Transforming a business requires vision, strategy, commitment, determination, optimism, luck, and good timing. Finding one that has done it successfully can feel like looking for a unicorn: really super cool, but highly unlikely. In reality, The Office People, in North Charleston, South Carolina, isn’t quite as awesome as finding a unicorn, but talking to them about their evolution can be quite uplifting.
The office technology company, led by Sean Mummert, has evolved from a traditional office technology provider, selling copiers and managed print services, into a full workplace technology partner. Today, according to Mummert, the company sits “at the intersection of print, IT, and audiovisual experiences,” where “We’re not just installing equipment, we’re helping design experiences,” he added.
In more practical terms, this means The Office People offers services as diverse as digital signage, document imaging systems, managed print services, workplace interiors, audiovisual, network support, and AI.
“Where we are winning is basically where we’re simplifying complexity. We take all those services and we bridge them together. So, we’ll bring in our managed print. We’ll bring in AV, and infrastructure, and we integrate them all together,” explained Mummert. That, he said, creates an exceptional customer experience that his clients are willing to pay for.
The Office People’s Idea Center features multiple conference rooms along with a fully immersive environment for customer demos. Designed to show how the dealer’s tech ecosystem works together through integrated AI and “is controlled seamlessly from smartphones,” Mummert explained. “From audio and video conferencing on our QSC platform to wayfinding and overall building control, everything is connected to create a unified, intuitive experience.”
Take a hospital. Mummert’s team might have placed photocopiers and printers, decorated their interiors, created the signs, brought in AV systems, installed security to prevent data breaches, streamlined workflow systems, and so on. Someone entering a hospital will see wayfinding, directing them to the doctor or the parking lot and indicating how long the walk in between will be, and LED TVs that might communicate wait times.
AI-driven dashboards will tell the hospital administrators how many times the conference room is used, how many times copiers are used, how often they’re printing 11 x 17”, how many times are people walking by a display, the number of people who enter the facility, whether they’re male or female, how long they spend in certain areas, and a host of other data that can be used for more effective future planning.
“Customers actually want a better experience for their clients, and they want someone that can not just sell them one product, but somebody that can make it integrate with their whole system,” said Mummert. Someone who can get rid of silos, the bane of any organization, almost by definition creates better environments.
Besides hospitals and healthcare, customers also include corporate headquarters, enterprise organizations, higher education, airports, stadiums, and other midsize to larger businesses scattered across the country. It’s all done by 84 employees, including Mummert’s wife, Holly, who serves as CFO.
After downsizing to one location from five during COVID, The Office People now operates as a flexible office. Project managers run projects on site, but much of the work is outsourced, including some design, AI development, digital signage, graphics, or some building mounts using sheet metal. Permanent staff works in a 35,000-sq. ft. showroom and experience center that originally was the first cinema built in Charleston. Customers can explore first-hand the gamut of devices and services the company offers, from run-of-mill AV equipment and office furniture to more diverse and unique solutions such as gun detection, baggage detection, and all kinds of AI tools.
It’s a formula that seems to be working.
In the first five months of this year, the company will reach sales that are equal to all of last year’s sales. “And it’s because of things that we were working on for the last five to 10 years, it’s actually hit,” said Mummert.
From Indigo to AI
Mummert got his start in office technology with Fraser Advanced Information Systems (West Reading, Pennsylvania) as a young man back in the 1990s. He sold the first color units on the market. Then he was recruited to work for Indigo, Benny Landa’s Isreal based digital press company. Going from a color copier at $20,000 or $30,000 to selling Indigo models for $1 million each was a lot different, he recalled, especially considering some of the early challenges Indigos posed.
CEO Sean Mummert worked for digital press OEM Indigo before HP bought it and got his office-tech start at Pennsylvania dealer Fraser Advanced Information Systems.
“We had a very well-organized team. The team we had were great experts. We had some of the best salespeople, some of the best experts that you could hire. And, that was a good teaching experience for someone young like me. I had a great team around me.”
HP bought Indigo in 2002, where Mummert spent several years in sales and continued to hone lessons of corporate success. Then, one of his clients, one of the biggest customers in the country for HP, told him he should be selling for himself.
So he went out on his own and suddenly had to fend for himself without relying on a company credit card or a corporate support structure. The Office People was founded about 20 years ago selling photocopiers and other office machines. Like the early days, it still carries Sharp and HP equipment.
Mummert moved quickly to purchase a couple of other copier dealers but discovered he was just purchasing the same base of clients he already had. So, he diversified by buying a furniture company, an AV company, and an IT company.
“And then I started buying companies in different areas. Because that’s what I saw was going on in the market.” The market crash around that time (2007-08) helped him secure good deals because so many owners were struggling and looking for an escape. He kept diversifying for the first 10 years or so. “And then, I just got a little smarter and I was like, okay, now we can do a lot more than our competitors. And we always focussed on customer experience, and that’s been our plus.”
In conjunction, he also diversified his own investments as well as his businesses through real estate. He was doing various construction work as well as buying rental properties. Eventually, clients started asking about copiers and TVs and conference rooms. “It hit me one day: You know, we should be doing everything for everyone. So I blended them both together, and then as we got bigger, we added programmers and designers and all these other people,” he said.
In a bout of serendipity, even COVID helped. A month into the pandemic, the company’s business boomed as it got into audiovisual. That service just blew up as everyone adopted video-conferencing. It was another tool to enrich the customer experience.
TOP’s 35,000-square-foot warehouse is dedicated to staging equipment and managing projects. “We typically handle between 80 and 120 installations per month, not individual devices but full-scale projects,” said Mummert.
Going forward
As technology gallops ahead unabated, the office environment and related client needs will only become more complex, intricate, and reliant on integration. “I think today, the markets continually go through major transformations,” said Mummert.
For example, hybrid workplaces are driving demand for more flexibility in cloud-connected environments. AV is shifting from hardware requirements to AI-driven intelligence environments. AI will, in fact, get rid of software. Another thing we’ll see, said Mummert is network-based, IT-centric systems.
“One of our biggest challenges today is complexity. Companies have IT teams, facilities, operations teams, multiple vendors, and they’re trying to get everybody to work together. It’s difficult. Right? So, a lot of projects don’t fail because of technology. They fail because nobody is connecting the dots,” he explained.
The Office People will continue to connect those dots, and its next goal is to be brought in while a project is still on the planning table. “We want to help shape digital strategy. And we want long term outcomes. So, we’re focussed on transformations, like in healthcare, like patient experience, and data visibility, helping make better decisions for patient care and integrating AI into everyday work. Our goal is to build environments that are smarter, simpler, and more connected,” Mummert said.
Formerly a movie theater, TOP’s building has been transformed into a state-of-the-art customer experience center.
When it’s brought up that leadership is a key metric of success as the company continues down this road, Mummert acknowledged that recognizing opportunity, seizing it, building a good team, and finding the best products are the hallmarks of good leadership. But he was also keen to point out the benefits of caring. Just basic human decency and relating to each other as people. It’s something we all easily forget about, he said.
“I preach about it every day. Care about your customer. I know a lot of office technology dealers talk about, well, you know, you can fix the machine this way, you could clean it better, you could do this better. Well, we talk about being a better human. And I think if you care, you’ll go that extra step to take care of that customer,” he said.
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