https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501 Application
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2021 MSP 501 Application
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2021 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Digital Service Providers
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • CHANNEL PARTNERS ONLINE
 Channel Futures

Technologies


3-D Printer

3-D Printing: Partners Should Pay Attention

  • Written by Lynn Haber
  • July 5, 2018
3-D printing is a next-generation technology that will revolutionize everything. There's a place for your partner business, but at a cost.

3-D printing is poised to be a $12 billion market this year, projected to reach $20 billion by 2021, according to IDC. Hardware, materials, software and services account for the global spending figures. So, if you’re a channel partner, you should be paying attention — but not for the reasons you think. 

There’s printing – document printing as most IT partners are familiar with – and then there’s 3-D printing. There’s quite a bit of difference between printing onto a medium or substrate such as paper, for example, versus a process that prints upon itself to create a part, shape or object. 

“We call it printing, but it’s not the same animal,” Keith Kmetz, program vice president for IDC’s imaging and printing areas, told us.

There was a time when, during the rise of the hype cycle for 3-D printing, there was a vision of a device in every household, school and business. But that’s not what happened. It’s more realistic to view 3-D printing as a commercial and industrial opportunity. 

To date, 3-D printing has had its roots in prototyping, where designers and engineers print out a design to see how it looks, and go through an iterative process of making changes until the object is ready for production. 

More recently, however, the goal for 3-D printing is to move up from a prototyping application to a final production opportunity. This type of 3-D printer is an industrial tool that can be used for prototyping, but also for final part production. 

“3-D printing is in the beginning stages of being able to do this for a variety of reasons, such as part quality or speed of the process, for example,” said Kmetz. 

Keith Kmetz

Discrete manufacturing is expected to be the dominant industry for 3-D printing, with health care the second largest, says IDC’s 2017-2021 forecast. These markets will be followed by education and consumer, with professional services and retail spending on 3-D printing picking up the pace and moving ahead of the consumer segment by 2021. 

A known entity among IT channel partners, HP Inc. talks about disrupting the $12 trillion 3-D manufacturing market with 3-D printing. HP introduced its 3-D printing technology in 2014, its first 3-D printer – the 4200 Series production platform – in 2016, and has been shipping in volume for more than a year. Since that time, the vendor expanded its 3-D printing portfolio with the introduction of the Jet Fusion 300/500 series, which allows manufacturers to produce engineering-grade, functional parts in full color, black or white. 

“The strategy of HP is to disrupt how people design and manufacture,” Alex Monino, vice president global strategy and go-to-market director, HP 3D Printers, told us. “What that means, is that if you take where the market is today, between $4 billion and $5 billion, it’s small compared to other markets, but it has huge potential. And our goal is to disrupt the $3 trillion manufacturing industry.” 

The vendor’s Jet Fusion 300/500 series is a lower-end product, with a lower price tag – beginning at $50,000 – that targets designers and engineers, enabling small-to-medium-size product development teams and design businesses, entrepreneurs, and universities and research institutions to access the technology. 

The company’s goal is to have a portfolio of 3-D products at different price points with different go-to-market strategies for different target users. 

For IT partners, HP stands out among the competition because it’s a known entity in the conventional printing market. Other players in the 3-D market are not vendors that IT partners tend to be familiar with, such as Japanese manufactures that are working on products, but don’t yet have commercially available offers, or Konica Minolta, which distributes for 3-D Systems, a 3-D printer vendor, and others such as Envision TEC, Stratasys and ExOne, to name a few. 

For IT channel partners already familiar with HP’s Partner First partner program, they might know that in May 2017, HP launched the HP Partner First 3D Printing Specialization Program. Just a few months ago, the vendor expanded the program from a small number of specialized partners with the goal of doubling its number of 3-D specialist partners, according to Monino. HP has about 65 such resellers worldwide. The company offers two specializations — production and prototyping.

So far, Partner First members aren’t exactly jumping on the 3-D bandwagon. A 3-D printer specialty business can’t just be integrated into a partner’s conventional printer business; it’s likely to fail. 

