Entrepreneurial spirits pervade at the annual Executive Connection Summit (ECS). Most dealer owners in attendance possess positive attitudes and open minds. This really should come as no surprise. After all, they want to be there. Take Impact Networking’s progressive crew, for example, who were happy to get out of chilly Chicago in February and lead their own panel discussion about the whirlwind year of change the dealership has undergone.
The ECS vision that Mike Stramaglio (Stramaglio Consulting) had back in 2010 has evolved into a must-see industry event in the desert. It’s kind of like our corporate version of the Burning Man Festival. This year, the summit featured no fewer than 340 registrants (the most to date), 140 companies and organizations, and 31 sponsors. Pre-show, Stramaglio had two words for The Consortium members on Super Sunday: imagination and initiative. “We hope to inspire you,” he said.
It was my first time in Scottsdale with the impressive industry congregation. Here, in descending order, are my Top Ten #ECS2026 Takeaways:
10. Don’t forget the academia angle.
Forging partnerships with nearby research universities and collegiate think tanks can be a mutually beneficial way for dealers and OEMs alike to test innovative digital transformation (DX) tech initiatives prior to their full-fledged rollouts. In her keynote, Arizona State University business school professor Pei-Yu (Sharon) Chen, aka “AI Chen,” encouraged higher education-business collaborations, emphasizing that the dealer network can add value that Big Tech cannot offer.
9. People in the dealer channel have an extremely philanthropic nature.
You already know this if you’ve worked in the channel for any length of time. But ECS reinforced the fact, from Distribution Management’s charity golf outing (which raised $75,000 for City of Hope) to Jerry Blaine and LDI Connect’s work with employing people with disabilities through The Corporate Source. Also:
- Jeff McGaughey, SVP of Wells Fargo’s Office Technology Leasing Division, donated his $1,000 Super Bowl square winnings to the City of Hope for cancer and diabetes research.
- Impact Networking Chairman Frank Cucco generously raffled off a trip to Italy, which was won by Jeff Ragusa, president at Applied Business Concepts (Baton Rouge, Louisiana).
Key executives from six OEMs spoke during an ECS 2026 panel.
8. Concerns over Windows Protected Print (WPP) may be overblown.
Or, at least WPP is not as problematic as some people have indicated. WPP is a bit of a “storm cloud building,” said Toshiba’s Larry White, especially for legacy devices, over the next year or so. “Some people can’t create new [print] drivers fast enough,” White noted. Office technology dealerships facing this problem can minimize disruption by addressing the issue in stages. But according to most major OEMs (including Sharp), newer devices have generally kept pace and won’t be affected.
One workaround is to avoid print drivers altogether, Joe Contreras explained during an ECS breakout session. Last month, Contreras, formerly with Epson and Toshiba, began a new revenue and go-to-market consultancy role with Coreza, which Toshiba acquired this past October. Previously a Youmebee Ltd. SaaS product known as directprint.io, Coreza strives to be an OEM-agnostic, simplified approach to print management sans drivers.
7. Peer sharing is a huge benefit of this industry.
There exists a spirit of business cooperation that seems unique to the dealer channel. It’s not that you’re not competitive. The vast majority of dealer owners genuinely want to see other dealers adapt and succeed. In addition to the aforementioned Impact Networking panel, several other dealers offered their insights on topic including managed IT services and hiring younger workers (see below).
New this year, at the urging of our Founder Frank G. Cannata, the ECS organizers assembled a “FAB Panel,” marking perhaps the first time that so many major peer group reps were together on the same stage. Each explained how their organization operates a little bit differently from the others. For example, the Copier Dealers Association (CDA) no longer observes territorial boundaries. Its 52 member firms represent approximately $2 billion in annual revenues. Meanwhile, the Business Products Council Association (BPCA) still has territories. BPCA caps its membership at 30 independent dealers; right now, 24 are reporting 2025 revenue of $550 million. In addition:
- The Business Technology Association (BTA), with nearly 500 members, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
- Then there’s International Business Products, Inc. (IBPI), which is an office equipment buying group. Formed in 1987, it now has 530 members accounting forr $7 billion in revenue annually. Forty vendor partners give IBPI members “rebate power,” equating to approximately $1 million in annual savings.
The Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) was also represented at ECS. Johnathan Garlow, president of CDA and CEO of Pennsylvania-based dealer Ford Office Technologies, sees peer groups as “safe places where dealers can share vulnerabilities as well as successes.” Interestingly, BTA is in the process of adding a next-level concept. “We are starting a ‘sharing group,’” explained General Counsel Greg Goldberg. “The idea is to have dealers really open up, in a confidential setting, and even share their financials.”
Dealerships that join these groups “make each other better,” concluded Kevin McCarthy of Modern Office Methods in Ohio. To him, that’s the bottom-line benefit. BTA’s annual membership dues cost $500 per member company. From networking opportunities to the legal advice gleaned, such a nominal fee is well worth the investment!
6. Manufacturing partners remained dealer-focused amid 2025’s challenges.
“Tariffs changed the whole dynamic of fiscal year 2025,” shared Laura Blackmer, president of dealer sales at Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A, Inc., which was one of six OEMs represented on the ECS panel. “We thought it would be a disastrous year,” she continued, but the dealer channel responded. In some cases, net-new business increased by 40%. “Dealers were all about us helping them to ‘sell stuff,’” Blackmer noted.
Tariffs had an impact on the profits of other OEMs, too, of course. Larry White, president and CEO of Toshiba America Business Solutions, shared that TABS hit its objectives and “made money over the past nine months,” in part due to upticks in services (10%) and thermal printing (20%).
Fujifilm was a new face in the room this year, represented by Andrew Gunn, who highlighted digital print embellishment as one of Fujifilm’s areas of focus in the production printing space. Gunn is nine months into his new role as director of digital solutions and product marketing. (He came to Fujifilm from Xerox and, before that, Kodak.)
Fun with Fujifilm (from left): Tomy Aquino, Andrew Gunn, Mark Vruno, and Daisuke Miyauchi.
Xerox’s ECS presence was more prominent, too, in 2026 as President of North America Channels Karl Boissonneault discussed the ongoing assimilation of Lexmark into the parent corporation’s framework. In other developments, Don Duval reported that Kyocera has sold some 500,000 A4 MFPs in the U.S. market, and Mike Marusic talked about Sharp’s growing A4 business as well. Emcee Stramaglio reminded younger people in the audience that relations between dealers and OEMs were not always so smooth. Once upon a time, the partnerships were strained and, in some cases, combative, he said.
5. The channel’s youth movement is real.
Need proof? Just look at The Consortium’s Breakaway Team, which the 76-year-old Stramaglio called the office technology industry’s “kids.” During their own panel, the eight members warned dealers to either “Evolve or Be Eclipsed.” Brett Sisell, head of research and development at Nexera, pointed out that not all change is “loud.” For example, the role of websites has not changed. “Their audience is what changed,” quietly, he stressed, “…how people use websites and what they expect from them.”
AI can help to find the right “vibe” for your company, Sisell noted, adding that generating effective prompts is crucial. Sales trainer Kate Kingston cited promptcowboy.ai as a free resource. Prompt Cowboy helps to quickly transform rough ideas into clear, high-performing prompts for ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs). Claude.ai is an LLM with a subscription cost of about $20 per month.
Venturing beyond the website, Sisell asked, what’s your online identity? For an evaluation, “a gift for ECS attendees,” feel free to contact him or another Breakaway Team member for guidance.
4. The hiring and retention of younger employees still pose challenges for the workplace technology industry.
When it comes to the “office of the future,” culture is key, according to Cameron Fisher, a business development executive at leasing partner GreatAmerica Financial Services. Dealer owners might need to rethink compensation models and even how employees get paid, said Fisher, who is also a member of the Breakaway Team. Flexible career paths and employer paid-time-off (PTO) policies are two other hot buttons for younger workers.
GreatAmerica colleague Nate Berkhoudt added that hiring can be expensive. Dealers could be looking at an investment of $45,000+ to get a new hire in the door. Then there’s the cost of a “bad hire” (do you want to know?), which can add up to more than triple that amount ($140K), calculated Berkhoudt, a senior consultant specializing in sales and marketing as well as revenue generation.
3. Adding managed IT services is doable.
But it’s a vastly different business model with unfamiliar margin structures. Even the way in which info tech (IT) is sold differs, as do related sales cycles. Six panelists shared IT lessons they’ve learned in a session aptly called “Surviving MSP without Losing Your Mind (or Your Margins).” Mike Milburn made the IT transition from sales VP on the conventional “side of the house” at the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based JD Young Technologies. Now serving as the dealership’s IT vice president, Milburn warned and joked simultaneously that, when it comes to selling these types of managed services, “traditional copier reps can get discouraged easily…because they are optimists!”
