Five women leaders discuss how their organizations have responded to the current economic environment and how they have pivoted to meet the needs of customers and dealers.
(Pictured above clockwise from top left: Dawn Abbuhl, Jessica Crowley, Sarah Custer, Hannah O’Donnell, Tracie Sokol.)
This month’s installment of our Virtual Panel Series 2020 features five leading women executives representing different segments of the office technology industry—dealers, recruiting, supplies, managed services, and OEMs. Each shares perspectives on the impact of the pandemic on their organizations, new initiatives, and their vision of the office technology industry’s future. We have also included questions for each that address their specific areas of expertise.
Dawn Abbuhl, President, Repeat Business Systems
CR: How has your organization been holding up during the past five months?
Abbuhl: When Covid-19 hit, I turned into a tiger protecting her cubs. I snapped into action to protect my amazing team and customers. My staff was immediately set up to work at home and we began reaching out to our customers to see how we could help. In some ways focusing on others was a coping strategy to deal with the shock of what was happening and what it could mean for our business, our friends, our family, and our customers. Everyone on the sales team was tasked to reach out to each of their customers to see if we can help move them, donate something, offer advice, etc. This was not the time to sell anything – and we surely didn’t sell much.
Once everyone was safe sheltering in place, we had to find a way to keep the team together. I began a 15-minute virtual call every day and a longer call each Friday. The Friday calls were meant for team bonding. Some examples of what we did were asking our team to share their favorite joke, their best vacation pictures, and their funniest pet or child photo. One of the crowd favorites was a local chef who got on the call to share barbecue tips.
Finally, attending to our team’s emotional well-being was another important component of what we’ve been doing over the past few months. We provided training and resources to help our staff cope with the changes in the world. We also provided training to the leadership team on how to spot someone who is having emotional challenges and made a daily call to each person working remotely so we were always on the pulse of everyone on our team.
This was a time to take stock of what was important and what needs we had to address. The way our staff managed the last four months made us more united and committed to our company, one of the very few bright spots during these confusing times.
CR: What segments of the business are starting to pick up again?
Abbuhl: Our copier hardware business is very slowly picking up, but sadly still quite a bit off. We are seeing more traction in document imaging software. Companies continue to have remote workers. These staff members are having challenges locating and retrieving documents. In addition, organizing information on staff’s temperatures and contact-tracing has also resulted in more document management interest. Our industry has been chasing electronic imaging and reducing paper usage to only mediocre success until now. It appears that this need has finally taken hold and has been accelerated as a result of COVID-19. We are re-leasing a lot of copiers in order to reduce our customers’ costs. Managed print services are picking up slightly as organizations continue to have their staff work remotely. Our IT and network management division has been flat out going strong. We are actually hiring more resources for this department.
CR: Has the pandemic inspired you to diversify your product and services offerings? If yes, in what way?
Abbuhl: Initially, I think we made the mistake of using panic to dictate our decisions. We immediately looked at home printers, document imaging software, stand-alone scanners, electronic whiteboards, additional IT security offerings to harden home networks, thermal scanners for temperature checks, etc. It was not a focused approach to say the least and our team was struggling to keep up with the programs. After a month or so, we took a step back and created a strong focus, including training and marketing programs for IT remote monitoring and security, a work from home bundle (Ricoh offers a great one), and reaching out to our customers only to offer support and assistance. Our team reached just about every customer. We then continued to focus on our core business but also used the products and services above to create more discussion with these customers. Many were struggling with retrieving information from their offices. I believe this will finally spur the near paperless office we have been talking about for so many years. This is beginning to result in additional sales, but very slowly.
CR: What are the biggest challenges dealers like yourself are going to face as we come out of the pandemic and how are you preparing you dealership for that challenge?
Abbuhl: Our challenge is that our hardware sales are still down over 20% and as a result it is difficult to maintain hope and motivation as everyone is selling less, and therefore making less. That said, we provided additional financial assistance to our team to help defray some of the financial losses. To move past this challenge, our mantra was that we were going to survive and thrive and use this time to be stronger than before. To that end, we established different marketing programs, updated our forms and processes, and re-engaged in stronger programs. We wanted to be poised and ready to accelerate our growth when our community started buying again, and we are. We have clearer processes for every aspect of our business. Our organization is tighter, more organized, clearer and stronger than it was before.
CR: What makes you optimistic about the future?
