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COVER STORY
37 I Young Turks Professionals 40 and Under Forge Our Industry’s Future
FEATURES
23 I High StakesDiscover 2015 Exposes HP’s Big Gambles
32 I True Greatness The Man Behind GreatAmerica’s Infinite Pursuit of Excellence
56 I The Role of Robotics Robots May Present Future Opportunities for Dealers
DEPARTMENTS
6 I CJ’s Spin The Young Influencers of 2015This Year’s 10 Subjects Represent the Essential Contributions of Industry Players 40 and Under
16 I Japanese Headlines Smart ChangeEpson Expands Print Service at Fixed Price, Plus Usage Fee
18 I OP-ED: Frankly Speaking Opportune OptimismVendor Meetings, Software Companies and Megadealers Are on the Rise
19 I Out of the Box: Software & Solutions8 Functions That Put Document Management Systems over the TopGetting Away from Clicks and in Front of Your Clients’ Needs
45 I 2015 Dealer Profile Series No. 2: Copier Fax Business Technologies, Inc.Young Influencer and Co-Owner Dave Scibetta Drives Expansion in Services
51 I Woman InfluencersAuthentic CommunicationToshiba’s Sally Anderson Exudes Competence and Composure
58 I Conflict Avoidance Save the Date for Dealer Group Meetings, Graph Expo, The Cannata Report’s 30th Anniversary Awards & Charities Dinner and Encompass
58 I Up NextThe Cannata Report launches 2nd Annual Woman Influencers Issue
• 3 •
EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING
Frank G. Cannata President, Editor-In-Chief and Publisher
Charles J. CannataSVP, Brand Strategy and Development
Carol C. CannataSVP, Client and Creative Services
Doreen Borghoff Design Director
Sharon Esker Story and Features Editor
Walter Geer III Executive Director, Digital Strategy
Greg SharplessDigital Content Marketing Manager
Production/Industrial Print Correspondent
Michael J. SwartzSenior Web Architect
Bob Ingoglia Chief Marketing Correspondent
Bob Sostilio Chief Technology Correspondent
Tetsuo Kubo Japanese Correspondent
Karen Stewart Executive Producer, Digital Video
Charlene Piro Executive Producer, Print
Matt Stauble Events Photographer
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
[email protected](917) 514-9501
THECANNATAREPORT
TheCannataReport.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: [email protected]. 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 [email protected].
Visit TheCannataReport.comJune/July 2015
This Month
Quote:“Young hearts be free tonightTime is on your sideDon’t let ‘em push you downDon’t let ‘em push you aroundDon’t ever let them change your point of view…”
Rod StewartBritish singer-songwriter, taken from “Young Turks,” originally released on Tonight I’m Yours, 1981P
8 I INKIndustry Awards, Acknowledgments and SightingsEli Manning and Leif Babin Appear at Atlantic Expo; John Hey Gets Back to Basics During Sharp’s 2015 Road Show; 27-Year-Old Nick Leko Promoted to LMI’s VP, Sales and Marketing; Marco CEO Jeff Gau Named EY Entrepreneur of the Year; Nick Valvano and Others Scheduled to Appear at 30th Anniversary Cannata Dinner; Dan Doyle, U.S. Bank and Other Industry Leaders Raise $15,000 for AaSP
YOU
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PEOPLE
THIS MONTH ON
More Young TurksWe feature five of 2015’s 10 Young Influencers in this special summer double is-sue’s cover story on page 37. Those featured in print all represent the industry’s dealer segment.
As for the other five pictured left, we published those in TheCannataReport.com’s new “This Week” section. Those featured Online rep-resent the industry’s man-ufacturing, software and services segments.
TheCannataReport.com
Check out these features and stories at: TheCannataReport.com/Live-Wire
NEW
S MACHINE
PRODUCTION
Industrial Expansion Explosion ContinuesEFI Enhances Portfolio with Textile Printing Acquisition
The Workforce Reformation in JapanOffice Equipment Consortium Launch-es New Generation Work Style
Sharp Corporation Manage-ment ShakedownISS Recommends Investors Back $1.9 Billion Bank-Led Bailout
MANUFACTURERS
Presented by
• 6 •
CJ’s S P I NBy CJ Cannata
Just last night, Frank, Carol and I had the opportunity to have dinner with one of 2014’s inaugural Young Influencers, Aaron Dyck, now Digitek’s Senior Director of Solution Sales, and his wife, Julie, in my hometown of New York City. Evenings like spending time with this couple are some of my favorite times—and remind me just how vital executives and other professionals aged 40 and under are to the future of this industry.
This month’s theme, as reflected in our special Young Influencers double-issue and in complementary content on TheCannataRe-port.com, expands a bit on last year’s coverage. This year, you will find the individuals we selected for inclusion represent different management levels, but overall, the subjects skew more senior and include two young dealer principals, a dealer CIO and the CEO of a major industry software player—all 40 and under.
We also expanded on the coverage of each individual and took a deeper dive this year into the roles they play in driving their com-panies toward success in today’s evolving economy and amidst industry challenges.
We feature 10 Young Influencers this year. Five are from the dealer segment, four of which are all covered within the umbrella cover story and leading magazine feature story on TheCannataReport.com this month, and one in a first-ever dealer profile featuring an interview with a principal under 40. Two come from the manufacturing side, two from the software side, and one from the services segment of the business. Due to the extensive amount of coverage we generated from these individuals, the printed issue includes coverage of the five Young Influencers from the dealer segment, with the five representing other segments behind featured at The-CannataReport.com/This-Week.
With the majority of featured young professionals achieving recognition for roles pertaining to the soft side of the business and digital communication, it seems appropriate timing to announce our recent update of TheCannataReport.com (Version 2.0). The update includes a more self-sufficient logo in system, one-click access to monthly issue PDFs for registered and logged-in users, a digital table of contents that links to all monthly magazine features, which are also posted Online, and two new digital-only content areas in addition to the Live Wire blog: This Week and Video. Live Wire will feature more straight-forward news-oriented content and select press releases, while This Week will feature more timely, brief, and analytical and opinion-oriented pieces, in contrast to the magazine’s longer, more in-depth coverage in a similar vein.
Other features include alerts for all digital-only content (those who have already signed up to receive Live Wire blog alerts will automatically begin to receive alerts when content is posted in This Week or Video as well), streamlined navigation and design, and more prominently displayed photos.
Should you have any question about this issue, the YI franchise or related content—or TheCannataReport.com (Version 2.0)—please email me [email protected] or call at (917) 514-9501.
I hope all of our audience and partners are enjoying the summer and that this makes for compelling outdoor reading.
Sincerely,
Charles J. Cannata (CJ)SVP, Brand Strategy and Development
The Young Influencers of 2015
• 9 •• 8 •
Special guest Eli Manning, New York Giants Quarterback and Super Bowl Champion, and keynote speaker, high-ly decorated Lieutenant Commander Leif Babin, USNR NAVY SEAL Officer and Co-Founder of Echelon Front LLC, spoke to leadership principals about team building and achieving high performance to a resounding audience reception at Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office’s (Atlantic) bi-annual “The Big Event: Tech Expo” on Thursday, May 14, at the New York Mar-riott Marquis hotel.
Top industry leaders and Atlantic partners in attendance included: Rick Taylor, Pres-ident and COO, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Inc.; Ricoh Americas Corpora-tion’s Dave Greene, SVP, Sales and Jim Coriddi, SVP, Business Development;
Larry White, SVP, Sales, Toshiba Amer-ica Business Solutions, Inc.; and Ed Bial-icki, SVP, Sales, KYOCERA Document Solutions, Inc.
The event was packed from 8:30am to 7:00pm, with over 1,200 professionals from 650 unique companies attending this year’s event, up from the 800 pro-fessionals and 500 unique companies that attended 2014’s Tech Expo.
Top professionals gathered at “Team Atlantic’s” largest customer apprecia-tion event to learn more about how their respective organizations can leverage technology and innovation to improve productivity, reduce expenses and ensure business continuity for their organiza-tions and unique needs.
Attendees walked away from the event with a true understanding of the me-ga-dealer’s breadth and scope. Solutions emphasized virtually all of Atlantic’s capabilities, including: professional ser-vices (managed print services, document
management and others), managed net-work services and production print.
In addition, Atlantic CTO, Bill McLaugh-lin, announced the launch of the Atlantic Private Cloud with partner Net Access—an industry leader in collocation and data center services—on the day of the event. Atlantic’s Private Cloud is designed to offer the same features and benefits of public cloud systems but removes a num-ber of objections to the cloud-computing model, including control over enterprise and customer data, worries about secu-rity, and issues connected to regulatory compliance. It also allows for Atlantic IT to manage and control the environment without third-party support.
INduSTry AWArdS, ACkNOWlEdgMENTS & SIgHTINgS
Eli Manning and Leif Babin Appear at Atlantic Tech Expo 2015
I N KBY CJ CANNATA
LARRY WEISS
LEIF BABIN
ELI MANNING
• 11 •• 10 •
I NK
Embracing today’s challenges as opportu-nities to grow and transition to a services orientation is essential to long-term dealer vitality. At Sharp’s 2015 “Tour de Force,” John Hey, Associate and Founder of Stra-tegic Business Associates, emphasized the core MFP business.
Hey underscored that if a dealer cannot profitably evolve his core business, she or he will likely be unsuccessful launch-
ing other businesses such as managed network services. Once that business is back on track, Hey underscored the im-portance of organically growing into ser-vices segments.
For example, MPS should be first because that business is most similar to what deal-ers typically know best. Once their MPS businesses is moving in the right direc-tion, they can looking to expand again.
Aside from Hey’s pre-s e n t a t i o n , h i g h l i g h t s included a presentation by Angele Boyd, Group VP, General Manager, Im-aging/Output
Document Solutions and SMB, IDC, on mobile print and a dealer success panel.
Held in clear secondary markets in com-parison to last year, Sharp’s “Tour de Force” attendance was substantial and
John Hey Gets Back to Basics During Sharp’s 2015 “Tour de Force” Road Show
JOHNHEY
GASLAMP QUARTER, SAN DIEGO’S HISTORIC HEART
OMNI SAN DIEGO HOTEL
Last month, LMI Solutions, Inc.’s (LMI) CEO Gary Willert promoted former 27-year-old Director of Sales Nick Leko to Vice President of Sales and Marketing to Vice President of Sales and Marketing covering the entire North America Territo-ry, which includes LMI’s burgeoning pres-ence in Canada.
Reporting directly to Willert, Leko’s re-
sponsibilities include sales, marketing strategy, and all marketing programs and value adds LMI offers its dealer custom-ers. While instrumental in these processes prior to assuming his current role, Leko is now officially in charge.
Leko was the first graduate of the LMI Academy, an internal management-train-ing program geared toward developing fu-
ture leaders of the company.
Via this nine-month to year-long program, LMI looks to hire among the most qual-ified talents right out of
college and has them to work through ev-ery department of the company. Examples include accounting, customer service, fi-nance, IT, manufacturing, marketing, qual-ity control, sales, software and shipping.
I NK
Marco, Inc.’s CEO, Jeff Gau, has been named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 in the Upper Midwest region. The EY busi-ness leader awards program recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in areas such as innovation, financial performance and per-
sonal commitment to both their businesses and communities.
EY Upper Midwest includes companies based in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. This year’s fi-nalists generated more than $2.1 billion in
revenue and provided over 7,000 jobs by the end of 2014.
A panel of independent judges select-ed the winners who were an-
nounced at a gala on June 10, 2015, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Minneapolis.
Marco CEO Jeff Gau Named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2015
JEFFGAU
• 12 • • 13 •
drew in key executive and sales personnel representation from top dealers all over the country, including: AllFax, C3 Office Systems, Copylink, DPOE, Eakes Office Solutions, Gordon Flesch, GFI Digital, Innovex, LDI Color ToolBox, Marco Inc., Modular Document Solutions, Northern Business Machines, Office Solutions and
Services, The Olsen Company, Smile! Business Products Inc., Superior Office Systems, and TLC Office Systems. Rep-resentation was also strong from some of Sharp’s smaller dealers in markets such as Alaska and the Cayman Islands.
