“MFP’s To Dominate The Printing Industry” Bhaskar Joshi, Senior Marketing Manager, Office Imaging Solutions, Canon India

In an interaction with itVARnews  Bhaskar Joshi, Senior Marketing Manager, Office Imaging Solutions, Canon and Jaspreet Singh, Senior Manager, Sales & Marketing Image Management System, Canon India share there views about how the Scanning and Printing Industry is shaping up in the country and is likely to be dominated by Multi Functional devices in near future. Excerpts from the interview…

What are the new office products Canon is offering this fiscal?

Bhaskar Joshi: We can divide the products of Canon into various verticals in B2B and B2C. We take care of B2B products specifically in printing segment towards corporate, government and MSME sector. Canon is launching a number of new products for SME segment, with the same capability which was earlier offered in high end devices. A3 multifunction devices, mobile printing, push scanning; Wi-Fi printers are some of the products which we have introduced in SME segment. Earlier these kinds of products were for high end segment only.

We are offering color machines with high GSM capabilities which were not a part of the entry level  products. So these are the basic products which Canon is planning to launch in this fiscal year specifically focusing on SME segment.

How is SMB market for Canon?

Jaspreet Singh: Class A and B cities cater to more corporate and government offices, while SMBs are present across India. This makes SMB market  the fastest growing market today. So   Canon is focusing on going beyond B class cities,  to class C, D and E cities for SMBs present there. Canon is very much focused on these markets to launch more innovative products. So we understand that the SMB segment needs products which fit into their requirement, and also provide complete technological innovation to them, so that they also grow along with the industry.

For instance,  small organizations do not have a very high requirement for scanning so we have introduced personal category product like P201, personal scanner, P215 which can scan 20 pages per minute. So SMB plays a very important role in our market strategy today and we are bringing many SMB products to the market.

Bhaskar Joshi: We have various plans and our partners are catering to the requirements of the SMB sector. We are appointing more partners and launching new products catering to SMBs, especially those  with new technologies for an entry level device at a lower cost  for SMB,  so that they can enjoy same features which were earlier used by large corporate.

What are your channel strategies?

Bhaskar Joshi: We are looking for expanding our channel which is the primary thing on our agenda. We have around 220 channel partners focusing on Office Imaging Solution business. Our plan is to expand our channel reach from 220 to 280 partners by end of this fiscal year. Canon also believes in training their partners to take care of the future technological trends like mobile printing, Wi-Fi.

We are recruiting new channel partners and at the same time enabling the channel partners in class B and C towns to take care of this new technological development so that they are ready to serve our SMB customers. Canon has a unique practice in a channel business for printing device. We have a concept that sales and service is done by same partner so person who is selling the product also should have a service set up. As we are expanding, we are making it sure that we will not only give the sales partnership but service partnership as well. In  smaller towns also we will follow the same concept of sale and service partner so that our sale and service backup for a customer is also strengthened and we reach   each and every corner of the country.

What is the future of MFPs?

Bhaskar Joshi: The recent trends, be it A4 MFDs or A3 copier, is that single function devices are not used any more.. So, in future you will find no single function printers or copiers and the market will be buzz with MFD.

What are your strategies for FY2015?

Bhaskar Joshi: We’ve shown double digit growth   last year in Office Imaging Solution division. We have robust plan to continue our growth story in India, looking for a double digit growth this year also. Canon is the market leader in A3 multifunction devices and we want to continue on the top position.

What are the challenges facing the company?

Bhaskar Joshi: There’s no challenge as such because Canon is looking for expanding its reach. The only thing is that when we go to smaller towns like C or D class, finding a partner who is ready to invest in the service set initially is a little concern as they are little bit wary. Also, getting   skilled manpower in these small towns is a bit of a challenge, but since canon provides support in setting up the service structure and helping them to recruit the people in those locations, we are slowly overcoming this challenge.

What is your GTM strategy?

Jaspreet Singh: We are looking to educate people from different verticals. We go across cities and educate  about how scanning can help organizations and  our partners , and then they go further and educate their customer. So we have plans to address every market, talk about scanning, where it is required, how it is required, how it benefits the organization. Our GTM is to talk about   benefits based requirements, rather  than the product based requirements.

Bhaskar Joshi: For the D and E class town we are focusing on the IT reseller market and for them to promote our multifunction product, and will connect with those people to have some penetration in D and E class towns.