While today’s business model has worked extremely well for more than 30 years, the continual decline in page volumes and the likelihood that such declines will accelerate make it incumbent upon OEMs and, to a lesser extent, dealers to consider alternatives.
Personally, I am a proponent of extracting page volume from the business model equation. If COVID taught us anything, it’s that factors well beyond our expectations can appear in the market and virtually destroy a major component of the business model.
Yes, many OEMs and dealers have placed minimum page volume levels in their agreements to guard against downside risk, but is this really feasible as the industry continues to commoditize? Is there anything preventing OEMs or dealers from moving in this direction? Not as far as I can see. Today’s industry players have all the data needed to effectively integrate pages into their core pricing while maintaining adequate protections for those customers who print “too much.” In fact, taking this approach would ultimately simplify customer transactions and administrative burden.
So how should the model change?
Find out by reading the remainder of my blog at The Imaging Channel.