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COVER STORY

32 I CANNATA WATCHLIST 2017Trends • Companies • People • Events Acquisitions Accelerate, Applications Abound, Diversification Deepens, and Print Progresses

FEATURES

45 I Exit InterviewRespected EO Johnson Company Presi-dent and COO Roger King Retires

17 I Software 2017Out of the Box Special Edition Cracking the Code: Third-Party Solution Providers Plan on Proactively Adding Value to the Channel in 2017

22 I Production 2017Production Poised for ProliferationWith Costs Falling as Digital Technolo-gies Achieve Near Off-Set Quality, More Print Buyers Begin to Take Advantage of Opportunities Across the High End

26 I Finance 2017Investing in ChangeAlignment and Transaction Transparency, IT Services Engagement, and Acquisition Activity to Impact Leasing Segment

30 I Talent 2017The Ideal CandidateCopier Careers Identifies Ideal Imaging Channel Talent Profiles

31 I Supplies 2017Supply-Side Economics: Targeting Bigger Boxes, Third-Party Suppliers Could Be Moving Upstream in 2017

DEPARTMENTS

6 I Hard Copy • From the Editor’s DeskNo. 29: Future ShockedImaging Industry Displays Particularly Rapid Pace of Change 16 I Japanese HeadlinesRicoh’s Sales Channel ReevaluationManufacturer Implements 19th Mid-Term Management Plan Ahead of Schedule 39 I 2016 Dealer Profile SeriesThe Incredible JourneyAfter arriving in the U.S. in 1978 from Kuwait at age 18, Tarek Hafiz would eventually discover he had a skill for selling, leading to his ownership of one of Southern California’s most successful office technology dealerships. 48 I On the RoadThis editorial department returns packed with 2017 industry events, and we will be confirming many more in the near future.

48 I Up NextFebruary 2017 marks the 35th anniver-sary of The Cannata Report and the year ahead will bring our attendance at CeBIT in Hanover, the launch of thecan-natareport.com Version 3.0, and travel to a variety of events, beginning with EFI Connect 2017, January 17–20.

Quote: “The only person stopping you from doing something is yourself, and looking for excuses all the time just gets in the way of obtaining your own goals. It’s like the writer who keeps getting up and straightening the pictures in the room.”– Chrissie Hynde, American musician who is best known as a founding member of the rock band The Pretenders

Visit TheCannataReport.comDecember/January 2017

This Month

• 3 •

The Cannata Report (ISSN: 0889-5880) is published twelve times yearly by Marketing Research Consultants LLC, P.O. Box 180 Hamburg, New Jersey 07419. Phone: (973) 823-6314; Fax: (973) 823-6316; email: fgcannata@cannatareport.com. Editor and Publisher, Frank G. Cannata. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced in any manner in any language without the consent of The Cannata Report. The information set forth herein and on its complementary website,thecannatareport.com, has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed by The Cannata Report and may be incomplete. The Cannata Report’s expressed views and opinions are based on the foregoing and should be viewed in this context. Printed in the U.S.A. SUBSCRIPTION RATES for The Cannata Report and thecannatareport.com are $475 (exclusive of hard copy) and $525 (inclusive of hard copy) for one year. Subscribe at thecannatareport.com/register or email cjcannata@cannatareport.com. Bulk subscription rates also available. Email cjcannata@cannatareport.com. POSTMASTER: Please email address changes to cjcannata@cannatareport.com.

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING

Frank G. Cannata President and CEO/Editor-at-Large

Charles J. CannataEVP and Publisher

Scott Cullen Editor-at-Large

Carol C. CannataSVP, Client Services and Events

Sharon Tosto Esker Story and Features Editor

Doreen Borghoff Design Director

Cathy O’BrienSenior Public Relations Consultant

Tetsuo Kubo Japanese Correspondent

Toni McQuilkenProduction Print Correspondent

Mark VrunoContributing Editor

Walter Geer III Executive Director, Digital Strategy

Saul RosenbaumSenior Director, Digital Operations

Charlene Piro Executive Producer, Print

Joe “Dapp” FosterDapp Studios

dapp.usDigital Video Production

Matt Stauble Matt Stauble Media

mattstaublemedia.comEvents Photography

Subscriptions I Advertising I Licensing Reprints | Questions | Feedback

cjcannata@cannatareport.com(917) 514-9501

THECANNATAREPORT

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Industry Awards, Acknowledgments & Sightings

8 • Ricoh Reinvigorates Convergence with Sugar Ray Leonard, Drai’s Nightclub Event, and Acquisition Dealer Panels

10 • TGI Top 2016 Ricoh National Awards of Excellence Winner

14 • Konica Minolta Returns to Daytona with All-New Car and Drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli, and Jeff Gordon

I N K

32

Konica Minolta’s Dawn Nye Named to PIA Board

Panasonic Teams with Square 9

NEWS

THIS MONTH ON

The New Year Marks a New Beginning for Xerox

Xerox hosted an investors conference at The New York Stock Ex-change on Wednesday, December 7. Over 100 people attended, including a dozen imaging technology analysts and numerous financial analysts. The agenda emphasized Xerox’s new stand-alone business strategy and its financial plans for the coming year after the company separates into two separate organizations, Xe-rox and Conduent, a managed services company, on December 31. Read the full story at thecannatareport.com/this-week.

TheCannataReport.com

Check out these features and more in “This Week,”“Live Wire,” and “Video” at: thecannatareport.com

NEW

S MACHINE

PEOPLE

Remembering December 7, 1941

PARTNERSHIPS VETERANS

Product News: HP Product News: XeroxProduct News: Sharp

MANUFACTURERS

INTERESTED IN BECOMING AN AUTHORIZED PARTNER?

Contact our Scanner Sales Specialists:

Jason Resnick (East Coast) jason.resnick@ext.us.panasonic.com | 540.424.7213

Sean Foley (West Coast) sean.foley@ext.us.panasonic.com | 760.201.6738

Scanning for new business just got easier.As a successful office products dealer, you know that existing clients are your best source for new business. A standalone scanner from Panasonic can be the missing piece in a total document solution and is often an overlooked revenue stream. As document digitization gains momentum, efficiency depends on ever-increasing speed. A Panasonic scanner will turbo charge your customers’ current workflow with smart features designed to quickly capture and process high-volume jobs like scan to searchable PDF, double-sided scanning and auto-crop/rotate. Mixed-sized documents won’t slow you down and with Panasonic’s renowned near 0% failure rate*, you’ll minimize profit-killing service calls.

*Based on service records from 2006-2015.©2016 Panasonic Corporation of North America. All rights reserved. 06/16

No. 29: Future Shocked

Years ago, when I was in high school, the assigned reading in one of my English classes was “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler. As defined by Toffler, “future shock” is a psychological state of individuals and societies caused by “too much change in too short a period of time.”

He opined that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a super-industrial society. He further emphasized that the accelerated rate of technological and social change left people disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation,” or future shock.

Back then, I was unable to grasp that concept, or even acknowledge that I was in the middle of this accelerated rate of technological and social change. In my 17-year-old world, everything moved, or seemed to move, slowly. Time and experience would prove me wrong. To quote the Tom Waits’ song “I Don’t Want to Grow Up,” “How the hell did I get here so soon?”

For a book that I struggled through and have only read once, “Future Shock” has stuck with me over the years. I was reminded of the book earlier this year when I read Toffler’s obituary in the New York Times.

Today, I see and experience firsthand the rapid pace of change, particularly technological changes. Nowhere has that been more evident to me than in the imaging industry. We are smack dab in the middle of technological changes, either using it, developing it, selling it, and in my case, writing and commenting on it.

It seems like only yesterday when I was writing on a portable typewriter rather than a laptop, or taking notes on a legal pad instead of a tablet. It was only yesterday when I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity for my dial-up modem to connect my computer to the internet so I could check email. Now, I can do that on my phone wherever I am. And if you want to check a fact or look something up, all you need to do is Google it and there’s an immediate answer, hopefully, a correct one. Those changes have occurred rapidly, and many of us have accepted those changes willingly.

What changes does our industry have in store for 2017? We’ve got some thoughts on those and we are highlighting them throughout this issue. Doubtful that many of these are shocking, but in our opinion, they are indicative of the future direction of our industry.

If you asked me back when I was 17 if I would be shocked at the speed of change and what technology has brought us in 2017, I’d have said, yes, I would have been shocked. Now that I’m here, though, I’m not shocked at all.

Scott CullenEditor-in-Chief

HARDCOPY From the Editor’s Desk

• 6 •

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Hede Nonaka and Jim Coriddi

This year’s Ricoh Ameri-cas Corporation’s (Ricoh) Convergence featured the iconic and accessible Sugar Ray Leonard as its keynote speaker, as well mentalist and magician Kevin Viner. Leonard brought themes of self-confidence, tenacity, and strength in overcoming adversity—he lost his world title to Roberto Duran, then won it back in a rematch in 1980—via his engaging

delivery, interspersed with several clips of him in the boxing ring. Overall, his ap-pearance received one of the most noteworthy standing ovations I’ve ever witnessed at any industry event to date. Viner added dimension and engendered audience partic-ipation to the awards pre-sentations during the day, as well as at the National Deal-er Awards Reception on the last night.

Ricoh’s 2016’s dealer meeting also featured an outdoor bash at the popular Drai’s Night-club on the roof of The Crom-well Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. The venue and event featured one of the best views of the city, wide-open spaces, different levels and sections to explore, specialty cocktails, and a dance floor (which re-mained occupied with dealers, sponsors, press, and Ricoh staff for the duration of the evening). Spirits and atten-dance remained high through-out the event and the rest of the evening that followed.

Among the well-attended series of seminars at Con-vergence this year, Ricoh conducted three different ses-sions on acquisitions, each featuring a panel comprised of four dealer principals and other C-suite executives,

which was very well-received by dealers.

Speakers and panelists in-cluded: Dawn Abbuhl, pres-ident, Repeat Business Sys-tems; Mona Abutaleb, SVP, Services, Ricoh, and CEO mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc., a Ricoh company; Gar-rett Baumbardner, sales manager, Production Print,

• 8 •

INDUSTRY AWARDS, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS & SIGHTINGS

Ricoh Reinvigorates Convergence with Sugar Ray Leonard, Nightclub Event, and Acquisition Dealer Panels

I N KBY CJ CANNATA

Jim Corridi leverages The Cannata Report 2016 Dealer Survey to substantiate increased dealer confidence in Ricoh.

Kevin Viner

Sugar Ray Leonard

Ricoh’s new Smart Operation Panel (SOP)

EO Johnson Company; Mar-tin Brodigan, chairman and CEO, Ricoh; Todd Brown, director of Production Sales, RJ Young Company; Steven Burger, VP and GM, Inter-national Business, and GM, Ricoh Company Ltd.; John Cheney, Co-president, Knight Office Solutions; Jim Corridi, VP, Dealer Division, Ricoh;

Chip Crunk, president and CEO, RJ Young Company; Debra Dellaposta, president, Doing Better Business, Inc.; John Hey, senior partner, Strategic Business Associ-ates; Mary Jo Johnson, pres-ident and CEO, EO Johnson Business Technologies; Jeff Kelly, senior partner, Pros Elite Group; John Lowery,

president, Applied Imaging; Victor Maciak, VP, Talent Management, Ricoh; Mike McGuirk, president, ProCopy Office Solutions, Inc.; Jer-ry Newberry, president and managing partner, Pros Elite Group; Hidestsugu (Hede) Nonanka, corporate SVP, Business Solutions Group, Ricoh Company Ltd.; Bob

Quadros, CFO, Ray Morgan Company; Tim Renegar, pres-ident, Kelly Office Solutions; Ken Staubitz, VP of Client Services and Aftermarket Support, Ricoh; Tim Vellek, SVP, Marketing, Ricoh; Lar-ry Weiss, president, Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office; and Susie Woodhull, president, Wood-hull, LLC.

John Cheney, Dawn Abbuhl, Jim Corridi, Martin Brodigan, Mona Abu-lateb, and Tim Vellek

I NK

Convergence 2016 Product Fair

Production print exhibit

• 10 •

TGI Office Automation was the dominant winner of Ricoh’s 2016 National Awards of Excellence, re-ceiving three awards in total as follows: Highest Revenue, B2C Sales, and Commercial and SMB Growth (Lanier), while Applied Imaging took

home the Renaissance Award for Outstanding Vision and Partnership (Ricoh), and American Business Center took home the Chairman’s Award (Ricoh). Atlantic, To-morrow’s Office, CWS, Met-ro Sales, Inc., and RJ Young Company each received two

National Awards of Excel-lence each in the following categories respectively: High-est Revenue and B2B Sales (Savin); Highest Percentage Revenue Growth, $2M+ and Major Account Sales (Ricoh); B2C Sales and Printer Sales (Ricoh); and Software/Solu-

tions Sales and Commercial and SMB Growth (Ricoh).

