunity for other dealers, de-pending on geography and makeup. Plus, we have a group of single-source dealers that are not doing a lot in that space. It is something we have to consider in our product planning, and we need to find dif-ferent ways to help our dealers.

MO: I will start with production print. The dealers have done an outstanding job with the C700/800, our latest and leading production product, and it is exceeding all of our expectations. Those products are leading the way from a reliability stand-point, and customer acceptance has been excellent. When we acquired Océ, some dealers thought they would have more competition, but it turned out to be a big win for them and for us. We have so many dealers selling those Océ products and as I said earlier, we have grown production print in double digits over the last three years. Managed services for dealers is very specialized, and it is hard to come up with a group number and how they are performing. Some of the Canon dealers are doing very well with MPS by taking over large printer fleets, and some of our deal-ers have 20 percent of their business in that area. Lately though, I would have to say there is a little less desire for MPS, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to show the customer the savings. On managed net-work services, I do not think it has gone

that well, but we do have some individual dealers that have performed in that area.

RT: In production print, the dealers have performed very well. Konica Minolta has enjoyed a huge success, for example, in wide format. It is a very good success story for dealers. KM dealers sell more wide for-mat than direct. We introduced a wide-for-mat product at our dealer meeting in Feb-ruary, and it was very well-received by the dealers. In regard to managed services, we have seen less penetration and less suc-cess. But as I said before, many dealers are just beginning to do something in managed services on their own, and the early adopt-ers [ the leaders] are really into it.

CR If there was one thing you would want the dealers that represent

your company to concentrate on in 2015, what would that be?

DA: I would say concentrate on MNS and continue diversifying the business in that direction. Those that take that direction will find that we are in a position to help them grow and make the MFP a much easier placement. The business is chang-ing, and I think everyone recognizes that, but with change comes a lot of opportu-nity. The best ways to expand the market are with MNS — own the network and own the customer. That is what I have been saying to our dealers.

SM: Honestly, I want them to concentrate on a lot more color. The bottom end of A3 is eroding into A4, but there still is more opportunity in color. Converting a monochrome MIF to color would yield significant increases in supplies revenue and even clicks. That would be my first wish. The second is digital signage. We continue to enjoy success in this area, and we recognize that we, as a company, have to build out our support infrastruc-ture, especially in retail and across all the verticals. What we have experienced to date has been amazing, and it has been an opportunity for us and for our dealers to develop new revenue streams that also can become door openings.

MO: I think they have to focus on getting the best possible employees in their orga-

nization. The No. 1 challenge everyone (dealers) asks us is: Can you help me find good sales people — people who can sell with greater technical knowledge? We are very encouraged when dealers expand and are able to hire good people. When the economy went down in 2008, it did open up opportunities with good people looking into the copier/print business as a career. We need the younger generation to get into the business. We need people who are able to sit down and talk with credibility to a CFO and CIO.

RT: I think I would say concentrate on ex-panding their business outside of their core business. That could be MNS or simply broadening their offering to their custom-ers by looking into some new areas such as 3D printing, and there are others. I say this because that is what we are doing. We are expanding but with products and solutions that are compatible to the core business. By expanding their capabilities, dealers will be able to sell more to their customers.

CR If you are planning a meeting, when will it take place and

where? For those who have already had your dealer meeting, how did it go?

DA: The National meeting is the first week in December, from December 3–6, 2015, in San Antonio, Texas. Before that, we are doing a dealer road show and will visit six different cities. We will start on May 7 and end about June 16. We will go from Boston to Seattle, New Orleans, San Diego, St. Louis and Orlando. For this series of meetings, we are staging a very robust round table with anybody in the audience being able to ask anything they would like. We are in the process of lining up the speakers. We will have a general session and seminars. Based on what we learn on this tour, we will utilize that in-formation in our national dealer meeting. I like this kind of road show event, as it gets the field reps in the audience, where normally, you only have the dealership owners and leaders. The result is a greater total attendance than at our national deal-er meeting. We can reach more people and put on a much more attractive event. We did it last year and found that we experi-enced an uptick in business immediately

• 20 •

following the event. With our Executive roundtables, some of them went two-and-a-half hours. We wanted to identify what the concerns were and help our dealers in the manner that makes sense for us and for them.

SM: It will most likely be in Las Vegas. AEG is building a new arena [in Las Ve-gas]. During the first week of April, we held a ribbon cutting ceremony to cele-brate the fact that Toshiba has naming rights for the entrance of this state-of-the-art arena that includes retail, restaurants and a destination venue. We fully expect to have our next LEAD Conference at this facility in 2016. At this juncture, a deal-er meeting is still in discussion/planning stages, and it would be premature to even hazard a guess.

MO: The next big thing is our EXPO, which is in September in New York. For those who are not familiar with it, the EXPO is where we show the future. The actual dates are September 9–11. We will also have our dealer council adviso-ry meeting there, and we will have many dealers attending this show in a big way. Some of them even bring their own cus-tomers. This EXPO is also done in Tokyo and Europe.

RT: The feedback from the dealers was great, and our dealers turned out in very large numbers. The dealer comments on the new products were tremendous, as were the seminars. We tried to give them the strongest possible reasons for deepening their relationships with Kon-ica Minolta.

I think it is very difficult for dealers to manage and adequately represent multiple partners that offer the same or very similar product offerings. We want to show deal-ers they need partners that will get them to where they need to be. I truly believed we accomplished that. We demonstrated our diverse approach to the market and where we are going to be in the next five or 10 years. I think we did accomplish all that and more.

CR Is there any message you would like to leave our audience?

