Mankind’s desire to communicate in written form has driven the development of print technology since the first records, which have been dated to around 3000 BC.  One of the first documented printing methods was woodblock printing, developed in ancient China and widely used until Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15^h century.   The introduction of a dry photocopying technique in the 1940’s was quickly followed in the early 1950’s by the first inkjet printer, which recreated a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto materials.

Many baby boomers will have fond memories of the unique solvent smell of fresh mimeographed copies, used widely to make inexpensive and quick copies of worksheets for school children.  These machines are now worthy of the Smithsonian! By the 1970’s, major copy machine manufacturers were selling inkjet printers capable of reproducing digital computer images. In 1990, the Xerox DocuTech production publishing system launched.  It allowed paper documents to be scanned, electronically edited, and then printed on demand.

We have been reviewing a lot of trend reports and predictions about where software products and services are headed in 2022. A constant theme, including in this Forbes article, is that software providers will be relying more and more on AI to aid support ventures and provide better customer service.  They will become less dependent on the automated phone systems they’ve been utilizing. What we can’t help but wonder is, what happened to someone on the other end of the phone? Why has the call center moved from the front line of customer support to the last resort?

Rhetorical questions aside, we’re committed to continuing to offer our US-based help desk as the first support resource for our customers. We’ve always provided a help desk that gives users access to real people via phone or email who can help them solve their problems. While AI and automated systems may be critical for extremely large organizations with lots of customers to satisfy, we’ve learned that going the extra mile for service stands out.

End of the year corporate analysis has revealed that SalesChain has experienced its largest growth in company history. The addition of over a dozen new customers and many new employees energized sales in a year where business was pivoting to function differently. With more users working remotely and the print industry shifting from print services to IT services and document management systems, SalesChain was able to provide a comprehensive product that served the technology industry well.

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The October 2021 edition of CIO magazine featured an interview with SalesChain discussing our business workflow automation platform. Our goal of helping dealers achieve greater organization through superior automation and better data was formally recognized by the organization with a top 10 award for 2021.

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SalesChain understands the utilization of financial services is critical to the office equipment industry. With this integration, Saleschain will now be able to deliver real-time credit processing and decisioning to the dealership on nearly 86% of deals, * avoiding timely delays and manual data entry.

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This new forecasting feature allows the user to select any number of filtering criteria, including period of time, stage of the deal, or branch before viewing the real-time inventory of all products related to the primary proposal or the order that is associated with the opportunity. This feature will significantly reduce the guessing of what should be purchased and improve purchasing discounts.  It will also reduce delivery times by allowing purchasing managers to preemptively stock equipment.

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Planning for change means valuing employee time spent researching what comes next. Here are some things your company can pursue to make sure you are not left behind.

• Follow and understand the market trends and evaluate market readiness for any of the latest ideas or products you are considering.
• Identify the traits and needs of your likely new customers. Research market precursors and look for existing research databases published by other sources.
• Be keenly aware of the trends in the economy, which can clearly affect your customers’ ability and willingness to invest in innovative technology and products.
• Focus on the current frustrations and limitations that your potential customers have in industries like the one you plan to move into.
• New products should enhance customer ability with your existing machines and software. If you make your customer feel competent and efficient, they will be excited about upgrading to your new product!

Use your research to identify the gaps in your current operations.  Where are your areas of growth?  Are there weak competitors you could exploit or displace through new product development? Be visionary and think big! There may be related revenue streams as well as completely innovative technologies that you can grow into.

The pandemic catalyzed issues that were already becoming apparent in the office equipment industry. E-commerce and desktop printing had already been working to reduce the need for the local copy guy and his A3 fleet. What’s more, the need for print and copy had been declining due to the rise of digital documentation already.

When the lockdown began in early 2020, these challenges were only exacerbated by declining clicks due to the decentralization of the workforce and subsequent supply chain issues, including paper and the microchip shortage. Dealers that were focused solely on copy and print services, or CPC service pricing, were strained and in some cases, struggled to survive.

The question isn’t if or when, but how.

We want to emphasize that this issue is not all doom and gloom – it is simply an evolution of the industry. No doubt this can be frightening, change is always scary, but our greatest moments of growth come from our most challenging times.

Although these challenges were beyond the business’ control, they represent a powerful change force. Very little in the industry is the same as pre-pandemic. The most forward-thinking industry leaders consider this an exciting time of creative change. What will the industry look like going forward?

The first thing to consider is any company’s most important asset – its employees. People come first, so protecting office workers means that manufacturing slowed down because of Covid protocols as well as supply chain issues. The pandemic forced businesses to become “leaner”, but they proved they could be productive and profitable if the Covid retrofit was handled well. Thinking outside the traditional box even has the potential to expand profitability into new directions.

The current workforce is comprised of those referred to as digital immigrants versus digital natives. Baby boomer office workers are used to and more likely to rely on printers while millennials are more comfortable with remote work and a digital document workflow that doesn’t use prints or copies as much.

According to Jay McBain (reference #4), 75% of the workforce will be millennials by 2024, and Gen-Xers and baby boomers will be the minority in the workforce. Businesses will need to continue to assess the role of office space in their organization. “By the end of 2021, around 25% of small and medium organizations will change their real estate footprint by downsizing or dispensing with office space in line with hybrid workplace strategies.”  (Reference #6)

Many dealerships are making a natural progression into the managed print services (MPS) space. This allows an easy transitional business that can help make up for lost click volume revenue in the interim, and if done well, can help generate capital for more dramatic business moves.

Another natural progression that we have seen many of SalesChain’s most successful dealer-customers employ is the opening of document management and scanning services businesses. The major advantage of this move is that it allows dealers to capture the customer’s trust in the customer’s digital transition move. If a dealer can become an integral part of a customer’s digital transformation, they can capture their forward-moving business

Worldwide IT spending is growing, suggesting an area of growth for traditional print companies to expand into. Once a dealer becomes part of their customer’s digital experience, they can begin to move IT products and services to their base. Now their customer base knows the dealer as the office technology partner for not only print and scanning devices and service but also for IT Products and services. This is the natural evolution for dealers looking to continue being valuable technology partners to their customer base.

There are other avenues for growth that live outside of the obvious path of office technology expansion.  Modular office furniture, water, gym equipment, vinyl flooring, and cleaning products are all commodities that may be sought by clients retrofitting offices in the face of hybrid working conditions. Customer loyalty means they are more likely to buy these related products from a company they already do business with.

Keying into a millennial clientele that prefers internet marketplace buying is also essential.  It is not just the workforce that is changing, it is also the consumers who buy machines and print services. Cloud-based tools and services will become more and more in demand as employers offer full or part-time work-from-home options.

Companies poised to expand into these product lines will be at the forefront of future opportunities, as the office equipment channel continues to evolve. In the future, industry best practices will be defined by the ability to provide technical services to an increasing internet-based commercial sphere.