All other award winners were as follows:

Highest Dollar Revenue (Ricoh): MT Business Tech-nologies; Highest Revenue

TGI Top 2016 Ricoh National Awards of Excellence Winner

Percentage Revenue Growth, $2M+ (Savin): Advanced Business Methods; Highest Revenue Percentage Reve-nue Growth, $2M+ (Lanier) Advanced Imaging Solutions; Highest Percentage Revenue Growth, Mid-Market (Ricoh): Davis Business Machines; Highest Percentage Revenue Growth, Mid-Market (Savin): Century Business Systems; Highest Percentage Revenue Growth, Mid-Market (Lani-er): Seminole Office Solu-tions; Highest Overall Unit Growth, Production Color Sales (Ricoh): Milner; Pro-duction Color Sales (Ricoh): Pacific Office Automation; Production Color Sales (Sav-in): Omni Business Systems; Production Color Sales (Lani-er): Modern Office Methods; Printer Sales (Savin): WPS and Doing Better Business;

Printer Sales (Lanier): Knight Office Solutions; Solution/Software Sales (Savin): A&A Office Systems; Solution/Software Sales (Lanier): Electronic Business Prod-ucts; Highest Revenue, Ded-icated Dealer (Ricoh): Wood-hull, LLC; Highest Revenue, Dedicated Dealer (Lanier): Standley Systems; Highest Revenue, Dedicated Dealer (Savin): Electronic Business Products; Revenue Growth, Dedicated Dealer, Mid-Market (Ricoh): Stans LPS Midwest; Revenue Growth, Dedicated Dealer, Mid-Market (Lani-er): Levesque Office Supply; Revenue Growth, Dedicated Dealer, Mid-Market (Sav-in): Strategic Print Solutions; Commercial and SMB Growth (Savin): Gulf Coast Office Products; Champs (Lanier): WCC Business Solutions.

I NK

• 12 •

John Lowery (center), president and CEO, Applied Imaging, accepts Renaissance Award (Ricoh).

Jerry Mathwig (center), President and CEO, Metro Sales, Inc. accepts awards for B2C Sales (Ricoh).

Chip Crunk (center), CEO, RJ Young Company, accepts award for Software/Solution Sales (Ricoh).

Carl Fernyak (center), CEO, MT Business Systems, accepts award for Highest Revenue (Ricoh).

Charlie Gibson (center), VP, Milner, accepts award for Highest Overall Unit Growth, Production Color Sales (Ricoh).

Frank Grasso (center), CEO, TGI Office Automation, accepts award for Highest Revenue (Ricoh).

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a partner of Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) for four consecutive years, announced on December 1 that four-time NASCAR Premier Cup Se-ries champion Jeff Gordon, who was part of the driver lineup when WTR competed in its very first race in 2007, is returning to join full-time co-drivers of the all-new No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Gordon is joining brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and veteran Italian Max “The Ax” Angelelli for next month’s

55th Rolex 24 at Daytona In-ternational Speedway (Flor-ida), the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2017 season opener. The manufacturer announced on December 13 that the new No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R car will race for the first time on January 28 and 29 by the Tayl-ro brothers and co-drivers An-gelelli and Gordon. The new prototype of the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R has al-ready hit the test track in pri-vate sessions by the perenni-al championship-contending WTR team at Putnam Park

near Indianapolis, NCM Mo-torsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, and the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway road course. Race preparation efforts will con-tinue at Daytona during the annual Roar Before the Rolex 24 test days, January 6–8.

The final livery of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R will include technical partners Dallara, Sonic Tools, and American Wheels. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R is an all-new race vehicle from the ground up. When compared to the previous Daytona Prototype specification, the Internation-al is much faster thanks to, among other features, its sleek and more aerodynamic body-work design. It is also lighter than the Daytona Prototype and is said to be is much more responsive on the racetrack when it comes to steering, ac-celerating, and braking.

• 14 •

Konica Minolta Returns to Daytona with All-New Car and Drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli, and Jeff Gordon

I NK

No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R

Jordan Taylor, Jeff Gordon, Max Angelelli, and Ricky Taylor CR

“The car has been a com-pletely different experience from anything I have expe-rienced in my career. Even in comparison to driving the Morgan LMP2 at Le Mans a few years ago, this car is light years ahead.”

–Ricky Taylor, co-driver

“It’s been incredibly cool to be a part of developing the new Cadillac from the ground up. It’s definitely a much different car than what I’m used to. The DP that we’re used to is big, it’s heavy, and it moves around a lot. The Cadillac DPi-V.R is much more aero-based, like an LMP2 car.”

–Jordan Taylor, co-driver

“From what I’ve seen and experienced so far, I have high expectations from our Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R...What I like is the high level of technology in this new car.”

–Max Angelelli, co-driver

“It was great to get back be-hind the wheel of a car that had that kind of downforce and braking. It’s probably been since I drove the For-mula 1 car at Indianapolis in 2003 that I felt anything like that.”

–Jeff Gordon, co-driver

• 16 •

Recently, Ricoh Company Ltd. (Ricoh) President Zenji Miura an-nounced the company is planning

to implement the company’s restructuring plan ahead of schedule, starting during the second half of this fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2016–March 31, 2017). This reflects rapid changes within the business environment and is set to be part of the company’s 19th mid-term management plan (three-year plan), which starts next fiscal year (April 1, 2017–March 31, 2018).

As we reported to The Cannata Report audience in last month’s article, every Japanese copier and printer manufacturer has reported that flat growth in sales and profits is not the result of a temporary re-cession, but rather a structural problem caused by the shrinking market.

Ricoh’s 19th mid-term business plan is not completed yet, but an official an-nouncement is planned for April 2017. Miura has, however, revealed that the company is taking the initiative to be-gin implementing this plan now without waiting until April, based upon a pre-de-termined policy to hasten execution of Ricoh’s restructuring and growth strategy.

From what we gather to date, the direc-tion the company has laid out in the 19th mid-term management plan is a growth strategy comprised of three focused busi-nesses, based upon the core competency of each business. The policy will be to concentrate and focus management re-sources and drive steady growth of pro-duction printing and industrial printing products and services while improving profitability of the core business (MFPs for traditional business).

In addition, Ricoh is looking to achieve a cost reduction of 100 billion yen (com-pared to the fiscal year ending March 2016) during the period of the 19th mid-term management plan.

Miura outlined Ricoh’s accelerated plan focusing on the following areas:

Sales/Maintenance Services

1. Reevaluating distribution by optimiz-ing direct and dealer sales structures by geography and business models.

2. Achieving service cost reductions through the development of next-gen-eration models that offer improved ser-vice quality and efficiency.

3. Achieving back office consolidation by consolidating shared service centers. (Around the world as of press time, Ricoh has already consolidated its in-direct distribution channel operations across and within 23 countries to four locations in Europe.)

Design and Development/Production

1. Refinement of new models of equip-ment to develop a product portfolio.

2. Reorganizing locations by ceasing pro-duction in two global locations and then moving and consolidating its cen-tral laboratory.

3. Accelerating cost reductions by im-proving productivity through auto-mation while accelerating production costs downward.

Cross-Functional Support Functions

1. Shifting headquarters/indirect depart-ment staff to enhance the company’s customer-facing operations while also growing the business.

2. Returning its headquarters office to Ginza, Tokyo, and moving the Omori office (registered headquarters). These moves are planned for fiscal year 2017 and beyond.

3. Reducing functional staff at headquar-ters by half.

Ricoh’s Sales Channel ReevaluationManufacturer Implements 19th Mid-Term Management Plan Ahead of Schedule

JAPANESE HEADLINES BY TETSUO KUBO

CR

Questions About This Story? Contact CJ Cannata

Phone: (917) 514-9501

Email: cjcannata@cannatareport.com

Every Japanese copier and printer manufacturer has re-

ported that flat growth in sales and profits is not the result of a temporary recession, but a structural problem caused by

the shrinking market.

Zenji Miura President, Ricoh

• 17 •

Don’t expect the many software and solutions providers serving the imaging industry to be com-

placent in 2017. That’s one thing you can count on when it comes to software solu-tions—updates, enhancements, and new products. Okay, that’s three things, but you get the picture.

To get a real sense of what’s happening in the software solutions segment of the business, we asked some of the industry’s top solutions providers to share with us what updates, enhancements, and new products and services are on their agen-das for 2017. While not everyone was comfortable sharing their plans for 2017 at press time, 14 key companies in the segment did. (Please note that we are fo-cusing on third-party solutions providers here and did not solicit input from the OEMs.) Additional coming attractions will be posted digitally at www.thecanna-tareport.com in January.

ACDI

The 2016 Frank Awards winner for “Best Software & Services Provider” is expect-ing a banner 2017. The coming year will see ACDI finish construction and move into new headquarters located just outside Little Rock, Arkansas. The company says the new, technology-focused facility will be an incubator for innovative and pro-gressive new solutions that create value for its partners.

With its commitment to supporting the channel, ACDI’s partnership with Paper-Cut will only continue to strengthen in 2017. And as PaperCut’s Output Man-agement software evolves and thrives, ACDI says its commitment to the Paper-Cut roadmap has never been stronger. Be on the lookout for new, innovative ideas from these two excellent organizations.

In addition, the company will continue to

research and evaluate best-of-breed solu-tions for introduction into the channel. There’s also rumored to be a “Perks” re-ward program launching in 2017.

Compass Sales Solutions

Compass Sales Solutions (CSS) plans on bringing many new enhancements to both its Sherpa Sales Automation Solution, as well as its ezMPS solution. Key items that will be addressed in 2017 include the following:

• CSS will be launching an API for Sher-pa, providing dealers with new integra-tion points;

• Launch of a new module “Base Camp” that will automate current client reten-tion activities for dealers’ sales profes-sionals;

• Refresh of CSS’s reporting, as well as its financials screen, to accommodate the wide range of solutions dealers are

Cracking the CodeThird-Party Solution Providers Plan on Proactively Adding

Value to the Channel in 2017By Scott Cullen

SPECIAL EDITION

S O F T W A R E 2 0 1 7

Left: Andre, Josh, Knox, Mandy, Paxton, and Brooks Lane

Right: Manage documents in the cloud with DocuWare.

• 18 •

now providing to their end users;• Advanced integration/credit submission

for U.S. Bank and GreatAmerica Finan-cial Services;

• Integration with XDA meter import tool for Xerox dealers; and

• Enhanced Outlook integration utilizing Implicit Sync, including easier bi-direc-tional syncing and saving of sent mes-sages.

DocuWare

DocuWare is once again poised to con-tinue its growth trends that have been established over the past several years. DocuWare grew over 25% in 2015, and the company continued that upward trajec-tory in 2016 with a growth of 15%. This year-over-year growth is being led by sales of DocuWare Cloud. In 2015, DocuWare Cloud sales increased by over 305%, and in 2016 Cloud sales growth continued at over 200%. Therefore, much of Docu-Ware’s development and efforts are behind making the DocuWare Cloud the world-wide leader for mid-sized companies.

Features being enhanced are file cabinet synchronization to local systems, data-base synchronization agent, and design improvements to the portal. These ad-ditions and architectural enhancements make DocuWare Cloud the only highly scalable, multi-tenant, public cloud solu-tion based in Microsoft Azure date cen-ters available worldwide.

Along with enhancing the DocuWare Cloud offering, the company will con-

tinue to make great improvements in its WorkFlow Manager, forms, and mobile products, as business process automation and instant demand use from anywhere continue to be in high demand.

ECi e-automate

ECi e-automate further solidified its po-sition as the industry’s leading business management and ERP solution with 140 installs in 2016, driving the number of customers to more than 1,500, according to the company.

Building on that momentum, 2017 will see new integrations and products to support the ever-changing needs of the dealer and will also expand on existing integrations from Sharp and Xerox to al-low automatic parts, supplies, and equip-ment loads that will keep pricing in sync. And, as more and more dealers take on managed services, ECi e-automate will continue to invest in tools, technology, and partners to help its customers achieve a competitive advantage with fully inte-grated RMM, proposal, CRM, help desk and barcode solutions in the form of Nav-erisk, Digital Quote Manager Web, Ac-celerate CRM, DeskTech, and ScanIt.

