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Adding value to commercial clients – orange sky case study

The cost of printing is an increasingly scrutinised OPEX expenditure, but it’s a necessary one. For all the claims of the “paperless office” being the future, there is an inevitable need for all businesses to print documents, whether that be for internal use – checklists, contracts and the like – or for external use, such as in promotional materials. The goal for businesses needs to be to maximise the efficiency of their print environment, while not denying themselves the ability to print where needed.

Take, for example, Orange Sky Laundry; a charity organisation that provides a free laundry service on wheels for the homeless. It achieves this by driving vans with washing machines and driers to homeless areas, and then takes the opportunity, as the laundry is being done, to talk to the people and enhance a sense of community among people who generally feel dispossessed. With 15 vans and 850 volunteers spread across 11 locations, the company is doing incredible things across Australia, but it is also a logistically complex one, particularly when you consider that, when working with homeless people that don’t have access to a regular Internet connection, the need to print out documents is all the greater.

In installing a mix of the Brother HL-S7000DN (for rapid-fire printing of donation contracts and other business-critical documents), the MFC-J5920DW (for high-quality and accurate printing of construction diagrams in the workshop), and the MFC-L9550CDW (for printing high-impact work in colour, such as presentation documents), Orange Sky Laundry has been able to achieve a mix of technologies that can handle the heavy workload, while ensuring that the charity’s brand and message remains reflected in the best possible light.

Critically, being a good partner to a charity like Orange Sky Laundry requires more than the provision of technology. The successful rollout of the new fleet of printers could only happen because Brother took the time to conduct a full audit of Orange Sky Laundry’s operation to understand its printer needs and how to best achieve those.

It is this value-adding approach to its commercial partnerships that makes Brother a premier brand in the printing space. Whether it is a charity, or a startup, small business, large corporation or government client, Brother’s strength as a brand is in being a comprehensive and analytical partner, completing those in-depth audits of each client’s technology environment, and then recommending the best printer, or mix of technologies, to realise optimal efficiency and cost-effectiveness for the business.

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Support for partners is paramount when deploying bespoke corporate solutions

With the movement across IT to as-a-service offerings, business is less interested in up front deployments now than in the past. Regardless of what they are looking to deploy, it has never been more important for partners to deliver quality solutions that clients can count on. Corporate customers in particular, have become accustomed to partners doing more for them, whether managing aspects of the IT infrastructure, or deploying solutions.

The print and imaging space is no less immune to this than any other aspect of IT. Whether a partner is deploying managed print services or wrapping device and toner renewals around on premise offerings, it is vital they deliver a solution that is reliable and has the backing of a locally supported global vendor.

A large portfolio of devices that spans print, scan, label, and mobility segments is a point of difference that will make it easier for partners to deploy a solution in any environment. It will also make the life of both the partner and the end user easier in the long run because the servicing and renewals process is streamlined across the entire imaging solution set.

The real value proposition partners give to clients comes not just from the products they deploy, but from the services they can offer to support end users throughout the life of the devices. Local support staff and a dedicated channel sales team ready and willing to engage with solutions providers and end users on a regular basis is key to successful deployments. Partners can do a great many things, but cannot do it all, and it is in here where they need the support of a vendor that understands their needs and the needs of their clients.

A partner for the long haul

Brother’s range of printers, scanners, Multi-function Centres and labellers is known the world over for being both intuitive for end users, and highly friendly for IT administrators to manage. This means clients will have fewer problems over the life of the devices. With corporate clients becoming increasingly attracted to the OPEX model, it has never been more important to deliver solutions these clients will have confidence in.

Brother has a local customer support presence in Australia, and this support is free for the lifetime of its products and solutions. When a business needs a tailor-made solution, Brother has a team of Pre-Sales Technicians that’s deployed nationally to discuss the specific requirements of your clients and their environment as a whole.

Just as it has done with large-scale corporate deployments like Lowes, Brother can adjust almost any of its offerings to suit your customer’s needs. Whether a customer requires firmware changes to integrate with an existing network, or adjustments to the devices themselves, Brother has both the ability and the drive to make its solutions work for partners and their customers alike.

Regardless of the vertical a partner is targeting, there are times partners will need assistance to identify the best range of products for the job and assist with implementation. It’s a point of difference that will stand out when clients are choosing who should be their trusted advisor. Brother helps partners do this, not just because of the extensive range of products it offers, but also as a result of the extensive support network it has developed within the channel.

