Langenhagen, Germany, 11 January 2022

In its latest report ‘The Print Security Landscape, 2022’[1] industry analyst Quocirca has classified Konica Minolta as a ‘Leader’ in the field of print security, due to its comprehensive product portfolio and expertise: “Quocirca believes that beyond its traditional print security offerings, Konica Minolta’s deep expertise across IT services strongly sets it apart from some of its key competitors, particularly in the SME market.” At the same time, the report underlines the importance of print security for most organisations, noting that two-thirds of the organisations surveyed for the report are set to increase their budgets in this area.

 “Being named a ‘leader’ in the field of print security reflects our preeminent position in the market. Thanks to our strategic focus, we have the breadth of expertise and solutions to deliver secure and future-proof printing for our customers,” says Olaf Lorenz, Head of International Marketing Division, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. Consequently, Quocirca considers Konica Minolta a leader in print security, among a select group of vendors “with strong strategic vision and a comprehensive print security product and service offering”.

A “One Stop Shop”: A standardised fleet by an MPS provider increases print security

According to the report, 68% of organisations have experienced data losses due to unsecure printing practices in the last 12 months. These data losses cost organisations an estimated average of more than £632,000 (~ 758.160 Euro[2]) per breach. It is striking that 73% of companies operating a mixed printer fleet reported data breaches, compared to only 58% of companies with a standardised printer fleet. Thus, according to Quocirca, a move to a managed, single vendor fleet in order to better control data security can be useful. This relevance is further enhanced when one sees that, according to Quocirca’s study, 84% of companies using an MPS are most confident in their print security, compared to only 49% for non-MPS users.

According to Quocirca, this “demonstrates how MPS can help organisation mitigate risk and instil confidence in their security posture.” Konica Minolta is able to provide a “one stop shop” of solutions for secure printing. The digital workplace provider offers extensive managed print services from consulting, implementation and maintenance of Konica Minolta MFPs to software solutions, which add security and efficiency to printing.

For example, MFPs of bizhub i-Series come with the optional antivirus system BitDefender. Security tests performed by NTT DATA have not discovered any vulnerability and proven the high security of Konica Minolta devices. Launching in February 2022, the cloud-based solution Shield Guard offers remote MFP security monitoring and management, provides automatic notifications and remediation and allows organisations to control the security status of multiple MFPs from anywhere. Shield Guard works needlessly with Konica Minolta’s bizhub SECURE portfolio, which offers three different levels of service for each individual business’ needs.

Print security: A key topic for IT decision makers in 2022

All in all, the latest Quocirca report underlines the high importance of print security for organisations. As many as 70% of surveyed IT decision makers expect to increase their print security spend in 2022. “Konica Minolta will remain the partner of choice for organisations and the implementation and management of their secure printing environment,” concludes Olaf Lorenz. “And, with our Optimized Print Services, Konica Minolta unburdens organisation from managing their print environment and lets them focus on their core business.”

SOURCE Konica Minolta