Abbuhl: There are a few things that have made me optimistic for the future. First, if you’ve ever wondered what the worst-case scenario would be, we now know what it is and that we were able to weather it. There is some comfort and strength in knowing that about ourselves. These past several months have resulted in our staff becoming closer and even more committed to our company, and me being even more committed to them. They have shown strength and resiliency and probably equally important, humor. We have supported each other, encouraged each other, and find ways to thrive together. We have kept each other safe and gotten to know each other better. The strength, positive outlook, and kindness of my team has kept me optimistic. This has been a time for a lot of self-reflection. These challenging times have helped push me to be a better leader, to inspire hope and provide a feeling of safety, security, and solidarity to my staff. Personal and professional growth inspires a lot of optimism.
Jessica Crowley, Business Development Manager, Copier Careers
CR: How has your organization been holding up during the past five months?
Crowley: Honestly, we’ve been extremely busy. In the early phase (especially in April), we were approached by hundreds of industry professionals who were either furloughed, laid off, or just uncertain of their current job stability. We are aware that some companies have used this opportunity to purge their lowest performers. A big part of our work in April and May was in sifting for gold in our increased candidate pool.
As the situation has matured in the past few months, we’ve been increasingly approached by copier channel employers looking to hire again. These employers are typically motivated either by immediate employee gaps or proactive growth plans.
Hiring to fill immediate openings is fairly standard at any time, but looking to grow in this unique environment is different. We are seeing clients actively bulking up their organization at all levels, asking for top technical, sales, management, and executive leadership candidates. On the surface, this move might seem strange given the circumstances, but the truth is they are adapting quickly to the evolving market.
As I said, we have been flooded by candidates who wouldn’t normally be on the job market—top employees who would only be let go when an organization is in serious, unexpected trouble. These candidates are looking around for the most stable, future-focused, and growth-oriented employers to best weather this storm. Proactively hiring employers are distinctly attractive to these candidates. And with the right new employees, these organizations have the chance to pursue new opportunities.
CR: What new or even old initiatives are you working on that would be of interest to our dealer readers?
Crowley: Copier Careers has always proactively recruited and presented candidates to our clients. The copier channel has historically had a very tight job market, so when a star candidate comes along we know our clients will want to talk to them – even if they didn’t have an active opening to fill. Since the pandemic, we’ve had an increasing number of best-in-class candidates for our clients. But we have also shifted our focus to candidates who will best assist our clients in adjusting to the ever-changing business landscape. Candidates who can strengthen key parts of the organization or bring in entirely new revenue streams are particularly valuable to our clients right now.
CR: How have your client’s needs changed during the pandemic?
Crowley: A number of our clients have had to put their long-term plans on hold since nobody knew exactly how things were going to play out. Other clients continue to work with us actively and proactively because they recognized the unique opportunities to be had in uncertainty. These employers have had to get a little creative in their interview process to accommodate safety protocols and state mandates, but that adaptability has paid off for them and their new employees.
We’ve also seen a new retirement pattern in senior leadership since the pandemic began. Some managers and executives who saw their organizations through 9/11, the recession, and technological evolution of the industry are opting to leave this disruption to the next generation of leaders.
CR: How have the expectations of job candidates changed during the pandemic?
Crowley: For the candidates in more stable situations, they’re very grateful for the stability in uncertain times and show increased loyalty to their companies. On the other end of the spectrum, we have seen candidates severely disillusioned by their employer’s treatment. Furloughed employees in particular have been in an uncertain limbo. In the beginning, many furloughed workers were content to wait it out and not interested in finding a new position. But as the months dragged on, those who have had confusing communication (or worse, no communication at all) from their employers are increasingly anxious. Some of them tell us they’re not sure if there’s even have a job or company to come back to. Over time, more and more furloughed employees are actively looking again.
Candidates who were unfortunately laid off are generally more open and flexible when considering a new position. In uncertain times, they’re more willing to try something new, even relocate to a new area if it secures them a position with a stable company.
We’re also seeing some attrition to the industry candidate pool. Some are choosing to retire rather than start over at a new company. Others with transferable skills talk about leaving the industry entirely. And there are, of course, candidates who are hesitant to return to work at all right now. Some are struggling to manage childcare, are caring for their parents, concerned about their health, etc. For the moment, they are getting by on unemployment and are focusing on managing their household challenges. These candidates will need to know that an employer is able to provide them a safe environment before they will be willing to return.
CR: What are you seeing that gives you a sense of optimism about the future?
Crowley: The independent dealer channel’s agility and adaptability keep us optimistic. This channel will survive (as it has from the beginning) because these dealers continually evolve to provide new solutions for their clients’ new needs. This is what makes them essential. Over the past six weeks, our client’s active job searches have increased significantly. They are taking the opportunity to grow their organization so they can adapt to the future. We have clients who are currently looking to grow their physical footprint and increase their array of solutions to better provide for the post-pandemic world. That’s very encouraging.
