The ink on Sam Errigo’s new business cards barely had the chance to dry when the president and CEO of Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. identified one of the cornerstone initiatives he wanted to complete within the first 90 days of his administration. The end game was an internal reconfiguration—which seeks to leverage the full extent of the OEM’s talent and resources—centered on making the organization more customer-centric.
On Wednesday, that initiative reached fruition when Konica Minolta announced organizational changes to accelerate its digital transformation (DX) strategy, achieve greater business continuity and drive sustained growth for the company.
Konica Minolta continues to make bold moves to organize their direct sales model with the aim of future growth and customer focus. The company is redesigning its approach by reshaping field sales regions, optimizing its territory structure to enable speed, agility and the retention of key talent. The change anticipates an evolution in customer buying patterns, with much of the buying process being digitally enabled. The expansion of the organization’s inside sales teams will support the growth of digital sales generation and its emerging B2B2C sales channel, enabling a more cost-effective structure while increasing scale.
“Coming out of the pandemic, market dynamics have changed dramatically and a new sales approach is necessary to better align and support customers with subject matter experts during the engagement process,” Errigo said. “As a sales organization, our primary objective is to expand our sales coverage, improve the customer experience and grow revenues. The new structure gains access to key support and technical experts across the U.S. market, regardless of territory.”
The evolution of customer buying habits actually began to take hold prior to the shutdown, Errigo told ENX Magazine, but began to accelerate during the pandemic. The customer buying journey is increasingly conducted entirely online, from research through actual purchase.
“Our industry is still technical by nature,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a commodity, and it does require assistance with technology configurations. Customers will do their research on the internet and find applicable products, and when they reach out to the sales channels, we have to be ready to respond. That’s part of our DX initiative that’s underway. Our new organizational structure is preparing us to catch and react to these new technology platforms.”
Konica Minolta will also implement a North American Shared Services model, which will align cross-border priorities and enhance delivery to its field organization. This initiative will combine service functions in the U.S. and Canada, ultimately providing more resources to support areas such as sales administration, logistics and supply chain, marketing, product planning, finance, IT, HR and legal. The company has already implemented a similar strategy with its managed IT (MIT) service organizations, merging the services of its U.S.-based All Covered with those of its Canadian IT Weapons business.
Additional MIT organizational design changes are being implemented to improve technical alignment within Konica Minolta’s agile, centralized structure to enhance service delivery for customer success. The growing professional services organization will work to support the company’s unique DX solutions and services portfolio.
“We believe a unified North American organization, with common goals and objectives, can better leverage resources regardless of geographical boundaries and apply a greater focus on the utilization of individual skill sets at the right point in time,” Errigo noted. “Our shared services concept supports all dealer partners and Konica Minolta customers, brings the company closer together and allows us to be more nimble and flexible in how we go to market.”
Konica Minolta prides itself on a culture built on leading the industry and creating new value for its customers with the objective of building sustainable growth. The company is confident these changes will provide greater accountability at all levels of the organization to reach full potential for business transformation.
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About Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc. is reshaping and revolutionizing the workplace to achieve true connectivity through the Intelligent Connected Workplace. The company guides and supports its clients’ digital transformation through its expansive office technology portfolio, including IT Services (All Covered), intelligent information management, managed print services and industrial and commercial print solutions. Konica Minolta has been included on CRN’s MSP 500 list nine times and The World Technology Awards named the company a finalist in the IT Software category. Konica Minolta has been recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for fifteen consecutive years and is proud to be ranked on the Forbes 2021 America’s Best-in-State employers’ list. The company received Keypoint Intelligence’s BLI 2021 A3 Line of The Year Award and BLI 2021-2023 Most Color Consistent A3 Brand Award for its bizhub i-Series. Konica Minolta, Inc. has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for nine consecutive years and has spent four years on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list. Konica Minolta partners with its clients to give shape to ideas and works to bring value to our society.
