Based out of Miami Lakes FL, ecoprintQ, is a key PaperCut print management distributor with a new plan; they’re going to bring managed print services (MPS) to managed services providers (MSP).
Dominick Bracero and Joe Rubino of ecoprintQ chatted with Andy Slawetsky in this episode of What’s Happenin’ to explain how they plan to roll out this exciting new initiative.
SOURCE Industry Analysts Inc.
Full Transcript
today by two guys from Eco printq based
down in Florida how are you Dominic how
are you Joe
doing well how are you Andy hey Andy
nice to see you again great to see you
guys I am awesome so Dominic you are
down in in Florida I believe Tampa is
where you hail from uh home of the
former Champion world champion Tampa Bay
Buccaneers uh Joe you are in Chicago and
so we’ll start with you Dominic let’s
talk about who is eco-friend q and what
do you guys do
yep absolutely Andy and uh yep I’m in
Tampa Florida formerly known as Champa
Bay Area but
um we’ve had some good success and a
good run in the last few years
um so Eco print you we are uh Florida
um headquartered right uh down in uh
Miami area we are an authorized Solution
Center that uh pretty much serves the
print management space
focused on all channels within that that
that that area
um our products that we have on our
portfolio our paper cut you mango and
intuitive
um we have all the products like load
balancer and additional Hardware to
serve the print management space but
that you know that’s pretty much what we
do we do handle pre-sales post sales
implementation you know all the way from
the A to Z to offer a white glove
service and so your customers they’re
your traditional copier office Equipment
Technology resellers
yeah yeah our our customers are are
oems resellers
private resellers mostly focused within
the copier space
um and and primarily you know as we
segue into you know me introducing Joe
um it’s another another piece of
business that we’re actually investing
into right now which is the managed
service providers in the I.T space okay
perfect so
um well I know you from you know your
your big pay-per-cut reseller you’re one
of the two biggest in this country and
probably North America and probably
beyond that I don’t know I know in North
America you guys are are one of the two
um and moving over to your new your new
employee not so new employee has been
there a couple months now Joe Rubino who
uh who I know very well from his days at
pay-per-cut welcome to uh ecobrink you
Joe
thanks Andy
um yeah it’s been um it’s been an
interesting uh uh I guess partnership
with ecoprint queue
um I joined them
um a while back but since joining
um I focused on enabling the traditional
I.T Channel
um this and Dominic just mentioned it
but that includes you know historical or
traditional managed service providers
and distribution Partners
um this isn’t new to Eco print you uh
you know in my past role with paper cut
um Eco print you had been reactively
um working with this channel already
uh and saw some success but as I joined
Eco print queue recently
um our primary goal and my primary goal
is to provide our print Management
Solutions from ecoprincu and our
services to this Channel and to The
Wider customer base while delivering
um you know what we feel as and I think
the industry understands leading
customer support okay so that’s how
we’re leading it and our approach
is to expand to this wider customer base
and building a long-term relationship
with these Partners as a trusted for
management as their trusted print
management partner uh similar to what
we’re already doing
so first of all I have to say awesome
hat that’s a relic that is a classic
2018 Jillian ride hat that’s uh we were
interesting earlier that was when I I
think we first started talking and paper
cup was a big supporter of that uh that
early early ride
um I wanna I wanna go back to a little
bit uh
Dominic tell me tell me about the
investment that you guys are making in
your strategy going forward because
obviously you’re you know you bring
someone like Joe on and and Joe put your
earmuffs on I’m gonna give him a nice
little compliment but you know Joe’s
Joe’s a veteran of this industry with
great experience
um Xerox background paper cut background
obviously he didn’t come cheap you’ve
got uh you know a great staff down there
and is it Miami Lakes is it I’ve been
there a few times might I remember it
right I remember was outside of Miami
that’s my enemy licks with alfredo and
Evan Deanna and all them down there the
great crew down there
um but you know the investment’s been
ongoing right you when I started working
with you you just moved into this new
facility which is absolutely beautiful
down there uh and and you already we’re
quickly outgrowing it so what’s what’s
the investment like going forward what
are you guys spending your money on and
where are you going yeah I mean it’s a
good point Andy and and uh I’ll stay
focused on the the MSP and it channel on
what we’re doing with the and investing
into that piece right there so we’ve
always as Joe mentioned we’ve always
supported this channel right but we’ve
decided that we see how the market is
Shifting to manage service providers and
it providers and at the end of the day
the more more people talking print
management the better it is for
everybody
so we’ve decided to go ahead and invest
into that space invest into people and
resources to be able to support that
channel we took that segment of business
and we moved it into its own units
and therefore we had hired Joe Rabino to
step in and to help drive that business
with us
so so Joe Your Role is going to be
basically you’re not going to be are you
going to work with dealers are you
working with this this other group these
managed service providers or however has
your approach going to be in this area
yeah so my role is the business
development manager
um my focus is exclusively on the
managed service providers and and
potentially distribution Partners
um this is about expanding are the the
the the print management market and
