The print market has faced challenges in recent years, and traditional print manufacturers such as Sharp are branching out to provide other types of solutions – and this is something that resellers should also look to do.
The UK print market has not been easy over the past few years – the effects of COVID, supply chain problems and rising costs to name just a few of the problems businesses have had to weather along with a general slow decline in print volumes.
It has meant many businesses have had to adapt, and Sharp has been doing that by widening its product and service offering. This change means the business is growing strongly in the UK and Europe, despite challenging market conditions, according to Colin Blumenthal, managing director of Sharp IT services.
“Sharp is on a journey of transforming into a technology business across Europe,” he says. “Sharp is widely known in the business-to-business community for managed print and print services. But while print is growing, IT services is a market that can deliver accelerated growth so there is a strategy to cross-sell IT services into Sharp’s client base across Europe and in UK.
“Some of the growth within IT services across Europe is delivered from that customer base of loyal SMB print-based clients who are now acquiring IT services from Sharp too.”
Many print vendors are doing similar throughout Europe, Colin says, in part in the UK to offset the largely flat print market – although it varies in other countries.
“But, of course, each print vendor is looking for increased market share to boost their revenues in print too,” he adds. “Some sectors still have a large demand for print, such as education, which is why in the UK, Sharp has a strong presence in the education market.
“That protects Sharp in the UK for any short-term decline in print revenues. But ultimately, all the print vendors are of the view that print is flat at best and it’s not necessarily a growing market.
“But by expanding their service, they can maximise their value and maximise their reputation as well and build on the relationships they’ve built up through the provision of print services to now enter the world of IT services. That is the strategy that Sharp have in the UK and in Europe.”
Consolidating partners
Another consideration for expanding into IT services is that some customers are looking to consolidate the number of partners they work with. “Partly because it can be more cost-effective but also it makes it easier if the customer has an issue with technology – there is one number to ring, rather than having to define if it is a print or IT or security problem before ringing the appropriate person and getting the right service,” Colin notes.
“They want one person to take responsibility for the relationship and one invoice, rather than having multiple invoices from multiple vendors. There’s lots of improvements in efficiencies you can have by cutting down your suppliers’ partners. We are hearing from SMBs that this is something they want, and it is something we’re working towards delivering.
“We’ve already started joining together functions within the businesses in the UK to bring together that one supplier, one partner approach that we believe SMBs and other businesses are looking for.”
Future
For the future, Colin is optimistic as Sharp continues its evolution. “We are looking to grow IT services as an overall percentage of Sharp’s business within the UK,” says Colin.
“And that’s through growing our organic offerings of services, but also as an acquisition strategy as well in major economic territories within Europe also, so it builds on two strands.”
A more extensive version of this feature appeared in News in the Channel issue 17 – click here to read the full feature.
