Many copier/MFP dealers have added document management software to their product offerings. But there are still questions on how this type of solution fits in with the advancing technologies of multi-function peripherals, software utilities that move scanned documents to shared files on the network or to a cloud-based repository.

One of the most difficult decisions these business owners have to make is their choice of which vendor meetings, trade shows and conferences they will attend each year. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, then a new opportunity comes along and you know it would probably be a good time to learn more about the key focus of the event, but you struggle with who to send – if anybody – and what value does this investment have for your company?

Such is the dilemma for many copier/MFP dealers, facilities management companies and even some managed print services organizations with the new rebranding of the AIIM Service Provider Executive Forum that is being held in Orlando, April 1-3 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort.

I’ve had many conversations with experienced document imaging sales professionals who have taken positions with copier/MFP dealers with the hope of building out a large scale document imaging solution set and the professional services required to support such an investment. Unfortunately, in many of these situations it just doesn’t work out for the sales person or the company.

Selling just document management software, without the ability to sell document conversion services, is presenting only a partial solution set and you may be leaving additional recurring revenue and profits to a competitor down the street or in a town a few miles away.

This is a similar problem that microfilm and scanning companies faced decades ago when we had companies that just sold hardware products and another set of companies that just sold document conversion services. (Similar to the environment many copier/MFP dealers find themselves in today as they learn more about document imaging and document management software.)

Eventually the hardware dealers recognized they were not getting all the business because they didn’t offer document conversion services to those prospects that just didn’t want to buy their hardware.

Likewise, the document conversion service providers recognized they were losing revenue every time the prospect decided to purchase hardware and to the conversion in-house.

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you?

Eventually the hardware vendors began offering document conversion services and the document conversion service providers started selling hardware.

I think the same opportunities exist today for copier/MFP dealers who have an incredible installed base of equipment but have nothing to offer should that same customer (who has been doing business with you for years) when they outsource the conversion work to somebody else.

So what does all this have to do with the AIIM Service Provider Executive Forum?

This important event provides copier/MFP with an opportunity to meet some of the most experienced professional outsourcing companies in our industry today. Many of the attendees have been coming to this event for more than twenty years, and they are owners, senior decision makers and experienced document imaging sales and operations personnel.

Why should you attend? Well if you’ve read this far than you have more than a passing interest in improving this aspect of your business in the years ahead.  Here are a few more reasons to join us in Orlando in a few weeks:

• You’ve been selling document management software for a few years but still are not satisfied with the results, the solutions you are offering or the revenue and profits you see on the P&L at the end of the month.
• You have gone through several document management sales reps but experienced too much turnover and too few sales.
• You would like to fully understand the role that document conversion service providers play in our industry and want to have an opportunity to meet with them in an informal learning environment and understand what has made them so successful.
• You want to find a document conversion service provider that you can form a strategic business relationship with if you are not ready to make the investment required at this time.
• You want to identify some experienced and well respected outsourcing companies that you might want to acquire outright rather than trying to build a conversion company from the ground up.
• You want to meet business partners that are not calling on copier/MFP dealers right now because you don’t offer document conversion services and value-added business process automation solutions.
• You want to listen to four end-user senior executives discuss what keeps them up at night when it comes to making critical decisions about document management solutions, risk and compliance, in-house conversions versus outsourcing large projects and on-premises versus cloud-based solutions. You want to hear how they buy the solutions you currently offer in a non-copier/MFP environment, and you want to understand how they buy document conversion services from the companies who have twenty-year head start on where you are today and how you want to get to where you want to go tomorrow.

As a veteran of over thirty Service Provider Executive Forums I will be happy to take your calls or respond to your emails if you want to discuss how our new format and rebranding of this event can benefit your company.

I believe this is the right event, at the right time, for you to get all the answers you need in one conference to take that next logical step to add document conversion services to your solution set this year.

I hope to see and meet many of you in Orlando in a few weeks.

Click here for more information about the event

Bob Zagami
IMAGAZ by ZAGAMI
SPEF14 Chair

Contact me directly at rwzagami@gmail.com or 617-974-3739 to find out more.