ECi FMAudit

The ECi FMAudit install base contin-ued a trend of year-over-year growth by reaching over 7,500,000 monitored de-vices and 350,000 customer installations in 2016. As the size of dealer-managed fleets continues to grow, so do the re-

sources required to manage them. Mov-ing into 2017, FMAudit will focus on further automation and increasing the efficiency of tasks such as deploying its data collection tool, adding Mac, Linux, and Raspberry Pi deployment options, and true remote management of accounts, devices, and supplies. Billing automation reportedly will be made easier and more complete than ever by syncing more data between ECi e-automate and FMAu-dit and offering the flexibility to facili-tate more complex billing requirements. The ECi FMAudit integration with HP’s JetAdvantage Management will also con-tinue to evolve from device monitoring to device management, reducing service costs, and improving customer response and resolution times.

Laserfiche

New for the channel in 2017, Laserfiche will introduce Laserfiche 10.2, an update that will enhance the enterprise content management software’s user collabora-tion capabilities, mobile access, and elec-tronic forms and business process auto-mation features. Laserfiche will also build upon the Busi-ness Process Library, launched in 2016. The Business Process Library is a collec-tion of downloadable automation tools necessary for rapid automation in key business processes, free for Laserfiche users. These tools include prebuilt elec-tronic forms and business process work-flows that facilitate deployment of auto-mations in just a few clicks. Shortening

Software 2017

Left: Laserfiche U-Infinity (comprising User Experi-ence, User Education, and Graphic Design) team out-side Laserfische’s offices in Anaheim, California

Right: Rick Taylor, presi-dent and CEO, Konica Mi-nolta Business Solutions, U.S.A., endorses FORZA at 2016 MWA ECS event.

®

“GreatAmerica is a partner who understands us

and is willing to invest in us.”

BUILD FOR TOMORROW

L to R: John Lowery, President of Applied Imaging; David Pohlman, COO and Office of the President, GreatAmerica Financial Services

®

John LoweryPresident

Applied Imaging

www.greatamerica.com | 800.234.8787

HELPING YOU GET THERE.

• 20 •

the time to deployment enables channel partners to demonstrate Laserfiche’s ben-efits faster. Laserfiche will also add more industry-specific packages to the Busi-ness Process Library in 2017, building on the already popular packages for human resources and higher education.

Finally, Laserfiche will enhance edu-cation for its channel partners in 2017, with a focus on increasing service reve-nue, selling innovative and flexible new licensing models, and becoming better service organizations

MaxxVault

MaxxVault launched MaxxSafe last sum-mer, which is a secure file-sharing and syncing tool that allows channel part-ners to have an additional cloud-based subscription revenue stream. MaxxSafe is an enterprise file sharing and syncing subscription service that allows users to share their corporate content safely and securely to external users, according to MaxxVault. It also enables users to retain complete control over the content being shared to external parties outside of their company. At any time, access to shared content can be revoked from both the ex-ternal user or internal company user that shared the content.

In December, the company launched its third generation MaxxMobile app, and in January, it will release Version 2.5 of MaxxForms. Another update to look for in 2017 is the latest iteration of Maxx-Vault Enterprise, Version 7.0.

MWA Intelligence

From a product perspective, MWA Intelli-gence will be launching what it describes as a “brand-new standard for ERP” with the new SAP HANA version of FORZA. HANA is an in-memory platform for pro-cessing high volumes of data in real-time. HANA allows data analysts to query large volumes with HANA’s open architecture database infrastructure, avoiding the need to load or write-back data.

From a business perspective, MWA will continue to expand its reach and capa-bility with a keen focus on its business partnerships and its integration partners. In addition, the company reports that it is very proud of its newly formed part-nership with Konica Minolta, and MWA expects the dealer community will begin to see and benefit from this alliance in the early months of 2017.

Nuance

Nuance will be looking to strengthen its capture and print leadership in security, mobility, and document transformation, helping the dealer channel address future risks for organizations based on where technology, regulations, and industries are headed. The company will also increase its solution and marketing tool support to dealers in key vertical markets, most notably, healthcare and financial services. Also look for Nuance to add new support with manufacturing and large enterprise organization toolkits. The company now also reports that it will continue to ad-

vance its capture and print platform with some next-generation integrated solutions that further improve the user experience and productivity.

Print Audit

Print Audit says its mission in 2017 is “to save the office equipment industry.” The office equipment world is changing and Print Audit says it has invested to help dealers thrive in 2017 in the following ways:

• More than just printed pages: Whether printed on paper or never leaving the digital domain, Print Audit Premier members will have the ability to mone-tize and manage it all.

• Infinite expansion: In 2016, the com-pany released Infinite Device Manage-ment and is working on the expansion of Infinite into user management.

• Seat-based billing mentorship: Print Au-dit pioneered SBB (seat-based billing) for print in 2016. In 2017, Print Audit will be helping Premier members ag-gressively launch their own practices.

• SBB roadshows: Load up the bus. SBB is coming to a city near you.

• Convergence support: Tigerpaw integra-tion is completed and ready to support office equipment dealers and managed IT customers in 2017.

• Device Detail database: The most de-tailed device detail database, period.

Print Fleet

Print Fleet says one major release slat-

Left: Nuance headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts

Right: West McDonald, VP, business devel-opment, Print Audit, speaks at 2016 Top 100 Summit.

Software 2017

• 21 •

Software 2017

ed for the 2017 is a new Data Collec-tion Agent (DCA) that will dramatically change the way in which it is able to mon-itor devices, collect data, and make im-provements to that process, while driving efficiencies at every level of the supply chain. DCA Pulse will be able to collect attributes, service, supply, and meter in-formation at unique and customizable in-tervals. Another exciting aspect of Pulse, according to Print Fleet, is that it will also be constantly connected to PrintFleet Central, which allows for rapid response time, if any issues happen to arise. The intelligent way in which DCA Pulse col-lects accurate data is possible due to the use of definition files.

PrintReleaf

PrintReleaf will be rolling out a public API that will enable existing third-party software companies to integrate its solu-tion into PrintReleaf’s. The company has a number of partners in a private beta and are looking to scale with them. PrintReleaf is also increasing feature development for marketing concepts such as website me-ters that publish a partner’s or customer’s real-time ‘releaf’ results, as well as ad-vanced reporting features for customers to better publish their success as a result of their subscription to PrintReleaf. Addition-ally, the company is rolling out API func-tionality for the commercial graphic print segment to ReLeaf transactional print jobs.

Square 9 Softworks

Square 9 Softworks is planning an ag-

gressive release schedule in 2017 with several new products and features the company claims are guaranteed to create excitement in the channel. These include the new File XChange 2017, updates to GlobalForms with tighter integration with GlobalCapture and GlobalAction, and finally, a complete refresh to the Glo-balSearch web interface. Starting off the year, Square 9 will in-troduce a completely rewritten File XChange that delivers direct integration between GlobalSearch and the Windows File System. According to Square 9, users will be able to search, view, add, and edit documents through Windows Explorer without needing to open GlobalSearch. Users can also perform these functions directly from virtually any application, including the Microsoft Office suite, Adobe Creative suite, and others. Square 9 says it will follow up with a great second act that includes major changes to its GlobalForms package. Now avail-able as an embedded component of the GlobalCapture platform, GlobalForms will utilize a single web-based drag-and-drop workflow experience for pro-cess design, increasing design efficiency while also allowing GlobalForms to be offered as part of GlobalSearch or as a standalone web-forms solution. Other en-hancements include a new GlobalSearch interface, highlighting options for a new grid style, and the traditional tile-based presentation of content. With this inter-face change, which will be available in both GlobalSearch and GlobalSearch C2

(SaaS), Square 9 will launch a brand new web-based document viewer control that features enhancements to both the user experience, as well as performance. YSoft

YSoft’s 2016 was huge, full of many new features in YSoft SafeQ and what it de-scribes as an industry-first print manage-ment solution for 3D. The upcoming year will see the company building on these platforms, notably in two areas—cloud integrations and 3D print workflows. As more organizations move to cloud-based information management and pro-cessing services, and since employees need to be able to work on the go, many cloud-based solutions start to make more and more sense. Whether it’s using this storage as a resource for document cap-ture or print, IT needs to account for these with solutions like YSoft SafeQ.

In the 3D print workflow area, educational institutions have the same print manage-ment and workflow needs on 3D printers as they do on 2D, according to YSoft. The company announced YSoft be3D eDee in 2016 as a managed print solution for 3D that includes a pay-to-print service. In 2017, it will be further built as a compre-hensive solution for education.

Left: Tony Bishop, VP, and Stephen Young, president and CEO, Square 9 Softworks

Right: YSoft SafeQ White Paper

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Email: scullen@cannatareport.com

• 22 •

As we come to the close of another year, it’s natural to start thinking about, and making plans for, the

next one. The year 2016 has been tumul-tuous for many reasons—prominent and unexpected deaths, a heated election that our country is still deeply divided over, increasing racial and class tensions, just to name a few disruptions. So heading into 2017, the uncertainty around where business will go next is understandably higher than usual.

But with all the questions, debates, and fears, there is also hope, especially right here in our industry.

Production print, in particular, is poised to continue the incredible surge it is cur-rently experiencing. Digital technologies have reached a point where the quality is nearly indistinguishable from offset, and with costs falling as the quality ris-es, more printers of all stripes are making investments. And more print buyers are starting to take advantage of the creativity and innovation these technologies allow.

Substrates is one area that 2017 will strongly push forward. One of the reasons print buyers will still choose offset is the sheer breadth of options when it comes to the substrate choice. But press manufac-turers and paper mills have been steadily increasing the range available for digital equipment, with a combination of coat-ings, new inks, and print heads, and new ways to treat the papers.

And it’s not just paper, either. Flatbed printers have been experimenting with printing on objects of all sorts from doors and windows to metals, to plastics. We’ve already seen previews of new di-rect-to-object printers, which open op-portunities up to even more unusual sub-strates—such as cans and bottles.

While there have been some successes and failures, expect 2017 to continue to see more innovation on the substrate front overall. There will come a time in the not-so-distant future when literally anything can be printed on—and that creates a wide range of exciting possibilities.

And speaking of printing on some un-usual surfaces, industrial print is another massive trend that will only continue to pick up steam in 2017. The term “indus-trial print” refers to a range of printing for everything from wallpapers to fabrics for couches or chairs.

Industrial print is a category with nearly limitless possibilities. Look around your office or your home—every object, every surface is a target for some kind of print. This segment is still in its infancy, and the applications tend to be more proof-of-concept installations than real-world projects, but it’s only a matter of time un-til this market heats up, and 2017 may be poised to be that time.

The Dealer Opportunity

Sure, the production print market is lined up for growth in many surprising areas in 2017, but what does that mean for the dealer channel?

First and foremost, the trend of consoli-

Production Poised for ProliferationWith Costs Falling as Digital Technologies Achieve Near Off-Set Quality, More Print Buyers Begin to Take Advantage of Opportunities Across the High End

By Toni McQuilken

PR O D U C T I O N 2 017

Left: Canon’s drupa 2016 exhibit featured applica-tions printed on the imagePRESS and packaging on the Arizona.

Right: EFI’s drupa exhibit displayed “The Imaging of Things.”

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© 2016 AMETEK Electronic Systems Protection. All rights reserved.

© 2016 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. All transactions are subject to credit approval. Some restrictions may apply. Wells Fargo Equipment Finance is the trade name for certain equipment leasing and fi nance businesses of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its subsidiaries. Based on current net assets of Wells Fargo Equipment Finance (including Wells Fargo Rail) compared to net assets of the largest equipment fi nance/leasing companies (excluding GE Capital) ranked in the Monitor’s 2016 special edition. WCS-3001801 (09/16)

We’re dedicated to making it easier for your business to fi nd customized fi nancial solutions to help you and your customers grow and stay ahead of evolving equipment needs. With our recent acquisition, we’re now a leading equipment fi nance provider in the U.S. and Canada.

Whether you or your customers are trying to improve working capital, manage risks, or capitalize on market opportunities, you can count on the strength of our local market insight and tailor-made fi nancing.

Learn more at wholesale.wf.com/vendor.

Wells Fargo Vendor Financial Services

Delivering equipmentfi nancing solutions toNorth Americanbusinesses

dation will absolutely continue in the new year. And not just consolidation within the market, but the consolidation of types of printers. Traditional offset shops are buying digital shops, and digital shops are buying wide-format shops. No one is off limits right now, and that will continue for the foreseeable future.

Dealers will need to continue to find ways to be relevant with these increas-ingly diverse mixed-print operations. Just like the print buyers, these shops are starting to look for more than just ven-dors. They want partners who can help them grow their businesses. Dealers are specifically looking for experts they can turn to for advice on ways to maximize the equipment they already own, and suggest opportunities they could explore with new investments. Dealers who po-sition themselves as more than just hard-ware providers and servicers have a real opportunity to not only capture more business, but also to get in deeper with the shops they work with.

