Toshiba TEC accelerates its policy of “Becoming a Global Top Solution Partner for a Vendor.”
Above Hironobu Nishikori
Toshiba TEC President Hironobu Nishikori, who is in charge of Toshiba’s point-of-sale business (POS) and workplace business (MFPs), held an online briefing on May 27 to discuss the company’s management policy and announce the acceleration of “becoming a global top solution partner for a vendor” through aggressive investments.
“Toshiba TEC’s growth model will continue to create new value through cooperation with partners,” said Nishikori. “We want to be a global top solution partner for solving social issues.”
According to Nishikori, there are six social issues that must be resolved:
- Reduction of waste loss
- Reduction of carbon dioxide
- Reduction of paper resources
- Response to labor shortage
- Optimization of stores and offices
- Reduction of sales opportunity loss
Toshiba TEC’s global locations have the No. 1 POS share in the world (about 50% in Japan). The company intends to use this global customer base and sales and maintenance network as touch points. These are assets not currently on Toshiba TEC’s profit-and-loss or balance sheets; however, Nishikori’s vision for Toshiba TEC in the near future is to use these assets to become a top global solutions partner. Toshiba TEC recently named the “ELERA” platform a global brand. In the data and solution business centered on ELERA, orders have increased from fiscal year 2021 from major home improvement stores and e-commerce retailers in the United States. The platform is being utilized to handle customer returns, smartphone usage, POS in the cloud, and to connect data collected online and in physical stores in the cloud.
According to Nishikori, Toshiba TEC is looking to have its solution partners participate in the development, using various data from data specialist companies such as Toshiba Data, a Toshiba group company, in addition to purchasing data from Toshiba TEC’s POS.
Workplace Business
Toshiba TEC is shifting its resources to the data management field and software to ensure that the workplace business grows. In fiscal year 2020, the ratio of software to hardware was 50/50, but in fiscal year 2025, the company plans to shift the software and new business to 66%. The platform that connects the MFP to the cloud and data is called “e-BRIDGE Cloud Service.” Ultimately, Toshiba TEC would like to connect it to ELERA.
For the workplace, the company will focus on new solutions, data management, and new data services. Office document management, workflow automation, and output management, including remote monitoring, are already available from the cloud.
Toshiba TEC has introduced two new functions to its MFPs, including a barcode system (BCS) that prints barcodes and a PoC (Proof of Concept) to print on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), an application that is expected to increase in the future. The plan is to put this into practical use first in the Japanese market in or after fiscal year 2023.
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