This Week in Imaging: A Look at Dealers and Managed IT Services
This week, Midwest dealer Prosource acquired smaller dealer Van Dyke, Inc., and, as we’ve seen before, the larger company and acquirer, Prosource, is one of the relatively newer types of dealerships that provides managed IT services, along with other services such as cyberscurity services, and traditional print and copy hardware.
Meanwhile at “mega dealer” Marco Technologies, Marco CEO Doug Albregts reported at a recent press conference that 45 percent of Marco revenues is now derived from managed IT services, with 55 percent from print. Other large dealerships successfully providing managed IT include Novatech, Loffler, and RJ Young.
OEM Competition?
On the OEM side, several OEMs have been expanding into managed IT, including Konica Minolta with its All Covered acquisition, and Xerox with Xerox IT services.
Regarding Konica Minolta, although its office hardware business has been hit by equipment and supplies backlogs, for its latest fiscal year that ended in April 2022, its managed IT services appears to be doing well. In its financial report, the firm noted: “For Managed IT Services, which take care of the entire IT platform of customers, recurring revenue remained strong in the United States and Europe by successfully meeting the demand for security services in the United States.”
For its part, Xerox announced its managed IT services in early 2020. It’s focusing on small and mid-size customers, and has acquired four managed IT services companies. Its advantages include its direct sales coverage in local markets and a large SMB base of over 200,000 customers. It estimates the total managed IT services market to be $682 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 6 percent. It’s forecasting that IT services will make up 7 to 10 percent of its total revenue by 2024, but doesn’t provide current revenue for managed IT.
Our Take
By all accounts, getting into managed IT services may not be the easiest thing. However, one advantage most dealers have is that they are well-established, having been in business for quite some time – often going back decades – and are already working with customers. They also have experience in supporting customers’ print and copy fleets, something other IT services companies may not have.
In sum, despite the hurdles, the big benefit for managed IT for dealers of course is that it provides a recurring revenue stream to offset declining print volumes – which should be especially in this time of large equipment backlogs.
HP Survey
One interesting news item this week was an HP Inc. survey that indicated that one of the things remote/hybrid workers miss about the office was access to printers – even more than free lunches or happy hour with colleagues. Respondents even ranked access to a printer higher than access to a larger PC monitor or IT support.
We’ve heard lots of forecasts that print volumes will be down about 20 percent from pre-pandemic levels – and continuing to decline thereafter – but we still continue to see surveys like this on a periodic basis indicating that user still want print in the office and at home.
This Week in Imaging
HP Survey: Remote Employees Miss Office Printers, As IT Staff Face More Challenges
Sharp to Make English Official Language as it Seeks Global Expansion
Acquisitions
ODP Corporation’s Board Rejects Sale of Office Depot
Kofax Acquires Tungsten Business-Transaction Network
Ricoh Enhances Commercial-Print Offerings in Europe with New Acquisition
Prosource Expands in Midwest with New Acquisition
Digital Transformation and Workflow
New Box Collaboration Expands Functionality of Fujifilm’s DocuWorks
Commercial and Production Printing
Kodak Launches ‘World’s Fastest’ Inkjet Press
Other News
Fujifilm Opens First of Two Ink-Production Facilities in U.S.
Market Research and Reports
Paper Shipments Increase in May, While Recycling Hits Record High in 2021
Environment and Sustainability
Kyocera Partners with PrintReleaf for Reforestation Project
Executive Management
Press Release: Epson America Appoints Joseph Contreras as Head of Sales and Channel Marketing for Business Inkjet Organization
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