The Cannata Report had an opportuni-
ty to attend 2015 “Tour de Force” Road Show events this past spring in both Boston (May 7–8) and San Diego (May 18–19). On the road from May 7 through June 16, other stops along the tour also included additional secondary markets such as New Orleans, Seattle, St. Louis and Orlando.
NICK LEKO
27-Year-Old Nick Leko Promoted to VP, Sales and Marketing, of LMI Solutions, Inc.
SPLASHBASH
MAKE A
OF THE YEARJoin top-shelf insiders at the
Business Technology Industry’sone-and-only affair of its kind
The Cannata Report presents: “Born in the U.S.A.” Our 30th Anniversary Awards & Charities Dinner
Meadow Wood Manor • Randolph, NJ
All proceeds will benefit the EsophagealCancer Endowment with the V Foundation
for Cancer in memory of Bob Shields
Reserve your seat, purchase a table or make a donation as prompted at:
TheCannataReport.com/Dinner30
Dealers • Manufacturers • Leasing • Software • Services
AT THE
Sponsored by:
10/1/15
The Cannata Report has confirmed that Nick Valvano, President Emeritus of The V Foundation for Cancer Research (The
V Foundation) and Alan Krutchkoff, Co-Founder and President of Adopt-A-Soldier Platoon (AaSP) will attend the
30th anniver-sary event. All cost-of-entry proceeds will benefit the E s o p h a g e a l Cancer re-search grant The Cannata Report estab-lished with
Nick Valvano, Alan Krutchkoff and Bob Goldberg to Appear at 30th Anniversary Cannata Dinner
NICKVALVANO
While The Cannata Report initially ar-ranged to donate proceeds from a silent auction of sports memorabilia at our 30th Anniversary Awards & Charities Dinner on Thursday, October 1, to Adopt-A-Sol-ider Platoon (AaSP), with U.S. Bank matching those proceeds dollar-for-dollar, Dan Doyle Sr., Chairman, and Dan Doyle, Jr. of DEX Imaging; Rick Bastinelli, Pres-ident of Centric Business Systems; Alan Eklin, CEO of Advanced Business Sys-tems; Bill Fraser, CEO of Advanced Infor-
mation Systems; Paul Hanna, President, Blue Technologies; and retired industry veterans Mario Lenci (KYOCERA) and Paul Shulman responded to call to action from AaSP just this month.
When The Cannata Report became aware of an urgent need for funds that arose months prior to arranging the dinner, these particular industry leaders collectively donated $7,500. The Doyles themselves contributed $5,000, while Bastinelli, El-
kin, Fraser, Hanna, Lenci and Shulman put up the remaining $2,500. As U.S. Bank has agreed to match all silent auction pro-ceeds generated for AaSP at The Cannata Report’s 2015 Awards & Charities Dinner, they have done the same here, bringing the initial $7,500 donation to $15,000 total.
The V Foun-dation. Pro-ceeds from a silent auc-tion of sports memorabilia at the event will benefit AaSP. U.S. Bank will match all si-lent auction proceeds dol-lar-for-dollar.
In addition to the aforemen-tioned philan-thropists who have con-firmed they will attend the 30th Anniver-
sary Cannata Dinner, universally respect-ed industry leader Bob Goldberg will also appear as the M.C. of the evening.
Former American College Basketball player, coach and broadcaster Jim Val-vano, nicknamed “Jimmy V,” founded The V Foundation for Cancer Research in 1993. Valvano is renowned for leading North Carolina State University to NCAA Basketball Tournament victory while head coach in 1983 and for his inspira-tional speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards, eight weeks after which Valvano lost his battle with metastatic cancer. The V Foundation established relationships with several cancer centers nationwide and has awarded more than $100 million in grants across 38 states.
Former Unilver IT Communication’s Manager Alan Krutchkoff co-founded AaSP with his wife Edna and fellow IT
professional Holmes Brady. The organi-zation works to im-prove the morale of our troops—in many cases preventing them from commit-ting suicide—and their families. AaSP has impacted tens of thousands of Ameri-can soldiers.
Valvano’s brother Nick, who served as the V Founda-tion’s CEO from 1999–2013, and Krutchkoff, who has led AaSP since the organization’s founding in 2003, will respectively address the audience at The Cannata Report’s 30th Anniversary Awards & Charities Dinner.
Bob Goldberg will entertain the audience as MC of the event, taking over for Frank G. Cannata after 29 years.
Square 9 Softworks, Clover Imaging Group and Digitek will sponsor the event, making it possible for 100 percent of all proceeds to benefit The V Foundation.
• 14 •
I NK
The Doyles of DEX, U.S. Bank and Other Leaders Raise $15,000 for AaSP
CR
Top Dealers. Best Business Practices.The Cannata Report and TheCannataReport.com present our 2015 Dealer Profiles as a cohesive series for the second consecutive year in a row. Written predominantly in a Q&A format, each installment shares valuable insights directly from different industry-leading dealer principles about transitioning to a services orientation.
See page 45 or visit TheCannataReport.com for this month’s story.
No. 2: Copier Fax Business Technologies, Inc.
Dave ScibettaCo-Owner, EVP and CIO,
Copier Fax Business Technologies
THE CANNATA REPORT 2015 Dealer Profile Series
Access. Commitment.
ALANKRUTCHKOFF
BOBGOLDBERG
INSIDE INFORMATION
FATHER AND SON: DAN DOYLE, SR. AND DAN DOYLE, JR.
• 17 •• 16 •
Epson will be expanding its line-up of the “Epson Smart Charge” print service, which includes main
hardware, ink cartridge and maintenance support. Epson plans to offer the expand-ed service at a fixed price, plus a us-age-based fee on a five-year contract that can be implemented at zero cost (in the case of the customer doing his or her own installation and set-up).
In addition to the original A3 inkjet MFP, the expansion introduces three new mod-els to the “Epson Smart Charge” print service: an A4 MFP, A3 printer and A4 printer. The A4 inkjet printer has real-ized a low cost of 5,000 yen per month (approximately $40 per month, taxes not included), which covers up to 1,000 black and white prints and 400 color prints. Further, any prints made over the limit will be charged only a small additional fee. The offering for the A4 printer will begin in mid-June 2015, and the A4 MFP and A3 printer will be released shortly af-ter in July 2015.
With its expertise in inkjet printing, Ep-son developed the original A3 MFP with the durability for repeated business use and a large-volume ink cartridge that lasts for about five years. In May 2014, Epson announced its all-in-one “Epson Smart Charge” print service for its A3 MFP, which includes the main hardware, ink cartridge and maintenance support, all at a low fixed cost of 10,000 yen per month (approximately $81 per month, taxes not included). The product offering for the A3 MFP was launched in August 2014 through MFP dealers handling other OEM products.
Epson determines its product offerings
and sales m e t h o d s based on a n a l y s i s of custom-er needs in each country or region it serves. As of now, the “Ep-son Smart Charge” print service is of-fered only in Japan.
The print ser-vice with the original A3 MFP has received positive feedback from its customers, seeing that it has “lowered printing costs,” “made it easier to implement printers” and “prints in color with peace of mind without wor-rying about cost limitations.” Moreover, the fact that the service has eliminated the extra work for customers to buy and re-place their own ink and manage consum-able levels has been very popular.
By adding the A4 MFP and printers into the lineup, Epson has structured itself to respond to a variety of customer needs. As a result, partnered MFP dealers can offer color MFPs to not only customers looking for a low-cost color MFP but also to those who have already bought other primary OEM MFP products with the “Epson Smart Charge” as a secondary use printer. Epson believes the new service will help establish a win-win relation-ship between Epson and dealers handling OEM products of other companies.
A feature of the “Epson Smart Charge”
print service is the Device Status Sys-tem (DSS), in which Epson manages its customers’ printers’ consumable levels through the Internet. With the use of the DSS, Epson contacts its partnered dealers to perform any replacement work for the customer, reducing laborious processes and eliminating the need for customers to manage their own prints.
The overage cost for the monthly prints are set low with color prints at 5 yen per page (approximately $0.04 per page, tax-es not included) and black and white at 1.5 yen per page (approximately $0.01 per page, taxes not included). Custom-ers who have previously set limits on their color prints for fears of high costs can now click away to make color prints without worry.
Smart ChangeEpson Expands Print Service at Fixed Price, Plus usage Fee
JAPANESE HEADLINES BY TETSUO KUBO
Epson Smart Charge includes three new models: an A3 printer, A4 MFP and A4 printer.
CR
Questions About This Story? Contact CJ Cannata
Phone: (917) 514-9501
Email: [email protected]
• 19 •
8 Functions That Put Document Management Systems over the Topgetting Away from Clicks and in Front of your Clients’ NeedsBy Lee Davis, Research Editor, BLI
It wasn’t that long ago that the barrage of documents flooding offices were filed manually in bulky file cabinets by human beings. Searching for a document meant someone would have to get up and walk— sometimes a considerable distance—to go find it. Oh, how far we’ve come.
Document management systems (DMS) are a game-changer for how modern businesses operate. We all know the benefits of a DMS by now: they make workers more efficient, automate a ton of processes, neatly organize your documents, and most importantly, enable employees to locate documents quickly and easily. But what are some innovations that are pushing the boundaries of efficiency even further? There are eight functions that make a DMS even more efficient:
Versatile, simple document capture:
Whether an organization uses paper, or has made strides toward the paperless office, efficiently capturing documents is vital to organizing data properly.
Scan profiles that can configure and save commonly used settings to import paper
data are a must for businesses looking to cut the time employees spend away from their desk importing documents. More robust offerings allow users to create soft-keys on the MFP’s control panel or in the DMS itself, enabling them to scan to destinations, or automatically integrate the captured document into workflows.
Drag-and-drop capabilities offer users a simple and easy method of adding documents to the DMS. Let’s say a user needs to add an email attachment to the DMS. Instead of saving the attachment to the desktop, then importing it from there, the user can simply drag and drop the file directly into the DMS. Batch importing reduces the time it would take an employee to import large volumes of documents. Some systems offer features that allow users to import different single and multi-page documents, and file types in one batch, indexing and separating the documents, then routing them to their proper destination automatically.
Automated, One-Click, and Learned Indexing:
Once documents have been captured, they must be organized so users can search for
them later. But manual indexing can be time consuming or lead to costly mistakes associated with misfiling.
Automated indexing features enable the DMS processing engine to “read” the document in order to determine how the document should be filed. With the proper intelligence, an advanced DMS can tell if the document is an invoice, who it’s from, what department it’s for, and how much it’s for. Furthermore, the feature picks out meta-data such as date, file type and so on.
Software & SolutionsOuTBOX:
of the
• 18 •
As we recently passed the middle of the year, we’d like to highlight a few obser-vations that are giving us a good indica-tion of where we stand.
For one thing, the number of vendor meetings is way up over previous years. It is not often we are invited to 11 events over a 12-week period. From our vantage point, we believe the uptick in events and attendance reflects the general sense of optimism among dealers regarding their 2015’s prospects, as well as the likeli-hood they experienced a profitable 2014. Additionally, manufacturers, associations and vendors of all kinds that are hosting these meetings appear to share the overall enthusiasm exhibited by dealers.
Our second observation has been the rise of software companies taking lead roles at events such as ITEX. Software pro-viders seem to be looking forward to an-other year of growth, particularly in the dealer channel. They have provided add-ed stimulus to the business, and dealers are moving very strongly into document management and managed-type services. The sale of software has appeared to have helped dealers place more machines and garner higher average unit selling prices.
Third, and perhaps the most encouraging, we have witnessed the continued expan-sion of channel Influencers. Last year, five independent dealers generating over $100 million in revenue responded to our 29th Annual Dealer Survey. This year, one week after launching the 30th Annual Dealer Survey, we had already tallied two respondents reporting $100 million in revenue, as well as one with $75 million
in revenue. My guess is there will be at least five more reporting that hit the $100 million mark in revenue, and perhaps as many as six will join the $75 million club.
