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IS there
a single room that holds all the answers to the toughest
imaging problems of your business? Does this mythical
place really exist?
Yes, it
does, according to Epson. The company recently opened
the glass doors to the Epson Solution Center, the room
touted to do all that and, as corporate giant’s
battlecry promises, even exceed your vision. The center,
located in its head office on ADB Avenue, Ortigas, was
launched with a ceremonial sake toast, led by Epson
Philippines president Hideto Nakamura, Singapore’s
Regional Branded Product Division director Mumenori Ando
and Singapore’s managing director Hisashi Shimizu.
“The
concept behind the
Epson Solution
Center
is simple: every business has different demands, so we
believe that the best way to spur business forward is to
create customized solutions that specifically respond to
those demands,” said Nakamura. “The
Solution
Center is a one-stop hub where Epson engineers, system
integrators, hardware and software vendors can sit down
to explore and discuss customization issues to cater to
individual client requirements. We do not simply provide
technology, we creatively solve business problems.”
THE Epson Solution Center
develops customized and evolving technological solutions
for corporate clients.
The
second built after
Singapore
in June 2007, the center features banks of monitors,
scanners and printers on several countertops, all laid
out for convenient hands-on use. But it’s more than your
run-of-the-mill showroom, where gadgets glow invitingly
under strategic lighting, and sales is all about pushing
hardware. Instead, it is “where one would go to help
solve any marketing-, finance- or operations-related
problems” encountered in any of the following businesses
or industries: banking and finance, food and beverage,
retail and hospitality, education, public or government
sector, manufacturing, small- and medium-size
enterprises and small-office-home-offices, professional
photo market, prepress proofing, marketing and
advertising, and engineering and architecture. “We are
all products and ideas here,” said Business Product
Group senior manager Michael Mondragon. “We are not just
here to offer you solutions; we are here to help you
come up with your own. Customization and flexibility are
the keywords here.”
 To
illustrate how Epson products can address end-user
requirements with end-to-end products, four “sample
solution corners” have been set up for clients to
explore. The Banking Solution corner is equipped with an
Epson POS terminal and printer to deal with queuing
requirements, and a check-imaging printer to provide
quick and efficient check transaction to passbook
verification and updating. The Office Solution corner
presents a series of powerful imaging products from
impact printer to laser printer and business scanners,
all designed to fulfill large-volume requirements.
Epson’s duplex document scanner, in particular, works
for digital archiving, facilitating a paperless and
streamlined workflow. On display in the Graphics
Solution corner are a variety of photo printers, from
small- to large-format prints, that are geared to
different users, including practitioners in
architecture, fine arts, and even prepress and proofing
business. The Point-of-Sale Solution corner demonstrates
applications for the retail, and the food and beverage
industries.
But the
heart—or, more appropriately, the nerve center—of the
entire outfit is the Engineering corner. Here, at the
locus of interaction and brainstorming, specialized and
evolving technological solutions are developed through
the expertise of end-users, major system integrators,
topnotch independent software providers, and Epson’s own
engineers. Clients are more than welcome to pick the
brains of this tech-savvy team. “It’s like a laboratory
where we invite our customers to abuse [the available
resources],” Mondragon quipped with a grin. He added
that in the interest of creating the perfect business
solutions for clients, Epson is not averse to working
with some vendors who are competitors in other product
lines.
After-sales service is no less important. The center
also houses training facilities for skills-development
seminars and workshops that teach clients how to
maximize their software applications and digital
equipment.
With a
growing list of clients that include Meralco, PLDT, the
Supreme Court and Banco de Oro, the center is part of
Epson’s US$70-million investment to aggressively capture
the Asian market share in corporate products for the
next three years. “Strategically, the Philippines is
extremely important in Epson’s regional initiatives.
Proof of this is that Epson Philippines Corp. [EPC] has
consistently been one of the top sales contributors of
Epson in the Asian region,” Nakamura said. EPC also
controls 28-percent market share for inkjet printers
alone, based on International Data Corp.’s figures for
the third quarter of 2007. An interesting trivia from
Mondragon: Seventy percent of the country’s receipts are
generated from Epson printers. “Indeed, the Philippines
is an ideal location to put up the second
Solution
Center,”
Nakamura concluded. “[It] is a venue where we create new
business opportunities for end-users and business
partners.” |
