Investment Success Story
2 July 2009
Ricoh, one of the world’s leading suppliers of office automation equipment, has invested A$3 million in Australia to establish a regional Printing Innovation Centre in Sydney.
Ricoh’s investment is anticipated to rise to A$6 million over the next three years.
The Australian Printing Innovation Centre – part of a network of centres which the company is putting in place around the world – will provide support services to the Asia Pacific region and will be involved in co-development projects with Ricoh Japan.
A number of new jobs have already been created at the Centre and they will be supplemented by additional staff and technology experts for specific projects.
The Ricoh Company – with global sales topping A$26 billion in 2008-09 – is known around the world for its office automation equipment, state-of-the-art electronic devices and photographic equipment.
The company is now moving with a new global technology and innovation strategy to supply services around its hardware by providing software, applications development, consulting services and custom integrated solutions.
Australia selected for further investment
The Australian government’s investment advisers played a part in attracting this investment project to Australia by providing business case information encouraging Ricoh to consider expanding the Australian operations into a regional role and to undertake R&D.
“We made the decision to select Australia for further investment after successfully establishing a Software Solutions Group in Sydney in 2007,” said Nobuaki Majima, Managing Director of Ricoh Asia Pacific, at the launch of the Printing Innovation Centre in Sydney.
“Australian business is a key contributor for Ricoh, not just to our global bottom line, but also in developing new technology applications that meet the needs of our enterprise customers around the world,” he explained.
Mr Majima said that Australia is a key strategic market for the company.
“Our decision to invest in Asia Pacific during this extremely challenging economic climate is supported by our strong confidence of the market readiness for the latest industry-leading technology and products.”
Mr. Majima added that he found Australia to be a mature ICT market. “It is a market that is both sophisticated and innovative, so it is the perfect place to develop and trial new business development solutions.”
A clear signal
Les Richardson, Managing Director of Ricoh Australia, said that the opening of the Printing Innovation Centre in Sydney sends a clear signal that “Australia is capable of becoming a leader in increasing the level of business innovation”.
The new Sydney facility is one of five Ricoh Centres located strategically around the globe for the purpose of demonstrating the latest offering in printing, document and solutions technology. It is equipped with state-of-the-art capabilities designed to develop and deliver high value-added services and solutions to customers throughout the Asia Pacific region.
The new centre will focus on research and development that provides applications and solutions to real world problems.
“We will be focusing on developing, piloting and demonstrating technology-based solutions to improve efficiency in the office environment,” Mr Richardson said.
“By partnering with regional customers to collaborate on the development and testing of next-generation output management solutions, the Centre will help drive their competitive advantage and deliver reduced costs.”
Through its investment into Printing Innovation Centres and leveraging highly skilled specialist staff in key geographies, Ricoh is creating centres of excellence in image processing and digital technology.
“The new Printing Innovation Centre builds on the range of high value, high skills investment that Ricoh has made in Australia in recent years, including hardware and software technical support, design and development, and ‘Digital Laboratory’ product analysis, integration and testing,” Mr Richardson said.
Key part
Mr Richardson explained that Ricoh Australia’s successful Software and Solutions team is a key part of the new Centre. “This team develops innovative new office technology applications to meet the needs of customers from sectors as diverse as legal, accounting, manufacturing and retail.
“The Solutions team identifies enterprise opportunities, develops new software solutions and collaborates on firmware issues in conjunction with Ricoh in Japan.
“For example, development projects could include interfaces that communicate with customer ERP systems, or web-based on-demand printing.”
Australian generated solutions
Ricoh’s additional investment into Australia follows the incorporation of Australian generated solutions into Ricoh’s global supply chain.
“We are just about to launch a new product, ESA QuotaManager, which is a device management utility that has been developed completely in Sydney by our Solutions team,” Mr Richardson said.
“With QuotaManager, access to printing and copying can be controlled and limited both for colour and Black & White on a per user basis. This helps contain budgets for small businesses and schools, and is another example of how our in-house development team collaborates with customers to create customised solutions that improve business efficiencies.”
As part of its Australian operations, Ricoh is also partnering with local third-party SMEs such as XLPrint. A leader in the development of software for the electronic document industry, with a head office in Sydney and a R&D Centre in Melbourne, XLPrint is working with Ricoh to market and sell its printing systems software.
Think Australia – partner with us
The Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) provides international businesses with a single, integrated point-of-contact for all trade and investment inquiries.
Working in partnership with business and government, Austrade can provide your company with the information needed to establish or expand a business in Australia.
Austrade can also help by connecting you with the right industry and government contacts as well as providing information on investment regulations and government assistance programs.
For more information go to www.austrade.gov.au/invest.
* Note: In July 2008, Invest Australia, responsible for assisting and promoting investment into Australia, became part of the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade). Invest Australia was previously part of the Australian government’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.
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