Dealers with strong growth engines gen-erating that level of revenue are general-ly the beneficiaries of multiple stimuli. Today, there are fewer dealers. At the same time, the pressure is on all manu-facturers to sell more to existing dealers, which tends to lead to increased margins for dealers. As our past surveys have re-vealed, dealers carry an average of two A3 lines, with 27 percent of dealers dedi-cating themselves to a single manufactur-er. The smaller the dealer, the more lines they appear to carry. This factor alone makes them more desirable acquisition targets for a larger dealer, given the like-lihood of one of the target’s lines align-ing with the acquirer, making a take-over much more attractive. In addition, larger dealers have the resources to better ex-ploit opportunities existing in IT network services, which is also extremely import-ant. When we stand back and put these facts together, we can begin to under-stand the catalysts for substantial growth among the largest dealers.
In addition to these three observations, we are seeing more and more opportunities for dealers to consider. Digital signage in the “Age of Content” has emerged as an important line of business and presents a means of diversity that allows dealers to extract added revenue from existing cus-tomers, as well as a vehicle for bringing on new clients. However, most important of any of these opportunities is the move-ment of printing from the office to the
industrial space. This trend represents a whole new world for dealers and includes the packaging and labeling industries.
On another note, I was recently selected as one of the “Difference Makers” in our industry by ENX magazine, and I am tru-ly appreciative that honor. Scott Cullen, Editor of ENX, asked Jim Oricchio of Coordinated Business Systems in Min-neapolis to comment on my contribution to dealers. Oricchio referred to me as a “cheerleader.” If that is how I am viewed, it works for me.
Oricchio is a good friend and has been a subscriber of The Cannata Report for 29 years. That said, let me end this piece by saying what Oricchio interprets as cheer-leading is the degree of optimism I con-tinue to hold for independent dealers.
Over four decades, I have observed inde-pendent dealers perform and demonstrate what they are capable of, including con-tinued growth through one of the worst economic times in our history. You’d have to look at Silicon Valley to find a more dramatic growth. I am hard-pressed to think of any other industry, particular-ly on the distribution side, that has done as well. My optimism is genuine and has never faltered. I never would have brought my son into a business that does not have a sustainable business model with an unlimited future.
Opportune OptimismBy Frank G. Cannata
Vendor Meetings, Software Companies and Megadealers Are on the rise
OP-ED: FRANKLY SPEAKING
Mid-year review
1
LEE DAVISResearch Editor, BLI
2CR
Questions About This Story? Contact Frank g. Cannata
Phone: (860) 614-5711
Email: [email protected]
• 21 •• 20 •
One-click/highlight indexing is useful for manually indexing documents. Users can simply click or highlight data, indexing a portion or the entire document. This can be handy for text-based searches made later.
Learned indexing is a feature that enables the DMS to read and compare imported documents against the rest of the database. Based on the comparison, the DMS suggests indexing data and indicates how likely the data is accurate.
Linking documents is useful for grouping documents together. Users can jump between related documents instead of searching for them separately.
Embedded connectors for MFPs:
For organizations that still integrate paper documents into their workflow, being able to access the DMS from an MFP’s control panel is essential. Organizations should leverage their investments by extending the DMS’s capabilities to the MFP.
Scan to/print from features enable users to access the DMS from the MFP’s control panel, enabling them to select documents to print, or scan, index, and route data.
Extend the capabilities of your MFP by allowing users to execute actions at the MFP that can be done in the DMS. For example, let’s say a user needs to attach a scanned image to an email. Traditionally, the user would scan the paper document, walk back to their PC, open the DMS, find the document, and attach it to an email. With embedded connectors, this process is streamlined—users can attach the scan to an email from the MFP, input the sending address, subject, cc, bcc and body text, and then send the email—all from the MFP’s control panel. The email will be addressed from the user’s email account and stored in their outbox.
Advanced search features:
Due to the sheer amount of documents some organizations store, neat
organization does not guarantee documents will be easy to find. With that in mind, a great DMS employs powerful, granular search features to ensure users can locate documents quickly.
Auto-fill search will complete search queries based on the inputted text against the database. This comes in handy for users who know what they are looking for, but are unsure about spelling, or only remember the first few letters (such as a first name) of indexed data.
Full-text search can help users who forget the name of a document but remember certain words contained in the document.
Phrase search enables users to search for a string of text in a document.
Proximity search allows users to search for characters in a document within a given amount of words.
Integrate with everything:
Today’s business landscape is riddled with applications, solutions, and hardware designed to make organizations and their employees more efficient. A DMS should integrate with any major application, solution and hardware utilized by an organization, facilitating the quick and easy exchange of vital information.
Mobile integration:
Mobile devices are revolutionizing the business world. Mobile applications bundled with a DMS offer users access to the system from virtually anywhere. Some platforms offer near full functionality on mobile applications or web-based access from outside of the office.
Robust Document Viewer
Of the thousands of existing file types, hundreds are utilized commonly throughout the business world. One client may email attachments as a PDF, while others may send TIFF. Some organizations may generate documents in Microsoft Word, while others use
Open Office. And vertical markets rely on industry-specific file types, such as CAD drawings in the AEC (architectural, engineering and construction) arena. The point is, a DMS must offer a means to view files without requiring that the document’s native application be installed on each user’s desktop.
Document versioning, collaboration and check in/check out:
For a team to succeed, collaboration is absolutely vital. DMS platforms must allow multiple users to access documents simultaneously in order to effectively do their job.
Check in/check out capabilities enable employees to check a document out of the DMS. They can then make changes to that document, and once the document is checked back in, changes will be updated for other users to see.
Document versioning saves different versions of a document. If a user makes alterations and saves the document, the earlier version, unaltered, is still available for other users to access. This ingenious feature is not only perfect for undoing mistakes, but it is also essential in industries where regulatory requirements necessitate that document history be maintained. Some DMS platforms also offer an audit trail, capturing meta-data such as who made alterations, when they made it and more. For our complete coverage of the DMS arena and to find a solution that’s right for you and your clients, be sure to investigate the “Document Management” product category on BLI Solutions Center.
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Questions About This Story?Contact Buyers lab, Inc.
Phone: (201) 488-0404
Email: info@buyerslab
Buyers lab Solutions Center includes edi-
torial coverage on over 500 solutions. For
more articles like this, visit www.buyer-
slab.com/Solutions/News-Insight.
• 23 •
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discover 2015 Exposes HP’s Big gamblesBy CJ Cannata
June’s “HP Discover” at the Venetian in Las Vegas combined the global technol-ogy conglomerate juggernaut’s Annual Industry Analyst Summit and end-us-
er conference into one event for the first time, albeit with mixed results. Unsurprisingly, the overall contextual anchor for the meeting was Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) split. In terms of what’s most important to our readers, the company spent a substantial amount of time talking about leveraging its success over the 2014–2015 fiscal year with A4 (33 percent of market share) to re-launch A3 (3 percent of market share) through the dealer channel.
Between the structure of the meeting and these areas of focus, I find it ironic that the event took place during the week of The World Series of Poker at the Rio, as HP took or is taking high-stakes gambles.
Combining the end-user conference and analyst summit paid off in some regards. For example, the HP Discover Zone was exponentially the most robust product fair I’ve seen. This enabled me to learn much more about what HP is doing. I spent most of my time focusing on the indus-trial print space—particularly the critical graph-ics segment of the market.
• 22 •
HIgH STAkES
HP Discovery Zone: Hewlett-Packard Labs and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise2015 World Series of Poker, Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas
• 25 •
For example, I learned HP was Coca-Co-la’s (Coke) partner in executing the icon-ic “Share a Coke” campaign and will help Coke take it to the next level. Coke market-tested a concept in which bottle wraps are designed with different pat-terns. Then, not only can consumers pur-chase a bottle featuring a preferred pat-tern, they can also go Online and order other items with the same pattern from T-shirts to car wraps.
“The graphics market is 90 percent of the printing market,” said Tuan Tran, HP’s current Vice President and Gen-eral Manager of the Inkjet Consumer
Solutions, Imaging and Printing Group. “This is where HP really has its broad-est and deepest \solutions portfolio, with inkjet [as opposed to digital] technology, and this includes production and indus-trial print.”
The downsides to the larger conference included a much smaller press core (down approximately two-thirds, from approxi-mately 300 to about 100) and the disor-ganized nature of the event, For exam-ple, the group analyst breakout sessions, which covered a series of topics, all trans-pired across a three-hour window with no indication of which topic HP intended
• 24 •
“The graphics market is 90 percent of the printing market,” said Tran, “This is where HP has its broadest solutions portfolio.”
The HP Discovery Zone highlights the four key hot topics in business technology today: Big Data, Mobility, Security and Cloud.
• 27 •
to cover at which point during that three hours. This, in part, made the event some-what challenging to cover. That said, Lar-ry Spilberg, Manager of HP Analyst Rela-tions, went out of his way to compensate for these types of inconveniences and cer-tainly took care of any difficulties that I had from travel to obtaining information.
In terms of the split, it’s now fairly com-mon knowledge that Hewlett-Packard Corporation will separate into HP Inc. (printers and PCs) and HP Enterprise (HPE) (servers, storage, software and networking products). Meg Whitman will serve as President and CEO of HPE, while Dion Weisler, HP’s current EVP of Printing and Personal Systems will serve as President and CEO of HP Inc.
The legal separation date is November 1, 2015, to coincide with the beginning of HP’s 2015–2016 fiscal year, and the effec-tive separation date is August 1 to “ensure that all systems are ready, and that the two companies can truly operate separately as of the November 1 legal separation date,” Whitman said. One of the most significant questions per-taining to the split is whether or not there will be enough synergy between HP Inc. and HPE to create end-to-end solutions for the many customers who will require products and services from both compa-nies. While Whitman claimed that she and Weisler will work closely together, it remains vague as to how.
“We are still figuring out how to col-laborate,” Whitman said. Weisler added that “there will be a lot of overlap be-tween channels.”
That said, Whitman did confirm some-what more specifically that economies of scale will apply for customers who will be working with both HP companies.
“Think about airlines that are partnered
• 26 •
HP is Coca-Cola’s partner in executing the iconic ’Share a Coke’ campaign and will help Coke take it to the next level.
HP Discovery Zone: Hewlett-Packard, having worked with Coca-Cola on its “Share a Coke” campaign, shows what’s next.
• 29 •• 28 •
and how consumer points cross-polli-nate,” Whitman said.
The future CEO of HPE also claims that the supply chain is prepared for the split.
“[We have been in contact with] the sup-ply chain regarding separation plans, and the actions we need them to take,” Whit-man said. “They have been fully on board and have been part of this process for a number of months.”
Whitman emphasized the economic phi-losophy she identifies with—“The Idea Economy”—as contributing factor to-ward the split. The philosophy is fairly simple in theory.
“Success is now defined by how quick-ly ideas transcend into value,” Whitman said. “Time. That is the differentiator now [in virtually every segment] from agri-culture to aerospace. Time to value is the greatest challenge and opportunity.”
“Success is now defined by how quickly ideas transcend into value,” Whitman said. “Time. That is the differentiator now.”
Ron Coughlin, SVP and GM, Consumer PCs, Services and Solutions, HP Inc., uses the band U2 as an example of a brand that continues to innovate and maintain a con-nection with its customers (or, in U2’s case, its fans).
HP Discovery Zone: Hewlett-Packard shows more of what’s next for Coca-Cola.
To address The Idea Economy philoso-phy she believes so strongly in, Whitman identified four new transformation areas essential for businesses that intend to re-main competitive:
1. Transform to a hybrid infrastructure (both on-premise and cloud);
2. Protect your digital enterprise (secu-rity, including both preventative and recovery measures);
3. Empower the data-driven organization (data-to-information conversion rates in near real time); and
4. Enable workplace productivity (ef-ficiency optimization for increasing mobile workforce).
“We need to bridge applications and workflows of today with those of tomor-row,” said Whitman. “They have different infrastructure environments. The majority [of Enterprise businesses] are managing a hybrid environment, [but] 95 percent of Enterprises believe the hybrid is lagging behind where it needs to be.”
