Beating the COVID blues
We’ve been living with COVID-19 for more than a year now and while there is hope on the horizon with the rollout of vaccines, there is no doubt that South Africans are suffering from the economic downturn that has resulted.
From Kyocera America’s perspective, we’ve noticed that most companies are looking to eke out savings by sweating technology assets a bit longer than normal, and by trimming IT operating costs. The result being that many resellers aren’t able to grow their businesses unless they find ways to win market share from competitors or diversify into new markets.
It might seem tough, but there are always opportunities to defend our market position and prepare to emerge stronger from the downturn. The key is to play to your strengths and to look at ways to offer best value to customers. TechSmart offers some ideas that can help to buffer your business in difficult times and emerge bigger, better and stronger:
1. Horizontal expansion
By carving out a niche, many resellers have built successful businesses. However, with a downturn in the market, the easiest way for these businesses to gain traction is to expand into adjacent markets. In our case grow our content services, ECM and BPA side of the business.
2. Climb the value chain
The trend of working from home has exposed a gap in the market for Kyocera’s compact A4 printers. In addition to this, Kyocera’s digital workflow solutions can safely help organisations to achieve document sharing solutions to maintain productivity levels.
3. Cut the fat
Every business can find ways to become more disciplined in its internal operations and efficiencies. Take a look at the solutions you might offer a client and see how you can apply these to your business – for example, by automating processes with workflow tools.
4. Become adaptable
The only way to work through uncertain times is to adopt an agile and flexible approach in our personal and professional lives. Lifelong learning has become a critical means to survival. Those who are able to adapt and upskill, are the likely winners in the coming decade.
The key is to focus on the approach that plays to our strengths and that offers the best value to our customer base.
Lee-Ann Kellner - Channel Sales Manager - KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa
