While offering competitive print and imaging solutions across 46 countries in the Middle East and Africa region, Canon Middle East also believes that sustainability is integral to the long-term growth of corporations. Naoshi Yamada, Deputy Managing Director of Canon Middle East talks to Anushree Dixit from EC MEA on Canon’s new initiatives, business growth and expansion plans.” (Excerpts)
“Our fundamental approach is to understand market and each of the verticals carefully. Then we provide value propositions. ”
Naoshi Yamada, Deputy Managing Director, Canon Middle East
With the market shifting its focus from products to solutions, what is Canon’s strategy in from the solutions’ stand point?
There is a fundamental change in the market needs and business models have been changing dramatically— globally and regionally. Traditionally,Canon business was product centric both on the hardware and the software platform but, today, the market needs more than just materials. People are no more interested in buying ingredients to prepare their dish. They want the dish to be prepared by an expert now. Hence, Canon has also evolved and we are not providing ‘only’ materials anymore but a mix of services like Managed Print Services, Managed Document Services, and Business Process Outsourcing etc. And all these are done through our partners.
Now with MPS and MDS you are moving to the services platform. What is the competitive advantage that these services will provide?
For the past few years, Canon has been very successful in its Managed Print services in the Middle East market, especially in the UAE. The success has been through our partners. Since the beginning of 2014, we have been cascading all these kind of success stories and experience to our partners in the region which has, in turn, enabled them to be successful in MPS.
Managed Document Services is something that we are focusing on for this year. We are also venturing into BPOs.
Is paperless environment still a distant dream? How is Canon catering to the digitization of information?
Information on paper and digital, both have their advantages and disadvantages. Undoubtedly, the digital information will gain pace in the future but this does not mean that paper will lose value. Dreamlabo is such a product from Canon that would restore the importance and beauty of print on paper.
Canon, with its unique sustainable print solutions, also makes sure that whatever is printed does not end up in the bin. Uniflow is a sustainable print solution from Canon that gives you accurate information on the number of copies printed, who has printed and how many trees you have saved during this process. It can track data to a certain period of time and in this way it also awakens the environmental sustainability consciousness of the customers.
You are planning new expansion programs in the Middle East and Africa. What is the roadmap?
One important expansion is on the product platform. We are launching a newproduct which is an IP camera for Business. Canon has ventured into this a few years back and this is now bringing a very good opportunity to establish our expansion in the Middle East. For this expansion, we are vying for new partners apart from our traditional and channel partners. Using our current technologies, we have also launched the Dreamlabo which is quite different from the conventional production print. The hi-tech printing quality is ideal for creating photobooks.
So, how does canon enhance the partner ecosystem?
Different industries have different needs. Our partners help us understand this market. Most of our sales is done directly from Canon, but we also have a dedicated partner network. We look into 46 countries and have a minimum of 2 partners for each country. We have our traditional umbrella of distribution and channel partners, we call them tier 1 and tier 2 partners. The tier 1 partners have their own channels through which the B2B sales is carried out. The tier 2 partners mostly take care of the system integration part. So the B2C business is mainly through channels and we have 2 channels—Retail and IT. But regardless of the B2B or the B2C, our focus is always the end-user.
Our fundamental approach is to understand market and each of the verticals carefully. Then we provide value propositions. Canon also has specific training and education programs for the partners on one hand and on the other hand, the partners have a dedicated platform to understand the market and an expert sales team.
Canon Emirates has recently opened a regional showroom, which has live demos and is one-of-its-kind in the UAE. Partners from across the region can bring customers to this showroom to give them real life experience. Canon Middle East provides value proposition not only to partners but also to the end users.
In addition to the product manager and the area sales manager, we have also added 2 important designations. A Channel Account Manager— who directly reports to the channels and avails the required information from the customer; and a Business Development Manager for imparting knowledge on specialized products.
In 2014, you expanded your base in the Qatar market by taking on board Salam Technology as a distributor. How has this strengthened your in-country presence so far?
The tie-up was establishment for the Canon direct sales company. This was also a part of the business model change. In order to provide services, we needed a direct sales company in that region. Based on this strategy we also have a Go to market for which it was very important to have a direct sales company.
As a part of your expansion, what are the key vertical markets that you would be focusing on?
All verticals are equally important. But we are placing special emphasis on the Banking and Finance, Government, Graphic arts, Hotel and Education. To empower this approach we have Canon global account and regional account team.
Tell us something about the Canon Sustainability initiative.
The UAE School Environmental Sustainability Initiative is a new public service initiative that Canon is undertaking with Emirates Wildlife Society-World Wildlife Fund (EWS – WWF). Together, the two organisations have launched an exciting environmental project in which schools across the UAE have eagerly participated. Students across the emirates have shared their ideas on how to save energy, and make our country more sustainable, starting with what they are doing at their very own school.
