Konica Minolta’s cloud play is crucial for office comeback
Aside
from
commercial
real
estate
dealers,
office
equipment
vendors
were
among
the
hardest
hit
by
the
massive
office
evacuation
following
the
pandemic.
Aside
from
commercial
real
estate
dealers,
office
equipment
vendors
were
among
the
hardest
hit
by
the
massive
office
evacuation
following
the
pandemic.
But
the
death
of
the
office
was
much
exaggerated,
say
some
affected
CIOs,
who
point
to
an
increasing
number
of
corporate
mandates
for
employees
to
return
to
the
office
for
at
least
three
days
per
week
as
the
telltale
of
better
business
ahead
for
them.
Tokyo-based
printer
manufacturer
Konica
Minolta,
for
instance,
is
seeing
a
jump
in
business
that
its
US
subsidiary
CIO
cannot
quantify
now
but
is
confident
will
show
in
future
earnings.
In
fact,
the
150-year-old
OEM
used
the
business
slowdown
to
develop
its
digital
transformation
strategy
to
reinvent
itself
internally
and
grow
the
internal
value
of
the
company,
as
well
as
the
external
value
it
provides
its
customers,
says
Mike
Lee,
senior
vice
president
and
CIO
of
Konica
Minolta
Business
Solutions
USA.
The
blueprint
of
that
transformation,
which
is
based
on
Google
Cloud
Platform
and
its
core
microservices,
was
designed
roughly
two
years
ago
but
its
implementation
—
which
first
involves
migrating
data
to
the
cloud
and
then
implementing
analytics
—
has
just
begun.
Migrating
data
to
GCP
and
implementing
Google
BigQuery
and
Google
Looker
to
analyze
business
data
will
be
a
game
changer,
Lee
predicts.
The
US-based
subsidiary
signed
a
5-year
deal
with
Google
18
to
24
months
ago.
Following
the
planning
process,
the
OEM
recently
began
migrating
data
from
the
200
servers
at
its
Ramsey,
N.J.,
headquarters
to
the
cloud,
with
plans
to
close
the
data
center
once
the
cloud
move
is
complete.
It
will
take
Lee’s
60-person
IT
team
some
time
to
complete
its
rationalization
efforts
to
sunset
legacy
apps
that
are
no
longer
useful,
he
says.
“We
really
didn’t
have
a
consolidated
repository
of
all
of
our
business
data,”
Lee
says,
noting
that
the
printer
business
still
houses
business
information
in
database
silos
and
in
SAP
Business
Warehouse.
The
plan
is
to
decommission
everything
in
the
data
center
that
does
not
tie
into
the
US
subsidiary’s
long-term
connected
office
services
strategy
on
the
cloud.
The
business
benefits
of
analytics
in
the
cloud
First,
US
Konica
Minolta’s
hop
to
the
cloud
will
improve
overall
efficiencies
and
cut
IT
maintenance
costs,
Lee
notes.
It
will
also
enable
the
company
to
develop
new
services
that
piggyback
off
existing
services
provided
by
multifunction
office
machines,
the
CIO
says.
“One
of
the
business
outcomes
is
for
our
field-service
technicians,
to
make
them
more
efficient
and
productive,
and
the
other
value
proposition
is
using
the
analytics
and
insights
generated
to
design
better
products
for
our
customers,
whether
they
are
direct
or
dealers,”
Lee
says,
adding
that
doing
so
will
drive
new
business
revenue.
Today,
the
company
uses
Tableau
and
PowerBI
for
analytics.
Adding
Google
Cloud,
Looker,
and
BigQuery
will
yield
more
sophisticated
insights
for
enhanced
workflows
and
more
lucrative
business
outcomes,
such
as
better
demand
generation
for
marketing
teams,
refined
qualification
of
incoming
leads,
and
faster
notifications
of
sales
leads
to
the
sales
force
—
all
of
which
will
lead
to
incremental
new
top
line
revenue,
Lee
predicts.
Lee
also
expects
new
deals
to
result
from
the
sophisticated
analytics
platform.
“Monthly
KPIs
are
produced
manually
today,”
he
says.
