Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 14, 2021 - June 20, 2021

With the shift towards work-from-home (WFH) and hybrid working arrangements, office workspaces have grown silent — as have the whirr and clatter of office printers. In fact, common office equipment such as projectors and scanners have gradually been replaced by tools for virtual meetings and mobile app scanners.

Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd, which supplies a great deal of common office equipment, is expected to be adversely affected by the shift. But the company has taken proactive measures to be part of the new normal.

Its president and CEO Andrew Koh says the dip in enterprise sales has been offset by a surge in demand for consumer products.

“Thankfully, we are much more versatile compared with other suppliers because we cater for both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) segments. For B2C, we primarily have two product segments, which are home printers and digital cameras,” says Koh.

“During the Movement Control Order (MCO) last year, we saw a huge upswing in demand for home printers. Between May and December, there was a three times increase in sales of laser printers compared with the same period in 2019. Because of home-based learning and WFH policies, home printers became a much sought-after item.”

As for the camera product segment, Koh describes a major dip during the first two months of the MCO due to event cancellations and movement restrictions. However, demand for virtual meetings and live-streaming has driven up the sales of Canon cameras, particularly the mirrorless camera line-up, which saw a 70% year-on-year increase in the second half of last year.

Koh reveals that Canon Marketing Malaysia’s enterprise solutions took a massive hit during the first two months of the MCO, but slowly regained momentum later. Its enterprise product line includes office printers, scanners, presentation tools, videography equipment and network visual solutions.

“At the time, our business clients were reassessing their situation and decided to find ways to enable their staff to WFH. So, we decided to tackle this from two angles. One, our existing products actually enables them to do plenty of things, many of which the customer had not actively explored before.

“For example, our multi-function device allows them to scan and store documents on the cloud, which provides employees with remote access to documents. After we explained this to them, they realised that their equipment could actually do so much more,” he says.

“Secondly, we also realised that not every company would want to utilise our products in this manner. So, we started offering them customised packages along with third-party solutions, such as thermal scanners and interactive flat panels. We try to understand their business needs and make our product offerings more attractive and relevant to them.”

At the height of the pandemic, Koh says Canon Marketing Malaysia was focused on providing more affordable solutions to smaller businesses, some as low as RM1,000 per package. Instead of enterprise-grade printers, it offered smaller all-in-one printers bundled with cloud solutions to enable these businesses to digitise their documents and processes.

The surge in B2C and recovering B2B sales have provided some level of fiscal cushioning for the company. However, it still faced challenges and had to make rapid adjustments to its operations.

Traditionally reliant on bricks-and-mortar partners, the company had needed to strengthen its online offerings because physical stores were not permitted to open during the MCO. Hence, it worked closely with Lazada and Shopee to gain access to the e-commerce market, as it had yet to set up a B2C online store.

Canon Marketing Malaysia also had to change how it engaged with its business clients as they were wary of visitors entering their premises. The company’s sales department found creative ways to reach out to them, such as conducting webinars and online training sessions. Similarly, for consumer products, physical photography workshops were conducted via live-streaming.

“I wish I could say that everything will return to normal, but I believe that hybrid working arrangements are the new normal. That means we also have to adapt our processes and mindsets and come to terms with this long-term trend,” says Koh.

“For example, we went back to conducting physical photography workshops during the Recovery Movement Control Order and limited the number of participants for safety reasons. But now we are back again to an MCO, so juggling both virtual and physical [events] is the way forward.”

Currently, the B2B segment makes up about 35% of the company’s business, and Koh aims to increase that figure to 50% in the next two years. To do so, the company is seeking to distance itself from the image of being solely a box mover — that is, primarily a seller of Canon-only products. Instead, it will focus its efforts on providing end-to-end solutions and not shy away from partnering with third parties to deliver better solutions.

“Canon is the only company that makes such a comprehensive range of products, from small 4R printers to large batch printers on a production scale. We are in a unique position to cater for customers of all sizes and provide solutions according to their needs,” says Koh.

“We do not want to just sell printers that can print 30 pages a minute. It has to be more than that — not just about the product specifications. We made the conscious decision to switch in the past and the pandemic has accelerated that shift in mindset.”

He adds that this switch plays to the company’s strengths. Canon, which has been in Malaysia for the past 30 years, has established strong support networks across the country, such as teams of engineers and technicians who are available on call, as well as multiple branches across various states.

This extensive national coverage enables it to provide training, education and support to business clients both large and small. Not only can it provide holistic solutions, it can also help its business clients transition to the new operational workflow.

Despite the massive changes over the past year, Canon Marketing Malaysia’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns have largely remained intact, including its toner recycling campaign. According to Koh, customers can still drop off empty toner cartridges at the company’s headquarters and office branches or, for certain corporate clients, have them picked up every week by technicians.

He says the company will continue its efforts towards sustainability, pointing out that it still complies with green procurement standards and its devices are energy efficient. In April, it partnered with social enterprise Biji-Biji Initiative to conduct upcycling workshops for the low-income community.

“The pandemic does not mean we need to suspend all our programmes. With Canon being a Japanese company, there is this concept called kyosei — the spirit of cooperation for the common good. It is not just about being profit-driven but also about giving back to the community. As such, we will try to carry on with these programmes as much as we can,” says Koh.

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