One2One with the Olivetti team
Olivetti had one of its most important reseller gatherings to date as the company unveiled its new plans and new identity
On 4 February Olivetti held its first Dealer Conference and Press meeting, as Olivetti SpA, at The Belfry near Birmingham. The event was held to officially launch its new business model to the UK market.
Since 1 January 2015, Olivetti SpA is now represented in the UK by an independent Agency to run all the commercial aspects of the UK dealer business rather than by its previously wholly owned subsidiary. However, the Agency has employed many of the original Olivetti UK staff to manage the sales, marketing, logistics and technical support.
The changes dealers will notice is that invoices will now bear the name 'Olivetti SpA' and they will have access to Olivetti Spa in real-time, but their day to day contact will remain with the local Agency.
This model has been running throughout Europe since 2007, starting with Portugal. The Nordic countries followed along with Germany and France. This year Spain and the UK complete the European model.
Aldo Pirronello, Head of International Sales for Olivetti SpA, presented the new model and said: "We have a network of over 1000 partners and a large business presence worldwide and we have a solid base installed but we feel that this model will enable Olivetti SpA to become closer to local markets and improve our efficiency and productivity while speeding up our processes and maintaining existing competence at a local level."
A short transition period is now in place and, by April, the former Olivetti UK Limited will be liquidated. Instead, the UK Agency, which is a third party company, officially called Agenzia O UK Ltd, will be fully functional and will carry the Olivetti brand forward in all its commercial dealings.
Aldo Pirronello went on to explain: "This model has been implemented in all countries now, and we have seen that countries like Germany, for instance, have been profitable. The UK subsidiary was one of our strongest performers and we forecast that to continue."
The technical support at the Agency is an area that has been focussed upon for building value added support. New in-house support and communications systems are now being put in place to make it easier for dealers to contact the Technical team and the website is being re-developed to enable all dealers to view the status of their orders and have direct access to consumables order placing.
All of this has been put in place to maintain the strength of the Olivetti brand and improve the service offered to customers. Aldo Pirronello concluded by saying: "We are confident that we will improve further. Personally, I know we will succeed and the people at Olivetti UK Agency are important to make that happen."
The Key ingredient for Dealer satisfaction
Olivetti's popular Key Partner Loyalty Programme has been designed to provide a structure for authorised Olivetti dealers to plan their business. Dealers who become part of the Key Partner Programme will be eligible to qualify for annual rebates and receive regular promotional benefits throughout the year. The dealers who sign up to the Scheme are banded into one of six Leagues, according to the amount of revenue they expect to spend, in a calendar year, on Olivetti branded products.
The entry level is the Associate Partner 2 League and is made up of small sized companies. The next level is Associate Partner 1, followed by Key Partner, Premier and Platinum. At the top of the tree is the Elite League which was added to the Scheme in 2006 to enable the larger dealers to achieve more in the year. This is a League which dealers have to be invited to join, in the first instance.
All dealers who join the scheme are able to qualify for annual rebates, depending upon their achievement at the end of the year, are invited to attend quarterly and annual events and are entitled to use an exclusive Authorised Partner logo, that is only available to those who sign up to the Key Partner Programme.
Each year, the winners of each of the Leagues are recognised, in front of their peers, at either the Dealer Conference or at a specially organised event.
Dave Goswell, Managing Director of Olivetti's UK Agency, said: "At Olivetti our aim is to make our Dealers feel special and we can do that because we can provide our Dealer network with many unrivalled benefits and it goes beyond offering a good price to just anyone."
Olivetti plans to make its Digital Solutions available for SMEs
At the recent UK Dealer Conference, Nadia Bontempo, Olivetti SpA's Worldwide Marketing Manager for Office Solutions, highlighted the plans for adding to the current product portfolio with more solutions based applications.
She highlighted, to start with, that although the market trend (according to Gartner) was showing a slight decline in volumes of printed pages, from printers, there is a rise in prints being made from MFP products, both colour and black and white, and "while the hardware market is growing slightly we are forecasting a larger return from the increased number of pages, especially from MFPs. In fact, by 2018 the MPS market will represent 30 per cent of the total office market".
Research has shown that MFP products have made a huge impact not only on printing but, because of a vast array of functions, they perform to improve efficiency and productivity in the workplace including scanning, emailing, web browsing and increased data security but now, with the increase in solutions applications all these MFPs can provide benefits such as rules-based printing, follow-me printing, greater administrative control over usage and consumables.
Large accounts, with more than 50 users in a group, are already widely supported by MPS applications but Olivetti is now turning its attention, through the existing dealer network, to SMEs, whose requirements are similar to larger workgroups with their need to save money and optimise their fleets of machines. Dealers are the best way to promote Olivetti's solutions to the end users, because they are well trained and MPS solutions are becoming vital for their own business growth.
Olivetti's range of solutions is wide ranging from YSoft Safe Q 5, Open Bee and its own RAK v2 Key, Licence Kits and Mobile Print App, which are supported at a local level. Dealers undergo constant intense training to ensure they are always up to speed with the latest developments. Now Olivetti has been become a Nuance Expert Partner and is offering Equitrac as an additional tool, providing front end and back office support for this application in Italy for the international community. All of these products are going to be promoted to all types of business, including SMEs, through the Olivetti Dealer Channel.
Nadia Bontempo concluded; "With our shared experience and great long-term knowledge among the UK and Irish dealers, we aim to focus our attention on making the Olivetti Solutions based business grow in the next three years."
Olivetti Achievers of 2014
Key Partner Programme League Winners:
Associate Partner League 2 - CBS Ltd, based in Cambridge
Associate Partner League 1 - Bowden Digitec, based in Kent.
Key Partner League - WDS Ltd, based in Derby.Collecting the award - Managing Director, Rachel Wilson
Premier League - 2r Systems Ltd , based in Leighton Buzzard. MD Richard Finch
Platinum League - Frew Business Machines Ltd, based in Dungannon, Northern Ireland
Elite League - 1st Office Equipment Ltd, based in Bath with branches throughout the Southwest.
Olivetti Sales Manager of the Year - Terry Haley, Area Account Manager for Midlands, North East & Home Counties
Olivetti UK Dealer of the Year - 1st Office Equipment Limited. Collecting the award - Managing Director John Phillips and Sales and Marketing Director Andrew Jones
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