Depot America Builds a Solid Foundation For Industry Leadership                          
by Wendy Zarganis • Recharger Magazine

As Depot America celebrates 20 years in business in 2008, a continued commitment to quality and customer service play a major role in the company’s success

Technology and productschange rapidly in the printer parts and repair world. Establishing a forceful market presence takes foresight, dedication and teamwork. Depot America’s president Joe Costa took those qualities and grew the company from a tiny, three-person operation focusing on repairing dotmatrix print heads to an industry leader with 150 employees. But perhaps the most noteworthy achievement for Depot America as it looks back on its 20-year history, is its ability to connect with its customers. In an industry dominated by the technical, the Human Touch is a viable segment of Depot America’s core competencies. “There’s nothing in this business that’s impersonal,” Costa said. “We spend time on the phone, visiting with people, learning about what they need, how their businesses are changing and the challenges that they face. We have to be very much involved on a day-to-day basis with customers.”

The blend of technological advancement and good old-fashioned customer service has established Depot America as a dynamic company, offering OEM, new and
remanufactured printers parts,whole unit printers and component level repairs. As an industry leader, Depot America has noted a steady increase in competition form various sources. “More business segments are competing for the parts dollars,” said Costa. “Printer parts are available from many channels not always consistent in quality or delivery. This is obvious with declining price levels of service parts and supplies.” To respond to these industry challenges, Depot America has focused on its key competency – printers and the services needed to support customers. “Many of our innovative solutions over the years have come from listening to the needs of our customers and responding with simple, straightforward solutions,”
Costa said.

Some of those solutions included popular, and often duplicated, resources like the Fuser Identification Chart, which enables users to quickly identify fusers and better manage their core inventory. Depot America also introduced a compact, “slide guide” reference tool, developed specifically for field service techs. “This device goes a long way in speeding up service calls and reducing ordering errors,” Costa said.

Depot America supplements its technical offerings with customized solutions, remote network assessment monitoring capabilities and some welcome TLC for
its customers.

“Just because you automate, and you have to automate to maintain efficiency, you still have to engage people on a personal level,” Costa
said. “Our receptionist is wonderful. Cammy has been at the front desk greeting people for 12 years now. [The company] made the decision that any time someone calls our business they will speak to a person and not a tape machine. That element of the business doesn’t change. Not for us anyway. There aren’t many screens or walls here. Our customers are connected to the person they need to speak with to solve a problem, learn about services or inquire on a new product line we offer. “

Innovation in product lines and a dedication to customer service have kept Depot America at the top of the printer parts and repair world for the better part of two decades. The company’s ability to stay successful in part lies with Costa and his team’s ability to think ahead to the future while maintaining a sense of immediacy for present issues. Costa said, “You always ask yourself: ‘How much do you know?’ You have to understand what market trends are. What products are coming on board and what avenues you have. How do you assess opportunities so you don’t go from fixing print heads and fuser assemblies to fixing washing machines? If you distract yourself and move into directions that exhaust your resources, you’ll end up going out of business. One of our strengths is that we have continued to focus on the needs that exist in the printer service channel.”

Depot America’s needs were smaller [in the early days of its existence] but Costa maintained the same forward-thinking mindset from the start. “In 1988 we started servicing dot-matrix print heads, it’s been a long time since you heard one of those whirring across a page,” said Costa. “Within a year or two we could see the advent of laser printers which at the time were very expensive. Once they started to decline in price, we saw an increase in demand for these printers. In the 1990s we became involved with the remanufacturing of laser service parts, fuser assemblies, boards and paper path assemblies. That led to a relationship with HP and Lexmark. Depot America became an Authorized Parts Reseller and Master Parts Distributor, respectively, for those
manufacturers. Today we focus on a broad range of printer parts and are often first to market with our Exchange service level on both new and refurbished product.

With all Depot America’s achievements, Costa is quick to remember the strength of his organization comes from the people who make it. “We have three people who have been with us from the beginning,” he said. “A number of folks have been here five, 10 and 15 years. It all adds up to the continuity of how well your business is run. It’s satisfying to me to be with people who are responsive to our challenges. Our employees understand the commitment we have to one another and to the customers we serve.”

