Erik Cagle
OEM Roundtable
Customization, Security Top Agenda for Manufacturers’ Approach to New Hardware Landscape
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copiers and MFPs are being developed? What types of platform upgrades are proving most popular with end users?
In general, what trends are influencing the manner in which
COFFEY: As technology is accelerating more quickly, extended gaps between hardware upgrades become problematic. To keep up with the increasingly fast pace of technology and mobile workforce trends, it is important to develop copiers and MFPs as a platform with the capacity to evolve through firmware upgrades. PAGLIARELLO: Customized product is important. One of the things we’re doing is continuing to develop applications utilizing the Konica Minolta Marketplace, where we’re offering customized apps for individual customers to have a more streamlined workflow. For example, some customers want to simplify their control panel, so we can offer one that has a very simple look and feel. By utilizing a product called Chameleon, we can configure the control panels to meet their needs. CHAVERS: Security of the device, basic and wireless connectivity, cloud-based solutions capabilities and, as always, total cost of ownership are the key trends driving design decisions here at Lexmark. This focus allow us to build high quality yet affordable devices that deliver the most value to the customer. Many of these upgrades are becoming standard, along with OCR capabilities
he copier and multifunction printing device continues to grow and evolve to the point where end users are not as concerned with the specifications of a model as much as they are whether it can be tweaked to meet their individual needs. OEMs have raised the bar on speeds and feeds, and printing quality is not the concern it once was for users. So when all the basic needs are provided by a copier/MFP, where else can manufacturers elevate their offerings to set themselves apart from the rest of the pack? We’ve assembled an esteemed panel to answer some of the more compelling questions regarding hardware in the office environment. The panel consists of Shane Coffey, associate vice president, product management for Document Systems Products at Sharp Imaging & Information Company of America; Dino Pagliarello, vice president, product management and planning at Konica Minolta Business Solutions; Greg Chavers, vice president, North American Business Channels and SMB for Lexmark; Bill Melo, chief marketing executive for Toshiba America Business Solutions and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions; and Hiro Imamura, senior vice president and general manager, Business Imaging Solutions Group at Canon U.S.A.
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www.enxmag.com | November 2017
We Saw It In ENX Magazine
Bill Melo, Toshiba
and print release functionality. The trend is to move these capabilities to the cloud to make implementation and delivery easier and more affordable, and to provide increased function and value over time. MELO: The types of experiences that we have with technology in our everyday lives with products like smartphones, virtual and augmented reality and cloud applications (including content streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix) create a set of heightened expectations about products in all categories, including business technology. For us, this means creating products that customers can personalize, that can be serviced instantly from the cloud and augmented on demand. Customers expect that their business machines provide a lot of the same benefits that the technology in their personal lives does. We want our customers to have a meaningful connection to continued on page 42