At Technology Reseller we hear a lot about the opportunities in diversification at a time when technologies and distribution channels are converging. One company demonstrating the benefits of this approach is Effective Consumable Solutions (UK), more commonly known as ECS, an award-winning remanufacturer, recycler and distributor of consumables and parts for printers and MFPs. ECS recently expanded its product and services portfolio to include IT hardware, in order to offer MPS providers an additional revenue stream. Traditional IT resellers and MSPs are now also able to access this offering, with the promise of competitive pricing, short lead times and excellent customer service. James Goulding finds out more from Associate Director Lauren Rabbitte.
Technology Reseller (TR): I know ECS as a remanufacturer and recycler of printer parts and consumables. How did you get into the distribution of IT products?
Lauren Rabbitte (LR): ECS has always been involved in recycling and remanufacturing. That’s our business model. We collect used empty cartridges, reuse the cartridges and produce a remanufactured product. We test all products at our in-house facility within the UK before release to the market, ensuring a high-quality product with optimal performance.
That business is great for us, but as part of our evolution we wanted to expand into the technology sector. If there’s a managed print device in an office, then that dealer should also be competing for IT hardware contracts, including for routers, laptops and VOIP phone systems.
You’ll often find dealers have two branches to their business; they’ll have an IT arm and a completely separate managed print arm, when actually those two areas go hand in hand.
TR: When did you start diversifying into the distribution of IT products?
LR: We started making connections with manufacturers last year and we’ve been expanding our offering ever since. It’s quite a diverse offering and has grown a lot in the past three months (see advertisement on page 33 for list of product categories).
Cisco is the most recent vendor to come on board, with its VOIP Phone system. Ubiquiti is another new one. Routers are a big area for us – Draytek, Netgear and Zyxel were the first products we took on because our Operations Director, who has a background in IT, recommended them.
One of the things vendors like about us as a distributor is that we understand their products. We’re not just listing items for the sake of it. We understand the products and we know how to sell those products. That’s really important, list items, but to move that stock on you need to build trust with dealers and IT resellers/MSPs.
TR: What, in your experience, do your reseller customers expect from you as a distributor?
LR: I’d say they want fair and honest pricing, alongside a knowledgeable and responsive customer service support team.
They want to interact with someone who manages their account, rather than simply being directed to a call centre, or asked to place an order online.
We are still very traditional in the sense that whether you are from the managed print or IT hardware side you will be assigned an account representative with an array of product knowledge
and understanding. That personal relationship is crucial and not what they get from the wholesalers they have traditionally bought from.
Our customer service, value for money offering, responsiveness, stock availability and prompt, reliable delivery are all strengths of ours… plus the fact that we offer a complete solution: you can buy your IT hardware from us; you can buy toner cartridges from us; we’ll recycle your customers’ used IT and consumables; and we have software that allows you and your customers to monitor that recycling and access valuable data while maintaining compliancy with the WEEE Directive and Environmental Regulations.
TR: Are you mainly selling IT products to managed print providers or are you exploring other avenues?
LR: We’re also targeting pure IT specialists. I think that’s why we’ve grown our IT business so quickly, added to the fact that there are substantially more IT companies in comparison with MPS providers – almost double the number of IT providers per MPS provider in any given location.
TR: Have you been able to persuade any of the IT companies you’ve targeted to diversify into print?
LR: We get the odd introduction to partners they work with on the print side, but the main thing we’ve picked up from those IT companies, apart from IT hardware sales, is the recycling service we offer and the Atom dealer software including the My Greener Side customer portal we have developed for it.
Used laptops and hard drives need to be disposed of correctly, with full data erasure and appropriate certification. We do all that in-house and our software allows dealers and their clients to access detailed information, including waste transfer notes, giving them reassurance that all data has been erased and everything has been recycled correctly.
They appreciate the fact that we provide full traceability on recycling so that they can be sure they are covered from a compliance perspective in order to avoid legal action and potential unlimited fines.
TR: Do IT resellers come to you primarily because they need to buy equipment or because they need to recycle their customers’ used devices?
LR: Generally both, and they usually go hand in hand. When we started the recycling service, we hadn’t yet developed the software that works alongside the service. This software has been a game- changer for IT resellers and managed print providers, which, as well as providing clients with detailed information on the recycling of their devices, serves as a useful sales tool.
Once one of our collection boxes on a customer’s premises is full and returned to us via our licensed waste carrier FedEx, we itemise all its contents, which, in the IT world could be old cables, routers, laptops, hard drives etc., and upload all that information onto our Atom portal where the dealer can see the processes that each item has undertaken in order to be recycled correctly.
Say the list includes one HP laptop, three cables, a router, a Utax cartridge, a Sharp cartridge and a Samsung printer. If you’re not supplying any of those elements, your sales team can start a conversation with the customer: Who’s supplying the Samsung printer? Can I get you a better rate? Can I do the Managed Print for you? Or if you are already doing the managed print and you see a type of cartridge you haven’t supplied, that would indicate you are missing out on print volume and revenue.
TR: On the print side, your model is to take back used printers, parts and consumables and, where possible remanufacture and reuse items. Do you do that with IT equipment as well?
LR: That’s something we’ve been asked quite a bit, including by the manufacturers themselves. Right now, we are so busy remanufacturing printer cartridges and consumables that we don’t have the capacity for it. But we are all about the circular economy and it’s something we’d love to be able to
do in the future. Even though we’re not currently remanufacturing or refurbishing IT equipment, with our recycling service absolutely nothing is sent to landfill.
TR: You opened a European distribution hub last year. Has that been successful for you and are you using it to distribute IT products to customers in Europe as well?
LR: Yes, it’s been really good for us, because we do a lot of business in Europe, especially in Ireland and Italy. Taking Ireland as an example, we can now direct ship from our European hub in France
to Ireland in 48 to 72 hours, whereas competitors are taking anywhere from five to 14 days. We can also send items directly to customers’ client sites for a fee that’s very competitive with the rates people would pay for direct shipment in mainland UK.
TR: Finally, how do you plan to develop ECS’s IT distribution business in the next 12 months?
LR: By building on our existing momentum, to accelerate growth and to expand our reach. Key priorities are to increase our IT offering with new vendors and additional product lines and to develop relationships with more IT resellers and MSPs – to start conversations with them, conduct price reviews and put together full packages to help them with their quotes and tenders.
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