Production Printing
The introduction of various types of new communication tools such as web portals and tablets and the recent challenging economic environment have accelerated change and diversification in the printing business in response to customer needs. To keep pace with this change, the printing market is rapidly undergoing transformation.
The Ricoh Group entered the production printing market in 2005. The Group's full-scale efforts since then have been focused on developing a system to offer total solutions, from improvement in the quality of printing equipment to effective use of information technology, cost reduction, and reduction of environmental impact.
It is our aim to grow our business in the printing market, an area that is still new to us, in cooperation with customers who are professionals in the printing business as well as with customers who order printing services. To achieve this goal, our efforts will be focused on reflecting the needs of these customers so as to provide products and solutions that will help develop their printing business.
Significant changes in the needs of the printing market
The recent expansion of new communication tools such as web portals and tablets has triggered a transfer of information from printed media such as magazines to electronic media, and this is gradually beginning to exert its influence on the commercial printing market, a market that is mostly dependent on off-set printing methods. On the other hand, innovation (high speed, high definition, high reliability) in printing technologies, primarily laser and inkjet technologies, has enabled the printing in limited amounts on an as-needed basis, even in small lots, thereby decreasing costs. It has also become possible to provide a wide variety of highly attractive ideas for printing, thereby meeting the diverse needs of customers who require printing services.
In the commercial printing sector, therefore, in addition to conventional offset printing, we can offer customers a wider variety of services such as print-on-demand (POD), variable printing and web-to-print. It is now also possible for companies to produce a variety of printed materials in-house that previously were not possible to produce, all at a higher speed and lower cost. For these reasons, the demand for production printing has been increasing in the printing market.
Contribution to the growth of customers engaged in the printing business
The Ricoh Group offers a diverse line-up of high-quality and highly reliable products to customers requiring production printing services such as printing from mission-critical systems, commercial printing and in-house printing. Our globally connected network of sales and services for corporate offices allows us to provide solutions support that is optimal for responding to the diverse needs of the ever-changing printing market.
Ricoh's Production Printing not only provides commercial printing customers with products and services but also proposes solutions that contribute to increasing their sales; in effect, creating a new business model together with them. With regard to in-house printing, we help companies achieve increased productivity through cost reduction and carefully planned solutions, customization, training and support. The Ricoh Group aims to achieve both the success of customers' businesses and growth in the production printing business.