The MSP (managed service provider) model indeed is the exact opposite, concurred two other Breakaway teammates: Lauren Hanna-Masuga, president of Blue Technologies Smart Solutions (Cleveland), and Stephanie Keating Phillips, director of production print and solutions at office technology dealer AIS (Advanced Imaging Solutions, Minnesota). Strong partners, such as ConnectWise, can “help get you there,” Hanna-Masuga advised.
Lauren Hanna-Masuga, president of Blue Technologies Smart Solutions (left), and Stephanie Keating Phillips, director of production print and solutions at AIS , shared some of their delearships’ managed IT insights.
Author’s note: The Cannata Report’s LinkedIn posts on this topic from the ECS event last week garnered well over 2,000 impressions, so suffice it to say that people are curious about it adding managed IT services.
2. Robots are coming to the workplace in 2026.
Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have been more noticeable, lately, executing tasks such as delivering food orders in restaurants. We glimpsed the future at ECS, where at least two ‘bots roamed around last week. Is the channel ready to resell them? Member org Crickets Continuum and the Twain Working Group are ready to help with robotics data collection using an open-source twAIn Robot Billing Metrics Application programming interface (API). Crickets emphasized the importance of starting with practical, revenue-aligned capabilities.
“Based on feedback from our membership, billing metrics were consistently identified as one of the highest immediate-value needs in the robotics ecosystem,” said Crickets Continuum Co-founder Greg Walters. “Standardized cost and usage metrics give organizations a way to operationalize robots faster, justify ROI, and scale deployments with confidence.” What will be robotics’ role in the dealer channel? Stay tuned!
And now, my “numero uno” takeaway from ECS 2026 (drumroll, please) . . .
1. Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is a highly disruptive tech.
Some experts, including ECS panelist and self-taught Marketing VP Keven Ellison of AIS-Now (North Las Vegas, Nevada), say the “AI Revolution” will be bigger than the internet. Other observers predict that changes on the horizon, leading up to 2030, will make the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic pale by comparison.
The advance of AI agents could mean the end of sales software systems (such as Salesforce) within the next five years. This prospect raises additional questions:
- Will the need for smartphone apps vanish, too?
- What about ERP platforms as we know them?
As it stands right now, AI poses a security nightmare in many instances. And, while agentic AI may not yet be ready for prime time, one thing is certain about Large Language Models (LLMs): The technology is forcing companies and business owners to rethink processes. So, whether you build it or buy it, your organization needs to ‘get smart’ on AI agents,” encouraged Ellison, a DX and AI ambassador. Building it yourself is the most effective way to learn generative and agentic AI, he believes, admitting that he has “conversations with ChatGPT on my phone.”
Need ROI convincing? Impact Networking’s COO Anthony Cucco reported that 20 internal AI projects saved the dealer $100,000 in 2025. That, as they say, could be only the tip of the iceberg. Boom!
However, GoWest.ai Founder West McDonald shared that “95% of AI initiatives fail because readiness and governance are skipped.” To change that, McDonald has launched BizVantage.ai, a platform built for MSPs, dealers, and AI advisors to deliver professional AI-readiness assessments and custom AI policies—in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional consulting—without sacrificing structure or governance rigor.
Concluding Thoughts on ECS
I’d be remiss not to mention this: It’s the United States of America’s 250th “birthday” this year and, thanks to Stramaglio’s status as a U.S. veteran, there’s a patriotic element to ECS as well. We truly were blessed to meet Jim “Doc” McCloughan, who is one of 61 living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor. McCloughan is a former combat medic who, while wounded and serving in Vietnam, saved 11 lives during a brutal battle in mid-1969. He was a mere 22 years young at the time of his heroism. “The medal is about love,” Doc told the ECS crowd, which greeted him with a standing ovation.
Meeting Medal of Homor recipient Jim “Doc” McCloughan (right) was a proud moment for Editor-in-Chief Mark Vruno.
Stramaglio and his Patriot Pack of charity-minded motorcycle enthusiasts also presented a special award to Chris Johnson, senior director of sales in Sharp’s Central Region, for his military service. (Read Frank Cannata’s “Veterans Way” series of interviews, presented by U.S. Bank.)
Mike Stramaglio and the Patriot Pack surprised Sharp’s Chris Johnson with a special U.S. veterans award at ECS.