But there is an opportunity on the hard-ware side as well. As more shops look

to expand their product offerings into the production print side of the business, they will likely look first to their dealers for suggestions on equipment to invest in. Dealers who expand their offerings to include these machines—digital presses, wide-format inkjet, even flatbed equip-ment—can continue to be the one-stop-shop for printers who are used to having one source to deal with, and who don’t want to start having to deal with multi-ple vendors every time they want to get something serviced.

In addition, there is also the opportunity to expand post-press offerings. Smaller format equipment often has the finish-ing built in, from stapling to collating to folding. But production print equipment often has those functions as separate pieces, even when they are run inline. (Here’s a quick primer for those in our audience who may not be familiar with the terminology—inline finishing is at-tached directly to the printer, and the jobs are fed directly into it without op-erator intervention. Near-line or off-line finishing are completely separate, and they require an operator to physically

move the job from the press to the post-press machines.)

For dealers looking to expand into the pro-duction print market, offering post-press equipment alongside the printers them-selves further increases their value-added proposition to the shops they work with. It is also a great way to work in a more consultative approach after a printer has purchased a specific machine. This cre-ates an opportunity to talk to them about the finishing options and explain the dif-ferent types of work, instantly making you a knowledgeable expert in their eyes.

There is a lot to look forward to in 2017, with opportunities for print shops and dealers across the industry spectrum. Be open to exploring new markets and ideas, and be ready to offer expert advice, and the next 12 months offer the potential for record opportunity and record profits.

Left: Ricoh’s exhibition at drupa 2016

Right: drupa 2016 attendees listen attentively during a demon-stration at the Xerox exhibition.

• 24 •

Production 2017

Left: HP’s exhibi-tion occupied all of building 17 at drupa 2016.

Left: Konica Minolta’s KM-1, co-developed with KOMORI Corporation, as showcased at drupa 2016

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Questions About This Story? Contact Scott Cullen

Phone: (609) 406-1424

Email: scullen@cannatareport.com

© 2016 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. All transactions are subject to credit approval. Some restrictions may apply. Wells Fargo Equipment Finance is the trade name for certain equipment leasing and fi nance businesses of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and its subsidiaries. Based on current net assets of Wells Fargo Equipment Finance (including Wells Fargo Rail) compared to net assets of the largest equipment fi nance/leasing companies (excluding GE Capital) ranked in the Monitor’s 2016 special edition. WCS-3001801 (09/16)

We’re dedicated to making it easier for your business to fi nd customized fi nancial solutions to help you and your customers grow and stay ahead of evolving equipment needs. With our recent acquisition, we’re now a leading equipment fi nance provider in the U.S. and Canada.

Whether you or your customers are trying to improve working capital, manage risks, or capitalize on market opportunities, you can count on the strength of our local market insight and tailor-made fi nancing.

Learn more at wholesale.wf.com/vendor.

Wells Fargo Vendor Financial Services

Delivering equipmentfi nancing solutions toNorth Americanbusinesses

Leasing and financing may not be the most exciting segments of their business

for dealers to read about, but like it or not, it’s still highly critical to dealerships.

With a big year of change ahead, with plenty of specula-tion as to what’s to come for the domestic and global financial markets, we asked a handful of leasing companies to share with us the one or two trends that are likely to have the great-est impact on their business in 2017. What you’ll find in their responses is a fair amount of consensus not only among each other, but also with some of the trends we’re watching.

CIT

“The most impactful trends in our business today pertain to [having] alignment and data/transaction transparency with our vendor clients.

“Whether it’s manufacturers or dealers, they need their finance provider to move beyond the lease to help them uncover new profit centers, lower their oper-ational costs, and increase their ability to win new business. In other words, the trend is to find ways to make clients more suc-cessful, and in so doing, it fuels our collective success.”

–Mike Jones

Everbank

“In 2017, the Office Products and imaging industry will con-tinue to evolve with integrated network and other IT services. These products will be mar-keted as a total solution to the end-user with bundled docu-mentation and invoicing.

“We should also see an increase in dealers offering newer seg-ments such as industrial printers and production print units. In summary, we expect to see the market continue to expand with these product offerings to offset flat print volumes.”

–Fred Carollo

GreatAmerica

“Whether a dealer is looking to grow their business to hand down to the next generation or to sell—acquisition activity re-mains strong and will continue to be in 2017. We’ve seen re-newed focus on building en-terprise value. We’ve worked closely with our dealers to identify ways in which they can enhance their enterprise val-ue. Many are taking initiatives like technology integrations, bundling, and managed ser-vices—be it print, network, or document—to the next level of sophistication and profit.

“Hiring, as reported by dealers,

• 26 •

Investing in ChangeAlignment and Transaction Transparency, IT Services Engagement, and

Acquisition Activity to Impact Leasing Segment By Scott Cullen

F I N A N C E 2 0 1 7

Mike JonesManaging Director,Equipment Finance, CIT

“The most impactful trends in our business today are alignment and data/transactional transparency,”said Jones.

Fred CarolloVP of Originations, Office Products,EverBank Commercial Finance

“In 2017, the office products industry will continue to evolvewith integrated network and IT services,”said Carollo.

Jennie FisherSVP and GM, Office Equip-ment Group,GreatAmericaFinancial Services

“Many are taking ini-tiatives like technology integrations, bundling, and managed services...to the next level,”said Fisher.

• 28 •

has been the No. 1 challenge for years, and just this fall, The Can-nata Report validated that again in their 2016 Annual Dealer Sur-vey. The ability to attract, hire, and retain top talent will remain a trend next year. This can have significant impact on a dealer’s ability to scale their operations. This is why we formed our Path-Share HR Services division eight years ago—to help dealers with recruiting, hiring, and retaining top talent. PathShare now has services to help dealers focus on creating, enhancing, and sus-taining their company culture, as well as more formal strategic planning process.”

–Jennie Fisher

U.S. Bank

“It appears 2017 will continue to be a year of high M&A activity. Dealers, manufacturers, and leas-ing companies will all be part of a changing landscape, as compa-ny names change and personnel transi-tions. U.S. Bank’s consistency and sta-bility continues to be a keystone of our value proposition.

We expect to see a continued high rate of dealer acquisitions and have built a strong process to manage the transition of customers and assets. Our expansive network of dealer and manufacturer re-lationships often gives us the ability to facilitate a very smooth transition of the customer base.

“Digital systems and integration is an-other area. We continue to announce and work on major interfaces with the likes of Compass Sherpa, ECi’s, E-Automate, and MWA’s FORZA, among others, in order to provide our clients with easi-er access to information, resulting in a smoother sales process and reduced ad-

ministrative loads. These systems will also define our own ‘mobile strategy,’ with a goal of compatibility with whatev-er mobile systems our customers choose. A digitized lease process is best built within the dealer’s current environment versus stand-alone/proprietary applica-tions. These efforts will help all comply with heightened regulatory guidelines, as well as provide for better management of the overall customer experience.”

–Phil Buysse

Wells Fargo

“The obvious trend we continue to see that is impacting the industry and the leasing support side of it is all the merger and acquisition activity. The landscape is changing immensely—shrinking as dealers continue to get bought up. That

creates a whole set of chal-lenges for the dealers and for leasing companies as work is required to ensure legal de-tails regarding contracting and portfolio management are handled properly. Dealers are investing heavily and want to ensure proper protection of their new portfolios. “Beyond that, we see the con-tinued migration to both man-aged network services/soft-ware and specialty support, as you might refer to it as. Deal-ers are having to get more cre-ative and are bringing in more auxiliary-type solutions into the mix, and that’s having an impact both in how deals are reviewed and approved from a product mix standpoint. It is critical to have lease con-tracts that allow for some level of creative structuring. We’re seeing more of that. It’s inter-esting to see some of the strat-egies that are presented, as our

dealers try to make transactions work to help capture more of the changing op-portunities. How they structure the deal helps them grow the opportunity as it moves forward.

“Hosted solutions is another growing de-mand that’s being put into the mix that leasing sources are trying to adjust to. We also must look at these solutions and products differently to help better serve the financing demands. Those are the biggest trends, and other than that, it’s kind of business as usual.”

–Rob Parker

Finance 2017

Phil BuysseSVP and GM, Office Equip-ment Vendor Service, U.S. Bank

“Dealers, manufacturers, and leasing companies will all be part of a changing landscape, as company names change and personnel transi-tions,” said Buysse.

Rob ParkerSVP, Equipment Finance, Wells Fargo

“Hosted solutions isanother growing demand that’s being put into the mix and that leasing sources are trying to adjust to,” said Parker.

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January 17, 2017, 2 p.m. EST

WEBINAR DATE

Register for this FREE webinar at www.action-intell.com.

Continued declining demand for certain classes of products put stress on already-stressed market segments. The industry’s overcapacity had a transformative effect on printer, copier, and supplies vendors, resulting in a year full of key mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring. Amid seismic shifts in the competitive landscape, OEMs introduced scores of innovative new devices, challenging the third-party supplies industry to keep pace as the market further matured. Mean-while, lawsuits, especially those between the OEMs and those marketing third-party supplies, continue to affect the market.

Join Actionable Intelligence for a one-hour webinar in which we look back on 2016—the most transformative year yet in the office imaging industry—and explore what lies ahead for the industry in 2017. The live webinar, presented by Charles Brewer, president of Actionable Intelligence, and Christina Bonadio, executive editor of www.action-intell.com, includes an interactive Q&A session.

THE YEAR 2016 BROUGHT ENORMOUS CHANGE TO THE OFFICE IMAGING INDUSTRY.

The Office Imaging Industry’s Most Transformative Year and What’s to Come in 2017

2016 YEAR IN REVIEW

• 30 •

If anyone has a pulse on the dynamics of the imaging channel employment market in 2017, it’s Copier Careers,

a recruiting firm for the imaging channel. While the company won’t speculate as to how much hiring activity there will be in the coming year, it does have a keen understanding of what employers will be looking for in job candidates.

On the sales side, employers are still looking for what Jessica Crowley, busi-ness development manager and senior recruiter for Copier Careers, calls “that true hunter on a consultative level in the way they approach clients.” And when it comes to sales, she’s seeing a greater em-phasis on selling managed print and man-aged network services. On the service technician side, she reports dealerships are looking for someone with more than just traditional break-fix skills. They want someone who is customer-service orient-ed and a team player. However, tradition-al skills remain in demand.

“On the technical side, we’re still getting calls on being certified on their specif-ic OEMs... That’s still a key part of what they’re looking for, as well as at least Lev-el 1 networking ability,” noted Crowley.

She’s also seeing an interest in techs who can work more closely with their peers, as well as a willingness to become more involved on the sales side of the house.

“It’s more of a team approach versus this is a sales department, this is a service de-partment, and morphing it together so that everyone can be at the same level and on the same page to be successful at every aspect of the customer interaction,” ob-served Crowley.

Meanwhile, Copier Careers’ President Paul Schwartz said client expectations are rapid-ly evolving, driving the need for better com-munication between sales and service.

“It’s definitely evolved into an MPS and MNS world, and it’s just a function of how our clients and the industry is imple-menting and how quickly they’re imple-menting it,” he said. “Whether it’s sales or the technical side, we’re finally at the point where both sides realize they are re-liant on each other. Sales needs the tech-nology side to guide them to the solutions they can provide, and then implement the solutions. A trend I see more and more in management is that our clients are looking for facilitators, and that’s a word they’re using a lot. [Someone with the skills] to make the two sides work together.”

Please Don’t Go

With hiring and retention being two of the biggest challenges facing dealers, Schwartz has seen the shortage of skilled, experienced people firsthand. As a result, companies are now willing to make coun-teroffers to keep these people on board.

“If you have a good sales rep or technician, we’re seeing more organizations aggres-sively going back after that individual to encourage them to stay,” stated Schwartz.

While most individuals prefer stability in their careers, Copier Careers continues to encounter experienced people who are willing to leave behind an existing book of business to seek out new opportunities.

“The reason they’re open to leaving is be-cause after being with an employer for a number of years, they’ve found they ar-

en’t able to do what they want to or what they feel will be a benefit to the organi-zation,” said Schwartz. “If [their current employer] can’t support them they’re go-ing to look at another opportunity.”

And Schwartz says that group includes strong President’s Club-level reps who are frustrated in their current position.

Buy and Bye?

Acquisitions will continue to impact hiring, but Crowley dispels the miscon-ception that once the acquisition is an-nounced, everyone is looking to jump ship.