“Through
GCP,
BigQuery,
and
Looker,
we
will
be
able
to
automate
those
and
track
them.
The
concept
is
to
be
fully
automated.”
Implementing
more
IoT
sensors
into
its
multifunction
machines
will
also
drive
new
business
services
as
part
of
the
company’s
connected
product
strategy,
he
says.
The
connected
office
of
the
future
Lee,
formerly
an
IT
exec
at
GE
for
21
years,
says
Konica
Minolta
is
celebrating
its
150th
year
in
business
in
2023.
And
no
company
that’s
lasted
that
long
does
so
without
reinventing
itself
to
remain
relevant,
he
says.
The
subsidiary’s
digital
transformation
will
usher
in
a
new
era
for
the
entire
company.
Running
data
and
analytics
on
the
cloud
is
accelerating
the
company’s
goal
of
developing
next-generation
services
that
will
redefine
what
was
once
simply
dubbed
a
copy
machine,
he
says.
Currently,
multifunction
printers
contain
hundreds
of
sensors
that
provide
enterprises
with
alerts
about
many
aspects
of
maintenance
requirements
such
as
depleting
ink
levels
and
anomalies
that
alert
technicians
to
malfunctions.
But
to
drive
its
more
ambitious
digital
transformation,
Lee
developed
an
application
managed
service
model
and
outsourced
it
to
a
consulting
firm
so
that
he
can
refocus
his
team
on
technology
modernization.
“I
don’t
want
anyone
on
my
team
doing
application
support
or
break-fix
or
even
small
enhancements,”
Lee
says.
“We
freed
up
a
bunch
of
my
team’s
time
to
focus
on
these
digital
transformation
initiatives.
“
Going
forward,
Lee
expects
the
multifunction
printer
will
be
reinvented
into
a
connected
office
hub
with
service
packs
that
could
yield
data
about
the
office
environment
such
as
energy
utilization,
power
consumption,
office
temperature,
possibly
external
equipment
failures,
supply
issues,
or
even
viral
loads
in
the
air,
Lee
says.
The
sky
is
the
limit
when
using
advanced
analytics,
a
new
generation
of
IoT
sensors
and
automated
factories
that
are
based
in
Japan.
Eventually,
AI
will
be
a
part
of
the
evolution
of
Konica
Minolta’s
equipment.
“There’s
a
value
proposition
of
our
products
providing
lots
of
analytics
and
insights
back
to
our
customers,
whether
it’s
a
direct
account
or
a
dealer,”
the
CIO
says,
adding
that
the
company
services
large
enterprise
accounts
such
as
GE,
BMW,
and
Accenture,
as
well
as
dealers
across
the
globe.
It’s
still
too
early
for
Lee
to
predict
AI
plans.
To
date,
the
company
currently
partners
with
a
SaaS
vendor
that
provides
a
chatbot
for
customer
service
that
saves
a
lot
of
overhead
and
“we’re
evaluating
where
we
could
potentially
leverage
ChatGPT
for
content
creation
for
our
marketing
teams,”
Lee
says,
but
acknowledging
a
proper
AI
strategy
will
use
data
and
analytics
to
get
there.
Konica
Minolta
also
created
a
separate
e-commerce
platform
with
partner
Elastic
Path
to
create
new
customer
experience
touchpoints,
Lee
says,
adding
that
he
has
high
hopes
for
a
rebounding
office
workforce
and
what
the
company’s
planned
evolution
of
the
multifunction
printer
and
services
the
company
can
provide
to
enterprises.
Like
most
OEMs,
Lee
is
constrained
by
a
discretionary
budget
and
ongoing
supply
chain
issues.
Still,
his
optimism
is
far
higher
today
than
it
was
during
the
pandemic
when
office
building
across
the
globe
were
largely
empty.
“We’re
not
immune
to
the
microprocessor
shortage.
Processing
speed
is
a
huge
consideration”
for
the
company’s
manufacturing
arm
—
but
there
is
light
at
the
end
of
the
tunnel,
he
sees.
“We
are
still
dealing
with
backlog
issues
on
our
finished
goods,”
he
says.
“So
the
good
news
is
there
is
a
tremendous
amount
of
demand
and
we’re
playing
catch-up.”
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