Conversely, some are several steps ahead. “ABC is moving [their] broadcast opera-tions to the cloud,” Whitman noted.
Whitman spent the majority of her time on this topic, emphasizing the hybrid model. This is likely because if the En-terprise moved 100 percent into the cloud en-mass, HP would loose substantial on-premise hardware revenue.
Perhaps the most controversial an-nouncement directly relevant to the channel that HP made at “Discover 2015” was the company’s intention to aggressively pursue the A3 market via dealers—again—and by leveraging its success with A4.
When I questioned Tran during a break-
• 31 •• 30 •
out towards the end of the event about this highly ambitious objective, his response didn’t offer much substance, never mind a road map as to exactly how HP intends to build independent distribution.
“There is a long list of executives be-fore me who have tried this,” said Tran. “It takes a long time to gain trust, but we need to build on the success of what we are doing in the A4 product space.”
HP is unlikely to accomplish this partic-ular objective for several reasons. The most predominant roadblock is the over-all lack of trust and respect dealers have for HP, given the company’s history with them and failure to provide sufficient sup-
port in the past. Others include the deeply embedded working relationships inde-pendent dealers already have with their exiting A3 manufacturers who have con-sistently prioritized the A3 MFP as a core product for decades.
HP’s objective to continue accelerating MPS efforts—market share increased from No. 4 in 2014 to No. 2 in 2015—through the channel and partners seems much more realistic.
The HP General Session kicked off the event with all attendees, including customers, end-users and press.
Dion Weisler, CEO, HP, Inc., presents the latest updates in printing and personal systems.
The most controversial announcement HP made was the intention to pursue the A3 market via dealers—again.
CR
Questions About This Story?Contact CJ Cannata
Phone: (860) 306-5711
Email: [email protected]
Great Service
GreatAmerica Financial Services is a national commercial equipment finance company that provides fi-nancing and consulting services in the United States and some of the U.S. Territories.
In its 25 years, this company has traveled far, and I might even say fast, in an industry with many much larger competitors.
Two years after the company’s found-ing in 1990, they soon relocated from Michigan to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and became GreatAmerica Leasing Cor-poration. Back then, the only four em-ployees: founder Anton (Tony) Golo-bic, his wife Magda and two others.
In the years that followed, GreatAmer-ica Leasing Corporation continued its strong growth, surpassing $1 billion in assets by late 2009.
Today, Great America Financial Ser-vices Corporation employs more than 400 employees out of its headquar-ters in Cedar Rapids, and branch of-fices in the states of Georgia, Minne-sota and Missouri.
Nearly three years ago in November 2012, the company adopted its cur-rent moniker, which is GreatAmerica Financial Services Corporation.
GreatAmerica Financial Services serves partners in all of the following industries through seven core busi-ness units:
• Document and mailing solutions;
• Telecommunications;
• Information technology;
• Automotive aftermarket;
• Medical equipment (includes physi-cian medical equipment, laboratory and diagnostic);
• Brokers dealing with essential-use equipment;
• Auto dealerships; and
• Third-party, back-up and successor servicing.
*Source: Wikipedia.
As many members of our industry would attest, GreatAmerica is a respected financial institution
that serves the independent business tech-nology dealer. Dealers view the company as easy to work with and providing ex-cellent back-room support. Based on our annual dealer survey, GreatAmerica ranks at the top of the curve, along with U.S. Bank, GE Capital and De Lage Landen.
I’ve had to opportunity to meet GreatA-merica’s CEO Tony Golobic on multiple occasions. He has always impressed me as a man with a vision and a passion for excellence. Through the years, I have also come to know many of the employees at GA. Without hesitation, they readily and sincerely speak of how much they respect and admire Golobic.
“I have worked with Tony for nearly 28 years and I have never met anyone with such a high level of integrity,” said Sta-cey Krutzfield, Lead Auditor at GreatA-merica. “He is a great mentor and terrific motivator. He instills in all of the Great-America team that we should never sim-ply settle for mediocrity but rather always strive for excellence.”
Praise for Golobic isn’t limited to Great-America’s employees. Dealers have also offered their high opinions.
“I started working with Tony back in the early 90s when I had just started leasing equipment,” said Mike Steinhoff, Presi-dent of Rhyme, a Midwestern dealer cov-ering Wisconsin and Illinois. “What drew me to Tony and GreatAmerica as an orga-nization was the level of respect they gave me as a small dealer. I learned from Tony that you treat everyone the way you want to be treated. Now that we have grown, have seen success and reflect back, I feel
I was treated the same way over 20 years ago—and that’s pretty special.”
I felt fortunate to sit down with Golobic and talk about the corporate culture he cre-ated and fostered, as well as his perspec-tive on how to run and grow a successful business. We are thankful for Golobic’s time, and we believe his commentary to be valuable for not only for dealers, man-agers and executives in our own industry but also for any entrepreneur in today’s challenging economic environment.
Formidable Foundation
The roots of Golobic’s management style come from years of working for several respected companies. According to Golo-bic, he feels fortunate to have risen to se-nior-level management roles, giving him an inside view of how these large com-panies are run. Golobic is quick to point out that each of his former employers were well-managed businesses and very successful. They all had vision statements and spoke of the importance of custom-ers. Some even emphasized the impor-tance of excellence. However, the bottom line still ruled, and as a result, anything else became secondary.
For Golobic, that type of emphasis on the bottom line, along with that kind of culture, did not sit well. He said that as a business person, there needs to be a con-cern for the bottom line, but that shouldn’t be the only concern.
Golobic identified a disconnect between these companies and their employees, re-sulting in a lack of loyalty. Ironically, these companies complained about the employ-ees’ lack of loyalty, but they were not will-ing to reciprocate and be loyal to those same employees.
• 33 •• 32 •
True Greatness
The Man Behind greatAmerica’s Infinite Pursuit of Excellence By Frank G. Cannata
“What drew me to Tony
and greatAmerica as an
organization was the level
of respect they gave me
as a small dealer. I learned
from Tony that you treat
everyone the way you want
to be treated. Now that
we have grown, have seen
success and reflect back, I
feel I was treated the same
way over 20 years ago—
and that’s pretty special,”
Steinhoff said.
ANTON GOLOBICCEO, GreatAmerica Financial Services
As for the customers, loyalty was lacking there too. It was clear to Golobic that cus-tomers could tell these companies truly did not care about them.
Through his experience working for these companies, Golobic became passionate about pursuing a different path to creating a positive work environment. He took his experiences at these companies, where he honed his knowledge and skills, and be-gan developing his vision of a place for employees to come to work for purposes beyond making money and to have an op-portunity to build something unique.
dream into Action
When Golobic launched GreatAmerica in 1990, he began putting his vision into ac-tion, building a powerful corporate culture that would benefit all parties—the compa-ny, its employees and its customers.
“I saw a better way that we could build an organization that could stand apart from the others,” Golobic related. “At the core of this company would be the people that would care about being a good partner to the community and to the business partners they serve.” He compared his vision to a chair with four legs, representing employ-ees, customers, community and partners. “If you think about this, most people go to work because they have to,” said Golo-bic. “In most companies, the majority of the employees feel that is the only reason they come to work. That is a shame when you consider that people spend one-third
of their lives doing something because they have to and not because they enjoy it. They are simply watching the clock un-til it is time to go home.”
Golobic feels passionately about creating a different work environment because he, too, had experienced those feelings while working for other companies.
With GreatAmerica, Golobic’s goal is to pursue excellence with the help of proud and passionate employees who are build-ing a corporate structure together.
“That was what motivated me to do this —a pursuit of excellence knowing that we will never get there,” Golobic said, as he sat back. For Golobic, the pursuit of excellence has no end. “It is a worthy goal and one we should all want to strive for, and doing just that has always been very important to me.”
Making the difference
In a sea of competitors, differentiation be-
comes vital. Golobic’s goal is to excel at every angle for GreatAmerica to outshine every competitor.
“I want to build a big gulf between this company and its competitors—to become so good in everything we do so that we have no competition,” said Golobic.
One of the most important keys in set-ting GreatAmerica apart is its people. To Golobic, hiring the right people makes a difference.
“You have to be sure that they will em-brace the culture of this company,” Golo-bic stated. “We choose them very careful-ly, and that is exactly how we started.”
Golobic’s idea was to gather people who shared the same values—employees who believed what Golobic believed. In build-ing his team with this primary objective, experience is secondary.
“As you have seen in our offices, they [employees] are all different, but they
have very similar values,” said Golobic. “I am lucky to say we have 470 people who have integrity and are committed to the pursuit of excellence.”
To Golobic’s great credit, the vast major-ity of GreatAmerica’s employees have embraced the culture Golobic has cre-ated. GreatAmerica’s employees share more than common values. They also care greatly about each other and many see themselves as part of the GreatAmer-ica family. Golobic is firmly convinced that if any of their employees is asked for one word that expresses GreatA-merica, they would say family. “I have always been struck by Tony’s vision of
an enduring ethical company,” said Brett Mahr, GreatAmerica’s Director of Cor-porate Credit.
“What amazes me most about Tony is his conviction about never comprising or taking any short cuts for short-term gain. Most of all, I admire Tony for his sense of loyalty to the people here at GreatAmer-ica and his desire to always attribute to others the success he has achieved.”
• 35 •• 34 •
The Future’s So Bright
While GreatAmerica has made sev-eral tactical investments (Collabo-rance) in programs to help dealers in managed print and IT services, Golobic also emphasized investing in people. He believes in fostering strong leaders who will do the right thing, despite any concerns about the impact on the bottom line. Golo-bic believes in having a solid vision, because that vision is what shapes strategic thinking. In a changing business environment like the world of print, it’s imperative to stay fo-cused on what customers need and how to help satisfy that need.
A big part of making sound long-term decisions is recognizing what customers are selling today will not be what they are selling tomorrow. The future for the independent deal-er is a convergence.
Given the fact that managed ser-vices is an integral part of this in-dustry’s future—and where dealers are moving—GreatAmerica has built programs that provide a bridge to managed services. The compa-ny wants to help dealers who share that vision of future.
“It took a lot of investment [to build a managed service program], and it will take even more in the future, but it fulfills our mission, and we are go-ing to continue to do it,” said Golobic.
In simplest terms, surviving in this industry is all about growth. Today, GreatAmerica is at $1.7 billion in assets, and we bet it will be even bigger five years from now.
“We continue to grow every year,” said Golobic. “One of our rules is to have a discipline, and we will never grow by more than 15 percent per year.”
“That was what motivated
me to do this—a pursuit of
excellence knowing that
we will never get there,”
golobic said. “It is a worthy
goal and one we should all
strive for...” For golobic, the
pursuit of excellence has
no end.
GreatAmerica employees hold an impromptu meeting with a vendor at their Cedar Rapids, Iowa, headquarters in June.
“What amazes me most
about Tony is his conviction
about never comprising or
taking any short cuts for short-
term gain,” Mahr said, “Most
of all, I admire Tony for his
sense of loyalty to all of the
people here at greatAmerica
as well as his desire to always
attribute to others the success
he has achieved.
CR
Questions About This Story?Contact Frank g. Cannata
Phone: (860) 614-5711
Email: [email protected]
This special double issue of The Cannata Report and complemen-tary-themed content on TheCan-nataReport.com marks year two
of our Young Influencer’s editorial fran-chise, which is our way of not only ac-knowledging the unmatched roles that
professionals aged 40 and under are play-ing in the Business Technology Industry we are all so passionate about today.
This year, we have expanded our cover-age by delving deeper into each of this year’s 10 subjects, resulting in more con-
tent. We spotlight five executives from the dealer segment (four featured in this story and one in the 2015 Dealer Profile Series installment that immediately follows) and five from the other areas of the business, including the manufacturing segment (two), the software segment (two) and the services segment (one).
