A UNIFIED APPROACH TO COMMUNICATIONS

School’s in for summer selling

While the school year still has some time to run, senior management are already planning for the 2022-23 school year – and dealers have an important role in supplying both traditional and new products

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hile children may be dreaming of six weeks of summer fun coming up, free of the classroom, their headteachers are already focused on September, and their return to school.

The run up to the start of a new school year is one of the busiest times of the year for heads, teachers and administrative staff, as they plan for the coming year and renew and replenish their equipment. Of course, this means it is also a busy time for those dealers that work in the education sector, and they have a crucial role to play in advising on, and supplying, products to educational establishments.

Post-pandemic, there are certain trends emerging in the sector which dealers need to be alert to, ensuring they have the right product mix ready for their education customers. As Elisabete Wells, regional marketing director - UK & Ireland at ACCO, notes, time is especially critical now for teachers as they are still having to play catch up to help students get back on track, and close any learning gaps caused by the pandemic and lockdowns.

“Their focus and attention in the new school year needs to be on the curriculum, and working with their students, not on time-consuming purchasing tasks,” she says.

“Schools looking to re-equip themselves during the break will likely be looking for products that get the job done effectively

without wasting any of that precious time. Resellers can help by introducing their education sector customers to tools that help facilitate that.”

Elisabete highlights shredding and lamination as two of the biggest culprits when it comes to inefficiency, especially as they are important practices in education settings to ensure effective document destruction, document preservation, effective communication and signage creation.

“Resellers should be encouraging their customers to explore the idea of automating their existing equipment to more advanced options.”

She stresses that dealers should be looking to offer shredders with an auto feed that can handle shredding jobs ranging from 45 to 750 pages in one load, automatically, without the need for the user to waste time continuously loading the machine. Laminators with a ‘set it and forget it’ option – where the user just loads their documents and, with a press of a button, the job gets done – should be promoted to schools. “No more standing around loading pouches or waiting ages for the final outputs,” she says. “Efficiency is everything for educators, and resellers play a major part in helping their customers find the right tools to maximise their time.”

DIGITAL LEARNING ON THE RISE

Finding the right tools is also imperative for schools as they continue to embrace digital learning solutions, such as digital classrooms and video walls; related products, such as IT security, are also important. “There has been a significant acceleration in the development of the digital learning space, requiring hardware and software to be seamlessly integrated with existing infrastructures,” says Owen Haigh, head of global product management at Lindy.

“This has created a huge requirement for audio visual and IT connectivity solutions throughout the education sector, whether it be saving costs on connecting new equipment within existing environments, or switching and deploying content throughout the classroom, auditorium or campus using the latest technologies.”

This acceleration will continue as the technology becomes easier to use, presenting ongoing opportunities for dealers, not just in the deployment of technology, but also the equipment and accessories that go with it – everything from interactive walls to cable tidies.

TRADITIONAL DEMAND STILL STRONG

While there is increasing demand for digital products, more traditional stationery items are still popular although, again, new trends have developed which dealers need to be alert to. “For Back to School 2002 we have

This has created a huge requirement for audio visual and IT connectivity solutions

[Children want] the next best, coolest and most fashionable items for school!

seen a huge shift towards ‘fashion’ stationery items, which are loud, daring and make a statement compared to more simple designs of previous years,” says Jessica Stott, online account manager at Pukka Pads.

“The feedback we are receiving is that kids have more choice over the stationery they buy now. With more access to ‘phones, iPads and tablets they are able to explore the options open to them, and not only see what is put in front of them,” says Jessica. “Many ads on social media are targeted toward them so, naturally, they are wanting the next best, coolest and most fashionable items for school!”

Unlike other areas of traditional office supplies, sales of traditional educational equipment show no sign of slowing down, according to Jessica. “Year-on-year, we are consistently seeing volumes increase. We’d put this down to consumers wanting a good quality item at an affordable price.

This is a trend she believes will continue. “We cannot see the sales of stationery items slowing down. The reason is that handwriting is crucial to students’ development in learning, creativity and mental/emotional development - all things which are limited when using a computer. “We believe parents are becoming more aware of this. They don’t want to encourage their children to spend too much time using tech products for fear they may grow up without having developed certain physical and social skills.”

The emerging trends are clear; while demand is increasing for digital and electronic products, this is often in addition to traditional office products, rather than instead of. Dealers have opportunities to sell much more into educational establishments if they have the right mix.

