By Cassandra Balentine
Canon invited press and analysts to its annual One Canon Event, held this year from February 12 to 14, 2018 at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, FL. The three-day event featured general sessions, one-on-one interviews, and keynote presentations. Attendees were also invited to tour Canon’s Customer Experience Center (CEC) in Boca Raton, FL to witness demonstrations of its latest technologies including the Océ ProStream and Océ Colorado 1640.
Kicking off the second day of the event, Toyotsugu Kuwamura, EVP/GM, Business Imaging Solutions Group (BISG), Canon U.S.A., Inc., discussed highlights from Canon Inc.’s 2017 fiscal year, which overall came in at $36.4 billion, a 19.9 percent growth, including 14.9 percent growth in the Americas.
He also outlined the executive organization structure for Canon Solutions America, including his promotion to chairman and CEO and the appointment of Pete Kowalczuk to president, Canon Solutions America, among other notable changes.
Above: Canon hosted its One Canon event in Hollywood, Fl.
Office Technology
Kuwamura discussed the role of print in the office of the future, including the idea of the “super smart multifunction product (MFP).” He says right now this is a concept device, which must be developed to keep pace with the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI).
In response, Canon U.S.A., Inc. will launch its third generation imageRUNNER ADVANCE second edition product line up. “We have a clear vision to support the office of the future, as evident through the refresh of our imageRUNNER ADVANCE platform,” said Kuwamura. “Our goal is to leverage our strong technology and relationships to help organizations transform their workflow processes into ones that can better support employee flexibility while simultaneously helping to protect confidential information.”
Hiro Imamura, SVP/GM, BISG, Marketing, commented that since the launch of imageRUNNER Advance in 2009, it has been a strong performer for the company. A complete refresh for the entire line, the third generation imageRUNNER Advance, 2nd edition features out-of-the-box cloud connectivity, including popular applications like One Drive, Evernote, DropBox, Box, Uniflow Online, and Google Drive.
Kowalczuk addressed the need for security within enterprise organizations. Adding to its portfolio of security offerings, Canon Solutions America introduced new relationships with Agile Cybersecurity Solutions (ACS) and Vera.
ACS is a Washington, D.C.-based cyber security firm serving leading governmental agencies and major private sector companies. This alliance expands Canon Solutions America’s portfolio of secure print, enterprise content management, and document solutions that help customers with tools to secure business process workflows in many industries.
Additionally, Canon Solutions America selected Vera to provide technology designed to protect Canon customers’ intellectual property and critical business information. Together with Vera’s encryption and data protection technology, Canon Solutions America provides customers with the technology to protect data anywhere, anytime, as well as the ability to control access to that data at the file level.
Production Print and Large Format
Francis McMahon, SVP, BISG, Océ Products Production Print Solutions (PPS), marketing and support, Canon U.S.A., Inc., reviewed the state of Canon Solutions America’s PPS group and discussed ways in which they are bringing print to the next generation.
McMahon commented on the success of 2017, noting that it is one of the most profitable groups within all of Canon U.S.A. The ColorStream line had a 22 percent year over year increase, and 52 percent for the Océ VarioPrint i300 line.
“Our industry is healthy,” said McMahon. “I know this because we had a record year with service and supply sales within production printing. And we’re seeing the transition to color. It finally happened in 2017 that 53 percent of printed pages included color. This is good for the customer because they are higher value pages, and it’s good for Canon because it means we’re selling more supplies, generating higher revenue and higher profits that we are able to invest into more technology.”
For 2019 and beyond, McMahon highlighted two exciting new inkjet products. First, the Océ ProStream, which was unveiled last year, recently celebrated its first U.S. installation and is finalizing the second. Additionally, the Canon Voyager, which was shown as a concept press at Print 17, will be installed in the Boca Raton CEC by the end of the year. The Voyager is a B2+ full photographic color device featuring speeds of up to 3,000 sheets per hour.
The company also provided an update on the Océ Colorado 1640 wide format UV printer powered with its new UV Gel technology, which was unveiled at the One Canon event last March.
End Users
Recognizing the impact of customer testimonials, Canon welcomed several end customers to the stage to share their success with Canon equipment and services.
Customer speakers at the general session included Ryan Jones, GM, American Business Machines; Borden Newman, CEO, Editorial Renuevo; Jill Abrahams, VP for advancement and Jason Donati, dean, Mount Ida College; Gary Wydeveld, president, Southwestern Blueprint; Adam Carver, president, Pixelwerx; and Steve Hegna, president, Arna Marketing.
One Canon
Canon U.S.A. and its Canon Solutions America subsidiary are optimistic about the future. Fostering collaboration between once disparate divisions enables better service for customers and more revenue potential for Canon overall. As the idea of One Canon continues to come together, we see more success stories from the cross pollination of talent, services, and equipment within the organization.
Mar2018, Digital Publishing Solutions