Sarah Custer, Vice President, Services and Solutions, Supplies Network
CR: How has your organization been holding up during the past five months?
Custer: I think we’ve done reasonably well. Our business has certainly been impacted, but we’re fortunate to have had several lines of business either hold or lift throughout the nationwide shutdowns. Despite significant slowing of our supplies business, our equipment sales have remained strong. Our sister company, DM Fulfillment Services, has experienced quite a bit of growth as e-commerce has only become increasingly critical for both commercial and personal products. In fact, we were deemed an essential business in states that had strong shut down mandates in place.
As far as our own internal well-being, we’ve invested significantly in technologies over the years to enable our headquarters staff to work remotely. We feel we didn’t miss a beat when we shut down our office and likewise, our distribution centers remained fully operational due to both technology and significant planning to keep our employees safe. We are quite proud of how our teams adapted to working from home and the endless zoom conference calls with their teams and our customers alike.
CR: What new or even old initiatives are you working on that would be of interest to our dealer readers?
Custer: One new initiative we are excited about is Barcode Select; it is a revolutionary, first-of-its-kind service for the thermal and barcode printing market. Basically, we are introducing managed print methodology to an entirely new and adjacent market, and it’s built on our proven, award-winning mpsSELECT solution. Barcode Select features printers and supplies from Zebra Technologies, a recognized leader within the industry, making the offering even more compelling. This market is expected to reach over $45 billion by 2023 and represents a great opportunity for resellers looking for an additional opportunity that leverages existing resources and expertise.
Identifying customers is straightforward as usage of this technology is very concentrated in the healthcare, warehousing, manufacturing, and travel and hospitality industries. Often, many of these devices are visible in the resellers data collection feed. We can help identify ideal opportunities in their data or review our feed for those who use our mpsSELECT service. Activating these devices is just like flipping a switch, making sales conversion quick and easy.
All of the same revenue opportunities apply to this market, as they do in the office printing market. Customers can lock into agreements for consumable supplies with a focus on the media, such as labels or ID wristbands for the healthcare market, while seeking opportunities to upgrade, refresh and right- size the thermal printer fleet within those environments.
CR: How have your client’s needs changed during the pandemic?
Custer: With MPS being a key component of our business, we received a huge amount of feedback from our partners on how grateful they were that we remained fully operational and provided numerous resources to help them manage their customer needs throughout the shut down and transition to WFH (work from home). We’re fortunate to have built functionality into our predictive analytics-based ecosystem to allow for quick and easy management of environments that go dark for a period of time via seasonal algorithms, schools for instance. This allowed us to be highly responsive and avoid the headaches of mass return shipments. Of course, there were some very early logistical challenges, but because we were fully staffed and operational, we were able to help navigate and simplify those challenges for our customers.
There’s a whole host of other considerations such as having our service techs sanitize all devices before and after servicing, accommodating health surveys, temperature checks, and increasing call-in support capabilities to resolve more issues remotely, which we have even more new developments on the way. We have several other enhancements in the works to simplify management of decentralized WFH print environments on behalf of our reseller partners.
CR: How do you see managed print services evolving to meet the needs of what will likely be more people working remotely even after the pandemic subsides?
Custer: There is no shortage of discussions surrounding how print declines in general when people are working remotely, and we’ve no doubt observed fall off during the pandemic. Long term, only time will tell. As it pertains to our position in the supply chain, we feel the impact in both our transactional business and our managed print business. If more folks end up working from home permanently, we feel there are both challenges and opportunities. If more print devices move to home offices, data collection is certainly one of those challenges; however, we’ve had a management solution for the care and feeding of non-networked devices for some time, including phone break-fix support. In terms of opportunity, we’ve already been working closely with some OEMs to create WFH bundles with compelling feature sets for the home office environment. I could see that continuing to evolve.
CR: What are you seeing that gives you a sense of optimism about the future?
Custer: From an organizational standpoint, we are very bullish on our future. As mentioned, there are aspects of our business that will be challenged, but there are many areas that are flourishing, especially in the age of e-commerce. Our sister company, DM Fulfillment, is thriving. We remain extremely committed to the business print space and feel that specialization brings a tremendous amount of value to the reseller community. Barcode Select is a great example of how we put great energy into developing a solution that allows resellers to leverage their existing infrastructure to capture new streams of revenue from both current customers as well as new ones.
Hannah O’Donnell, Director of Sales, Collabrance
CR: How has your organization been holding up during the past five months?
