Making cloud-based services more convenient, secure and affordable for any organisation

| 19 May 2022

We are all familiar with procuring cloud-based services, from banking and online retail to streaming entertainment and the ubiquitous use of data storage and the associated services that help us in our daily lives. Embracing the cloud is equally important for any organisation that wants convenience, flexibility, assurance, and value for money from their systems and services. Outsourcing key functions to a trusted expert cloud-based supplier is the smart choice in terms of performance and value for money. Even large enterprise-level organisations with considerable IT budgets and in-house resources will turn to the cloud to access specialist applications.


The benefits of the cloud
Broadly speaking, the benefits of using cloud-based business services fall into two main categories. Firstly, there are considerable advantages in running a lean IT function within an organisation, by removing avoidable overheads in terms of purchasing dedicated systems and having to employ professionals to oversee them.
 
Secondly, there are also considerable benefits in terms of flexibility and availability of services for IT users. Services need only be purchased when they are required and are immediately available as you scale your operations to meet demand.
 
All the services in one place
With many organisations looking to embrace the flexibility of Digital Transformation (particularly to facilitate remote/hybrid working and business agility), cloud-based services provide an obvious and compelling solution. For many this means moving from an over-reliance on physical documents to streamlined electronic workflows which help to automate the laborious but essential regime of document processing.  
 
This was the inspiration for Konica Minolta’s cloud-based Workplace Pure platform (formally known as bizhub Evolution), which was developed by Konica Minolta Europe itself in 2016 and has been continuously expanded since then. It provides cost-effective 24/7 access to a platform of constantly evolving services including centralised upload to cloud repositories, cloud print, secure guest print, smart document conversion and translation - all automated and streamlined from a single trusted source.
 
Workplace Pure boosts everyday productivity by centralising your business workflows and promoting well integrated daily work habits, enabling better collaboration practices. Put simply, it expertly and automatically organises your workflows and manages how your team interacts with them. 
 
Workplace Pure’s integration of external cloud storage service (including Dropbox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive, and SharePoint Online) ensures business teams have full but secure access to these storage services, enabling them to work seamlessly in unison and avoiding potential data silo, sharing/synchronising, or security issues.
 
The Cloud Print service delivers ultimate flexibility through location-independent secure printing from various applications, with fast and easy deployment. You can print directly from an application (like Microsoft Word), via a browser on your smartphone or tablet, or from your Google environment or via Microsoft Universal Print, all via Workplace Pure using secure follow-me authentication. With Workplace Pure, organisations no longer have to worry about their print infrastructure - printers, servers, drivers, applications and network. Konica Minolta's management of the print environment ensures that it is always up-to-date and compliant with the latest security standards. In addition, companies save costs: no upfront investment in print infrastructure is required and they only pay for the services they actually use. Another advantage is that Konica Minolta can flexibly adapt the print environment to the organisation's needs and scale it up or down - an important point against the background of increasingly dynamic markets where flexibility is more in demand than ever.
 
The Secure Guest Print service makes it easy for visitors to print from their mobile devices in a simple and highly intuitive but fully secure way, making it perfect for hotels, libraries, the educational sector and more, helping any organisation to stay secure.
 
The Convert services take paper or digital documents and convert them into Word, Excel, or PDF, creating a fully searchable document.

If you need documents to be rapidly and accurately translated into another language, Workplace Pure’s Translate service uses powerful AI-powered machine translation from almost any source language to almost any target language (all via smartphone/tablet, desktop computer, or Konica Minolta’s bizhub devices, 24/7/365).
 
On top of this, Workplace Pure’s EasyFlow service allows you to upload documents (such as invoices, contracts, holiday requests, expenses, and reimbursements) and to route them electronically to a designated approver to be signed digitally with a single tap or click. With the flexibility to customise the workflow for different document types, users, and approvers, this avoids the risk of lost or mislaid documents and makes the whole process faster and more reliable, reducing unnecessary workload and frustration.
 
