By Andy Slawetsky – Kyocera held their dealer conference at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas April 16 – 18. The event included dealers from the US, Canada, Mexico, Chili, Brazil, the Caribbean and all South American countries.

The conference officially kicked off with Kyocera Global President Norihiko Ina taking the stage to welcome dealers. As a former Kyocera US president & CEO, Mr. Ina is a familiar face and he provided an update on the overall health of the printer manufacturer.

Kyocera Global President Norihiko Ina

Kyocera, he informed us, was on the verge or releasing their FY19 results and they expected record sale. They are also forecasting record sales for FY20, in part due to investments Kyocera has made globally in 5G network technology.

At 24% of sales last year, the Document Solutions Group still accounts for the largest portion of Kyocera sales. Mr. Ina then told the crowd, “in terms of units, for the 1st Half of FY19 globally we achieved 1 million units in machine sales for the first time.” A great achievement!

Next, Mr. Ina told listeners that Kyocera is launching the 150-PPM inkjet press they showed at last year’s show and he invited dealers to come see it at the product fair. The TASKalfa Pro 15000C will come later this year.

After Mr. Ina finished his updates. another former US president & CEO took the stage briefly as Yukio Ikeda stepped forward to officially introduce Oscar Sanchez, the Kyocera US president & CEO who took the position less than a year ago. The dynamic leader was brought in from Europe to overhaul the US operation and he’s done just that. This was his first dealer conference.

Kyocera US President & CEO Oscar Sanchez

While much of the opening session was a bit subdued, Oscar got the crowd fired up. Opening with an update on the US, where he told listeners that Kyocera’s revenue increased 46% and their profit almost tripled!


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With things going so well for Kyocera, it may seem like a strange time to discuss change, but that’s what Oscar did, telling everyone “I have a long history in this company, and the only thing that has remained constant in my 23 years in Kyocera, has been change.”

He went on to say that customers are changing and Kyocera, like all “box movers” are evolving and trying to figure out what they will become next. He described a new Kyocera driven by two values; Efficiency and Customer Centric, both of which he says are interconnected.

Oscar told attendees that Kyocera’s vision is to develop a “customer centric organization that can inspire all of our business decisions and act as the main driver of our strategy.” It won’t be a quick transformation, but technology will play a “major role” in it. Kyocera will make a “significant” investment on the technology that runs their business. Specifically, marketing automation, business intelligence, ticketing systems and BPM tools to name a few.

“We have fantastic people in our organization right now,” Oscar said. “What we need is a balance of people with long experience at Kyocera, who have a good understanding about our market, that can assure that our philosophy and values prevail, and newcomers, who can bring a fresh look and a different way of doing things.”

Oscar then went on to talk about the Kyocera brand, announcing a rebranding from Kyocera Document Solutions America to simply Kyocera. The other markets will all be known as Kyocera as well, creating a simple, recognizable global brand.

Ed Bialecki speaks to the crowd

Oscar’s speech was the longest on the day and as it was his first dealer conference, it was important that he connected with dealers. He did.

We had the privilege to sit in and record a Q/A session with Oscar, hosted by dealer John Eckstrom of Carolina Business Solutions. You can see the entire closed session below:

Kyocera once again had a nice product fair with a great mix of partners ranging from leasing companies like GreatAmerica to Print Management companies like PaperCut and both ACDI and ecoprintQ as well as RFID companies such as Elatec taking space at this year’s meeting to promote their offerings.

Kyocera VP Danielle Wolowitz

The entertainment evening was off the hook as dealers and Kyocera employees partied all night. The evening’s highlight was when Kyocera VP Danielle Wolowitz announced the celebration of industry legend Frank Cannata’s birthday. It was a truly special moment and my camera guy was there to capture it all! (see below at the 5:20 mark…at 6:25 Frank dances…he’s got moves!).

Overall, it was a solid meeting for Kyocera. They had record sales to report, they’re pushing color and A4, their production inkjet device is moving forward and they continue to build on their relationship with Hyland, as evidenced by having Hyland president & CEO Bill Priemer speak to Kyocera dealers for the second time at a dealer conference.

Hyland president & CEO Bill Priemer

Hyland’s biggest reseller, Databank was acquired by Kyocera in 2017 and DataBank offers Kyocera dealers a great and affordable way to get into data capture. Software and solutions will be a significant piece of the puzzle for Kyocera going forward and the Hyland relationship looks to be a big chunk of it.

Kyocera has been on a nice, steady upswing for a while. But, they realize their customers are changing and they need to reinvent themselves a bit. From what I’ve heard from dealers I’ve spoken to, Oscan had a great first meeting and he’s definitely got them excited. Congratulations to Kyocera on an excellent conference.

SOURCE Industry Analysts