“That’s not always the case,” said Crowley. “Typically, it’s six months to a year after the acquisition happens that individuals—whether it’s the tech side, sales, admin—may be open to having a conversation.”

She recalled Ricoh’s IKON acquisition and her ability to speak with people who wouldn’t have acknowledged her before.

“They were stable and secure in their po-sitions and now, they weren’t, or there wasn’t a clear direction of where the com-pany was going,” recalled Crowley.

It’s highly likely that hiring within the of-fice products and imaging channel will re-main fluid in 2017, and with acquisitions a way of life, the pool of candidates will only get deeper.

The Ideal CandidateCopier Careers Identifies Ideal Imaging Channel Talent Profiles

By Scott Cullen

T A L E N T 2 0 1 7

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Email: scullen@cannatareport.com

• 31 •

This year was big for new product introductions with hardware ven-dors across the board introducing

dozens of new imaging devices. Those new introductions are expected to impact the supplies side of the imaging business in the coming year even more so than they have in the past, according to Charlie Brewer, president of market research firm Actionable Intelligence.

“The last time we saw something like this was in 2010, and at that time, a lot of what we saw was inkjet technology,” recalled Brewer. “Most of the hardware [intro-ductions] this year was for the office, and most of it was electrophotographic. That means that in the marketplace now, the OEMs have close to 100% market share for [the supplies for] that equipment be-cause the aftermarket hasn’t had time to react yet.”

It takes time to reengineer the consum-ables and get them into the channel—about six months for clones and about a year-and-a-half for remanufactured IP-free reengineered product. With all those new product introductions, Brewer predicts this will be a major area of focus for third-party consumables suppliers in 2017.

Higher Ground

One significant trend to keep an eye out for in 2017, and a trend that Actionable Intelligence has witnessed over the past five or six years, is third-party supplies vendors targeting higher-end machines.

“In the past, remanufacturers in the U.S. and China have focused on low-end monochrome machines because they’re easy to make supplies for,” stated Brewer.

“They know the technology, and there’s a huge installed base.”

But if they want to keep their market share, especially as the traditional copier OEMs take market share away from the traditional printer vendors, these compa-nies will need to expand beyond the low-end of the market.

As evidence, Brewer points out that Lex-mark is nowhere near where it used to be with market share, while HP’s revenues released the end of November revealed that its printer business is under $20 bil-lion for the first time since 1999. That sit-uation has a ripple effect, impacting the consumables side of the business as well.

“These guys are losing share, and demand is shrinking,” observed Brewer. “How do you continue to get share? You have to broaden your portfolio and go after these higher-end machines, and that’s exactly what [third-party suppliers] are doing.”

As a result, he sees third parties pliers in-troducing products for machines from the major OEMs such as Ricoh, Konica Mi-nolta, and Toshiba, among others—com-panies that have not traditionally been a target for third-party vendors in the past.

Color Coordinated

Another trend in the third-party supplies world with the potential to impact the dealer channel is what’s happening with color consumables.

“We still have not seen the aftermarket crack that code and penetrate that space, but they’ve been making incremental inroads because there has been so much

more color equipment launched this year, and they’ll continue to get some share there as well,” predicted Brewer.

Let’s Get Small

At one time, the trend in the hardware and supplies markets focused on faster speeds and high-quality output. But, no longer.

“Print quality and speed is there and not a big selling point anymore, so what we’re seeing is smaller,” stated Brewer. Here, he’s referring to the physical size of the cartridge, which ultimately results in less toner waste and more efficient use of what’s in the cartridge. Another trend related to size is the use of low-melt ton-ers—toners based on a polyester resin that melts at a lower temperature than the old styrene acrylate toners.

“Xerox just came out with a machine last week based on their Super-Fine EA ton-er,” said Brewer. “These are smaller par-ticles, [which results in] less-waste toner. We’re going to continue to see these more efficient toner sets and technologies move down market and then up market.”

Supply Side EconomicsTargeting Bigger Boxes, Third-party Suppliers Could Be Moving Upstream in 2017

By Scott Cullen

A Year in Review Webinar

For deeper insight on 2016’s new product in-troductions and what to expect on the supplies side of the market, Actionable Intelligence will be hosting a free Webinar on January 17 at 2 p.m. EST. Visit action-intell.com to sign up for the Webinar.

S U P P L I E S 2 0 1 7

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Email: scullen@cannatareport.com

Here we go again. Another year in the books and another one begin-ning. The wonderful thing about

the imaging industry is that it’s ever-chang-ing, always dynamic. While one might think it’s short on surprises, our industry still manages to find a way to capture our attention just as our cynicism sets in and we start thinking there’s nothing new to surprise us anymore. A case in point is the September announcement about HP ac-quiring Samsung’s printer business.

We can’t think of any major surprises com-ing our way in 2017, but then again, that’s why they’re called surprises. Regardless, we’ve polished our crystal ball and over

the next few pages, we will gaze into the next 12 months of our industry, making a few predictions, while also identifying the trends, people, and companies to watch in 2017, based on the observations we’ve made at industry events, from product announcements, and through interactions

with the dealer and vendor communities. While the majority of the opinions shared in our forecast are those of The Cannata Report team, we’ve also received a little help from our friends for what to expect from the solutions/software, leasing, and supplies segments of the industry.

• 32 •

CANNATA WATCHLIST 2017 I TRENDS I COMPANIES I PEOPLE I EVENTS IAcquisitions Accelerate, Applications Abound, Diversification Deepens, and Print ProgressesBy Scott Cullen

Buyers and sellers. We’ll be seeing more dealers being acquired, along with man-aged services companies, primarily by big dealers of the Dex and Marco variety. Global Imaging Systems will also have a say in what’s happening on the acqui-

sitions front. Expect to see more $10+ million dealerships being acquired, as we did toward the end of 2016 with the acquisition of ASI Business Solutions by Global. Although we can’t say with any certainty that an acquisition of the size

TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2017

TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2017

• 33 •

and scale of Samsung, Sharp, or Lexmark will occur in the coming year on the ven-dor side, we find it doubtful, at least over the next 12 to 18 months. There have al-ways been rumors circulating about some of the smaller players being acquired, but we just don’t see it, especially if you’re referring to companies such as Kyocera and Toshiba. We believe those OEMs will continue to fill the niche they currently fill for years to come.

Apps, apps, and more apps. Seems like every device manufacturer is develop-ing apps for their devices as a means of differentiation. No doubt we’ll see many more apps released in the coming year, including customizable apps, as well as apps created to meet the needs of specific customers as Ricoh announced at its re-cent dealer meeting.

The channel digs deeper into A4. For-get the low margins. The A4 train is picking up steam, and the channel—no matter how reluctant they were about it at first—seems to be embracing it, or at least acknowledging A4 has a future. All the OEMs realize they need to have an A4 offering, but the player we’ll be watching closely in 2017 when it comes to A4 will be HP, thanks in large part to its acquisi-tion of Samsung.

Diversification. The dealer community is expanding beyond the MFP. Not that dealers haven’t diversified before, but this time, there’s much more at stake in the wake of declining print volumes. Ex-amples of diversification include digital signage and digital displays along with MPS and managed services, even if those products and services aren’t exactly brand new. We can even make a case for indus-trial print, which we include later on in our forecast. For an industry that’s been dependent on clicks for so many years, there’s no time like the present to formu-late a plan to offset declining print vol-umes within the office.

Don’t give up on print yet. On the heels of

what we just wrote about diversification, it may sound like we’re about to contra-dict ourselves, but we’re not. Diversifica-tion is still a necessity. However, while print volumes are on the decline, many dealers still tell us they are not experi-encing that within their dealerships, but they know it’s coming. In the meantime, print still represents a significant revenue stream even in the wake of declining print volumes. If a dealer can still capture a fraction of that, it works out to a heck of a lot more than spare change.

Is digital signage and display technol-ogy ready for prime time? With compa-nies like Sharp, Toshiba, and Samsung touting digital signage and displays as the next big thing, we’re still waiting to see if these products will truly capture the hearts and minds of more than just a hand-ful of far-sighted dealers. This is particu-larly true on the big arena-type displays, which seem to be the domain of a direct sales organization right now. It’s doubtful we’ll get an answer as to whether dealers will start moving to digital signage and display technology en masse in 2017, but we may see a few signs.

Hiring and retention remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Our 2016 survey identified this as one of the top three challenges facing the independent dealer channel. That’s unlikely to change in 2017, especially since nobody seems to have come up with the magic formu-la to attract young people to the imaging industry, as well as keep them engaged and on a path to achieving success. In all honesty, the imaging industry isn’t such a bad place to be, but it all comes down to conveying to the younger generation what many of us learned a long time ago. The OEMs look beyond production print. Canon, HP, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, and Xerox remain the top players in the production print space, and none of them have any intention of de-empha-sizing their presence there. Rather, they have higher aspirations than production

print—industrial print. We’ve been tout-ing this opportunity for a few years now, even if few readers are heeding our rec-ommendation. The thing to consider is that the OEMs take this market segment seriously. If dealers aligned with one of these aforementioned OEMs, or even EFI who also has equipment for this space, 2017 will be a good year to learn more about this segment and maybe even make a move to get into it. (For more details on the opportunity here, see Toni McQuilk-en’s column on what to expect in the pro-duction and industrial print space in 2017 on page 22 of this issue.)

Seat-based billing set to transform MPS…or not. As the imaging industry suffers from MPS fatigue, along comes a new concept like seat-based billing (SBB) to reinvigorate it. In reality, seat-based billing isn’t a new concept, having been borrowed from the IT services world. These days, the concept is being touted by Print Audit, Clover, Supplies Network, and certain analysts within the market re-search firm InfoTrends. For all we know right now, and with a certain degree of cynicism, we can confidently say SBB will provide smart dealers with anoth-er strategy for marketing MPS. And for dealers who neglect to invest in the prop-er resources to successfully sell MPS, this will be another opportunity to mess things up. One thing is for sure, the hype around SBB will continue to be at the forefront of the MPS discussion in 2017.

Standalone scanning looks to become the better scanning option. Remember when just about every MFP vendor was touting the scanning capabilities on their MFPs? That’s still a perfectly fine capa-bility, but what certain market segments are discovering is that the scanning func-tion on the MFP isn’t an adequate solu-tion for high-volume scanning. Not that standalone scanners are a new technolo-gy—far from it—but with companies like Panasonic, Epson, and Fujitsu, among others offering standalone scanners for high-volume applications, opportunities

ACDI: This company ranked as the imag-ing industry’s No. 1 software and services provider in The Cannata Report’s annual survey, which is reason enough to keep a close watch on the company in 2017. Consider the speed at which it’s risen to the top of our survey—from not even being mentioned five years ago to being identified as the top software and services provider in 2016. Dealers seem to love ACDI’s PaperCut MF, but that’s not the only reason why we think ACDI is worth watching. Think mobile print (its Presto product), along with document retrieval systems and various professional services offerings. We believe that what we have here is a major software and services pro-vider in the making. Dex: Big dealers are getting bigger, and Dex fits neatly into that category. The company has been growing like crazy through acquisitions, and we expect to see Dex continue to forge ahead on the acquisitions front in 2017. One more thing to think about: Even though Dex is only 14 years old, it has already grown into a $250+ million dealership and is well on its way to becoming a $300 mil-lion dealership.

Clover Imaging Group: Here is the self-described global leader in the recov-ery, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and redeployment of business and electronic assets, partnering with the likes of Konica Minolta and Sharp. How radical is that, even if that’s old news dating back a few years? Clover has taken the lead position among third party vendors in cozying up to the OEMs as a strategic third-party toner supplier, including other services. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Clover will establish partnerships

with other OEMs or broaden relation-ships with its existing partners, as well as whether other third-party suppliers will make similar inroads.

EFI: A couple of years ago, EFI CEO Guy Gecht expressed his intent to grow EFI into a billion-dollar company. If that goal isn’t achieved when EFI’s final numbers are released for 2016, expect to see EFI hit that target in 2017. Once that happens, don’t be surprised if Gecht sets his sights on $2 billion.

EverBank: Less than a month after ru-mors began circulating that EverBank was about to be acquired, the rumors became a reality in August 2016 when the company was acquired by TIAA. Whether becoming part of a company with deep pockets will boost its image in the channel remains to be seen. However, one can’t ignore the fact that EverBank is among the top four leasing companies in the channel already, per our annual dealer survey, and it’s likely that having a well-heeled entity like TIAA behind it will only serve to boost EverBank’s pres-ence in the channel going forward. We’ve also been impressed by EverBank’s will-ingness to develop leasing programs that help incorporate the first year’s supply of ink into a high-end hardware purchase, a program that right now sets the company apart from some of the other leasing firms serving the channel.

