January 2020 Office Technology

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CONTENTS Volume 26 • No. 7

FEATURE ARTICLES 10

2020s Ready Off to a good start for the new decade?

COURTS & CAPITOLS Overtime Rule Change In 2020, a review of your policy is required

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by Randy Dazo Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends

Predicting what will happen in the next year can be a challenge, but predicting the future of the next decade is something else altogether. Events such as the election in the United States and the transition of an aging workforce are going to occur in 2020. We can also anticipate that another global recession will hit in the next 10 years. Lastly, it is a virtual lock that both page volumes and machines in field will continue to decline, margins will get tighter and the industry will look very different by 2030.

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Make Promotions Work Ensure they are benefitoriented & repeated

by Bob Goldberg BTA General Counsel

One of the most frequent questions to the BTA Legal Hotline is about overtime compensation payments. As of Jan. 1, 2020, employers will be subject to a new U.S. Department of Labor rule implementing critical changes to the earning thresholds under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

P R I N C I PA L I S S U E S The Mother of Invention Staying ahead of cyberattacks is a necessity

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by Al Alper Absolute Logic & CyberGuard360

The world of cyberattacks is far more intricate and sophisticated than it was even a few years ago, meaning that every managed service provider (MSP) must be at the top of its game. And who is it that protects the MSPs that protect end-user information?

by Tim Votapka PPMC Inc.

So, in a lucid moment you have realized you need to expand the visibility and awareness customers should have of your business. Now, before you get interrupted by another email or text ping, let’s get one thing down that will prevent a great deal of wasted time, effort and money before you have even published any new marketing promotions or campaigns. It is vital to understand a natural law here: It is not what you think of your product or service, it is what the customer thinks and understands.

‘The Rental Car Threat’ What can we learn from this faltering industry?

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by Ray Stasieczko TEASRA, The Innovation Channel LLC

At BTA’s Capture the Magic event, I discussed the three types of enduser customers within the office technology industry. The industry must begin facing and addressing the real value these different types of customers place on the print and services deliverable.

DEALERS HELPING DEALERS 33

What’s Next?

Dealers share their newest initiatives

Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

What initiatives are you taking to deal with a seemingly stagnant industry?

With managed print services (MPS), document management services (DMS) and managed network services (MNS) being exhaustively pushed to clients, what’s next?

This question, submitted by a dealer member, received several answers from fellow dealers. Answers to this question, and many others, can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. Visit www.bta.org/ DealersHelpingDealers.

D E PA R T M E N T S Business Technology Association

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• BTA Education Calendar • BTA Highlights

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Executive Director’s Page

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BTA President’s Message

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Advertiser Index

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S PAGE

Take a Look at BTA’s Full Range of Benefits

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here are at least three types of Business Technology Association (BTA) member dealers. First, there are those who regularly take advantage of many member benefits. Second, there are those who regularly take advantage of a few member benefits. And, finally, there are those who have every intention of taking advantage of member benefits, but have not taken the time to review all that BTA has to offer.

It is a new year. For those of you who would identify yourselves as the last of the three BTA member dealer types cited above, might I suggest an additional New Year’s resolution: “This year, I resolve to take a look at the full range of benefits listed on www.bta.org with the expectation that at least some of the benefits will be ideal for my dealership and for my schedule.”

As you add this resolution to your list, keep in mind that BTA was created by dealers and is governed by dealers with the goal of helping the dealer channel thrive and prosper. This is your association.

To help you get started, following are details on just some of the member dealer benefits for your consideration: n BTA Educational & Networking Events — Each year, the association offers five events, hosted by the association’s four districts. The events are open to all members across the country at a discounted registration fee. First up this year is Spring Break, to be hosted by BTA Southeast, March 13-14 in Orlando, Florida. n BTA’s Building My Business Webinars — Since January of 2008, BTA has hosted a monthly webinar. These webinars are led by a wide range of presenters from within the industry. They are of no cost to

members. Recordings of more than 100 of these webinars are archived in the members-only section of the BTA website. n BTA Legal Services — Since 1977, BTA General Counsel Bob Goldberg has offered no-fee advice and guidance to member dealers on a diverse range of topics, including dealer/manufacturer disputes, dealer contracts, employment matters, industry documentation, etc. In addition, a number of sample legal documents can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. n BTA’s ProFinance 3.0 Workshop — For 17 years, BTA has offered this workshop, focused on providing the tools needed to improve a dealership’s financial metrics, based on 30 key benchmarks that compose the industry model. In 2020, this workshop will be offered three times at member dealership locations, starting with March 18-19 at Hendrix Business Systems in Matthews, North Carolina. n BTA Scholarships — Each year, BTA awards scholarships to the sons and daughters of full-time employees of current BTA retail dealer members. Applications are due each year by May 1. Since the 198485 school year, BTA has awarded 1,446 scholarships to deserving students, totaling $1.635 million. n BTA Business Equipment Quota Index (BEQI) — The 2019 BEQI provides market potential (product demand) indices for the U.S. market. Specifically, users of the BEQI are provided with an index for all U.S. sales territories including states, metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), counties and ZIP codes.

Dealers can use their $150 or $250 discounts to secure the BEQI by state and/or MSA. Make 2020 the year you take full advantage of your BTA membership. Visit www. bta.org/MemberBenefits for a full list of member benefits. n — Brent Hoskins

Executive Director/BTA Editor/Office Technology Brent Hoskins brent@bta.org (816) 303-4040 Associate Editor Elizabeth Marvel elizabeth@bta.org (816) 303-4060 Contributing Writers Al Alper, Absolute Logic & CyberGuard360 http://absolutelogic.com & http://cyberguard360.com Bob Goldberg, General Counsel Business Technology Association Ray Stasieczko, TEASRA, The Innovation Channel LLC https://teasra.com Tim Votapka, Prosperity Plus Management Consulting www.prosperityplus.com

Business Technology Association 12411 Wornall Road Kansas City, MO 64145 (816) 941-3100 www.bta.org Member Services: (800) 505-2821 BTA Legal Hotline: (800) 869-6688 Valerie Briseno Marketing Director valerie@bta.org Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org Photo Credits: Bigstockphoto. Cover created by Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2020 by the Business Technology Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published material. However, the publisher assumes no liability for errors in articles nor are opinions expressed necessarily those of the publisher.

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BTA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Mark Your Calendar for BTA’s 2020 Events

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he Business Technology Association (BTA) has announced its 2020 event schedule, with five events kicking off in March. If you have never attended a BTA event, I encourage you to do so; it is a great opportunity to learn about current industry trends and future opportunities, get new ideas for your business, network with peers and have some fun as well. Each event will include a keynote address, educational sessions led by industry leaders, and plenty of opportunities to make new industry contacts and enrich current peer relationships.

Take a look at what some member dealers have said about recent BTA events: n “I try to attend every BTA event that I can. I enjoy them far more than I do the manufacturer conferences, because there [at manufacturer events] we’re kind of being force-fed information about them and it’s not about us. And that’s what we need to focus on and that’s what we can do at BTA [events]. It’s about us and learning how we can be better as organizations, how we can grow and develop, and how we can communicate that with other peers in the industry.” — Jayson Beasley, 1 Touch Office Technology, Torrance, California n “[I attend because of] the speakers that BTA brings, but it’s also the conversations that I have with other dealers who are willing to share ... Successful people like sharing what they’re doing so they can help other people; we have all had people throughout our time [in the industry] who have helped us. When you get to be a dealer who has been around a long time, you want to do the same thing and give back, just like people did for you.” — Kevin Marshall, Copy Link Inc., Chula Vista, California

n “Sometimes when you work all week and you’re in your own little world with your own little problems, you don’t get exposed to everything that’s going on in the industry. So this [attending a BTA event] is an opportunity to hear about what other dealers might be doing or other issues that other dealers might have.” — Bill Matthews, Business Equipment Center Inc., Memphis, Tennessee The first event of 2020, Spring Break, will be held March 13-14 at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort in Orlando, Florida. Hosted by BTA Southeast, the event will feature a keynote address, “Lead Your Evolution,” led

by Judson Laipply, a motivational speaker and dancer who created the “Evolution of Dance” viral video. Spring Break will include six additional educational sessions led

by Larry Levine of Selling From the Heart; Darrell Amy of Convergo; Dale Dupree of The Sales Rebellion; Ken Edmonds of Kedmonds.biz; Kim Louden of GreatAmerica Financial Services Corp. ; and Larry Coco of Coco Training & Coaching LLC. There will also be plenty of time to network with peers and exhibitors. To wrap up the event, attendees will receive a ticket to the Disney theme park of their choice. See the ad on pages two and three or visit www.bta.org/BTAOrlando for more information or to register.

