ECI and CEO Juice Together Again At IT Nation 2024: A Powerful Alliance for Office Technology Providers

At IT Nation 2024, two industry giants, CEO Juice and ECI, have joined forces to showcase a powerful alliance designed to help office technology providers streamline and automate operations and position for growth. We spoke with Gary Lavin, Founder at CEO Juice, and Anna Grubb, VP of Global Sales at ECI, about how their integrated solutions enable businesses to offer seamless managed print solutions and IT management to boost revenue and expand their service offerings. This Q&A sheds light on why this collaboration is a game changer for businesses striving for both efficiency and growth.

Gary: The current landscape is evolving quickly. We’ve all seen the effects of hybrid work environments and digital transformation take hold. Equipment sales are flat, page volumes are decreasing, and more technology providers are diversifying their offerings to build new revenue streams. Combining printer management with managed services has become a winning formula. In fact, seven of the ten largest managed service providers worldwide are copier dealers here in the USA. They have the sales formula down and have brought marketing in-house. Plus, most importantly, they’re running e-automate integrated into all the tools they need. Our collaboration with ECI is timely, providing an integration that positions office technology providers for change.

Anna: Exactly. We see so many businesses expanding beyond traditional printer management and into managed IT services, driven by a growing need for network management, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions. At last year’s IT Nation, many e-automate users told us that they were actively expanding into managed IT services to boost their recurring revenue from existing customers. The serious players in this segment are actively pursuing diversification, and our collaboration with CEO Juice helps them capture new revenue without overhauling their existing infrastructure.

Anna: If you are in the weeds managing your business, being weighed down with manual, admin tasks, you have limited capacity for business growth. Automation is a key enabler. CEO Juice with e-automate is advancing business automation for service providers. You can monitor, automate, and manage your entire business in one place, eliminating the need for multiple platforms and manual monitoring. Managing everything in one place reduces operational complexity, making it much easier to scale..

Gary: More office technology providers know that paper is going away, but documents, processes, and workflows remain. CEO Juice integrated with e-automate allows the automation of the majority of print management tasks, from supply tracking and service alerts, making it easier for providers to manage clients' printer fleets and proactively address issues before they affect your business or your clients.

Anna: ECI’s strength lies in our deep industry expertise and a robust product catalog, specifically in office equipment and printer fleet management. For over 20 years, we have helped service providers automate meter collection, supplies ordering, billing, and even technician dispatch. We’ve grown with the industry and continue to help office technology providers with the demands of the modern customer, everything from SLA attainment to modern ecommerce storefronts.

Gary: The only way to rapidly scale a business and keep it profitable is to automate it. Providers looking to scale and become serious players in the new combined Print/IT industry need this level of business intelligence to reduce their risks and grow their service catalog.

Anna: It’s a common misconception that automation and ERP are only for large businesses. E-automate is a cloud-based, SaaS platform designed to be affordable and easy to implement for small providers too. Starting with an inclusive ERP like e-automate gives smaller businesses a real advantage for growth. You can scale much more easily as your business grows, and as soon as you automate, you’ll free up time to focus on strategy rather than daily admin work.

Gary: Anna’s absolutely right. The sooner you start with automation, the more time you’ll save on repetitive tasks, giving you room to focus on new business initiatives. An ERP like e-automate is critical for growth. If you're managing your business with QuickBooks and spreadsheets, you will find it impossible to scale quickly enough to ward off competition. You can set up a foundation for efficient operations right from the start, automating your process with a SixSigma approach to fine-tuning a process when needed, allowing your business to scale smoothly as demand grows.

Gary: Start by evaluating your current capabilities and identify where automation could reduce manual work. With the right tools, you can expand your services, attract new business, and increase recurring revenue from existing customers without adding significant complexity or new resources. The three big areas that we see today that require a lot of manual labour but can be almost fully automated are the Equipment Order process, Accounts Receivable and auto-toner replenishment (ATR). Chat to us on how we can help.

Anna: Don’t underestimate competitive pressure. More office equipment dealers are moving into managed IT services, and a slow reaction can put you at risk. Diversify your offerings before they do. Using CEO Juice and e-automate, you don’t need to invest heavily into new infrastructure or skillsets to provide new services, and you can quickly start selling more services into your existing client base. .

As the demand for combined IT and print management grows,office technology service providers must adapt to remain competitive. With CEO Juice and e-automate, ECI offers a powerful, integrated solution that helps office technology providers manage their entire client base with ease. Automation is essential for scalability, and starting with the right tools, even as a small provider, positions you for steady growth. If you’re ready to simplify your operations and build for the future, stop by our booth at IT Nation to learn more.