Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to chat with Jim Coriddi, who is the VP of Ricoh Americas dealer division. Ricoh, which is based not far from my home office in NJ, is in fact just minutes away from the last place I lived (West Caldwell, N.J.), before I got married a little over one year ago.
While I had passed by the Ricoh building several times during the time I lived in West Caldwell, it never immediately occurred to me that I should pursue a conversation, in-person, or via phone. During our chat with Coriddi, he kicked off the discussion to bring forth that today’s Ricoh is not the brand that most might remember from its days as a camera manufacturer…it’s a completely different company, and is now known (at least in the U.S.) for providing digital office equipment and advanced document management, including a managed print services offering.
Since we are on the topic of Managed Print Services (MPS not MSP), we based most of our conversation with Corridi on the fact that we wanted to know more about the ChaMPS program, which the company released about 18 months ago. The program comprises three components – Proven Methodology, Best-in-Class Resources and Ricoh’s Industry Leading Services – which according to the original press release issued, describes it as a “cafeteria-style” offering. The premise is to make things easier for Ricoh, Savin and Lanier dealers to leverage what they need, when they need it, while lowering their document-related capital investment and helping accelerate profit generation opportunities.
While Ricoh does distribute through both a direct channel and dealer channel, Coriddi was quick to point out that the company’s dealer channel is quite robust; in fact, according to Coriddi, 1 in 4 MSPs in the world work with Ricoh-manufactured products. He added that ChaMPS is another mechanism to allow Ricoh’s dealers to leverage the already comprehensive resources that the company offers. “The big benefit from our dealers is they can utilize the menu of different services we offer, and utilize them completely, Coriddi said. “They can use it as a starting point to get into the business without up-front infrastructure costs, to get into the services business…this allows them to generate both revenue and a customer base prior to having that usual big investment up front.”
Coriddi also pointed out that the ChaMPS program is tailored for each individual dealer’s needs, and the needs of their respective customers. “What we learned in building ChaMPS is that here is no one size fits all,” he said. “Every dealer has one way of doing things, we had to step back and take time to build in the flexibility to be able to go forward with the program.”
According to Coriddi, ChaMPS has experienced tangible results throughout the last six months, even though it is still in the “on-ramp” stage. He said the program is very much about working very closely with Ricoh’s dealer community, and bringing forth the common mindset that things are moving now, more than ever, into a services-led environment.
While Ricoh is actively looking to expand its ChaMPS program, Coriddi says that it is however more focused on quality over quantity; Ricoh has a loyal community of 480 dealers, some of which, according to Coriddi, have been with the organization for 15-plus years. “We are in a growth mode from a perspective of growing the business as a whole,” he said. “This is about growing our existing dealer business, and moving it forward.”