“Customers are our assets,” Costa said. “We encourage customers to come visit our facility and see first hand the experience and knowledge that is what we are. We’re fortunate to have such a group, one team, one focus, a place for our customers’ present and future service needs.”

This responsiveness enables the Depot America staff to maintain a personal touch with its customers amidst numerous technological investments that the company has made to stay on top of the changing demands of the industry. A major need the company is addressing is the significant increase in demand for live tech support.

“Our advantage is that our techs have extensive experience with many manufacturers, product lines and operating conditions,” Costa
said. “Additionally, we’ve developed excellent support software to track problem tickets and give customers the ‘audit trail’ they need. As the need has grown, so has our staff. With calls exceeding over 1,000 per month the demand for responsive tech support is strong”.

Another big investment Depot America recently made is IRYS, a managed print solution. In early 2007 Depot America aligned with PrintFleet software that offers remote network monitoring capabilities. The union enables Depot America to support service providers who are helping their own customers reduce costs and gain print efficiency.

“While thinking of the name [for IRYS], we took note of all of the things that we here at Depot America found to be its greatest strength and asset to our customers,” Kelly DeCola Voyer, senior marketing coordinator said. “We chose to focus on how IRYS provides valuable information, lets you understand your print devices, and most importantly — having visibility to see all of this information from one location. How do you see? With your eyes! Most of us process information by first seeing it. So we came up with a slightly edited version of a part of eye, the iris. We really feel that being able to see all of the print data coming from a network is the first step toward controlling and reducing costs now and allowing customers to plan for the future.”

“This vendor-neutral solution isa strategic and practical approach to understanding the customer’s document output infrastructure. Depot America is well positioned to support service providers as they begin to navigate the ‘Managed Print’ landscape,” Costa said.

Depot America’s foray into the e-commerce milieu has also been a huge project. Depot-america.com allows registered customers an easier way to purchase printer parts online as all part information is provided for them on a single screen. The information given includes real-time inventory levels, pricing and product images. With the easy-to-understand screen, Depot America customers can quickly choose a service level customized to meet their needs.

The company relied on some trusted customers to provide valuable feedback while the site was in development. “There were many issues during testing that we hadn’t considered, that we wanted to include in our e-commerce package,” Costa said. The lengthy development and research time paid off with e-commerce functionality that is user-friendly. Costa said, “With this innovation, we overcame the objection to the static nature of e-commerce pricing. Our customers can have confidence that their pricing will continually benefit from these efficiencies.”

But Depot America sees the most valuable investment they’ve made is in their employees. “Personally, what’s nice for me to see everyday, looking into [staff] people’s eyes and knowing that they’re ‘with us.’ Our skilled account managers, customer support members, technicians, engineers and administrative staff are committed to providing unrivaled service and support. These are the people who help set us apart from the competition.”

Some of Depot America’s focus on the personal stems from Costa’s diverse experience in the finance, operations and sales fields, even before the inception of Depot America. “There were many circumstances in my career both good and bad that shaped me. All of us learn what we like, what we will avoid. From other jobs we find behaviors we want to emulate. There really are no positive or negative experiences. You can use all experiences as a way to drive you to another destination.”

From this amalgam of life and career experiences, Costa and Depot America have developed a workable formula for success. Costa’s philosophy, like his company’s services, is user-friendly and to the point. “You should like what you’re doing and enjoy the people who work with you in doing that,” he said. “I think if possible, share a sense of direction and purpose with the people around you. That’s a satisfying way to live.”

Depot America was founded in 1988 on a powerful combination of foresight, expertise and an unyielding commitment to innovation, quality and support services. Years of steady growth and many satisfied customers demonstrate our dedication to superior customer service and excellence in hardware technology, thus expanding and perpetuating our company's impressive record of success. Today, Depot America is recognized as one of the leading hardware service sources in the industry. For more information visit http://www.depot-america.com or call 800-648-6833, ext.267.