A new platform, a smarter office, and a diverse cast of characters stole the show.
(Pictured above: John Sheehan (far left) and Mike Marusic (far right) with (left to right) Christine Bush, senior government and major account manager; Henry Woods, director Pro AV sales; and Dave Dwyer, vice president of supply chain and operations during the second day of General Sessions at the Sharp dealer meeting.
The setting for Sharp’s 2019 dealer meeting was The Wynn in Las Vegas, Oct. 1-3. The theme was OWNiT, which meant owning all the technology in the office as opposed to owning IT, which is how some attendees, myself included, initially interpreted it. Considering much of the new technology introduced by Sharp was a good fit for a Managed IT operation, it wasn’t a bad thing to have a theme with an unintentional double meaning.
With some 545 dealers representing 160 dealerships and another 400+ representing Sharp, exhibitors, press and analysts in attendance, the joint was jumping from the first general session to the second as well as in the seminars on the first day. I heard attendance was light at some second-day seminars, but that wasn’t my experience.
I typically arrive at an OEM dealer meeting with a set of expectations. Often, those expectations are met, occasionally what I see and hear exceeds those expectations.
If I may be brutally honest, my expectations bar for industry events isn’t set that high. I’ve attended so many meetings over the past 30 years there aren’t a lot of surprises anymore. However, I rarely leave a meeting feeling it was a waste of time. I always have a takeaway, or two, or three. I also understand I’m not the target audience for these meetings. It’s the dealer, someone who has an even more critical eye than me. After all, their livelihoods and the future of their dealerships depend on what happens at these events and what they take home or don’t. One thing I’ve discovered after attending hundreds of meetings and discussing them during and afterward with dealers and my colleagues in the press and analyst community is that everyone has an opinion, and those opinions aren’t always the same.
For me, these were the highlights:
Ted Kawamura, Chairman and CEO Americas, Sharp Corporation, wraps up the Thursday General Session by encouraging dealers to expand into new areas beyond their expertise.
General Session Agenda Gets an A+ – If you can hold my attention for a complete two to three-hour general session, you did well. That’s exactly what Sharp did with both general sessions. Each session’s program was well-paced and was packed with compelling content. There were minimal references to MFPs and no MFPs to be seen at the general sessions. Attendees with a desire to push buttons or swipe screens, kick the tires, and examine the output, could do so in the exhibit area. Instead, of traditional print technology, the focus was mostly on new technologies beyond print.
John Sheehan addresses dealers during the Wednesday morning General Session.
Sheehan Shines – John Sheehan, who was just promoted to vice president of B2B channel sales on October 1, handled the bulk of the emcee duties in the general sessions. That was part of Sharp President & CEO Mike Marusic’s strategy of not turning the meeting into “The Mike Show.” Most Sharp dealers met Sheehan for the first time at its last dealer meeting in Phoenix, and while Sheehan admits he wasn’t at his best at that event, he nailed it in Las Vegas. Personable, funny, credible, and impossible not to like, Sheehan is Sharp’s version of Tom Hanks. He was a good sport too, participating in some on-stage antics with The Passing Zone, a juggling comedic duo, who livened things up during the second day’s general session.
Allison Holmes, product management specialist (center), discusses some of Sharp’s new product offerings and the company’s awards recognition with Bob Madaio, vice president of marketing (left) and Shane Coffey, vice president product management (right).
A Stellar Supporting Cast – Marusic’s strategy for avoiding turning the meeting into “The Mike Show” included introducing new fresh faces within Sharp to dealers in the general sessions, underscoring the diversity within Sharp. But it wasn’t just for the sake of diversity, those participating in the general session have key roles at Sharp and all did a terrific job of sharing their knowledge with dealers. Sharp also deserves kudos for bringing a fresh mix of dealers to the stage to share their success stories.
The star of the show, Synappx, and Sharp’s Bob Madaio, a rising star in his own right!
Synappx Stands Out – Sharp’s new Synappx platform was the highlight of the show in terms of product introductions. This open architecture platform reportedly makes it easier for office workers to connect to office technology and collaborative systems. The platform is said to facilitate ease of use, secure accessibility, and mobility. Three iterations of the platform were highlighted, including Synappx Meeting, which facilitates more productive meetings and greater collaboration; Synappx Go, which enables users to scan documents or release print jobs from an MFP, upload content to a digital display from a mobile device; and Synappx Workspaces Analytic Service for tracking workspace use and environmental factors within the workspace to create a “smarter” more comfortable workplace. The latter is a turnkey cloud-based solution that combines sensor data from Sharp’s Windows collaboration display with Microsoft Office 365 data to provide analytics about the workspace.
