CHANNEL GUIDE
KONICA MINOLTA
LEVERAGING PARTNERS’ STRENGTHS Konica Minolta works on the principle of creating universal design to make sure that the comfort level of everyone is completely met.
BY SATINDER KAUR skaur@smechannels.com
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eing one of the leading brands in print technology, Konica Minolta is acknowledged in the market for pioneering several technologies and for the environment friendly approach that it implies in its works. In an exclusive chat with SME Channel, V. Balakrishnan, EGM Marketing, Konica Minolta reveals more on channel strategy, opportunities and future plans.
Exploring newer horizons -Education Adding opportunity for the partners to create more margins and strengthening its market presence beyond its traditional printing solutions business, Konica Minolta has recently forayed into enterprise application (software) business by launching Educo ERP for the education sector. Konica Minolta is not about a single product, for them the recent launch is a part of company’s vertical strategy for ringing growth to the education sector. Company’s objective is to double the revenue that it is already getting from education, that’s the first step. Konica Minolta is in the process of transforming itself from a manufacturing company to a Customer Process Centric company. It is constantly looking at opportunities to add value to the core processes of its customers. Konica Minolta is celebrating 2016 ar as “The Year of Synergy” where it want to harness all of its capabilities to deliver new value to its customers.
24 SME CHANNELS MARCH 2016
V. BALAKRISHNAN, EGM MARKETING, KONICA MINOLTA During the course of the years, it is expected that Konica Minolta will be launching a host of other products (four more products are in the kitty, which are ready for the launch).
Opportunities for Partners The channel of distribution is defined as the most efficient and effective manner in which to place a product into the hands of the customer. When asked about Konica Minolta’s channel structuring, V Balakrishnan says, “Channel will be primarily, to leverage collaboration as the history of company tells you. And within the industry we are known as the most channel friendly company, whether it comes to being clear in our policies, or making sure that settlements are done on time. We have a very good reputation. We would translate the same into this segment. There would be defined territories, and defined segments, based on the partner’s capabilities.” If a partner says: This geography is where he is very good at, where he would like to be that is fine for Konica Minolta. If the partner comes and tells the company no, he doesn’t want to get into a geography, these are these 40 institutions where he would like to be the primary face, it is also fine for Konica. So that way the company is flexible - the plans are also flexible for them. It is purely based on leveraging each other’s strengths. Konica Minolta as a company has always been channel centric. It believes that collaboration is the key,
“KONICA MINOLTA IS CELEBRATING 2016 AR AS “THE YEAR OF SYNERGY” WHERE IT WANT TO HARNESS ALL OF ITS CAPABILITIES TO DELIVER NEW VALUE TO ITS CUSTOMERS. ” without which no organization can grow. V Balakrishnan further adds, “We need to leverage each other’s strengths and we are open to it.”
Marketing Strategy As per the Balakrishnan, the company will pursue by-modal go to market strategy where they will not only engage the channel partners but also, where need be, they will engage their direct sales force. However, it is a plus for the partners who are already engaged with the vendor on the hardware front as they would get additional opportunity of creating revenue by selling software from the same vendor without much of change in their relationship and comfort level.