Global Imaging Systems: We’ve already covered Global Imaging Systems in the acquisitions trends portion of this article, but keep an eye on just how far the com-pany will extend that acquisition ceiling in 2017. There are still plenty of acquisi-tions targets floating around the channel,

and you can bet Global has its sights set on many of them.

HP: Once the Samsung acquisition is com-plete, will HP expand its footprint deeper into the dealer channel? If so, at whose expense? Those are two burning ques-tions that we’ll be seeing some answers to in the next 12 to 18 months. While neither HP nor Samsung has had much success in the dealer channel to date, the reality is with HP’s new generation of smart MFPs, along with the technology it’ll be lever-aging from Samsung, dealers will find HP hard to ignore this time around.

Lexmark: After gaining some siginficant-ly impressive traction within the channel over the past five years, that traction could be stalled in the coming year, as the result of the acquisition and the emergence of HP as a more viable A3 and A4 provider, along with the departure of Phil Boatman, Lexmark’s best friend to the dealer chan-nel. The deal closed at the end of Novem-ber, with the announcement that the new owners are looking to sell Lexmark’s En-terprise Software Group, newly rebrand-ed as Kofax, and concentrate on the imag-ing business (you can read that as moving boxes). With the channel and the industry increasingly focused on solutions/soft-ware, time will tell if the new owners are doing the right thing or missing out on a big opportunity.

Marco: Look up big dealers who like to buy smaller dealers in the dictionary, and you’ll probably see a photo of Marco’s headquarters or Marco CEO Jeff Gau with checkbook in hand. This is another dealership that we expect to continue to grow in 2017 with a large portion of that growth fueled by acquisitions.

• 34 •

COMPANIES TO WATCH IN 2017

are opening up for dealers to bring more value to certain types of customers.

It’s a young world. Depending on your age, which generation you belong to, or the depth of your musical knowledge, we’re taking the liberty of referencing

Ricky Nelson and his song “It’s a Young World,” but we’re also referencing the unavoidable fact the imaging channel is seeing a proliferation of movers and shak-ers under 40 who are making a mark and making big decisions across all segments of the industry. Many are in second-tier

management roles and have become in-creasingly instrumental in moving their organizations forward. And many will one day take over for this current gener-ation of leaders, steering their organiza-tions and the imaging industry deeper into the future.

Mona Abutaleb (Ricoh Americas Corporation/and mindSHIFT Technologies): The president and CEO of thi IT outsourcing and cloud ser-vices company, now owned by Ricoh, is at the leading edge of the IT services move-ment sweeping the channel. At this point, IT services is still far from commonplace in the channel, even though certain segments of the Ricoh dealer channel are embracing the mindSHIFT offering and expanding their businesses in this direction. We’ll be watch-ing closely in the coming year to see what Abutaleb and her team can do to expand the ini-tial traction mindSHIFT has achieved in the channel since the company was acquired by Ricoh in early 2014.

Doug Albregts (Sharp Elec-tronics Corporation of Amer-ica (SEC)): Albregts has been worth watching ever since he was named presi-dent of Sharp in November 2011. With new owners and a new title, President and CEO Albregts is leading a company that seems to have jettisoned the baggage that had been weighing it down and was a major distrac-tion over the past two years. Now, he can really get down to business and not worry about the financial uncertain-ty of the former parent com-pany in Japan. As he told us earlier this year, Hon Hai, the new owners, want Sharp to be one of the top three copier companies in the U.S. As un-realistic as that may sound, it will be interesting to see what Albregts and compa-ny have planned to take the company in that direction.

Martin Brodigan (Ricoh Americas Corporation): Throughout the year, we speak to many dealers and what we hear consistently from Ricoh dealers about Ricoh’s president and CEO is in regards to his commitment to the dealers versus the di-rect side of Ricoh’s business. Personally, we are not seeing that and find Ricoh’s com-mitment to the channel the strongest it’s been since the IKON acquisition. That said, we’re curious to see over the coming months what the fu-ture has for Brodigan within the Ricoh organization.

Sam Errigo (Konica Minol-ta Business Solutions, USA, Inc.): When it comes to iden-tifying individuals on the fast track within their organiza-tions, one of the first names that comes to mind is Sam Errigo, Konica Minolta’s SVP of Business Intelligence Services. Despite being with the company for a little over seven years, Errigo, in our estimation, is well positioned to take over an even larger leadership role in the organi-zation should that opportuni-ty present itself. We certainly don’t expect that to happen in the short term, but we do ex-pect to see Errigo continue to be one of the most influential voices within the Konica Mi-nolta organization.

Dave Greene (EO Johnson Business Technologies): The new president and COO of EO Johnson has some big shoes to fill in replacing the departing COO Roger King. There’s been a spotty history of individuals moving from the OEM side to the deal-

PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2017Muratec: This company continues to plug along, content to be a dealer’s second or third option. However, in the wake of the Samsung acquisition by HP, all eyes will be on Muratec to see if it’ll be able to maintain that second and third position, or if the company will be odd-man-out, as dealers opt for HP instead.

Sharp: How could you not watch to see what’s going on at Sharp post-acquisi-tion? There’s a lot of optimism in the executive branch at Sharp here in the U.S., and this will likely be the year where we discover if that optimism is founded or unfounded.

Square 9: This is a company that has received consistently high ratings in our annual dealer survey year over year. In a channel where document management and workflow represent big opportunities, Square 9 is firmly perched at the cutting edge of those two applications. If its recent end-user conference was any indicator, we ex-pect to hear a lot more on both of those fronts from Square 9 in 2017.

Wells Fargo: Another company on the hot seat in 2017 is Wells Fargo. Af-ter the turmoil surrounding the com-pany last year with stories of phony accounts and whistleblowers getting canned, one can only wonder what im-pact that will have on the leasing arm of the company. Sources within the company’s leasing organization tell us they’ve been unaffected by the scan-dal, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a certain amount of damage control in store for 2017.

Xerox: Any company that splits in two is worth watching. And with the depar-ture of Ursula Burns and now with Jeff Jacobson taking over, it should be an interesting year at Xerox. Equally in-teresting, based on comments from Ja-cobson at the company’s December an-alyst briefing in New York City in early December, will be its efforts to grow the business through what he called “multi-brand sellers,” or “independent dealers” as we would describe them.

Mona AbutalebSVP, Services, Ricoh Americas

Corporation/President and CEO, mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc.

Doug AlbregtsPresident and CEO, Sharp

Electronics Corp. of America

Martin BrodiganPresident and CEO, Ricoh

Americas Corp.

Sam ErrigoSVP, Business Intelligence Services, Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA

• 35 •

er side and being successful, and one can’t dispute Greene’s impressive ré-sumé within the Ricoh Family Group. Whether or not he can parlay that back-ground and make it work within one of the country’s most successful and progressive dealerships will be some-thing we are looking forward to seeing in 2017.

Yukio Ikeda (Kyocera Document Solutions America, Inc.): Ikeda was named president and CEO on April 1, 2016, and while dealers had an oppor-tunity to meet him for the first time at the company’s dealer meeting back in the spring, the jury is still out as to what impact he will have within the Kyo-cera organization and in the channel. His message earlier this year to dealers about entering into strategic alliances to promote ECM and BPO business globally and eventually to the channel when the timing is right could certainly be a boon to Kyocera and the channel. With the industry changing and acqui-sitions disrupting the status quo, Ikeda will have plenty of work to do to keep Kyocera centered in the minds of the company’s current roster of dealers.

Jeff Jacobson (Xerox Corporation): A new company, a new leader, and a new era dawns at Xerox. Jacobson comes to this position with impressive creden-tials. Now, we’re watching closely to see what’s he going to do with them. Will he be able to grow the business by adding dealers? Will the company be successful in expanding its A4 foot-print into the SMB space by leverag-ing its industry leading MPS program? Lots of questions. Answers to come.

Toyo Kuwamura (Canon U.S.A., Inc.): As EVP of Canon USA and president and CEO of Canon Solutions America, Toyo Kuwamura is responsible for two key business segments within Canon. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by his openness and interest in establishing closer relationships with the industry press, and we’ve been impressed by the

traction of Canon Solutions America, a group within Canon that has been and will remain highly influential in the fu-ture direction of the company in what’s become a solutions-driven industry. His mission has been to create what he refers to as “One Canon,” so that it is virtually the same company, no matter whether you are a dealer or direct. It’s an ambitious mission, and questions remain if he can truly make it work, but we expect to get a better indication of how the One Canon approach takes hold over the next year.

Lexmark Internarional, Inc. Exec-utives (Mike Johnson, Greg Chavers, and Sean Endicott): The Lexmark acquisition by Apex Technology and PAG Asia Capital has raised a lot of questions as to the future not only of Lexmark in the channel but also the fates of many of the employ-ees within the executive branch of the company. There are quite a few talented people in that organization and the question many of them are asking themselves is should I stay or should I go now? Could we see Mike Johnson, Sean Endicott, and Greg Chavers follow Phil Boatman out the door in 2017? Those are the three executives we feel are most likely to hit the road. And now, with the news that the new owners are intent on un-loading the software business, we’re watching anyone involved in their software operations.

Mike Marusic (SEC): After Marusic’s recent promotion to COO of SEC, as well as EVP of Marketing for the B2B sector, Marusic remains one of the hottest commodities within the Sharp organization. Sharp’s new owners have certainly done their homework and have made a major statement with not only Marusic’s promotion but also Doug Albregts’. Having watched Marusic in action ever since his Pana-sonic days, we’ll be looking to see if Marusic and the rest of the executive team at SEC can realize the ambitious

• 36 •

PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2017

Greg ChaversDirector, Value Channel, Lexmark

International, Inc.

Sean EndicottSenior Manager, NA Channel

Business Development, Lexmark International, Inc.

Dave GreenPresident and COO, EO Johnson

Business Technologies

Yukio IkedaPresident and CEO, Kyocera

Document Solutions America , Inc.

Jeff JacobsonPresident, Xerox Corporation

Mike JohnsonVP, North America, Business Channels and SMB, Lexmark

International, Inc.

Toyo KuwamuraEVP, Canon U.S.A., Inc./

President and CEO of Canon Solutions America

Mike MarusicCOO, Sharp Electronics Corporation of America

goals set forth by the company’s new Chinese owners.

David Reeder (Lexmark): After Lex-mark’s acquisition by Apex Technolo-gy and PAG Asia Capital in November, Reeder was named president and CEO of Lexmark, assuming the role previ-ously held by Paul Rooke. Reeder, who has a strong financial background, was previously VP and CFO at Lexmark for just under two years. Prior to that, he held financial positions at companies like EFI, Cisco, Broadcom, and Texas In-struments. With the acquisition complete, it will be interesting to see what happens with key Lexmark personnel, and specif-

ically if Lexmark will be able to grow its imaging business within the dealer chan-nel, as well as how quickly the company will unload Kofax, formerly Lexmark’s Enterprise Software Group.

Dion Weisler (HP Inc.): The president and CEO of HP Inc. since November 2015 certainly has a lot to talk about after the Samsung acquisition and the big September 2016 rollout of a new A3 line that many adept industry ob-servers, us included, feel offer the potential to completely disrupt the industry. Weisler undoubtedly has a lot on his plate, but the biggest chal-lenge he has now, at least where our primary audience is concerned, is sell-ing dealers on HP as an A3 provider.

HP has struck out twice before in chasing the channel with its MFPs, but its new A3 line could be the softball HP needs to get the big hit.

David ReederPresident and CEO, Lexmark

International, Inc.

Dion WeislerPresident and CEO, HP Inc..

• 37 •

Acknowledging that dealer meetings and independent dealer group meetings are “must attends” for the average indepen-dent dealer, here are our recommenda-tions for industry conferences and events that should also be on your calendar for 2017.

The Executive Connection SummitDates and Location TBA

We don’t have a date for this one yet, but MWA CEO Mike Stramaglio has created what we consider one of the premier ven-dor agnostic events in the industry. Like most worthwhile events, it’s part educa-tion and part networking. And when we mean networking, we mean an opportuni-ty to rub elbows with some of the indus-try’s leading movers and shakers.

EFI ConnectJanuary 17–20, Las Vegas, Nev.

Connect is a user conference with more than 148 seminars on Fiery technology and everything dealers need to know about workflow while maximizing the potential of the hardware. In attending this conference consistently since 2004, we firmly believe that dealers need to

PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2017

EVENTS IN 2017

Top: From left to right: Jennie Fisher (GreatAmerica) leads panel discussion with Dave Scibetta (Copy Fax Business Technologies), John Swalwell (PERRY proTECH), Barry Simon (Datamax), and Mike

McGuirk (ProCopy), addressing company culture and finding and retaining talent. Bottom: EFI VUTEk GS3LX and various output on display at Connect 2016

send their best and brightest techs that support digital presses to this conference. It is a great opportunity to learn and bet-ter understand all that is available.