O’Donnell: The past five months have been a learning opportunity for our entire organization. We are a very relationship-based company. We’re used to seeing our teammates and customers, as well as attending events outside of our office every day. Some of us thrive through this interaction, especially our sales folks. Today and into the foreseeable future, our team has the unique opportunity of working fully remote. Although this has been different, it has highlighted our ability as a company to embrace change. Has it been challenging? Absolutely! But it has forced us to think outside the box and develop new innovative ways to interact internally and continue to provide the support experience our customers and their end users deserve.
In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, on August 10, 2020, our headquarters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the surrounding area was hit by a devastating derecho storm that left nearly 400,000 homes without power. In true GreatAmerica fashion, our teams came together to support each other as well as our customers. The year of 2020 has presented us with exceptionally challenging times. You know what we say? BRING IT ON! We are resilient, we have business continuity plans and we will prevail. In our Chairman and CEO, Tony Golobic’s words, “Yesterday at GreatAmerica was good, but tomorrow will be even better… we will make it so!”
CR: What new or even old initiatives are you working on that would be of interest to our readers?
O’Donnell: Collabrance launched our new Customer MSP Portal on August 3, 2020. The new portal provides exclusive access to information that contains on-demand trainings, tools, and resources to help our MSP customers achieve greater success in growing their IT business. In addition, the new Collabrance Portal will proactively provide MSPs with answers to their questions and retrieve the most up-to-date and accurate information available. This includes:
- Submitting Orders & Requesting Reports
- Documentation & Training
- Tools & Templates
- Consistency & Standardization
- Full Access to Resource Library & Video Collection
This was a huge undertaking for the entire Collabrance team who made it a priority and came together to build an extremely comprehensive knowledge base that enables our MSP customers to really thrive. It was a proud moment for everyone involved, and we are excited to see the results in generates.
CR: How have your client’s needs changed during the pandemic?
O’Donnell: As needs rapidly change, Collabrance and our MSPs are rising to the occasion, taking action, and contributing as a trusted provider to help provide the support end-user customers deserve. As events continue to evolve, here are a couple of ways Collabrance and our MSPs can continue to focus on providing a great experience.
- We are offering free products and services to help customers work from home and safely access network resources. We must do our best to tailor remote access solutions to each customers’ individual needs. To help do so, in addition to offering support for covered devices, we are offering alternative solutions for non-covered machines not allowed to VPN into the corporate network. With the increase in phishing emails and malicious attacks related to COVID-19, Collabrance also created campaigns for end-user education and cybersecurity safety tips for MSPs to raise awareness and better protect customers. Lastly, we have created sales and marketing templates MSPs can send to their customers and prospects to help continue communication and answer FAQs.
- Collabrance is providing financial assistance on a case-by-case scenario for customers who are not able to keep business open or have had to furlough employees. We haven’t had to do much of this, but it is an option for MSPs and end-user customers who are in need at this time.
CR: How do you see managed print services evolving to meet the needs of what will likely be more people working remotely even after the pandemic subsides?
O’Donnell: Security will be critical in the MPS space with employees working remotely. A majority of companies are providing their employees with the necessary resources to work from home. However, printers have been overlooked, forcing employees to use their personal printers. Connecting an unprotected device to your network can lead to huge security vulnerabilities. These blind spots are opportunities for hackers and can cost businesses an average $200,000 per incident, resulting in 60% of breached organizations going out of business within six months of an attack. (Hiscox)
In addition, since employees aren’t using company assets it will become more difficult to capture the number of prints to consider towards your MPS revenue. GreatAmerica just launched a marketing initiative to educate our customers and their end-users about the risks of securely printing remotely called MPSecure. Key Kain (GreatAmerica’s vice president of sales, Office Equipment Group), shares there are “three areas of focus which include: Security to the Network, Managing Costs, and Document Disposal.” Work from home is not going away anytime soon. It is critical as solution providers that we consider all of the ways we can protect our organizations and customers from data vulnerabilities. A secure remote printing setup is a critical component to this. Having this conversation with your customers can then open the opportunity up to additional IT and workflow software solutions.
CR: What are you seeing that gives you a sense of optimism qbout the future?
O’Donnell: Now more than ever we are seeing the office equipment and MSP industry heading to an increase in outsourcing. Whether that is with a technical provider you use, your IT security offering, or sales training, we continue to see an uptick. The exciting part is this will create an opportunity for all of us to look inside our business and determine how we can make ourselves more productive and efficient to grow. We also continue to see advanced security as one of the biggest trends across the industry. With all of the data breaches and viruses headlining the news, companies are going to be looking to IT service providers to educate and keep them safe. Those service providers who do not jump on this “Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)” opportunity will slowly begin getting beat by their competition. Check out our MSSP Checklist to evaluate if your Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP)” offering meets the needs of your end-user customers.
