Issue 446:

Part II of our Annual Dealer Survey is my favorite part of the Survey because dealers rate their partners as Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, or Poor, and they include comments to support those ratings.

Although the sale and use of office digital MFPs have been sluggish due to the global trend toward paperless offices, the sale and use of production printers continue to grow.

The shift towards accessibility presents a unique opportunity for managed print services providers.

A4s have become faster and more durable, and the print quality has improved with each new model. So why don’t these devices get more respect?

Don’t underestimate the perseverance of the office technology dealer channel based on our annual dealer survey.

The three leading challenges within the entire dealer universe comprising our Survey were declining clicks (27%), hiring and retention (18%), and maintaining profitability (16%).

Until this year, we began Part II of our Annual Dealer Survey examining “Areas of Greatest Concern.”

We ask dealers to rate their primary A3 MFP suppliers as “Excellent,” “Very Good,” “Good,” “Fair,” or “Poor.”

Historically, dealer ratings of their A4 OEMs tend to be lower than those of their A3 OEMs, with vendors outside the Big Six being judged more harshly (HP and Lexmark, for example).

The average number of leasing partners among the dealers aligned with the Big Six OEMs is one indication of just how vital the leasing companies are.

In case you haven’t noticed, The Cannata Report is a big advocate of production print as a diversification opportunity.

For six years, dealers have been rating their ECM/document and print management software providers.

After years of asking dealers to rate their OEM’s dealer meetings, we suspended that question during COVID before resurrecting it last year.

At DocuWorld’s partner event in Houston this past spring, an executive panel featured three dealer leaders engaged in a dynamic Q&A focused on office-technology industry transformation via business process automation (BPA) software.

In 2022, nearly one-third of responding dealers reported competing against OEM branches as their chief source of anxiety; last year, the percentage calmed to half that number (16%).

With the COVID-19 pandemic hiring crunch still sending ripples throughout the business world and unemployment numbers falling to unexpected lows, recruiting remains a significant challenge for many office technology dealers.

The unique cognitive styles and strengths associated with neurodiversity align remarkably well with many of the skills our industry desperately needs.

Growth and capturing net new business are high on the agenda for Boring Business Systems’ second hundred years.

In all my research on World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, one American hero is Lieutenant Colonel Harold G. “Hal” Moore.