Digital imaging and printing distributor Alloys International has opened a reseller resource centre as part of its new sales offices in Abbotsford, Victoria.
The new centre will feature showrooms for vendors as well as a dedicated space for specialist high-end products, where resellers will be able to demonstrate products to clients or train staff.
With the official opening due next week, the final tweaks on lighting are being put on the new showroom.
Alloys International CEO Michael Guttmann said the new centre will provide resellers with much-needed facilities to help them make sales to their clients. It will feature products from the likes of Acer, Agfa, Canon, Epson and Xerox.
"It allows our resellers access to state-of-the-art facilities to demonstrate and sell our complete range of digital imaging products to their clients."
The centre will be staffed by three sales representatives, a colour management expert and design engineer.
"Particularly when you get into products that are in the higher price range and a bit more complicated, resellers are quite often flying blind," Guttmann said. "The box goes out and resellers can then spend three to four hours putting software together. Now we can train the dealers here so they can pass on the knowledge to their customers."
According to Guttmann, as colour management becomes more and more important, the channel needs to have a feel for software as well as hardware.
"It is not only a question of utilising images, it a question of presentation," he said. "You have to be able to mix the right paper, for example, or else all the technology in the world will only yield average results."
Alloy International is also working on a B2B and e-procurement site that it hopes to have up and running by March next year. "Our resellers will then have all the communication tools to make a sale, and the right environment in which to demonstrate their products."