Johannesburg, 05 Jun 2013
A stagnant economy, combined with continuous technological innovation, makes this a particularly challenging time for the channel. The traditional foundation of hardware still remains. Increasingly, however, customers want more than a simple 'hardware, supplies and maintenance' operation. It must also incorporate their bring your own device (BYOD) strategies. Alongside the printers, scanners and MFPs, enterprises now require end-to-end solutions to manage the content that flows through their organisations with seamless interoperability and smart mobile technology, says Mark Hiller, South Africa General Manager at Lexmark.
In the past, resellers have dealt primarily with hardware. The sale of a printer-copier would be followed up by the supply of toner and paper, with the manufacturer providing maintenance when required. But the days of making profit on hardware alone are drawing to a close. Devices will continue to be sold, but the growth (and the margins!) will be found helping customers to efficiently and effectively work smarter, facilitated by new technologies to capture, manage and access information from both smart multifunction and mobile devices. The financial health of the channel will depend on its ability to adapt to these changes.
With the transition to mobile continuously gathering pace, BYOD is becoming common practice in the workplace. Now that four out of five companies allow employees to use their personal mobile devices on the job, Lexmark Mobile Capture makes it easy to take advantage of this computing power. The app allows users to jump-start workflows instantly by capturing, retrieving and sending critical data from wherever you go.
Workflows to optimise paper or electronic movement and management of data can be quickly designed for smartphones and tablets, and also leverage the smart touch-screen interface of multifunction products. Little to no programming skills are needed, and solutions can be developed for customers in a matter of days. Everyday operational tasks like insurance claims processing, retail store incident reporting or new client account opening processes can be streamlined by leveraging the latest technologies available for smart mobile and MFPs.
In the current business environment, where time is an increasingly valuable commodity, time-saving innovations that tie into a BYOD strategy make a real difference to productivity. Imagine customers now being able to use their smart devices to take pictures of travel receipts and submit them for expense processing, just like you would using the scanner and touch-screen of an MFP, but instead 'on the go'.
Innovations such as this promote flexibility and productivity within the workforce, and indicate where the future lies. As the "now" imperative, the urgent demand and expectation for mobile devices must be reflected in the focus for the channel. The channel has a major role now in helping the customer embrace this mobile future and understand how they can gain the benefits of mobile productivity.
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