Graph Expo/Print 17September 10–14, Chicago, Ill.

If you’re a dealer and have any inclina-tion of boosting your footprint in the pro-duction print space or getting a better un-derstanding of what industrial print is all about, you’re shortchanging yourself and your business if you ignore Graph Expo. It’s an easy show to navigate, and even if dealers are well aware of their own OEM’s offerings, a visit to Graph Expo will provide them with a vivid picture of the overall production and industrial print markets, as well as allow dealers to get close and personal with the buyers dealers will need to know if they end up diversi-fying into industrial print.

BTA’s Regional Conferences and National Conference Various Dates/Locations (See “On the Road” on page 48)

BTA continues to do an amazing job with its regional conferences, and here again is another opportunity to be educated and network with peers and key players in the industry. Yes, dealers will likely see many of the usual industry suspects at these events, but if they’re looking to stay on top of the trends and issues that can impact their business, a BTA regional conference or the National Conference is a must. Visit the BTA website (bta.org) to see the dates and locations for the four regional shows, as well as the national conference.

The Cannata Report Annual Awards & Charities Dinner and Women Influencers Brunch Dates and Location TBA

Allow us to indulge in a little self promo-tion. We continue to be amazed and grat-ified by the industry-wide response to our annual awards and charities event. Over the past few years, we’ve enhanced and reinvented the event to give it more of an “awards show” flair, while not losing sight of its primary purpose—to raise money for worthy charities. And now, with the addition of a Women Influencers Brunch

the following day, we are expanding our footprint and continuing to highlight the contributions of the many notable women serving our industry.

• 38 •

CR

Questions About This Story? Contact Scott Cullen

Phone: (609) 406-1424

Email: scullen@cannatareport.com

EVENTS IN 2017

Top: Graph Expo Show 2016 show floor Middle: 2015–2016 BTA President Dave Quint (Advanced Systems, Inc.) addresses the audience at June 2016 90th Anniversary Gala. Bottom: The Cannata

Report 31st Annual Awards & Charities Dinner

Editor’s Note: We have arranged for a 15% subscriber discount. Please visit efi.com.connect/registration and enter code CFT-1099-FC25 and read “Up Next on page 46 for more details.)

More than three decades ago, Tarek Hafiz, president of CBE Office Solutions in Irvine, California,

received advice from his father that sent him hurtling reluctantly down a new ca-reer path. However, it turned out to be one that has provided him with stability, secu-rity, and an opportunity to make a differ-ence in his community.

Born in Egypt, Hafiz spent his first nine years there before moving with his fam-ily to Kuwait for the next nine. At age 18, he arrived in the U.S. to attend school in 1978. Although he never finished his formal education, he was still able to acquire a priceless amount of business acumen from toiling in various sales po-sitions, including selling retail clothing and insurance, in the years that followed. None of those sales positions appealed to him, but he did soon discover something

about himself that would distinctly shape his future—he had a knack for selling.

The problem was figuring out what to sell. That question was answered when his fa-ther, who sold copiers in Kuwait, suggest-ed he try selling copiers here in the U.S. At first, that idea didn’t appeal to Hafiz. Regardless, he applied for sales positions at two different copier dealerships and was offered positions at both. He accept-ed a position with a Southern California Konica dealership. That position would provide him with a keen understanding of the copier business and eventually lead him to starting his own dealership.

Hafiz remained with that dealership for six years, but after being passed over for a sales management position and feeling unhappy about the direction of the com-pany, he left. That’s when Hafiz received

some equally helpful advice from his brother, who owned a computer com-pany in Southern California called Cell Micro. He suggested that Hafiz start his own copier dealership, pointing out that he was already making money for oth-er people. Why shouldn’t he make some more money for himself?

His brother set aside office space in his warehouse for Hafiz, and his copier deal-ership, Cell Business Equipment, was up and running in 1993. After Hafiz’s brother sold the business a few years later, he was left with the name CBE, which today op-erates as CBE Office Solutions.

CBE has grown to become a $35-mil-lion dealership, selling Sharp, Canon/Océ, Ricoh, Samsung, and HP, along with solutions from Nuance, Print Audit, La-serfiche, and Prism Software.

The Incredible JourneyAfter arriving in the U.S. from Kuwait at age 18 in 1978, Tarek Hafiz would eventually discover he had a skill for selling, leading to ownership of one of Southern California’s most successful office technology dealerships.

By Scott Cullen

2016 DEALER PROFILE SERIES Presented by LMI Solutions

Tarek HaftzPresident, CBE Office SolutionsCBE headquarters in Irvine, California

• 39 •

• 40 •

Diversity Rules at CBE

Southern California has a rich mixture of social and economic backgrounds, races, religions, ethnicities, ages, cultures, and countries of birth among its population, and Hafiz and his employees mirror that diversity. At CBE, there’s mix of nation-alities, including Filipinos, Cubans, Viet-namese, Cambodians, and Romanians, as well as African Americans and Latinos. Hafiz firmly believes that this diversity makes a difference to CBE’s customers.

“When a customer calls, they know there is someone from their community on the other end doing business with them,” he said. “We’re an American company, but we have many nationalities and speak many languages here—English, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, Romanian.”

CBE also has a few employees who are U.S. military veterans.

“We are so proud to have them on our team,” stated Hafiz.

In Search of More Growth

Business has been good this year, even if CBE hasn’t been growing as rapidly

compared with past years. That said, the dealership is tracking ahead of last year, so Hafiz is satisfied.

CBE’s core business is 35–45 ppm MFPs. While most of CBE’s customers are SMBs, the dealership also serves school districts, government agencies, financial institutions, and some larger entities.

Of late, the dealership has been doing well with Canon, Océ, and Ricoh produc-tion and wide-format equipment. Produc-

The CBE team reflects the diversity found in Southern California.

“When a customer calls, they know there is someone from their community on the line doing business with them,” Hafiz said.

An Award-Winning Dealership

A dealership that has grown its rev-enues to more than $30 million a year is clearly doing a few things right, and the evidence can be found among the many awards CBE has earned and reaped over the years. CBE is a 10-time recipient of the Sharp Hyakuman Kai Elite Dealer Award and a five-time winner of the Ricoh Partnership Award for Out-standing Sales Performance. The company has also won numerous ITEX Perfect Image Awards in an array of different categories, includ-

ing Outstanding Sales Program, Best Use of Company Website, and Outstanding Community Involve-ment. From 2000–2015, CBE was named one of the Fastest Growing Sharp Providers in the Western Re-gion for 16 consecutive years.

Outside the imaging industry, CBE has been named one of the 100 Fastest Growing Business in Or-ange County by the Orange County Business Journal and was one of the 5000 Fastest Growing Busi-nesses named by Inc. Magazine in 2009 and 2010.

• 41 •

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• 42 •

tion is CBE’s fastest growth area, as well as government contracts.

“We’re trying to grow those as fast as we can,” Hafiz said who adds there’s still room for improvement, particularly in the production space. “The biggest challenge is to keep dedicating our sales reps to find opportunities. [The opportunities are] there, it’s just a matter of finding them.”

Other new opportunities that Hafiz is en-couraging his sales reps to pursue include MPS and IT services. Here, the challenge is changing the mindset of his sales reps who are used to closing business on the spot or within a shorter sales cycle.

“That’s probably one of the reasons why copier companies struggle [with MPS and IT],” observed Hafiz. “The MPS and IT sale takes longer so guys try to stay away from it. We’re trying to get our sales peo-ple to understand it takes a little longer, but the rewards are a lot better.”

MPS is another growth area for CBE. The company began offering MPS seven years ago, but it wasn’t until two years ago that this segment began to take off, thanks, in part, to the addition of two MPS specialists.

“That’s a business that’s growing, and if

the opportunity arises from HP buying Samsung, that might help us with MPS because most of the equipment we have under MPS is HP,” noted Hafiz.

CBE’s acquisition of an IT company ear-lier this year is expected to further grow the MPS side of the business, as well as position the company for future growth in an ever-evolving industry where page volumes are declining.

“We service the customer with the copi-er,” said Hafiz. “We service the customer with the scanner. We service the customer with their printer. We service the custom-er with mailing equipment. And they all connect to one thing, and that one thing is the server. Whoever controls the server controls everything around it. That gives us an opportunity to go back to our cus-tomer base and earn their business on the IT side. If we protect the customer that way, we protect ourselves.”

To assist with IT, Hafiz hired an individ-ual with experience running the IT busi-nesses of Canon and Konica Minolta. His initial responsibility is merging CBE’s office technology operations with the IT company, which were still operating as separate companies at press time. As of January 1, the two will operate as one.When it comes to selling IT services and

MPS, Hafiz noted patience is a virtue and growth doesn’t happen overnight. Be-sides the addition of the two MPS special-ists, tweaking sales reps’ compensation plans has also helped this segment of the business grow. To achieve their quarterly bonus, CBE’s reps must bring in one MPS account and one IT account each quarter. That strategy has been just the ticket for getting a sales rep’s attention. Now, a dis-cussion of CBE’s MPS and IT services offerings is part of every sales call.

“These are the things the sales rep has to mention to the customer, and once he mentions them, you find there is some-body out there looking for whatever you’re selling,” noted Hafiz, who also be-lieves that the dealer can bring a certain component to IT services that is mostly missing right now. “We know service bet-ter than anyone else.”

Hafiz has high hopes for IT and expects CBE to derive most of its income from IT services in the future.

“Most of my sales [reps] are too young to know that copier companies with type-writers, and you see where typewriters are today,” stated Hafiz. “I don’t think the copier will disappear completely, but I don’t think it’s going to be the biggest part of the business [in the future].”

“Whoever controls the server controls everything around it. That gives us an opportunity to...earn their business on the IT side,”

Hafiz said.

Supporting the Community

CBE is highly committed to giving back to the local community that supports and sustains its busi-ness, and 5% of all of the dealer-ship’s profit is donated back into the local community. The several beneficiaries of CBE’s gener-ous support include the follow-ing groups: Angels on the Front-line, Arch of Southern California, Habitat for Humanity, Share for SELVES, Orange County Mis-sion, and the Southern Califor-nia chapter of Easter Seals. CBE also supports youth sports teams, community endeavors, and local food banks, and donates equip-ment to non-profit organizations.

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• 44 •

The CBE Edge

CBE’s primary competition in Los Ange-les, Orange County, and San Diego mar-kets are manufacturers’ direct branches.

“We don’t compete against as many [in-dependent] dealers as we used to, but the manufacturer is tough competition,” lamented Hafiz. “We carry four product lines, so we compete against our own manufacturers, and they’re basically buying the business. It is frustrating, but I don’t know what we can do to change that. Not every manufacturer gives it away, but I understand that they need to keep the factories running, and that’s why they do it.”

Despite his frustration, Hafiz still feels that CBE has an edge when selling against direct branches.

“A dealership is better equipped to serve the customer than the manufacturer is,” he contended. “[For exaample], my guys can walk in here, they can text me, call me anytime, and we can make a decision on the spot. We can do things the manu-facturer can’t do. We joke and say, ‘We can deliver a machine faster than they can deliver a pizza.’”

Sometimes that’s within an hour of clos-ing the deal.

After more than 30 years in the business, what’s the biggest difference of the CBE of today compared to when Hafiz first started the business?

“I’m a lot older and have gray hair today,” he laughed.

But seriously, the biggest difference has been CBE’s growth, in the number of customers it serves, the revenue it has brought in, and the increase in personnel. Today, CBE employs more than 110 peo-ple, and Hafiz appreciates the contribu-tions of every one. It is CBE’s team that is responsible for the company’s success. They’re the ones who continue to moti-vate Hafiz to get up every morning and come to work.

“One of the things that excites me most is seeing the growth in my people,” said Hafiz. “I have people who have been here over 20 years. Some have been here for 18 years—[people] who started here out of college now have homes and families and are involved in the community. That’s what really makes me happy.”

Hafiz remains on a focused mission to instill his obvious and infectious enthusi-asm about coming into work every day to his employees.

“I tell [my employees] that the day will come when on Friday, you’re looking forward to coming back to work on Mon-day,” said Hafiz. “That’s the culture I want to build in this company.”

With our early Monday morning inter-view winding down, it’s just about time for Hafiz to start his week. Next up for him is a meeting with his VP of Sales to plan the week ahead, followed by a visit to his new IT company. Then it’s back to the office for an interview with another job candidate.

