European Headlines: Channeling Thought Leadership
In an exclusive interview, European office printing visionary Edwin Jongsma advises dealers on positioning themselves for future success.
There’s no better way to get a clear picture of a distant country’s managed print services landscape than to talk to someone who helped shape that industry. A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking with Edwin Jongsma, previously commercial director, Xtandit B.V., a supplier of document management solutions based in Woerden, the Netherlands,”¯and time-traveling through 30 years of office imaging in the Netherlands and Europe with him.
Jongsma started out in 1989 when MFPs, software solutions, and managed print services, were future concepts and copiers the daily bread and butter of a hardware salesman. It would take office printing another 10 years before the first software solutions hit the market, the dinosaurs of device monitoring, print tracking, controlled print-job release, and scan and route. It was back then when connecting printers and MFPs to a local network added services beyond printer installation and maintenance to a dealership’s offering.
In 2002, Xtandit, the dealership Jongsma used to work for, set out to build offerings we would now consider basic managed print services. It took them another decade to become a managed print services-led dealership, fully embracing all aspects of MPS, setting up a customer help desk, and working on the right balance of software, hardware, and services.
“When Xerox brought their MPS model to Europe, we were one of the early adopters,” Jongsma recalled. “In fact, we gave them a hard time, and in the end helped shape their XPPS (Xerox Partner Print Services) program.”
But Xtandit didn’t only rely on its own ideas or one OEM. Attending conferences, like the Photizo events, and becoming a member of independent industry associations such as the MPSA helped the Xtandit team excel and become an award-winning global leader in various MPS categories.
But as the market evolved and customer demands changed, even an award-winning MPS partner like Xtandit had to constantly reinvent itself. As office printing has declined, and MPS has become more and more of a commodity and incentives are still largely on the hardware sales, where do you go from there?
“Sometimes, it felt like we were shooting ourselves in the foot on a daily basis,” Jongsma mused. “Just imagine you’re successfully doing assessments. After that, you’re adjusting the hardware, models, and numbers. You add some software and services, but in the end, you have to deliver on what you promised with managed print services: savings. We had to invent something to compensate for the reduced income from hardware sales. We also had to make sure we stayed relevant beyond office imaging. The concepts of digital transformation and business process optimization promised what we needed, what our customers needed.”
Jongsma can be considered a global MPS ambassador or was, I should better say, as he is already at another level with his ideas and services plans. In his view, dealerships must add much more to their portfolios than they have today, including IoT, anything-as-a-service, manage anything for your customers. Rethink billing models (per page, seat-based, duration of contracts), rethink business models (IT partner versus printer partner), rethink business teams (teams of expert teams). Consider added-value offerings, brick-and-mortar versus an online dealership, and transactional-to-contractual business. The list of food for thoughts you take away from talking to Jongsma for 60 minutes is endless, inspirational, and visionary.
After spending 30 years in this business, there’s hardly anything Jongsma hasn’t seen. Hardware innovation, failure and success; software innovation, failure and success; and services approaches, some successful many failing, are just some of the examples he shared.
“But some things will always lead to success,” he emphasized. “Never stop learning, never stop innovating, never stop changing.”
He identified a few things any dealership should remember to stay relevant and successful.
“Always review your bonus system to encourage the right product sales,” said Jongsma. “Always look into what services are required by your customer and align them with what you can offer, and add what’s missing. Always support any learning opportunities for your team. Always price your services high enough. Focus on what you and your team are good at and cooperate with other teams of experts to complete your offerings.”
Thank you, Edwin Jongsma, for sharing your insights with me and The Cannata Report.
Please visit The Cannata Report for more on the printing and office imaging industry.