Many vendors across IT have sales teams deployed nationally, this is nothing new. What can happen is that these sales teams undercut partners or take larger customers away from them in an effort to improve the vendor’s sales figures.

Partners should be just that to a vendor, organisations that the vendor supports for mutual gain. Because Brother doesn’t sell direct to end users, all transactions are put back through reseller partners. The vendor’s sales team acts as a pseudo-sales team for partners. This is one part of its drive to become a reliable and trusted partner for the channel and Brother will never take opportunities from resellers and turn the transaction direct.

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Market analysis

According to analyst firm, IDC, Brother holds 70% of the market share for A3 inkjets and 51% of the market share for monochrome MFCs. Its colour MFCs hold 28% (ranked number 2) of the market share (Market share May 2016 - April 2017, IDC Australia). These telling statistics reflect the high functionality, ease of use, reliability, and low overall TCO that’s offered by Brother’s offerings.

It also speaks to Brother’s strong reputation in the corporate market with so many corporate customers that trust the vendor’s solutions. This is just another benefit that partners can leverage to increase sales opportunities and solidify business growth.

Ranges to suit all businesses

Brother’s strength in the commercial printing space is its highly flexible product ranges and services, allowing customers from any vertical to design and implement solutions that are of specific value to their business’s structure. In addition to providing a great range of hardware to support organisations of every size, Brother’s comprehensive solutions provides customisation services that Brother can work with the systems integrator and customer to implement into the overall solution.

Professional Colour Laser

MFC-L9570CDW

Brother’s comprehensive professional laser solutions deliver quick prints and the fastest scan speeds in its class. It also offers users a low total cost of ownership and a higher level of business agility and efficiency.

Brother’s Professional Colour Laser range focuses on providing businesses with three key benefits:

Productivity: High print speeds and time reducing features like the single pass duplex, keeps wait time to an absolute minimum. At the same time the printers are still able to manage the kind of print volumes that that even the busiest offices will generate.
Efficiency: The ability to print and scan simultaneously will dramatically reduce any time wasted for the busy workforce. The printer also allows users to create configurable shortcuts to minimise time spent in the settings function, and the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) that handles 80 sheets of paper at a time means the printer is able to work as fast as your business moves.
Business Focused: Advanced security features are a must in the modern corporate printer with increased end point security risks. The Brother range comes with a wide range of security functionality to give you complete piece of mind on how the printer is being used.

Professional Monochrome Laser

HL-L6400DW

Brother’s award-winning Monochrome Laser product line is built around speed, efficiency, and print quality. For printing in large quantities, there are no printers that provide more control to IT departments, and better economy to the finance team. At the same time, the crisp, sharp quality of each page printed, and the robust reliability of the machines, make these machines an indispensable part of each business.

Brother’s award-winning Monochrome Laser product line is built around speed, efficiency, and print quality.

The Brother monochrome laser range is built around four key pillars:

Reliability: Designed to handle up to 150,000 pages each month without breaking a sweat, these printers are tough, and can handle the kinds of bumps and knocks that are a natural consequence of busy workspaces.
Productivity: When you need to print in volume, fast, you’ll appreciate the output of up to 50 pages per minute, while the optional mailbox with stacker and sorter functions helps to ensure that people aren’t shuffling through everyone’s papers to find their own.
Workflow: The Brother monochrome laser printers have been designed to work with a wider range of different media, as well as cloud-based services such as Microsoft SharePoint, to ensure that workgroups, regardless of how they are structured, are looked after.
Security: Active Directory and LDAP integration, Secure Function Lock 3.0 and IPsec security measures are all standard, because Brother understands how important security is to the modern business and all of its end points.

Rugged portable receipt and label printers

PJ-773

Businesses and professionals are more portable now than they have ever been in the past. This has introduced a need for highly portable printing services, particularly for invoices, receipts and labels, to allow the business to go to the customer, rather than the other way around.

RJ-2050

Brother’s range of highly portable, rugged printers are used by verticals as varied as retail, logistics, and public services. Built for the roughest work, both indoors and out, the printers each offer a wide range of connectivity options – from USB and Bluetooth, to AirPrint, Wireless LAN, and MFi.

Brother’s range of highly portable, rugged printers are used by verticals as varied as retail, logistics, and public services.

Brother has worked hard to guarantee that, through the PocketJet and RJ ranges, there is a solution for any vertical that might need portable printing.

Labellers

QL-820NWB

All businesses need a labeller, and the highly flexible and innovative range of labellers from Brother is the new standard for this technology. Whether it’s to be used for signage (for example, prices), or something as simple as mass-printing addresses for mailouts, a labeller finds its home in verticals from offices to retail, food services and hospitality.

