Itec North wins international colour award

Itec North beat 81 colour dealers to win the Konica Minolta Business Technologies International Colour Champions League 2008/9 award for the Asia, Africa and Central and South America region.

The award recognises the top colour multifunctional product vendors in several regions around the world, and reinforces Itec's already strong position in the local colour market. As a group, Itec has featured in the top three of this competition for the three years in which it has been running. Itec North came second last year and put all its energies into winning in 2009.

The competition ran for six months, from October 2008 to March 2009. Scoring was based on point values per colour device purchased from the distributor. In South Africa itself, the competition between dealers representing the distributors was fierce, but Itec North beat the others and was awarded the highest number of points according to product sales. A total of nine Itec dealers were among the top 30 performers.

“This is a major coup for us,” says Gavin Meyer, Managing Director of Itec North. “It's a win that results directly from the fact that we have all the skills and expertise we need in-house and have invested significantly in our professional staff. That, together with an excellent product and highly competitive pricing from Itec, was a winning combination.”

Meyer adds that the win did not result from a couple of big contracts, but from steady sales into the small, medium and large enterprise market sectors.

“The contest took off as the economic meltdown kicked into full swing,” says Holger Groenert, product manager, marketing at Itec South Africa. “Despite that, we have proven that the group is strong, and that we are able to provide customers with state-of-the-art document output solutions that enable them to take full advantage of colour even in price-sensitive times.”

Meyer concurs, noting that the tough economy has worked in his business's favour, as companies are being forced to examine the contracts they have in place and seek better alternatives.

Groenert adds that Itec North's colour sales can be attributed to the fact that the company enables customers to optimise their use of colour. “It's this value-add that distinguishes Itec among office automation suppliers. We have proved to our clients that we care as much as they do about their budgets.”

With the demand for colour on the rise, Groenert notes, the need for solutions that control and audit document output across the organisation is growing exponentially. “Colour is of enormous value in today's business environment as it enables documents to stand out,” he says. “Quite simply, people like to use colour. Our expertise lies in making it a competitive choice for them.”

Meyer says the current split between black-and-white and colour sales at Itec North is 70%-30% at present, a ratio which he expects to be reversed by this time next year as the affordability of colour solutions becomes more apparent to the market.