If you sell office technology for a living, you don’t need another analyst report to tell you things are changing. You probably see it in a myriad of ways. RFPs that drag on for months, renewals that shrink, technology budgets that do not grow in proportion to other spend. The dealer channel is under real pressure, but money is still being made. In fact, this might be one of the most important and promising moments for resellers willing to rethink how they create value.
Yes, page volumes are declining. Yes, customers are moving to the cloud, experimenting with AI and asking tougher questions about security and compliance. I (and many others) have written about these dynamics. But none of that eliminates the need for what dealers do best: making complex, messy workplace technology usable, secure and aligned with how people actually work. The challenge is less about which boxes sit on the floor and more about how you package, deliver and prove that value over time.
The Challenges Dealers Are Facing Now
From my perspective watching this industry, several pain points have moved from background noise to front‑and‑center issues in the last several years.
First is the ongoing transition beyond print. Traditional print volumes continue to decline as hybrid and remote work models evolve and more processes move into digital workflows. That shift squeezes click‑based revenue and makes it harder to justify the same hardware‑centric sales motions that worked a decade ago. Dealers are being asked to support cloud print, digital document flows and collaboration tools, often without a corresponding increase in budget.
Second is the pace of technology change. Your customers aren’t just asking about specific equipment capabilities. They want cloud‑managed fleets, secure remote printing, analytics dashboards and, increasingly, some kind of AI “assist” built into their workflows. Keeping up with that stack, from embedded security to integrations with line‑of‑business apps, takes more technical depth than many small and mid‑sized resellers have on staff.
That leads directly to the third challenge: talent. Across the broader tech sector, finding and keeping skilled people is hard, and the office technology channel is certainly not immune. Dealers need technicians who can service devices, yes, but also people who understand cloud, security, data and process mapping well enough to sit in front of a customer and talk strategy instead of just provide break‑fix services.
Then there’s security and governance. Since devices have become intelligent, connected endpoints, customers are rightfully worried about data leakage, unauthorized access and compliance with a growing patchwork of privacy and AI regulations. Dealers now find themselves answering questions about zero‑trust architectures, encryption, audit trails and data‑flow mapping that go far beyond “is this device secure?”
Finally, all of this is happening against a backdrop of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. IT budgets are under scrutiny; projects get delayed or downsized; supply chains can still be unpredictable. For dealers, that means longer sales cycles, more pricing pressure and a constant need to defend value to customers who are being told to “do more with less.”
None of these forces are imaginary or temporary. They’re reshaping the channel. But they’re also pointing directly at where the next opportunities lie.
Practical Ways to Mitigate Today’s Pain Points
So, what can resellers do about all of this? A few thoughts:
One is to reframe your value proposition around business outcomes. Lead with the business problems you help solve: reducing process time, improving document security, supporting hybrid work, advancing sustainability goals and/or meeting compliance requirements. That shift creates room for more consultative conversations and value‑based pricing.
Another is to expand and modernize your services portfolio. Managed print is evolving into managed workplace and information‑management services that blend devices, cloud platforms, workflow automation and security. Packaging those capabilities into clear, recurring bundles helps stabilize revenue and deepen customer relationships.
On the talent front, most dealers are not going to hire full security teams or AI labs, and that’s OK. A realistic path is to upskill your existing people in targeted ways while leaning on vendor, distributor and specialist partners for deeper expertise. Invest in training around security basics, workflow and automation mapping and cloud platforms for your sales and service teams, and be intentional about which external partners you trust to fill the gaps.
Security and data governance deserve to be productized, not treated as “free” add‑ons. Build offerings that include secure configuration, access controls, firmware and patch management, documented data flows and regular reporting and price them accordingly. For customers in regulated industries, that kind of rigor is not a nice‑to‑have — it’s Vegas table stakes, baby.
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of clear, honest communication. As AI‑generated content floods inboxes and our lives in general, dealers have an opportunity to differentiate where the channel has always excelled. You have the relationships and the personal touch, making it easy to provide local case studies, practical tips and candid explanations of what a new technology can and cannot do. Your perspective, grounded in the realities of the field, is something customers can’t get from a large corporate entity with outsourced talent, generic chatbots or relying on corporate brochures.
A Future Built on Adaptation, Not Nostalgia
Looking ahead, it wouldn’t be rational to expect the pace of change to slow down. AI agents are poised to become the dominant interface for many IT services, and customers will demand more transparency into how their data is used, governed and protected. More jurisdictions will adopt privacy and AI regulations, and vendor partner programs will evolve and create new reward structures.
At the same time, the core need that created this channel in the first place is not going away. Organizations will still need trusted, local partners who can sit across the table, understand their businesses, their workflows and the way they use technology. Dealers will continue to assemble the right mix of technology, services and support for customers and their businesses. The form factor of the devices will evolve; the dashboards will get fancier; the acronyms will keep changing. But the value of a partner who can simplify complexity and stand behind the solution remains real. The path forward isn’t typically comfortable. Investment needs to happen, innovation needs to be fostered and leadership needs to encourage their teams to embrace change. But we’ve been here before, right? Maybe a million times. This channel has been around for a while — typewriter ribbon used to be one of the core consumables! The BTA is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Dealers perform micro transformations every single day. We’ve got this.
Patricia Ames is president and senior analyst for BPO Media, which publishes The Imaging Channel and Workflow magazines. As a market analyst and industry consultant, Ames has worked for prominent consulting firms including KPMG and has more than 15 years experience in the imaging industry covering technology and business sectors. Ames has lived and worked in the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe and enjoys being a part of a global industry and community.