In print, we are featuring the following from the dealer segment: Rebecca Blaine, Director of Marketing, LDI Color Tool-Box; Johnathan Garlow, President, FORD Business Machines; Bill McLaughlin, CTO, Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office; Bran-don Meek, Director of Sales, Woodhull LLC; and David Scibetta, Co-Owner, EVP and CIO, Copier Fax Business Tech-nologies (featured in this month’s “2015 Dealer Profile Series” installment to fol-low on page 45). In TheCannataReport.com’s new “This Week” section, we are featuring the following from the other segments: Chris Dance, PaperCut; Sean Endicott, Lexmark International Inc.; Tanya Flores, ESP/SurgeX; Erika Grey, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA); and Michael Work-man, Psigen Software Inc.
I am so pleased to present this year’s in-stallment of our Young Influencer’s fran-chise because the prescient thought that organically came to mind as I was com-pleting the interview process was young people are not only playing essential roles in driving our industry forward, their col-lective contributions are in large part are making this industry’s evolution possible.
• 37 •• 36 •
young Turks
dEAlEr SEgMENT
Professionals 40 and under Forge Our Industry’s FutureBy CJ Cannata
director of Marketing, ldI Color ToolBox
I first really got to know Rebecca—Becky—Blaine on a bus ride to an event during Samsung’s 2014 Dealer Meeting in Chicago last fall. I immediately intuit-ed that Blaine is as humble and unassum-ing as she is talented and multi-faceted.
Blaine began her career 13 years ago at LDI Color ToolBox (LDI), run by her father, LDI’s CEO Jerry Blaine. Today, Blaine reports to Paul Schwartz, LDI’s COO. Starting in sales and then moving into marketing a few years later, Blaine’s primary goal was to help LDI’s sales team attract new business. Since then, she has made a substantial contribution toward elevating the company’s marketing to a revenue-generating resource. This sets LDI’s marketing department apart from those of many other dealers.
Blaine begins by analyzing vertical mar-kets, generating sales leads and educating LDI’s customers, along with developing custom sales presentations for clients. When studying vertical markets, Blaine and her team dive deeply into each indus-try to determine which have a perceived need for any offerings LDI provides that they may not be currently taking advan-tage. They then work on translating their findings into viable leads.
“The vast majority of clients start out as MFP clients and grow from there,” Blaine said, “We use the term ‘growing wide with our current [MFP] customers by re-
ally focusing on solution selling and our strategic offerings such as MPS, 3D print, production, visual communications and digital signage,” said Blaine.
However, LDI’s biggest healthcare client did not begin as an MFP customer.
“This was a somewhat unique situation. We actually won their MPS business first, and then their MFP business. Now, we are talking to them about a 3D opportunity.”
On the education front, Blaine has played critical role in developing and executing client events. For example, LDIMEN-SIONAL, LDI’s 2014 holiday and tech-nology event, educated attendees on busi-ness opportunities leveraging alternative print (3D), green solutions, digital sig-nage and visual media.
LDI invited attendees to submit and/or tag photos via Instragram, the popular photo- sharing social media platform, and the deal-ership presented guests with framed photos upon arrival based on their selections. This enabled Blaine and her colleagues to learn a more about who their
customers are outside their offices and in-herently added a fun, social aspect to the event. According to Blaine, approaching clients through other avenues than a hard sell is important because the decision-mak-ing process on the client side is shifting.
“Our prospects, customers and most people in general these days do their research On-line to educate themselves before making purchasing decisions,” Blaine said. “There are also younger people making more de-cisions, and their superiors rely on them to make those decisions.”
In response to these market shifts, Blaine and the LDI marketing team recently dedi-cated their resources to a complete overhaul of www.myldi.com.
“Our prospects and customers will have a better user experience,” Blaine said. “[Also], an advanced customer portal will enable LDI customers to obtain equipment and fleet information in real time.
LDI is also active across other digital plat-forms and channels. Encouraging clients to establish a presence across social media, LDI itself is active across several platforms, including LinkedIn and Facebook, though they, too, are still learning.
“It’s a little challenging to measure so-cial media ROI in the B2B, as opposed to B2C world, but what we have learned has caused us to emphasize LinkedIn, where we present ourselves as a thought-leader,
• 39 •• 38 •
starting and contributing to conversa-tions,” said Blaine. “It’s also an effective recruitment tool.”
Along with LDI’s SVP of Marketing, Brian Gertler, Blaine is also responsible for partnering with LDI’s manufacturing vendors to ensure all communication ve-hicles and tools are up to date with the latest products and offerings information.
Blaine is now working on a whole new branding strategy that embraces not only how people connect with each other but how they connect with their technology.
Evaluating her own career to date, Blaine is most proud of how she has been able to help LDI to evolve beyond traditional communication methods.
“I think that it is very hard when you’re working at a company that has been do-ing so well focusing on traditional meth-ods of selling,” said Blaine. “It felt really great that senior management was taking my perspective very seriously—bridging the gap between maintaining traditional strategy and letting that evolve into some-thing that makes our conversations with end-users more efficient. I understand that very well, so I think that that’s what I’ve been bringing to that table, which is the way that we’re now going to market.”
Blaine has a true interest in fashion that only underscores her professional manner and achievements—she always effort-lessly looks the part of her seasoned exec-utive role and tops off her personal brand with the sensibility and polish she brings to her profession.
“Beginning a professional career in a privately owned company that has a tra-ditional selling model, low turnover and long-standing relationships can be daunt-ing to some, and outright intimidating to others,” said Brian Gertler, “Add an ad-ditional layer of staff consisting of entre-preneurs, family relationships, friends of friends and an influx of millennials, and you might have sufficient material for a reality TV show. To survive in this envi-ronment is a challenge. To be the daugh-
ter of the CEO and Founder, have staying power, grow into the ranks of manage-ment, foster collaboration amongst peers, make serious contributions, and yes, try to raise two children in the process is un-heard of.”
“Not without its bumps and bruises, tears and frustrations, Rebecca Blaine has ac-complished this and more,” continued Gertler. “I have had the opportunity to watch, teach and be taught, mentor and be mentored, and partner many programs projects and campaigns with Rebecca. She has taught me a thing or two about today’s workforce and has had a very positive im-pact in so many areas of our business.”
As a son working under a well-known fa-ther respected by professionals in many segments across our industry, Becky Blaine has also taught me a thing or two about success and modesty. However, I have a long way to go until I’m on par with Blaine in that regard.
President, FOrd Business Machines
When I first met Johnathan Garlow at CDA’s CEO meeting last year in Macki-nac Island, Michigan, I initially took note of him because he’s the youngest dealer
principal I have met to date. After spend-ing some time getting to know him at sub-sequent industry events—including Kon-ica Minolta’s “The Art of Disruption,” which inspired March’s “Konica Minol-ta’s Culture of Cool” lead story—Garlow became an obvious prospective candidate for our Young Influencers issue.
At Garlow’s invitation, I met him at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, a historic pri-vate club established in 1873, where he is a member. I had the unique opportunity to learn a little about the history of Garlow’s market, and of course, Garlow himself.
Garlow’s background and his pathway into the industry are impressive. He earned his degree in architectural engi-neering from Penn State and proceeded to work in that field for the three years pri-or to joining FORD Business Machines (FORD) as President upon his father’s request for assistance.
“I’ve been able to meet some great minds, including executives at Ricoh, Konica Minolta and Print Audit,” said Garlow, who has also been a member of CDA for three years. “I have the opportunity [in CDA] to communicate with business leaders who I feel are more knowledge-able than I am. I take a little bit from each meeting, and start doing something dif-ferently after each meeting I attend.”
Garlow’s father, John, started FORD out of his home in 1991 with less than 10 copy machines and ultimately moved into FORD’s current Connellsville, Penn-sylvania, headquarters facility in 2006. FORD employs 49 people to service the company’s primary market in Pittsburg and west to Morgantown, West Virginia, creating the company’s serviceable two-hour radius.
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LDI’s showroom in New York’s Times Square
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(30)
Look back to our March 2013 issue for “Anatomy of an Open House,” on page 6, to learn about another exam-ple of how LDI hosts successful cus-tomer events.
“There are younger people making more decisions, and their
superiors rely on them to make those decisions,”
Blaine said.
“We want to integrate managed IT services into
everything we do. We want IT to lead the business.”Johnathan Garlow
• 41 •• 40 •
fessionals with the young mindset repre-sentative of FORD today.”
Garlow’s brother, Justin Garlow (28), is an obvious example of the type of sales professional FORD is looking for. Justin Garlow is a sales rep that primarily han-dles major accounts.
“Justin is a tremendous asset because when you set an expectation for him, it seems to usually come back more than double,” said Garlow.
FORD is currently involved with MNS and production print, which represented 1.7 percent and 6 percent of FORD’s to-tal 2014 revenue. In addition, revenue is driven by partnerships with OnBase for document management and Print Audit (which Garlow lauds as “first class”) for print management, as well as MFP sales.
Looking ahead to what’s next for FORD, Garlow pointed directly to 3D printing.
“We’ve got to start dabbling in 3D Print-ing,” said Garlow. “I see the relevant ap-plications of the technology and want to be on the cutting edge of where the indus-try is likely going. To do that, you have to try new things.”
In his down time, Garlow is a beer con-noisseur. He’s even discussed starting a brewery with a couple of buddies.
“Last year, on the way to [CDA’s CEO Meeting in] Mackinac Island, we stopped at Bells Brewery, Dark Horse, Fathead’s and Founders,” Garlow said. “I’ve also participated in brewery tours all over the country from Vermont to Los Angeles and have beers shipped [home] from all over the county.”
So not only is Garlow a young leader to watch in business, he’s also someone you can have a lot of fun with.
CTO, Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office
Since meeting Bill McLaughlin, CTO for Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office (Atlan-tic), at MWAi’s 2nd Executive Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, two-and-half years ago, I have admired his knowledge and self-confidence. One recent morning, I met with McLaughlin at his New York of-fice at 9:00 a.m. I was only an hour or so into my official work day, but he had al-ready been in his office for several hours, still brimming with authentic, admirable energy and enthusiasm.
In 2010, Larry Weiss, CEO of Atlantic, hired McLaughlin to focus on managed print services. Once the MPS business was on track, McLaughlin and Weiss set about upgrading Atlantic’s internal in-frastructure. These efforts included data back-up and disaster recovery, as well as applying similar principles to help cus-tomers do the same.
“What we do here is what others should be doing,” McLaughlin said.
Today, McLaughlin is now responsible for all of Atlantic’s managed services revenue, though he underscores Weiss is very much involved and the two of them work together as a team.
“You have to work together [with the dealer principal], and Larry and I have since the beginning [of my tenure with the company],” said McLaughlin. “We talk just about every day and work hard at keeping the continuity of our overall efforts and strategy. We don’t have sched-uled meetings, we exchange information and have determined how to make every-thing work together.”
“Today’s businesses need to attract bright young minds to stay relevant and profit-able,” Weiss stated. “Atlantic is very for-tunate to have Bill McLaughlin.”
Weiss and McLaughlin work hand-in-hand to deliver on Atlantic’s comprehen-sive portfolio of products and services, including, but not necessarily limited to document management, internal IT in-frastructure, MNS (contractual), MPS, professional services, imaging (software solutions, capture, scan, rules-based envi-ronment, workflow-type solutions, man-aged print that includes document man-agement, greater fleet optimization) and professional service IT (implementing and building out infrastructure).
“We are no longer a copier company,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin has played a pivotal role in helping Atlantic progress to this point. However, he maintains that fundamental-ly he is still a salesman.
“I sell every day,” said McLaughlin. “I have my network that I leverage and a tar-get in mind that represents the ideal ser-vices client for Atlantic. Our sweet spot is 15 to 100 users, with an average count of 35 users. That is the place we love to play. There is a great need, and we can provide a tremendous amount of value.”
Look back to our December 2015 Preview Issue or visit “Magazine Back Stories” on TheCannataReport.com for “Konica Minolta’s Culture of Cool,” the feature story that was initially inspired by a conversation with FORD’s President Jonathan Gar-low. You can also access it at TheCannataReport.com.