Highly secure
Workplace Pure can support any organisation with its transformation to full document workflow management, but without the need for a deep technical understanding or worry of how to implement these solutions in-house. Uniquely in the market, Workplace Pure is directly hosted by Konica Minolta as the provider (with no intermediate platform) which requires no additional software installations.
 
The data centre Konica Minolta uses for this is the Open Telekom Cloud (OTC) data centre in Germany, where all shared data is hosted and which is protected by the strictest EU legislation including GDPR. To guarantee the highest possible data security and availability, all services are distributed across Scaling Groups via three Availability Zones. This means that the data security, which is always a paramount concern for any organisation, is fully assured with Workplace Pure.
 
Unlike rival services it doesn’t just run on a multi-function printer either, all the services can be fully accessed via a tablet, laptop, or smartphone browser, making it extremely easy to use and flexible to the needs of your organisation and your team. 
 
For further peace of mind, Workplace Pure has also been tested and approved by trusted third-party organisations, such as its recently renewed Chrome Enterprise Recommended technical certification from Google, which demonstrates its complete suitability in running on the Chrome OS. The platform also has a highly respected Buyers Lab Gold rating from Keypoint Intelligence – the world’s foremost authority on imaging software, hardware, and services – along with being featured in the BLI Pick Awards as “Outstanding Cloud Document-Services Platform”.
 
Essential business agility
Whatever sector you work in, your organisation needs to be able to focus on its core activities rather than spending considerable time and resources on managing documents. This is especially true in the post-pandemic landscape where competition is fierce, and your competitors will be vying to meet vigorous demands from customers, whatever the situation.
 
As a trusted and experienced Digital Workplace Provider Konica Minolta has designed Workplace Pure to be the perfect solution for any organisation looking to embrace a lean and agile cloud-first business operations strategy. The solution is already supporting organisations of all types in the real world.
 

quotation marks

When Workplace Pure was developed six years ago, at that time still under the name bizhub Evolution, the wishes and requirements of our customers were decisive. We saw that there was an orientation towards cloud-based environments in order to have to worry as little as possible about IT maintenance and operation of IT infrastructure and solutions. As a provider with its roots in the print and document management business, we also realised that there was a need for easy-to-use tools for document processes, but not in the form of many different individual solutions, but rather everything under one roof. Since then, we have continued to adapt the platform - always based on the requirements of our customers.

Philipp Schröder

Head of Portfolio Strategy & Management, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe

German Airline Lufthansa for example, utilises Workplace Pure’s Secure Guest Print at all its airport lounges to support its customers’ mobile working needs with a free printing and copying service through Wi-Fi-enabled multifunctional print systems. This has provided a considerable value-add to Lufthansa’s customers.
 
Water management corporation Global Omnium is utilising the Convert to Word and Translate services to securely, rapidly and reliably support its tendering processes, which has also enabled this to be conducted outside the office environment to embrace mobile working through Konica Minolta’s highly secure cloud-based model. This enables the Global Omnium team to be highly flexible to evolving workplace requirements.
 
Leading staffing services provider Randstad relies on Workplace Pure to support its desk-sharing concept, using the Cloud Print service and follow-me print so employees can go to any printer (in any branch office) to authenticate themselves and get their prints, whilst fully upholding the security of personal data. The company has also been impressed by Konica Minolta's Chrome browser plug-in, which allows it to integrate not only the team’s notebooks but also Google Chromebooks, along with a highly secure interface to Google Workspace.    
 
To learn more about Workplace Pure from Konica Minolta and how it can help your business evolve, please visit: www.konicaminolta.eu/eu-en/services/smart-cloud-services/workplace-pure
 

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 8,800 employees (as of April 2024), Konica Minolta Europe earned net sales of over EUR 2.13 billion in financial year 2023/2024.


Worldwide, the company has over 40,000 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 LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.


Terms and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.

Contact

Contact

Melanie Olbrich

Senior Expert Content Strategy & Development, Corporate Communications

melanie.olbrich@konicaminolta.eu

+49 (0)511 7404-5337