DA: I would like to take this opportunity to address the negative publicity on the fi-nancial side that we have been receiving. I would ask them to take a look at our public data. When you do, you will discover that our business has grown stronger and better since 2012. In our last financial report, our operating income was up. In the business solutions group of which we are a part, we were up 24 percent year-over-year. Copi-ers grew 21 percent, and R&D increased by 6 percent [all numbers can found with-in the Q3 financial report release]. In the 2012–2014 period, IDC stated that the in-dustry experienced a 3.7 percent increase for total units. For the same period, Sharp had a 4.2 percent increase, outgrowing the market, according to IDC. Since 2012, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America has experienced its most profit-able run in a decade. (Note that Sharp cer-tifiies their numbers). The question I want to leave the dealers with is: Why would you pay attention to any information that is at best specula-tive of Sharp’s financial status? We are experiencing a great deal of growth from our leading independent dealers, with an increasing number purchasing more than $5 million from Sharp. Negative publicity can be used to cast doubt about Sharp’s performance. The only thing we can sug-gest is if you encounter a competitor uti-lizing speculative blogs, then you must counter that with facts. Read our most recent public financial utterances for the truth. We are not going away and over the next few months, we will be conducting our road show. If you are a Sharp dealer, I invite you to bring that negative publicity to the meeting to present it to our Execu-tive roundtables, and we will respond.

SM: Toshiba is a sleeping giant. Toshiba Corporation just reorganized the business segments to include a greater focus on IT and cloud strategies as a whole standalone business unit. That would most definitely signal that Toshiba would aggressively move into investing and expanding into that area, and that will be providing sup-port for that in that rapidly growing space.

MO: Probably the first message is don’t give up on the output-device market. There’s so much talk about print going away, the use of tablets and younger peo-ple who do not print. We communicate more than ever before. There is still an awful lot of stuff that gets printed. I have noticed younger people printing out, be-cause it is easier to read and avoids eye strain. We just went through a terrible economy that hurt print output, and we got a double whammy with so much soft-ware and technology that made people so much more productive. Fortunately, there is now growth back in the market. Eco-nomics dictate a lot of things in life.

It looks to me like network printers are perking up pretty nicely, and we are moving more toward the high end. With the acquisition of solutions, it is bene-fiting our dealers and the industry as whole. Canon, like other companies, is investing outside the hardware and cam-era areas. They are looking to partner with our dealers in other market seg-ments. The one thing about the copier industry is the people are well-trained to function in a very competitive way. That makes them desirable to other in-dustries because of our training. I see a great deal of opportunity out there, and I really believe this is now a young peo-ple’s business. And I know a lot of deal-ers who agree with that. RT: As a company, we have the most aggressive business plan since I have been with the company. We are planning to increase our growth in two areas. We are doing this because the opportunity is there. We are looking for growth in both our core business and in high-page volumes. Other areas that we are equal-ly enthused about are enterprise content management, production print and large format [EFI 1625]. These are just a few of the areas we see as having an ability to grow. To be perfectly candid, we can only meet our targets if the dealers get with us on this. We have a reasonable econo-my and a very good partnership with our dealers as our foundation for optimism, and for those reasons, 2015 is going to be a very good year for us all to grow.

CR

Editor’s Note: Look back to our March 2015 issue to read detailed coverage on Konica Minolta’s dealer meeting.

Considering where Ricoh Americas Corpora-tion, Inc. (Ricoh) was a short five years ago, they are light years ahead of that. Looking

back, Ricoh’s Convergence in mid-April 2010 is a total blank for me and for a very good reason. To be honest, there isn’t much I remember from Con-vergence 2010. The day after I returned from that meeting, I passed out at a Homeowner Association’s meeting. The next thing I remember is waking up over a week later in New Jersey’s Morristown Hos-pital, where I wound up getting a quadruple bypass. When I was finally released on May 7, 2010, the only thing I felt was immensely grateful to the Good Lord for restoring my life and my health.

• 21 •

Ricoh’sRevival Convergence 2015 Further rights Some recent Wrongs By Frank G. Cannata

Editors Note: For more coverage, turn to CJ Canna-ta’s assessment of Convergence 2015, “Convergence Resurgence,” in this issue on page 27.

• 22 •

With six months of recuperation ahead, I never wrote a single line about Conver-gence 2010 and I have to believe that was a good thing. In my opinion, the company had lost its way at that point. The acqui-sition of IKON in August 2008 with the mistaken assumption that IKON’s Chair-man and CEO Matthew J. Espe would re-main at the reins, was a miscalculation of major proportions.

Without rehashing all that followed, we’d say Ricoh’s ship began righting itself in May 2012, when it elevated Martin Brodigan from COO to CEO. From the beginning, Brodigan and his team appear to have well-supported Jim Coriddi, SVP of Ricoh’s Dealer Division, in all his very productive efforts. Additionally, once Coriddi took the reigns of the Dealer Di-vision, also in 2012, it appeared the de-bilitating war between Ricoh dealers and branches began to abate.

In a Live Wire blog post we published on March 18 as a Convergence coverage pre-

view — “Ricoh Takes Significant Steps Forward” — we touched on the warming trend between dealers and Ricoh’s direct channel. While some rancor still exists, it is nothing compared to the time be-fore Coriddi came into play. There is no question Ricoh has made giant strides in rekindling a very good relationship with their dealer partners.

When Coriddi took over the Dealer Divi-sion back in 2011, the unit was contribut-ing 30 percent to Ricoh’s overall perfor-mance. In 2013, that number rose to 35.3 percent, and then to 37 percent in 2014. With this positive momentum, Ricoh’s goal for the Dealer Division is to reach 40 percent, and we have no doubt it will do that by 2016.

