Building Your Office Technology Dealership Business

Adam Weiss started his office technology/security career early. “I was chief shredder in charge the summer I was eight,” the new president at Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office (pictured above, left), said. “You forgot to add that we got paid by the bag, so it made it even more important,” added his brother, Jason, the new CEO (at right).

Their boss was, of course, their father Larry (center), who bought the business in 1982 and ran it until this past summer. The brothers continued to work at the business during summer breaks; eventually both joined full time and learned the intricacies of running a company in a quickly evolving and digitizing industry. This past June, their leadership was made official.

The gradual process of handing over the reins started much earlier. Atlantic began working on a succession plan in 2018-19, but then COVID hit. Like everyone else, they just hunkered down. Larry, now the chairman, and Adam were at a family succession planning event, after the pandemic. There, they talked about what the brothers had already put in place and accomplished at the company, and the decision was made to restart the process.

“To me, the genesis in this thing is the business is evolving. The focus and strategy needed to evolve,” said Jason. “The roles that we were performing have not materially changed. The scope and perspective of the market to what we do has changed.”

It’s their job to take Atlantic into the future, building on the legacy their dad built. “The core of our business, I would say, is four pillars. We have print. We have IT and cybersecurity. We have data, analytics, and AI, and we have business applications,” noted Jason. “Data really weaves everything we do together. Even printing is data on a page, and you need to store that data somewhere, even if it’s printed, or scanned. So, in thinking about data, IT, cybersecurity, they are systems that are capable of storing and transmitting, organizing, and protecting data.”

The focus now, he said, is to help customers leverage data to make good business decisions and help their business to grow. “Ultimately, we’re looking to unify IT, security, analytics, and automation into a single operating system to help organizations grow, compete and protect themselves,” he said. “And that’s what they’re most interested in learning. That’s what any business is looking at: how to grow.”

Office technology growth is the goal

This approach changes the conversation the company is having with clients from simply transactional encounters, where you make a sale and disappear. “We need to understand why they’re printing, what they’re printing, what is their objective in interacting with our devices? Because when we understand that, then we have a broader conversation as to how we can help them with all these other services and expertise that we have,” said Jason.

Concentration will focus on a few core vertical markets: finance, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and education. Target clients include organizations that have 50 up to around 1,500 employees and also have a growth mindset, a willingness to invest and evolve, and an appreciation for the strategic approach that Atlantic offers.

These potential clients also share four other characteristics:

• They have cybersecurity and governance requirements.
• They’re regulated in some way, shape, or form.
• They have multiple systems that run their business.
• They have a lot of data flowing through their operations.

As Atlantic evolves, it already is designing specific solutions for those verticals so they point to tangible solutions, not simply talking points.

Conversations have begun with some of the dealer’s 10,000-plus clients that fit within the target parameters. Feedback has been positive, and prospects for growth are promising, but the process is not without challenges.

ATO’s New York City location (enter under the red awning).

“A big part of this transition, and selling these types of services, is that it becomes much more of a strategic sale versus a tactical sale,” Adam noted. “And, it’s [about] being much more of a strategic partner.” It requires changing minds. “That is a challenge, not only to change the way people think of us but also to try to take what has been more of a tactical operation into a strategic operation and strategic sales cycle,” he said.

Changes in perceptions must happen in the market but also internally. “More than 50% of our business, and more than 50% of our people, has historically been focused on the printing industry,” Jason added. “So to inculcate our message across the organization and bring everyone into that vision is the challenge and the growth opportunity.”

Internal changes the brothers have instituted bode well for growth. In recent years Atlantic has created an executive management team and a management committee. There are plans to increase data as a driver for growth, and succession is being emphasized throughout the organization. The brothers have charged both the executive team and the management committee to develop succession plans for every department.

Brotherly respect at ATO

Leadership is seldom a team sport and co-running a company is never easy, perhaps even less so when siblings are at the helm. However, Adam and Jason Weiss seem to have a genuinely good rapport, with good-natured eye rolling and laughs. Their present job responsibilities speak to their individual skill sets and temperaments as well as to some of those leadership and entrepreneurial lessons learned from a young age.

Aside from the early stint at shredding, when the brothers had learned to drive they were tasked with meter inspections for a postage division Atlantic ran for a few years. “We had to map out our day because we got paid per inspection. So the more inspections we did, the more money we made. It was fun. I think it was $5 bucks for each one,” recalled Adam.

In 2007, Adam joined Atlantic as general manager. He’s now responsible for the technology sales team, marketing strategy, and planning the direction for the company. Before joining Atlantic, he was a sales representative at a business technology company in Florida and even taught English in Spain for a few years.

Jason Weiss joined Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office in 2012 and now serves as the company’s chief executive. Before taking the helm, Jason was chief operating officer, where he focused on building scalable systems and standardized processes, driving cross-functional integration, and elevating the customer experience. Today, he’s also responsible for administration, finance, legal, and the IT division.

“We have a good complement in terms of our skill set and what we enjoy doing. Jason doesn’t enjoy face-to-face interactions and things like that as much as I do. That’s something I definitely thrive on and enjoy,” Adam pointed out.

Larry, who continues to manage his accounts as chairman, enjoys that element, too. And while he’s no longer hands on in the day-to-day operation, he is still involved in the executive management committee, where he provides insight. “He will never not work, because this is his life; it’s his passion,” said Adam.

Heading into 44^th year and counting

Larry Weiss bought Atlantic Photocopy Corp. out of bankruptcy in 1982. At the time, there were four employees. Since then, there have been more than a dozen acquisitions, along with a few new divisions, and the employee count has swelled to more than 400. They work from the New York City headquarters and from offices in Buffalo, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Growth has been a constant. Some has some from organic expansion. In the 1980s, for example, Atlantic launched the aforementioned mailing division, which was sold in 2003. A managed IT division was introduced in 2004. Geographic expansion took the dealership to Western New York and Texas in 2020.

More significant growth came from steady and strategic acquisitions. In the earlier years, purchases included several copier companies such as BWM Business Machines, Digital Products, and Garden State Copiers. Later, buyouts shifted to managed IT companies including Triad Eye Technologies, Praxis Data Systems, Gear 3 Technologies, ACP Technologies, and Intellis.

Two acquisitions in 2025, BrainSell and Interloop, will help form the foundation of the new thrust and direction for the company. BrainSell specializes in technology consulting, AI-driven business solutions, and process optimization. With long-standing partnerships with technology providers like Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft, and Sage, it provides technology, automation, ERP, CRM, and AI-driven insights.

Interloop is a Microsoft partner with extensive expertise in data analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence. It helps organizations use data to drive strategic growth, specializing in data integration, analytics, automation, and AI.

Successful companies share various traits. One of them is continuous reinvention and adapting to meet changing business landscapes. It’s a long road from copiers to data integration and AI strategies, and Atlantic remains poised for an exciting journey.

READ THE CR CONNECT – DEALER TOUR FEATURING LEADERS FROM FOUR “MEGA DEALERS.”