Leading the Market with Services

RICOH shares their achievements and expansion plans in the future as they move towards more innovative I.T. services.

Ricoh Hong Kong’s Managing Director Aaron Yim gets very excited when talking about the future of his business. Although the company is world-renowned for its sturdy copiers and office printers, he sees a growing need for Managed Document Services (MDS), which Ricoh sees as more than managing machines.

“Ricoh is expanding in two core areas. First, we are preparing to serve every industry by consultation and design of tailor-made document and IT services for each company,” he said. “Ricoh’s consultants do much more for our clients than simply sell them machines. Our services have been refined to offer top-to-toe analysis of a company’s business needs and processes to determine the work flow, the need for managed print services and consumables, such as paper and ink, and document management and archiving, and sharing of information.”

Towards professional project management
The company is swiftly moving into professional project management as well as service management. Instead of just replacing hardware, the Ricoh team of experts participates in the pre-sales stage by consulting on the project design, and then monitors the progress when the new systems are implemented. These experts can bring companies’ objectives to life, such as being environmentally friendly or achieving cost savings and improving efficiency.

 “The monitoring and reporting to top management is to achieve continuous improvement by getting the client to apply the recommended solution in a proper way,” Yim said. “This demand for MDS will account for 50 percent of the market by 2013,” Yim predicted, “since it is more than just a purchase process. Managed document services apply to larger and more complex organizations, usually over 300 employees, who require a bit more added value. We propose new solutions to current problems for all types of industries.”

Yim said that the integrity and security of the information and data is a top priority. Software makes document hosting, proper filing techniques and accessibility available everywhere in any form by mobile technology. However, underscoring the importance of the consultancy, Yim said, “One of the major success factors for changing corporate culture is the buy-in of top management. We can monitor the new processes and send back reports on the progress, but if the senior executives are not leading the changes and insisting on compliance, the MDS services will not be as effective in the long run.” 

Industries are undergoing changes, especially in the I.T. development and professional services. To stay competitive, many companies, such as financial institutions, insurance companies, logistics, health care and transportation are just some of the areas moving toward managed document services and migration to the Internet “cloud” for storage and availability of documents. RICOH gives a top-to-toe analysis.

“Ricoh is expanding in two core areas. First, we are preparing to serve every industry by consultation and design of tailor-made document and IT services for each company.”

Other new forms of I.T. and communication devices – iPads, mobile phone Internet services, and portable computers – make accessing and retrieving information possible on the go.

Innovative plans for the future
Sensing an opportunity, Ricoh is setting up its I.T. Services team and introducing another innovation, video-conferencing via the “cloud,” making multi-point meetings affordable and efficient. Peer-to-peer videoconferencing is expensive and people have to be in two fixed places to have the conference. “Cloud” conferencing serves the needs of mobile workforces by allowing several participants located in various countries or territories and assists in team-building through better, faster and cheaper communications.

The second area that Ricoh is focused on is production printing, which allows for personalisation and customized communications. “Companies are trying to customize their communication with variable data printing,” Yim said. “The banking industry, insurance and other organisations are looking for more short print runs and to personalise the content to speak to the customer more directly.”

Acquire and expand
Ricoh’s strategy is to expand through acquisition. The company has bought IBM’s high-volume global printing business called InfoPrint Solutions, which is now fully integrated into Ricoh’s capacity. IBM’s core business is high-end computing, so selling that division to Ricoh was a good fit. With IBM’s advanced technology in the mainframe computer and software, Ricoh printing systems can integrate seamlessly with IBM systems like the AS400. Many Hong Kong major banks are using the InfoPrint continuous form printing systems that can print 1000 pages per minute.

Ricoh is addressing a new market by writing software for cut-sheet printing that usually requires more customization and smaller print runs. Because the costs are declining, the newer technologies allow smaller financial institutions to take advantage of personalised cut-sheet printing. “Ricoh ensures the integrity of the data and control of the printing especially for customer information,” Yim said.

“RICOH has bought IBM’s high-volume global printing business called InfoPrint Solutions, which is now fully integrated into RICOH’s capacity.”

New technologies also allow the transmission of images. “Ricoh’s historical focus on paper is changing to promote the use of ‘images everywhere,’” Yim said. One example is in the health care sector, where medical images and scan samples can be sent to specialists anywhere in the world for consultation and treatment advice.

Yim emphasised, “Ricoh is among the best in the imaging field. We can see our advantage to provide one-stop solution to customers to help sharing of information in the most effective way.”

About Ricoh
- Ricoh has 311 companies and 30,000 professionals around the world reaching 95% of Global Fortune 500.
- Voted as Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World for seven years consecutively
- Gartner Inc. named Ricoh as a leader in the “Magic Quadrant :Managed Print Services Worldwide”
in Oct 2011