A column in last Sunday’s New York Times Sunday Review section, “When Uber and Airbnb Meet the Real World,” hones in on the regulatory obstacles faced by tech start ups who are creating on demand apps for people who need something with people willing to do that job.
Since we’re all in the technology business, albeit office imaging, and the apps showing up in this industry don’t make for an apples to apples comparison, I still think this column is worth referencing. Especially after reading the pull quote, “The belief that problems could be solved by software was the first wrong assumption.”
Although I’m using that quote out of context I’m sure we can all come up with plenty of examples in our industry where this is true. In context, when referring to Uber and Airbnb, the Times columnist, Claire Cain Miller, writes, “The belief that problems can be solved without involving people is probably why many of these people did not meet with regulators and officials before starting services in new cities. And it has come back to haunt them.”
That doesn’t seem to be the case with a couple of new apps from Kyocera—CentraQ PRO and CentraQ—introduced earlier this week (See story below.). Not that Kyocera needed to meet with regulators, but before rolling out these apps, it did ‘involve’ people.
As Danielle Wolowitz, senior director, product planning and product marketing at KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc. noted in a press briefing earlier this week, “We’ve gone out to some of our dealer council members who have installed it with their customers and taken that feedback and incorporated it into the product prior to launch. We want to ensure that all the business applications developed by Kyocera have been vetted through our channel partners to make sure they truly are what are customers are looking for in their environment. And we value that feedback prelaunch to ensure that the launched product goes out at the highest level possible for Kyocera.”
Going back to the Times column on involving people, Julie Samuels, executive director of Engine, which advises start-ups on policy, said, “This libertarian, independent streak that runs through Silicon Valley compounds the issue. The good side is, it created this environment where people came together and made crazy amazing stuff that changed the world. The flip side is, sometimes it makes it difficult for those companies to engage.”
As the Times column concludes, ‘That leads to yet another principle shared by both older and newer tech companies: Regulators are little more than roadblocks standing in the way of innovation.”
As the office imaging industry expands its scope and reach, and innovation continues, let’s consider ourselves lucky to be part of an industry that is creating “crazy amazing stuff” that is changing the world even if on a small scale.
Thanks for reading.
