The evolution of the office printer, and business machines in general, has taken Automated Business Machines Inc. in new directions over its 26-year history.
Begun without a customer, the business started by Alan Albergaria and Robert Maceroni in 1992 now has more than 4,000 clients and employs 75 people.
Those numbers were boosted recently with the acquisition of an Acton, Mass.-based competitor, Printer Support Corp.
The Warwick company, doing business as Automated Business Solutions, has grown steadily over the past decades by moving beyond copiers, postage machines and other traditional business machines and into computer-based services, such as information technology and cloud services.
It has remained nimble enough to provide same-day and next-day services to its clients, which beats the multinational conglomerate competitors who can’t move as fast.
In acquiring Printer Support Corp., Automated Business Solutions has added complementary business products, including check scanners and label printers, Albergaria said.
Because ABS already had two leased locations in Massachusetts – in Worcester and Hingham – the recent sale will probably lead to a purchase of a building between Worcester and Acton, while the Hingham office may be relocated closer to Cape Cod, where the company has strong sales, he said.
As the support needs of offices grow more interconnected, the company plans to keep pace with services aimed at whatever they need. The IT services, for example, are aimed at business clients that are too small to afford their own in-house staff.
It has the greatest potential for growth, Albergaria said. Of the company’s 4,000 customers, perhaps 100 are in IT services. Yet this is expected to account for 10 percent of its revenue this year, he said.
“Anyone in our business who doesn’t go into IT, it’s only a matter of time until they go out of business,” he said.
The core of its business services is in office machines and support.
Clients range from single proprietors, such as lawyers or accountants working in a home office, to large employers such as Flood Ford and Bob’s Discount Furniture.
To help them, the service usually starts with some over-the-phone triage. “If a client has a copier with four paper drawers and one paper drawer is not feeding, well, they have three other drawers to feed from. If an accountant calls you on April 10 and their machine is down, that’s a priority,” Albergaria said.
As for the often-repeated statement that we’re moving to a paperless society, Albergaria said he’s heard that before. “They’ve been talking about it since we’ve been in business.”
OWNERS: Alan Albergaria and Robert Maceroni
ADDRESS: 450 Kilvert St., Warwick
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Office equipment sales, service and support
EMPLOYEES: 75
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1992
ANNUAL SALES: $11.8 million in 2017
