Jumping from typewriters to cloud

CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Innovex has been working to make the shift from being solely an equipment dealer to a diversified, digital-service company. Above are Innovex CEO Peter Parisi, left, and Director of Marketing and Digital Sales Chris Parisi. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Innovex has been working to make the shift from being solely an equipment dealer to a diversified, digital-service company. Above are Innovex CEO Peter Parisi, left, and Director of Marketing and Digital Sales Chris Parisi. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

For some, the paperless office is a dream. For others, it could be a nightmare.
As businesses churn through less paper, less toner and fewer staples every year, their counterparts selling copiers, printers and a whole range of related supplies see their markets being squeezed.
At Innovex in Lincoln, avoiding the disruption of the digital office has meant moving into the information technology market that’s taking over how businesses operate.
Last year, Innovex purchased Netsense, a Cranston IT consulting and Web-development firm, marking the latest and most aggressive shift yet from a straight equipment dealer to a diversified digital-service company.
“What is happening with office technology is it is converging with IT,” said Innovex President and CEO Peter Parisi. “If you look at all the paper mills closing, that is why we have to go out into other areas.”
Adapting to changing technology is nothing new for Innovex, which evolved as office equipment has since it was founded in 1961 as Advanced Business Machines Repair Service.
Back then, manual typewriters were the dominant office equipment and the company formed to service Olivetti typewriters after the manufacturer of that brand decided to focus on production.
Over the years, manual typewriters gave way to electric typewriters, and then copiers, desktop printers and word processors.
An accountant by training, Parisi turned to office equipment in the 1990s when his previous employer, Almacs Supermarkets, began to fall apart.
It was just after copying technology started going digital around the turn of the last century that Parisi saw an opportunity in the industry and purchased Advanced Business Machines in 2001.
When Parisi took over, Advanced Business Machines was operating on Broad Street in Providence and in his first year did $400,000 in total sales.
With an eye on expanding beyond the Providence market, Parisi moved the business to Smithfield to improve access to customers in southeastern Massachusetts.
Steadily, the business grew and in 2008 moved to its current 16,000-square-foot facility in Lincoln.
In 2009, Parisi’s son Chris launched a marketing division and in 2011 rebranded the firm Innovex, heralding the company’s migration into IT services. Now, in addition to equipment sales and services, Innovex provides digital marketing, digital signage, information technology consulting and Web development.
With manufacturers offering more direct retail sales and margins dropping, Innovex has moved toward business services and a more value-added approach.
“As copiers became more of a commodity, we introduced Managed Print Services, where we charge by how many images you do,” Parisi said. “Instead of one company providing the machine, another the toner and another servicing the machine, we do it all in one.”
At the start of this year, roughly 65 percent of Innovex’s revenue came from equipment sales, with 20 percent in IT services and 15 percent in marketing.
As the company finishes integrating Netsence in the first half of 2014, Parisi said he anticipates the percentage in the nonequipment categories will grow to 40 percent this year with no loss of equipment sales.
Another goal Innovex shares with many local companies is expanding into Massachusetts.
The company opened an office in Boston’s Financial District in 2012 and now has customers reaching up to Massachusetts’ North Shore.
However, because so many of Innovex’s existing customers come from the copier-printer market, Chris Parisi said the first objective will be to introduce those contacts to the new technology services, including those from Netsense, before trying to saturate new geographical markets.
Even with success in Massachusetts, the Parisis, Rhode Island natives, say they will not lose their focus on the Ocean State.
Parisi expects the impact of mobile devices will drive the office-equipment market and place an even greater focus on making everything seamlessly connected.
“What is really happening as industries converge is technology has to be available anywhere,” Parisi said. “We all have mobile devices, so everything has to be available in the cloud. People don’t want to walk back to their desk and print something out there, they want to scan and print everywhere.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Innovex
OWNER: Peter Parisi
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Business equipment and IT services
LOCATION: 11 Powder Hill Road, Lincoln
EMPLOYEES: 60
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1961
ANNUAL SALES: $11 million

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