Brother Execs Discuss Balanced Deployment, Brother A4 Advantages, More

In years past, Brother USA was once a consumer and SOHO A4 printer/MFP vendor. In the last several years, however, it’s made a sharp pivot to more advanced printers and MFPs designed for the office market, and consequently has been recruiting dealers from the BTA channel. Among its key strategies  was the beginning of a partnership in 2018 with Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS), under which Brother provides TABS with sub-$1,000 A4 printers and MFPs, a partnership that has helped promote the Brother line to many office-equipment dealers.

This week, Brother USA executives updated analysts on how its dealer recruitment is progressing, and on how its unique Balanced Deployment is so well-suited for the age of COVID-19.

Balanced Deployment and COVID-19

Before COVID-19, Brother had been campaigning on a “Balanced Deployment” strategy to promote its sub-$1,000 A4 printers and MFPs. It argued that the much-more expensive, often over-spec’d A3 MFPs, resulted in loss of productivity. That’s because, it says, these centralizied A3 MFPs result in users having to spend time walking to and from from the machine, often waiting for other jobs to finish, or are confronted with down machines that require an onsite service tech to fix them, all of which result in lost productivity. Instead, it argues, pods of desktop Brother A4 machines – that can be replaced overnight if needed – are more efficient.

The pod concept is even more relevant today, with the goal of many enterprises to keep employees and guests six feet or more apart from each other to prevent COVID-19 transmission. “The device to employee ratio becomes very important,” noted Brother USA’s Dan Waldinger, senior director of B2B Marketing at Brother USA. “With employees now concerned about sharing devices, it’s about minimizing device contact,” says Waldinger.

Also key in the age of COVID-19 is minimizing guests entering the enterprise’s premises. Brother’s Exchange Service eliminates service techs having to enter the premises to fix broken machines; instead Brother overnights a new replacement unit, so there’s no need for a service tech to show up.

Waldinger noted that partner TABS is also deploying Brother devices in its work-from-home package, which is tagged with: “It’s not a home office. It is a corporate office in your home.”

Waldinger noted that Brother also continues to advanced its B2B printer/MFP portfolio, and it now has some 120 solutions, with QL labeling recently added, and other solutions that include a language translation service, end-to-end email encryption, Paper Cut, uniflow for Canon users, Print Fleet, fmAudit, Print Audit, and more.

Brother also touched on its integration with the Kofax Control Suite, announced in March, which provides printer management, security, document capture and routing, print rules, and workflow automation, with over 100 business connectors. Security includes user authentication (including NFC), secure print release, and usage tracking and auditing. Print-output management includes monitoring of what information is printed and automatic redaction of specified information – for instance, Social Security numbers can be automatically redacted in printed documents.

“This takes Brother’s partnership with Kofax to a new level,” commented Brother USA’s Bob Burnett, director of B2B Solutions Deployment and Planning at Brother International. Burnett also noted how advanced the system is: “The print stream is content aware…the system is looking at the content of the document, and if you’re allowed to print that document. For Brother dealers, it’s also the opportunity for increased revenue stream.” Burnett notes that not every vendor offers it, or integrates it into their MFP’s touchscreen. Kofax Control can be run internally via the customer’s server or via the cloud.

With Microsoft’s recent public preview of its Universal Print (UP), which eliminates print drivers and print servers, Brother is also working on integration with UP to offer UP on select Brother devices; these devices should be available next month. Starting in January 2021, Brother will offer devices that are UP native.

Dealer Recruitment

The firm says it’s also beefing up tools and resources for its dealers, including centralized tools and improved lead generation.

Along with this, the firm recently set up a dealer council to obtain dealer feedback. Its current lineup of dealers includes Kelley, CDS OT, XSE Group, LDI, Kelly Office Solutions, and others. Brother’s Steve Santucci, senior director of sales at Brother International, also noted that Brother’s A4 expertise is an incentive for dealer sign-ups, noting, “New dealers are starting to look to Brother for their A4 strategy.”

Gerry Crean, CEO of the XSE Group, said that one of the benefits of partnering with Brother is Brother’s dedication to the sub-$1,000 A4 printer/MFP, with Crean noting: “Brother brings a unique solution to the market,” and that, despite COVID-19, XSE is poised for growth this year. He also noted that he’s seen a large number of placements in the healthcare segment. The benefits of working with Brother, he stated, include Brother’s openness to new ideas and willingness to compete on cost per page.

For Brother’s part, Steven Santucci noted: “We are getting dealers of all sizes. Reseller recruitment has been surprisingly very good.”

Brother is also now piloting a flat-fee model in conjunction with financing company Great America.

Our Take

It’s worth noting that of all the office-imaging companies, Brother USA’s parent company, Brother Industries of Japan, has been among the office-imaging companies hit the least hardest by COVID-19, with its Printing group delivering some of the better results for the January-to-March and April-to-June quarters, which Brother attributed to adoption of its A4 devices by home workers. While Brother’s presence is still small in the BTA dealer channel, it appears that in many respects its message of balanced deployment and the advantages of A4 are getting through to many dealers and customers, especially in the age of COVID-19.

 

More Resources

• August 2020: Brother Reports Latest Quarterly Results
• July 2020: Brother, CDC Advise on Creating Safe Office Environments
• May 2020: Declines for Brother’s Fiscal Year, But Gains in Fourth Quarter
• March 2020: Select Brother Models to Feature Embedded Kofax Solution
• November 2019:Brother Expands Language-Translation Service
• May 2019: Brother MFPs Now Feature Compatibility with YSoft Print-Management
• April 2019: Brother Printers/MFPs and Scanner Now Feature OnSoft Integration