Cimquest, a manufacturing partner since 1990, is more what 3-D printer partners look like today. Cimquest has been successful in the 3-D printer market for about 17 years, first as a Stratasys partner, then more recently as an HP partner. Cimquest also is a leading Mastercam CAD/CAM VAR.

“We started seeing new technologies coming from players like HP who are new to this space and are approaching the market from a purely manufacturing standpoint. That really excited us,” Rob Hassold, CEO and founder of Cimquest, told Channel Futures. 

Rob Hassold

Cimquest has grown its business geographically to 16 states — a benefit of the company’s expertise and shortage of other viable partner players. 

Hassold believes that partners from the 2-D print world can transform to 3-D, but at a steep cost.

“If you’re trying to take your team that’s been in the IT space or 2-D printing side of the business … it’s so different and there’s so much knowledge that you need to leverage in this space. You’d really have to make a big investment,” he said. 

IDC’s Kmetz agrees that mixing 2-D and 3-D can be a challenge.

“[It takes] a different set of personnel, skill sets, etc., that will target the 3-D printing area,” he said.

Stratasys got caught up in the 3-D hype several years ago when there was a push to get 2-D print partners into the 3-D world.

“Guess the thinking was, ‘Hey, what’s another ‘D’?'” Stratasys‘ Pat Carey, senior vice president of sales for the Americas, said. “It didn’t work out.” 

Monino agrees. While not discouraging traditional HP First partners from exploring 3-D printing, he points out some of the challenges as well as what partners need to think about doing differently. 

“First and foremost is the target 3-D market — you’re not talking to the IT managers anymore. The person that makes decisions in the account is different; it’s the engineering manager, or [the consult] happens in the manufacturing department,” he said. 

The sales process for 3-D printers also is different compared to conventional printers.

“Everyone knows what to expect from a computer and printer. But because 3-D uses many technologies and applications, before a customer will make a purchase, they want to see a sample. There’s a process involved called benchmarking, where the customer sends the file to the reseller and the reseller prints it for them. Resellers are required to have a demo unit,” said Monino. 

Partners must consider creating a specialized 3-D printing group with specialized technical talent, marketing, solutions and the right contacts. It’s a consultative sale that requires engineering-type expertise, knowledge of CAD software and 3-D printing equipment.

The 3-D market needs more partners.

“It needs companies like HP to build a channel. There [are] two strategies to do that: Either hire new resellers or grow from your existing partners,” said Hassold. 

While Stratasys wasn’t successful recruiting traditional print partners in 2012, Carey does believe there’s an opportunity for partners taking root. 

“What we are finding today is that people do need a 3-D printer. They need a connected, manageable 3-D printer,” he said, referring to a group of designers or engineers driving the need for managed services, for example. As pricing drops, expect to see the democratization of the devices and more widespread use. 

Carey already is having conversations with large customers who are asking for managed services for their 3-D printers comparable to what they have in their IT shop or traditional print shop.

“We will be driven to that at some point,” he said. 

If b.digital, Blueit Group’s innovation lab, the global champion of the 2017 IBM Watson Build challenge, could leverage its MSP business strategy and come up with bioBOTGuard, a solution that uses drone technology and cognitive visual recognition through Watson APIs to help agronomists and farmers save time and money, why can’t MSPs transform their businesses, or some part of their businesses, to create opportunity in 3-D printing?

“It’s technology and an adjacency that requires a little bit of a different approach, but the skill sets that MSPs have learned and applied in other market opportunities still hold water when thinking about 3-D printing,” said Kmetz. 

There’s the process, a machine, and materials – not necessarily ink and toner supplies – used to create the output.

“As far as services are concerned, the managed-services approach, that’s one of the things we expect to see more [of] down the road,” he said.

Whether that’s break-fix, or a partner uses software to manage a fleet, to drive optimization and efficiency — not only in the use of the technology but also in the implementation of the technology within the organization.