Mehryn Corrigan had a full house for her breakout session with Microsoft about the Windows Collaboration Display.
Windows Collaboration Display Looks Like a Winner– If this is the only product that comes out of Sharp’s partnership with Microsoft, that partnership can be deemed a success. The Windows Collaboration Display works with Microsoft 365 collaboration tools and offers high-quality audio and video. It also includes Microsoft Teams, an online meeting solution, which enables meeting participants working remotely to feel as if they are interacting with co-workers and others who are on-site in a meeting room. If the number of dealers in attendance at the first breakout session for the new Windows Collaboration Display was any indicator, Sharp has a product that dealers are ready to take to market, or at the very least, want to know more about. Dealers had many questions at the end of the breakout session. What impressed me as well was Mehryn Corrigan, associate director, alliance partner marketing, Sharp Business USA, who also participated in the opening general session. She handled every question thrown at her with ease, even the toughest and most skeptical at the end of the breakout. That evening in the B Bar of the Wynn Hotel I spoke with one of the Sharp employees who were performing demos of that product on the showroom floor and I was equally impressed by his knowledge of the product and how he addressed questions from skeptical dealers that afternoon who stopped by for a demo.
Shane Coffey offers a few words of wisdom about Sharp’s A4 product offerings during a pre-show walkthrough of the exhibit area with press and analysts.
A3 and A4 Still a Thing – Even though dealers need to diversify beyond print, A3 and A4 are still important to Sharp and its dealers. A scan of the exhibit space underscored that as did the number of dealers clamoring around those devices.
Sharp President & CEO Mike Marusic emphasized the importance of bundling Sharp’s new product offerings into a flat-rate program to help lock out the competition.
Bundling with a Flat Rate Program – In this era of SaaS and DaaS, seat-based billing, and other bundled billing models, Sharp was pushing a flat rate program which will enable dealers to bundle all of the Sharp devices they sell, not just the MFPs, into a single contract for their end-user customers. As Marusic said, it offers more value and less discussion about CPC. By bundling all the other pieces besides MFPs into the program dealers can lock out competitors who are just selling on price. From my perspective, a flat-rate program is an effective way of selling products such as the Smart Office Suite, Windows Collaboration Display, and Sharp’s various Synappx-driven applications.
It was impossible to miss Sharp’s Smart Office Suite, including the Windows Collaboration display and other innovative new products on the showroom floor.
Smart Office Suite Centrally Located – The centerpiece of the exhibit area was the smart office. Here visitors could get demos of Amazon Alexa-driven smart office features as well as smart meeting rooms, the Windows Collaboration Display, and a prototype of a see-through display. What a change from when I first saw the Aquos displays and other digital signage products at a Sharp dealer meeting some six or seven years ago. At that time, those displays weren’t given much real estate on the show floor. Fast forward to today, and these products are where the action is on the exhibit hall floor. The emphasis on visual displays also took center stage at the general session on the show’s second day with Henry Woods, director Pro AV sales, telling the audience that the Aquos boards represent a strong market for Sharp, and dealers Brad Knepper, president of All Copy Products and Adam Crappel, president of A&E Office Machines discussing their strategies for selling these products.
A personalized calendar for press and analysts created by Sharp on one of its color light production machines.
Let’s not overlook light production –Sharp’s light production machines were prominently featured in the exhibit area. With light production machines that output from 80 to 120 ppm, Sharp doesn’t always get enough credit for what it is doing in entry-level production. Considering there’s plenty of room for Sharp dealers to move into that space, these machines offer a good starting point.
RingByName’s Todd Hirshorn (second from left) describes his cloud-based VoIP solution to a crowd of Sharp dealers looking to learn more about how they can diversify their product offerings.
Notable Exhibitors and Partners – A host of partners and exhibitors were on hand at the product showcase including many of the usual suspects (Think Formax, GBC, and leasing companies such as GreatAmerica, US Bank, and Wells Fargo), but much to our surprise, MWA with its FORZA ERP was also exhibiting. Didn’t Konica Minolta’s All Covered division acquire MWA in 2018? Yes, they did, but offering a vendor-agnostic ERP opens the door for MWA to participate in events such as this despite its Konica Minolta connection. Another exhibitor who I encountered for the first time at the BTA Grand Slam event in New York City in September was RingByName, a cloud-based phone service and VoIP provider. Their exhibit seemed to have a steady stream of visitors. As more dealers expand their Managed IT offerings, telephone systems and VoIP are going to become prominent Managed IT menu items. It was also nice to see the team from Lexmark at the meeting. Lexmark provides Sharp with high-end A4 devices and was prominently positioned in the A4 portion of the product showcase.
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