The rest of BTA’s 2020 events: n 2020 BTA National Conference, hosted by BTA Mid-America: June 11-12, Chicago, Illinois n Capture the Magic, hosted by BTA West: Aug. 26-27, Coronado, California n Grand Slam, hosted by BTA East: September (final dates to be announced), Washington, D.C. n Fall Colors Retreat, hosted by BTA Southeast: Oct. 15-16, Asheville, North Carolina For more information on all of BTA’s 2020 events, visit www.bta.org/BTAEvents. n — Bob Evans

2019-2020 Board of Directors President Bob Evans Function4 Sugar Land, Texas bobevans@function-4.com President-Elect Tim Renegar Kelly Office Solutions Winston-Salem, North Carolina trenegar@kellyofficesolutions.com Vice President David Polimeni RITE Technology Sarasota, Florida dpolimeni@ritefl.com Immediate Past President John Eckstrom Carolina Business Equipment Inc. Columbia, South Carolina johne@cbesc.com BTA East Don Risser DCS Technologies Corp.

Franklin, Ohio don.risser@dcs-tech.com Aaron Rubin Docutrend Imaging Solutions New York City, New York arubin@docutrend.com BTA Mid-America DJ Hastings Hogland Office Equipment Lubbock, Texas dj@hoglandofficeworks.com Mike Nerland Elite Business Systems Sioux Falls, South Dakota miken@elitebusinesssystems.com BTA Southeast Michael Hicks Electronic Business Machines Inc. Lexington, Kentucky mhicks@ebmky.com Adam Gregory Advanced Business Solutions LLC St. Augustine, Florida adam@goabsinc.com BTA West Dan Bombard Yuma Office Equipment Yuma, Arizona daniel@yumaofficeequipment.com Mike McCurdy Integrated Technologies Inc. Twin Falls, Idaho mikem@itechinc.com Ex-Officio/General Counsel Robert C. Goldberg Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg LLC Chicago, Illinois robert.goldberg@sfnr.com

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2020s Ready Off to a good start for the new decade? by: Randy Dazo, Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends

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redicting what will happen in the next year can be a challenge, but predicting the future of the next decade is something else altogether. Events such as the general election in the United States and the transition of an aging workforce are going to occur in 2020. We can also anticipate that another global recession will hit in the next 10 years, which will impact the industry. Lastly, it is a virtual lock that both page volumes and machines in field will continue to decline, margins will get tighter and the industry will look very different by 2030.

But by how much — and how fast — will it change? History provides a wealth of teachable moments and can act as a crystal ball. At the beginning of 2010, we were in recovery mode from one of the biggest global recessions ever, MPS had just started gaining traction and mobility was about to explode (the iPad, the first tablet of its kind, was the mobility powder keg, in many ways). The 2010s became a hugely transformative period for print — bigger than we could have imagined as we now look back on the past 10 years. As page volumes peaked a decade prior, mobility was allowing users to consume information in a variety of ways; MPS experts were educating buyers on how much they were wasting on print; and the industry was talking about how solutions and business process automation could eliminate unsecured paper-based processes and streamline workflows. It was a perfect storm, knowing the ever-forgone changes to our industry competing for the same pages that challenged marketers and strategists who were forced to diversify and differentiate with solutions and services, and perpetuating the declines of our industry further and faster.

Right before the 2010s kicked off, Xerox acquired the business process outsourcing organization ACS, doubling down on services. In less than five years, Lexmark acquired more than 10 business process and workflow solutions organizations. Soon after, all vendors had quickly gone down this services route — it was an arms race of sorts to see who

could offer more. But by 2015, as the economy strengthened, rightsizing and costs were no longer the main corporate focus and the value of outsourcing did not have the same appeal, so vendors once again shifted their strategies. Two years later, almost every vendor had gone through its latest reformation, which InfoTrends called “The Great Industry Reboot.”

Companies such as Xerox and Lexmark shed their outsourcing and solutions divisions, HP went through a massive split, and Sharp and Ricoh had near-death experiences, but bounced back with new financial backing.

Ironically, the 2010s did pave the way to the “services” economy. This not only occurred in the office technology industry — MPS being the prime example — but in other industries, such as IT, as well. Providers were seeking to deliver more affordable business models to the masses (both B2B and B2C) and new (and older) generations that preferred to consume products and services as subscriptions. With mobility, cloud, the internet and subscription models evolving, the decade has created this always-on, anytime, anywhere, hyper-communication culture that brought masses of information to our fingertips. Lastly, all this data begets privacy and security concerns that bolster the need for more protection of devices, content, content mediums and entire technology ecosystems.

The good news is, with all of this change, the industry continues to evolve and transform to maintain relevance in the office. With each of the manufacturers going through their own reboot strategies, we do see a path forward, shedding light and vision into 2020 and beyond.

Brother International Corp.

Dan Waldinger, Senior Director, Marketing, B2B During the past five years, Brother has gone through a tremendous

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transformation, placing a deeper focus with what our customers need in their “Customers like to do on its new B2B products and strategies, environments, as well as their integrareadying itself for the future. In 2016, tions in different environments (such as business with companies Brother announced a new line of devices the cloud) that also need to be secure, that are stable, growing specifically designed for business called are important to our future strategies. and focused. And that the Brother Workhorse series in the We must help our clients ‘lock all the is what we talk to our United States. Additionally, Brother has doors’ in their houses.” customers about: That been ramping up the solutions, security When it comes to the future, Waland service capabilities of its devices to dinger summarizes: “We see that there we are going to be there.” meet the expectations of business users, is going to be more consolidation, fewas well as changing the perception of er pages and fewer devices. At the same Brother. To further demonstrate its commitment to this new time, vendors will continue to right-size, become more efstrategy, Brother has invested in the BTA Channel (tradi- ficient in what they do, as well as look into new sources of tionally Brother has been stronger in the retail and IT chan- revenue and new acquisitions. Customers like to do businels), hired resources where needed, and expanded its mes- ness with companies that are stable, growing and focused. saging to business and IT decision-makers and influencers. And that is what we talk to our customers about: That we Brother has now built out an infrastructure and portfolio are going to be there. For a company that has been around for B2B customers that consists of enterprise-grade mobile for more than 100 years, Brother is going to look into more to multifunction devices, as well as software and services opportunities — some that are adjacent and others that that deliver solutions into vertical markets. are totally new. As long as we continue to solve customAccording to Waldinger: “In the coming year and the ers’ pain points and understand their strategic directions, coming decade, as long as we (Brother) continue to partner and as long as our technology and services solve those with customers on their printing and document solutions problems, the office technology industry will continue to needs, we will be well-poised to be successful. There obvi- do just fine. We are excited about this journey together ously has been a lot of change in the office space over the last and know that the fantastic relationships we establish five years where people communicate and collaborate more with all the professionals in this industry are vital to our efficiently. Today, the knowledge worker is mobile, equipped mutual success. with smartphones and other intelligent devices, communicates on multiple social platforms, uses cloud technologies Canon U.S.A. Inc. and apps to allow for the accessing of data at any time or Shinichi Yoshida, Executive Vice anywhere, and requires maximum agility. We must conPresident & General Manager tinue to deeply understand how information is shared in Canon’s office equipment busibusinesses today. Capabilities such as scan-to-email, applinesses had a long history of having cation-based printing and scanning, and integration with separate organizations between its critical back-end systems must all be a part of our everyday direct sales and marketing group talk track. This will ensure that we are helping clients solve and its indirect office equipment the challenges of their days. As long as we are customizing dealer channels. When Canon U.S.A. and personalizing the experience with our devices and hav- moved its corporate headquarters to Melville, New York, in ing the right conversations with our customers, we continue 2013, Canon brought these two disparate business groups to be excited about what we can offer in the next decade for into the new HQ, which was the start of initial coordinated our industry. communications and collaboration to become a more uni“Print has changed dramatically where the document fied organization. It wasn’t until 2016 that the Business Imitself may not be as strategic as it used to be, but the infor- aging Communications Group (BICG) of Canon Solutions mation inside those documents is still important — or even America (CSA) put them together to create the “One Canon” more important — than before,” Waldinger continues. “As strategy. This strategy offered the ability to communicate long as we can help organizations with their digital trans- more holistically and effectively, and hold very open converformation journeys with our technologies, smart MFPs and sations with customers based on each other’s strengths. capture solutions; as long as we are doing that and helping “In today’s workplace, organizations are looking to streamthem be more organized and more efficient, we are going to line processes to boost productivity, and are always simultabe very well-poised for that transition. There are also more neously on the hunt for the latest technology to help them demands for security than ever before; being consistent reach those goals securely and simply,” Yoshida says of 2020.

