COLIN BOSHER PROFILE
areas for us to develop while capturing physical and offline data to complement what is already collect electronically.” Another trend that Colin believes is growing is for office printing and equipment companies to extend their capability and put broader IT services and remote management of IT infrastructure into their contracts. “There isn’t much more to do in terms of consolidation to multi-function devices, in fact quite the opposite right now, and so we anticipate seeing the more innovative BTA and office equipment providers begin to compete with the volume IT channel,” he says. “Overall, we are helping our legacy customers to grab incremental revenue where thermal printing and imaging is an opportunity for them, as it is service critical it is not so easily commoditised, and then, in parallel, helping them to move into broader IT as a service.” Sector development This is part of a need for the office equipment and print industry to consider developing a sustainable business outside of just printing and imaging, Colin adds. As the sector, and customer requirements continue to evolve, moving towards what has been terms ‘Modern Office’, it is increasingly no longer enough for companies to simply offer printers or MFDs in silo. “Customers are increasingly looking for a whole subscription that includes their laptop, desktop, infrastructure, interactive screens, collaborative working and their printing and imaging devices all under one simply subscription agreement, and all remotely managed,” he says. “This reflects the heartland of where EKM lives today, where our role is increasingly enabling independent vendor-agnostic organisations as well as native OEM brands to move in that direction quickly to secure first mover advantage. We can enable them to make XaaS and/or managed print a natural extension to the established core business efficiently and effectively. “EKM supports suppliers across the technology industry spectrum to provide a more affordable one-stop-shop offering that is more affordable for their customers, more profitable for them, and therefore more sustainable as a commercial business. The MPS-centric commercial model is struggling to remain relevant within silo these days, although continues to evolve by increasingly facilitating a much more holistic approach that is enabling the office equipment & BTA sector to migrate from a $100 billion market into the $3 trillion technology sector, which presents a fantastic prospect for them to exploit. “There is a significant market opportunity to
pull these things together under one platform to aggregate: hardware, software, solutions and services regardless of brand. This is especially important at this stage as it is going to be increasingly difficult to sell a managed print service in isolation now that a growing number of end users seek a one-stop-shop. However, the office equipment industry has an chance to provide that by moving into broader IT, while making it highly automated and by remotely managing everything. EKM are deeply involved in enabling this daily as we continue to support a key role with a growing list of leading industry partners and OEMs right now.” Future It is for these reasons that Colin is looking to the future of the sector, and of EKM Global, with positivity. “We continue to build on our heritage,” he says. “Our philosophy has always been, if you can make RMM work for printing & imaging technologies by making it highly automated, we can more easily emulate the model across broader IT infrastructure, and that’s exactly what have been developing since 2014. Consequently, we are extending that knowledge and leveraging our experience across a far larger technology industry as well as other vertical sectors. “We are increasingly developing subscription programmes with integrated remote monitoring and management for a growing range of OEMS so they can easily incorporate everything onto contract – not just printing and imaging, but everything-as-a- Service positioned to their customers as a low-cost monthly subscription. “It is interesting to see how printing and imaging is rapidly converging with Modern Workplace and WFH, where are role is to increasingly provide the middleware to enable OEMs, distribution, and the volume channel to make the transition without the need for an expensive back office as a result of the powerful automation that EKM have developed in recent years.”
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There is a significant market opportunity to pull these things together under one platform to aggregate: hardware, software, solutions
and services regardless of brand.
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ekmglobal.com
printinthechannel.co.uk
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