Mark Ash, Head of Print, Samsung UK
& Ireland, describes 2014 as ‘by far and
away the best year’ Samsung’s print
business has ever had.
“Our hardware business grew 37%
last year and we delivered our best
performance in our 24-year history.
When you delve below the surface, the
A3 growth was phenomenal. Overall, we
quadrupled our A3 business (up 387%).
We were the fastest growing vendor
and the only vendor that showed
quarter-on-quarter growth throughout
the year. That’s really exciting for us,”
he said.
Ash attributes Samsung’s success to
a number of factors including:
n
the recruitment of more copier
dealers – the number of Samsung
trading accounts in the office
automation (OA) channel has gone up
from 26 to 87;
n
the introduction of innovative new
products, notably the MX4 (A4) and
MX7 (A3) MFPs featuring a new Android
interface; and
n
Samsung’s expertise in other
business areas, such as mobility and
displays, which is helping to broaden its
appeal, especially amongst enterprise
customers.
“The growth we have experienced
in the Samsung B2B and Samsung
Business Enterprise Teams has been
phenomenal, and it is largely driven
by the prowess we have shown in our
consumer business,” he said. “We now
find ourselves around the board table
with C-suite executives, typically CIOs,
who already use Samsung technology in
their personal lives, talking about how
print is integrated in their business... I’ve
yet to find a CIO who says ‘Mark, I’ve
got a burning desire to talk to you about
print’. But they will talk to you about
mobility.”
Samsung’s early integration of NFC
into its print devices is a good example
of how it uses technology to position
print in the context of broader strategic
discussions, such as enterprise mobility.
“The MX7 has got NFC and
Samsung is building on a successful 2014 with the launch of
its most powerful MFP to date.
Enterprises,
here we come
The complete solution
The MultiXpress 7 (MX7) A3 colour MFP has been designed to meet the needs of enterprises
and SMBs with a requirement for smarter, more productive print devices.
Offering print speeds of up to 60ppm, the MX7 is the only A3 MFP on the market powered by
a Quadcore CPU for faster operation. It takes just 18 seconds to boot and 12 seconds to wake
from sleep mode. The first page out time is 3 seconds for a mono page and 4.5 seconds for colour
prints. Print quality is 1200 dpi even when running at full speed.
A major attraction for paper-intensive businesses is the high speed scanner offering an
industry-leading scan speed of up to 120 pages per minute or 240 images per minute on two-
sided documents.
Other productivity enhancements include an 802.11ac-capable network chip, which is three
times faster than the older 802.11n standard, and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, which gives
users ‘always-on’ connectivity when in close proximity to the device.
The MX7 features a 10.1-inch Android-powered display running Samsung Smart UX 2.0, which
can be customised with Samsung and third party apps offering additional functionality and
seamless integration with existing office cloud and server networks (printingapps.samsung.com).
The MX7 is capable of printing up to 300,000 pages a month and comes with an optional large
toner cartridge with a capacity of 30,000 (C,M,Y) or 45,000 (K) pages. Other options include an
automated document stapler capable of stapling 60 sheets or an 80-page A4 booklet.
Bluetooth LTE – a low energy variant
of Bluetooth – which has implications
for how you authenticate yourself at a
device, configure the device personally
to your requirements and also release
jobs. NFC is definitely part of the
mobility strategy of many businesses,”
Ash explained.
Although Samsung has won the
Buyers Lab Inc. Monochrome Printer/
MFP Line of the Year Award for two
years in a row, in the past its printer
hardware offering has not been broad
enough to meet the needs of enterprise
customers.With the launch of the MX7
that is no longer the case, claims Ash.
“We manufacture some great
products, but there are certain types of
vertical market that take on higher end
products – professional services, legal
services – and to date we have not had
a product that catered for every single
requirement,” he said.
“The MX7 takes us into 93% of the
addressable market and it gives us a
powerful proposition to really compete
in those markets. The differentiators,
the very mundane things, mean a lot,
like 300gsm paper handling, SRA3,
200gsm duplex capacity, a 240 images
per minute scanner.We are putting a
hell of a lot of productivity into the
hands of the workforce now.”
In this context, the introduction of
the Android platform on the MX4 and
MX7, the opening of an app store for
the Smart UX platform and the launch
of a software development kit that will
enable third parties to develop their
own apps are significant.
“We have High Street retailers who
are developing apps that enable them
to use the display on the device as a
kiosk, so someone can walk in, access
the retailer’s website and pull off
content.We are also working with some
well known DIY chains in the UK and
it’s incredibly exciting looking at what
they plan to do with it,” explained Ash.
Mark Ash:
Samsung’s ‘best
year’
01732 759725
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