Focuses on delivering a complete 360-degree input to output solution portfolio

Canon India believes in making business simple for customers. In an interaction, K. Bhaskhar, VP, Business Imaging Solutions (BIS), Canon India, speaks about competition, managed document services, etc. Excerpts: 

BW CIO: How is Canon India looking at 2018 against competitors such as Fuji Xerox, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, HP, Samsung and Lexmark?

K. Bhaskhar: At Canon, we believe in making business simple for our customers and all innovations we deliver are based on their needs. We focus on delivering a complete 360-degree input to output solution portfolio that is a combination of hardware and software together to deliver convenience and accountability.  

Taking forward the same legacy, Canon’s recently launched range of Generation 3 Multi-function Devices is equipped with features that ensure data security, save energy and improve organization’s efficiency.

Our aim is to bring more solutions in document management and bring more value additions asdifferentiators, when compared with our competitors. We have constantly made efforts and innovated our services to meet and exceed our customers’ demands.

Over the years, we have built strong customers MIFs and our major thrust will be to add new customers in 2018. This has been our year on year focus and helped us to retain our market share for almost 10 years in an operation of 20 years in India. Canon is a market leader in most areas of business, and we are looking at 15 percent growth in 2018.

We understand that competition exists in the market, but we believe that instead of being reactive and responding to competition, focusing our energies on our customers and their needs have a greater payoff in the long run. We also feel that the market is large enough to sustain multiple players and there is room for everybody.

BW CIO: How is Canon enabling double-sided printing in India?

K. Bhaskhar: The majority of our models feature built-in with duplexing printing to help customers cut paper costs, reduce paper wastage and produce professional looking double-sided documents. Duplex Automatic Document Feeder (DADF) allows customers to copy, scan or fax double-sided documents, without having to shrink page size or compromise on legibility. It gives twice the output at half the effort.

BW CIO: How is the managed document service looking like in India in 2018?

K. Bhaskhar: With an increasing demand for faster decision making, organizations are aiming for business efficiency, cost reduction, improved turnaround time and serviceability. Canon MDS (managed document services) is a comprehensive program that includes not only basic fleet management, but also advanced document services, resulting in complete end-to-end managed document services.

With cybercrimes on the rise and security being one of the biggest concern for corporates, it is time to undertake a rigorous assessment and fortify the security. Canon supports business environments by providing devices with high-image-quality output to meet office needs and a wide range of solutions software to make work secure, easier and more efficient. Our strong acquisition of existing customers from various verticals have seen cost saving, convenience through Canon MDS. Every year, we see 15-20 percent growth year on year in MDS.

BW CIO: What is the announcement for 2018? Does Canon have any product?

K. Bhaskhar: In 2018, we are looking at etching out an aggressive growth plan in the Indian market, as we envisage seeing a 15 percent growth this year. We recently launched the third-generation imageRUNNER Advance series in India, which is an endeavor to revolutionize printing for both SMEs and start-ups.

The series offers wholesome multi-function devices that aim to enhance the productivity and document ecosystem of organizations. We are also alerting our customers on counterfeit toner cartridges. Counterfeit toner cartridges not only infringe on the Canon trademark, using those results in poor print quality and may cause printer malfunctions.

With our 2018 initiative  ‘Business Can be Simple’ we are striving to help business owners to make use of our innovative and advanced technology-driven solutions to optimize their business processes and in turn provide a superior experience to their end users as well. We are also endeavoring to help our customers to make the most effective use of their time by simplifying business processes and identifying best practices for their business needs.

The Canon BIS division is aggressively catering to large organizations that are eyeing expansions in Tier II/III cities. With the emergence of the large number of SMEs, corporate sectors and also, with the Government’s recent initiatives, we see a high demand for making printing solutions, which are safe, secure and cloud-based.

Canon has always been committed to introduce an innovative and cutting-edge technology to its consumers, and we will continue to do so in 2018 as well.