Channel Strategy Session: Dealers and Research and AI

By Carl Schell, Keypoint Intelligence: Josh Britton, President and CEO of imageOne, asked me a few weeks ago if we could provide some data to support overarching messages in his presentation to the board. He is one of my newer dealer friends, a leader who voices his opinion in an understated, meaningful way that I appreciate. Based in Michigan, the dealer has a managed print services (MPS) business that accounts for almost all its approximately $25 million in annual revenue (imageOne is ramping up its software solutions arm). As you can imagine, the deck of stats and trends we assembled was long on print but offered details in those “beyond print” areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation (DX), too.

This wasn’t the first time a dealer has approached us with a research request—it’s just the most recent example and it sparked a thought, albeit far from profound: Research is a huge part of what Keypoint Intelligence does regardless if on the market side (InfoCenter) or at the product level (bliQ), and it’s also a huge part of what happens in the world. Every day. You have academic research (any study from any institution), business research (inflated to “business intelligence” far too often), and consumer research (ever visited Amazon or YouTube when deciding on a product?). My favorite type of research is when I just get lost on Wikipedia educating myself on interests like Formula 1 or thrash metal.