At this year’s Convergence, Coriddi took center stage and held his audience’s at-tention throughout the entire general as-sembly. Thanks to Coriddi, the subtle but important message that had been lacking at previous meetings was delivered: Con-

vergence was a dealer meeting event, and he was in charge here. We give kudos to Ricoh for this one, and we credit Coriddi for setting a positive tone for the meeting.

In his presentation, Coriddi spoke to Ricoh’s improvements, including A3 MFP rising 16 percent, color MFP with a 20 percent increase and production color up 19 percent. In addition, he cited Ricoh as the No. 1 manufacturer in color pro-duction print, garnering 25 percent mar-ket share.

Throughout the general assembly, vi-gnettes highlighted the success individual dealers were having with Ricoh. Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office and RJ Young were noted as having achieved $100 million in revenue. (Note: Atlantic attributed $8 million in revenue to IT services.)

The other dealers recognized by Ricoh included the following: WPS of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and TGI of Brooklyn, New York, Ricoh’s largest Lanier dealer in the

Ricoh’s ship began righting itself in

May 2012, when it elevated Martin

Brodigan from COO to CEO. From

the beginning, Brodigan and his

team appear to have well-supported Jim Coriddi, SVP of

Ricoh’s Business Development, in

all his very productive efforts.

• 23 •

CHAMPS Vital Victory

For the last six years, Ricoh has been particularly focused on its CHAMPS Services (Ricoh’s in-house managed services program for dealers). The program is finally gaining traction, and the company claims it is now receiving one new registration per hour, with $3.5 mil-lion in proposals. What started out simply as an MPS program has grown into so much more.

Ricoh dealers are currently using three CHAMPS Services, each of which have been available to the Ricoh Direct organization and thor-

oughly vetted. The processes to provide the services are proven and mature, and provide a means for equipment-focused dealers to be-come services-led.

• Managed Document & Business Process Services: Services pro-vided in support of the Ricoh solu-tions portfolio (GlobalScan, Kofax, Rightfax, eCopy, Autostore, etc.).

• Digital Imaging Services: Off-site imaging services that supplement the dealer’s approach to selling document management (EDM) solutions, such as those listed above. Back-file conversion and

archiving are the key components of this segment of the services portfolio. The average sale is $25,000-plus in this area.

• Production Print Services: Ser-vices based on the capability of Ricoh production-print analysts, who are able to support a produc-tion equipment sale with addition-al software and services related to workflow, color management and various production-environ-ment-specific applications. The average services sale is about $10,000 in this area. There is also significant potential equipment and software pull-through.

country. Ricoh also called out accomplish-ments of its Dealer Council members, including Dawn Abbuhl of Repeat Busi-ness Systems in Albany, New York; John Cheney of Knight Office Solutions in

San Antonio, Texas; Chip Crunk from RJ Young in Nashville, Tennessee; Tim Cusic of MT Business in Mansfield, Ohio; Jeff Elkin of Advanced Business Systems & Supply in Cockeysville, Maryland; Roger

King of E. Johnson in Wausau, Wiscon-sin; Doug Potassi of Pacific Office Auto-mation in Beaverton, Oregon; and Adam Weiss of Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office in New York, New York.

At each morning’s general assembly, Coriddi took every opportunity to convey that Ricoh has the best dealer distribution in the industry. “Eighty percent of all Ricoh Family Group dealers have been so for 21 years or more,” he said. “We will be the No. 1 dealer provider before we are done.”

In his lengthy presentation (which was well done), Coriddi noted some criti-cal areas that are extremely important to Ricoh’s dealers and how the company was addressing each area:

• Investing in supply chain to improve or-der fulfillment;

• A parts task force working to improve the flow of parts to dealers;

• mindSHIFT providing cloud-based sup-port; and

• Creation of a ConvergX video sharing best practices with all Ricoh dealers.

CEO Brodigan Addresses dealers

When Chairman and CEO Martin Brod-igan took the stage, though only for only a short while, he opened with saying just how pleased he was to see the improve-ment in Ricoh dealer unit placements at 37.3 percent.

Brodigan recalled making a promise to dealers three years ago that Ricoh was going to be easier to do business with.

In all frankness, he was quick to point out that Ricoh was “not quite there yet.” Throughout his tenure at Ricoh, Brodigan has consistently demonstrated that he will not dance around tough questions and knows full well the problems dealers have been wrestling with.

Brodigan went on to invoke some of the more serious challenges that have im-peded Ricoh’s ability to deliver on all its promises as quickly as the company would have liked. According to Brodi-gan, Ricoh’s five Oracle conversions over a three-year period have taxed a huge amount of available resources.

On the plus side, however, operating in-come has risen 10 percent, and the U.S. business grew revenue by 8 percent. Brodigan added that dealer growth has corresponded to a significantly broader and more complete line of products.

Brodigan also touched on mindSHIFT, which was acquired in February 2014 for Ricoh to gain expertise in order to move services forward. The result has been rev-enue growth that is on track to reach $170 million this year.

In closing, Brodigan gave a clear mandate to Tim Vellek, Vice President of Corpo-rate Marketing, to create fully developed dealer-friendly marketing and a market-ing support program.

Marketing Momentum

At last year’s Convergence, Ricoh named Tim Vellek as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Ricoh Americas Corpo-ration. He still retains responsibility for production print. Handling two demand-ing positions such as Vellek’s is a tough assignment, but we think he is up for the challenge and are sure he will do a very good job.

Convergence 2015 was Vellek’s first time out speaking as the corporate marketing leader. He addressed the hurdles deal-ers are facing in changing their business models to conform to a services and tech-nology-focused dealership.

Vellek led with a new dealer field mar-keting resource that is designed to help dealers build their own brands. From what we saw, this is an excellent tool and a much-needed element for dealers today. Larger dealers understand the branding issue and have the resources to address it, while small- to mid-sized dealers do not.

