Ricoh has embarked on a telemarketing campaign to recruit 100 IT VARs in an attempt to increase its share of the low-end printer market.

The appointment of IT resellers will be a first for Ricoh. Its route to market until now has been 70 per cent through its channel of copier dealers and 30 per cent direct.

Sofia Dahlqvist, Ricoh’s dealer channel marketing manager, told CRN: “We are in the middle of a telemarketing campaign to recruit 100 IT resellers. We have employed Tangible Results, a business-to-business telemarketing firm that is targeting 4,000 UK resellers.

“As well as getting the Ricoh name out there among VARs, this will also give us a database of the types of resellers that would be suitable to sell Ricoh printers. If any VARs express an interest in coming on board, we will put them in touch with our new business team.”

The telemarketing exercise will end in September. Ricoh wants its IT resellers to sell its third-generation printers and its new low-cost desktop printers – the GelSprinters – which will be launched in September.

“We are trying to benchmark ourselves against Hewlett-Packard because it is the market leader,” Dahlqvist added. “Most larger VARs will have long-standing relationships with printer vendors, so I think smaller resellers will be more open to selling Ricoh. Our long-term objective is to have a reseller programme in place.”

Philip Grote, printer industry analyst at research firm Current Analysis, said: “It is about time that Ricoh recruited resellers because it will allow the firm to expand its reach far beyond what its direct salesforce and its copier channel can cover. However, Ricoh’s plan to do this with low-end hardware is dangerous. This is a segment where the competition went in too fast and too low-priced.

“If Ricoh makes its GelSprinter an upsell vehicle that leads to recurring, high-margin revenue – from services, consumables revenue split, or at least h igher margin hardware – VARs will make it their first priority to push it. Otherwise the new printers could quickly gather dust on real and virtual shelves.”

laura_hailstone@vnu.co.uk