Konica Minolta Gets in the New York Groove
I am a diehard New Yorker. Born in Manhattan, spent my childhood in Brooklyn, and most of the rest of my life in Florida – which as we all know is New York South. I’ll philosophize for hours on why New York pizza is superior to Chicago … whatever that stuff is. I have a defined methodology for eating black-and-white cookies. I know a good egg cream from a mediocre egg cream, and I will fight to the death defending the notion that New York City is the greatest city on Earth. When Konica Minolta said they were holding a press event in New York, I may have wept with joy.
So now you’ll understand that when I say Konica Minolta’s event took a trip to New York and made it even better, that is possibly the highest praise I can bestow. The theme of the event was Blueprint for the Future, and part of that blueprint included a great deal of (well-deserved) focus on production print, as well as some interesting office printing developments and plans (print is happening in a big way!), which we’ll be discussing in depth over at The Imaging Channel. But Konica Minolta has plenty going on in the information management end of things as well.
President and COO Rick Taylor kicked things off with an overview of 2014 so far, and if he looks pleased in the above picture, there’s good reason for that. Results for Konica Minolta’s FY 2013, which ended March 31, 2014, showed a revenue increase of 16 percent over FY 2012, and a 42 percent increase in operating income. The strong financial results were largely driven by its Business Technologies business, which includes office and production print, as well as IT Services and Optimized Print Services (OPS), which combines consulting, hardware, software implementation and workflow management. The latter two categories were the biggest drivers of revenue, with OPS up 55 percent and IT services up 84 percent. Taylor also mentioned some of the accolades the company has received over the year, including managed services division All Covered’s recognition as a CRN Solutions Provider and a Top Ten IT Service Provider, as well as Diamond Honors from Hyland Software. Konica Minolta and Hyland Software announced their strategic alliance in January 2013, integrating Hyland’s OnBase enterprise content management (ECM) software with Konica Minolta’s bizhub product line, and based on comments from Taylor, the relationship has been a successful one.
Mergers and acquisitions were also a revenue driver, and that’s a trend that looks to continue into the next year and beyond. In mid-April, Konica Minolta acquired New England-based ECM solutions provider AMS Imaging, as well as Pitney Bowes Canada’s document imaging solutions business. Sam Errigo, vice president of Business Intelligence Services, said we can expect to see continued acquisitions in the ECM space, and some big announcements in the coming year. Konica’s solutions strategy, he said, is to focus on solutions that are market differentiators. The company will be focusing on vertical applications, and will introduce 17 new solutions — nine of which will be cloud-based, SaaS solutions.
Some of those solutions will likely be identified at Konica Minolta’s new Business Innovation Centers (BIC), the first of which opened in California in May. Errigo spoke enthusiastically about the BIC, which will allow for evangelizing and developing ideas at Konica Minolta, bringing new business and product lines into the company’s portfolio; solutions that will include such cloud based offerings as SaaS and business process as a service (BPaaS).
Next up was Todd Croteau, president of Konica Minolta’s All Covered business unit. Konica Minolta’s acquisition of the IT services provider in late 2010 was part of a huge strategic move on Konica Minolta’s part to expand its footprint in the services business — one that has paid off well for the company. Croteau discussed All Covered’s cloud services – scalable, flexible solutions that include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) as well as SaaS. (Cloud and as-a-Service are clearly big on Konica Minolta’s agenda.) All Covered Cloud Services also powers the new FileAssist for Graphic Communications, a cloud-based document management solution designed specifically for production print providers to improve collaboration with customers.
I could go on and on – about the 3D printing, about the fantastic networking opportunities, about the speed of the production print devices, about the divine pairing of dessert wine and chocolate mousse at dinner (thank you Kay Fernandez for tracking down the name of that wine). But I think I’ve more than used my allotted space, so I’ll leave some of it to my fellow writers, and the rest to your imagination. Suffice it to say that Konica Minolta is in the groove, and 2014 promises to be quite a year.
is BPO Media and Research’s editorial director. As a writer and editor, she has specialized in the office technology industry for more than 20 years, focusing on areas including print and imaging hardware and supplies, workflow automation, software, digital transformation, document management and cybersecurity.