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“Canon’s vision remains to help our clients HP Inc. “As we look into 2020 expand their focus and find creative ways Tuan Tran, to streamline workflows so that they can President, HP and beyond, everything lend more of their productive efforts to Imaging, we do must be deeply generating new business in increasingly Printing & rooted in customer competitive market landscapes. For 2020 Solutions insights. By doing so, we and into the next decade, addressing seOut of all the can create greater value curity concerns will be a top priority for manufacturers, businesses in the midst of digital transHP has certainly ... for our customers.” formations. There is a strong market for undergone the most transformation, MFPs and other office equipment that inwith splits, acquisitions and remodcorporate digital security protocols at the design level. Multi- eling. One might think that with all these changes, there function and single-function print features like user authen- could be internal disruption slowing it down, but it seems tication and user tracking will be critical to help businesses like HP is taking this energy and moving swiftly to the next safely navigate expanding workflow processes that will now phase of its evolution. span multiple, and different, connected devices. Cloud conAccording to Tran: “As we look into 2020 and beyond, evtent management and similar collaborative solutions that erything we do must be deeply rooted in customer insights. can help enterprises mitigate issues with network and on- By doing so, we can create greater value and more elevatpremise storage will also be essential. Cloud solutions, in ed, seamless experiences for our customers. We know that particular, present a unique sales opportunity as they can customers rightly expect offerings to be highly functional be consistently optimized to incorporate new technologies, and look great. They want products that are more personalsuch as artificial intelligence, to meet the growing demands ized, more intelligent, more secure and more sustainable. of the office of the future.”

In addition, they want a more simple, more convenient and When it comes to the smart workplace, Yoshida com- lower-cost way to print. And, ultimately, they want greater ments: “Canon is finding that new print technologies im- flexibility and choice. This means we need to leverage data pacting both enterprise and production print lines deal and customer insights to evolve our business models and largely with automation and machine learning. Products improve our value propositions for customers.” that can help streamline workflows to free up more room When it comes to the next decade for the industry, for collaboration and productivity are pivotal. Surprisingly, “we are beginning a new chapter at HP from a position of millennials and Gen Zers still rely heavily on the medium strength with a strong foundation and track record,” Tran (paper), even in today’s digital age. In fact, according to our says. “Our strategy can be summarized in three words: adPrint for Action survey, 34% of Americans surveyed have vance, disrupt and transform. As part of our strategy, we read a brochure/flyer in the past month, proving it is still a plan to pivot our business models to enhance our customer valuable tactic to reach audiences and influence purchasing value proposition. There are three main strategic areas that decisions. When it comes to security, Canon commits itself will help us do that: to offering customers office products and solutions that can “(1) Drive Services — Do this by accelerating Instant Ink help companies proactively protect themselves to combat for consumers and managed print services (MPS) for the office. those three pertinent threats and help them to ultimately “(2) Expand in Emerging Markets — Further expand into close critical gaps that may currently exist in their cyberse- emerging markets where many customers still face unreliable curity agendas.” access to HP original supplies. Solutions like Smart Tank and When it comes to the next decade and future opportu- Instant Ink deliver great value propositions to customers. nities, “new technology continues to enter the market at a “(3) Rebalance System Value — Provide customers fast pace, making it critical, and sometimes challenging, with greater choice in the years ahead with HP end-to-end for enterprises to maintain a skilled and knowledgeable systems. For customers that choose HP’s print system of workforce of channel partners that can support the grow- hardware and supplies, offer the most secure, sustainable, ing solutions portfolios available to today’s customers,” reliable and high-quality print experience and HP flexible Yoshida says. “Dealers would do well to take advantage of systems. Alternatively, customers can pay for the full value OEM and specialized partner resources to ensure that tal- of the HP printer up front, gaining the flexibility for their ent can keep pace with industry innovations and guide end choice of supplies.” users to products that meet their unique workflow preferFor other future opportunities, “as HP looks at the future, ences and needs.” we see an opportunity to grow by disrupting the industry,” 14 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 2 0

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Tran says. “HP is at the heart of the digian infrastructure platform and tools, “Our vision is to keep tal transformation strategies that are and have built a model that allows them currently being adopted by businesses to get into these new markets more working toward and around the globe. We aim to be a firstquickly and with fewer costs than they adapting to the way class partner for these companies by could do on their own. things are going but ... driving new, innovative workflows and “For the last 10 years we have been to continue to invest work processes. We will continue to moving toward IT services, ECM and in the infrastructure provide a state-of-the-art printer and the connected workplace,” Kern continMFP portfolio, and are also accelerating ues. “We really started looking at where and the people ... ” contractional growth into the chanthe office was going. That is why we nel. Also, security continues to be of the moved into IT and why we are moving highest importance for HP. Every 4.2 seconds a malware our dealers into IT. Dealers are just now understanding why piece is created and distributed into the IT ecosystem, in- we moved in this direction. There are going to be changes cluding through printers and MFPs. There is a clear oppor- and definitely new technologies; print is not going away, but tunity for HP to leverage our leadership in order to protect how it is used is going to be different. The growth that evour customers and enable our channel partners to do the eryone is accustomed to around print is just not going to same thing with their customers. We will not rest until be there as it was 10 years ago. It is not going to be just a every account is under security and every printer is under pure ‘print’ play. We see this gap in the universe of the cona security policy. It is only then that customers can be as- nected workplace as an opportunity, not only to be able to sured that they have the most resilient IT infrastructures, bring tool sets to organizations — particularly those that including printer environments. And, finally, building on are not on the Fortune 500 list — but to SMBs, to make them HP’s long-standing commitment to environmental innova- more productive, more efficient and more competitive in the tion, we will be focused on delivering the company’s most market. We see continuous evolution of more software and environmentally sustainable product portfolio, while trans- services in our portfolio as the future.” forming our business to a more efficient, circular and susWhen it comes to Konica Minolta’s value add compared tainable model.” to the greater IT industry, “even the largest partners we work with understand our importance — that we are part of the Konica Minolta Business last mile to the customer, meeting with them personally and Solutions U.S.A. Inc. having business conversations with them every day,” Kern Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President, says. “Our vision is to keep working toward and adapting to Business Intelligence Services & the way things are going but, more importantly, to continue Product Planning to invest in the infrastructure and the people, to be able to Konica Minolta has been working deliver that more holistic approach. That includes not only on its diversification and transforma- MFPs, but also ECM and workflow, as well as other smart tion strategy for several years. “Print workplace solutions. We know that we will be successful if in the office is going to evolve and we we provide solutions around these adjacencies where our have proven that a services approach to the customer deliv- powerful sales and services networks can get things to our ers growth, net-new customers and new revenue sources,” customers that traditional distribution channels cannot.”

Kern says. “The business world is undergoing rapid digital Konica Minolta sees a transformation from transactions transformation. Artificial intelligence and cognitive com- to services. “We now live in a new services economy that puting will change decision making, workflow and how will transform the office into ‘workplace as a service,’” Kern people work in the office, and we need to be part of driving says. “We will have the plumbing and infrastructure, wheththat change.” er it is VoIP, combined with SAP v1 or a cloud-based video Konica Minolta has taken its expertise in managed print provider. The most important thing is that the customers do and assessment services and has been able to use those not have to worry about the technology. A lot of mid-market same techniques in adjacent services around IT. “We have customers do not have giant IT departments. We can deliver hired experts in all these new areas to help our channels be- it all as a service. What customers want is predictability and cause we want them to be successful; we want to show them not to count clicks. All they want is a predictable monthly how they can expand into these new areas to grow their payment and flexibility to adapt to changing market condibusinesses,” Kern says. “We know the investments involved tions. While we continue to balance our portfolios of proto get into these new businesses are huge. We have created duction, packaging and labeling, and the risk within each 16 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 2 0

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of those areas, the future of our industry the EMEA region — bring a proven track is in the workplace of the future. That record in software and ICT services, cus“We see the industry is where our investments are and that tomer operations and human resources. and the channels is the connected workplace. The next According to Estebanez: “This transtransforming. We may generation of users did not grow up with formation is all about improving the not see the same amount PCs; they grew up with smartphones customer experience in every step of that we have today, and apps. They are not looking for this the journey. We are working on a radihuge, massive IT infrastructure that is cal renewal for all our digital channels, but we will see more complex and inflexible. They want to be including a website redesign, as well as sophisticated dealers ... “ able to rent it, not capitalize it. We look traditional methods, such as campaigns at Konica Minolta as being a platform and events. We want to strike the percompany, delivering the platform that provides the apps or fect balance to give us the chance to provide the most comsolutions for the smart workplace.” plete service you can imagine in order to retain our loyal When it comes to the future, Kern summarizes: “The im- customers and, also, to guarantee that we really catch the portant thing is to keep an open mind, because it is hard to eyes of our potential customers.” predict what technology is going to be the next big thing.

When it comes to 2020, “we are going to see a massive Populations are not growing; globally we have a population transformation from us and all of the manufacturers,” Esissue. We know that we need solutions that can automate tebanez says. “Kyocera is preparing for the future, which workflows because we will not have the populations of work- started with our new brand promise. We began developing ers that can do all the things they used to do manually. As our new brand promise two years ago, which is ‘Put Knowllong as we continue to think that way with ECM, RPA, IPA, edge to Work.’ There is a basic thought process built on how AI, workflow and the smart connected office, and remove we started the business a long time ago with printing and the manual stuff from the equation so they (customers) can copying documents. Through the technology that Kyocera focus on the high-value activities that can help their busi- put into place, we put the documents into context by extractnesses grow, that is the future path for our industry to grow.” ing meaning from them. We are converting those documents into information. As long as we can take that information KYOCERA Document Solutions and put it into something meaningful to customers, they can America Inc. make better decisions. We are not just creating printers and Jose Estebanez, Senior Director, copiers anymore, but we are also creating e-solutions, ECM Integrated Marketing and document management solutions to expand our busiCommunications ness through different services, like ICT and others, as well.”

