As part of the May/June editorial focus on ways in which dealers/resellers can help their customers navigate business operations in a work-at-home environment, we will be featuring a manufacturer panel that examines how OEMs have mobilized to address the changed conditions. The main story will be available on our website this week.
In a twist to the Jerry Maguire epiphany, the desire to “Help you, help them,” we asked our panel about the product and solution offerings they have proffered to their dealer, reseller and direct clients that can enable work-from-home environments for end-users.
Our roundtable panel consists of Dan Waldinger, senior director, B2B marketing, Brother International; Rick Taylor, president and CEO, Konica Minolta; Scott Maccabe, president and CEO, Toshiba America Business Solutions; Jim Coriddi, vice president of dealer division, Ricoh USA; José María Estébanez, senior director, integrated marketing communications, Kyocera Document Solutions America, Inc; and Mason Olds, senior vice president and general manager, Canon U.S.A.
Waldinger: Brother provides many such tools, such as our label printers including the QL-800, QL-810W, and QL-820NWB, which keep businesses shipping from wherever they are. And, for workers who now find themselves needing to print and scan volumes at home that would overload their personal printers, the Brother MFC-L6900DW Monochrome Laser All-in-One Printer is a great choice. Also, as mentioned above, on select devices Brother offers document-management software such as Kofax for remote e-signatures and much more.
Taylor: Our IT Services Division, All Covered, has a broad portfolio of products that support mobility and the Workplace of the Future, everything from collaboration and communication tools to security and hardware. First and foremost is security. We have been working with customers to ensure all their devices that are accessing corporate resources have malware protection and scheduled scanning, and we are deploying managed security awareness training programs for their employees, especially with scams like phishing emails on the rise. Our Unified Communications (UC) offering seamlessly combines hardware (workstations, desk phones and smartphones) and hosted PBX (cloud-based communications) over an Internet connection to easily route calls to any location. In most cases, we can get this up and running in less than 24 hours. Through our cloud services, we allow organizations to move their workloads to a secure cloud environment, scaled to their business needs, where they can easily access and share information. Dealers can also leverage All Covered’s all-inclusive ERP offering, FORZA. FORZA streamlines business processes—from accounting, sales/CRM, supply and inventory management to service, procurement, reporting and alerts—in a single database. The system can be housed either on-premise or in the cloud.
Maccabe: Toshiba’s portfolio of hardware, software and solutions are allowing remote workers to print smarter, work more securely and improve workflow within any mobile environment. Our team is also drop shipping products and solutions for employees, clients, resellers and business partners seeking to enhance their mobile workspace. We’re dedicated to supporting our clients’ remote office needs and helping them collaborate more easily with our security solutions portfolio.
Toshiba’s e-BRIDGE Print & Capture mobile app is a specific solution enabling our clients to print to and scan from an e-STUDIO multifunction printer using a mobile device while maintaining social distancing from the print device itself.
Overall, we are helping clients in this extraordinary moment while enabling them to be better prepared for the future. We are in this together.
Coriddi: The health and safety of all employees, customers, partners, and communities comes first, but to continue driving business, workers must be equipped to maintain operational processes and serve collective customers while working remotely. Digitizing paper-based information makes it easier for employees to access, process and securely share essential documents from the safety of their own homes, keeping business running smoothly and customers satisfied. Our tools include:
- Digitizing information, and creating workflows with cloud access via Ricoh Smart Integration. Whether invoices, forms or any document, Ricoh has cloud-based technology that can run right on the MFP or away from the MFP to help employees digitize and gain secured access to information, anywhere, anytime.
- Content Services via DocuWare –
- Secured Document Storage and Retrieval—At the core of remote work is the need to be more digital and to go “paperless. It has never been more important to ensure that all essential information and data are stored on a secured, integrated, central platform that allows employees to access business-critical data and information wherever they are, instantly.
- Business Process Workflows—Once document storage and retrieval has been digitized, key digital workflows can be introduced to optimize the processes that power the core of the business, including invoice processing, HR operations, sales order processing and much more with the power of the DocuWare content services platform.
- Work-from-Home Printing—Providing a Printer Drop Ship Program—For a limited time, dealers can order printers directly for their customers and Ricoh will ship to them directly.
- Supporting with Service—In addition to
providing best practices for cleaning and disinfecting hardware, we’re offering
service support, including:
- RICOH Smart Device Connector—A solution that enables remote operation of smart devices via a smartphone or tablet.
- Help Lightning—A service Ricoh leverages with technical support, customer assistance and service calls. Help Lightning provides remote expertise through the use of merged reality. This patented technology allows remote experts to virtually reach out and touch what their on-site service tech or customer is working on.
Ricoh is committed to fostering true partnerships with our RFG dealers. While we take this approach every day, the importance of being a dependable partner has never been more valuable than it is today. Understanding, adaptability and a true sense of long-term, “in it to win it” partnerships are necessary to get through these challenging times. Ricoh is ready to deliver, because that is what we have been doing for years.
Estébanez: As specialists in IT solutions and software, we’ve set up kyoceraremotework.com to feature many of our product offerings, and also for those interested in new technology to request a consultation with one of our experts. Ranging from VPN access to video conferencing tools to online collaboration and file-sharing platforms such as Sharebase by Hyland, we have tools available which can help businesses to put knowledge to work even in these testing times.
Olds: We have a strong portfolio of work-from-home products, including printers, scanners and auto-replenishment services for certain ink cartridges to help operators work efficiently. Our outstanding portfolio of Canon and third-party collaboration and content management tools, such as Therefore Online, Box and mxHero, contain security features and help mobile and remote workers streamline processes and maintain productivity across teams in multiple locations. Therefore Online and Box solutions provide employees access to their critical content anytime, anywhere, and on a wide array of devices, while mxHero, a strategic partner of Canon, helps companies govern and manage attachments, while also implementing security features around them.
