Konica Minolta named a major player in IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Security Solutions and Services Hardcopy.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) announced it has been named a “Major Player” in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Security Solutions and Services Hardcopy 2022-2023 Vendor Assessment.
The report notes Konica Minolta’s Intelligent Connected Workplace business philosophy as a key strength in the company’s offerings. The study assessed the market for security solutions and services hardcopy through the IDC MarketScape model, which factors in both quantitative and qualitative aspects that position vendors for success in this important global market.
“We believe that security in today’s workplace has never been more important,” said Chris Bilello, Vice President, Business Solutions Development, Konica Minolta. “Organisations in every sector are still determining the best ways to work following all the disruption and changes the pandemic required. Based on the growing incidence of security breaches, we’re focused on delivering the best products and services with essential security features to help protect our customers’ businesses.”
Many of these security features are delivered as embedded, device-level technology, offered as standalone offerings as part of Managed Print and Document Services (MPDS). The IDC MarketScape states that “Konica Minolta’s roots in print and document security date back almost 20 years, when the firm decided as a print device manufacturer that it would offer essential security features such as hard drive encryption and hard drive overwrite to meet military defense standards.” In keeping with the advances in storage technology, Konica Minolta has migrated its product line to Solid State Drive (SSD) storage, which provides enhanced security such as “always on” self-encryption.
The IDC MarketScape report also notes that the company’s focus on security includes cloud printing and management with its cloud solutions and platforms, as well as its ability to host the services. In May 2022, Konica Minolta debuted Shield Guard, a new cloud service for remote security monitoring and management of bizhub MFPs. Shield Guard is a centralized, cloud-based platform that provides automatic notifications and remediation so that businesses can control the security status of their fleets from anywhere. It offers a graphical dashboard for at-a-glance status monitoring that includes all relevant KPIs and enables easy device and policy management for network administrators.
“Managing the security settings of multiple MFPs can be difficult,” said Bilello. “Network administrators often struggle with setting and remembering strong passwords. Shield Guard, together with bizhub SECURE and bizhub SECURE Platinum or bizhub SECURE Healthcare, makes it much easier to manage security policies, group devices or set policies for individual devices and create reports that can be exported and distributed internally. In addition, alerts notify the administrators of at-risk devices, unsecured MFP settings and device and policy assessments as they happen – right from the dashboard via Security alert pop-ups and automatic emails when a device falls out of compliance.”
The IDC MarketScape notes companies should consider Konica Minolta because, “Konica Minolta’s vision for the Intelligent Connected Workplace provides a solid foundation for those organizations looking to implement security as part of a modernised approach for print and document infrastructure.”
In addition, the report notes “Konica Minolta should also be on the short list of vendors for those companies looking to implement globalized services with consistency across multiple geographic locations.”
