As the economy continues to linger in the doldrums many reprographers are struggling to make ends meet. For some reprographers, revenues are down as much as 50 percent from the industry highs of 2008 and profitability, of any amount, is becoming difficult to realize. What more, Reprographers are struggling to develop strategies to survive. The AEC clients reprographers serve are fraught with the same economic realities and are dramatically changing their organizations in size and the ways they do business. Demand for traditional printing and other services are down as your clients continue to adopt digital workflows to save costs and improve productivity.Recessions become catalysts for change -- for everyone and every business. If you do not realize that you need to embrace change you have the prospect of becoming irrelevant when the economy returns to somewhat normal. As business leaders, it is extremely important that you strategize on ways that you can re-position your company’s message and resources so you will be prepared to offer the right products and services that your marketplace with need after it experiences the paradigm shift that will result.
The profiles of the companies that survive the recession will likely be smaller but more efficient. If you agree with this conclusion then you might want to develop a strategy for your companies to offer solutions that will allow your customers to do more with less. This is where software becomes an ally to your business strategy. Offering a range of tools to help your customers to do things more efficiently with less labor has significant value to companies. Take Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM, Salesforce.com and a host of other software vendors they are all growing at astronomically rates during the recession. Why? Do they know something that you don’t? I believe they know that people today and in the future will want convenient tools that are internet enabled to conduct business any time and any place. People are willing to pay to use internet enabled tools and this is where reprographers need to make a leap to selling software as a new revenue generating area for their businesses.
The beautiful thing about selling software it is very profitable and in some cases requires very little cost to sell. The trend in software today is selling Software as a Service (SaaS). You might ask, what is SaaS? Software as a Service is the idea of selling the use of software that runs over the internet and users subscribe or rent to use of the software by a user/seat licenses on a per month or per year basis. The software can be acquired immediately with minimal costs and IT infrastructure for the customer.
More and more companies want SaaS. Users want to be able to use technology when they want it, where they want it. The revenues from SaaS are often reoccurring and can add significantly to your company’s profitability month after month; year after year.If you are interested in learning about software products you can sell to your AEC clients attend one of the PEiR Group’s webinars by visiting this link.
Don’t let the current economy make you numb and unable to develop strategies for your company’s future success. Take a few moments to see the world as it is changing around you, look at the trends, make some conclusions and take some action.
Best
Shaun Meany