Vellek also discussed what he called a dealer huddle room. Initially, I didn’t think this offered too much. However, after digging a little deeper, these dealer huddle rooms may really help them. Ac-cording to Vellek, huddle rooms are small conference areas that are equipped with audio, video and display system technolo-gy. These rooms are often used by groups looking to get together for impromptu, or previously scheduled, meetings to collab-orate in and open, creative environment on different projects.

There are numerous benefits of the huddle rooms, such as:

• Encouraging meaningful teamwork;

• Offering flexibility, intimate communi-cation and competitive price point (com-pared with large conference rooms);

• Allowing concentration; and

• Increasing productivity.

Ricoh does offer various products relating to audio, video and display systems, in-cluding an interactive white board (IWB), projector and Unified Communication Systems, among others.

“The point I was trying to make in my presentation was that we are encouraging dealers to adopt the huddle room concept as a differentiated offering to their cus-tomers,” Vellek said when I asked him to offer his perspective on huddle rooms. “This can increase wallet share and strengthen loyalty, either as a hardware offering or services offering.”

Vellek also took the time during his pre-sentation to give the dealers a general up-date on where the business is going and

• 24 •

Larger dealers understand the

branding issue and have the resources to address it, while small- to-mid-sized

dealers do not.

• 25 •

Dealers Query Brodigan, Coriddi and Green “Live”

Ricoh gave dealers the opportunity to submit questions to the compa-ny’s executive brass when they reg-istered for Convergence. After Brod-igan concluded his presentation, Coriddi asked him to remain on the stage and he invited Dave Green, Senior Vice President of Sales at Ricoh USA, to join them. The three sat on stools and cruised through a list questions that were most fre-quently asked by dealers. The fol-lowing are excerpts that we found most illuminating from the session.

Question: What about Ricoh and 3D printing?

Panel: We have spent time in study-ing it. There is a lot of commonality, also a lot of differences. We do not want to launch something that will end up disrupting a dealer’s busi-ness. We will be in it when we are fully prepared to go to market with it. In terms of a time frame, it will be longer than six months. We recog-nize we will require different people who understand that business, but we recognize there is an opportunity and we want to take advantage of it as quickly as we can and as quickly as makes sense.

Question: Dealers are continuing to experience growth despite a decline in page volumes. At some point, that is not going to be possi-ble. What do you suggest we do?

Panel: You are growing because you are selling more units with a lesser

number of prints. You need to bring added value into the equation and become stronger and go wider and deeper into your MIF. In other words, sell more products and services to the existing customer so that while the prints may be declining, your revenue per customer is increasing. You also have to continue what you are currently doing with increasing your growth in IT services and tak-ing [market] share from competitors.

Question: Ricoh Family Group encompasses three names or brands: Savin, Ricoh and Lanier. Will there be a time when we have a single brand?

Panel: We have 50 percent of the RFG dealers who do not sell the Ricoh brand. When will it be the right time to go to a single name brand? That is hard to say and pos-es some challenges. You start with RFG dealers under different labels competing in the same area. How do you suddenly give everyone the same label? Even though they are the same products, there has to be some differentiation. We will never say never. However, we will revisit this and make a determination, not if but when.

Question: You have sold some MIF to dealers. Will you continue to do so?

Panel: That is a market-by-market issue. We have shown we are open to doing so, but it has to be carefully measured and determined what is the best way to go to market on a case-by-case basis. We have made

some decisions [selling MIF to deal-ers] to go that route, and that has gone well. It is in our best interests to continue to evaluate the business and ensure we are receiving the re-turn we are looking for with all the necessary protections.

There were other questions about order fulfillment and parts that were already intrinsically answered in covering other questions posed, an-swered and reviewed above. Addi-tional questions covered CHAMPS, which is detailed in this article, as well as three other questions per-taining to newly acquired mind-SHIFT’s availability for dealers.

Two other highly significant ques-tions pertained to Ricoh’s adver-tising strategy and opportunity for dealer-tagging ads for 2015, and perhaps most importantly, how Ricoh perceives itself in contrast to its major competitors. CJ Cannata addresses the panel’s responses on Ricoh’s advertising strategy and the company’s perception of itself in his piece this month, “Convergence Re-surgence” on page 27.

The tough part of a panel respond-ing to questions given in advance was there was no opportunity for anyone to follow up to say whether a question was adequately answered and whether the panelists’ explana-tions were clear. For the most part, however, the panelists answered the questions, and we thought they were responsive. In most cases, the pan-elists fully explained their reasons for the actions that were or were not being taken.

how Ricoh is faring in some of the new areas in which the company has become involved. The following are some details he shared:

• By 2018, mobile phones and tablets will lead in printing;

• Ricoh’s digital signage business grew 15 percent year-over-year;

• Ricoh owns technology for 3D printing; • In nine years, Ricoh’s production print

revenue has grown from 0 to No. 1.

Without question, Ricoh has come a long way in the production print space, and I do not mean print-for-pay. The major manufacturer has as broad a line as any-one in the business, covering everything from cut sheet to continuous feed, as well as inkjet.

One of the major reasons for the increase in Ricoh’s output placements by deal-ers is its production-print products like the 7100. Many benefits come along with that, such as an increased average unit-selling price, the all-important clicks and a sales force motivated by the oppor-tunity to sell big-ticket machines, or what we used to call big iron.

