Konica Minolta

Konica Minolta, Inc. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President Masatoshi Matsuzaki; hereinafter “Konica Minolta”) will become an executive member of the Mopria Alliance, a non-profit membership organization that promotes the standardization of wireless printing from smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

New work styles have emerged in recent years with the growing use of cloud services and mobile devices in offices and business. To meet such changes in our customers'office environments, Konica Minolta is focusing on enhancing usability and productivity in the office by strengthening compatibility between multi-functional peripherals (MFP) and mobile devices as part of our business strategy.

Tokyo (February 10, 2014) - Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announced that the company is establishing Business Innovation Centers (BICs) in 5 major regions around the world to develop new businesses responding to regional customer needs and markets.

Konica Minolta has been vigorously driving transformation of its core Business Technologies Business by shifting from traditional business models based on sales of MFPs (multi-functional peripherals) to provision of services which assist the customers in improving and innovating their business processes by utilizing ICT.

The company plans to establish BIC in each of its 5 key regional markets of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, China and Japan in order to develop solutions in the customers'business environment, further supporting the needs in the specific market. Each regional BIC will focus on gaining a deeper understanding of customer needs to develop new services, as well as manage the entire lifecycle of new service business development, from ideation to actual business deployment activities, at faster time to market.

New Color and Monochrome A4 MFPs Offer Enhanced Functionality and Usability

Ramsey, NJ – February 5, 2014 – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announces the launch of four next-generation A4 bizhub® MFPs. The bizhub C3850/C3350 color MFPs, and bizhub 4750/4050 monochrome MFPs feature rich functionality and intuitive usability for customers that demand true MFP functionality with A4 flexibility.

Designed to emulate Konica Minolta’s existing A3 bizhub MFPs, these new A4 models offer unmatched compatibility with a broad range of document management solutions and feature similar ease-of-use, including a touch screen control panel and INFO-Palette design on the color models. With color scanning, direct printing, various security features and other essential business capabilities, combined with superior print quality and compact size, the bizhub C3850/C3350 and bizhub 4750/4050 enhance productivity in a broad range of office environments. The new A4 models also include Open API version 4.0 support to enable seamless integration with existing solutions, as well as support for PageScope Enterprise Suite 3.0, for multiple device setup and management, remote support and device management, similar to Konica Minolta’s A3 models.

Ramsey, NJ – February 3, 2014 – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announces the launch of the bizhub PRESS C1070/C1070P/C1060 series and bizhub PRO C1060L color digital presses.

Ideal for production and commercial environments, as well as customers across a broad range of industries including legal, healthcare and education, the bizhub PRESS C1070/C1070P/C1060 series and bizhub PRO C1060L improve upon the successful bizhub PRESS C6500 series and bizhub PRESS C7000 series. With the ability to handle a broad range of substrates and various inline finishing options, this new bizhub PRESS series can handle complex print specifications without compromising speed or quality.  Featuring the fourth generation of Konica Minolta’s Simitri HDE toner, as well as Screen-Enhancing Active Digital (SEAD IV) processing, the new series delivers superior quality and enhanced electro-photographic in both color and B&W.

FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 4, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EFI™ (Nasdaq:EFII), a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, and Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc., announced the availability of two new digital front ends (DFEs) - the EFI Fiery® IC-308 and IC-415 - designed to drive the Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C1060, C1070 and C1070P family of digital presses. Running on the latest, award-winning Fiery FS100 Pro platform, the EFI Fiery DFEs provide unparalleled performance, color management and workflow automation tools.

"The new additions to the Fiery line-up for the Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS family deliver almost 2.5 times performance improvement over their predecessors," said John Henze, vice president, Fiery marketing, EFI. "This means that print service providers can increase their capacity by shortening turnaround times for even the most challenging and complex files, including increasingly popular variable data jobs."

TOKYO, Jan. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Konica Minolta, Inc. has produced a Web drama, "Made from ORIGAMI -- The Shape of Motivation," in which its multifunction printer gives shape to the ideas of clients through "origami," or the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The drama will be put on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6B2ahCQStY).

The drama is a brand movie featuring Konica Minolta's information equipment business, which offers multifunction machines/printers, software/peripheral equipment and solution services. It is part of the firm's project designed to embody its corporate message, "Giving Shape to Ideas."

