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Office technology OEMs are mixing and matching technology, solutions, and services to create a more efficient and collaborative workplace that extends beyond the boundaries of a traditional office. Driving these initiatives is the way people work today and the need to share information from any location as more work is performed remotely.
In the wake of the current coronavirus pandemic, the need for such a solution seems more pressing than ever.
By Definition
Whatever you call it—workplace of the future, smart office, intelligent workplace—understand that this is more a concept or ecosystem than a thing.
“It is helping our clients use modern digital technology to improve information sharing and employee collaboration,” said Bob Madaio, vice president of marketing, Sharp. “On a deeper level, it brings together technology—MFPs, displays, software, laptops, and maybe IT services—and knits them together.”
Madaio feels Sharp dealers understand the need to meet the needs of a changing workforce. And Sharp understands the need to educate them about how the technology fits in with these trends and leverages platforms such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.
“Some of them tie to platforms that make meetings better or allow people to print,” said Madaio. “Some allow you to print directly from an MFP connected to the cloud. All of these individually are just tools, but they all help [businesses] understand that to attract employees and make them productive, they need this technology to leverage these megatrends in the office.”
Kevin Kern, SVP, business intelligence services and product planning, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., offers a succinct definition: “Simplifying IT.”
As he explained, IT is not easy for small and mid-sized businesses, and even some larger organizations.
“How do we make it simple for the owner?” questioned Kern. “How do we make it simple for the IT department? If they have an IT department or if they don’t, how do we become their IT department? That’s the platform enablement for the workplace of the future. It’s the ability to provide different pieces and components, either as a package or mix and match, based on the capabilities of the dealer.”
By mixing and matching technology, services, and solutions, dealers can create a version of a smart office that meets the needs of each customer.
“That’s why I like to say the smart office isn’t a thing, but a destination,” added Sharp’s Madaio.
That destination will likely be reached via small steps rather than big leaps. Maybe it starts with an MFP with a cloud app so users can print to and from a cloud repository. In this instance, one might now say that the MFP, and by extension, the office, is smarter than it was before the MFP had that app.
For Steve Burger, head of engineering, vice president of technology marketing, Ricoh USA, the smart or intelligent office concept removes the boundaries in a typical office by freeing up the workspace, meeting the needs of remote workers, enhancing communications, and leveraging cloud technology.
“If we can offer cloud workflow and tie it into the smart workplace, we can create a new annuity around the smart workplace, not around the print on the page,” said Burger.
Ricoh’s latest products, including its IMC Series MFPs and Dynamic Workplace Intelligence, represent the beginning of Ricoh’s smart workplace journey. Dynamic Workplace Intelligence is Ricoh’s approach to deliver continual improvements and ensure technical capabilities evolve at the same time as customer requirements. This is the foundation of Ricoh’s intelligent workplace strategy, along with its Always Current Technology and the Ricoh Smart Integration platform. When new capabilities are needed by the customer, Always Current Technology enables those capabilities to be added and updated automatically.
“The smart support and installation take away a lot of the requirements for a technician to set up the technology,” noted Burger. “If we can configure it in the warehouse and then put it somewhere on the edge at a remote office or home office, being able to manage that, support that, install updates, and so on enables a smarter workplace.”
Technology and People
Canon is perched squarely in the middle of the workplace of the future mix as well. A term you hear from Canon is “techmanity.” Canon defines that as the marriage of technology and humanity, taking its products and technology and backing them with its network of partners, channels, and expertise.
Last year, during Canon’s media and analyst event, Kristen Goldberg, director marketing, enterprise and desktop solutions, said, “We have customers, and they’re real people with goals and objectives, and they’re leveraging the technology to create communications that are better informed, more efficient, and more secure. The advances we see in technology are helping them achieve that. It’s beyond just imaging solutions, but rather looking at how we can communicate and share information, and how Canon can help in that overall process. The technology is one part of the equation, and the second part is the human element.” (See sidebar with Canon USA Executive Vice President and general manager, Business Imaging Systems Group, Sam Yoshida’s take on Canon’s vision of the workplace of the future.)
The New Wave of Managed Print
Xerox’s approach to a smarter workplace is Intelligent Workplace Services (IWS). This can be interpreted as the next wave of managed print services, weaving together a set of managed print services capabilities and a set of digital transformation capabilities. It’s sort of like managed print services on steroids and is rooted in security, analytics, cloud, and digitization (optimizing and automating manual processes for collaboration and increased productivity). The company’s ConnectKey Technologies (a combination of hardware, software, solutions, and apps) for designing more efficient work environments are also an element of IWS. This mix is designed to assist businesses in converting paper documents to digital documents and optimizing a customer’s print infrastructure for maximum uptime, efficiency, and security.