Tracie Sokol, Vice President and General Manager, Canon U.S.A., Inc.
CR: How has your organization been holding up during the past five months?
Sokol: Canon, along with many other organizations, has shifted its business operations during these unprecedented times. As businesses enter the “new normal,” transitioning to remote and hybrid working environments, the Company continues to respond quickly and effectively to help ensure a smooth transition for its employees, customers, and dealers. Together, Canon’s team has been able to turn upcoming live demos into a completely virtual experience, offering new training content on how to adapt to the current environment and helping to ensure service doesn’t skip a beat. It has been the Company’s priority to keep its dealers and customers running so they can continue to serve their communities and maintain strong productivity.
For the past few years, Canon has been speaking about its vision for the future of work. Although unforeseen circumstances may have altered this vision, in certain ways, Canon has been preparing its channel partners for an increase in hybrid working environments for some time. Over the years, encouraging dealers about the benefits of diversifying their portfolio and the need to include collaborative software to their offerings has been beneficial through this transition. On a positive note, with remote offices becoming the new norm for some, Canon’s desktop printers have been able to support this increased customer and market need, so our diversified portfolio helps gives us a competitive edge. All in all, we have done quite well.
CR: What new or even old initiatives are you working on that would be of interest to our dealer readers?
Sokol: It was very important to our company that we remained available for our dealer communities, especially when it came to customer service. At our Melville headquarters, Canon’s state-of-the-art Customer Solutions Center is equipped to support customers and dealers through unique tools, like virtual presence, which help service specialists connect virtually and physically see and touch what the field technician is working on through their mobile device. Through solutions like imageWARE Remote and service profit calculators, our team of professional service technicians has been able to smoothly transition into a remote environment as these tools help them to better assist and service dealers. In addition, throughout July and August, Canon offered virtual sessions for dealers in place of its in-person roadshows. These sessions are focused around how to help dealers be profitable and get back to business, with an emphasis on leveraging technology and collaboration in the future of work, and effectively diversifying and expanding business offerings.
CR: How has your approach to marketing Canon changed during the pandemic?
Sokol: Virtualization has been a major change across the board. This is evident in our training, tradeshows, roadshows, sales, demos, communications, and service. While converting content and activities virtually, we also had to be aware of video fatigue and ensure the content remains interactive. For example, we utilized our Melville showroom for a more interactive experience when performing virtual demos. In addition, not only did training sessions become completely virtual, but we were able to quickly develop new content to address the current times. Our annual roadshow has also been made virtual, and Canon’s marketing team has customized it to feel more like a one-on-one interactive experience versus a large breakout sessions as seen in previous years. Canon continues to focus content more on the applications and less on the product, while utilizing social media to emphasize our message.
CR: We know you are involved in sales training for Canon, how has the current environment impacted Canon’s training initiatives and the content of that training and do you think this will be a permanent change?
Sokol: In an effort to help dealers meet their needs, Canon remains in constant communication and is committed to developing solutions with their feedback in mind. Dealers can access our user-friendly online training options through the new “Canon Learning Zone” portal, which includes hundreds of courses designed to be more channel specific. This allows for easy integration with Canon’s WebEx training and Hands-on Lab, or virtual training events, called Learning Zone live. Our virtual trainings have expanded accessibility to dealers across the country with less time and money needing to be allocated. We have also been extraordinarily busy modifying sales skills to help reps learn how to sell differently in a time where face-to-face interaction is no longer a suitable option.
CR: What are you seeing that gives you a sense of optimism about the future?
Sokol: As the saying goes, “The bigger the challenge, the bigger the opportunity.” While business is moving in the right direction and improving, people are also adapting to new ways of doing things and are more open to change. We’re also adapting to a more hybrid work approach thanks to Canon’s products and support that are well-equipped for this kind of environment.
It has been a very challenging time for all of us, but it has also allowed for a newfound energy and ability to be innovative and creative. For instance, we’ve explored new areas of business to expand our offering, as seen through the new EOS Webcam Utility Beta software for select EOS Interchangeable Lens Cameras (ILC) and PowerShot cameras. This direct development is designed to support the increase of video conferences, helping Windows and macOS customers improve their appearance while using popular video conferencing applications, delivering clarity and high-image quality. Examples like this have helped keep all of us at Canon optimistic and confident about the future.
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