Since the arrival of its new CEO, For the next 10 years, “we see the industry and the chanOscar Sanchez, just over a year ago, nels transforming,” Estebanez says. “We may not see the Kyocera has embarked on a journey same amount that we have today, but we will see more soof change. Sanchez’s vision has been phisticated dealers who are investing in the same services to build a future-proof organization ready for the challenges we are investing in. That may be the paradigm shift we see that lie ahead for Kyocera and the industry as a whole, built in revenue, where you see that the majority of revenue in 10 on four key values: urgency, efficiency, passion and collabo- years may not be from what we call our core business today. ration. This transformation will affect the whole company, E-commerce will also change the landscape of how convaluing and attracting top talent, implementing technology sumers buy print. E-commerce platforms are there in every and changing processes in order to make them more effi- market, and the Amazons of the world are making it harder cient. The end result is clear: Kyocera is aiming to improve and harder to not go in that direction.” the service it provides to its collective customer base.

As for new opportunities, there are new printing domains This process needed leaders across the enterprise and San- from Kyocera, such as production printing. “Kyocera is quite chez has been quick to act in bringing together a talented positive about the print market, even though office prints team of directors with experience from across the industry are in decline,” Estebanez says. “However, production and and from other sectors entirely. This dream team of experts industrial print will continue to grow in the coming years. came together to provide a space for creativity and forward Kyocera is entering the production print arena from an inkthinking in the document solutions market. New hires — such jet perspective, which is a relatively new segment for the inas Estebanez, freshly arrived in the United States after lead- dustry. We’re confident that we are occupying a space in the ing the transformation of Kyocera’s marketing activities in market in which no one else can compete. The other unique 18 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 2 0

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thing about the technology, which we We are looking to differentiate in differown, is that this technology is extensible ent areas of the market and the touch “We are shifting into other industrial products. In the that is involved. For instance, for SMB, from a product-centric past, we focused on developing hardware our approach and touch are going to approach to an audienceand had not asked our customers what be different from enterprise, which recentric approach ... they really needed. Our new approach is quires more of a high touch and more We are looking to to put the customers in the center of the managed services. But, really, every conversation, especially with all these customer is going to be different. We differentiate in different new products, asking them their needs have also come up with a new go-toareas of the market ... “ and fulfilling these customer demands market campaign with the ‘#Morewith new products and services.” thanprint’ hashtag that highlights evThis transition toward a more customer-centric ap- erything we can do for customers that is different from proach is at the heart of what Sanchez and his new team print. The strategy will consist of providing solutions for are looking to achieve. “Our world is increasingly intercon- both customers and our dealers that can ‘protect, mannected,” Estebanez explains. “We are never offline. That ap- age and connect.’ Additionally, we have taken our Ricoh plies to how we manage our documents just as much as it Cloud Workflow Solutions (powered by our Ricoh Smart does to our social activities or homes. Our customers need Integration Platform) to the next level, where we have put us to go beyond simply printing, copying or scanning. We together sales playbooks on how our sales channels engage believe that the future lies in complete IT solutions, going in the subscription business. The focus for us at ConvergX beyond hardware into software, content and IT services. By 2019 (Ricoh’s partner leadership forum) was to have a much doing so, we can become the single provider to resolve any higher strategic discussion because of industry changes business’ needs.” and trends, and dealer feedback. We have been working closely with the channel to incorporate them as part of Ricoh USA Inc. Ricoh so it is no longer us and them; we are all now Ricoh.

Steven Burger, Head of Engineering Our focus is combining Ricoh and the dealer community to & Vice President of Portfolio create new customer value. We want dealers to leverage all Management of the things we have in order for them to be as successful as Ricoh’s digital transformation our direct organization. strategy has been happening for “We see it as all about customer information, and it starts several years now, along with a shift with the document and capture information,” Burger conby the company to a “services” fo- tinues. “But as we go further out, on the edge at customer cus. With its new dealer approach, sites, you will see Ricoh change from managing documents Ricoh’s transformation has become more of a collaborative and information to more workflow and how customers are strategy and the results with its Ricoh Family Group dealer working. Additionally, we will be taking some of Ricoh’s adpartners so far have been very good. Ricoh is continuing jacent technologies, such as our Pentax camera investment, this transformation journey and wants to be recognized as our Theta cameras and 3D optics, and put these into our more than just a print company. It is utilizing cloud plat- strategies as we move forward. We also want to leverage our forms to transition its workflow solutions — along with its sales organization and our digital technologies and develop DocuWare acquisition — into a flexible and scalable solu- new ones based on how customers are going to buy and action. Additionally, it is transforming the customer confer- quire technologies in the future. Additionally, key partnerencing experience with intelligent conferencing systems ships are going to be important in the future. For example, and whiteboards. Channels are an important and critical we announced our Amazon partnership with Amazon’s part of this new journey into its future office and services AWS Alexa for Business integrated into Ricoh workflow, as vision. Ricoh is looking to its dealers to adopt services and well as to voice-enable work in the office. We also have a it is closely partnering with those that show a high willing- strategic partnership with Cisco to provide security soluness and capability to invest. tions in the office.”

“We are shifting from a product-centric approach to an As for moving beyond 2020, “with the ‘More than Print’ audience-centric approach,” Burger says. “We have spent a campaign, and as we start to target specific customers based lot of time building our marketing team to prepare us for on buyer needs and transition more of the print business the future, and we have a portfolio marketing and manage- to workflow business, we want to transition from clicks to ment team focusing on buyer needs and customer personas. workflow with our Ricoh Cloud Workflow Solutions and the 22 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 2 0

Cover Story Jan 20.indd 6

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subscription businesses,” Burger summarizes. “We also have several production technologies, such as thermal production and ink technologies from our ink patents that we own. When it comes to the smart workplace, and as we move into smart integration (that includes our MFPs, smart projectors and whiteboards) and IoT platform, we will be connecting our products to customers wherever they work.”

we get feedback from different people who voice their opinions about what they want and how they want to do things, and then we develop products and the experience based on that feedback. That is helping us to prepare for the future — focusing on the people in the workforce who will be making decisions about these technologies.”

When it comes to change, “we recognize that we are all going to have to change,” Marusic adds. “The price point is going to make it more difficult to just sell just copies. Dealers are also now seeing other opportunities at different degrees, but we see dealers getting into things like managed network services, and that is going to be table stakes for dealers to get into some of these new areas. What I hope is that we keep that core part of ‘services.’ The secret sauce for our industry is that we have all the data and we have services — feet on the street who can go in and install and service products for their customers. And, we have that distinction with our channels in our industry. We also believe customers will demand to see all of these new services from one vendor and on one bill, which will most likely be as a monthly service. Dealers have to take a look at all these new technology offerings, but they also have to change their business models to understand the value these technologies bring to their businesses. It is not going to be the same revenues as the copier business and the margins you get from supplies and services. But the value of differentiation in the services they provide is going to help them win that business.”

As for future strategies, Marusic says, “the future for us is the smart office. Ultimately our dealers are going to have to manage mobile devices; it is the most logical step for the smart office. We may not be able to have an answer for that now, but the progression we have seen is that dealers are getting into managed IT, phone systems, VoIP, the cloud and mobility. Especially with the power of 5G, mobility is the next progression that we will need to address. If we do smart office right with communication and collaboration, mobility will be next.”

“The secret sauce for our industry is that we have all the data and we have services — feet on the street who can go in and install and service products ... ”

Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) Mike Marusic, President & CEO Sharp’s new direction is quite interesting, yet different from that of other players that have focused on the “smart office.” Instead of acquiring hardware technologies, its partnerships and solutions expertise allow it to be an essential solutions and technology integrator.

“For the next decade we are pretty clear about where we are going, and that is in the smart office,” Marusic says. “For us, the key products will be where you will view and consume information — and that is with the printed page, a conference display, a desktop display or mobile device. Four of those five products we actually sell. The question is: How do we make the experience from one to another easier and seamless? Users want to have the same experience whether they are working in an office or working at home. What we are trying to drive is that software. What we are looking to create is the software that drives that experience and connect that piece of hardware to the network or the cloud. Our vision of the smart office is that seamless communication and sharing of information.

“The biggest thing that triggered our transition is when we moved to our new building and I was responsible for how the office would be configured and carefully studied how people worked,” Marusic continues. “One of the things we found out is that people wanted to be mobile, working in different areas of the office or working remotely from home.

We also were able to start recruiting millennials and noticed that they work, act and interact with technology differently. One of the things we are most proud of over the last two years is that we got different people to voice how they work, and we listened and leveraged that into our development strategy. It used to be that we developed products and then tried to convince people that they needed them and forced on them how to use the products. Now

Xerox Corp.