Flexibility is key to Brother’s labellers, in order to suit the needs of all businesses. For example, the black and red printing of the QL-800 series is brilliant for printing labels that make a statement, whether that’s a warning (for example, allergies information), or it’s to catch the eye of a customer (in retail, for example). Other businesses will find great value in our highly durable, test to the extreme TZe tapes that are used in our PT models. All of Brother’s labellers have a variety of connectivity options so that they can be configured for any working environment, anywhere in Australia.

Flexibility is key to Brother’s labellers, in order to suit the needs of all businesses.

Brother’s heritage in developing comprehensive printing solutions extends to Brother’s labelling software, too. Whether you’re working on mobile devices, or on PC using P-touch Editor with Microsoft Office add-in, it’s easy to quickly design labels for instant printing. For customers with more specific needs, Brother provides a range of SDKs to allow for the building of highly customised applications.

This sales support is coupled with Brother’s local customer support network. Based in Sydney, the 15 strong team is there to help both partners and customers with whatever problems they may face. The team of experts has access to all of Brother’s devices and will be able to work through any issue post-deployment.

Mobility is the great enabler

An increasing amount of the workforce is becoming mobile. Employees want to work from a number of different devices; this improves speed, user satisfaction and efficiencies. The less roadblocks technology has to productivity, the better.

That’s why partners need a vendor that has ensured its solution sets are compatible with mobile devices. Accessing printers from smartphones and tablets is possible for most of Brother’s devices and is easy via its iPrint&Scan app or Airprint capability.

Add to this the unique offering of portable PocketJets and portable scanners. The A4 thermal portable printers are one-of-a-kind in the printing industry and are the perfect complement to a partners mobility offering.

The Brother portable range is designed specifically for the modern mobile employee, one that needs flexibility and reliability in a portable print solution.

The Brother portable range is designed specifically for the modern mobile employee, one that needs flexibility and reliability in a portable print solution. The PocketJet-7 portable printer series gives mobile workers the ability to print A4 pages on the go from any device and achieve the same quality as if they were printing in the office. The difference of course, is that this portable printer is light weight and easy to manage.

From SMB to enterprise, government, healthcare, manufacturing, transport, logistics and even the specialty industries such as tattoo or inking services, the Brother portable range of devices is another example of class-leading technology the vendor has produced that will forge strong relationships with clients for years to come.

Partners can take solutions like the PocketJet-7 to market, knowing they will address the customer’s immediate needs and provide a comprehensive, malleable and cost-effective solution going forward.

Portable Solutions for the Modern Workforce

No matter how much digital business evolves, there will always be a need for printing. Many industry verticals such as education and construction require paper documentation to be left behind during field service calls. Mobile workers who travel to multiple locations need to provide such documents and use a number of different devices. They need to do this efficiently and without hindrance from a technology standpoint. Additionally, portability around technology solutions is fast becoming the driving force behind the success of a mobile workforce deployment.

With so much of the SMB and enterprise workforce using Apple devices, connectivity and interoperability is a must for any portable print solution. Partners need a solution offering that works across multiple devices, so that, even in instances of BYOD, customers are assured that what is deployed will work regardless of the device used.

Brother Commercial Market Development Channel Manager, Luke Howard, described the portable series as an efficiency raiser.

The compatibility of the devices with multiple different devices is key to this.

“Whether a business chooses to go down an Android or an Apple based mobile platform, it’s irrelevant to us, we can cover both. The modularity of the system is a big plus for partners as we can help them set up multiple devices in almost any situation to maximum efficiency, such as our in-car mounting solution.”

The complete solution set

The corporate environment is more demanding than ever before. In order to meet the needs of such a dynamic space, partners need to offer solutions that can address the needs of clients now and adapt as those needs change in the future.

The message here is about partner enablement. No matter a partner’s area of focus, they should look to offer a solutions set that is reliable, productive and enables a client’s workforce to do their job how, when and where they want. That’s why offering best-of-breed is so important and in printing scanning and copying, Brother sits well above the rest.

Partners should look to leverage Brother’s class-leading technology. The vendor’s unparalleled local support network and team of nationally deployed sales experts address the needs of clients from the outset of discussions and work tirelessly to acquire and grow business opportunities for partners. If a partner is looking to deploy a new print and imaging solution for a client or simply looking to add value to existing managed services offerings, leveraging Brother and its solution sets will ensure customers are delighted with the outcome and remain loyal for years to come.