One Off-key Note

Overall, Convergence 2015 was a good meeting, with very positive performanc-es from each of the company’s key play-ers. From the dealers’ standpoint, prob-lems creating an impediment to doing business are being resolved. The Ricoh team is working hard, and the results are there to see. However, Ricoh still has a considerably substantial and large direct operation, which will always create some

kind of conflict. Ricoh can ameliorate the conflict by being fair and equitable. Most of all, Ricoh needs to continue improving internal and external communication so everyone at Ricoh is singing off of the same sheet of music.

At the same time, there was one sour note. On multiple occasions, Ricoh encouraged dealers to dedicate themselves to the OEM and that ask seemed out of place to me. I do believe asking dealers for their dedication from the stage shows a lack of awareness of how dealers truly think and feel. I think a better approach would have been to use what Brodigan said about selling MIF to the dealers: “We look at it on a case by case basis.”

There are reasons some dealers will never be dedicated, no matter what a manufac-turer does. In addition, many of the largest dealers offer multiple lines. They see the difference in the way dedicated dealers are treated, versus their own rather signif-icant contributions. Their main argument is that manufacturers should just look at what these large dealers are buying from them, rather than asking them to drop their other lines.

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’d say Ricoh has been running a good race. Considering everything we heard at Con-vergence 2015, this leading manufacturer is doing well. Ricoh has worked hard and deserves the positive results. However, there is a time to sell, and a time to simply say thank you. From my vantage point, Coriddi’s comments surrounding dealer dedication were not well-received be-cause they were made at the wrong time and in the wrong way.

An intuitive approach to increasing dedi-cation would be speaking to dealers on an individual basis and asking them to con-sider it, while being amply prepared to make it worth their while. According to the company, Ricoh has 232 dealers that are multiple-line (in the A3 category). Look-ing closer at the individual dealers, the rea-sons not dedicating are obvious. If Ricoh doesn’t understand those reasons, then its people in the field are not doing their

jobs. Of those 232 dealers, the ones Ricoh should be focusing on are the top 40.

And if swaying dealers to dedicate doesn’t work, then taking competitive market share through a multiple-line deal-er is not a bad way to go. Manufacturers can look to other industries for a tip. For example, Audi had a major promotion in 2014 for its dealers. The company low-ered the price $3,000 for any customer trading in an Acura RL. Promotions can be a good way to attack a specific compet-itor. Dealers may not switch allegiances or solely dedicate to Ricoh, but a promo-tion can certainly help increase the buy from Ricoh. The fact that dealers have in-creased their purchases over the last four years is a very good sign the products are good. One way or another, Ricoh is taking market share from the competition.

Ricoh’s new production-print products do offer a lot of hope for the dealers, and I believe many of them will continue to in-crease Ricoh’s penetration in that space. By the time we head to Drupa in Dussel-dorf, Germany, in May 2016, I believe this company and its dealers will be en-joying a very successful year.

• 26 •

The Best For Last

When CJ and I visited Ricoh in Ja-pan last year, Steve Burger deliv-ered a presentation that blew us away. In “Ricoh: Covering All Bas-es,” published in the July 2014 is-sue of The Cannata Report and on TheCannataReport.com, we mentioned how he shared sever-al interesting new developments at Ricoh.

One area that we found especial-ly intriguing was Ricoh’s MFPs with embedded motion-detection technology. The machine is able to detect someone walking up to it and turn itself on. Another inno-vative design concept was one that will allow for commonality in bridge design, which opens the door to ease of use for multiple disparate Ricoh devices.

We recommended to Jim Corid-di that he allow Steve to do the same presentation that he did for us and he took us at our word. Glad to see Steve again and I have to say we were right.

On multiple occasions, Ricoh

encouraged delaers to dedicate

themselves to the OEM and that ask

seemed out of place to me. I do believe asking dealers for

their dedication from the stage shows a lack of awareness

of how dealers truly think and feel.

CR

Ricoh is making progress in a major way — there’s no mistaking that — and the company deserves con-

siderable credit for how far it has come in such a short period of time. On the flip side, Ricoh would benefit greatly by making some notable improvements. Yet, given how far the manufacturer has come in just three years, room for improvement is to be expected. It takes time to build, or in Ricoh’s case, rebuild or continue to improve, something great.

It was only on or about three years ago back in 2012 that dealers in the Conver-gence audience were literally admonish-ing Ricoh executives on stage. Just three shows later, during Convergence 2015 this past March, dealers were convivial

and optimistic — especially those who are Ricoh-dedicated.

Significant drivers for this notable shift in sentiment include Ricoh’s commendable, high-performing product lines and com-plementary offerings. Regarding the still-core MFP business, Jim Coriddi, SVP of Ricoh’s Dealer Division, reported contin-ued growth across its A3 MFP and color MFP sales, as well as color production print manufacturing. Ricoh also detailed various products and services to help im-prove business operations efficiency for dealers and in turn, provide dealers with a differentiated offering to their customers.

While the developments Ricoh discussed at Convergence 2015 were impressive,

the most significant change at this year’s event was its overall tone. The executives were commendably transparent, honest and pragmatic.

In addressing today’s hot topics such as MNS and 3D printing, Ricoh provided strategic, thoughtful, and most important-ly, sensible and believable commentary. Brodigan succinctly stated that while Ricoh is very much aware of the buzz surrounding 3D printing, the manufactur-er intends to be very clear on exactly how it might benefit and profit from venturing

• 27 •

Convergence Resurgencericoh Makes Major Strides Forward despite Missteps Along the Way By CJ Cannata

Editors Note: Read Frank Cannata’s assessment of Convergence 2015 in this month’s cover story, “Ricoh’s Reviv-al,” on page 21.

• 28 •

into that area, as opposed to getting into it just because it has become an Ameri-can media obsession or because one of its major competitors (e.g., Konica Minolta) incorporated 3D printing into its offerings in early 2014.

