Strategic Partner Day in Berlin: UTAX and winwin Office Network AG prepare for the digital future

Daniel Gleixner, Sales Director at UTAX, and Frank Eismann, CEO of winwin Office Network AG, agreed during the opening speech that the key now is to seize the growth opportunities offered by digitalization. Frank Eismann emphasizes that UTAX and winwin are acting in sync: "Instead of talking about products, we want to talk to our customers about processes and position ourselves as consultants for digitization strategies." With UTAX, the company is ideally positioned for this task: "When selecting a strategic partner after the winwin Group was founded, UTAX was chosen for good reason. UTAX understands SMEs. Cooperation and performance have been a good fit from day one. In addition, the innovative hardware and solution portfolio from UTAX is constantly evolving," says Eismann.

The focus in Berlin was also on hardware innovations. Following the recent launch of the new UTAX DIN A4 family, which complements the current UTAX DIN A3 generation that has been completely overhauled over the last two years, the entire UTAX portfolio is now a unified whole. “Hardware is the gateway to digitalization and has a corresponding significance,” explains Philipp Wanner, Product Manager at UTAX. “The entire UTAX product series is now based on a uniform engine and fulfills all the criteria that our customers expect from modern multifunctional systems and printers: efficiency in scanning and printing. Intuitive operability, with a uniform interface across the entire UTAX product family. Sustainable devices, both in production and in use, and energy-saving thanks to new toner technology. And last but not least: security at the highest level, as the devices are already equipped with important security functions as standard,” says Wanner. It should also be emphasized that, in view of the challenges of digitization, not only the DIN A3 devices, but also all UTAX DIN A4 systems, are equipped with a high-performance dual scanner. In addition, for the first time, a DIN A4 printer also has HyPAS functionality, which allows the software to be used as a fully-fledged client for authentication solutions and future applications.

There was also a consensus at the event that IT security is more important than ever. Risks are increasing and attacks on IT infrastructure are on the rise, often via peripheral devices. IT security is a top priority at UTAX, as UTAX Sales Director Daniel Gleixner emphasizes: “Over ten additional security features in the basic configuration make UTAX hardware a game changer in the market and give our customers optimum IT and data security with regard to their peripherals too.” This applies in particular to companies with a critical infrastructure (KRITIS) - for example in the areas of healthcare, administration or finance.

Security aspects affect hardware and software in equal measure. The trend towards hybrid working has increased these requirements even further. In this context, Markus Müller, Head of Sales at UTAX Consulting & Solution Experts, emphasizes the importance of authentication: “We authenticate ourselves on our smartphones, vehicles, laptops and email accounts as a matter of course. But this is not always the case with MFPs. In some companies, there are highly technical devices in the hallway that can output sensitive data every day without authentication. This has to change, even in smaller companies with two or three MFPs,” says Müller. Customer advice on authentication on the system thus builds a bridge to software topics and digitization helpers, the solution expert explains the sales approach. “In addition to security aspects, we should also address issues of relief in our discussions. Authentication is the first step towards achieving greater security and protection against data theft and phishing in compliance with the GDPR. Authentication on the system also brings further added value: it ensures greater cost transparency through concrete figures, provides information on the use of multifunctional systems, reduces misprints and thus protects the environment. Last but not least, it simplifies the application and enables access to the cloud through an elegant connection to services such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive or SharePoint,” emphasizes Müller.

In addition to this, the topic of the cloud was also dealt with more intensively on site, as the UTAX cloud strategy includes a range of innovative products: These include the UTAX Fleetmanager for fleet management and remote support, the UTAX Zeitblick digital working time recording system, UTAX Cloud Print and Scan for location-independent printing and scanning and the UTAX Information Manager for systematic document storage. All of these solutions offer a wide range of benefits, such as lower hardware investments, fast implementation, automatic software updates or data backups, flexible scalability and support for hybrid working methods.

A real success story in this area is currently UTAX Zeitblick, which is enjoying high demand, as Markus Müller reports: “The winwin partners, who regularly place the digital working time recording with customers and position themselves as digitalization consultants, also make a significant contribution to this.” UTAX Zeitblick also enables - and this is a unique selling point - “stamping on the multifunctional system” and does not require any additional hardware for this. The solution is easy to install and self-explanatory to use. The decision of the Federal Labor Court in particular, which states that the entire working time of employees in Germany must be recorded, means that the topic of working time recording remains topical.

UTAX Cloud Print and Scan is also one of the central products of the UTAX Cloud strategy. The solution, which enables location-independent printing and scanning from the cloud, is constantly being developed further. For example, with regard to integration into Microsoft 365 or a connection to the Azure Active Directory, which makes this solution particularly interesting for larger companies. For Markus Müller, UTAX Cloud Print and Scan is one of the most sophisticated cloud solutions on the market and also has a very attractive pricing model.

The UTAX Cloud Information Manager was recently launched - an entry-level solution for smart filing. “When customers use cloud-based scanning, they also want the information to be automatically stored in the cloud with OCR text recognition, keywording and a guarantee of retrievability. This is what the UTAX Cloud Information Manager does,” says Olaf Stammer, Head of Solution & Service Portfolio Management at UTAX. “We meet customers where they are. For those who prefer to work on-premise rather than in the cloud, UTAX offers equally good solutions for automating business processes. This is what the aQrate and ScannerVision solutions stand for, which are successful on the market and will be equipped with new functions in the current financial year,” says Stammer. 

The partners already have their sights set on the next step in digitization consulting. “Our industry is seen as having a great deal of trust when it comes to documents. We should also use this in the direction of DMS/ECM,” says Daniel Gleixner from UTAX. With greater customer penetration and loyalty, this approach should increase the margin in the future-oriented service area and expand the portfolio in contrast to the competition. As the shortage of specialists has also reached the sales partners, the company is offering its DMS/ECM team to support the UTAX partners: “34 experts work exclusively on the topic of DMS/ECM and have already successfully implemented numerous projects. They can serve as an extended workbench for customer projects in the best sense of the word,” emphasizes Gleixner. With enaio® and yuuvis® RAD for digital contract and personnel files, as well as for digital invoice receipt, UTAX is also holding out the prospect of further product innovations from the cloud sector.

In conclusion, Christopher Rheidt, Managing Director of TA Triumph-Adler GmbH, thanked the winwin Group: “UTAX achieved a strong result in the past financial year despite a difficult market environment. The fact that we were able to achieve this was due in large part to winwin.” The feedback from the event held in Hamburg two years ago to mark the tenth anniversary of the collaboration was also of great value: “The winwin companies are pioneers in the market and know what is in demand. That's why we at UTAX today primarily talk about cloud, services and security with a focus on a solution design that stands for simple implementation. For 12 years now, winwin and UTAX have been characterized by a stable and trusting partnership that has navigated around difficult obstacles and always remained ambitious. And we want to continue this together,” emphasizes Rheidt.

UTAX is a registered trademark of TA Triumph-Adler GmbH. The Hamburg-based company specializes in the sale of high-quality printing and copying systems. The broad product portfolio includes hardware and software applications. In addition to copying, printing and multifunctional systems (MFP) for the office workplace, UTAX provides customized IT solutions and services as well as comprehensive consulting for efficient document processes in companies. In Germany, the UTAX brand is sold through a network of over 200 authorized dealers. Internationally, the company operates in over 40 countries in the EMEA region.