Mike Feldman, Corporate Executive Vice President & President, America Operations Xerox has had many reinventions in its long history, from being the standard for making copies as the document company, to becoming a services and BPO (business process

24 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 2 0

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outsourcing) organization, to its most “there are definitely adjacencies to our “Xerox has traditionally recent reboot that focuses the organizaindustry that we and our channels must tion back on its technology roots. get into,” Feldman says. “Of course, we been strong in the “When it comes to the next decade, it spoke about automating processes as enterprise space, and is really about the intelligent workplace the next big step, but we also see vertiour mission over the and how people will work to be most effical solutions, for example health care next decade is to take cient,” Feldman says. “As we know, work and financial services, and expanding that leadership position can happen in all different places today, into new areas such as IT services, as from an office to coworking spaces or in also being important. For those chanin enterprise ... ” an airplane. People want their content nels that want to follow us into the prowherever they are in a secure fashion, duction space, we have industry-leaddigitally and, on occasion, on paper. Just as important are ing technologies that have been proven in the market and the intelligent tools that are going to make the experience continue to have success with iGEN, new inkjet technoloof work better, more productive and somewhat frictionless. gies, smart packaging and all the personalization solutions We are focused on what the intelligent workplace will de- that are going on in that space. mand. This means more intelligent help with processes and “Xerox has traditionally been strong in the enterprise more automation for the tedious parts of work to free up space, and our mission over the next decade is to take that customers’ time and allow them to focus on their core mis- leadership position in enterprise and deliver that and our sions and value-added work. We know security is going to tools to the channel and its customers,” Feldman concludes. be a major consideration for all industries and we are lead- “We think that we have market-leading A3/A4 and producing the pack with benchmark security. tion devices and, through our Partner Print Services, we “The consumerization of IT has transformed how our can offer our dealers apps and content management with personal technology and company needs have converged; DocuShare, along with security, to provide a strong combiwe will also see this happen at work with our technologies,” nation of capabilities.”

Feldman continues. “Our offerings have been designed in a user-centric way for businesses, such as our apps, which we InfoTrends’ Opinion also are seeing a huge demand for from users. Additionally, For the immediate future, 2020 brings several uncertainsimplicity is key. The new generations, such as millennials, ties with another U.S. election, a potential global recession want things that are intuitive and simple; they have a dif- and an aging workforce that grew up with lots of prints ferent tolerance for how things work and they have higher and copies. When I asked the executives about the election, expectations. Everything now has to be cloud-based, and many of the answers were similar in that they do not mix we incorporated a cloud-first strategy. Workers and new politics when it comes to their strategies. generations are bringing in their own devices ­— from tabOne executive says: “We can only control what we do. We lets to phones, each with different platforms — and they may have to make changes. It does not change our vision, want to be able to access their information on any of these where we are going or our execution. You can’t really go with devices. Similarly, they want to use MFPs and their associ- that or you will go crazy changing things based on a tweet. ated apps as on-ramps to their information they can access You just have to ride it out. We try not to worry about that.” anywhere, anytime. We also see that smart workflows are As for a recession, again, most say the office technology key to helping create efficiencies for both users and their in- industry has rebounded after the last two major recessions. frastructures. Things like AI, robotics, analytics, machine Strategies such as managed print services (MPS) gave sales learning [ML] and the cloud will all be part of this new in- organizations a strategy to talk to customers about how they frastructure that will help automate and streamline pro- could better manage and right-size their devices in a changcesses. This is the reason why Xerox is investing so much in ing workforce. And even though MPS eliminated the “fat” of AI. We have already launched a number of AI/ML-enabled underutilized devices, it did bring “services” and more of a apps and expect to have many more. We are also building consultative solutions and sales approach to our industry. our capabilities for the long term with R&D. For example, As for the future, we know it is going to change and our Xerox PARC is engaged with DARPA on the Explainable AI industry has become very resilient to it. Amazingly, our inproject, to resolve how humans can best understand the dustry has been very good at change, with some vendors — recommendations AI makes during work processes. This and especially some channels — leading change faster than will be critical to realizing strong benefits from AI.” the manufacturers. In fact, we have seen more change from For future considerations and moving into the next decade, vendors and channels in this decade than any other in the 26 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 2 0

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Give your customers what they are looking for.

Secure documents and smart digital workflows set a new pace for worker productivity and business performance, and you control 100% of the relationship.

Join the 50+ successful BTA dealers that are improving their revenue stream with a trusted and proven DocuWare partnership.

Contact: mary.williams@docuware.com 845-999-6743

MAY 2016

BUSINESS IN THE ‘AC

INTELLIGE

CELERATIO

NCE

N ECONO

INSIGH M ECM TO

MY’

T:

OPTIMIZE ALYTICS TO USING AN PROCESSES BUSINESS

FRO

The Imaging Channel

An integrated resource for the print and imaging industry that brings together the leading market information, business concepts, solutions, strategies and people in the industry. print | digital | website | e-bulletins

SHO

02

IGENT AN INTELL H APPROAC VING TO IMPRO BUSINESS PROCESSES

| Number

A publication, website and e-newsletter for the business process automation and content management industry.

Workflow delivers leading-edge information to the principal IT VARs, dealers, resellers, OEMs, vendors, and distributors.

AND WHY

Volume 04

Workflow

SINESS WHAT IS BU E — NC INTELLIGE ULD YOU CARE?

4/25/16

8:07 AM

1 kf_cover.indd

0516_w

Go to www.WorkflowOTG.com & www.TheImagingChannel.com and click on “Subscribe” to receive print publications,digital editions, and weekly e-newsletters.

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acquisitions and overall investments. past. And, if we look at 2020 and the next What we are And, lastly, the industry remains finandecade’s rate of change, we believe it is cially strong, which helps by having the going to be even faster than during the optimistic about capital to invest and acquire other adlast decade. We see automation, robots, in our industry is jacent office automation technologies.

AI and analytics as being main focuses the amount of So, when we look back at this article 10 (even though these came out in this deinnovation and years from now, I hope we will see a fast cade), however, we will see the implereinvention that progression into these new solutions, mentation of these technologies into stronger commitments, investments mainstream business processes like we continues to occur. and transformation from all vendors have never seen them before. and channels, as well as a new focus on How these will affect our core print business is another big question. Obviously, print is not go- the next decade that will look very different from the past. n Randy Dazo is the group director of Keypoint ing away anytime soon, but we know it is not going to be Intelligence’s office and data platforms services at the levels it was two decades ago. At the same time, the for both Buyers Lab and InfoTrends number of vendors and channels has also been reduced, reoffice products. He leads Keypoint’s flecting the progression of this decline. continuous information service practice What we are optimistic about in our industry is the in this area on a global basis. amount of innovation and reinvention that continues to ocDazo can be reached at (973) 797-2136 or cur. As we see the convergence of the IT, office and audiovirandy.dazo@keypointintelligence.com. sual channels happening, we also see many of our channels Visit www.keypointintelligence.com. and vendors following this trend with products, solutions,

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Make Promotions Work Ensure they are benefit-oriented & repeated by: Tim Votapka, Prosperity Plus Management Consulting Inc.

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o, in a lucid moment you have realized you need to expand the visibility and awareness customers should have of your business. Now, before you get interrupted by another email or a text ping, let’s get one thing down that will prevent a great deal of wasted time, effort and money before you have even published any new marketing promotions or campaigns.

Whether you call it marketing, advertising, PR or “that thing the IT guy can do online,” it is vital — yes, vital — for you to understand a natural law here: It is not what you think of your product or service, it is what the customer thinks and understands. This is the cornerstone to success and, while it may seem obvious now, you would be amazed at how quickly and easily many businesses neglect to think about it when they smash champagne bottles on new campaigns. Many examples of this are easily reviewed when you look at how others promote. One simple example is office technology dealerships that promote using the terms MPS and TCO. Of course, we know that MPS means managed print services and have a thorough understanding of the concept, but does the prospect truly understand what this term entails? TCO takes this to another level, in that most prospects do not have any idea that this acronym stands for total cost of ownership, let alone what it means and how it is calculated.

The main point here is to get you to start off with the right mindset and the right orientation before you embark on your great marketing adventure. And for that, we turn to the following truths and tools you need to have in your mind and in your basic marketing survival kit.

Promotion Defined There are a few key definitions of promotion one must understand. The first one has to do with action, as in making things known, getting things out, getting oneself known, and getting one’s products out. The other definition is more aligned with what you use in the actions — for example, brochures, posters, advertisements, emails, postcards or social media communications. It is what you create to publicize or advertise a product, a cause, activity or organization. The

purpose of it all rests on achieving a line of communication between your prospect and your product or company.

The test of a good promotion is the response to it; this is where people run into a little fog at times. Some believe the power of the creativity is more important than all rules of engagement. That is false, and here is why: While creativity can be fun and a relief from the office routine, it is not the sole reason promotions succeed.

Concepts and messages must follow a line of no less than three points: attract, interest and convey a message — in that sequence. Think of it as a triangle with each side relying on the other two to have a sound structure or program. Weaken one side and you jeopardize the other two. This is what happens when people invest the bulk of their attention on one aspect alone. Advertising agencies fight this battle within their own ranks when graphic designers grab hold of an idea they insist on tooth and nail, without taking into consideration the mindset potential customers may have with regard to a certain technology or issue they may not even be ready to confront when the promotion hits their eyes.