A unified approach to communications

Unified communication strategies are becoming increasingly important for many businesses; even though many have returned to the office, video-conferencing is still much in demand

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ideo-conferencing came of age in the pandemic, with Zoom, Teams and such like proving invaluable for keeping businesses running during periods of lockdown when physical meetings were banned. This led many business owners who had, perhaps, seen video-conferencing and unified communications strategies as something that was ‘nice to have’ but not critical to the running of the company to change tack, almost overnight. It also proved that people can work effectively anywhere, as long as they have the right equipment and a good WiFi connection.

Now, as we move to a post-pandemic phase, video-conferencing is an established part of business life even though many people have returned to the office, and this presents many opportunities for dealers to help customers to get the right equipment they need – wherever they are working.

IMPORTANCE OF HYBRID

Hybrid working has been one of the driving factors behind the dramatic rise in demand for video and audio conferencing since

the pandemic hit; it has resulted in more remote meetings taking place across more locations. “Even though more people are back in offices, not everyone is always in the same building, so conference calls are becoming even more popular,” says Jeff May, UK sales director at Konftel.

Hybrid working is fuelling demand for integrated remote communications of which video conferencing plays a frontline role in both home and office. “There’s no going back. It’s now proven people can work effectively from home as well as the office,” says Jeff. “A balance between the two is crucial; technology is at the heart of a workplace revolution.”

Stephen McIntyre from Nimans agrees. “What we have seen recently, since the progression of ‘back to the office’, is that work is not where you go, it is what you do,” he says. “This is a point we are trying to make to resellers, What we need to do is provide the technology for people to work from anywhere: home office, coffee shop, airport or sitting in the garden. We need to give them the capability to work anywhere, as well as the office.”

To this end, home workers are increasingly upgrading the communications technology they use when they are away from the office; many ‘made do’ in the early stages of the pandemic and are now seeking better equipment as their arrangements are made permanent.

EQUALITY OF EXPERIENCE

Another trend that has been developing since the latter part of 2021, and through this year, is that, despite the return to the office, everybody still wants to have the same Teams or Zoom experience. “There has been a new kitting-out of meeting rooms. Where they may have had old, clunky, conferencing equipment, people now want to video call, rather than ‘phone, because you get that personal connection as you can see each other,” says Phil. “We are seeing Teams Room systems as being a big growth area, with brands like Yealink, which co-develop products with Microsoft, Huddle rooms – and fitting meeting rooms with video capability – is where huge growth has been seen in the past year.”

It’s important that all participants have equality of experience in these online rooms. “So that, wherever you join the meeting from, you have an equitable experience; someone in the physical meeting room should have no better experience than someone dialling in via video,” explains Phil. “For instance, there is technology that can produce a gallery of headshots so that everyone appears equal.”

Dealers need to understand the capabilities of each manufacturers’ video cameras for the size of room. For instance, if the workplace has an auditorium-sized meeting space, there are products available that have speaker tracking, where the camera automatically tracks someone at the front of a room, or on a stage, and follows them around.

“The technology is constantly improving and developing; distributors need to ensure resellers are aware of this and salespeople need to be trained to make sure they are offering the right solution in the right environment,” Phil says.

Jeff agrees that dealers have an important role to play in educating their customers and becoming a trusted adviser. “Equally, vendors should provide high levels of support to assist resellers in developing long-term customer relationships.”

RISING DEMAND

He reckons that demand for unified communication products will continue to rise due to a combination of factors. “The pandemic was a game-changer, and many people won’t go back to the way they worked before. Hybrid is the way forward. Companies are still going through the process of what works best for them and their staff. The high cost of living will mean less travel and more conferencing, to save time and costs. This will further drive demand.” Demand for unified communication products is likely to continue to increase in the next 18 months at least. Many offices are still reconfiguring their spaces to accommodate video-conferencing in meeting rooms, or are planning to. There is scope for this to be a longer-term trend as the technology in video-conferencing products continues to develop and improve, which means there will be opportunities for dealers to sell upgrades to customers periodically.

This is true for home workers, too, as they will continue to seek to upgrade their equipment. For instance, noise-cancelling headphones can be an asset for those whose working set up is in a dining room, and backlighting to ensure that a person does not appear in silhouette if a window is behind them and is a common problem which dealers can solve with new products.

Dealers need to take time to understand their customers’ needs – and where their employees will be working – and provide bespoke offerings that deliver equal experiences for everyone.

It’s now proven people can work effectively from home as well as the office