Even though Garlow was always in-volved in the business to a degree—put-ting in time during high school and sum-mer breaks from college—that didn’t mean he was prepared to take over just five years ago at the age of 25. But, that’s exactly what his father asked him to do, when John became ill.
“My father always really trusted me,” Garlow said, in response to why his father immediately appointed him to President of FORD.
In hindsight, given that FORD has ap-proximately doubled in size since Garlow took over, John Garlow’s premonitions were spot on.
During Garlow’s tenure, which began in 2010, the company’s revenue has grown by approximately 65 percent. However, the company experienced an 18 percent decrease in 2014 from its previous year.Despite taking a substantial hit last year, Garlow was open about the reason for FORD’s revenue decline and remained positive about 2015.
As is often the case in business under new management, a company has to take a
step back to move forward. For FORD, a short-term loss was necessary to better position the company for the longer term, according to Garlow.
“I wanted to develop a culture that was re-flective of some of the changes that were coming and to develop a better business environment that breeds to our customer base,” Garlow said.
Those changes involved realigning FORD’s culture in line with the realities of today’s business environment, such as customer demand for a consultative ap-proach and the continually evolving use of technology.
In implementing some of those changes, the resulting turnover in staff dampened the company’s 2014 revenue but put the company on track to exceed its historical revenue growth. According to Garlow, FORD is looking to top its 2013 revenue, its highest revenue year to date, growing 28 percent over its 2014 result.
“Changes in life aren’t always easy,” said Garlow. “When you’re talking about making a decision to let somebody go, it’s a life changing event, but when it’s not a
fit, it’s not a fit. When employees aren’t happy, the company doesn’t work well.”
Garlow’s focus on evolving FORD’s cul-ture remains a priority for 2015.
“Ultimately what we do at FORD is sup-port the families of our employees,” said Garlow. “For example, any given client is paying for one of our office admin’s kids to go to college.”
That same concern about the company also applies to how Garlow wants his sales team to approach clients.
“I was riding with one of my reps yester-day, and I told him it’s not about you,” said Garlow. “With FORD, it’s about the culture and our customer—not the sales rep. Make the customer interested by ask-ing questions that lead to a relationship. It’s never about us.”
Another priority this year is managed net-work services.
“We want to integrate IT services into ev-erything we do,” Garlow said. “We want IT to lead the business. [To do that, we will continue] developing new sales pro-
FORD Business Machines conference room
BIll
Mc
lAu
gH
lIN
(35
)
“We are no longer a copier company. What we
do here [at Atlantic] is what others should
be doing.”Bill McLaughlin
• 43 •• 42 •
about his job and working with Atlantic he will tell you that he loves the fast-paced entrepreneurial environment the company fosters.
On the personal side, McLaughlin is a father to two young children, a four-year old and a two-month old. According to McLaughlin, having children has changed his life and perspective both personally and exponentially.
“It is how differently I approach things that matter, and some things that used to matter do not matter as much anymore,” said McLaughlin.
Like many successful people in our indus-try and beyond, deep within their fiber is a desire to help others and give back in some very significant way. McLaughlin is no ex-ception. Ricoh’s George Gorman lost his daughter Jillian to AML (leukemia), and he wanted to honor his daughter’s mem-ory. McLaughlin volunteered and became head of the Jillian Fund, a 510(c)(3) foun-dation that has raised over $153,000 to help families that have children afflicted with the same disease.
All of that speaks well of Bill McLaugh-lin and for Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office for having an environment where a per-son of that caliber can thrive and make a meaningful contribution to the business, as well as his family and the community he lives in.
When we asked Weiss for a quote about McLaughlin he said, “Enjoy it, Bill. Time goes fast. Before too long, you will be recognized as a veteran of the industry.”
Before McLaughlin is considered a veter-an, he will likely make many more contri-butions that will play a key role in driving the industry forward.
director of Sales. Woodhull llC
I met Brandon Meek, Director of Sales at Woodhull LLC (Woodhull), during Ricoh Convergence 2015 in Las Vegas at the Wynn’s B Bar, a popular post-evening event gathering place for dealers, press and event hosts. He was personable, con-fident, eloquent and impeccably dressed, yet he emanated a genuine humility. After about a half hour, my gut told me Meek was a young executive who exemplified what we define as a “Young Influencer.” Meek runs all sales for Woodhull, which
has locations in Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as offices in Indiana and Northern Kentucky. Of Woodhull’s 65 to-tal employees, 19 report to Meek.
Having grown up immersed in the busi-ness technology industry (Meek’s father is on the manufacturing side), ours was a field that always resonated with him. Meek’s passion for sales, combined with an entrepreneurial edge, led him to Wood-hull in 2005 straight out of college. Im-mediately, he felt empowered by the deal-ership’s small-company feel.
Meek started at Woodhull’s Dayton branch when the company employed a total of five to six reps. After consistent-ly hitting his quota for his first two years, Meek was promoted to major accounts manager, the only one who has come from the Dayton branch. After 10 years at Woodhull, Meek remains fully committed in a way that sets him apart from many of his peers.
“Where a lot of people in my generation are chasing checks, I see an opportunity to make myself a part of something rare,” Meek said. “I saw a path here and I want-ed to be at Woodhull long term.”
Meek owes his success to how he defines, approaches and overcomes key chal-lenges. The most significant challenge is shifting the internal mindset at Wood-hull from viewing itself solely as a copy/print shop to a company that goes beyond copy/print and provides problem-solving purposes. Another challenge, particular to his market, is that many competitors—regardless of size—rely on pricing sales strategies alone.
“The competition has been highly reduc-ing their aftermarket pricing,” Meek said. “I see a market shift into a more commod-ity-oriented sale, and it doesn’t necessari-ly have anything to do with the size of the dealer. It could be a $5 million or $50 mil-lion dealer. They all have different goals.”
Tackling these challenges requires a sin-gular, consultative philosophy, which Meek embodies and promotes.
“I don’t want to hear the word copiers,” said Meek. “I will consistently say to a rep, ‘You are not a copier salesperson. You are a consultant who has the oppor-tunity to impact your customers’ work-flow in a way they have never done be-fore by showing them how you can make it better.”
In working with his team, Meek empha-sizes they are solutions sellers who hap-pen to sell MFPs. He strongly believes that reps who position themselves this way are much more likely to get in the
Look back to our November 2015 issue or visit “Magazine Back Sto-ries” on TheCannataReport.com for “MWAi’s Future Focused Forum Flourishes,” to learn more about the leadership role Bill McLaughlin is playing across the industry.
McLaughlin arrived at that “sweet spot” of 35 users as a result of a simple numbers ex-ercise. He begins with the assumption that Atlantic can provide everything from stem to stern, including remote and onsite sup-port. If a prospective Atlantic MNS client with 35 users hires a full time IT profes-sional, that client is going to spend $70,000 to $80,000 per year, all in. Subsequently, Atlantic will more than likely need to pro-vide an additional level of support. This is where Atlantic’s lies: It can accommodate these prospects for much less.
“We can come in and do it for $50,000 a year and provide everything without the client having to outsource anything,” said McLaughlin.
To be able to implement a managed ser-vices business is not an easy feat. Many dealers have tried with limited results. In looking at those that have succeeded, they have taken wide array of approach-es. Atlantic’s approach does not favor acquisition of IT companies to gain a foothold or build a foundation. Atlantic builds organically.
Atlantic has led from the position of solu-tions management and having an owner prepared not only to commit the invest-ments but also to accept the necessary changes and challenges helps put a busi-ness on a path to success. For McLaugh-lin, he is convinced the success for Atlan-tic began when Weiss accepted the idea that Atlantic had to become a different dealership in order to become a better and more sustainable business.
McLaughlin’s division focuses on lever-aging Atlantic’s existing account base on defense by protecting against competition and on offense by broadening the very strong sustainable relationships the com-pany has. Atlantic is in the process of hir-ing young, aggressive hunters for MNS clients. Atlantic’s goal is to acquire new business through managed IT services.
For dealers to be successful in managed services, taking this tack can be very prof-itable. When dealers have developed a significant economy of mass—over $50
million in revenue—it is often easier for highly skilled hardware salespeople to re-new or upgrade existing customers.
Atlantic is succeeding with this strategy, and McLaughlin played a substantial role in developing it.
While many in our industry are focused on the maturation of print in the office, McLaughlin sees something entirely dif-ferent. According to McLaughlin, every-body in every business environment has some type of technological need.
“We provide a platform for scalability and growth, one that will help manage the overall operational cost and provide a bet-ter service to their customers,” McLaugh-lin said. “In order for new technology to be employed, there is going to be a con-sistent need for outsourcing. The danger or concern is that there tends to be a level of complacency where IT comes in and works for a long period of time.”
In looking at Atlantic’s managed ser-vices business, Atlantic reported $105 million, with $9 million in MNS overall and $15 million in all services and solu-tions for its fiscal year ending August 2014. McLaughlin maintains it is one of the healthiest gross profit margins on At-lantic’s P&L.
The segments of the market that are most attractive for Atlantic are health care (as-sisted living type of homes and surgical centers), legal and accounting. McLaugh-lin is very optimistic about the future and sees no reason why Atlantic cannot reach $150 million in 2020, with $20 million coming from managed IT and the rest of managed services.
Like other dealerships engaging in a ser-vices-led model, the key to implementing a profitable managed services business model is compensation. In listening to successful dealerships, it is evident that comp is critical. There’s no taking the cheap road here. Dealers must have high-ly qualified people and be prepared to compensate them accordingly.
According to McLaughlin, one of the pit-falls in having such an ambitious growth target is hiring qualified employees. They are critical to ensuring that Atlantic is go-ing to consistently deliver on its promises to customers and clients. McLaughlin is also conscious of the need to provide sup-port to imaging reps so they can go out and sell the total package.
“It all comes down to hiring the right peo-ple,” said McLaughlin.
If you ask McLaughlin what he likes most
Atlantic’s MNS team in downtown New York
BrA
Nd
ON
MEE
k (
30)
“I don’t want to hear the word copiers. I will
consistently say to a rep, ‘you are not a copier salesperson, you are
a consultant.’”Brandon Meek
Questions About This Story?Contact CJ Cannata
Phone: (917) 514-9501
Email: [email protected]
• 45 •• 44 •
2015 DEALER PROFILE SERIES By Frank G. Cannata
No. 2: Copier Fax Business Technologies, Inc.
In 1990, Andrea and Al Scibetta launched Copier Fax Business Technologies, Inc.. Since then, the company has grown to 35 employees, with its headquarters in downtown Buffalo, New York, with a second location in Rochester, New York. Copier Fax Business Technologies began by selling Konica and today, the compa-ny is the oldest and largest Konica Minol-ta dealer in Western New York.
In 1997, David Scibetta, now Co-Owner, EVP and CIO, Andrea and Al Scibetta’s son, joined Copier Fax Business Tech-nologies, Inc. to oversee a major expan-sion in the company’s technology ser-vices. These efforts enabled Copier Fax Business Technologies, Inc. to evolve from a dealership into the full-service technology partner.
The Copier Fax Business Technolo-gies, Inc. team believes relationships are absolutely crucial, especially in a
community like Western New York. Its customer service, charitable activities and efforts to build long-term relation-ships with clients and employees have enabled the company to enjoy a high de-gree of retention with both.
With David being credited as the driving force behind the expansion in the com-pany’s services area, we were excited to talk to him. Given his success, we cer-tainly view him as one of our industry’s Young Influencers today.
CR Tell us a little bit about yourself in your own words.
David Scibetta (DS): I attended the University of Buffalo and while going to school, I worked at some fast food restaurants. I really did not want to make a career of that industry and asked my dad about working with him. I joined the company in 1997, just as the Kon-
Presented by LMI Solutions
DAVID SCIBETTACo-Owner, EVP and CIO,
Copier Fax Business Technologies, Inc.
door to see prospective clients and pull in the opportunities to sell MFPs.
“When you train that way from day one, you then have minds that are motivated [to further the whole business], instead of focusing on one area or the other,” said Meek. “I want all of our reps to feel confi-dent in and with all the different products and services we offer.”
