Following the formation of the European IT Services division, Colin Blumenthal, Vice President IT Services Europe at Sharp, and founder of Complete I.T., outlines the strategy and evolution of IT Services from Sharp Europe.
What is the new European IT Services division?
Colin Blumenthal (CB): The European IT Services division has been set up to enable Sharp to be an IT partner for its clients. The strategy is to be a provider of multiple IT and IT-related services, whether that’s in the form of an MFP, document services, collaboration and signage solutions, or IT infrastructure and IT support including laptops, through the acquisition of dynabook.
Supporting the IT Services offering, we have established the European Technology Support Centre (ETSC), which is based in Warsaw, Poland. The centre operates a 24/7 support helpdesk for IT Services, offering assistance to English, German and Polish speaking clients. Furthermore, we are in the process of adding support for more European languages.
By its nature, the helpdesk is reactive, helping clients solve their IT issues. It also offers proactive remote management and monitoring, so can identify issues before problems actually arise and cause any business interruption.
The aim of the ETSC is to be highly responsive to customer needs, and provide a higher level of service to the client than our competitors. This is made possible because of our resources, as we have access to the right tools, enabling us to deliver a higher level of service than many smaller and more regional IT Service providers could hope to handle.
Why is Sharp Europe focusing on IT Services?
CB: Sharp is known across Europe for its print, document and display businesses, but we have taken the strategic decision to increasingly become a technology and services provider.
The decision to move into IT Services was taken a number of years ago. There are two approaches any business can take when creating an IT Services business: acquisition or organic growth. By its nature, organic growth is slower and has a lag behind the initial investment, whereas acquiring businesses means you effectively hit the ground running in terms of profitably, revenue and expertise.
Sharp chose the acquisition methodology, acquiring Complete I.T. back in July 2019. We have been seeking similar acquisitions since then, of which ITpoint AG (ITP) in Switzerland is the most recent.
That said, our strategy isn’t merely to pursue acquisitions, as there may be countries in Europe where organic growth may be relevant. In these instances, we would look to start an IT Services business from scratch, supporting it with the right strategy, people and marketing. We would look to build up the business based on cross-selling IT Services to the MFP client-base in each individual country.
Will we see the creation of Sharp IT Services?
CB: Complete IT and ITpoint AG currently report directly into me. The immediate plan for each business is not to break them, or change them and do anything radical, the strategy is evolution not revolution.
Like any business that acquires another one, you mustn’t break the revenue and profit streams that you are buying into. You have to be sensitive to the local country, and the position that each business is in when, or if, you should change the company’s name. At some point in time we may well become Sharp IT Services, but such a decision will be made on a country-by-country and business-by-business basis.
How does the European IT Services division differentiate itself from other IT Services?
CB: The bedrock of the new European IT Services division is that we are an IT partner for our clients. That means we are there for more than just providing fixes and support. We are there to show innovation around how IT can improve our clients’ business, as well as highlight how they can make better use of IT.
Our competitors tend to focus on fixing problems when the client requires it but our services by design build in a proactive element that enables clients to work smarter and work safer.
We want our clients to work smarter through the use of technology in a better, brighter way, but they also need to be aware there are bad actors out there, so they need to work safer - using the right approach to security and cyber-security to protect their business, and their staff, as much as possible.
Ultimately, the vision is that there will be one IT Services division covering the full range of Sharp products and services. So, whether you are looking for support across a range of MFPs, display solutions, or even laptop rollout and maintenance, we will be able to provide it. However, that is a long-term plan with one company offering a myriad of services, but the journey to get there is just beginning and will take some time.
If you would like to know more about the European Technology Support Centre (ETSC) or European IT Services division from Sharp, please Get In Touch.
