Konica Minolta Business Solutions, U.S.A., Inc. announced the new Workplace Hub Pro, further strengthening its all-in-one IT offering to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Joining the Hub and Edge solutions in the next-generation Workplace Hub portfolio, Konica Minolta said that the newly launched device combines powerful, smart office printing technology from its bizhub i-Series MFP range, with best-of-breed software and managed IT services – all in a single solution.
Designed with the particular IT needs of SMBs in mind, Workplace Hub Pro combines the innovative Workplace Hub software with high-quality bizhub i-Series printing and scanning capabilities to deliver a “powerful solution for the intelligent connected workplace”.
The advanced solution offers customers print and copy speeds ranging from 25ppm to 65ppm (pages per minute), and scanning speeds range from 100/200ipm to 140/280ipm (images per minute).
The Workplace Hub Pro also offers a comprehensive portfolio of features and applications including print and document management, cloud back-up and remote virtual public network (VPN) connection, and WiFi management to give users the convenience of working with a single provider for all their technology needs.
“That’s why we believe in growing the Workplace Hub ecosystem – to relieve our customers of these challenges, and help them focus more on their business,” said Nick Pegley, Senior Vice President, Digital Workplace, Konica Minolta. “Smaller businesses in particular only have very limited IT resources at their disposal, so for many of our SMB customers, the Workplace Hub portfolio has been a true game changer with regard to their IT capabilities.”
Howie Flagler, Vice President of Spector Textile Products and Konica Minolta customer, explained: “Our company, like many small firms, struggles to keep updated with the rapid changes in IT. Maintaining aging hardware, tracking updates, license renewals, implementing upgrades and other tasks all become challenging. We realised that these functions were draining resources away from our primary objectives. Konica Minolta’s Workplace Hub, coupled with their IT managed services, allows us to focus on our business knowing that our IT needs will be managed effectively.”
Konica Minolta said it is constantly optimising and redefining its services and solutions according to fast-changing markets and small businesses requirements, aiming to provide its customers with exactly the solutions they need. “Particularly in smaller businesses and organisations, printing, copying, faxing and scanning are still very much at the core of everyday business routines. Recognising this need, we decided to provide the full scope of paper-to-digital and digital-to-paper work processing in a Workplace Hub solution, and so we built in the full IT infrastructure into our fully functional and powerful smart MFP bizhub i-Series,” Pegley added.
The set-up also allows for a seamless integration of information and business process management, be it digital or paper-based. To ensure the highest level of security, the IT solution and the MFP functionalities run on two separate systems. “Workplace Hub Pro is designed as the heart of our smaller customers’ intelligent connected workplace, simplifying both their IT and paper-based document processing. At the same time, it keeps capital as well as operational costs low and flexibility high, as customers pay a consistent monthly fee,” Pegley concluded.