getting that information and the
solution to new customers there’s a why
there’s a wide customer base that we’re
not even talking to today and
um that’s what the channel brings
well I mean if you’ve been to any of
these meetings like I think back to a
connect wise event I went to last year
right and you know your head explodes
when you go to these things because it’s
5 000 plus people at these events not
not a couple hundred people right which
at one of our events a few hundred
people is a good event
which and there’s nothing wrong with
that even a big dealer event is maybe a
thousand people but when you go to these
events and you see 5 000 people and
first of all the
you know you realize very quickly how we
we’re we’re right now we’re some of the
youngest guys in our industry but in
that industry we are the oldest people
because you go to those things and you
know first of all you feel like you need
a beard down to your belly you uh you
definitely need a pair of like Converse
and some color other than white
um you know skinny jeans are pretty hip
at those events I know this so uh but
but you know the the scale of it right I
mean just you look at our industry with
you know let’s just let’s just make them
a number and say there’s a about a
thousand dealers out there that are
still around
um you look at that industry and there’s
5 000 people that are at that event and
that you know and those are
I mean man that just the the number of
opportunity the opportunity that you
have to talk to a group that large
um it’s staggering so is this so is the
idea to bring print management to some
of these MSP uh companies is it is it
kind of opening their eyes to uh you
know the recurring revenue or are you
looking for certain kinds of managed
service providers tell me about the the
plan for this
how about you yeah Joe I’ll touch on
that and then I’ll hand it over to you
to answer some additional uh sure
yeah so um Andy
we’ve we’ve
done business consistently with that
market
um
but as as as the days continue to evolve
and kovit changed a lot in the last four
years
um that area in that specific space has
has been increasingly needing the need
for print management so as you mentioned
earlier
um large group of people right
um they focus on many different pieces
of business not just print management
print management is a really small piece
of the business so we don’t expect them
to be experts our goal is to enable
those groups to be able to at the very
minimum be able to intelligently speak
about print management
and know that there’s paths that they
can offer their current user base
net new business that currently do not
have a form of print management
and then
the uh the biggest part of that is is
you know it it for us it’s important to
have everybody talk and print management
so for every channel whether it’s OEM
it’s reseller cop your MSP it if one
person’s talking print management the
benefits on solving a problem leveraging
products like paper cut you mango or
intuitive
then everybody benefits from it and
that’s what that’s that’s our goal is to
enable and educate this channel for them
to be able to intelligently communicate
and offer products to their existing
base for net new customers yeah well the
potential the number of potential that
new customers out there is is just it’s
amazing right so obviously
um man if I was going to move in a
certain direction that would be that
would be one of them I would happily
consider so Joe anything to add to that
you
yes I have I have quite a bit to add
um you know sound simple in concept
right
um these partners are slightly I’m not
more than slightly they’re definitely
they have different infrastructures
um that we need to be able to enable uh
in order to move that message forward to
that where it gets to the customer
um you know I’ve been asked why now why
why why do it now well I don’t have to
remind everybody about what’s happening
um economically in the United States in
all of the Americas and globally and
customers are researching options
constantly to minimize their cost of
their I.T infrastructure well print is
part of their I.T infrastructure right
so you know these Partners they’ve
evolved from
primarily a very efficient source of uh
to procure Hardware software and
peripherals well today they’re leading
with a variety of Technologies and
value-added services they’re they’re
delivering complete Solutions and you
know whether it be on the desktop mobile
networking data center cloud services
Wireless infrastructure and yes they’re
delivering print in fact today
um this channel delivers the majority
of A4 single and multi-function devices
to thousands of customers right so why
wouldn’t we want to enable this channel
um that’s really the driving force of
this
um you know as far as
the differences in their infrastructure
and how uh their organizations are built
you you know engaging going engaging
with them is multi-platform they have
well-developed product management teams
they have they have well-developed
marketing teams they have you know again
well-developed sales and services teams
and to be proactive with them we need to
be engaged across the board so the
investment that equal print use made in
our own infrastructure to support these
the this type of Engagement uh was
required in order for us to be
successful
we’re moving forward
um very very uh very quickly in this
Marketplace
um and engaging across all levels the
ultimate goal again is
by enabling this channel we’re going to
expand the customer reach we’re going to
hopefully create demand and educate
customers and once that happens we’re
extremely confident that the results
will bring print management to a wider
audience and we’re we’re right there as
their partner to deliver
well I mean it’s it’s a huge huge group
of B2B resellers right and I mean some
will obviously not be capable of a break
fix or even
participating in this but there’s so
many companies in that space
um that even if you just pick off you
know a few five ten percent
