01732 759725
INTERVIEW
18
The vision to succeed
Ricoh broadens the appeal of its communication products portfolio
of view. But it is also totally scalable,
depending on what the customer wants.
If the customer just wants to connect a
couple of whiteboards and collaborate
on a document, using their telephone
system to talk through what is being done,
they can do that. Or, if a customer has
invested in videoconferencing or sees
the benefit of moving to VC to eliminate
travel costs and increase productivity, we
can supply a videoconferencing system.
Our system will work Ricoh to Ricoh and
with other videoconferencing systems, so
customers get the full benefits of remote
collaboration.
TR
:
How long have you been active in the
videoconferencing market?
KH:
We have been doing videoconferencing
for about three years, but we recently
launched a new solution that has
interoperability with other systems, so it is
now really starting to take off. If a customer
or business they deal with has invested in
a Polycom or a Cisco system, for example,
our VC system will link into that, making
it easy for them to collaborate with their
customers and suppliers as well.
TR
:
You’ve also been expanding your
interactive whiteboard offering. Are they
a growing part of your business?
KH:
Yes; we’ve now got three models and
are about to launch a fourth. Our first
interactive whiteboard was a 55-inch
model. Based on customer feedback,
we then introduced 65-inch and 84-inch
models, and the new one we are about to
launch is a 22-inch interactive whiteboard.
The feedback from customers is that they
want flexibility in terms of where and when
they can use this technology. A corporate
customer might have larger meeting rooms
where they might want to wall-mount a
whiteboard as a permanent fixture. They
may also have other collaboration areas,
hubs and smaller meeting rooms, where
something like a 22in model would fit
better.
That flexibility of approach also applies
to larger whiteboards, where we offer the
option of wall-mounting or a stand that
you can wheel from one meeting room
to another, and to our videoconferencing
system. The camera and videoconferencing
technology are incorporated in one unit
that you can move from room to room.
Connect it to the network and you are up
and running – there’s nothing else you
need to do. Potentially you could even use
it at your desk. And we have an app for
tablets, iPads and mobile devices that a
mobile or remote worker can use to join in.
In this way, we embrace new working
practices like remote working, home
working and increased mobility. The other
key driver in the current financial climate
is to reduce costs and on our website we
have a savings calculator, so if people are
travelling to one location, by car or train or
plane, you can input their journey details
and it will calculate the cost savings you
would make by deploying Ricoh technology
– and give you a carbon saving as well.
TR
:
Are you developing a different
channel to sell these solutions?
KH:
Yes, we are. We’ve got three main
routes to market. One is our direct sales
force – the corporate, government channel.
The second is via our OA partners who
currently sell our Managed Print Service
(MPS) offering. Our communications
offering is to do with collaboration,
information and documents, improving
productivity and cost savings, which isn’t
wildly different to what our OA partners
currently do with MPS – it’s just a question
of upskilling them, giving them the tools
and understanding so they can also sell
our communication services portfolio.
Thirdly, we are looking at IT resellers and
specialist AV partners, which is a new route
to market for Ricoh. That’s something we
are starting to develop now.
Ricoh is an established technology
brand famous for its copiers and print
devices, but there is much more to the
company than that. Recently, it has
been expanding into other areas, such
as projectors, interactive whiteboards
and videoconferencing solutions, giving
technology resellers new opportunities
to add value and generate additional
revenue from hardware sales and cloud
services. To find out more about Ricoh’s
offering in this space,
Technology
Reseller
spoke to Keith Howell, Business
Generation Director for the Indirect
Channel at Ricoh UK.
Technology Reseller (TR)
:
Ricoh is well
known for its copiers, but perhaps
less famous for its projectors and
whiteboards. What are you trying to
achieve with these products. Is it just a
case of selling more hardware?
Keith Howell (KH):
While we can supply
someone with a videoconferencing system,
projector or whiteboard in isolation, we very
much see these technologies as working
together so that we can help the customer
connect and collaborate more easily. Our
VC can work with our interactive projector
and our interactive whiteboards, so you
could collaborate on a document using a
whiteboard and people on multiple remote
sites could use videoconferencing to look
at not just the document, but also the
people and communicate more effectively
while working on a document.
It’s very joined up from that point
This flexibility of
approach also
applies to larger
whiteboards,
where we offer
the option of
wall-mounting
or a stand
Continued...