“I’d say in the last 10 years, one of the biggest things we’ve done is to transition to including services as a legitimate part of the business,” said Susie Woodhull, President of Woodhull and Meek’s super-visor. “Brandon has definitely embraced the solutions. It’s been hard to get the sales reps to modify the talk, and he’s done a super job of that. He’s changed proposal templates and changed talk tracks. He’s teaching the managers and the sales tracks.”
Hiring decisions, on-going internal train-ing and motivation tactics have also been critical to Meek’s success. In hiring new talent, Meek has looked to bring on sales managers who have similar philosophies to his own. However, bringing in talent has not been easy. Always open to new ideas, Meek researched and opted into a Linke-dIn program to help him uncover strong candidates. While it was high-priced, he was able to hire three sales reps.
Meek believes in supporting his sales reps
when they uncover opportunities, and he treats them all equally in an effort to keep them engaged and maintain a positive work environment.
Financial motivation is certainly key, but how Woodhull structures those payouts is equally important. Woodhull delivers addi-tional bonuses and commissions for selling solutions, such as rewarding iPads to reps who sell three managed service contracts, a tactic Meek originally pitched to his boss.
“He really has made the solutions pal-atable and understandable for the reps,” said Woodhull. “Brandon worked with us to help devise comp plans that made sense and that incentivized the team to sell.”
“If you’re doing well and are a top per-former, this is a rewarding industry to be in,” said Meek. “There are all of these different avenues you can take toward success. This is a growing and changing industry that is adapting into more than just the hardware.”
Along with financial incentives, Meek emphasized the importance of recogni-tion. At each month’s sale meeting, Meek takes an opportunity to call out the top salespeople, which creates a competitive, motivated atmosphere.
When Woodhull started the company in 2000, total revenue for the first year was just over $1 million. In 2014, Woodhull’s
revenue reached $16 million, equating to a compound growth rate of 20 percent over the 14-year period. For 2015, Wood-hull is on track to finish at $18 million in revenue. Throughout his 10-year tenure, Meek has played a vital role in these com-mendable growth rate. “I think this industry is good fit for him because he a high-energy person, a good multi-tasker and an idea person,” said Woodhull. “Those three qualities are critical to this business. I really do think Brandon will be a mover and a shaker in this business.”
I couldn’t agree more strongly.
Read last year’s feature, “10 Top Reasons to Recognize the Role of Women (Part I),” featuring Susie Woodhull, in our August 2015 Wom-an Influencer’s issue or at TheCanna-taReport.com.
Visit www.TheCannataReport.com to read about this year’s select Young Influencers as noted in the feature’s introduction on page 37.
Woodhull LLC headquarters in Dayton, Ohio
CR
• 47 •• 46 •
Dave Scibetta (left) and Al Scibetta, Owner, Copier Fax Business Technologies, Inc.
ica 7050 digital device was introduced. We needed people to do the necessary connections, and I was elected to per-form that service. I came in and was the systems integrator and hooked up these copiers. Shortly after that, I start-ed getting involved in every part of the business. At that time, we were a small company with only 10 employees. I worked in shipping, receiving, using pagers for techs (for dispatching), and started to learn just about every part of the business. I was lucky my dad was all in with me, and he helped me in so many ways. He guided me and taught me the things that were most important
for me to know. He helped educate me by bringing me to the dealer shows, and that is when it started to take off for all of us. I not only learned a great deal but also came to know many of my peers. It was good old-fashioned networking, followed mostly by telephone conversa-tions. There was no email around then.
CR Who are your leading manu-facturers and suppliers?
DS: We have been a single-line KMBS [Konica Minolta Business Systems] dealer since 1990, but we do have Lex-mark and Muratec for A4 MFPs and
printers. DocuWare is our leading soft-ware, and we have been a Diamond Club member for the past three years. Today, we are ranked No. 3 this year in the country as a DocuWare provider. Three years ago, we recognized that we need-ed to rebrand our company. We came up with our trademark brand Documentelli-gence [DI]. It is our whole suite of office solutions. Under the hood of DI might be DocuWare or PaperCut or some other solutions. We evaluate what the custom-er needs and offer the appropriate Doc-ument Intelligence solution. We tell the client, ‘Here is what it is going to do for you.’ That has really helped us take off.
What was the revenue for 2014, and what percentage of that
r e v -enue is attributed to services? As a follow up to that, how have you performed in production print?
DS: Our revenue for 2014 was $7 mil-lion. Roughly 10 percent of our revenue comes from solutions, and the rest is imaging. We have a full-service bureau with back-file solutions and are cur-rently scanning 20 million pages for a health-care facility. Production print was 9 percent of our revenue and should be even greater this year.
CR What are your major concerns amid the current operating
conditions and circumstances?
DS: I will tell you it is the lack of the necessary skills among the people we interview for employment. It is a big-time problem. This applies to hiring for both sales and service. Right now, I feel the copier industry is getting kind of
stale. I remember a few years ago, we would pick up a five- to six-year-old ma-chine that did all the same things that the new machines offered, but you could not print. Today, it is the services side that enables us to upgrade an older machine, and we are doing a lot more of this to-day. Other than that, we do not have the same problems other dealers may have with branches. There is only one branch in our territory, and they concentrate on production print.
What about your view on the future of the dealership? How
w i l l you be making money five years from now?
DS: I believe Document Intelligence will take us there, with perhaps some new or different solutions in the bucket. There is a great deal of opportunity in managed services, with a lot of opportu-nity to grow in that marketplace. I guess you can say the business will continue
• 49 •• 48 •
Al Scibetta (center, left), Owner, Copy Fax Business Technologies, Inc. and Dave Scibetta with the Copier Fax Business Technologies family
Dave Scibetta confers with a member of his team.
CR CR
• 50 • • 51 •
Fresh off working for a publish-ing company’s events team, Sally Anderson joined the events team
at Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS) back in 1996. And she nev-er turned back. As the current Director of Marketing Communications for TABS, Anderson oversees brand, digital and social marketing, advertising, public re-lations, training and education. She also handles corporate events in both the U.S. and Latin America.
“In my five years as her manager, I’ve come to know her as a passionate, ded-icated, super professional and reliable manager, said Bill Melo, Chief Market-ing Executive at TABS. “She’s the kind of person you can collaborate with. She understands what our direction is and contributes to that direction. She has a ‘never say never’ attitude and determined professionalism to get the job done at the highest possible quality.”
When managing her team of seven direct reports, she takes leadership queues from the top.
“Upper management [at TABS] has al-ways been accessible and makes everyone feel valued,” said Anderson. “That posi-tive attitude comes from the top down.”
With 19 years of experience under her belt, Anderson is far from alone in her dedication to TABS. She said she knows several people who have worked for the company for a minimum of 10 years, up to 40 years.
“It’s a tremendous group of people,” Anderson said about working for TABS. “Everybody likes to have fun but works hard. We share the same values.”
From Anderson’s vantage point, dealers also appreciate what TABS has to offer, with approximately 50 percent of them
choosing to solely offer Toshiba products.
“Our dealers are very loyal,” said Ander-son. “They are fantastic. Dealers appre-
Authentic Communication Toshiba’s Sally Anderson ExudesCompetence and ComposureBy Sharon Tosto Esker
ACKNOWLEDGING CONTRIBUTIONS OF
WOMEN ACROSS OUR INDUSTRY
“Our dealers are very loyal. They are fantastic. dealers
appreciate they are part of a global com-pany that has been leading innovation for over a century
and constantly cre-ating. They also feel
they can operate on a local level and still get the level of sup-port they need. Here [at TABS], everyone’s
priority is to serve the dealers.”
SALLY ANDERSON
SAlly ANdErSON Toshiba America Business Solu-tions, Inc.
to evolve to a point where imaging and services are equal in terms of revenue.
CR What about your competition?
DS:: Our competitors are into break/fix, and our managed services are much more robust. We are well into the cloud-services area, and it is making us more future-proof, because it is a very inexpensive and efficient way to run the business. We are really studying the cloud as we go along and have custom-ers that are using it. They are prepared to heavily invest in that. I don’t see that coming from our competitors. As you visit with clients, you see it is the mil-lennials that do not want to print in the conventional way. If they do any kind of
printing, it is with their own handheld device. Mobile print is how we are going to continue to grow.
CR Anything else you would like to share with our audience?
DS: One of the things I always think about is how important it is for our gen-eration to really build and carry the lega-cy our predecessors built. The thing that amazes me the most is how everyone is so tightly knit together [in our industry]. It is up to our generation to keep that bond and maintain those relationships. That is what is important for me, and I don’t want to be part of the generation that screws that up.
There is one thing I would like to add.
We have been members of SDG [Se-lect Dealer Group] for six years. Hav-ing a group of dealers from all over the country that we can go to and talk best practices with has meant the world to my dad and me. There are so many things we have done, including compensation for our employees, we would have nev-er done had it not been for SDG and the sharing of best practices. I would en-courage anyone who is an independent dealer to join one of the groups, because they offer something you cannot find anywhere else.
Iconic buffalo sculpture in the entranceway of the Copier Fax Business Systems, Inc. headquarters in Buffalo, New York.
CR
Questions About This Story?Contact Frank g. Cannata
Phone: (860) 614-9501
Email: [email protected]
• 52 •
an substantial educational forum to bring on the road for customers to showcase Toshiba’s commitment and capabilities.
According to Bill Melo, there was very little time to deliver the series of events across the country to impress upon cus-tomers that Toshiba was still a vibrant force in the industry. Melo credits An-derson and her team for pulling together these award-winning events.
“Not only did we get the job done, but it was to an award-winning standard,” said Melo. “She consistently does that. It’s a great example of the work she does.”
For end-user events, the primary objec-tive, however, is to solely support the dealers. After a thorough vetting process, dealers bring key prospects to these meet-ings to show clients how Toshiba and dealers can work together to deliver solu-tions to complex workplace issues.
“We’re trying to create a well thought-out conference with applicable information to help show dealers’ clients how to achieve
their business objectives,” said Anderson. “At the same time, we want to deliver some entertainment value.” To complement the substantive information on products and solutions, Anderson said TABS favors in-viting well-known athletes and celebrities to deliver keynote addresses that will truly engage audiences.
Most recently, Toshiba won the 2015 Gold Stevie Award for “Best Sales Meet-ing of the Year” for its November 2014 LEAD conference in Dallas, Texas.
“I have been fortunate throughout my ca-reer to work with some very talented peo-ple, and Sally Anderson is one of them,” said our own Frank Cannata, President of Marketing Research Consultants LLC and Editor in Chief and Publisher of The Cannata Report. “Need to fix a problem at Toshiba? Call Sally. If you are looking for any information, or clarification on a Toshiba release, call Sally. You are head-ing out to a Toshiba LEAD (User) Con-ference and don’t have an agenda? Call Sally. Her responsiveness is absolutely amazing, and she has helped us out more times than I can count. She is truly an amazing resource for Toshiba.”
Anderson also oversees incentive events for dealers.
“Our goal is to give dealers an experi-ence they wouldn’t have had on their own,” said Anderson of the incentive events. “We want to make it truly a prize for them.” Recent trips included private viewings of the Mona Lisa in Paris at the Louvre Museum and the Sistine Chapel in Rome at the Vatican.
• 53 •
ciate they are part of a global company that has been leading innovation for over a century and constantly creating. They also feel they can operate on a local lev-el and still get the level of support they need. Here [at TABS], everyone’s priority is to serve the dealers.”
Anderson at the Wheel
One of the primary goals for Anderson’s team is to deliver cohesive messaging about the company and its efforts to help independent dealers. Anderson has built an impressive team, with each member functioning as an expert in his or her re-spective field.
“I let people do their jobs, and try to give them the tools and support they need,” said Anderson.
Given the broad range of functions her group serves, Anderson’s group is ex-tremely busy.
“Most important [in a team member here] is a good attitude,” said Anderson.
“Everyone on my team is driven, is a self-starter and has a good attitude. I try to celebrate each person’s success and the group’s successes.”
