Som Gangopadhyay Director – Business Imaging Solutions, Canon India

The Indian digital printing industry is projected to grow to $17 billion by 2010 from an estimated $11 billion in 2005, according to the print and packaging research organization, Pira International. Even though a large section of this industry is an unorganized sector, digital printing in India is growing at an exponential rate and the industry has evolved to offer customized solutions and applications that cater to vertical segments like telecom, banking, retail, pharma, etc. Canon believes that India is a potential market for print products. The country is making enormous efforts to reduce the illiteracy rate, which is currently 35 per cent, and as a result several million new readers are emerging every year, and new newspapers are hitting the stand almost every day. This means that there is an ever-increasing demand for print products and consequently for printing presses. In a conversation with VARIndia, Som Gangopadhyay, Director –Business Imaging Solutions, Canon India, tells us more about digital printing market in India and how Canon plans to tap it.

 

Business Imaging Solution is a combination of different products for different verticals. According to our realistic estimates, the total gamut of Business Imaging Solution is approximately Rs.1,250 crore. This is the space where Canon India is playing, but the market could be much bigger.

 

It is our estimation that this whole market from the lowest end to the highest end of the card is approximately Rs.5,000 crore.

 

What kind of trend you see in this market? 
I am seeing a couple of trends, which are actually covering the entire life space of the BIS market. One is analog to digital – that is a very common phenomenon. The second is feature-driven rather than utility-driven. 15 years ago, we talked about the utility of a product or services that we go for. Today, we go for feature, enrichment of feature and lifestyle also.

Following it, what is naturally coming is the shift towards colour. There is a shift towards Wi-Fi connectivity, feature-oriented products, touch screen, graphic-user interface, remote user interface. All these are new trends which are coming in and captivating our life right from the mobile handset to our office.

The first glimpse of nanotechnology is coming because equipments are smaller. They can pack more functionality, much more user-friendliness in a small package so to that extent miniaturization is one trend, which is happening. The other trend is telecom bandwidth expansion. I would rather say it is not expansion – it is an explosion –, which is happening; Internet is invading our life in more ways than one, which is felt in either office or home. So, this is also driving the business into a different league altogether.

As far as miniaturization is concerned, on which segment it is impacting the business? 
Miniaturization is happening, bigger products are coming and clubbing in small packages. Digitalisation is taking over analog; analog process of offset product is being taken over by digital.

How the growth of bandwidth is influencing a company like Canon? 
Today, we are actually providing all the products that are covering total business of communication. Images are what we are focussing on. We want our devices to run images on them, i.e. Image Runner. So, bandwidth is helping us to go more and more in the Imaging area beyond Printing.

How many products you have to cater to the BIS market? 
We are running with fourth generation of Image Runner. MIIP as a platform allows your protocol, they can seamlessly workflow with the existing organization. We are giving open application that is a new product. The second is the launch of Image press in India. It is an area which is a graphic arts product. This is the latest and most advanced laser graphics in the world.

What about Software Integration? 
We call our self Document Management Solution provider which is the combination of both Hardware and Software. Canon e-copy provides hardware, which can integrate into your workflow. We also provide software bundle to bridge this gap and click seamlessly. The whole thing comes together in one single loop in order to provide productivity and security to your workflow.

How many channel partners you are currently working with?
For Business Imaging Solution, Canon is continuously investing in newer areas. We started operating in direct channel and indirect channel. In direct channels, we have our own Imaging Consultants and in indirect channels we have partners. We have both direct force and indirect force of partners, which is divided in the core business area and emerging business area. According to our market share, we will be number one soon.