The Record - Issue 20: Spring 2021

57 come across the pond to Europe and every cus- tomer in Europe will get the benefit of that. “On the flipside, in the US, we haven’t invested as much in the Microsoft Dynamics platform as our European team, so that investment will now be shared with the US team. Our customers can lev- erage this broader community and reference level and our partners will become worldwide partners. “It’s a win, win, win; it’s great for employees, great for customers and great for our partners.” Croteau believes that Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of Konica Minolta’s transforma- tion efforts more than ever. “The pandemic has taught us that in our mod- ern world, people thousands of miles apart can carry out business virtually,” he says. “The same can be done for support or service or for engag- ing a customer on an assessment or workshop. What matters is connecting the knowledge and the expertise with the customer situation. “However, Covid-19 coupled with the Microsoft relationship have created an internal spark for us to think even more strongly than ever in the direction of the digital workplace. With more people working remotely, the print side of our business is not delivering the same value for our customers, so we have had to find new avenues. It has prompted us to move faster with our customers and bring more value to them more quickly.” By providing an “Intelligent Connected Workplace”, Konica Minolta offers cloud, IT, managed print and video solution services for remote working, collaboration, workflow man- agement and automation and security, and has pivoted to deliver value wherever its customers need it. “For example, for a simple monthly fee that is tailored to a customer’s size and industry, we can take care of all of their security manage- ment, employee training and support, provi- sioning of equipment, cloud infrastructure and more,” says Croteau. “We are repositioning ourselves to become a solutions provider that is constantly striving to deliver innovation for the digital workplace,” adds Olaf Lorenz, Senior General Manager Digital Transformation Division at Konica Minolta. “We want to be there for the success of our customers and we are striving to realise this through our capabilities and passion for inno- vating with the customer.”