1.How do you define the Multi Function device market in India? What are some of the specific advantages and disadvantages of this segment in India?
A. MFD’s are one of those technologies which are progressively being adopted and primary reason for the growth of MFD’s is its ability to augment the productivity, affordable printing, cheaper consumable cost, and easy managed print functionality.
Cloud printing services is another factor that has provided great market impetus and can be observed within the MFD market.
2.What is your go to market strategy with MFD’s ?
A. SMB, and IT segment has also led to the growth of the Indian MFD market. Small and medium businesses are understandably low on investment and infrastructure. They look at making smart IT investments. MFD, capable of being productive, affordable, and compact, provide them value for money. With small and medium businesses growing rapidly and their increased preference for MFD, the market for MFD is also steadily increasing and our strategy would be to tap that segment.
3.What kind of growth are you expecting in this category? Where is this growth likely to come from?
A. This will continue to grow in line with our countries economic growth.
4.Please share some of the challenges and opportunities that you see in this segment?
A. The lingering economic uncertainties have led businesses to reduce costs and optimize their operations. This creates an opportunity for hardcopy vendors to promote their managed print services to a larger audience of small, medium, and large enterprises.
However many processes are still manual and paper based and therefore MPS is still taking time to evolve.
There is paradigm shift in printermarket setting in India as the new age printers are more than just a printing device; they are nowone source solution devices.MFD reduce hardware cost options and gives you smaller footprints. Customers are now looking for products that are stable, efficient and at the same time affordable.
5.How can channel partners grow by associating with this segment in India?
A. In Konica Minolta, we consider our partner as an extended arm in the market. We provide our partners appropriate go-to-market strategy and regularly conduct road shows which help them understand the customers directly and built there trust. We understand partnerships are vital to ensure the largest portfolio of solutions suitable for all environments.