“A company wants to make sure the assets are used as judiciously as possible.”

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Channel Programs Sales & Marketing Specialty Practices Strategy Technologies

Related


  • Job cuts
    Latest VMware Job Cuts Impact More Workers in California
    The layoffs will begin March 30.
  • Hottest Ticket in Town
    Channel Partners Virtual 2021 Is the Hottest Ticket in Town
    And that means any town, since it’s 100% online. Will you be there?
  • strong customer relationship
    Datto Partners with ThreatLocker for Secure MSP Business Operations
    MSPs have seen increased security risks for clients amid COVID-19.
  • Brexit
    Now That a Brexit Deal is Done, What's Next for the UK Channel?
    There's an Increased need for virtual services and video conferencing, and a focus on security moving forward.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • OneLogin Hires Juniper Networks Vet to Lead Accelerate Partner Program
  • Fortinet Vet Geoff Kreiling Departs for Deep Instinct
  • Ready To Add Cutting Edge IoT Solutions To Your Portfolio?
  • What Is The Value Of Distribution For The Internet Of Things?

Galleries

View all

From The Second City: How to Use Improv as a Business Tool

March 3, 2021

Industry Perspectives

View all

5 Ways XDR Can Improve Operational Efficiency for MSPs

March 4, 2021

Multi-Cloud: Strategy or Inevitable Outcome? (or both?)

March 3, 2021

Backup Vulnerability: 4 Targets Hackers Might Utilize to Infiltrate Your Backup Solution

March 2, 2021

Webinars

View all

A Partner’s Perspective on Channel Success in 2021

March 23, 2021

XDR and Why it Matters to MSPs

March 24, 2021

Top Security Trends Impacting Technology Security Providers In 2021

March 25, 2021

White Papers

View all

Why Fortinet for my MSSP?

March 2, 2021

Small and Mid-Size Business Security: 4 Steps to Success

March 2, 2021

How SMBs Can Secure Endpoints and Remote Workers for the Long Haul

March 2, 2021

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

November 1, 2021 - November 4, 2021

Videos and Fastchats

View all

FASTCHAT: How SOAR Eliminates Security Challenges and Elevates Service Provider Revenues

January 6, 2021

Happy Holidays from Channel Partners & Channel Futures!

December 21, 2020

FASTCHAT: How Old, Unpatched Technologies Are Creating New Security Threats for MSPs and Their Customers

December 3, 2020

Twitter

ChannelFutures

.@PreciselyData acquired by Clearlake Capital, @TAAssociates. #digitaltransformation dlvr.it/RtzbKg https://t.co/1rNYnTScxq

March 4, 2021
ChannelFutures

Thanks for attending #CPVirtual. Here's a Day 3 wrap and a look ahead to #CPExpo Homecoming in November!… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 4, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@Veeam announces six annual Impact Partner Awards, with @SHI_Intl, @LogicalisUS, more. #cloud… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 4, 2021
ChannelFutures

#XDR can improve operational efficiency for #MSPs. @TrendMicro #security #endpoint #AI #threatintelligence… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 4, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@IBM adds two senior execs to leadership team at infrastructure IT spinoff, NewCo. @IBMNews @IBMPartners… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 4, 2021
ChannelFutures

RT @ChannelEurope: Craving more #EMEA news? Get the latest headlines, insights and commentary in EMEA directly to your inbox. Subscribe to…

March 4, 2021
ChannelFutures

Kelly Leonard of @SecondCity talks to us about how improv can be used as a business tool to improve the company cul… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 4, 2021
ChannelFutures

Another amazing day at #CPVirtual. Here's what you missed and what's on tap for Day 3. @Channel_Expo… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

March 4, 2021

MSSP Insider

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Channel Partners Online

Want more? Find more channel news and analysis on our sister site, Channel Partners.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Online
  • Channel Partners Events
  • MSP 501
  • MSSP Insider
  • IoT World Today
  • Webhostingtalk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X