Attraction and interest work when things are designed with a specific purpose, which is best determined through pre-promotion surveys. Going back to the previous example, how likely is it that your prospect will be interested in TCO if he (or she) does not even know what it means? You may succeed in attracting his attention, only to quickly lose www.offi cetechnol ogymag.com | J a n u a ry 2020 | 29

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his interest. Here, too, is where we lose customer seeing our name or hearing our a few folks in the fog. Any reluctance to voice versus our competitors.”

Promotion should do some surveying puts your promotion The sincerity of his mindset struck generate an exchange. at risk of coming up short in getting peome, as he was a senior executive of the Sometimes that exchange ple attracted to and interested in your fastest-growing distributor at the time takes time to materialize promotion. You could go ahead and run — one that was rapidly approaching and sometimes it may not with your gut and you may or may not the number-one rival. And here he was, be right. Promoting without first doing thinking in terms of what just one indialways be measurable surveys is like drilling a well hundreds vidual could do with basic communiin a tangible manner. of feet down into the earth and missing cation to garner mindshare: frequency the freshwater mountain spring by three and message. feet. It is a rather expensive investment of time and effort Isn’t it amazing that, with all of the methods in which with nothing to show for it. communication is done today — digitally, globally, socially Frequency is key to the whole project. A bright, shiny and so on — the fundamentals have not changed one bit? promo piece or advertisement that goes out just once is a Oh, it has certainly become more intrusive than ever; there is terrible waste. Repetition is a requisite in every campaign no argument there, but that is merely an effect of the tactics at any gauge, whether you are trying to get people to attend involved. Contemporary marketers push their communicayour next webinar or open house, or to pry a prospect away tions out to prospects at a rate that far exceeds the imaginfrom your competition. able outflow of their predecessors just 10 to 20 years ago.

Never agree to any suggestion or comment that endorses The rules have not changed, however. We still must use the “let’s-run-one-and-see-how-it-goes” approach. This is a promotion to communicate with customers/prospects and suppressive mindset that reduces mindshare. Instead, look overcome any barriers or resistance along the way. We still at what can be done with frequency so that you have a pro- need to influence their opinions and assessments in ways motional campaign that hits its targets over and over. This that cause them to agree to be in communication with us. is done to drive a message home and, in particular, because Promotion should generate an exchange. Sometimes that it essentially positions you (or your brand, more accurately) exchange takes time to materialize and sometimes it may not as the go-to (or at least to be considered) resource on the always be measurable in a tangible manner. Mindshare does day your prospect realizes he has a problem with workflow not always translate into data that can be put into a spreadproductivity or he has reached his limit for service problems sheet. Goodwill is valuable so long as it precedes and leads with his incumbent supplier. to something more material down the road (e.g., an appointIf you must divert dollars from design to fund frequency, ment, an inquiry or reach, an order, etc.). None of that will do it because promotion without frequency just does not happen unless a prospect has been reached out and commuwork in getting a message across — especially when you do nicated to. It will not happen without communication that is not know when people are going to have an appetite for your benefit-oriented and repeated many times over as well. product or service. This is one of the main reasons email and So now imagine it is a Friday night at 5 p.m. Your comsocial media are so important; they allow for more frequen- petitor has buttoned up the tent for the night, but one of his cy at a much lower cost than other promotional methods. biggest customers has an equipment issue he must handle Years ago, I was a young business trade writer who cov- before noon on Monday. On his desk sits a postcard offering ered distribution in the electronic components industry. immediate white-glove service response to equipment failOne of my friendliest contacts in the market was a 40-some- ures. He has received this postcard three times before today. thing executive who had a great deal of respect among his The first time he had no issues, so he tossed the card aside. peers, older and younger alike. As we were discussing his The second time it arrived, he was busy, so he tossed it after company’s story, the challenges it faced and so forth, he said a quick glance. Now, it has just arrived a third time and the one thing that has stuck with me years later, and it had to problem is at hand. He may just call right then. Promotion do with time. objective achieved. Well done. n “Many of us in this industry provide the same thing in eiTim Votapka is the director of marketing ther products or services,” he said. “But for me, it comes down services at Prosperity Plus Management to what makes us different in value, and that comes down to Consulting Inc. He can be reached at what happens after 5 p.m. on a Friday night. If I can make (631) 382-7762 or five more phone calls or send out five more emails to potentvotapka@prosperityplus.com. tial customers, I know that’s probably 10 more instances of a Visit www.prosperityplus.com.

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EDUCATION CALENDAR January 20-22 BTA Sales Management Workshop

Orlando, Florida The BTA Sales Management Workshop is a career development “must-have” for sales management at all levels. Taught by Kim Ward of Learning Outsource Group (LOG), the workshop focuses entirely on the “how-to” skills that will help each attendee reach his (or her) full potential as a great sales leader and coach, as well as best practices to build and sustain elite, high-performance sales teams. Visit www.bta.org/SalesMgt to register.

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BTA Building My Business Webinar: “The Future of Imaging is ‘Device as a Service’” In this webinar, Wes McArtor of NEXERA, a BEI Services Company, will: document the declining volumes trend and why this is important, as well as the misplacing product trend; discuss how the combination of these trends are going to impact dealers; and explain how the switch to a device-as-a-service billing model will soften the impact of these events and, in fact, help dealers make more money in the near term. Visit www.bta.org/BMB to register.

23-24 BTA Managed IT Services Workshop

Coral Gables, Florida Are your managed IT services sales or profitability numbers not meeting expectations? Are you having trouble scaling to the next level? Are you looking for tools that deliver results? No matter where you are in your MSP maturity, the one-and-a-half-day BTA Managed IT Services Workshop will benefit your business and your team. Visit www.bta.org/MS to register.

March

13-14 Spring Break - Hosted by BTA Southeast Orlando, Florida The Spring Break event, hosted by BTA Southeast, will feature: a keynote address by Judson Laipply, a motivational speaker and dancer who created the “Evolution of Dance” viral video; six additional educational sessions led by industry leaders; time to network with peers and exhibiting sponsors, including during a reception and breaks; and a ticket to spend an afternoon/evening at the Disney theme park of your choice: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom. BTA member dealers receive 2-for-1 registration. Visit www.bta.org/BTAOrlando to register.

18-19 ProFinance 3.0 Matthews, North Carolina (a Charlotte suburb) Over the last 17 years, the principles of ProFinance have dramatically improved the performance of hundreds of dealerships. Taught by John Hey and Todd Johnson of Strategic Business Associates, ProFinance 3.0 incorporates recent industry changes into the industry model, including benchmarks for MPS. Visit www.bta.org/ProFinance to register.

For more information, visit www.bta.org/Education or call (800) 843-5059.

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

Dealer Members Advanced Document Solutions, Louisville, KY NDR Solutions, Montgomery, NY

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

2020 BTA Events BTA’s districts will host five events in 2020, giving dealers opportunities to network with their peers and sponsors, and gather new ideas for their businesses. BTA member dealers receive 2-for-1 registration to BTA’s 2020 events.

The 2020 events schedule will include: • Spring Break, hosted by BTA Southeast: March 13-14, Orlando, Florida • 2020 BTA National Conference, hosted

by BTA Mid-America: June 11-12, Chicago, Illinois • Capture the Magic, hosted by BTA West: Aug. 26-27, Coronado, California • Grand Slam, hosted by BTA East: September (dates to be announced), Washington, D.C. • Fall Colors Retreat, hosted by BTA Southeast: Oct. 15-16, Asheville, North Carolina Visit www.bta.org/BTAEvents for more information.

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

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

CIT is a leading national bank focused on empowering businesses and personal savers with the financial agility to navigate their goals. CIT Group Inc. is a financial holding company with more than a century of experience, approximately $50 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2019, and operates a principal bank subsidiary, CIT Bank N.A. The company’s commercial banking segment includes commercial financing, real estate financing, equipment financing, factoring and railcar financing.

CIT’s consumer banking segment includes its national online bank, CIT Bank, and a Southern California branch bank, OneWest Bank. www.cit.com ARLINGTON is an industry-leading distributor of imaging supplies, hardware and media, in addition to being a provider of innovative services that help its BTA partners compete and win in the imaging space. Its goal is to provide its business partners with the most exceptional customer experience in office products and supplies distribution. Now made up of three brand names — ARLINGTON, Carolina Wholesale and Digitek — ARLINGTON features six distribution centers with stock of all the top OEM and alternative brands. www.arli.com A full list of BTA vendor members can be found online at www.bta.org.

For more information, visit www.bta.org.

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DEALERS HELPING DEALERS

What’s Next?

Dealers share their newest initiatives Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

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ollowing is another of the questions submitted by a dealer member as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource, and several of the answers received.

These answers and many others can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. Visit www.bta.org/Dealers HelpingDealers. You will need your username and password to access this member resource.

What initiatives are you taking to deal with a seemingly stagnant industry? With managed print services (MPS), document management services (DMS) and managed network services (MNS) being exhaustively pushed to clients, what’s next?

