Not every office technology company is in a position to lead, but Konica Minolta sure is. All one needs to do is examine the facts. And here are some of the facts that were presented to both their direct and indirect dealer channels January 15-17 in Las Vegas and that I took away with me.
1. The company is committed to managed IT services in a big way. Witness last year’s acquisition of All Covered and the acquisitions All Covered continues to make and will continue to make. To my surprise even small dealers who have yet to get into MPS seem to be interested in making the transition to IT Services. President and CEO Rick Taylor reports that Konica Minolta has built an IT services business with annual revenues of more than $100 million.
2. Konica Minolta continues to make a big production out of production print. The company views this as a big opportunity and with a portion of the Product Expo devoted to production printing as well as a seminar dedicated to the category, both of which were well attended by dealers, one couldn’t miss the fact that Konica Minolta dealers view this as a viable category…and a category that will keep generating clicks even as other product segments see a decline in page volume.
3. Plenty of new products on the way. Over the next 18 months Konica Minolta will refresh virtually its entire product line. Expect KM to expand their A4 color and mono small MFP offerings, extend their production print line, and add several new wide format printers to the mix.
KM bizhub 42
4. Konica Minolta is getting serious about A4 with the introduction of the bizhub 36 (36 ppm) and bizhub 42 (42ppm). As Taylor noted, “We’ll introduce A4 products that don’t look like they should be called A3 and a half” while Kevin Kern, senior vice president of marketing, described these devices as a “feature-rich with very competitive operating costs and 100 percent duplex [capability]…so what we’re developing is no-compromise A4 in what customers expect from the product.” (See the News Byte item on the new Konica Minolta products for more information.)
5. An app a day, keeps the MFP at bay. Konica Minolta rolled out a host of bizhub apps that dealers and end users can download from the bizhub MarketPlace and add to the control panels of their devices. Those apps include business-oriented apps such as Connect to Google, Connect to SharePoint, Connect to Twitter, Legal Scan for distributing documents to attorneys and clients, and Paper Templates, which provides a library of forms accessible at the device. Also accessible are apps for weather and stocks. There’s nothing like walking over to the MFP to find out of its going to rain. But seriously, apps are what’s happening and Konica Minolta can now say, “Yeah, we’ve got an app for that.”
6. Konica Minolta goes vertical with Envision IT. Seeing huge opportunities in healthcare, education, and the legal markets, Konica Minolta unveiled what they describe as a new brand position dubbed “Envision IT,” which is comprised of solutions and services for those specific markets. The gist of this strategy is that the EnvisionIT family of solutions and services will help customers in the aforementioned verticals work smarter and more efficiently using Konica Minolta’s integrated workflow solutions. Services and solutions include MPS and Managed IT Services as well as integrated solutions via the company’s bEST program, professional services, hardware and support, all of which are delivered under a single platform.
7. OPS = MPS at Konica Minolta and still represents a huge opportunity. With all the attention to managed IT services, one might think that managed print services is so yesterday. Not exactly. Konica Minolta’s version of managed print services, Optimized Print Services, isn’t really yesterday since there are so many dealers who can still benefit from taking the managed print route. It’s an area that KM is focusing on globally and one they believe will lead to incremental page volume. In fact they’ve created a new Managed IT and Print Services program that will allow dealers to offer customers desktop management, e-mail security, server and network monitoring and 24×7 client help desk support from All Covered. Additionally, dealers will be able to offer managed print services that now extend to enterprise accounts as part of the company’s Enterprise Optimized Print Services (OPS) program. Incidentally, the new technology platform for Enterprise OPS is a result of a collaborative development agreement with Pharos Systems International. Later this year, dealers participating in the program will be able to offer OPS on a national level for enterprise accounts.
8. Respecting the independent dealer channel. For a channel that at one time couldn’t get any respect from Konica Minolta and found themselves outfoxed and out priced by the company’s direct branches, what a difference three years makes. In a survey that ranked the dealer community’s ability to compete with their manufacturer’s direct opportunity Konica Minolta dealers ranked Konica Minolta at the bottom of the industry in 2008. By 2011 dealers ranked Konica Minolta at the top of the industry. Why? You probably don’t have to be a genius to figure out it had something to do with the hiring of Rick Taylor and the addition of Alan Nielsen and the changes that were implemented towards leveling the playing field between direct and indirect. By and large, everybody seems fairly happy now. As an FYI, the KM dealer network is responsible for approximately 48 percent of the company’s total unit sales.
9. R&D is here to stay. Despite transitioning into services, the commitment to its core business remains strong. As other OEMs cut back on their R&D efforts, Kevin Kern, senior vice president of marketing, reports that the company is still fully committed to R&D in the core business. We have a complete R&D plant that’s going to expand our product line in places you never thought it would go.”
10. Konica Minolta by the numbers. Numbers that stood out: Konica Minolta now has a 15+ market share in the industry; In 2010 (Note that Konica Minolta is currently in the latter part of its 2011 fiscal year.) dealers increased total unit sales by 25 percent across all product areas and what Nielsen reported as “the best in our industry by far.” While the industry had a 10 percent decline in B&W sales, KM grew this category by a modest 1 percent. In mid-range color this segment grew by 21 percent. In production print they saw an increase of 38 percent while printer placements grew by 162 percent.