Ricoh has taken its time adopting MNS as well, and the company is likely to reap substantial rewards as a result. This past February 2014, Ricoh acquired Mind-SHIFT Technologies, Inc. (MindSHIFT), a leading provider of managed IT, cloud, data center and professional services for small- to mid-sized businesses across the country. The technology company cur-rently services 6,900 clients in major U.S. markets with 650 employees working out of 12 offices in those major markets, in-cluding New York, Houston and Wash-ington, D.C. mindSHIFT covers a variety of verticals such as education, finance, business, healthcare and legal.

The acquisition of mindSHIFT also in-cludes nationwide MNS and customer service professionals.

“With the addition of these highly skilled engineering and customer-facing resources to our existing services orga-nization, Ricoh can now offer a greatly enhanced range of services for its cus-

tomers,” said Martin Brodigan, Ricoh’s Chairman and CEO. “We are very much looking forward to working with our small- and medium-sized customers to maximize these combined capabilities to their greatest benefit.”

In speaking about the acquisition with MNS dealer experts whose companies carry both Ricoh and Konica Minolta, the most significant sentiment seemed to be that the latter’s MNS arm, All Covered, should be bracing itself for some stiff competition, and that mindSHIFT may be the superior MNS provider by far. As al-ways, The Cannata Report will be waiting and watching to provide more tangible updates as respective performance data and commentary becomes available.

As Frank Cannata, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The Cannata Report, ex-pands upon this month’s lead story, “Ricoh’s Revival,” on page 21, Ricoh’s Jim Coriddi was forward in pushing the advantages of becoming a dedicated Ricoh dealer. Coriddi ineffectually went into hard sales mode on the subject during Convergence’s opening session, which I felt was not an opportune forum.

That said, the advantages of dedication are significant for the right dealer. Sev-

eral Ricoh deadicated dealers may claim Ricoh’s products are the strongest, most innovative and intuitive.

“The Ricoh models have a user interface that facilitates the downloading of apps like a smartphone, so I can download a YouTube video [onto a machine] via You-Tube’s app just like I can on my phone. We actually tailor them to specifically speak to commonly used or more complex features for customers,” said Dawn Abbuhl, Pres-ident of Repeat Business Systems. “We love the Ricoh models because they are the only [industry manufacturing] brand whose user interfaces have this feature.”

For Abbuhl, a dedicated Ricoh dealer who has at one time or another carried Konica Minolta, KYOCERA, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba product lines, the key benefit of dedication is that Ricoh treats her $10 million company as it would a $100 million dealer.

“When I had an issue with rules of en-gagement, it was revolved in 20 minutes,” Abbuhl said.

As for other positives from the meeting, I very much appreciated the press luncheons with open seating that Ricoh currently favors at its Convergence meetings. The

For Abbhul, a dedicated Ricoh

dealer, the key benefit of dedication

is that Ricoh treats her $10 million

company as it would a $100 million dealer.

open seating provides a semi-structured, yet laid-back and convivial atmosphere to spend time with Ricoh executives. If a manufacturer were to incorporate one for-mat versus another into its dealer-meeting program, I would much prefer this type of luncheon format to a press conference or even a press/analyst welcome meet-ing. The open-seating luncheon provides journalists and analysts an opportunity to spend some quality time focusing on the executives or topics he or she is interested in, as opposed to the host’s agenda. It also provides an atmosphere to build relation-ships with key players, as opposed to a press conference, even one with opportu-nities for Q&A.

For example, Convergence’s press lun-cheon afforded me the opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with Pe-ter Lazaroff, VP, Communications and Events.We spoke in detail about Ricoh’s advertising strategy and tactics, which were misrepresented during a well-in-tentioned inaugural dealer Q&A earlier during the opening session. Following that conversation, I scheduled a post-event interview with Lazaroff to discuss this same topic in greater detail. Given the depth and breadth of information gath-ered during my interview with Lazaroff, we will be publishing a separate feature

next month for The Cannata Report and TheCannataReport.com to clear up some of the confusion on this vital topic.

The opening session’s Q&A also provid-ed an opportunity for dealers to engage with Ricoh’s executives. Dealers submit-ted questions prior to the event, and Ricoh then selected the most popular questions to pose to CEO Brodigan, Coriddi and Dave Greene, Ricoh’s SVP of U.S. Sales. Much to his credit, Greene took a step back and allowed Coriddi and Brodigan to respond. The dealers I spoke with felt the overall effort was a leap of good faith.

“I really respect the fact that Ricoh con-ducted a dealer Q&A session and feel the company should to be recognized for it,” said Adam Weiss, General Manager of Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office. “It sub-stantiates what Ricoh is trying to accom-plish regarding transparency with dealers. However, I didn’t feel the opening ses-sion was the right format. Everything that happens [in that type of setting] is choreo-graphed. It’s like the Oscars. Even though I could tell the answers weren’t scripted, a town breakout session or Town Hall format that encouraged and facilitated more of a dialogue or genuine interaction between manufacturer and dealers would have been more productive.”

The executives were straightforward in their responses to dealers in the audience. However, they made some significant missteps that are difficult to excuse be-cause the three executives answering the questions had time to prepare.

For example, one of the questions asked whether or not Ricoh had an advertising strategy for 2015 and if so, would the dealers have the opportunity to tag any such advertising. Brodigan kicked off the answer by directly stating that Ricoh did not have an advertising strategy for 2015, which is certainly not the case.

Regarding tagging, that is one area where dealers should be expending their mar-keting energy. By featuring Stan Slap, the irreverent best-selling author on employ-ee culture, whose overall theme was the importance of branding and the manner in which a company achieves brand sta-tus, Ricoh confirmed my opinion on this. Dealers should be thinking more about developing their own identity as their partners continue to evolve theirs on a parallel path.

