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MFP
s
All MFPs are the same, aren’t they?
Not at all, says Samsung UK head
of print Mark Ash. And nor are the
companies that supply them.
For evidence, he points to Samsung’s
new MX7 A3 MFPs, which he says
represent a radically different approach to
‘the connected workplace’ – an approach
that is consistent with Samsung’s appetite
for speed epitomised by the Korean
expression ‘ppalli, ppalli’, meaning ‘quick,
quick‘.
Samsung’s focus on speed may explain
why Ash is apologetic about A3 MFP sales
growth of 46% in the first half of this year.
Competitors would kill for figures like this,
but Ash wants faster growth if Samsung is
to become a Tier 1 A3 MFP manufacturer
by the end of 2017.
Or maybe he’s just been spoilt by some
of his division’s other results, including a
936% increase in MPS signings in the first
half of the year.
Smart interface
So what is it about the Samsung MX7
series that is so different?
The most eye-catching element is
the smart UX interface running on a
10.1in Android tablet. This is an intuitive,
modern means of interacting with a device
that also allows Samsung to customise
machines and leverage its expertise in
mobile technologies to put MFPs at the
heart of 'the connected workplace'.
“People entering the workplace today
expect an app for everything,” explained
Ash. “With our platform, you can turn
basic print, copy, scan, fax into a platform
and personalise that experience at a user
level. Most of the key customer wins
we've had in the last 3 to 4 months have
had bespoke customer user interfaces
displaying the customer name and their
choice of apps – and these don’t have to
be print apps. I saw someone yesterday
who wanted YouTube on the display.”
Paul Birkett, sales and marketing
director at Samsung Electronics Europe,
adds that this versatility and Samsung’s
ability to quickly develop solutions for its
customers are proving instrumental in a
number of key wins.
“One client in the Nordics was looking
to buy screens and large format displays
for signage. But they could only afford to
have a few dotted around the building,
which didn’t give them the coverage
they wanted. As it happens, they had
just acquired Samsung smart MFPs with
10-inch tablets on them, and had already
built an Android app to link to their
signage platform. In less than two days,
we modified that app to run on the smart
UX. Now, when the MFPs are not being
used, they become tiny 10in information
displays that can play videos and display
information. As soon as someone walks up
to a device, it becomes a copier and then,
when they walk away, it reverts to being a
display. That won the deal for Samsung,”
he said.
Workflow automation
Birkett adds that the benefits are even
greater when Samsung applies its skills
to workflow automation and content
management services using standard open
APIs and the Android platform.
“Everyone else is going down what is
really a legacy IT perspective and that is
services orientation – you put in a piece
of middleware to integrate systems and
provide a path for data to flow through. It
Vision to succeed
could be Perceptive; it could be Autonomy;
it could be Hyland. These all cost up to
half a million dollars to link two systems
together. But that world has gone,” he said.
“Today, everything is API-driven and
you develop services in weeks with two
programmers fresh out of college. We
can do that with our platform because
we link to all of the standard open APIs
through the Android platform. Because we
have adopted a mobile platform, it takes
a matter of days to integrate services.
You simply access the API that the client
has already built or use public APIs. This
different approach to workflow is probably
the most exciting thing for our partners,
because suddenly they don’t have to
spend a quarter of a million dollars on
Autonomy,” he said.
As an example, he cites a recent project
with Top Image Systems (TIS). “In one
week, using one developer, we had full
invoice processing in the cloud running
on our platform. That’s the fundamental
architectural difference that Samsung has
built,” he said.
Smarter servicing
Birkett points out that Samsung’s platform
has benefits for the channel too, notably
through smarter servicing that reduces the
cost to serve and keeps devices operational
for longer.
“We are working on a large global
services alliance at the moment,” he
explained. “As part of that we have to
implement a standard service level in 160
countries worldwide, which is not an easy
task. The service provider’s engineers use
mobile phones running the Samsung Smart
Print Diagnostics Platform and when they
reach a device all they do is tap in and
download the diagnostics data. This gets
pushed up to the cloud over NFC and
Bluetooth Low Energy and instructions
come back from the cloud with detailed
online videos that walk you through what
the engineer must do. It’s like a service
manual on steroids. The beauty of it is that
it’s cloud-based so if you fix something that
wasn't on the cloud before, you can push
that suggestion up. It’s tested in our labs in
Korea and then uploaded to the database.
You end up with a much higher degree of
consistency in global services.”
Ash adds that thanks to the Samsung
platform and the company’s 69,000
employees in R&D, Samsung in continuing
to evolve its servicing capability.
Paul Birkett,
sales and marketing
director,
Samsung Electronics
Europe
Today,
everything
is API-driven
and you
develop
services
in weeks
with two
programmers
fresh out
of college.
platform.
James Goulding learns about
Samsung’s vision for print at
the company’s Futurescape
strategy and product showcase.
continued...
