Print.IT - issue 49

34 PRINT.IT 01732 759725 BUSINESS SOLUTIONS Sharp Digital Assistant The Sharp Digital Assistant, pencilled in for a 2019 launch, leverages artificial intelligence to transform day-to-day business activities. A built- in speaker and microphone enables two-way interaction with software and voice control of Big Pad displays and MFPs; a 360-degree camera supports video communications and facial recognition for automatic log- in; and automatic cloud connectivity provides access to smart cloud services. Initially, Sharp plans to make the Sharp Digital Assistant available as a component of the Sharp Meeting System concept – an eco-system of meeting services designed to remove the frustrations of meeting scheduling, equipment set-up and connectivity and to provide greater insight into meeting activity and the automatic generation of meeting notes and action points through AI and voice to text conversion. In the future, it expects to integrate the Digital Assistant with additional subscription services. To facilitate this expansion, Sharp is developing a smart services platform in Europe that will link Sharp devices to meeting services like Webex and leading applications from companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Products as components Both the 8K Studio and Sharp Digital Assistant highlight another aspect of Sharp’s strategy, which is to focus less on individual devices and more on the development of an eco-system around its products so that they can be used to solve specific business challenges. Alexander Hermann, President of Information Solutions Europe, likened Sharp products to simple components that partners and Sharp’s direct sales teams can put together, possibly in unique ways, to meet a specific customer need. “Today, there are fewer instances where a single type of product constitutes a sellable solution. Different hardware devices need to interact and connect with each other to form a solution. Sharp’s products are more like components. It is only when they are brought together that you will have the final product that you can sell to a customer,” he said. “What we at Sharp are offering is an extremely broad line-up of business hardware and software. We are also developing new concepts and smart ways of linking technology to our daily lives, introducing forward looking ideas that will change the way we work and play. We can hand the component parts of the Smart Office to our partners, but it is up to them to make their choices and assemble them into their own offering.” Expanding portfolio Sharp Inspire Expo 2018 provided evidence both of Sharp’s evolving product line-up and how it is combining its hardware and software with software and services from technology partners. Product highlights included 14 new A4 and A3 MFPs; the first 4K Big Pad interactive whiteboard for precise annotation; a smaller digital flipchart; the Skywell atmospheric water generator, which uses condensation to extract drinking water from the surrounding air; a Sharp cloud-based videoconferencing solution; and Big Pads built into furniture to meet the needs of huddle rooms (Sharp Plug and Meet), small teams (the Collaboration Station) and primary school children (the Sharp Big Pad Interactive Table). To illustrate how MFPs, displays, document management solutions and the cloud can be combined to tackle every-day business problems, Sharp demonstrated a series of applications for reception areas, administrative offices, meeting rooms and marketing departments. These included: n a touch-screen Welcome Board providing a complete self-service solution for reception areas that visitors can use to register their arrival, alert the person they are visiting and print off a name badge; n a Digital Mailroom solution that lets users scan incoming mail on an MFP and index and save it to the cloud where it can be viewed by the addressee in the office or remotely, using a PC, tablet or smartphone; n a Sharp Accounts Payable Workflow that automates the entire process, from the extraction of information from scanned invoices to approval, payment and archiving online in the Sharp Cloud Portal Office; n a Big Pad running Sharp videoconferencing software that brings quick and easy collaboration to huddle rooms, as well as the ability to mark-up on-screen documents, distribute copies to meeting participants and connect wireless devices such as tablets and smartphones; and n a digital signage solution that makes it easy to create multimedia content and distribute it via the cloud to multiple screens located on-premise or in public locations. Unique proposition Some of these solutions are available now; others won’t be available until later this year or next. What matters most, though, is that they clearly demonstrate Sharp now has the technologies, products, relationships and vision to develop fully integrated and customised solutions for the smart office. This, according to Mr Ashida, is what sets Sharp apart from its competitors and what will drive future growth for the company. “We have consumer electronics touch technology and we also have business solutions. We have a business-side and a consumer- side. Then we have the Foxconn alliance, with their funding and their manufacturing capability. They have the money and we have the Sharp brand recognition, the consumer business and the business solutions – document and visual, AI and IoT. Nobody else has that combination. The mixture of those ingredients is very unique,” he said. www.sharp.co.uk ...continued Digital signage Plug and Meet Big Pad Interactive Table

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