INTERVIEW Michael J Thornton - KSM Telecom
“For us, when it came to transforming our business, the collaboration with Agilitas far outweighed the financial
and time constraints of implementing our own in-house competencies”
Mark O’Keefe, ITS Sales Director, Ricoh UK
Powered by Agilitas
Channel provider Agilitas has signed an innovative contract with Japanese
multinational imaging and electronics giant Ricoh to supply their clients
communications products, applications and services. Shaun Lynn, CEO at Agilitas,
explains the how and why
Shaun Lynn, CEO of
Nottingham based global
channel provider Agilitas, a
company already operating
in 67 international markets, says
his company is set to expand
that footprint to 100 countries
this year.
“ere are three points
to our operational triangle;
our international reach, the
unique range and depth of the
technologies and product sets
we support and the continuing
growth of the types of services
we can supply.
As end users’ appetite is
growing, with increasing
demand and as outcome-based
solutions continue to disrupt
the technology market, IT
rms are looking to a more
collaborative partnership model
of engagement. As a result, the
agreement between Agilitas
and Ricoh UK delivers huge
opportunities for the market
and the IT channel as a whole,
through the delivery of a best-ofbreed,
vendor agnostic, and truly
global solution.
We have formed a great bond
with Ricoh over the last few
years and I feel we understand
both goals and objectives of our
businesses inside out. It is this
understanding and alignment
in values that has helped us
to develop a unique channel
services oering that will benet
both our customers and the
channel, now and in the future.
Our relationship with Ricoh
saw Agilitas transacting our
services via a third party under
a white label model when Ricoh
approached us directly due to
the changing needs of their
Shaun Lynn,
CEO at
Agilitas
business.
Put simply, Ricoh needed
to continue the defence and
maintenance of their base
plus develop an enablement to
gain new customers through a
broader oering of additional
technology sets. Coinciding with
a change in their business model
to include IT services, Ricoh
wanted to go directly to source
with Agilitas on an international
basis rather than through a
partner, international.
Agilitas oers training and
working collaboratively with
the Ricoh sales front end in
an implicit way with pre-sales
guidance for their sales solution
architects on how to build more
innovative cost models.
e challenge is that Ricoh is
a vendor – if the computer says
do it this way they do it that way
so we had to help them think
dierently about how to target
and acquire new customers.
ey are however taking a
big picture view and establishing
a leadership in the market by
not saying they do everything
themselves but instead telling
users ‘We understand the
outcome you want and are
working with the best partners
to deliver this for you.
is is very smart and it
elevates them in many ways
to be able to say, as they do,
their multi-tech, multi-region
solutions are ‘Powered by
Agilitas’.”
Ricoh seems to be energised
by the deal with Agilitas
“We were unable to quickly
and cost-eectively develop our
own IT services portfolio to
align exactly with our customers’
evolving needs in the timescales
required. is is the reason we
went with Agilitas’ partner-
rst, scalable services model,”
says Mark O’Keefe, ITS Sales
Director, Ricoh UK. “For us,
when it came to transforming
our business, the collaboration
with Agilitas far outweighed the
nancial and time constraints of
implementing our own in-house
competencies.”
Since the partnership, Ricoh
has invested in developing its
service strategy in line with
customer demands, ensuring
sales teams are equipped with
relevant solutions. Although the
two companies dier in size,
both are very aligned on service
and quality for their customers.
e combination of Ricoh’s scale
and buying power with Agilitas’
IT services expertise delivers a
very relevant services proposition
to the market.
ED SAYS…
Ricoh is leveraging this partnership with Agilitas for enhanced support for its
customers and ultimately, the IT estate that Ricoh supplies to clients, needs to be
maintained. The partnership will enable Ricoh UK to deliver specific expertise for
customers, deliver on management of parts and improve on distribution back to
vendors.
34 | Comms Business Magazine | August 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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