In 2013, the landscape for MFPs will continue to evolve, with the industry focusing more on providing complete end-to-end solutions for business and less on traditional speeds and feeds. BLI’s survey of major MFP and printer manufacturers revealed a continuing trend away from page volume and toward software, services and connectivity that enable information to be manipulated more easily, whether from the MFP itself or from other input sources (such as mobile phones and tablets). Indeed, mobile printing apps were in place from virtually all manufacturers by the end of 2012, and in the next year the trend toward solutions-based marketing will result in increased offerings for numerous vertical markets as well as in managed print services.
Over the course of the next few weeks, BLI will publish a series of articles outlining the types of strategies different manufacturers are using to navigate the challenging market in the coming year. In the spotlight this week: Canon U.S.A.
Canon
The company that introduced open architecture technology continues to build on its commitment to the MFP as a front-end information system this year
Dennis Amorosano, senior director of solutions marketing, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A., Inc., summed up how Canon is strategizing to meet current challenges. "While we operate in an environment of increased hardware commoditization and declining overall page volumes, this year we expect increased customer demand for solutions that help streamline workflows, optimize business processes, connect mobile employees and integrate cloud services,” he said.
Canon’s commitment in the solutions arena is already evident. In fact, the company was named the recipient of BLI’s “2013 Document Imaging Solutions Line of the Year” award thanks to its exceptional portfolio of document imaging software. To determine the Solutions Line of the Year winner, BLI’s staff of technicians and editors considered the imaging software each leading printer and MFP OEM officially sells and supports via its direct and independent sales channels. More important than just the breadth of those offerings, however, is the quality and robustness of the solutions offered. Key areas such as feature set, value, ease of use and ease of setup/administration are evaluated. BLI’s analysis revealed that Canon has the most impressive solutions line-up of any OEM in several areas BLI tracks.
"Canon will continue to enhance its software solutions in several key areas, including document distribution, document management, cost accounting and recovery, device management, desktop productivity, production workflow, and security. Each solution on its own represents a growing market opportunity, but they also provide logical integration points for the hardware devices we offer, or add to existing Managed Print Services engagements, which we believe will be in greater demand this year."
"The latest generation of multifunction devices can now serve as a central communications hub and integration platform upon which back-end enterprise applications such as ERP, CRM, content management systems and others can be connected. Canon is looking to deliver more offerings that address a much broader set of customer needs and play a key role in managing how work flows through a business." One such offering is the latest generation’s development platform: Canon MEAP-Web, which now supports web services, allowing the devices to integrate with a broader range of back-end applications that can be developed more quickly than applications for the Java-based MEAP platform.
He added, "We also expect increased customer demand this year for mobile and cloud solutions that allow clients’ employees to securely print and scan from a variety of devices and locations. Therefore, we are looking for ways to provide more value-added solutions for capturing, viewing and printing that go beyond the traditional click and print modality common today."
Canon’s Cloud Portal is a free, downloadable application that lets users access their Google Drive accounts via the control panel of MEAP-enabled Canon MFPs, enabling users to scan documents to their document repositories in the cloud or retrieve and print documents stored in the cloud.
For mobile printing, Canon offers Direct Print and Scan for Mobile, which combines a MEAP applet with a mobile device app that enables users to print to Canon MFPs from Apple iPhones and Blackberry devices; Canon Mobile Printing is another application for iPhones and iPads only, and allows users to print to Canon MFPs connected to the same network. Canon also offers uniFLOW, which delivers server-based mobile printing and secure pull printing across the enterprise.