“We’re looking at adding phone services as well as POS services. We still haven’t made a decision yet, but those are two areas we’re thinking of adding.”

Juan Maldonado, vice president of service UBEO Business Services, Austin, Texas “We acquired a print and production company and have widened our products to not only sell office equipment, MPS, DMS, etc., but to offer print services in house, marketing solutions, direct mailing, trade shows and signage, and promotional products.”

Van Seretis, managing partner Premium Digital Office Solutions, Parsippany, New Jersey “Security compliance and interactive whiteboards.”

Matt Halsrud, director of service & operations Koch Office Group, Des Moines, Iowa “Bears are omnivores. Become ‘the bear.’ What’s next is a lot of hard work and research. It’s what we dealers do. It’s how we continually beat the larger competitors. It has always been so.”

Robert F. Moore, owner Lockwood Moore Inc., Reno, Nevada “Dealers need to develop a digital transformation strategy for themselves and their clients. Technology is changing so fast that if you are not in front of the change, you’re behind.

Impact’s digital transformation strategy has evolved over the last 20 years. We started as a hardware company, but as new technology has emerged, it was important that we learn the technology, bring in experts and be able to offer the solutions to our clients in one package. We will continue to expand our suite of digital transformation offerings, specifically growing our managed IT and cybersecurity services.

The times of just dropping off a piece of hardware are long gone; we are completely changing how our clients do business and, in return, providing ROI and keeping them competitive in their industries.”

Frank Cucco, CEO Impact Networking LLC, Lake Forest, Illinois “‘The Stack’ as we are calling it. It’s blending MPS, MIT [managed IT] and hosted voice into a single agreement based on a per-user model. We are also investing heavily in more than just standard production print, meaning the industrial specialty and label-printing devices from companies like MGI, EFI and Konica Minolta, among others.”

Steve Gau, president, Copier Division Marco Inc., St. Louis Park, Minnesota “We are all in on MPS; still evaluating MNS. Planning for fiscal year 2022.”

Dave Akin, president TEAM Solutions Group, Sacramento, California “We’re dialing in to do what we do exceptionally well. We’ve worked a little harder to create a niche in the light production market, hiring a seasoned production print specialist and a pre-/post-sales analyst.”

Dan Bowie, vice president of sales Corporate Business Systems Inc., Madison, Wisconsin Do you have a question for your fellow dealers? If so, email it to brent@bta.org with the subject line: “Dealers Helping Dealers.”

BTA will then share your question with the full dealer membership with a request for guidance from your fellow dealers. n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine.

He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.co m | J a n u a ry 2020 | 33

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COURTS & CAPITOLS

Overtime Rule Change In 2020, a review of your policy is required by: Robert C. Goldberg, general counsel for the Business Technology Association

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ne of the most frequent questions to the BTA Legal Hotline is about overtime compensation payments. Typically the question involves an administrative staff member or technician. Common misconceptions are that the individual is paid a salary rather than hourly and, thus, exempt; an individual is a supervisor or manager when, actually, he (or she) is not; or the company provides comp time for extra hours worked.

As of Jan. 1, 2020, employers will be subject to a new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule implementing critical changes to the earning thresholds under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Most notably, the new rule raises the minimum salary an employee must be paid to be exempt from overtime under the FLSA from $23,660 ($455 per week) to $35,568 per year ($684 per week). Generally speaking, an employee is exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements if he: (1) is compensated at or above the standard salary level; and (2) is a white-collar employee who works in an executive, administrative or professional capacity, as those terms are defined in the FLSA (the “duties test”). While the new rule enacts a significant change to the salary basis test, it enacts no changes to the duties test, leaving intact the requirement that the employee must also work in a qualified executive, administrative or professional capacity.

In addition to raising the standard salary level to $684 per week, the new rule contains other important changes intended to reflect evolving pay practices in the U.S. labor force: n Highly compensated employees (HCEs) — The new rule increases the total annual compensation an employee must earn in order to be exempt as an HCE from $100,000 to $107,432 per year. According to the DOL, the $107,432 figure equals the 80th percentile of weekly earnings of all full-time salaried workers nationally. The HCE exemption applies to white-collar employees who perform office or non-manual work, who customarily perform one or more of the duties required of an exempt executive, administrative or professional employee, and who earn the new annual salary threshold of $107,432 per year. n Non-discretionary bonuses and incentive payments — The new rule permits employers to use non-discretionary bonuses, commissions and other incentive payments to satisfy up to 10% of an employee’s standard salary level for purposes of determining the employee’s total annual compensation in a given year. According to the DOL, the types of bonuses covered by the new rule include non-discretionary bonuses tied

to productivity or profitability, such as bonuses based on a specified percentage of the employer’s profits from the prior year. To be properly “countable” under the new rule, non-discretionary bonuses and incentive payments must be made on an annual or more frequent basis. The new rule also affords employers one pay period in which to make a “catch-up” payment in the event the employee does not earn enough in non-discretionary bonuses or incentive payments in a given year (52-week period).

The DOL estimates that approximately 1.3 million U.S. workers will become newly entitled to overtime and that approximately 101,800 workers will be affected by the increase in the HCE annual compensation level. The DOL also estimates that U.S. employees will earn approximately $298.8 million in extra pay by virtue of the new rule’s changes. With these new rules, it may be time to review your overtime policy. Here is a template: OVERTIME When operating requirements or other needs cannot be met during regular working hours, employees may be required to work overtime. All overtime work must receive the supervisor’s prior authorization. Overtime assignments will be distributed as equitably as practical to all employees qualified to perform the required work. Important: Your supervisor must approve all overtime in advance. Because unauthorized overtime is against company policy, employees who work unauthorized overtime are subject to discipline, possibly including termination. Overtime compensation is paid to all non-exempt employees at the following rate(s) and in accordance with federal and state laws: n Overtime is calculated at a rate of one-and-a-half times a non-exempt employee’s regular rate for all hours worked over forty (40) hours in one week. (This may vary by state). n As required by law, overtime pay is based on actual hours worked. Time off, paid leave or any leave of absence will not be considered hours worked for purposes of performing overtime calculations. Exempt employees may have to work hours beyond their normal schedules due to work demands. No overtime compensation will be paid to exempt employees.

Of course, if you have any questions, the BTA Legal Hotline is available to BTA members at (800) 869-6688. n Robert C. Goldberg is general counsel for the Business Technology Association.

He can be reached at robert.goldberg@sfnr.com.

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PRINCIPAL ISSUES

The Mother of Invention Staying ahead of cyberattacks is a necessity by: Al Alper, Absolute Logic & CyberGuard360

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usinesses employing the use of managed service providers (MSPs) may feel a degree of comfort believing they are protected against cyberattacks. But the world of cyberattacks is far more intricate and sophisticated than it was even a few years ago, meaning that every MSP must be at the top of its game. And, looking even more at the “big picture,” who is it that protects the MSPs that protect end-user information?

The challenge of staying ahead of breaches intensifies almost daily. Combine new potentials for hacking with stricter compliance regulations that are now being enforced state by state (with New York and California leading the way), and the need for a second tier of security that will benefit end users is apparent.

Those of us charged with protecting our clients’ information are all too aware that, each day, more than 80,000 new hacking variants are being released, with statistics indicating that hacking attacks occur every 39 seconds. Tens of thousands of new hackers are leveling new attacks against businesses every day, and these breaches become easier as these cybercriminals’ level of sophistication advances — particularly given the advances in hacking-as-a-service (HaaS), whereby anyone can become a hacker with little to no technical skill.

Any of us who operate legitimate businesses shake our heads and cannot help but wonder what these cybercriminals could accomplish if they put their talents to good use instead of what they do. But, sadly, they do not, and that has led to the need for an ever-increasing sense of vigilance through the whole chain of cybersecurity, from the software and hardware developers through the MSPs, to the individual business owners or dealers who must be up to speed on what is going on and constantly educate their teams as to what dangers they should be on the lookout for.

This heightened sense of intensity is what led to the launch of my second company, CyberGuard360. As a member of a national network of IT dealers who share best practices and concerns, we saw the handwriting on the wall and view the situation similarly to someone driving down a highway (the MSP) with a very large, threatening truck (the cyberterrorists) in hot pursuit.

As a brief background, I founded Absolute Logic in 1991; the company has provided Fortune 500-style security and IT

services, technical support and technology consulting to businesses of up to 250 employees. A couple of years ago, my industry colleagues and I raised the question: “What happens when companies retained to protect their clients’ infrastructures get hacked?”

It may sound a bit Orwellian, but it is a real threat.

That led to the development of my second company, CyberGuard360, which develops, tests and brings software solutions for enterprise users and IT firms to market. It is a natural fit between end-user IT personnel and MSPs, as it detects and mitigates threats from cyberattacks under a single pane of glass.

