Nashua ProAct enables WASP to successfully enter Ghana market

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PRESS OFFICE: Nashua

To enable it to start selling in Ghana, WASP used Nashua ProAct software to gather valuable data on the country’s consumables market, and to find out which printer models were most popular.

The challenge

Before WASP started trading as the authorised Nashua dealer for Ghana, its biggest challenge was working out exactly which products and solutions would be most successful.

Frontier African economies such as Ghana are dramatically different from Nashua’s home market in South Africa. This means that WASP had to find out which products would sell best – in an environment where obtaining accurate data has often been near impossible.

WASP used a framework based on a nine-year research project by Collins and Hansen (published as Great by Choice, 2011), which looks at what companies should  do to thrive in uncertainty.

In WASP’s case, this meant finding out how to enter a new market, with no existing data to guide decisionmaking. The Collins and Hansen research suggests not following conventional wisdom – such as looking at which Nashua products have been successful in South Africa. Instead, it recommends getting real evidence on the ground – which meant that WASP had to find a way of undertaking research in Ghana.

The solution 

To gather the required information, WASP decided to use Nashua ProAct software. Having identified financial services as the best target market sector, WASP then approached companies where it could secure a personal introduction to the CEO via a local partner.

Following these introductions, WASP installed Nashua ProAct at 26 banks and insurance companies. This sample of 26 institutions was enough to be representative of the overall Ghana market. Nashua ProAct captures data on these companies’ print fleets, including information on which devices are used and the print volumes generated.

HP dominance  

The reports generated by Nashua ProAct showed big difference in OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) market share in Ghana, compared to the situation in South Africa. In particular, they revealed the extent of HP’s dominance, across every type of print device.

Based on the data from Nashua ProAct, WASP decided that basing its product range around HP printers would give it the best chance of succeeding.

The next step for WASP was to decide which printer devices to sell. Again, Nashua ProAct was the answer. It provided reports on print volume, which highlighted 10 HP models that generated most of the pages in the financial services sector – thus giving WASP its list of devices to work from.

Accurate consumables forecasting

WAPS next challenge was to understand the toner cartridge market. Its research showed that Ghana has a serious problem with counterfeit HP toners, and that refilling of used cartridges is of such a low standard that damage to printers is common.

Strategic decision-making 

As well as providing solid market intelligence, Nashua ProAct has been a door opener for WASP. The software
has enabled WASP to introduce clients to Nashua Managed Document Services (MDS) and Managed Print Services (MPS) solutions. It has also given WASP opportunities to trial PaperCut and Laserfiche software with clients.

Nashua ProAct has highlighted competitor activity, for example an increase in market share by Xerox. When it looked into the reasons for this growth, WASP found out that Xerox was able to price its devices competitively due to its local assembly facility, and the generous tax incentives that the Ghana government provides for domestic manufacture.

Following the initial 12-month research phase, WASP rolled out Nashua ProAct at more customers in Ghana. Overall, the analysis from Nashua ProAct gives WASP real-time information that it simply could not obtain anywhere else, and enables WASP to be more competitive, to manage toner supplies, and to make good decisions based on real data.


For further information on any aspect of becoming a customer reference for Nashua , please contact Nashua’s communications manager, Jessica Midlane – [email protected].

For more information please visit www.nashua.co.za, or follow them on Twitter and Facebook