Perhaps the most significant error on Ricoh’s part during the Q&A was the manner in which the executives answered a question about how Ricoh perceives it-

• 29 •

The executives were straightforward

in their responses.However, they made

some significant missteps that are difficult to excuse because they had

time to prepare.

self compared with its major competitors. The immediate reaction was to flip it back to the audience by stating the question was something only the dealer customers could answer.

While trying to convey just how import-ant dealer perceptions are to Ricoh, this leading manufacturer missed a major opportunity to convey Ricoh’s signifi-cant and positive points of difference. Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Adam Weiss also agreed that it was a “mistake” not to an-swer that question “because the dealers are the ones who submitted the question and thus wanted to hear what differenti-ates Ricoh from the company’s point of view [via Jim Coriddi, Martin Brodigan and Dave Greene].”

Ricoh has never assembled a Q&A panel like this before at Convergence. Given the fact this was the company’s first time out with a paneled Q&A format, there were bound to be a couple of mistakes. Any intelligent organization typically makes missteps the first time it attempts some-

thing new. My advice to Ricoh is not to be dissuaded — just do it again.

When it came to Convergence’s product fair, here was another area that Ricoh could have improved. Ricoh was proud to tout its No. 1 position in the produc-tion-print space — the most viable area for imaging growth, as The Cannata Re-port has been emphasizing for years. It should only follow that production print would be front and center. But I missed it all together, and I know for a fact that I wasn’t the only one.

Lastly, Ricoh would benefit tremendously by not reacting so negatively to construc-tive criticism. In this case, I am not nec-essarily speaking of Brodigan, Greene, Coriddi or Tim Vellek, VP of Ricoh’s Marketing, all of whom I had the pleasure of having several candid conversations. However, we sat with a couple of Ricoh executives during the dealer award cer-emony and interactive and engaging co-medic improvisational show by featured entertainment Sherman and Mocherie.

The two Ricoh team members in question asked what we thought of the Conver-gence meeting. Frank Cannata respond-ed, in part, by pointing out where Ricoh could improve. While I watched the two

executives who initially posed the ques-tion as Cannata spoke, it was clear to me they were not interested in his response. They instead pointed out why his opinion, which they had asked for, was incorrect. Why ask a question if you don’t want an honest answer?

When it comes to our business, we’d rath-er hear from a member of our audience — whether that member is part of our dealers base or an executive of a major dealer partner organization like Brodigan, Greene, Vellek and Coriddi — what he or she thinks we could improve upon regard-ing our publications and services. I ac-tively seek out this type of feedback. We may not agree with or be able to act upon every piece of feedback, but we absolute-ly consider every constructive comment essential to making informed decisions about the future of our business.

Despite any stumbling blocks during the event, I still view this year’s Convergence as a success. After making some tremen-dous mistakes in the past regarding the dealer channel, it’s clear Ricoh is sincere-ly attempting to correct as many of them as it can. Ultimately, this was the overall sentiment that dealers, press and analysts took home with them.

• 30 •

While trying to convey just how important dealer perceptions are

to Ricoh, the OEM missed a major

opportunity to convey Ricoh’s

points of difference.

For further conversations about branding and the role it should play in your business, contact CJ Canna-ta at cjcannata@cannatareport.com.

CR

A Copier Career That Can’t Be duplicated37-year Metro Sales Veteran retires with dignity and Honor By Frank G. Cannata

I received an email from charter subscriber Jerry Mathwig of Metro Sales in Minneapolis. He had a sales leader who was about to retire and he

thought it might make for a good story. You could ask yourself, what is so special about someone re-tiring from a copier dealership?

This particular rep came to work for Metro right out of college, and announced he would like to retire after 37½ years. Now, that really captured my interest. I thought it would be a very good piece to write and I asked Mathwig to let us know whenever the time came for this person to move on. I told him CJ and I would fly out to Minneapolis and meet with the man for an in-depth interview. Well, if you know Jerry at all, you know that the first thing he replied back with was that if we’re going to Minnesota, he wanted to pay for it.

Mathwig has been a subscriber since 1982, and there was no way I was going to allow that to happen. So we compromised. He suggested we meet at the March Ricoh Convergence meeting in Las Vegas. We set it up, and it was there that I met Brian Howell. He was one of seven Metro employees who had made the event, not including Jerry.

It seems as if Mathwig has had enough manufacturer incentive trips and dealer meetings as long as he is able to keep on working. He utilizes these trips as rewards for the sales and technical people. Needless to say, em-ployees at Metro are all business and they represent one of the finest dealerships in this country in a manner

• 32 •

Brian Howell

that is consistent with who and what they are: consummate professionals.

Brian Howell joined Metro Sales in 1977 as a 21-year old, fresh out of col-lege, ready to take on the world. Metro’s product lines were Mita and SCM. The company was doing a very good job with a new Mita cold-pressured-fusing copi-er known as the 900D. In those days, it was not unusual for dealers to handle up to four lines of products, and Metro also sold the Royal or RBC 115-123 and the Savin 220. You might say this is where the long-term relationship between Ricoh and Metro Sales began.

Looking back on his career, Howell said he learned a commitment to excellence from Mathwig.

“Do the right thing for the customer you sell,” Howell recounted Mathwig would tell his sales people. “When you sell someone, they should become a customer for life.”

It is a message Howell took to heart. He spoke of one such customer he first sold to in February 1978, 25 years ago. How-ell sold him the RBC 115 and today, he is still a customer.

