REVIEW OF 2022
Phil Jones MBE , managing director, Brother UK Managed print services (MPS) present a fantastic growth opportunity for resellers of all sizes in the year ahead. The market is maturing, we’re seeing more targeted products for small enterprise, like our PrintSmart Professional solution, and research
opportunity to support customers as they embed new ways of working. Cloud adoption, especially in print, is growing fast, and the channel has the prospect of providing more cloud tech for print fleets and meeting the demand for multi-function colour models that this will bring. At the same time, businesses face a greater challenge to keep their information safe as hybrid working makes their responsibility for security more complex. Demand for workflow and document capture solutions will grow as a result. But with all this change, we must not lose our focus on ESG. Buyers will continue to place significant weight on the strength of our policies. This makes it vital that both vendors and resellers can credibly stand forward and show that we’re doing the right thing, from reducing waste to landfill to cutting carbon across the supply chain.
from IDC shows a huge jump in the number of firms wanting to switch from purchasing transactionally. It’s a trend that will only gather momentum. The appetite for subscriptions in our personal lives is influencing how we think about equipping our people at work. And it’s a symptom of a business ecosystem that is becoming subscription everything, cloud-first and zero trust everywhere, as hybrid working becomes rooted in how companies operate. This broader shift gives me confidence for the year ahead. Vendors and resellers will have the
Phil Jones managing director Brother UK
brother.co.uk
Peter Cowan , group chief operations officer, Data Direct Commercially, 2022 has been an improvement on 2021, which itself was an improvement on 2020. But challenges still persist; some a hangover from
isn’t just a UK problem, supply chains across the globe continue to struggle. With the focus on Asia, continued sporadic closures of manufacturing and distribution centres across that region is concerning. Current contingencies and a long-term vision/plan are far from ideal. Closer to home, there have been economic influences on the sector. After many, many years of close to zero inflation, price increases were often seen as sport between supplier and customer. Now every sector imaginable is facing the same challenges, even milk which was deflationary for so many years! So discussions about increased prices in our sector are totally expected across the whole spectrum of stakeholders, from manufacturer to end user. We all see the inevitability of increased costs, and the conversation is more than expected. That said, we are totally confident about business in the channel as we look to 2023. We have structured our business as a lean supplier that is able to offer best-value options for most of our products. By offering high quality compatible or remanufactured products, which reduce cost while maintaining hardware performance, this is certainly an ideal fit. We are also benefitting from a diverse range of delivery/stock options which give the dealer excellent cost savings and service benefits.
the peak of COVID – less demand, less office workers, less products manufactured – and some increasingly due to the fragility of the global supply chain. For Data Direct, we’re here to serve our customers and facilitate the seamless supply of goods. We do that in generally all cases, but occasionally a product is not available, or is still in transit, and that’s a disappointment for the customer and end user. We do notice regional differences across the UK. The greatest impact still being seen is with London-centric dealers not seeing a full return to city-based offices. There have been other trends in the market in the past 12 months. For instance, demand is below pre-pandemic levels and maybe the change in consumption and printing behaviour will mean we will not return to that previous peak. In compatibles, we are seeing positive shift here – not only is there a price advantage, but when it comes to supply, when the brand is not available, end users are increasingly less brand loyal than before. There have been certain factors that have influenced trading in the past year. Without doubt, availability of resources has been significant: this
Peter Cowan group chief operations officer Data Direct
data-direct.co.uk
CONTINUED
printinthechannel.co.uk
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