Sarah Custer of Distribution Management, Charlene Fischer of Xerox, and Kerstin Woods of Toshiba America Business Solutions Featured in July/August Issue

HAMBURG, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES, July 24, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Cannata Report, the office technology industry's leading news resource, has unveiled its highly anticipated 2024 Women Influencers issue. This special double issue (July/August 2024) spotlights the achievements of noteworthy female executives and features Sarah Custer of Distribution Management, Charlene Fischer of Xerox, and Kerstin Woods of Toshiba on the cover. The Cannata Report has selected these three outstanding women as its 2024 Women Influencers for their exceptional leadership and accomplishments in the office technology industry.

As the office technology industry continues to evolve, the unique and significant contributions of executives like Custer, Fischer, and Woods are coming into focus. Their exceptional leadership and the value they bring to their teams and companies through their unique ideas are inspiring. While they have different areas of expertise, they share a commitment to excellence that sets them apart in the industry.

"For the past 11 years, we've celebrated women in office technology with The Women Influencers issue. Throughout that time, the industry has evolved in exciting new directions, and women have increasingly risen to positions of authority. Our 2024 Women Influencers issue represents an industry progression and a close-up look at the individuals making that evolution possible. It is our honor to chronicle the exciting transformation and shine a spotlight on the women leading the way," said CJ Cannata, president and CEO.

Sarah Custer is vice president of sales operations for Distribution Management, a U.S.-based 3rd Party Fulfillment (3PL) provider for consumer brands and a wholesale distributor serving the print and imaging reseller channel. She has worked for Distribution Management in some capacity since her teenage years and worked there part-time while attending college. In 2008, Custer was named the company's first salesperson for its managed print and was tasked with building out the entire program. "I had the opportunity to work with so many other departments, especially our development teams, and understand programming. I worked with our software vendors and partners for integration. Being curious was really helpful because there was a lot of work behind the scenes to figure out what would work for us. I think managed print came in at just the right time to show me what is possible in our business," says Custer, who has risen through the ranks and today oversees Distribution Management's sales support, customer care, and pricing teams, as well as managed print sales, and day-to-day sales operations for hardware and other office technology products. Says Custer of working in the office technology dealer channel, "Dealers have a strong history of getting in there and figuring things out. I love working with people like that and I see so many opportunities to partner with different organizations, supporting the channel from each of their different perspectives. It's not just about toner and printers, it's all the solutions and experiences around it."

Charlene Fischer is vice president of U.S. channel sales for Xerox. What was supposed to be a three-day temporary stint in Xerox's mailroom grew into a four-decade career working in various roles and capacities, and today serves as vice president of U.S. sales in the company's Eastern region. "I've done pretty much everything in sales and sales management at Xerox, from the 1980s when we were selling copiers and I had to knock on doors and make 20 cold calls a day, all the way to managing and leading a very large sales organization, to now, where I have a smaller team but focused on a variety of different types of partners," says Fischer, whose current team works with mono-branded agents, traditional dealers, and IT resellers. Fischer's breadth of experience, combined with her continued commitment to her customers, gives her a sharp eye on the challenges and keys to success as the office technology industry looks to move confidently into the future. "We all know print is declining; marks on paper are declining," says Fischer, adding, "It's not a declining market, in my opinion. What's declining is marks on paper, but when you think about what's increasing, is the information, how you manage the information, and how you utilize this information to grow your business. When Fischer tunes her ear to the office technology dealer channel, she hears about several opportunities for dealers to consider as they expand beyond their print businesses. "It's about understanding dealer by dealer how they want to grow their business. We're asking, how do you want to grow? There is no one way to grow."

Kerstin Woods joined Toshiba America Business Solutions in 2019 after working in tech-related companies in product management, product marketing, partner management, and partner marketing at start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Excited to join Toshiba and the opportunities she would have to bring new thinking and innovation to the more established print industry, Woods jumped right into working to understand all the facets of the office technology industry and Toshiba's dealer community. Says Woods, "One of the big challenges for our dealer community is common with what you'd find in any established industry, and that is how do you bring newness to the business, whether that's new products, new talent with new perspectives, new customers to brand out of your current base and new revenue streams in order to keep growing and evolving." While Woods is very excited about all of the innovation across the industry, from cloud to hardware and everything in between, she feels equally enthusiastic about print. "At the core of this industry, what's really compelling is that print is still really important. It's important to people individually, businesses, people's productivity, and it is core to effective communication. We get to sit at this juncture between printed communication and digital, which is exciting because we get to help customers take advantage of the best of both worlds," says Woods.

The Cannata Report, founded in 1982, is the leading intelligence resource for the document imaging channel in the office technology industry and reports on managed IT solutions, managed print services, digital transformation, cybersecurity, cloud communications, network security, production print, and more.

Cathy O'Brien
The Cannata Report
cobrien@cannatareport.com
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The Cannata Report's 2024 Women Influencers