which would be ambitious but even that
that number is probably hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of resellers right
and you know and these guys are in there
they’re working with I.T they’re making
recommendations when you know maybe
maybe when an office technology reseller
is not in there and and it’s just it’s
just another way to come at the customer
and and I think it’s I think it makes a
lot of sense um
so so Dominic
looking looking at 2023 this year and
Beyond where where are we going
um how are you going to do this and so
Joe’s brought on to do this there’s
going to be shows you’re going to need
to start attending uh are you going to
be taking booths there are you going to
just be sending teams there to kind of
scout it out like what what’s the
landscape look like for this year and
next year for moving into this new
Direction yeah and that’s a that’s a
fair and good question so and and
thankfully so we’ve we’ve pretty much
just finished our 2023 marketing
budgeting plan to be able to accommodate
for these activities and shows so to
answer your question yes
um we recently were part of was part of
a show already
um I want to say in January which was
pretty pretty successful we learned a
lot from it
um and then moving forward throughout
the year we have several shows that
we’re going to be attending sponsoring
and supporting
um we’ve not only invested resources
into our business Dev area which is you
know Joe Rubino but we’ve also invested
resources in our other pieces or other
units of the company to be able to
support this channel
from our post sales support team
to our pre-sale support team to our
Insight sales team
also Joe has
end this unit has the ability to
successfully enable this new line of
business that we’re taking
that is just awesome you guys are going
to have a very busy Year Joe
um you know we talked earlier about how
uh you know as we age it’s the traveling
gets a little more tiring it sounds like
you better start getting your sleep in
now because uh I’ve been feeling 2023 is
going to be pretty busy for you
um what’s On Your Horizon do you have
any shows lined up do you have any
things coming up that you’re going to be
at
we’re not we’re not at Liberty to uh
discuss that right now that’s all in
negotiation and discussion
I do want to mention though right
um while
I’m focusing on to your earlier comment
about who who what where when because
this channel is so large
um
we’re focusing on the select group right
now and it’s based on my previous
um
my previous uh
relationships that I had uh over my
career and
um you know we’re we’re working with the
partners that want to work with us we’re
not doing a shotgun approach here right
um so we’re going to be very strategic
and methodic
um in terms of how and where and who we
engage
um and then I will also man I I have to
go back to our resources okay uh you
know in my previous role with paper cut
we talked a lot about this with Eco
printq about the expansion but this is
about
um true enablement yes there’s work that
I have to do and I have to deliver on
but day to day
we’re not recreating the wheel we’re
just expanding the resources that we
have to be able to support this channel
it’s just that simple
um because everybody across eco eco
print use organization
um will be touched by engagement with
this channel it’s just that simple
whether it be our Channel managers
whether it be our Professional Services
team certainly our support team and our
operations team so we’re all in lockstep
on this uh we’re all aligned and
um again we’re very confident that by
engaging with this channel it’s going to
bring us
um to a wider audience that we don’t
have today
well it’s a huge audience right so um
well best of luck to you guys in this
this is a I think a just it makes a lot
of sense to go in this direction there
is just if you look at who who else is
out there that could sell print
management to you know to our customers
to the to the end users right
um not many companies can just jump in
there’s not many uh types of companies
but the ones they can are are those I.T
bars those you know resellers and
managed service companies
um again not all of them but certainly
many of them are already dealing with
print devices and and you know maybe a
little Enlightenment on the opportunity
for recurring Revenue
um great monthly money on that and and
and a lot less uh
I would maybe you know the emergency
brake and fix for those guys that it’s
just different in our world right I mean
um a printer being down our guys get out
there in two hours three hours but it’s
not you know doesn’t shut your business
down the way managed services so this
might even be seen by them as as easier
although I don’t know the the
competitive turnaround times that we
have are pretty strong we have a we have
a lot of strength in our Channel it’ll
be interesting to watch it going forward
and and where you guys start picking up
new resellers
um but good luck and thank you guys both
for coming on any last shout outs
Dominic will start with you and then Joe
you wrap up
shout outs yeah absolutely I appreciate
it um so yeah I would like to thank our
our supporting vendors and sponsors
um
so uh paper cut amazing you mango
intuitive and I would also like to have
uh to let everybody know please if you
have any questions comments or would
like to reach out and engage with Eco
printq uh reach out to myself Joe Rubino
or anyone on my team uh for the channel
management team uh we would welcome the
conversation and love to hear from you
Joe
yeah it’s gonna be fun I’ve been having
fun uh enabling this channel there’s a
lot of work to to to to do
um but I again I’m looking at this as a
real positive to um bring on new
customers and share our solution across
a new channel
well I I can’t think of a better channel
for you guys to move into so best of
luck with that uh say hello to everybody
down there in Miami Lakes and uh we will
catch up with you guys real soon it was
it was great talking to you thanks for
being on today take care