Change is in the Air: Transformation Underway

Konica Minolta has always been a brand with transformation and change as part of its DNA, ingrained in the company culture. From having a Minolta camera on the first American manned shuttle that went into space in 1962, to releasing the world’s first 35 mm camera with auto focus in 1977, we have had many world firsts. As our CEO Shoei Yamana mentioned in a recent interview with the Financial Times, innovation at Konica Minolta has historically been focused on ‘over engineering’ our products. In times of stability, such product innovations absolutely have their place. However, today our traditional market place has shrunk dramatically. For Konica Minolta to retain market relevancy, we have to shift our focus to customer value. It is definitely a very different focus to “how can we make our products better.” And so, over the last four years, Konica Minolta’s innovative journey has been accelerating like never before. With the establishment of our Business Innovation Centers, expansion of our R&D facilities globally, and our acquisitions, Konica Minolta is closer than ever to our clients. All this is supporting Konica Minolta’s transformation into a leading edge IT Services business. (more…)

Earlier this year I attended a program at the Connecticut Forum entitled “Disruption! Innovators in business, media and culture,” and was reminded that disruption is happening in all industries in diverse ways. The Forum’s preface suggested that the disruption that we have heard about is connected to “disruptive innovation,” a term coined by Clayton M. Christensen to mean “when a small company with fewer resources can successfully challenge incumbent businesses.” Facebook, Netflix and Amazon were cited as examples. Basically, it’s a new idea that prompts a shift in an industry, giving us a new way to operate. (more…)

A gorgeous week of weather in Southern California welcomed our 2017 FutuREady Conference as we hosted approximately 200 dealer partners and over 700 attendees to support them and the future of their businesses. The week was capped off with the Blue Angels Foundation Konica Minolta Golf & Tennis Classic, a charitable event that supports our military veterans.  The combination of business and charity brings perspective, motivation and additional purpose to an otherwise professional event. (more…)

Generating a steady stream of revenue and ensuring document security are big objectives for a business of any size to survive. But many of them – especially small businesses – neglect to adopt a comprehensive means for tracking multifunction printer (MFP) usage and recovering costs. Additionally, many businesses don’t take the necessary precautions to protect and secure files across their organization. The result? They’re tossing a bundle of valuable funds into the wind while leaving their organization open to security breaches and threats. (more…)

Last year, Konica Minolta launched a new portfolio called “Workplace of the Future,™” which integrates existing solutions with new technologies from Konica Minolta’s Business Innovation Center in Silicon Valley. As a founding member of this practice, I have had the opportunity to become fully immersed in the trends and opportunities in the connected office sector through conversations with 75+ startup leaders, extensive industry research, and an active presence at industry conferences. (more…)

As I sit here to write this post, I’ve pulled up my favorite Jazz station from the Amazon Prime App on my laptop and I hear Frank Sinatra’s, “The Best is Yet to Come” – a favorite.

The best is yet to come, and won’t that be fine
You think you’ve seen the sun, but you ain’t seen it shine

These lyrics resonate with me as I formulate my predictions for Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for 2017. We’ve had a great year in 2016 providing ECM solutions and services to our customers.  But, in 2017, we expect to bring greater growth and expansion for customers, employees and the industry. (more…)

Speed.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that word.

First, there’s the obvious connection. Our partner Wayne Taylor Racing kicked off their 2017 season at the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona, introducing the brand new No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R. In its first official race appearance, their speed and technology resulted in victory! (more…)

Working for a company that provides technology solutions means that it’s important for me to keep on top of technology trends. One clear way to do this is to look at current All Covered clients to see what challenges have been top of mind over the last year and to determine what services have been paramount to ongoing operations. The other valuable way is to look to industry leaders, such as Gartner.

I recently wrote the eBook (along with some very talented people here in the Konica Minolta marketing department), 10 Technologies Driving the Workplace of the Future™, and I knew I had to streamline intelligence from these various sources in order to make this eBook both accurate and interesting. In writing it, here are some of the most interesting developments I noticed:

Businesses want (and need) processes to be increasingly “smart.” From a simple profit standpoint, this makes total sense. Businesses want to assure that their resources – from employees to computers and servers – are being utilized efficiently. Companies also want to receive the best data they can on what is and isn’t working for them. That’s why I knew it was important to talk about both customer relationship management and business intelligence as well as digital ecosystems as technologies driving the Workplace of the Future. It’s clear that information gathering and sharing can empower a business if done properly – through solutions like robust, custom CRM solutions – as well as encouraging a connection between your products and services and your employees – allowing for smart decision-making. (more…)

Our country’s ever-evolving healthcare landscape makes the future very unpredictable.  Changes are occurring everywhere – regulation and legislation, reimbursement, technology, medical advances, and even the way healthcare is accessed and consumed. These changes impact how healthcare is delivered, paid for and administered. As such, it is imperative that Konica Minolta take an active role in understanding the industry and provide healthcare solutions in order to help our customers prepare for a future that will look very different than it does today.  (more…)

“Change is the only constant in life,” so said Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, around 500 B.C. As I look toward the legal environment in 2017, that saying is alive and well thanks to the emergence of robotics, other workplace of the future solutions and artificial intelligence (AI), the next critical wave of change in law firms.

What is different from Heraclitus’ time is the velocity at which change is occurring. Advancing law firm technology has pushed firms to move uncommonly fast to implement the changes necessary to garner the benefits that are possible for strategic growth and overall survival. The law firm of the future must address these coming influences that are re-engineering how work will be done.  What are these influences that I believe will impact the legal arena in 2017? Here are my predictions: (more…)