Customer needs driving Ricoh’s Business Diversification

Manoj Kumar
Executive Vice-President & CEO
Ricoh India

From having diversified its business from its core businesses of printing and imaging to communication and IT services, Ricoh as a brand has come a long way. Manoj Kumar, Executive VP & CEO, Ricoh India, speaks to VARINDIA on how this has been made possible by working as a team and what they look forward to in 2015 

A few years back, Ricoh was dealing in products such as multifunction printers, printing products and services & solutions. But, in due course of time, Ricoh came up with additional products and solution offerings which would complement with what it has already been doing to emerge as a one-stop solution provider and take care of every need which a customer may have in the office space. “It has been a logical expansion and a cautious decision for Ricoh to diversify its core business competencies and make a foray into communication solutions. Printing and imaging is a way to capture and distribute information but communication solutions become another way of sharing information. Another reason is that we are an expert in printing solution and IT peripherals but venturing into IT solutions truly complements our core business. We believe in integrating our printing and documentation expertise with IT services,” explains Manoj Kumar, Executive Vice-President & CEO, Ricoh India.
Customer need remains Ricoh’s prime focus and through these extended solutions with its core business, the company is able to add greater value to what a customer wants to take. 
All geared up for 2015
2014 has been a good year for Ricoh, as they have emerged as the market leader with 23.5% market share in copier-based multifunction printer and 30% market share in Laser printer. In the last three years, Ricoh has grown from Rs.300 crore to Rs.1,042 crore. Its CAGR in these three years has been 50% and in the last one year the growth has been 65% over the previous year. The growth in the past year has come from Production printer, Laser printer and copier-based multifunction printer. Today, Ricoh has managed to become one of the top IT service providers in the country with national presence.
The printing industry is growing, but the customer needs are changing. Customer’s interest and focus is shifting to digital as the digital commercial printing market is rapidly developing in India with an annual growth of over 12%. However, offset and digital printing will coexist because there are different markets for each of these. "The quick response that a customer gets through digitization and the quality of print are some of the things which are driving customers towards digitalized printing solutions. As more and more people are getting conscious about environment, future demands will be for green or eco-friendly solutions," says Manoj.
There is a huge market potential which exists now in the country by virtue of the change in the dynamics of the market. For 2015, Ricoh has taken a strategic decision to focus on certain key industry verticals such as education, manufacturing, healthcare and BFSI. In addition to this, the focus will also be on specific vertical approach and communications solutions such as projectors, unified communication solutions and interactive white board. Ricoh’s go-to-market strategy for the new year would revolve around vertical approach and customizing solutions as per the requirement.

samrita@varindia.com

New product line from Ricoh….
•    Ultra-Short Throw Projectors – This product allows the projector to take lesser foot space and can project images from just 4 inches from the screen
•    Unified Communications – Ricoh has recently introduced the first-of-its-kind product for video conferencing anytime, anywhere. Compact size and lightweight, this innovative product connects easily through Wireless LAN support
•    Ricoh Interactive White Boards – With Ricoh’s Interactive white boards  customer can open their Diagrams / Presentations on to the “Interactive Panel”, make notes on the interactive panel, save the changes and e-mail it directly to the participants, or share the file over the LAN / WAN (intranet). Ricoh White Board also allows up to 20 participants to connect remotely over the intranet

Device Management – Ricoh’s New Business Interest
Device Management is an important tool in Ricoh's Managed Document Services (MDS) program, which focusses on the total cost of ownership (TCO), business process improvement, security and compliance including environmental sustainability. Ricoh stands out with a solution which meets the requirement of an SME with single location and 20 installations and even a billion dollar multinational corporation which is operating across 140 countries with 2,000 offices with 15,000 devices
Device Manager is one of the most innovative devices from Ricoh, which puts control of an entire device fleet in the hands of the customer. The Device Manager empowers an IT Administrator to easily and efficiently manage their entire fleet of networked devices from one central computer. Further, with the help of versatile products and solutions in their overall basket, Ricoh can offer total print / document management solutions to all customers