As Xerox Vice President, Global Marketing, Bertrand Cerisier explained, most conversations today start with security, which is why that’s a key element of IWS. Analytics is important for measuring efficiency, and the cloud is critical because it is a basic element of the technology.
“There’s no way we can make promises to our customers today to maintain an efficient workplace if we are not leveraging the cloud,” emphasized Cerisier.
One tactic Xerox uses to maintain an efficient workplace is leveraging automation tools, which may or may not be sourced from Xerox depending on the need. These are typically delivered via apps or cloud-hosted services. In terms of digitization, the Xerox technology platform includes various digitization tools—hardware or a combination of hardware and software.
Driven by Applications
Apps, both horizontal and vertical, are an integral component of any smart office ecosystem.
At its core, IWS is a horizontal offering applicable to any business. However, Xerox also sees vertical opportunities and has developed offerings for education, healthcare, and legal. A retail offering is in development.
The Konica Minolta MarketPlace is a site where dealers and customers can purchase and download apps for Konica Minolta products, including the Workplace Hub, the platform that allows users to manage apps, devices, and users, as well as add subscriptions and new users, and manage an integrated security platform and integrated Wi-Fi management platform.
“It consolidates a lot of things that small, medium-sized businesses, those with 50 people or less, really have a hard time doing themselves,” said Konica Minolta’s Kern about Workplace Hub.
Konica Minolta has been talking about the Workplace of the Future concept for at least five years, ten if you factor the All Covered acquisition into the equation.
Kern views Konica Minolta’s role as an enabler, helping dealers expand into managed IT.
“You can have all the applications you want, but if you don’t have a platform, the core infrastructure, and support, you’re not going to get the monthly recurring revenue.”
Partners Proliferate
Establishing partnerships with other technology and platform providers is critical to these smart workplace initiatives. Recently, Konica Minolta announced that it had become a Google Cloud Premier Partner. This will enable the company and its dealers to offer the full suite of Google Cloud solutions, building on Konica Minolta’s strategy to provide a portfolio of intelligent connected workplace solutions. The relationship will also facilitate the technical development of advanced productivity tools between the two organizations, all built on the Google Cloud.
Sharp’s direct line to Foxconn Technology Group’s technologies, its relationships with Microsoft, its acquisition of Toshiba’s laptop business, and integration of Amazon Alexa technology into its products are examples of what’s in the company’s bag of tricks for its smart office ecosystem. Sharp’s long-time relationship with technology distributor Tech Data also provides access to additional products and solutions.
The advantage of partnering is that as new technologies, solutions, and software are introduced, they can easily be added to a smart office ecosystem.
Not Just for the Big Guys
The ability to provide customers with the components necessary to create a more intelligent workplace is within reach of any size dealer. OEMs are developing training, programs, and packages to help dealers market this concept.
“Intelligent Workplace Services applies to both SMB and large enterprise,” said Xerox’s Cerisier. “The larger the organization, the more attractive the proposition. But we have medium-sized organizations that are going through this digital transformation that have this security concern that they cannot take care of by themselves. And by the way, very often security is the entry point.”
Cerisier also noted that Xerox has made it easy for salespeople to sell IWS no matter their background or specialty by offering training and education videos.
“We have in mind the diversity of the sales force,” he said. “Sometimes, their background is purely print. Sometimes their background is more services software, but you need to have the means to deliver this value proposition. We’ve made it simple for them to articulate the value proposition.”
Sharp realizes its dealers are still finding their footing around this concept and the various components that make up a smart office. The company has developed packages and programs that tie the technology together and make it easier for dealers to sell.
Whether it is print and cloud-based technologies, security systems, or robotics, Konica Minolta is also doing its part to help dealers remotely deploy these solutions.
“What we see for the dealer is the ability to provide end-to-end IP security, physical security, and ECM, which is a document security play as much as anything else,” added Konica Minolta’s Kern. “We may provide engineering services. We may provide managed IT services as a white box. We’ve been through that learning curve. By giving them a platform that gives them monthly recurring revenue right away, it takes the heavy lifting out of the process.”
ECM is one of the fastest-growing areas for Konica Minolta using the Workplace Hub platform. The plan is to offer dealers prepackaged ECM with built-in support.
“We’re working with some of our software partners on delivering a completely enabled platform, which is plug and play for the customer, while the dealers learn and build their skill set,” reported Kern.
Ricoh’s Burger also sees the smart office as an opportunity for any size dealer.
