Canon Concludes Roadshows with Optimistic Channel Outlook and Focus on Future Growth Areas

“The smaller, more intimate setting of our regionalized dealer events allows for more access to individuals that don’t typically come to a larger national dealer event, such as sales reps and service technicians,” said Canon U.S.A., Inc.’s Hiroyuki “Hiro” Imamura, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Marketing Sub Group, Business Imaging Solutions Group. “It’s important that these individuals get the hands-on experiences with our products and programs that these roadshows provide, as well as competitive insight on the competition. We also get the opportunity to hear what they have to say about their experiences with our products and programs.”

Dealer Channel Growth

Canon was the No. 1 market share holder in terms of A3 placements for color and monochrome in 2018, at just over 25 percent, and, according to Sam Yoshida, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A. Inc., and Vice Chair, Canon Solutions America, the company’s independent channel has experienced growth for seven straight years—and is on track to make it eight consecutive. Canon also invests about 8.6 percent of its net sales back into research and development every year and has been a Top 5 patent holder in the US for over 30 years.

“Thank you for your support promoting the Canon brand,” said Yoshida. “You have a choice, it’s a competitive market. Innovation is part of our DNA, and we promise to continue that strong message by developing and investing in the technology that will help your customers solve problems, communicate better, work better, and improve productivity.”

“Suite” Security

MFPs continue to play a greater role in customer infrastructure. In fact, according to a survey Keypoint Intelligence conducted of IT decision makers in the US and Western Europe, when asked about their future buying criteria for print devices, respondents were most likely to cite security as a Top 4 qualification.

According to Canon, security was built from the ground up on the new III series and the setup and capabilities are consistent across the line. Highlights of the III series’ security suite include:

Verify System at Startup - To prevent breaches, the system runs a boot code at startup. If the boot code is missing, the system won’t even begin until system integrity is checked. The operating system, firmware, and software are also examined at startup, and service has to be called to verify system integrity if any of them do not pass.

SIEM (security information and event management) – SIEM is becoming a bigger and bigger deal in the security field. According to Canon, the SIEM market grew to 2.18 billion in 2017, and it continues to grow at a clip of 15 to 20 percent every year. As Canon explained, SIEM is the monitoring of events, and notification that an event is happening, and the III series can connect to all of the major SIEM systems. Examples of alert triggers include failed login attempt; file sent to unauthorized address; unauthorized settings change; confidential file printed; unauthorized MEAP application added; and suspicious user activity. Runtime intrusion will be available later this year.

HDD password lock – This feature prevents access to the hard disk from the PC when it’s removed from a device. A password is automatically generated and given by the device. Hard drive data erase; hard drive data encryption; hard drive initialize; and an optional removable hard drive were also highlighted.

Remote user interface – Allows for the cloning of security across devices.

Production a Primary Focus

In 2000, 6 trillion images were produced on offset devices. By 2022, roughly half that will be produced on offset devices, according to Anthony Agliata, Marketing Director, Production Solutions Division, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A., Inc. And a significant share of the 3 trillion images that were produced on offset devices will be moving to digital production devices. To that end, Canon’s latest products and capabilities in the digital production space were a focal point at the event:

• Canon’s introduction of PRISMAsync Print Server LP (Light Production). The processor, hard drive, RAM, and OS are all identical to the full-blown PRISMAsync Print Server, and it also runs on Adobe PDF print engine. In addition, the Scheduler, Hot Folders, Real Preview, Remote Manager, and color presets are also all standard on LP. Options include Advanced Color Management and G7 capability. Streaming and PPML are only supported on full-blown PRISMAsync.

• The PRISMAsync Print Server’s support for Automated Workflow, which now allows automated workflows to be applied when jobs are on the engine.

• Operators being able to save, print, and store PDF reports at any time on PRISMAsync under the troubleshooting tab.

• Separator sheets are able to be done at the job level, right at the engine. The operator can also program the engine and tell it how often to insert a separator sheet, and what paper to be used.

• The ability of color sets to now be merged across multiple engines by taking an output profile from one engine and simulating it to another engine to get matching color between engines. As Canon explained, the technology works to match up highlights and midtones, which is where the biggest shift in color occurs.

• Media Librarian V2.1, which is free Canon software that can be downloaded for any imagePRESS server. Stocks can be organized into groups, such as customer or application. Custom stocks can be created, and the parameters behind the custom stocks can be edited. Media Librarian V2.1 also supports a quick printout feature to see if results with a particular paper meet a customer’s needs. Front to back registration can be adjusted, and users can drag and drop paper to a drawer to assign it to a drawer. The software can be stored on Fiery or on computer.

• Canon’s strong relationship with Duplo, including the Canon imagePRESS C910’s compatibility with Duplo’s spot UV coater, laminator, and multigraph, which allows for 21 creases in a job.

• The processing power of the EFI imagePRESS Server G250 and H350, which are 78 and 70 percent faster than their predecessors, respectively.

• EFI Fiery FreeForm’s support for master data on top. When text is merged with an image when utilizing variable data printing (VDP), that text can now be visible even if sitting on top of an image.

• EFI Fiery Command WorkStation 6.3’s support of thumbnail view.

• EFI Fiery Archive Manager, which allows for one central archive for all jobs regardless of vendor.

• EFI Fiery Automatically Remove Raster, in which job parameters that require reprocessing will automatically take place before printing. The operator no longer needs to select Remove Raster.

uniFLOW Updates Its Pricing Structure

Canon also detailed its new subscription-based pricing for all uniFLOW platforms (Online Express, Online Cloud, On Premise, Capture, SMB, and Full). As Canon explained, whereas prior the number of devices, users, and locations were all tied to pricing structures, pricing will now be strictly based on a per-user basis. This should allow for a faster quote to the customer, while details on deployment can follow. Also, according to Canon, device level security is completely integrated with uniFLOW, and policies can be pushed out to all devices. Another uniFLOW advantage is CPCA Accounting, which  Canon says is the accurate reporting of what has actually been printed at the device. uniFLOW will also accurately report if only 10 pages were printed for a job (if a misfeed or error occurred), even if 15 pages were processed for the job, for example.