A Candid Conversation with Muratec President Jim D’Emidio One thing you can say about Muratec America is that it still pays to be second tier. That’s not meant as a slight but an acknowledgment of where they stand in the office technology pecking order. And while the big boys continue to duke it out for bragging rights and that number one position, Muratec remains perfectly content where they are while continuing to be the go-to choice for dealers looking to add a second or third hardware option. In a world where A4 is gaining in prominence thanks largely to an ever-expanding interest in managed print services, Muratec is well positioned to fill that gap better today than ever before. To find out how Muratec is filling that gap as well as what’s new and exciting with the company, we spoke with Muratec America President Jim D’Emidio. As always, he was engaging and cooperative, and a great interview.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Jim D’Emidio - President Muratec seems to be keeping a low profile of late. What’s going on? D’Emidio: We released several new products last summer and have been working on a variety of new product (and program) introductions. We began the rollout of these new initiatives last month (launch of the MFX-C2700 and ScanDocs) and will continue over the next several months. We expect 2011 to be an exciting year for Muratec and our dealers. How many Muratec dealers are there and are you still looking to grow that number? D’Emidio: Currently we have 550 dealers (U.S. and Canada) and are always looking to add distribution in underserved areas. We are averaging around 10-15 new dealers per quarter. Can you identify some of those underserved areas where you’d like to bolster distribution? D’Emidio: Over the years we lose dealers for a variety of reasons, mainly because of acquisition. Probably in the last five years, some for different reasons couldn’t or wouldn’t sell our products so we had to go and replace those dealers. Some of those dealers, the Global dealers we still sell to. But it’s always in the back of our mind when a manufacturer buys a dealer, how long it is going to last. Going through the old Danka and IKON acquisition, we always said internally we’d never make that mistake again because we didn’t recognize fast enough that those [organizations] would go to just a few manufacturers. We’re looking in parts of Canada, the smaller outlying markets where we don’t have distribution, and partially we’re looking to help out where some of the other manufacturers are in the process of leaving the BTA channel by just going to distribution. We’re looking to those types of dealers to come in and say ‘Would you like to buy directly from the manufacturer?’ And we set up that distribution and have been successful in some of those cases. What are your expectations from any dealer that might be interested in adding Muratec to their product offerings? From past conversations I remember it being modest? D’Emidio: We’re a secondary manufacturer so we understand our place. We don’t have quotas. We believe it’s got to be beneficial for both the dealer and us. When we go in and talk to a dealer, we sit down and tell them what we can do and where we can pick up additional business with their product line or lines that they have. Generally speaking, if it’s a good fit we do that. As long as they give us access to train their sales force and work with them, we don’t care how long it takes to be successful. If they don’t give us the ability to help them out by training their sales force, giving them access to going out in the field with them, generally it doesn’t work. Are dealers still choosing Muratec for the same reasons they’ve always selected them as a supplier? D’Emidio: Yes. Dealers are choosing Muratec to fill-out their desktop MFP product offerings. We’re also adding dealers that still need a competitive fax line, as well as for our managed document services program. In an era where managed print services seems to be getting a lot of attention, I would think with the company’s legacy with A4 products, Muratec fits nicely into that discussion? D’Emidio: We fit very well into that discussion. We offer a very competitive a-la-carte program that provides dealers with assessment tools, OEM-compatible imaging supplies, refurbished printers, nationwide printer service and A4 MFPs. Since A4 is a big part of the MPS equation, and Muratec has more of a copier/BTA background in building MFPs with reliable performance and low cost-per-copies, we’ve seen substantial opportunities for the placement of our products into these types of accounts. Has this MPS craze changed your messaging to the dealer channel in any way? D’Emidio: Yes. We’re touting our services (nationwide printer support, refurbished printer program, assessment/financing programs) as much as our own MFP solutions. How would you gauge the success of those efforts? D’Emidio: Our reman toner business was up 28% last year. The reman printers are relatively new but we’re excited with what we’re seeing. We’ve added several thousand placements of printers through our dealers to help them nationwide, mainly outside their areas. And we believe strongly that the MPS, or MDS as we call it, industry is one of the biggest threats to BTA unless the BTA dealer really changes their business model to accept adding MPS to their offering. If they don’t, they may be on the outside looking in down the road because that’s what VARs are going out and doing. We think the threat isn’t necessarily the BTA dealer down the street, it’s the printer VAR down the street. I know security was a big issue last year, and still is, and you were at the BTA summit focusing on security. How important of an issue is this for Muratec and how do you address some of those security issues related to hard drive security that were raised last year in that CBS Evening News Story? D’Emidio: We were very proactive in fully disclosing the memory options on our devices and educating our dealers (and their customers) on how to erase stored documents prior to disposal. During our product planning meetings over the past 18 months, security (device, document and network) have become a key point of focus for our new product designs. How are things going with ScanDocs? D’Emidio: We’re rolling out the solution this month and the initial feedback has been very positive. ScanDocs enables dealers to capture document scanning/retrieval opportunities without having to invest in dedicated sales/technical support for document imaging. It’s a great first step that any dealer can sell, install and support. What do dealers need to do to be successful marketing ScanDocs? D’Emidio: Take a two-minute demo at www.muratec.com to see the complete installation, configuration and document retrieval process. How has the channel accepted your color MFP? Where are dealers finding the greatest success in placing it? D’Emidio: We released the MFX-C2700 last month and it has been very well received by the channel. Our dealers have been strongly pushing for a desktop color MFP that offers exceptional color print quality, good MFP performance and competitive cost of operation. The MFX-C2700 fits that need. What else is new on the product front from Muratec? Anything interesting coming out this year? D’Emidio: We are planning on launching several new products this summer/early fall (both color and monochrome). How are things going with your cartridge recycling program? Is that growing? D’Emidio: Our cartridge recycling program continues to grow. We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for our dealers (and their customers) to participate. We continue to collect over 40 percent of cartridges from the field. Why do you think it’s growing? D’Emidio: Customers becoming more eco-friendly and the ease in which they can return used cartridges. What else can we expect to hear out of Muratec in the coming months? D’Emidio: We’re having our dealer meeting in September and we expect to announce several new products both from Muratec and possibly OEM that we can’t disclose yet because we don’t want the kids to look at the Christmas presents before they’re wrapped. Scott Cullen has been writing about the office technology industry since 1986 and Muratec and its products for nearly as long.