Ricoh named worldwide leader in high-speed inkjet by IDC MarketScape

Ricoh has been named a leader in IDC MarketScape's Worldwide High-Speed Inkjet Press 2019-2020 Vendor Assessment.

The recognition cites Ricoh's broad strengths, including technological innovation, attentiveness to customer feedback and a large install base. The report in particular noted Ricoh's business development programmes, with high visibility and strong reputation as powerful complements to a robust technology portfolio.

According to IDC, Ricoh's commitment to its customers' success helped earn its global leader position. Analysts cited Ricoh's continual technological advancements and heavy investments in ensuring customer feedback is a part of its R-D process as a major positive.

Most recently, this approach has driven game-changing successes such as the award-winning RICOH Pro VC70000, which introduced Ricoh-patented drying technology and Extended Gamut Inks. These innovations work together to increase ink limits for higher image quality, drive down turnaround times to help meet SLAs and increase throughput, and empower printing on uncoated, offset-coated, inkjet-treated and inkjet-coated stocks without pre-treatment or priming, offering greater creative flexibility and lower paper costs.

Continuing to invest more than $1 billion dollars annually in R-D, these innovations in response to real-world pain points and customer goals are the norm at Ricoh.

"Expanding beyond its transactional and direct mail roots, Ricoh's introduction of the RICOH Pro VC70000 dovetails perfectly with its expanding software and services to empower the company to more actively target the commercial print and graphics space," says Amy Machado, research manager for IDC's Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions.

"Beyond its own growth in more diverse segments, Ricoh is looking to help its customers expand their offerings, as well. The company's advanced business development program aims to help its customers not only go after existing pages both analogue and toner but also to create new applications, too," she says.

"Ricoh builds long-term alliances, with a consultative, tailored approach to implementation that does not end with a sale. Its representatives pursue a high-touch strategy, so as business needs evolve, Ricoh's ways of addressing them evolve, too."

 The IDC MarketScape cited Ricoh's plans to continue growing its business services to help its customers continue to grow revenues and page volumes long after implementation as another key contributing factor to Ricoh's strong market position. These efforts achieved industry recognition when Ricoh was named Company to Watch Out For by industry thought leaders and customers in attendance at the sixth annual Inkjet Summit in 2018.

"At Ricoh, we are dedicated to not only creating a great workplace but also putting our culture of innovation into practice to help both our employees and our customers succeed," says Saira Monnoo, corporate communications manager, Ricoh Australia.

"This recognition by IDC is a testament to our ongoing internal innovations as well as our dedication to partner with our customers to drive their own innovation.

"At the same time, it is recognition of having established goals, developed strategies and a capacity to listen to your customers like never before. You need to understand how a customer perceives their end-to-end service experience. Are all your processes, technologies and flows supporting a smooth experience? Are your customers going away happy following their interactions? Are issues being resolved quickly and their satisfaction?

"We look forward to working with our customers to supporting their high-speed inkjet printing requirements in 2020 and beyond."