*NEWS*RICOH UK TURNS TO NORTHAMBER

[Anonymous]

Ricoh turns to Northamber
Ricoh wants to recuit 100 VARs by the end of the year Jan 2007
Ricoh
has signed a distribution agreement with Northamber to help it reach
its target of recruiting 100 IT VARS by the end of the
year.Historically, Ricoh’s route to market has been through its stable
of copier dealers, but the vendor has been tasked with growing its
share of the UK printer market and claimed IT VARs are essential in
helping it increase printer sales.Chas Moloney, associate director,
marketing, at Ricoh, told CRN: “Northamber had a gap in its portfolio
for one more printer vendor and we were looking for a distributor, so
it is a good match. Northamber will be involved recruiting resellers;
it is very much a partnership between us and Northamber.“Ricoh has made
it difficult for IT VARs to obtain Ricoh printers so the signing of
Northamber should address this and make us easier to do business with
for the IT channel.”Henry Matthews, managing director at Northamber,
said: “There is no doubt that print offers some fantastic opportunities
for the IT channel, but it is still a tough market to crack. Ricoh has
demonstrated its intent to establish itself as a major player in this
market and we are confident that its track record will help to
distinguish Ricoh from the competition.Louella Fernandes, principal
analyst at Quocirca, said: “Northamber has relationships with thousands
of IT resellers, which should help Rioch extend its potential well
beyond the copier market. However, it will need to make sure its
offering is compelling enough to displace incumbent suppliers who have
a stronger brand awareness in the office printing space.“Ricoh also
needs to offer channel support, such as the total cost of ownership
tools and supplies management services that are offered by many of its
competitors.”Martin Ebbage, sales director at rival printer vendor Oki,
said: “It takes years of development and activity to get a viable
reseller channel established. Ricoh has a good name in the market, but
it will have to work on its proposition to the channel. It is a crowded
market and it will come down to the strength of Ricoh’s products and
its channel offering.”

Ricoh UK hopes to score with GelSprinter
Ricoh
UK’s plans to grow its share of the printer market by working directly
with resellers have been put on hold following a delay in the launch of
its GelSprinter printers in the UK. Laura Hailstone reports from
Ricoh’s dealer conference in MadridAt the beginning of the year, CRN
exclusively revealed that Ricoh UK wanted to work directly with IT
resellers for the first time to expand into new sectors and increase
its share of the printer market The vendor revealed that it had
embarked upon a six-month trial with its super-distributor Computer
Connections InternationaL  to help it target resellers. Previously,
Ricoh’s route to market in the UK had been 70 per cent through its
copier dealers and 30 per cent direct.In July, Ricoh appointed a
business-to-business  telemarketing firm, Tangible Results, to target
4,000 UK resellers . The vendor was looking to recruit 100 IT resellers
to sell its entire range of printers, including its new low-cost
desktop printers – the GelSprinters. The printers were due for launch
in the UK in April, but have since suffered a delay.Speaking to CRN at
Ricoh’s 2006 dealer conference in Madrid, Paul Cheetham, director of
dealer sales at Ricoh UK, said: “The global production of the
GelSprinters has been swallowed up by the Japanese domestic market:
10,000 GelSprinters were sold in the first month in Japan. Ricoh is
ramping up production in China to meet global demand, but at the moment
we are queuing up with other countries for our supply. We are waiting
until there are enough GelSprinters to meet demand.”Cheetham added that
he hoped Ricoh UK will receive its quota of GelSprinters by December or
January, but he is uncertain because of the strong demand for the
printers in Japan.“In Japan, Ricoh is the equivalent of how [dominant]
Hewlett-Packard [HP] is in the UK,” he said. “Japan is a guaranteed
market for Ricoh printers, especia lly with Christmas approaching, so
for us to announce a launch date is impossible.“We had one firm
interested in buying 10,000 units, but we can’t pursue that until we
know when they will be ready to deliver. To get the printer from the
factory to us could take two months. Our initial allocation was 250,
which we re ceived and they all went. We are confident that in two or
three months, these products will be available in the UK. The good
thing is that we are starting to build relationships with IT resellers,
so we are doing a lot of the legwork in preparation for the official
launch.”Ricoh has given itself until the end of 2007 to reach its
target of recruiting 100 IT resellers.Sofia Dahlqvist, Ricoh’s dealer
channel marketing manager, said: “The telemarketing campaign went well.
From the 4,000 resellers that were targeted, 500 showed an interest in
Ricoh and we are now communicating with them. A lot of resellers didn’t
realise Ricoh makes printers, so it was a really good exercise in
creating awareness of the Ricoh brand and product range.”Although Ricoh
hasn’t signed any resellers yet, Cheetham believes it will happen
suddenly.“It’s not going to be a gradual process of recruiting IT
resellers,” he said. “We think it will be a ‘big-bang’ effect at some
stage. The critical success factor will be the launch of the
GelSprinters. What’s great is the amount of what I call the ‘welcome
mat’ reaction we’re getting. Gaining an appointment with an IT reseller
is one of the easiest things in our business at the moment.”This is
good news for Richard Allison, Ricoh’s regional sales manager for new
business, who has been given the task of growing Ricoh’s UK printer
business.“If there are businesses up and down the country who trust
Ricoh to put a £5,000 or £10,000 multi-functional device [MFD] in their
office, on their network, then they will trust us to put a £500 printer
into their office,” he said. “If they trust us for their high-value
items, then they will trust us for their low-value items.“My plan is to
establish relationships with key IT VARs and develop relationships with
key distributors.”One such distributor is Northamber, which Allison
revealed Ricoh is in talks with.“Things are looking positive, but it
isn’t a done deal yet,” he said. “Northamber is an old established
company that doesn’t take out new partnerships very often. It won’t
just jump into bed with any print manufacturer.”Philip Grote, research
analyst at Current Analysis, said that putting the recruitment of
resellers on pause could be dangerous for Ricoh because it gives
competitors more time to push their products.“Ricoh needs to go full
steam ahead and get some contracts signed,” he said. “The Northamber
deal will give the company access to a large IT reseller base because
it is more business focused than CCI, but that is only the first
step.“Ricoh needs to ramp up its channel support programme and give
VARs the right tools to sell. Total cost-of-ownership tools that show
cost savings to the client, as well as service programmes that allow
VARs to lock-in consumables revenue after the hardware is sold, are
some of the things manufactures are doing to get resellers’ attention.
Ricoh needs be ready for that.”Grote added that Ricoh’s GelSprinters
will be competing against HP’s new ink-based print technology –
Edgeline – which is due for release next spring.Katie Palmer, MFD
product manager for HP’s Imaging and Printing Group, said: “The
development of this technology combines the benefits of ink and laser.
It will arm channel partners with a market-leading technology that has
some of the best printing speeds, operating costs and reliability in
its class. This is a very compelling proposition for workgroup printing
in the enterprise. The products will provide text and graphics print
quality using specially formulated HP Vivera inks.”Andrew Aikman, sales
director at Ricoh dealer Capital Solutions, said: “Ricoh UK hasn’t been
setting the heather on fire with printer sales, but to be fair neither
have we. So it makes sense for Ricoh to look at a different route to
market for its printers.“If IT VARs do well with the GelSprinters in
the small office/home office market and can help to grow Ricoh’s brand,
then that can only be a good thing for Ricoh’s traditional dealers.”

[Author]

January 29, 2007 at 9:59 AM