At the end of February 2024 Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd celebrated a successful first year of its enhanced Partner Programme and Partner Portal, which saw unit sales of A3 and A4 multifunctional devices increase by 128% compared to pre-pandemic figures.
The company now also has 28 solo-branded ‘Exclusive Partners’ throughout the UK, all benefitting from being an extension of the Konica Minolta brand.
Encompassing office, professional and industrial print, along with IT solutions, Konica Minolta’s channel development programme has seen 32 new resellers added through a careful process that avoids potential sales or geographical conflicts with existing partners, protecting the business interests of all parties. To support this ongoing growth Konica Minolta has expanded its Partner Support management team to offer personal one-to-one support for lead generation, customer bids (including pricing and after-sales support), along with additional marketing and PR support to ensure partners get all the visibility they need to compete in the market.
“Over the last year we have continued to further develop our offering in line with our commitment to our partners,” said Cameron Mitchell, business leader for indirect channel at Konica Minolta Business Solutions. “This includes building and developing a framework for Professional Print Accreditation, along with new partner onboarding. With the business IT and print market continuing to evolve rapidly, our Partner Programme is geared towards supporting our partners as they evolve with it.”
The Konica Minolta Partner Programme is also geared towards enabling professional print providers to move into industrial print and labelling. “With many print businesses looking to diversify and deliver a broader range of services, there are huge opportunities for our partners to deliver Konica Minolta’s powerful but flexible and cost-effective AccurioLabel range of digital presses,” said Cameron.
“These presses offer greater flexibility of set-up and use, with a cost-effective pay-per-click approach, which enables professional print houses to offer more to their customers. With Konica Minolta’s broad expertise in print, our Partner Programme is designed to actively support and reward partners looking to diversify and embrace these opportunities.”
Konica Minolta’s enhanced Partner Programme includes the ‘Exclusive Partner’ scheme, which recognises and rewards those that solely sell its hardware products and services, as well as recognition of those that specialise in specific/specialist areas with specific and unique incentives and rewards.
Being a Konica Minolta partner adds further value, Cameron explained. “Undoubtedly our partners appreciate added-value support with sales, marketing and PR, along with special pricing and attractive mergins,” he said. “We also focus on partner events that deliver tangible benefits, networking with other partners and building a community of support that is exclusive to Konica Minolta partners.”
Further Partner Programme enhancements are planned for the year ahead and beyond, including the use of a new customer engagement facility from Spring.