This month’s State of the Industry spotlight on the continuously surging role A4 devices play in the success and growth aspirations of the dealer/reseller community includes an OEM overview of the many platforms, which you can read here. The main article outlines the 2021-2022 rollout plans and the evolution of each manufacturer’s offering.
As a supplement, we have included our manufacturer panel again for a bonus question. Yes, it is fairly long for a Two-Minute Drill segment; we’ll just say we have all three timeouts remaining, and we’re going to drive downfield via quick-strike passes. We’ve asked each OEM the following question: Given the pandemic-accelerated changes to the office environment and remote/hybrid work scenarios, what are your views on A4’s impact on A3 units?
Sammy Kobayashi, Canon U.S.A.: We view A4 and A3 as still very complementary to one another for many hybrid businesses, particularly when centrally managed through outstanding tools like the uniFLOW online platform that Canon offers to help optimize user behavior and operating costs while using security features. However, A4 plays a vital role in the continued decentralization of print into WFH environments, and in certain cases may offer additional benefits for key vertical markets and business scenarios, particularly as it relates to form factor, user experience and TCO considerations. Accelerated customer demand for A4 printing solutions during the pandemic has reinforced the unique value that print continues to deliver into our daily lives.
Joe Contreras, Epson: The pandemic has certainly changed print behavior within the office and the pendulum has swung from centralized to decentralized printing. With the market seeing many offices operating with hybrid or remote workforces, the demand for A4 skyrocketed in 2020 with a continuation of overwhelming demand in 2021. While there was an initial softening of A3 demand, the need for A3 has not and will not go away. The market is simply rebalancing. What this shift has done, however, is cause discerning businesses to rethink their deployment of assets and reassess print needs to accommodate workers’ print needs, whether they are working remotely or in office.
Dino Pagliarello, Konica Minolta: The pandemic has undoubtedly shifted the focus from A3 devices to A4 for many customers. Many businesses are reducing office space and as a result, need devices with a smaller footprint. They are also more budget-conscious in terms of acquisition costs, which has also steered companies to invest in A4 products over A3 products. Fear of too many users touching and accessing devices has also been a factor in influencing customers to decentralize and offer more A4 devices with fewer individuals “assigned” to each unit.
Chuck Clarke, Kyocera: While it’s true that the ways in which our customers work have changed and that the demand for smaller desktop A4 devices is growing, for Kyocera, we still see strong demand for our industry-recognized A3 products as well. For us at Kyocera, this is not an either-or proposition. This is a challenge to deliver the outstanding quality and reliability that Kyocera is known for in a new generation of A4 devices.
Recent research conducted by The Economist demonstrated that many workers still prefer a portion of their total work to be based in an office. A3 devices will continue to be an essential part of their office workflow for these workers in these environments. However, these same workers also prefer some portion of time in their home office, where Kyocera will be well-positioned to provide devices with similar features, functionality, and applications that they have available to them while in their company location.
This location-agnostic way of supporting customer needs by making printing, scanning, security and workflow applications available to users regardless of where they work offers exciting new opportunities for Kyocera to demonstrate its innovative spirit.
Clark Bugg, Lexmark: Lexmark believes that customers will continue to align with A4 printing trends in 2022. Channel partners can take advantage of this trend by utilizing cloud offerings that enable them to monitor and manage their customers’ fleet remotely and help them assess their print needs by using real-time analytics to flag potential issues before they happen. This also enables partners to remotely manage and support customers wherever their users might be located, including in hybrid work and work-from-home scenarios.
The definition and location of work continue to evolve and the connection to cloud-based platforms and back-end systems are what businesses depend on. Accessing that technology is becoming increasingly complex, especially as more employees work remotely or in a hybrid model. Our cloud offerings offer partners a connectivity suite enabling them to provide print services for organizations of all sizes.
Scott Dabice, Ricoh: Office printing volumes are declining, and we are confident the WFH and hybrid model will continue. As a result, we are continually evaluating WFH devices, such as two of Ricoh’s recently launched devices, to provide our customers with the right products to support new styles of work. Our high-end A4 product line is more popular than ever, largely driven by users reevaluating their equipment. However, customers still require all of the features they expect in their A3 products, and our solutions deliver.
Tony Titone, Sharp: Sharp is well-positioned to keep its dealers successful in the WFH/hybrid scenarios with A4 while maintaining a key position in the continuing A3 business. With investments Sharp Corporation has made within the last four years, such as the purchase of Dynabook laptops (formerly Toshiba PCs) and Sharp/NEC (formerly NEC), Sharp is well-positioned to offer one-stop work from home solutions. With these acquisitions, a Sharp dealer can deliver a complete home office solution of a multifunction printer, Dynabook laptop and NEC/Sharp desktop monitor—all under the Sharp umbrella of brands to its customers. Sharp is allowing its dealers to not only grow A4 business but also make a profit from laptops and monitors.
Robert Covington, Toshiba: Without question, the pandemic is accelerating changes in the office environment. Many businesses still need employees in the office for the business to function, but as the situation persists, more are proving to be equally effective within work-from-home or hybrid scenarios.
We are noticing the largest impact on our higher-end centralized or light-production systems. Toshiba is addressing this market pivot by providing more entry- and mid-level departmental or even workgroup MFPs with the same features and solutions support at a lower duty cycle (and price). We are seeing a downward shift to slower speed segments, noting that many office workers are equally productive at home, providing they have access to a full-function MFP to meet their individual needs.
Toshiba presents these businesses with complete managed print-as-a-service support similar to what has been proven beneficial for office environments. After all, it is the office fleet; they’re just working from their home office. Our Elevate Sky offering enables us to continually provide best-in-class service to our customers in WFH and hybrid work environments.
The supply chain issues, which affect all manufacturers, cloud our ability to pinpoint how much greater our A4 sales would be without the current supply chain constraints. The unique partnerships that Toshiba enjoys with the leading A4 vendors enable us to draw from each to meet customer demand amid the pandemic. This helps our situation considerably.
Mike Pietrunti, Xerox: Following the onset of the pandemic in 2020, we did see an uptick in A4 unit sales as companies and employees adapted to new work environments. We focused on and developed technology, like Xerox Workflow Central, to ensure a seamless environment for our customers and own employees to meet pre-pandemic levels of productivity. However, in 2021, we saw increased A3 equipment sales that reflected enthusiasm for returning to the office in many regions. We also saw an increase in print volumes and expect to see these trends continue.
