How do you look at India’s MFD space and what would be the share of SMB segment contributing to the MFDs in India?
Indian offices across various verticals are adopting Laser MFDs to improve their productivity, save cost, be more efficient and simplify their printing infrastructure.With SMBs becoming the growth engines of our country, Canon believes in supporting them in this journey by proving worldclass technology at a cost which suits their budget. Canon wants to be the technology partner for SMBs by addressing their requirements by providing best of- breed printers.
Gautam Paul, Assistant Director, CSP Group, Canon India
Canon color Inkjet MFD and Laser MFD are the best options to consider as these devices are equipped with features to address the requirements of SMBs and ensure that they get best quality prints. Laser printers mainly find place in the SOHOs, SMBs and Work groups. The SMB contribution to Canon Laser is around 20% and we look to grow in this segment. With the changing technological trends, SMBs are constantly updating themselves with these new trends. They are also beginning to equip themselves with technology that will help them focus on their core business objectives.
How do you position your products and solutions in this space of SMB?
The SMB segment in India is growing rapidly in size with a vast geographical spread. This growth has impacted various industries including the printing industry. Their office printing requirements are changing drastically. SMBs are beginning to understand the importance of maximising productivity and ensuring profitability. Canon Laser MFDs are equipped with multiple capabilities that are designed to simplify the printing environment and workflow of SMBs, making it an ideal office printer.
Canon Laser MFDs – MF 221D, MF 217W, MF 226dn and MF 229dw – come loaded with a host of productivity and convenience features, some of them made by Canon, especially for the Indian user. The devices provide high-speed prints, sharp resolutions and office-ready features such as networking and security.
What is your market share in this segment?
The SMB contribution to Canon Laser is around 20% and we look to grow in this segment.
What kind of value and advantage do you provide for channel partners to sell your MFD solutions in India?
We have dedicated teams within Canon to work with B2B and B2G segments and our new MF 200 series will help address the requirements of these sectors. With the help of our new programs, we will closely work with the VARs and SI community to expand our reach even in tier II and tier III cities.
Canon will be launching new dedicated Partnership programs for VARs and SIs namely Canon Corporate Reseller Program (CCR) and Office Cartridge Reseller Program (OCR) to target the B2B markets. With their help, Canon will be focusing on cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh for the MF 200 series.
What are the big market segments or verticals that you are looking for pushing your MFDs?
Government, SMBs, BFSI, retail and the education sector remain key contributors to the growth of MFDs. All the segments have different set of print requirements and business objectives and Canon will continue to cater to the requirements of these segments. Wealso have plans to focus on MAHE segment and are targeting a business growth of 25% by 2016.
What are some of the big challenges that you see in this space today in India and how can these be overcome?
All challenges pose an opportunity for any brand owner in the current scenario. Therefore we look at all the segments as our products cater to each and every need in terms of printing solution. Also segments are looking for one stop solutions rather than separate devices for each and every function. With the simplification of IT there is more adoption of technology amongst the SMBs.
What kind of growth are you looking at from this segment of MFDs and what would be the contribution of SMBs?
We are looking to grow substantially in the MFD segment, the introduction of MF 200 series is a key indicator of the same. The SMBs contribute currently about 20% to the MFD share of Canon. With the rise in demand for one complete solution that caters to all the needs of the user and MFD is appropriate answer to them rather than just a standalone printer. Also the opening of new opportunities to provide various additional features like (Canon Mobile Printing, Apple Air Print, Mopria) are converting the MFD to a smart MFD .
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How do you look at India’s MFD space and what would be the share of SMB segment contributing to the MFDs in India?
Balakrishnan EGM(Marketing), Konica Minolta, India
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.
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.
How do you position your products and solutions in this space of SMB?
Ongoing economic uncertainties force 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.
There is a continuous growth of print services as companies of all sizes recognize the benefits
print services can offer. Customers need consistency of delivery and appropriate go-to-market strategy, which may be multichannel, direct, or indirect. Alliances and partnerships are vital to ensure the largest portfolio of solutions suitable for all environments. Organizations are moving above and beyond cost savings into document solutions; even SMBs are keen to benefit from MFDs.
What is your market share in this segment?
Konica Minolta’s market share in this segment is 30%.
What kind of value and advantage do you provide for channel partners to sell your MFD solutions in India?
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.
What are the big market segments or verticals that you are looking for pushing your MFDs?
We have focused on strengthening our channel partners and engage them in more channel programs initiatives, and also we are working closely with the education and public sector units in order to explore more into that zone.
What are some of the big challenges that you see in this space today in India and how can these be overcome?
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 MFDs is still taking time to evolve.
There is paradigm shift in printer market setting in India as the new age printers are more than just a printing device; they are now one source solution devices. MFDs can 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.
What kind of growth are you looking at from this segment of MFDs and what would be the contribution of SMBs?
At a practical level, we just can’t assess the opportunities that MFDs can provide to minimize printing volumes today. Beyond optimizing printing, MFDs can already help capture paper documents into digital form and expose the content of the document through scan-time character recognition and forms recognition. This applies to scanning and then searching paper documents, such as legal contracts and evidence, as well as to recognizing the cover sheets on incoming faxes and routing them digitally to the intended recipient’s email inbox.
At a strategic level, MFDs is purchased to reduce both printing costs and IT-side support burdens; one should also see it as a way to help organization carry out the document-centric aspects of its core business as efficiently as the peers or competitors, or more so. A major implication is that one must involve line-of-business people in planning MFDs, as well as usual IT and purchasing stakeholders.