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Epson America and Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. announced a strategic alliance last week that will extend Epson’s commercial scanning products to Konica Minolta’s network of channel partners and equipment dealers in the United States. Details were sparse in the press release announcing the partnership, so I reached out to Dino Pagliarello, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Management and Planning at Konica Minolta, and Tim Anderson, Group Product Manager at Epson) to learn more.
Ricoh Is a Major Motivator
The folks at Konica Minolta are not trying to get rich selling scanners. If they were, then they would manufacture and sell their own scanners. Instead, Konica Minolta wants to get rich selling advanced workflow automation and IT services—and print, of course. But in many engagements, Konica Minolta’s partners run into a situation where they need a scanner to optimize the customer’s environment. In the past, that’s where Fujitsu came in. They had the advanced scanning technology that Konica Minolta’s partners required and they delivered it through a machine with a neutral logo on it.
Then, Ricoh—one of Konica Minolta’s rivals—acquired PFU and rebranded Fujitsu scanners. According to Pagliarello, this was the major motivating factor in Konica Minolta’s decision to seek out a new scanning partner. Konica Minolta discontinued the sale of Fujitsu-branded scanners on May 1, 2023 (Ricoh rebranded them in April 2023). At the end of the day, Konica Minolta did not like the idea of placing Ricoh-branded equipment in accounts, and who would disagree? Would you want your competitor’s logo scattered across your customers’ offices? Would you want to put a dollar in your competitors’ pocket every time you beat them? By turning to Epson, Konica Minolta can still offer advanced scanning capabilities without contributing to the competitions’ success.
Epson’s Enormous Expansion
Unlike Konica Minolta, Epson is trying to get rich selling scanners. Even though scanner shipments are declining, based on Keypoint Intelligence’s Office Scanner Shipments Tracker, Epson sees an opportunity to grow its scanner business by increasing its slice of the shrinking scanner marketplace. Epson does very well in the US consumer market, but they aren’t as strong in the US commercial market. By hitching its wagon to Konica Minolta, Epson can put a lot of juice behind its products in the commercial market, where it has plenty of room to grow. More feet on the street should certainly help Epson increase its market share, especially since those feet are pushing digital transformation (DX) technology (like Konica Minolta Dispatcher Phoenix) that drive demand for scan. In Keypoint Intelligence’s 2023 US IT Decision Maker Survey on Digital Transformation, 38% of IT DMs said that scan is increasing, and most who said it was increasing, attributed the rise in usage to internal and external DX initiatives.
The partnership nearly doubles Epson’s presence in the US dealer channel. According to Anderson, while some of the partners that Epson scooped up in the deal are existing CapturePro partners, most are net-new partners for Epson.
Based on my conversations with Anderson and Pagliarello, Konica Minolta partners can expect the same treatment as CapturePro Program members. They will have access to all the same technology and training/support as CapturePro members. Konica Minolta partners will handle first-level customer support plus whatever other services a particular partner happens to offer, but Epson will be responsible for any break/fix, warranty claims, and exchanges.
Onboarding new partners and getting them up to speed is never an easy task, but the folks at Epson have a plan. Epson will provide Konica Minolta’s partners with the technical and sales training as well as sales and marketing support to support the transition to Epson scanners. Training will be handled on a first come, first serve basis.
Will the Konica Minolta and Epson Relationship Expand?
It does not appear as if Epson and Konica Minolta are going to expand this deal beyond its current parameters. Neither company plans to co-manufacture devices like Ricoh and Toshiba. Epson’s partners will not carry any of Konica Minolta’s products, and there aren’t any plans of extending the partnership to include Epson’s A4 products (79% of workers said that MFPs were their primary scanning device, according to Keypoint research). Both Pagliarello and Anderson said that there are currently no plans to expand this partnership into other geographies outside of the US, either.
What Did Shaq Have to Say?
We did ask Epson what the Big Aristotle had to say about the deal…but there was no comment.
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
It’s interesting to see opposing growth strategies working in harmony. As the office technology industry continues to transform, some manufacturers are trying to grow by pivoting to emerging technologies and managed services, like Konica Minolta. Others, meanwhile, are doubling down on their core offering and trying grow through increasing market share, like Epson. Nevertheless, Epson and Konica Minolta are a natural fit. With Epson’s scanners, Konica Minolta’s partners have all the tools needed to build complete and efficient workflows for customers. And with Konica Minolta’s sales channel, Epson has an enormous, nationwide salesforce expanding Epson’s market share in a segment where it has lots of room to grow.
This is a win-win if I have ever seen one.
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