While the tools we used in our IT firm to cover the surface and prevent attacks were top shelf, every tool had its own individual interface, its own portal and its own security information and event management (SIEM) platform. Our engineers spent an inordinate amount of time jumping from platform to platform, since a security stack in an enterprise can have six to 10 different components. So there we were, bouncing back and forth between multiple platforms in order to correlate all ongoing events. This is where that old expression, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” comes into play.

I reached out to my development team to see about building an integration to allow these different tools to “talk” to one another. The first iteration saved an astounding amount of time for the engineers because they did not have to jump to a new platform, search for the client, hunt for the endpoint and then do something about it. At first blush, this may not sound like substantial time savings, but multiply a single such effort by a few hundred times a week and the number of hours that an MSP bleeds away is enormous. We needed to find a way to scale our efforts, and that was the genesis of CyberGuard360 as a go-between for end-user IT personnel and MSPs. What we discovered, I believe, is where the future of protecting data and infrastructure resides — that is to say, in addition to the all-important component of individual training.

This proprietary tool incorporates all of the traditional SIEM components and is designed to provide an extra layer of protection for businesses against the growing threat of attacks on their infrastructures. The ability to allow for the mitigation www.offi cetechnol ogymag.co m | J a n u a ry 2020 | 35

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security measures to penetrate an orgaand remediation of breaches in real time nization’s defenses. It is increasingly necwith a simple point and click is the direcIt is increasingly essary to offer next-generation protection tion that our industry must move in. necessary to offer that businesses need to spot and resolve evSometimes, unfortunately, the challenge next-generation er-evolving attacks before they can wreak for MSPs in our industry is not their ability protection that havoc in networks. to interrupt attempted hacks, but the time businesses need The newer, more sophisticated tool is it takes to identify and locate them. Secanalytics-driven, which, in addition to reonds count. to spot and resolve al-time monitoring of threats across an Moreover, the tool’s management comever-evolving attacks ... entire technological domain, also provides ponent continues to go above and beyond an organized means of reporting incidents, traditional SIEM to incorporate powerful the ability to analyze large quantities of scripting and automation that have long been the domain of remote monitoring and management data to determine where incidents are occurring, and the spe(RMM) tools that MSPs and enterprise IT departments have cific tools to confront and deal with threats immediately.

The traditional security vendor concentrates on one area of used for decades.

One of the many challenges of SIEM platforms has been the attack service. Some, for example, focus on parameters — the time and distance between storing and analyzing data and edge of the network where it meets the internet — and, subthe ability to do something meaningful to combat identified sequently, on one subset of that area of the parameter, which might include email filtering, spam, etc. While these vendors threats — and those they miss.

Cybercriminals rely on sophisticated tactics and ineffective provide a significant service and do it quite well (not to mention making hundreds of millions of dollars), they ultimately cover one small piece of the attack surface.

There are vendors that address other specific parameter subsets, such as virus filtering on firewalls and unified threat management (UTM). Then there are vendors that deal with social engineering attacks that occur with phishing.

Our CyberGlass solution covers the entire attack surface, not just one or two subsets; it looks at firewalls, spam, email filtering, web and VNS filtering.

The unfortunate truth is that it is not a matter of “if” but “when” a cyberattack will hit a business. And, today, when states are imposing more stringent privacy compliance issues, the need for total cybersecurity is greater than ever.

No one in this space today could have envisioned the level of sophistication that cyberattacks have reached or the lengths to which cybercriminals will go to cause chaos and disruption.

When you consider some of the potential targets that these criminals could attack, it makes sense for everyone in our industry to take this threat in the most deadly serious manner possible.

What I am writing about for my industry has parallels for the managed print services (MPS) space as well. It is the reason why office technology dealers have embraced MPS — the concept of evaluating a client’s needs per page rather than per equipment price point. We have learned that we need to adapt to changing times and circumstances in order to provide the best service possible to clients. n Al Alper is CEO of Absolute Logic and CyberGuard360, both based in Wilton, Connecticut.

Visit http://absolutelogic.com or http://cyberguard360.com.

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PRINCIPAL ISSUES

‘The Rental Car Threat’ What can we learn from this faltering industry? by: Ray Stasieczko, TEASRA, The Innovation Channel LLC

I

n November, I had an opportunity to present at BTA’s Capture the Magic event, hosted by BTA West in Coronado, California. During that presentation, I discussed the three types of deliverables or, more importantly, the three types of end-user customers within the office technology industry. The industry must begin facing and addressing the real value these different types of customers place on the print and services deliverable.

Here are the three office technology customer types: (1) High-Volume Segments 6, 7 and 8 Production Environment — This customer represents less than 2% of all print equipment customers. Today, nearly every manufacturer is bidding for this extremely low potential. This barrage of dealers and OEMs chasing the questionable high-volume clicks and its revenues have caused most to ignore the realities of low margins or, in many cases, no profit from their efforts.

(2) The Value-Added Appreciative Customer — This group of customers represents probably no more than 15% of your customer base. These customers are complicated; they use sophisticated software applications, participate in real workflow efficiencies and have complex depositories where documents are navigated in and out. These customers are usually enterprise-type organizations with multiple units and locations.

(3) The Commodity-Mindset Customer — This customer represents the most extensive customer base within your dealership or direct operation, represented by between 80% and 85% of your customers. There are millions of these customers currently using A3s, which are overkill to the needs of more than 80% of the customers in this group. These customers could benefit more from A4 MFPs. Ricoh first recognized the market realities of the Commodity-Mindset Customer in 2017. The company evacuated this customer type, selling back nearly all of its direct operations to dealers. I would add that Ricoh sold back this business for substantially less than the $2-billion-plus it paid for that distribution over the previous decade. The reason it cited was that print volumes were declining faster than anticipated, and the revenue and margins on hardware were drastically squeezed.

Ricoh wanted to focus on enterprise customers, where company leaders felt Ricoh could keep higher margins and sell alternative technologies alongside its print equipment.

Ricoh decided to stick with the customer I described as the Value-Added Appreciative Customer. Time will tell how Ricoh will fare in its decision.

So, now that we understand the three customer types, let’s

discuss the extreme threat to the current circumstances of the office technology industry’s dealers and direct operations.

The innovators will be hunting for the Commodity-Mindset Customers. However, there is a disruptive threat coming. I call it “The Rental Car Threat.” As car rental businesses continue to lose millions of business customers to the ride-share industry, they find themselves in positions where they are struggling to live off of what is left.

Families still rent SUVs to visit grandma, or they occasionally rent as the result of being victims of auto accidents until the needed repairs on their wrecked cars are completed. But these types of renters cannot compensate for the millions of business travelers rental car companies lost to the innovative ride-share deliverable. Uber is the number-one entry on business expense reports.

Pay attention to what the ride-share industry is doing to the car rental industry. If the office technology industry loses 80% to 85% of its customers, it will not be able to support those that remain. The Commodity-Minded Customer is the current, most significant threat to being disrupted by an innovative process, including A4 equipment. New customer-centric processes will deliver closer to the expectations of customers and will capitalize on replacing oversold A3 MFPs with A4 MFPs; there are millions of A3 devices in the market that customers do not need. I hope BTA Channel dealers will modify their deliverables and become the innovators I envision. It is time for the channel to end overspecking and overselling its customers.

As innovators come into the channel, they will focus on market share and have the goal of displacing the quickest and easiest customers. Unfortunately for the office technology industry, this is the majority of its customers.

I am looking forward to working with those dealers who are www.offi cetechnol ogymag.co m | J a n u a ry 2020 | 37

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industries. In 2017, Stasieczko also suggested ready to fight for the significant market of to the RT Media audience that instead of the oversold A3s and replace them with A4s.

I am looking forward new-build and reman industries fighting There are millions of these A3s in the marto working with those each other, they should pay attention to the ket and there is no doubt in my mind that dealers who are OEMs that would ramp up aggression to win their end users will welcome the better exready to fight for the back their business — something HP is now perience of A4. significant market accomplishing quite respectably. Recently I look forward to meeting you soon at a at ITEX, Stasieczko shared his thoughts on BTA event. n of oversold A3s and the Staples/DEX acquisition, which he had Ray Stasieczko has called the imaging replace them with A4s. essentially predicted a year earlier. channel home for nearly 30 years.

Stasieczko continues to challenge the status In that time, he has owned and operated quo and is a voice for A4. He started what he has dubbed “The A4 dealerships, served in senior leadership roles and offered Revolution,” based on the realities that more than 80% of all A3 consulting services. Stasieczko is well known in the industry and MFPs are oversold and should be A4 MFPs. Tune in to has contributed nearly 100 articles to the industry’s publications.

Stasieczko’s “End of the Day with Ray” video He has also spoken at the 2017 RT Media Summits in Cairo, series on YouTube and LinkedIn, where he has Egypt, South America and China. During his time in China, more than 18,000 followers.

Stasieczko discussed his thoughts on HP buying Xerox. Many in Stasieczko can be reached at attendance could not comprehend that message. Today, however, www.linkedin.com/in/raystasieczko it appears he was on to something as we have watched HP and or raystasieczko@gmail.com.

Xerox tighten their relationship. This tightening relationship is Visit https://teasra.com. also causing troubles for the remanufactured and new-build

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