Understanding that better times are ahead can be a difficult notion after a business-altering event such as the pandemic. But when manufacturers such as Canon continue innovating to address current hybrid needs, it’s much easier for dealers to reconcile the margin loss of tried-and-true elements in a product and service portfolio.
And as the glow of the pandemic continues to flicker, albeit less brightly, carving a vital path forward is more important than ever.
Katsuhiro “Jerry” Matsufuji, vice president and general manager, marketing for Canon’s Business Information Communications Group (BICG), shares his thoughts on how dealers can leverage opportunities within cloud-based solutions, as well as the anticipated release of AMLOS, a next-gen approach to hybrid conferencing. At a time when silence is anything but golden, the manufacturer is also busy spreading the gospel through a number of in-person gatherings that stress value for every aspect of a dealer’s operation.
While BICG hasn’t been immune to the downward forces, tapping into trademark strengths such as uniFLOW Online and its vaunted production print portfolio has been critical to creating revenue-generating opportunities. With a strong release schedule ready to roll out for the final quarter of 2022, Canon’s BICG looks to enter 2023 in a position of strength, and its intention is to bring dealers along for the growth ride.
What were some of the highlights for Canon during the past year?
Matsufuji: Like many other technology companies plagued by chip shortages and product backorders, we’ve had our share of highlights. We’re proud of the way we’ve managed this with our strong logistics group plus open and consistent conversations with our dealers.
We’ve brought new products to market outside of print and focused on more in-person events and communications with our dealers. We’ve seen record adoption to cloud-enabled attachment ratios to our flagship solution, uniFLOW Online.
The release of AMLOS—Activate My Line of Sight—is an exciting initiative, as this Canon-developed hardware/software combination can enhance the hybrid meeting experience while also being a revenue-generating opportunity for dealers.
Also, SoftBank Robotics’ Whiz, a commercial robot vacuum built on an AI platform to deliver a high-quality and efficient clean, is another project on which we’ve spent much time and effort, and it’s now been brought to the public. Whiz can help provide additional opportunities for independent dealer channels with its ability to contribute to clean workspaces and aiding in return-to-office endeavors.
Canon has been quite active in terms of hosted events this year, from the CSA thINK user conference to the CUSA Engineering and Solutions Summit events and the five-city roadshow series. Provide some insight into the feedback you’ve received from each.
Matsufuji: The feedback has been fantastic. Many were happy to get back to face-to-face interactive sessions. At our roadshow and summit events, we targeted sessions for each role in our dealer channel—sales, service, solutions consultants and professional services—with tailored, hands-on content for each.
While we’ve adapted to this new [hybrid] working style like many companies, this is still very much a people and relationship business. It’s important to keep these in-person activities going as long as there’s meaningful purpose and content to ensure they’re valuable.
Taking into account the business landscape, the economy, pandemic pressures and other variables that have produced downward pressure on end-users, what advice have you been providing your dealer/reseller community from a tactical standpoint?
Matsufuji: There are clearly new opportunities for our dealer communities. Within our core business is the support of technologies—hardware and software—to support hybrid business. Everything from home devices that can connect through cloud-based technologies to the enterprise printing systems to access to content and sharing with document management solutions is part of those opportunities. Recently, for our core business, we were pleased to announce a new inkjet device with embedded support for our uniFLOW Online print management system, and it’s tailored perfectly for home office setups and those who work sometimes in the office and sometimes at home but want to keep the same experience.
For our dealers, some examples of new areas are the office check-in/temperature scanning kiosks, unified communication space selling collaboration tools and conference room and camera setups, with our AMLOS solution being a part of that as well.
Canon has been extremely active with product unveilings, from enterprise and light-production models to the next-gen imagePRESS and imageRUNNER MFPs, to name a few. Can you provide some insight into your approach?
Matsufuji: We live in an age when business needs, new ways of working and new software tools/platforms are rapidly changing. We feel it’s our responsibility to our dealers to stay on top of these trends and frequently innovate to provide the best technology platform/equipment to offer their customers.
What else can we expect to see from Canon in terms of new product rollouts?
Matsufuji: The production level color imagePRESS series will continue to see enhancements. Earlier this year, we introduced the imagePRESS V1000, which is ideal for mid-production volume environments. The imagePRESS V900 series will be released in December for our light-to-mid volume customers. Early next year, the imagePRESS V1350 will make its debut for high-end commercial print establishments.
What are Canon’s goals for the short term?
Matsufuji: We’re seeing an improvement in the availability of equipment to support our channel’s needs in the fourth quarter. We’re striving to get back to pre-pandemic levels of equipment availability to continue our market share growth.
We’re continuing our in-person events through the remainder of the year. We’ve hosted small sessions we call IMPACT, which are similar to our larger roadshow event, only we focus on a single technology or product. These are designed to help prepare for current and future business development for our dealers and a strong 2023 out of the gate.
The launch of AMLOS will be a major part of Canon’s year-ending plans. This new collaborative work tool can make hybrid meetings authentic and customizable for dispersed workforces. The goal is to help support higher productivity and restore employee engagement in organizations’ evolving work culture.
