KONICA MINOLTA
Remote chance Remote services have been developing at Konica Minolta for some time, but this is just one area where the company is pushing forward.
Remote services for technical assistance have been growing in importance in recent years due to the pandemic, but also down to environmental concerns, and Konica Minolta has been developing its services in this area – and to good effect as the company recently scooped the Buyers Lab (BLI) 2023-2024 Pacesetter Award in Remote Service for the Western European market from Keypoint Intelligence. Cameron Mitchell, business leader for indirect channel at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd, says that the company has been promoting the benefits of remote services – such as rapidly available expert help and a significant reduction in travel, which reduces costs and environmental impact – for several years. “This foresight ensured we were well placed when remote service became essential during the pandemic restrictions, but the considerable benefits to our customers, partners, and our own business continue to drive forward this approach,” he says. “Konica Minolta takes a ‘remote service by default’ approach to technical support, ensuring this is always the first step before an engineer is dispatched.” This approach ensures Konica Minolta’s customers get a fast service and expert response, which also ensures maximum service uptime and support resources are as efficient as possible. “Currently about 30% of Konica Minolta’s support calls are solved remotely without the need for any on-site intervention, and if a visit is required we can gather information about the issue in advance to make the visit as efficient as possible,” he explains. “Overall, this remote service approach ensures we deliver a high value and competitive service.”
AI importance One key technology in Konica Minolta’s remote service is augmented reality. Through its AIRe Link solution service engineers can not only see what the issue, query or problem is, they can also feedback directly to the customer on what needs to be done to resolve it, rather than having to describe the process over a phone, for example. “AIRe Link uses the camera on a smartphone, tablet or external camera, which most people have available, to stream the video showing the end user scene to a remote service engineer, complemented by audio communications,” says Cameron. “Advanced tools for visual navigation, such as a live pointer in the video or graphical annotation within a snapshot, are used to guide the end user visually through the process. “As remote and hybrid working continues to be vital for many businesses and workers, augmented reality is the obvious way of enabling better communications and assistance, especially with more complex tasks such as remote services. We are very likely to see this approach continue to grow moving forwards.” Cameron adds that augmented reality will continue to be a crucial factor in remote services as they continue to evolve in the coming years, but equally the increased use of networked and IoT devices will make it easier for these systems to be monitored and for issues to be diagnosed and often fixed remotely. “Remote support for IT systems is nothing new, but increasingly MFPs and other workplace solutions are also benefitting from remote deployment, maintenance, monitoring and health check, security management, remote backup and restore, reporting and notifications, and administration,” he adds. “This is all part of the wider move towards digital transformation, which at Konica Minolta we term the Intelligent Connected Workplace. As these systems become even more closely integrated, so too do the remote services that support them. “The socio-economic changes driven by the pandemic have forced every supplier to re- examine their strategies. Konica Minolta’s core business of office and professional print has been complemented by a range of innovative solutions which has allowed Konica Minolta to ride the waves of change and develop complementary revenue streams.”
Cameron Mitchell business leader – indirect services
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