In the Japanese market, Konica Minolta produced through the end of 2013 a "Konica Minolta Man" series, comprising three movies in which its multifunction printers take on human characters, to promote its brand name and to convey its message that it hopes to be of service to clients through "products" and "solutions." The series has recorded a total of more than 800,000 viewings on its YouTube channel. It is still very popular.

For the first time in the decades-long history of Buyers Laboratory's (BLI) awards, a manufacturer has won the A3 MFP Line of the Year award for a fourth consecutive year. The most coveted honor bestowed by Buyers Lab, Line of the Year is awarded once a year to the vendors whose products are determined to be the best in their respective categories of models tested in BLI's two-month laboratory evaluation.

For 2014, as it has every year since 2011, that prestigious title goes to Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc.

"What Konica Minolta has achieved with a fourth consecutive Line of the Year win is unprecedented," said Daria Hoffman, managing editor, BLI. "The fact that, year-after-year, Konica Minolta continues to surpass the competition is a testament to the sustained quality of its A3 line."

"What it boils down to with Konica Minolta is consistency," said George Mikolay, senior product editor for A3 copier/MFPs, BLI. "Whereas competing lines may stand out in certain speed bands, or in either color or black, Konica Minolta's engines stand out across the board — in reliability, ease of use and image quality — in virtually all speed bands in both color and black. No other vendor brings the same quality of performance across its product line to the same degree."

PARIS - January 20, 2014 and Tokyo - January 21, 2014—Konica Minolta, Inc.(Konica Minolta) and MGI Digital Graphic Technology (MGI) announced today that they have reached an agreement whereby Konica Minolta will acquire a 10% stake in MGI , valued at €13.7m, through a reserved capital increase. This investment will be dedicated to drive future growth, and is part of a common long term vision to establish a stronger presence in the professional digital printing market.

Building on a strong relationship that has lasted over a decade, the two business partners have agreed to expand their collaboration by entering into a strategic alliance that leverages both co-development and the co-marketing of existing and future products.

Managed Print Services Improve the Core Business

It’s never been cheaper to loose money in printing. Printer and similar hardcopy device (multifunctional devices, faxes etc.) along with toner, ink and/or click prices are continuously going down. Hardcopy documents are said to be of less and less importance. So, why should anybody in any company make any effort to tightly control and effectively manage the printer fleet?

Reality reveals a different picture: printing more and more becomes an issue for companies’ optimization initiatives. First, because printing is one of the last domains in which enterprise IT governance finds substantial potential for improvement. Only a couple of years ago the former “copier” has actually been added to IT management’s responsibilities. It has officially become part of the “output peripherals” which the “ordinary” printer belongs to since long. All of sudden, there is joint view on the complete device fleet which provokes questioning if it really meets the company’s business needs – or rather the individual inclinations of many single users. “Right-sizing” is the keyword driving optimization projects in this respect.

Second, it comes to mind what it means to operate an organically grown fleet of “cheap buys”. What has long become strategy for providing the workers with PC workstations is now sought to be applied for printers and other output peripherals, too. Always buying the same limited set of models might bring higher purchase prices. But savings in administrating and supporting, in building internal know how of users and user helpdesk staff, of unifying commercial processes are more than justifying. This is a fact that only controlling external spending will rather likely never reveal. An internal or external consultant will be needed to deeply look into the related process cost to identify whether it’s cheaper to work with one professional service provider or to burden each business unit with doing their own analysis and optimizing their individual sub-targets. 

I have great pleasure in offering you my best wishes for the New Year.

In 2013, the world economy that had remained stagnant for the past few years began to show encouraging signs of recovery in general, supported by the increased economic growth rate of advanced countries of Japan, the U.S. and Europe, which more than offset the negative effects of the economic slowdown seen in some emerging countries. The general opinion is that the economic improvement is expected to continue into 2014 on a global level, though at a slow pace, backed by positive factors such as the promotion of the economic growth strategy by the Abe administration in Japan; the steady rise in domestic demand and exports in Germany, which leads the European economy; and the increase in consumer spending and improvement of corporate performance in the U.S. At the same time, we are aware of negative factors that are likely to affect the global economy, including the rise in Japan's consumption tax rate this coming April, which may result in a decline in consumer spending and economic downturn; the uncertainty of the financial policy of the U.S.; the economic imbalance in the euro area; and the bad debt problem that faces Southern European countries.