FUJIFILM
designing for more advanced colours,” Gary adds. “It was an interesting couple of days for all parties.” Market development This shows how far Fujifilm has come. It is now more than two years since the initial launch of the Apeos range of printers into the UK and European markets. Gary notes the first six months were about testing business processes, but since then they have been onboarding partners. “That’s been going well,” he says. “We’ve got a very stable foundation of partners now, which we will continue to build upon and are actively recruiting now. “We’re up to 17 resellers now. We are a channel-only business and our transactional model isn’t open distribution like other vendors, it is a selective distribution process, which means that the contract is directly between the partner and us. This puts value into our accreditation programme and our partners.” Gary adds that there has been widespread interest in Fujifilm’s devices, with the resellers signed up covering the country. “The feedback has been really positive about the technology,” he adds. “Obviously, it’s established technology from Fujifilm, but people haven’t seen it in Europe before. So once people get up to speed with the devices confidence grows
very quickly. “Our onboarding process has sped up significantly since we started as well. We have built out our team to support the channel.” Gary adds that Fujifilm is still onboarding new partners and looking to expand in the coming months. “Typically, we’re looking for partners that do their own service because that’s the model that tends to work best, but we do have a service offering through some independent service providers that can provide service to partners as well,” he says. “Once people are aware of the history of the company – 60-plus years of technology development through the FujiXerox business in Asia Pacific – and the strength of the technology, the momentum grows very quickly. Typically, once we have our first couple of meetings with a partner around onboarding and they understand more about Fujifilm interest spikes very quickly. It’s just that awareness piece at the beginning that’s different compared to some of the more traditional vendors. “Our job is to grow that brand awareness as well, which we’re doing through the marketing function on the office and production commercial print side.” Gary adds that the campaigns for both sides are bespoke to the needs of the markets. “We’ve done extremely well since
“
Typically, once we have our first couple of meetings with a partner around onboarding, interest spikes
very quickly. It's just that
awareness piece at the beginning that's different compared to some of the more traditional vendors.
”
Revoria PC2120
CONTINUED
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