Witham-based Essex Business Machines (EBM) sets sights on driving growth in IT services
Michael (Mick) Bailey established EBM in 2005, setting up shop in a 500 sq. ft. unit in Witham. As a service engineer with over 25 years’ experience, his focus was firmly on creating a company that had excellence in customer service at its core – that philosophy remains as pertinent today as it was on day one.
EBM quickly developed an excellent reputation for its exceptional service provision and just three years later, had grown exponentially. By 2008, it had expanded in size four-fold and occupied an additional three units on the same site – bringing its total square footage to 2,000 sq. ft. It was at this point that son Mark joined the business. “I was 16 years old and fresh out of school,” he said. “We had two engineers on board looking after service, but we needed to focus more on sales and that was where I started.”
Mark very much learnt on his feet, quickly grasping the nuances of business, and taking charge of the sales department, ensuring that every prospective customer receives a bespoke proposal suitable to their business. In October 2014, he was promoted to Managing Director, succeeding his father who has semi-retired, although he retains his seat on the board and continues to conduct the odd service call-out.
He says that the father-son working relationship has worked really well. “Very quickly I realised I really enjoy the business aspect, I’m happiest being strategic and working with Excel spreadsheets, whereas my father much prefers being elbow-deep in toner!” he explained.
In the three years since Mark has been at the helm, the company has doubled in size. “We’ve achieved a consistent 20 per cent growth year on year and we’re on track to maintain that this coming year,” he said.
Office move
EBM marked its tenth anniversary purchasing new premises, still in Witham. The new 2,500 sq. ft. building was purpose designed to suit their needs. It houses office space, showroom, warehouse, service division and workshop.
Last summer, the company invited local businesses, partners and clients, hosting an informal networking event to mark the official opening of the new HQ.
Nick Smith from Ricoh kicked off the day with a presentation centred on how SMEs can save a considerable amount of money with a print audit. Tim Bland from Grenke Leasing provided insight on the benefits of leasing over purchasing office equipment, including avoiding the ‘copier graveyard’ situation, where broken purchased devices stack up over the years, taking up space and costing more and more money as they are continually replaced. Other speakers included Steve Pearce from Lexmark, who delivered a well-received talk on how Google Cloud integration can benefit organisations of all sizes and industries through its collaborative solutions and Brett Lewis from Konica Minolta described how big a problem paper waste is for many businesses. He provided practical advice for reducing an organisation’s carbon footprint, while saving money, by cutting back on the amount of paper used through deployment of managed print services and staff education.
MP Priti Patel joined guests, cutting the ribbon to officially open the new premises. Ms Patel attended and officiated at the official opening of EBM’s old premises five years ago.
Geared for growth
The company supplies, services, provides maintenance contracts and consumables for an array of office business machines within Essex and the surrounding areas and counties, including London, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, Herts and Beds.
In January this year, it partnered with an IT company – IT 4 Offices. “This was a strategic move for us,” Mark explained. Our customers tell us that we do a great job for them on MPS and they’re looking for a similar service across their IT infrastructure. We see managed IT services as a huge opportunity for growth, and this new collaboration will allow EBM to provide comprehensive IT consultancy, support and solutions to our growing SME customer base. Our focus is now firmly on creating opportunities to deliver managed IT services to support our strategy for future growth.”
EBM now has a 12-strong team, split across its sales, customer service, accounts and after-sales service functions. “We took on four new members of staff at the start of this year and we’re actively recruiting for IT specialists at the moment,” Mark explained.
The business has retained its focus on service and prides itself on delivering an after-sales support service that is second to none. With founder Mick stepping down from the day to day, this important function will now be headed by newly promoted Service Manager Andrew Hunt, an experienced service engineer.
Multi-vendor
The MPS specialist offers a comprehensive range of printers and MFPs and has partnered with OEMs including Ricoh, Konica Minolta and Lexmark. More recently, it announced that it had been appointed as an authorised dealer for Epson UK, in particular its unique Replaceable Ink Pack System printers – RIPS.
Epson WorkForce Pro RIPS printers provide an affordable solution for companies looking to reduce their consumable cost per page and improve their eco-credentials. When compared to equivalent laser printers, companies can save up to 80 per cent on the cost of consumables, while the devices’ ultra-low power consumption technology contributes to further savings of up to 70 per cent in power usage.
Offering the highest page yield in its class, RIPS printers significantly reduce the need to stock many consumable items and parts. For the dealer, this means lowerstorage, transport and logistics costs, and they also eliminate the need to recycle empty cartridges, which further reduces both the customer and resellers’ carbon footprint.
Mark said: “The WorkForce Pro RIPS range is a compelling choice for environmentally conscious businesses. And, as a company that prides itself on being committed to delivering on our environmental policy, supplying these devices as an alternative to laser printers very much fits with our green ethos.”
He added: “We’ve seen massive success already with Epson’s unique RIPS printers and we’re very excited about the imminent launch of Epson’s new 100ppm model. We saw the beta version pre-launch and it’s amazing.”
This multi-vendor approach is very important to EBM. Mark explained: “We are very customer-focussed and approach each client contract independently, tailoring our recommendations to suit their needs and offering the very best levels of service we can.”
He continued: “It’s all about delivering the right products for each customer. For example, Lexmark do great A4 models, so if A4 printing is a customers’ mainstay then that’s the brand we will recommend. For colour, Ricoh and Konica Minolta both have a superb offer and with RIPs, we can achieve the cost and eco-savings our customers demand.”
EBM supports children’s charity, Brainwave, which works with families to deliver home based therapy and exercise programmes aiding children with disabilities and additional needs in achieving greater independence. Mick has been an ambassador for the charity since 2007.
