Laser Printer
Canon takes pole position
This category includes commercial stand-alone laser printers and laser all-in-ones sold to SMBs and enterprises.
Canon toppled last year winner Samsung and market-leader HP to rank as the most-preferred vendor.
Samsung came second. The company continues to work with a select group of partners and has been aggressive in promoting entry-level to mid-range stand-alone products with better partner profitability.
HP’s poor ranking was not just due to availability issues but also on account of its failure to meet channel expectations on other important criteria such as price-performance, partner profitability, and channel policy and management.
Canon
Many HP partners who voted for the laser printer category said that Canon is today where HP was 3-5 years ago in terms of channel relations; they praised the company for its vastly-improved partner connect. Partners polled said that Canon is not just gaining ground due to the availability issues faced by HP during 2009, but also because it has considerably improved its own channel engagement.
Canon has streamlined its distribution in the last two years. To curb over-distribution and price discounting, the company has put in place a system to make certain that the market operating price (MOP) is maintained.
After HP, Canon boasts of the largest product portfolio which is also very competitively priced. Canon’s laser printers are priced at least 20-30 percent lower at the entry and mid-range compared to HP’s; in the high-end A3 category it enjoys an almost 35-40 percent price differential.
With a 2-year onsite warranty for all its laser products, and much-improved warranty support infrastructure, Canon also scored high on post-sales support. In 2009 the company increased the number of its Canon Care centers from 25 to 33, and also took the count of its authorized service centers from 180 to 250.
Samsung
Samsung had minor intermittent supply issues during 2009. The company has a strong product portfolio in entry to mid-range lasers, including network color printers. However, partners said it lacked a portfolio in the A3 category and higher-end printers, and also lacks strong products in the multi-functions.
Where Samsung scored is in entry-level lasers where its products are extremely well priced. Also, the company scores better on partner profitability compared to its peers because it offers 10-12 percent margins even on entry-level products. In 2009, the company became very aggressive in DGS&D contracts and state-level rate contracts, and this helped many government resellers to win deals. The company offers 1-year onsite warranty and also ran a scheme during the entire year offering 1-year additional warranty.
What many respondents appreciated was that the Samsung partner program is simple and consistent and doesn’t have too many layers. This makes it easier for partners to get speedy SPC response and complaint redressal.
Hewlett-Packard
Respondents said that HP lost channel connect with partners as the company faced every issue possible. From July 2009, HP faced supply constraints for several of its fast-moving products. While supplies have improved since January 2010, they haven’t been restored to normal, yet.
Many loyal HP partners who didn’t want to sell any other brand had to forego several opportunities due to shortage.
One of the leading HP IPG partners said that they let go of a Rs 15 lakh order from a leading organization for branch deployments of 75 units of HP’s laser printer because the partner could supply only 15 printers to the customer.
Many other respondents said that they sold Canon to meet customer demand. What irked many respondents was that HP didn’t provide them with accurate information about when the shortage would be addressed. Instead, the company kept reassuring them of better supplies every month.
Many respondents said that HP’s price premium of 20-30 percent compared to the competition is not justifiable in an economic slowdown. Even with such price premiums, HP offers the lowest profit margins in the market.
Many leading HP partners said that the company, with its oversized team and high operational costs, has no alternative but to charge more for its products. This makes HP uncompetitive on pricing, and leads to a situation where it has to provide SPC (special price clearance) on large deals that are below their cost. In such negative deals, the partners are then compelled by account managers to generate more business in after-markets in order to make the customer account overall profitable.
While both Canon and Samsung were offering 2-year onsite warranties, HP still offers a 1-year warranty.
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