PANASONIC EXTENDS VERSATILITY WITH PANABOARDS
Panaboards are one of the differentiating factors for
Panasonic in its quest to be a full service provider. These seven electronic
whiteboards, which are presentation tools typically found in conference rooms
and training facilities and at seminars and trade shows, help underscore
Panasonic’s versatility and commitment to offering all-encompassing solutions,
especially in office environments. Although there are 15 companies currently
producing some form of this technology, Panasonic is the lone document imaging
manufacturer or vendor that plays in this space.
To learn about Panaboards and the sales network
employed by the company, as well as to whom they are being sold to and how
they’re marketed, Digital Imaging Review (DIR) interviewed representatives
at Panasonic and a few of its distribution outlets.
“A Suite Solution”
For the last number of years, Panasonic has been
urging its dealers to give demonstrations of any of its document imaging products
on a Panaboard. “It can be difficult to get customers into one of our showrooms
for a demo, so when they do come we need to make sure that we take that
precious time and turn it into an advantage for us,” said Luis Pinilla, channel
sales manager of U.S. distribution for Panasonic Communications Company of
North America (PCCNA).
Ultimately, the company’s aim is to present an MFP—or
a printer, scanner or fax for that matter—in a different way than its
competition. “Using one of our Panaboards, the dealer can bring up a PowerPoint
file on the screen and illustrate to the customer what the device can do and
how it will fit into the business’ workflow,” he said. “Everything that was
shown to the customer can then be printed out so that the information about the
device will remain fresh in their mind. By the end of the demo though, the customer’s
questions aren’t necessarily about the device but about the Panaboard instead.”
“The bottom line is that we’re focused on providing
businesses with ‘A Suite Solution,’” said Bryan Martin, solution specialist for
PCCNA. “Panaboards are an excellent complement to our full range of document
imaging devices, and we can even sell flat-panel televisions to the customer so
people in the back of large rooms don’t miss anything in the meeting or lesson,
as long as the network capability is there.”
The Distribution Network
Panasonic’s business model for Panaboard distribution is
twofold: 80 percent of them are bought by distributors while the remaining 20
percent are gobbled up by dealers directly through the company, according to
Pinilla. “Our three national [Parrot Distributing, Tech Data and Ingram Micro]
and four regional distributors blanket the entire country,” he said. “And it’s
not just our large and medium-size dealers that are pushing Panaboards; our
smaller dealers are having a lot of success with them too.”
The main difference between purchasing from Panasonic
or one of its distributors boils down to whether or not dealers have precious
warehouse space to keep Panaboards in stock. If so, chances are that dealers
will simply go through Panasonic. Conversely, dealers can save themselves real
estate in their warehouses by ordering from a distributor, whose chief function
is to drop-ship products straight to the customer.
Who’s Buying?
Pinilla explained that the company views the
relationship between its document imaging hardware and Panaboards as being symbiotic
in nature, and this extends past how dealers present the pieces of equipment
together. “I think that both technologies are helping us expand our sales in both
channels, no doubt,” he said. “It all circles back to our approach of providing
‘A Suite Solution.’”
In the past, the target clientele for electronic
whiteboards has usually been talked about in terms of vertical markets such as
education and government entities, both of which are still huge fans of the
technology today. Enterprises and large corporations are others worth noting as
they tend to have multiple conference rooms in multiple locations. As electronic
whiteboards proliferate and more and more people are realizing what they are
and how they can raise efficiency, more business opportunities have presented
themselves.
“One interesting account for us was with a landscaping
company,” Martin said. “The owner was projecting a blueprint of a home’s
exterior on the UB-8325 Interactive Panaboard and showing his team what needed
to be done. He would then print it out and the team would go off and do the
project with few questions because everything had been tackled early on in the
process.
“The traditional vertical markets that have been
buying the technology are still there, but there’s so much room for growth
because so many people are now learning about them and understand that it will help
their business,” Pinilla said. For example, real estate agencies can show
virtual tours of houses to clients so they don’t waste time going out to see
something that clearly isn’t in the buyer’s mind. The opportunities are truly
endless.”
Marketing Panaboards
Getting the word out there about Panaboards is of
vital concern for the company and its distribution network. Doing demos on a
Panaboard is the least expensive and perhaps the most powerful way to spread
the news. Additionally, Panasonic will soon launch its “Test Drive a Panaboard”
video on its Web site so that people can see what all the hype is about, even
if they’re not face to face with one.
On that note, the Internet is the most valuable
marketing tool for Panaboards. “We want to make sure that all keywords and meta
tags that are relevant or just on the fringe are covered when registering with
search portals,” Pinilla said.
Please visit panasonic.com/panaboards for more
information and specifications on all seven types of Panaboards.
The full article will be published in the October
edition of DIR.
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