PFU unveils new channel focus

PFU Imaging Solutions Europe (PFU) has outlined its latest plans to increase its market share of the European scanner market – as well as growing the overall market for document capture solutions – through its channel partners.
Explains Mike Nelson, PFU’s general manager sales operations EMEA: “The market is growing; we are trying to reach out to more and more people. We want to help our customers sell more scanners; not just fighting over the scraps of the market that is there, but actively trying to grow the market.”
He continues: “The market is nowhere near saturated, nowhere near commoditised. It’s a huge green field that’s growing, and we want to help all our partners accelerate into this opportunity.”
Enzo Capobianco, manager of channel marketing EMEA says PFU is also engaging with a number of traditional print dealers:  “Scanner functionality has overtaken MFP (multifunction printers),” he says, comparing desktop scanning to the rise of personal computing. “Before, if you wanted to scan a document you would go on the big MFP and scan. Now the scanner is on your desk, because document management is getting more and more strategic in the company.”

Channel activity
In recent months PFU has been solidifying its channel operations, making greater investments in its resellers’ marketing activities and launching a portal through which to communicate with its network of partners.
Explains Nelson: “We have a communication platform [and we] need to add value to that. We are now more transparent. We started to offer incentives to resellers – cash back or rebates to get marketing money from us or whatever they need to grow their business, and in return we ask for certain sales performance from them.”
Nelson is keen to stress the vendor’s 100 percent channel-only model, and is critical of vendors who compete with their resellers by going direct: “All of our competitors, on occasion, have done direct business and bypassed the channel. You only have to do it once and you lose that trust. I understand why they do it – it’s simple, it’s quick, you can keep the margin to yourself – but long term it costs you. So we’ve had this very pure channel strategy for a long time.”
Adds Doug Rudolph, general manager of marketing at PFU: “One of the challenges are competitors are straddled with is they are part of very large organisations that have many different focuses. PFU is only focused on scanners. That will allow us to strategically address the market is it grows.”

Market drivers
Nelson believes that resellers need to make their customers aware of the reasons for implementing document management, citing compliance, cost efficiency, disaster recovery and data protection a key driver. However, he points out that as a company, PFU is focusing more on the customer service angle.
The firm says there is a particular demand from both the paper-intensive healthcare and banking sectors for as ‘while you wait’ ID scanning services.
According to analysts at InfoSource, the market for workgroup, departmental and low volume scanners is projected to be up to 18 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) from 2010 to 2014.
PFU, which is a wholly owned subsidy of Fujitsu, currently has a 48 percent share of the scanner market. Last week Kodak announced it was targeting PFU’s market share with the news it had signed up Midwich as a distributor for its scanner business.