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Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe has today announced its decision to withdraw from its participation at drupa 2021 to follow the path of new, tailored formats of engaging with its customer base.
The market leader in production printing for more than a decade (InfoSource) has today announced its withdrawal from drupa 2021. The company has already taken the path of new, tailored and digital or hybrid formats of engagement with its target groups and will pursue these new rules of engagement further.
With drupa postponed in June, the company’s rules had to adapt and it had to rethink what’s possible for its customers and prospects. For example, Konica Minolta has launched a virtual showroom that holds many features for an interactive exploration of their manifold product offers in printing. In the Konica Minolta Inkjet Center of Competence in Bratislava the company offers virtual live demonstrations where people can experience products with a two-way camera set-up and interact with the Konica Minolta experts.
Additionally, Konica Minolta is reviewing opportunities for bespoke local events that leverage the best of two worlds: having customers being able to come and see the new solutions and possibilities that Konica Minolta has in stock for them while being safely embedded in their own country without travel restrictions and having the full power of a world leader in printing solutions in the background – with global innovation and technology power and expertise right at their fingertips.
Olaf Lorenz concluded: “Our utmost goal has been and always will be to help shape ideas for our customers in a partnership approach – no matter the ‘communication channel’, whether face to face or virtually. We are fully convinced that print will endure as a communications medium even with the perceived threats from digital, mobile and virtual channels, which many people thought had signalled the death-knell for our medium. In fact, despite the pandemic and less predictable environment in which we all now live, print is thriving and finding new ways to deliver impact and value, often alongside those other media channels. We will keep exploring these new ways of delivering value together with and for our customers and are excited to what lies ahead of us.”
And he adds: “It is with a somewhat heavy heart and regret that we have made this decision and wish the organisers success with all future shows. drupa has always represented some of the best of what can be achieved at a face-to-face event for the global printing industry. For me, personally, it would have been my fifth drupa. It’s always been a highlight of the calendar and I look forward to returning to future events when the time is ripe.”
We are very excited by how quickly the Workplace Hub Partner Program has taken off. It is clear that dealers have immediately recognised that the solution offers a strategic opportunity to change the nature of their conversations with customers - moving beyond printing hardware into the broader scope of digital transformation solutions. For SMBs, Workplace Hub brings into reach the sort of sophisticated and secure IT services that would traditionally be associated with large companies. This means our dealer partners can create significant additional value for their customers, making powerful managed IT services easily accessible to them via the Workplace Hub solution.<br />
Olaf Lorenz
General Manager International Marketing Division Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH
Boilerplate
About Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe GmbH, based in Langenhagen, Germany, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Konica Minolta Inc., Tokyo, Japan. With its unique expertise in imaging, data processing and data-based decision making, Konica Minolta creates relevant solutions for its customers - small and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises and public sector - and solves issues faced by society.
As a digital workplace solution provider, Konica Minolta helps its clients to identify and unlock the potential digitalisation holds and reach the next level in the digital maturity of their organisation by rethinking the workplace. In support of an ‘Intelligent connected workplace’, Konica Minolta offers cloud, IT, managed print and video solution services for remote working, collaboration, workflow management and automation and security. The company’s success in driving transformation is also confirmed by IDC, since the ‘IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Print Transformation 2023 Vendor Assessment’ has named Konica Minolta a “Leader” in print transformation. Konica Minolta has been a Microsoft Global Managed Partner since 2021.
Konica Minolta's Igniting Print Possibilities offering helps printers, converters and brand owners maximise workflow automation to increase efficiency. The company delivers consultancy in all communication matters as well as top-of-the-line production, packaging as well as label printers. Its finishing devices create print products that stand out and create added value. Konica Minolta has established itself as the production printing market leader for more than a decade in Europe (InfoSource).
For an increasing number of organisations, success today is more than the narrow definition of financial prosperity – it also includes protecting the environment and having a positive impact on their workforce as well as the societies they are embedded in. With its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Konica Minolta has pledged to consistently pursue its sustainability and social responsibility goals.
The company has been repeatedly recognised for its rich history of social contribution as well as for working towards achieving the SDGs throughout its business and supply chain. Konica Minolta received a GOLD Level Recognition Medal in the EcoVadis sustainability ratings for 2024.
For its remote services, Konica Minolta was awarded the prestigious ‘Buyers Lab (BLI) 2023-2024 Pacesetter Award in Remote Service for the Western European market’ from Keypoint Intelligence.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe is represented by subsidiaries and distributors in more than 80 countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. With more than 8,700 employees (as of April 2023), Konica Minolta Europe earned net sales of over EUR 2.26 billion in financial year 2022/2023.
Worldwide, the company has over 39,000 employees and is operating in over 150 countries.
For more information, please visit https://www.konicaminolta.eu/eu-en/news and follow Konica Minolta on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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