“We want everyone on our journey with us,” said Burger. “We’ve found that sometimes small dealers are more willing to dip their toes in the water faster than some of the bigger dealers.”
The key is making it easy for any dealer to sell.
Based on dealer feedback, Ricoh has created the Ricoh Smart Integration (RSI) Essentials Pack. The Essentials Pack offers mobile print and guest print and scan with OCR capabilities for $10 a month.
Burger sees this as an enabler and starting point for the smart workplace and an introduction to future IoT capabilities in a way that’s still close to the ‘box” sale.
“Then, we can offer them solutions for the smart workplace around that. We have a playbook that maps out the steps on how dealers can engage—compensation plans, training materials, and the customer contract. We can package it for them.”
But new concepts need time to take hold in the marketplace, especially since the business model for selling a smart office ecosystem is based on a subscription model.
“The biggest challenge will be getting the dealers to make adjustments to their business model,” noted Sharp President and CEO Mike Marusic about subscription models in the Virtual Panel in the February issue of The Cannata Report.
The consensus among the OEMs is it will take a while for the subscription model to gain traction in the dealer channel. But dealers must embrace it to take advantage of these new offerings.
“We are holding steadfast on that,” said Ricoh’s Burger. “This is a new annuity subscription, whether it’s monthly or annually.”
Is Your Dealership Ready for the Smart Office?
If you answered “No,” don’t feel bad. Just because you’re not ready today, doesn’t mean it’s not for you. This is a new concept for dealers and their customers. But as noted earlier, the need for a more intelligent office ecosystem that facilitates working remotely and collaboration will resonate with more customers long after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided.
Don’t be surprised to see smart offices becoming business as usual sooner rather than later. Because of this, there’s no time like the present to be the smart office enabler for your customers.
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Canon’s Vision for the Office of the Future
By Shinichi Yoshida, executive vice president and general manager, Canon U.S.A., Inc.
According to the Canon Office of the Future 2.0 survey, in a time of digital transformation, more than half (59%) of organizations already have a security agenda in place and almost one quarter plan to make cloud security their top investment moving forward1. Therefore, to help drive efficiencies and increase productivity in the smart workplace, it is imperative for organizations to focus on creating a connected, safe workplace to streamline everyday processes. At Canon, we help to prepare our customers and channel partners for the office of the future through three main components:
Humans and Technology Working Together
For years, there has been a rumored fear that the rise of AI will lead to machines replacing human workers, making these next-generation technologies out to be more threats than solutions. But the automated workplace is not something to fear. In order to work smarter and efficiently, humans and technology should work together, which we define as – That’s ‘Techmanity’ from Canon.
The human elements in this equation are our channel partners and our subject-matter experts, while the technology portion consists of our high-quality solutions that are equipped with security features designed to help keep confidential customer data safe. Together, humans and technology are able to support the constant balance between the need for access, and the need to protect information from external cyberattacks.
Making Security a Priority
As sharing information both internally and externally continues to rise, common security practices in place today may not suffice, and can open up enterprises to new vulnerabilities, especially when survey respondents point to malicious insiders (30%) and human error (25%) as the top threat sources over external cyberattacks1.
As we prepare for the future of work, it is critical for organizations to invest in solutions that can help prepare their enterprise for potential security threats. With this in mind, Canon introduced a security information event management (SIEM) integration capability into third generation imageRUNNER ADVANCE devices. Canon also partnered with McAfee to implement its Embedded Control function as an additional built-in security feature on imageRUNNER ADVANCE third edition models.
Influence of the Cloud
Survey respondents also find that cloud services will continue to be a top investment priority in 20201. Cloud solutions are often optimized to incorporate new technologies to meet the growing demands of the office of the future.
With the recent launch of the new imageRUNNER ADVANCE DX models, Canon showcases how it can further support its customers’ digital transformation initiatives through advanced scan functionality and cloud-ready capabilities. And through offerings such as mxHero, an email security and governance solution, documents can be virtually and seamlessly scanned, emailed and automatically filed in any of many compatible cloud storage providers3, helping customers connect to a digital workplace while using security features.
Through the changing landscape, Canon will continue to prioritize the growth of our channel partners by equipping them with the right resources, quality solutions and services to help prepare them for the office of the future.
1ABI Research collected the data from 1,015 respondents through an online survey conducted in April 2019. Respondents included IT decision-makers at the manager-, director- or C-level, from a full spectrum of U.S. companies, ranging from 500 to 5,000 employees, across multiple industries including Financial, Retail, Government, Manufacturing, e-Commerce, and Media, among others.
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