“We’re always looking for good people,” Haifz told me. “We used to hire a lot fast-er, but it’s now become a challenge to find good people.”

Despite both the challenges and the suc-cesses of running a dealership in this in-dustry, the one thing Hafiz doesn’t have is any regrets.

“I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing,” he said.

CR

Questions About This Story? Contact Scott Cullen

Phone: (609) 406-1424

Email: scullen@cannatareport.com

“A dealership is better equipped to serve the customer than the manufacturer... We can make a decision on the spot,” Hafiz

said.

Tarek Hafiz (center) with two L.A. Clippers cheerleaders during a CBE Open House. The Clippers are one of CBE’s customers.

• 45 •

Since my days as a DSM, dealers have taught me the meaning of the word entrepreneur. I have a great respect

for what these successful entrepreneurs I have met during my career have built. One of those successes is Roger King. I first met Roger King at a BPCA meeting some 10 years ago. He is truly one of the most special people in this business, and one who is admired by many.

A few months ago, we learned that Roger was retiring from EO Johnson Compa-ny, where he has served as President and COO. It was the only company he ever worked for (after completing his edu-cation) in this industry. He graduated in May 1975 from the University of Wis-consin and the following Monday, he was hired by EO Johnson Company in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

“When I met E.O., I was so impressed with him,” said Roger. “I said to myself ‘I want to work for this guy.’”

Roger is a humble man and has said to me

many times, “we are truly blessed,” and “count your blessings.”

For the company EO Johnson, it all began when Emory Orville Johnson became a 3M Thermo Fax dealer in 1957. For the next 18 years, Johnson built a company that would become an industry leader with offices in Wasua and Eau Claire. When Roger joined the company in 1975, he was trained on the 3M Thermofax VQC3, and it was the first model he sold.

As for 3M, the company was acquired by Harris, then Lanier, and finally Ricoh. The Lanier line continues to be sold by Ricoh today. EO Johnson added Canon in 1979 with the NP 200, a revolutionary copier for its day in that was an A3 tabletop machine, operating at a speed of 20-cpm, with a tra-versing top employing fiber optics.

When talking to Roger, you get the dis-tinct impression that he has enjoyed every one of his 41 years in the business.

“I get up all the time looking forward to

going to work,” he noted. “This business is all about what we make of it.”

By that he means taking advantage of all the opportunities our industry provides. His persistent goal is to “maintain a rel-evancy to the customer,” which we inter-pret as taking care of the customer.

“They know we are there to help them,” stated Roger. “What is neat about what we [EO Johnson] do is our approach in figuring out what the customer needs—learning about the customer’s business so

Exit InterviewRespected EO Johnson Company President and COO Roger King RetiresBy Frank G. Cannata

A Caring Company

For 41 years, Roger King has worked for a company he truly loves, doing something he enjoyed more than anything else in the world: “Helping our customers,” as Roger put it.

EO Johnson Company can best be described as a dealership that is high-ly introspective and does business in a proactive fashion seemingly always in anticipation what their customers need from them. In 2009, when the economic downturn was hurting many companies and their employees, CEO Mary Jo Johnson held a board meeting to address what the company should be doing to help their customers who might be struggling financially.

The Board looked at recent sales to large accounts (over less than one year) and then determined how many employees those customers were go-ing to let go. That information allowed them to discern how many machines in the field they had leased for five years that would now become idle as a result of the economic downturn.

Then, they came up with a plan, in conjunction with their leasing partners, and began visiting those customers to explain that they understood their pain and had a plan to lessen some of their burden. When they told the customers that they would take back machines that were no longer needed, contingent upon rewriting of the leas-ing agreement, customers could not believe it. Roger originally told me this story in 2011, and he added, “Do you think any of those people we helped in that way would ever want to buy from anyone else?”

“It’s all about doing the right thing and having fun in what you do,”

said King.

• 46 •

A Few Words from Roger’s Peers

“Roger King has played an integral role in the overall growth of EO Johnson through the years, and the expansion of the business with Lanier/Ricoh. He has always exemplified the highest lev-el of integrity, passion, and cooperation throughout his career. Although I am sure he will continue to have an influ-ence on the business, we will miss work-ing with him on regular basis.”

Jim Coriddi, Vice President, Dealer Divi-sion, Ricoh Americas Corporation

“Roger King embodies the words ‘Val-ued Leader’ in every sense—personally and professionally. His integrity, intelli-gence, genuineness, and energy inspire others to be their best and believe that they can.”

Jennie Fisher, SVP and GM, Office

Equipment Group, GreatAmerica Finan-cial Services

“Roger King has been a great partner and a great friend to Canon for decades. He has been instrumental in making Canon a household name throughout Central Wisconsin, and his advice, partnership, and expertise have been substantial in building Canon’s relationship with EO Johnson. We wish Roger the very best in his retirement, and we hope that the legacy strength that he has built between Canon and EO Johnson Company will grow even stronger through what he has accomplished in his storied career.”

Paul Francis Piotrowski, Director of Field Sales, Canon U.S.A.

“Roger King has been a long-time sup-porter and key member of the BPCA. He has really worked tirelessly to promote and assist the dealer organization, and

no one represents what we try to be as an organization better than EO Johnson and Roger King, in particular.”

James Kreikemeier, President and CEO, Capital Business Systems, Inc., and im-mediate past president of BPCA

“Roger has truly been an outstanding ambassador for GreatAmerica! Once we earned his respect, confidence and trust, he seemed to find every opportu-nity possible to help us. Roger is also one of the most sincere and genuine people I have ever known. Within Great-America, Roger has really become like a member of the family, so whenever he comes to visit, it feels like a real reunion. He is obviously a great customer of ours, but even more importantly, we sincerely cherish his friendship.”

David Pohlman, Office of the President, COO, GreatAmerica Financial Services

that we are able to suggest something that makes sense.”

When conducting interviews such as these, we like to ask about what delivered the greatest sense of accomplishment. Roger had a tough time answering this question simply because his fundamental belief is that it’s not about him, but about the company and how it chooses to go to market. He’s proud of the culture that he has helped create and foster at EO John-son and how management team takes care of its employees and business partners.

“It is all about doing the right thing and having fun in what you do,” said Rog-er. This response was typical of how he thinks and how he lives.

After knowing Roger for about a decade, I can easily tell you what it is about Rog-er that I admire so much. Roger is a man who firmly believes nobody ever does anything alone. Life is all about working with good people and providing products and services that help the customer and that we could be proud of.

Roger King is humble. He feels fortunate to know so many entrepreneurs whom he feels are the heartbeat of our industry.

“There are so many remarkable brilliant dealers out there who do such awesome things,” he said. “Look at what these dealers have done to give back to the community.” What Roger would not say is that he is all about giving back. Every year, he sends The Cannata Report personal checks for our Annual Dinner and veterans’ causes.

“I look at it is an honor and a blessing to be part of this business that continues to offer a great future,” stated Roger. “If I had to give any advice to the dealers in our business, I would encourage owners to give back to the industry.”

We enjoy Roger’s down home way of de-scribing things.

“They talk about the dash,” he said. “You know, the one on your tombstone—the time you were born and time you died,” he said. “Left unsaid is what did you do with that life.”

Even as he is preparing to retire, Roger is still giving thanks to others.

“I was fortunate to have E.O. Johnson as a mentor and friend who had such a huge impact on my life,” he said. “I also

have to say that [CEO] Mary Jo Johnson is a remarkable person and a remarkable owner with a heart of gold. She challeng-es all of us.”

Although he is retiring, Roger still plans to stick around the business, doing the special projects for Mary Jo, as he eases into a more relaxed schedule and spends more time with his family. The Kings have two boys and four grandchildren, with one more on the way. Roger still plans on attending the annual BPCA meeting, at least in 2017, and we hope we have an opportunity to see him there.

In all certainty, Roger King can look back with a great deal of pride for what he has contributed over his 41 years in our industry. He leaves a company of 275 employees that generates $53 million in annual revenue. If I had to make a bi-opic of Roger’s life story, the end scene would feature him walking out the door with Frank Sinatra’s “The Best is Yet to Come” playing.

Questions About This Story?Contact Frank G. Cannata

Email: fgcannata@cannatareport.com

Phone: (860) 614-5711

CR

• 47 •

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• 48 •

Marketing Research Consultants LLC and our publishing arm The Cannata Report are truly looking forward to 2017, and we have several items in motion that we believe will continue to elevate our brand and highly engage our audience and partners.

The Cannata Report will celebrate our 35th anniversary as a publishing enti-ty (initially marking the occasion with a 35th Anniversary issue and complemen-tary digital-only content and then carry-ing the theme throughout the year), 35 years to the month (February 1982) that The Cannata Report launched its first issue under the original moniker “Office Machine News.” (To advertise or devel-op a marketing program in conjunction with that issue cycle or anchored by the anniversary theme, please contact me at cjcannata@cannatareport.com.)

We will also launch thecannatareport.com Version 3.0, attend CeBIT 2017 in Hanover, Germany, and host our 32nd Annual Awards & Charities Dinner and 2nd Annual Women Influencers brunch.

We also have plans in the works to vis-it more dealerships across the country. However, immediately up next is EFI Connect in February. As published in magazine and online last month, EFI and The Cannata Report will provide the first 25 subscribers to commit with a 15% discount to attend the show, along with a subscriber tour of the Connectshow floor, hosted by EFI and The Can-nata Report, by visiting efi.com/connect/registration and entering the code CFT-1099-FC25.

See you next year!

UP NEXT By CJ Cannata

CR

EFI Connect Users Conference*The WynnJanuary 17–20, 2017Las Vegas, Nev.efi.com/connect SDG Owner MeetingThe Resort at Pelican HillMarch 2–3Pelican Hill, Calif. bta.org/mpage/sdgmain CDA CEO/Owner MeetingThe CloistersMarch 16–17Sea Island, Ga.cdainfo.org/ CeBIT 2017Hanover Exhibition GroundsMarch 20–24Hanover, Germanycebit.de/home

BTA Southeast 2017 Spring BreakDisney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

March 24–25, 2017Orlando, Fla.bta.org

ITEXMandalay BayApril 18–20Las Vegas, Nev.itexshow.com Kyocera FY17 Dealer MeetingBellagioApril 18–20Las Vegas, Nev.amy.nolletti@da.kyocera.com SDG Owner/CFO MeetingGrand Hyatt DFW International AirportMay 2–3DFW Airport, Texasbta.org/mpage/sdgmain Toshiba America Business Solu-tions and Toshiba Global Com-merce SolutionsLEAD 2017

Venue TBAMay 2–7Orlando, Fla.rick.havacko@tabs.toshiba.com

BPCA Spring Best Practices MeetingOne Ocean Resort and SpaMay 15–18Jacksonville, Fla.businessproductscouncil.org

BTA Mid-America Gateway to SuccessVenue TBAJune 7–8Kansas City, Mo.bta.org CDA CEO/Owner MeetingThe BroadmoorJuly 13–14Colorado Springs, Colo.cdainfo.org PRINT 17 (Graph Expo 2017)McCormick PlaceSeptember 10–-14Chicago, Ill.graphexpo.com BPCA Fall Owners MeetingRitz-Carlton ReynoldsSeptember 24–28Lake Oconee, Ga.businessproductscouncil.org

BTA West 2017 National ConferenceVenue TBAAugust TBA, 2017Las Vegas, Nev.bta.org

BTA East Grand SlamVenue TBASeptember TBA, 2017Philadelphia, Penn.bta.org

BTA Southeast Fall Colors RetreatVenue TBAOctober 19–20, 2017Asheville, NCbta.org

ON THE ROAD

The Cannata Report32nd Annual Awards & Charities DinnerVenue TBAOctober TBA, 2017New York Metropolitan Areathecannatareport.com

The Cannata Report2nd Annual Women Influencers BrunchVenue TBAOctober TBA, 2017New York Metropolitan Areathecannareport.com

Key Confirmed Industry Events Calendar (Q1 2017–Q4 2017)

Note that The Cannata Report will be represented at the events marked with an asterisk. To inquire about making a listing or which members of The Cannata Report will attend events as indicated, email cjcannata@cannatareport.com.

* Denotes that one or more senior representatives–Frank Cannata, Carol Cannata, CJ Cannata, Scott Cullen, or Sharon Tosto Esker–from The Cannata Report will be in attendance. Email cjcannata@cannatareport.com to find out specifically who will be present.

EFI Connect 2016

Special Offer for Subscribers: Receive a 15% discount to Connect 2017. Visit efi.com/connect/registration and enter code CFT-1099-FC25.

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