When it comes to leading her team, An-derson favors open communication and honesty. Her team meets regularly to
share information, review priorities and understand the main points of focus com-ing down from the company’s executive management team.
“I’m very clear,” said Anderson. “There’s no ambiguity. It’s easy to be on the same page when you’re direct and not sugar-coating and dancing around any given topic. I’m not afraid of having a difficult conversation. I believe it helps people in the long run.”
lEAding the Way
Approximately five years ago, in the depths of the economic crisis, Toshiba was looking to get out in front of its cus-tomers after a period of silence. TABS wanted to strongly reinforce that Toshiba was committed to the our industry and the business, had great products and re-mained a company that customers could rely on to lead.
The company’s executive team worked together to create the concept of launch-ing LEAD (Lead, Engage, Act, Deliver),
“I’m very clear. There’s no ambiguity. It’s easy to be on the
same page when you’re direct and not
sugarcoating and dancing around a
topic. I’m not afraid of having a difficult conversation. I be-
lieve it helps people in the long run.”
SALLY ANDERSON
“We’re trying to cre-ate a well thought-
out conference with applicable informa-
tion to help show dealers’ clients how to achieve their busi-
ness objectives.”
SALLY ANDERSON
From right to left: Sally Anderson; Scott Maccabe, CEO, Toshiba Americas Business Solutions, Inc.; and Mark Prowes, Senior SVP of Arenas, MGM Resorts
From left to right: Bill Melo, Chief Marketing Executive, TABS; Sally Anderson; Hidetaka Nomami, VP (Deputy Managing Director, Printing Solu-tions Group and General Manager of Product Planning and Service), Toshiba TEC; and Scott Maccabe, CEO, TABS
• 55 •• 54 •
Expanding Social Media
Anderson’s team is also responsible for TABS’ presence across social media plat-forms. When Anderson took the reins as Director of Marketing in 2009, she helped TABS establish a Facebook page in order to expand contacts, share informational content and support TABS dealers. Con-sistent with many other companies out there, TABS was slow to get into the so-cial media arena, but the company now has a thriving presence.
“Dealers are now more aware of what the company is doing in terms of our incentives and awards programs,” said Anderson. “They can repost information on their own sites, and that can help with prospects and sales pitches.”
TABS also maintains eXCHANGE, an internal Facebook-like page site, where TABS dealers can create a profile and engage in conversations with other TABS dealers and TABS representa-tives to post problems, comments and solutions. In 2010, eXCHANGE won BERTL’s “Best” Award for most inno-vative vendor relationship management system. Today, eXCHANGE has over 5,000 users.
However, TABS’ foray into social me-dia hasn’t always been a smooth process. Early on, Anderson said the company learned that along with the positive as-pects of social media also comes the neg-ative aspects.
“If people post negative comments, you can’t just delete them,” said Anderson. “In the end, that will come back to bite you because you’re not addressing the problem.” So developing strategic proto-cols to deal with Online criticism became vital to the company’s successful overall Online media strategy.
Rather than engaging with a negative commenter Online, the TABS guideline
is to take the conversation offline to re-solve it. From Anderson’s vantage point, nothing good can come from public back-and-forth disagreements.
“We quickly created a guideline that if you are on social media on behalf of Toshiba, here’s what you need to be aware of,” said Anderson. “You shouldn’t be engaged in negative banter. You take it offline. We don’t delete negative messages, but we will take it into a private message to de-termine what the situation is and figure out how we can effectively get it fixed. That usually escalates the problem very quickly and, in turn, helps us to resolve the problem quickly.”
listening with Intent
At least once a quarter, Anderson ven-tures from her Irvine, California, office to meet with dealers in an effort to better understand how dealers are running their businesses and how TABS can better help
them to solve complex business issues for their customers.
Her primary advice to dealers is to keep listening to what customers are saying.“We all have that talk track in our head of what we’re going to say when we’re pitching something,” said Anderson. “In our business, we’re selling complex solu-tions so it’s more important than ever that the dealer understand a customer’s true pain points.”
When Anderson meets with dealers, she doesn’t dive right in by asking about a given dealer’s business objectives or what that particular dealer is trying to achieve in his or her business. Accord-ing to Anderson, objectives across deal-erships are often the same: reduce costs, increase efficiency, etc. Instead, she takes another tact.
“I ask, ‘What keeps you up at night?’” said Anderson. “It takes some people by surprise, but I think I get a more raw answer. You really get to hear what is weighing on them and what their pain points are.”
Transparency is also an important key to success according to Anderson. She con-sistently emphasizes that regardless of whether dealers are dealing an individual or a business, they must be transparent in what they’re communicating and in what they’re committing to deliver, especial-ly in today’s social media environment where unsatisfied clients can quickly broadcast their experiences .
“You’ve got to be authentic,” said An-derson. Anderson’s own authenticity is just one of the many reasons she has had achieved so much success and respect in this industry.
“you shouldn’t be engaged in negative banter. you take it of-fline. We don’t delete negative messages,
but we will take it into a private message to determine what the situation is and figure out how we can ef-fectively get it fixed.
That usually escalates the problem very
quickly, and in turn, helps us to resolve
the problem quickly.”
SALLY ANDERSON
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Questions About This Story?Contact Sharon Esker via email:
one question we are constantly asking people in our industry is where the business is going and what role the independent dealer
will play in the future. The response we receive is generally that print is not going anywhere, certainly in the short term and quite possibly beyond.
We have written extensively on print’s fu-ture lying in the industrial space—signage, packaging and labeling. Another area that has caught our attention is robotics. Canon Japan, Inc.’s Chairman and long time friend Haruo Murase told us that a part of his com-pany’s future lies in its sensor technology
developed for cameras being used in the manufacturing of robots. “Our future cus-tomers are manufacturers,” said Murase.
At the recent Konica Minolta dealer meet-ing, an agreement with a robot manufac-turer was announced. There was even a demonstration during the general assem-bly when a robot came out on stage and handed Rick Taylor a document to read.
When two of the major copier/print-er manufacturers express their interest in the world of robotics, it is more than newsworthy. We fully understand that ro-botics is only a part of those two compa-nies’ future, as they are busy working on many different types of products and new technologies for their future customers in healthcare, education and manufacturing.
We have since discovered the motivation for exploration into the area of robotics by the Japanese manufacturers is the growing concern in Japan about an aging population, combined with a slowing of the birth rate. That is not too dissimilar from what is being experienced here in the United States and in other advanced nations around the world.
The question of who is going to take care of the elderly and infirmed if there are fewer young people is surely pressing. In the Japanese culture, taking care of the
• 57 •• 56 •
Robotic Entertainment
Pop culture has reflected a societal fascination with robots since 1868, nearly 150 years ago, when Edward S. Ellis’s science-fiction dime-novel The Steam Man of the Prairies was first published in Irwin’s American Novels No. 45. The piece featured The Steam Man, literature’s first robot, or non-sentient automation. Filmmakers dialed in the subject for the first time in the 1927 German expressionist epic science-fiction drama Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, all the way through this sum-mer’s “Terminator: Genisys” film, di-rected by Alan Taylor.
The common thread among the
majority of robotic depictions in pop culture is artificial intelligence. Today, there seems to be a major uptick of interest in the topic, as reflected by the increasing amount of science-fiction films and oth-er live-action programming, such as this year’s highly regarded and thought-provoking Ex Machi-na, directed by Alex Garland, and AMC and Channel 4 (British pub-lic-service broadcaster) Networks’ HUM NS television series, which aired on Sundays this summer at 9pm/8pm Central on AMC and was renewed for a second season on July 21.
It will be interesting to see if and how society’s fractionation with ro-bots—and the portrayal of robots in books, films, television and other media—in today’s technologically advanced and ever-evolving infor-mation age may impact the devel-opment of robots and vice-versa, given the numerous lifestyle trends that have received a significant boost due to media exposure.
*Source: Wikipedia
The Role of Roboticsrobots May Present Future Opportunities for dealers Frank g. Cannata and CJ Cannata
older members of the family is considered a major responsibility and one that is not easily discarded. Hence, we have the de-velopment of the robot to function in the potential role of caregiver.
If Canon and Konica Minolta manufac-tures these devices, the obvious question is who will sell them. Around the globe, we believe they will be sold direct. In the United States, there will be robot dealers. It certainly sounds far-fetched, but bare in mind, I grew up on Jules Verne novels and he once said, “Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.”
I see the effort into the industrial, manu-facturing space with print devices that can actually produce products as a harbinger of things to come. Ultimately, these ef-forts can evolve into a totally different business. Will dealers respond by start-ing up divisions, groups or even separate companies to sell and service robots?
The SaviOne from Savioke brings Rick Taylor a Snickers bar on stage.
Still from Alan Taylor’s “Terminator: Genisys”
Still from Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”
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Questions About This Story?Contact Frank g. Cannata
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (860) 614-5711
Still from Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina”
Still from AMC and Channel 4 Networks’ HUM NS A
A
• 59 •
Editor’s Note: To date, Frank Cannata and CJ Cannata are scheduled to attend events marked with an “*”. Carol Cannata is scheduled to join us at events marked with an “**”. If you have questions about these or other industry events, please contact us at [email protected] or [email protected].
• 58 •
We have concluded our 30th An-niversary Dealer Survey and sin-cerely thank every dealer for tak-ing their valued time to complete it. We couldn’t do this without you.
In August we will publish our 2nd Annual Woman Influencers is-sue, and complementary themed content on TheCannataReport.com. We will follow this with our September and October Survey issues. We will also feature all survey issue content on TheCan-nataReport.com.
In between, Frank and I are head-ing to Graph Expo (September 13–16) in Chicago. I am particular-ly looking forward to this particular event after attending HP’s Discov-er 2015 back in June and spending the majority of my time during that show exploring what’s new in the HP world in terms of production and industrial print. (Read “High
Stakes” for my take on the HP event on page 23.)
Following Graph Expo, “Born in the U.S.A.,” our 30th Annual Awards and Charities Dinner, is on Thurs-day, October 1.
Responding to feedback from our Editorial Advisory Board, dealers, advertisers and other partners, we have launched a substantial site update and introduce TheCanna-taReport.com Version 2.0. Among other features, the new site is fast-er, includes a streamlined registra-tion and login experience; 1-Click access to each month’s featured is-sue in PDF format; 1-Click access to “Paper Trail: In This Month’s Is-sue;” a new TOC page with links to monthly magazine stories also published Online; two new digi-tal-only content areas, including “This Week”—in depth news and opinion content—and “Video” (we will reserve the Live Wire blog for news bites and press releases); and several design updates.
For integrated marketing partners and advertisers, the site now also features a second IAB standard 728x90 Leaderboard ad unit, in addition to the existing 300x250 Large Rectangle, and new spon-sorship opportunities for virtually every section on the site.
If you have questions about “Born in the U.S.A.,” The 30th Anniver-sary Cannata Dinner, TheCan-nataReport.com Version 2.0 or advertising, please contact [email protected] or call me at (917) 514-9501.
UP NEXTBy CJ Cannata
BTA West: “Capture the Magic”The Venetian, Las Vegas, Nev.August 6–7
Graph Expo**McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill.September 13–16
BPCA Fall DealerOwners Meeting The BreakersPalm Beach, Fla.September 20–24
BTA East: “Grand Slam”Boston Marriott, Copley PlaceBoston, Mass.September 24–25
SDG MeetingTBA, Dallas, TexasSeptember 29–30
Encompass 2015*Hosted by Square 9 SoftworksSandpearl ResortClearwater Beach, Fla.October 20–23
BTA Southeast: “Fall Colors RetreatDoubletree by Hilton AshevilleAsheville, N.C.October 23–24
EFI ConnectThe WynnLas Vegas, Nev.January 19–22
MWAi Executive Connection SummitHotel Valley HoScottsdale, Ariz.February 17–19
Conflict Avoidance
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The Cannata Report’s30th Anniversary Awards& Charities Dinner**Meadow Wood ManorRandolph, NJOctober 1, 2015