Howell also reflected on another client, Excel Energy. In 1979, he sold the com-pany one machine. In May 1981, he of-fered this customer a new Ricoh-labeled machine (for Metro). Howell explained to the customer that Ricoh was new for Metro, but he believed it to be the right machine for Excel. The customer said Howell and Metro had taken very good care of them and they chose to go with the Ricoh product. Since 1984, this customer has only bought Ricoh and now has 750 machines. Excel has only one other com-petitive machine in its plant, and that is in the print shop.

Howell’s title is Senior Account Sales Executive, which is the same title he was hired under in 1977. His role has expand-ed and today includes some major ac-counts. Howell has also enjoyed keeping pace with the changes in the technology.

It is one of the reasons he never got bored with the same job. As Howell put it him-self, “There were always new develop-ments and exciting new products to sell, and I loved every minute of it.”

“Had the industry not changed so much, I would have made a change,” he contin-ued. “In the early days, we had an SADF, then an ADF, followed by a stapler sorter with machines operating at faster speeds and they were more reliable. Any time I even thought about making a change [in career], a new turn came along, like ana-log to digital.”

Howell married his Spencer Col-lege-sweetheart Sheryl in 1980. They have two sons, 28-year old Spencer and Preston, who is 22 and soon to graduate from Wheaton College.

In August 2010, Howell’s oldest son Spencer launched LifeFloors.com with a college classmate, and between them, they raised $1.2 million. The business manufactures a rubberized tile that is nor-mally used around pools. Lifefloors.com also distributes the product.

While not mentioned explicitly, Bri-an Howell believes he has been very well-compensated over the nearly four decades he has worked for Metro. He

spoke glowingly of the generous prof-it-sharing that Mathwig had established early on in his employment. Metro add-ed a 401(k)-type plan that was strongly supported by the dealership. Howell was able to marry, and raise two sons and ed-ucate them, giving them an opportunity for a bright future.

You do the math. Brian is only 58 years old and still able to cut it. So why leave at this time? “My oldest son started his own business and I wanted to help him,” he stated. “I made the decision to retire and help him find his dream.” In a slightly different role, Howell will be helping his son sell to dealers.

Howell has been selling Ricoh for close to 35 years, and I seriously doubt there is anyone out there that can make that same kind of statement. He has seen the copier industry evolve, mature and now reinvent itself.

He made an off-hand remark that one of the things he learned at Metro was selling copiers was serious business for serious people, and there was no time for foolishness. It is apparent he more than held up his end. Mathwig is proud of Howell and his time with Metro. I have known Mathwig a long time, and he is as fine a man you could ever hope to meet in business. I am grateful for the 33 years he has subscribed to our report. Meeting Brian Howell and knowing where he has been working for so many years reaffirms the very high opinion we hold of Metro Sales, as well as the man who founded it and still operates the company today.

When I asked Howell if there was any-thing else he would like to add, he replied, “Metro Sales has reached $75 million in revenue. It has the highest revenue per employee in the industry.”

However, Howell saved the most telling statement of all for last. “We will not sell anything if there is nothing in it for my employees, customers and me,” he said, quoting his boss, Jerry Mathwig.

• 33 •

“do the right thing for the

customer you sell,” Howell recounted

Mathwig would tell his sales

people. “When you sell someone,

they should become a

customer for life.”

CR

Editor’s Note: To date, Frank Cannata and CJ Cannata are scheduled to attend events marked with an “*”. If you have questions about these or other industry events, please contact us at cjcannata@cannatareport.com.

• 34 •

The Cannata Report is currently enjoying an approximate four-week hiatus from the road since returning from KYOCERA’s 2015 Business and Technology Conference at the Palazzo Resort and Casino.

KYOCERA’s was a solid show, for the most part, and that event will be our lead story next month (though we have posted “The Real Deal,” featuring our preliminary overview of the event on the Live Wire blog at TheCannataReport.com).

You will also have the opportunity to read more about Ricoh, both in The Cannata Report and on The-CannataReport.com, specifically regarding its 2015 advertising strat-egy, thanks to an in-depth interview I conducted with Ricoh’s Peter Lazaroff, Vice President, Marketing Communications and Events.

Over the next couple of months, our audience will also enjoy the second of four installments of our 2015 Dealer Profile Series, as well as follow-ups to the recently launched “Out-of-the-Box: Soft-ware and Solutions,” “Veterans’ Way” and “Women Influencers” magazine and online departments.

Robert Ingoglia’s “Marketing: The New Deal” and Bob Sostilio’s “Emerging Technologies” columns will also be returning shortly.

Stay tuned. If the year 2015 was a concert, and the content we have published in The Cannata Report and on TheCannataReport.com represented the beginning of our set, I believe the appropriate ter-minology would be “The show has just begun.”

UP NEXT By CJ Cannata

BPCA Spring Best Practices MeetingHyatt RegencySan Antonio, TX May 4–6

BTA Mid-America Radisson Blu Mall of AmericaMinneapolis, Minn.May 7–8

SDG MeetingTBAPittsburgh, Penn.May 19–20

BTA WestThe VenetianLas Vegas, Nev.August 6–7

Graph ExpoMcCormick PlaceSeptember 13–16Chicago, Ill.

BPCA Fall Dealer Owners MeetingThe BreakersPalm Beach, Fla. September 20–24

BTA EastBoston Marriott Copley PlaceBoston, Mass.September 24–25

SDG MeetingTBADallas, TexasSeptember 29–30

Encompass 2015* Hosted by Square 9 SoftworksSandpearl ResortClearwater Beach, Fla.October 20–23

BTA SoutheastTBAAsheville, N.C.October 23–24

Conflict Avoidance

The Cannata Report’s 30th Annual Awards and Charities Dinner Meadow Wood Manor Randolph, N.J. October 1

CR

• 35 •