Services Coupled With Solutions Will Be The Differentiator Date:   Monday , May 09, 2016 Incorporated in Gurgaon in 1997, Canon India is a leading technology innovator in the digital imaging space worldwide. Having the current market cap of $32.67 billion, Canon India has offices spread across 14 cities in India with over 1000 employees. Ranked third patent-wise globally, the company invests 10 percent of its profit in R&D. Gone are the days when people were twiddling their thumbs to get their malfunctioning products rectified. Today, with a proactive solution-led approach, the product is built with high amount of reliability, its condition is constantly monitored and its parts get replaced based on the equipment’s meter reading. These factors determine whether someone pays premium or not. In large organizations, there is a constant endeavor to bring down the overall printing cost. Hence, moving towards consolidation of the printers to bring more efficiency has become the new norm driving us forward. This has not just led the organizations to purchase high-end machines that encompass such features, but also paved the way for the development of managed print services. This is a blessing in disguise for the Business Imaging Solutions (BIS) industry that has been facing a lot of turbulence in the past couple of years. Though the industry is going by 2 percent, we have been able to manage a double digit growth by harnessing these solutions approach. Since Managed Print Services allow enterprises to monitor who is printing what kind of information, 20 percent of unwanted prints are getting reduced. Meanwhile, Document Management Solutions enable organizations to increase efficiency, streamline business processes and attain great visibility. For instance, instead of printing ten sets of documents for various departments, with document management solution, you can scan the document once, upload it in a searchable PDF format according to terms and conditions and use it for all approvals by placing it in the workflows. Since all the information is stored within the printer that has high hard drive capacity, with a few clicks you can find out who has approved what. This requires stringent security measures, which would open the gate for more services coupled with solutions. Upcoming Innovations Product alone is not a dominant factor anymore. Nonetheless, technological growth has never been so breathtaking before in that front with concepts like BYOD, Wi-Fi printing and mobility, which allows mobiles to talk to the printers comfortably. More and more technologies are being innovated to conserve electricity. All tube lights in printers are changing to LEDs for saving energy. Canon’s innovation – Rapid Fusing Technology replaced the heating rod in printers with a thin film which gets heated immediately. While the customer finds it beneficial in terms of high uptime and reduced carbon foot prints, companies like us don’t need to have too many engineers to keep servicing these predictable equipment. Noting that inkjet printers are cheaper than laser printers, the industry is also striving to innovate in inkjet technology arena, so they can reduce the printer cost, while sustaining the convenience. Likewise, 3D printing is taking the world by storm and is the most interesting aspect everyone is keen on. However, there hasn’t been a complete study made on 3D printing yet. Hence, we would rather study more about it and enter the market with a mature mindset. End-to-End Solutions for SMEs SME is the biggest sector that’s being sought by the BIS industry, aside from government. Canon is also strengthening its partnership to design a comprehensive solution for them. About 60 percent of the revenue of most of the players in the BIS industry depends upon government and only 40 percent comes from commercial sector. It is the other way around for us. Playing a dominant role in several verticals such as healthcare, automobiles and logistics, we have a lot of vertical based managed print solutions. Particularly, healthcare requires an intelligent document management solution, as doctors wish to see all the documents of a patient, right from the moment he enters the hospital. They want everything including the printers to be integrated with their HIS. Printing also plays a major role in healthcare providing organizations. Besides printing documents for insurance, patients also need a hard copy of their reports. In conclusion, from being a quantity concerned market, the BIS industry is shifting towards print share.