'Our new objective is to establish an office consultancy business in Hong Kong,' said Irene Lee Wai-man, senior manager for central services in Hong Kong. 'This is our own initiative so we will be leading the way as the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.'

The office consultancy service will operate as a sales team but with a strong consultancy twist. Working with both medium to large-scale multinational companies, it will carry out various levels of analysis to assess the company's needs and wishes in terms of document printing and reproduction.

'This team will be different from our normal sales teams,' said Wilma Wong Wai-kwan, manager of marketing communications and business development. 'The objective is to understand our clients' needs in terms of their workflow and productivity, and then offer them a proposal that is tailor-made for them.'

The consultancy team, now being recruited, will be made up of business analysts, business consultants and a team head.

'The business analysts should be detail minded with a strong customer-centric sense. They should have strong technical skills and a very good analytical capacity. They must also have an undergraduate degree with good spoken and written English,' Ms Lee said.

The analyst's role will be to collate and prepare the client's 'document work-flow data' and present this to the consultant for inclusion in the final recommendation. The consultant will use this data as part of the information that determines the 'total solution' proposed to the client. Ideal candidates for the business consultant positions are people with a good track record in finance, IT and marketing; preferably with a good MBA qualification and at least seven years of experience in an area of consultancy.

To head up the new consultancy team, the company is looking for an executive level individual, with strong leadership skills and consultancy experience.

The ideal candidate will be a corporate decision maker capable of forming excellent working relationships with other CEO level personnel, both locally and globally.

The new sales team is also expanding its technical and engineering wing to establish a 'one stop shop' technical support service that will work with the consultancy teams to ensure a total solution for the client.

'We already have over 300 field technicians,' Ms Wong said. 'But we are looking for some new engineers who are specialised in networking and systems that can work closely with our sales teams. These technicians will take care of everything from PC and software procurement to system maintenance and will be able to offer a very integrated service.'

A field product marketing manager is also needed. The person will help the company to develop its new high-end printing business with the local offices of large multinational companies.

'New recruits should have strong business acumen, good networking skills and a familiarity with data centre applications and operations. He or she must be able to understand our customer's needs, have good communication skills, good presentation skills and be able to offer IT solutions,' Ms Wong said.

There will be an orientation training programme for new recruits to familiarise themselves with the company's mission and products. Employees are encouraged to add value to themselves by utilising the educational sponsorship programme in which the company sponsors evening or weekend study.

The rundown

A new consultancy sales team requires high-level staff

Several positions are available, including analysts, consultants and a team manager

All recruits must have a business background, IT skills and experience in consultancy

Networking and systems engineers are also being recruited