Macquarie Telecom, part of Macquarie Telecom Group, announced it has signed a new deal with Konica Minolta Australia to provide SD-WAN, nbn, cloud and data centre services to help the company support its workplace of the future. Konica Minolta, headquartered in Japan and works with over 6000 clients, specialises in industrial imaging products and services.
It promotes supply chain responsibility and holds its suppliers, including Macquarie, to strict ethical standards in terms of protecting their people and the environment. Konica has been granted an Australian Human Rights Commission Award for this commitment.
What is the kinship of Konica Minolta and Macquarie like?
The company has worked with Macquarie for over 20 years, and turned to it for an expanded deal to streamline its telecoms and data networks. This has positioned the firm to advance its digital strategy, including a major SAP S/4HANA overhaul which is underway. Konica is leveraging these upgrades to modernise in a world accelerating to workplace flexibility.
“The future we’re aiming to deliver for Aussie businesses is all about responsibility, security, and connectivity, easily the most vital qualities,” said Nick Jones, CIO, Konica Minolta.
“Macquarie shares that vision, and has worked with us to develop a new, much higher-value agreement that leverages its new technologies, helping us to deliver our digital strategy.”
Macquarie has worked with Konica to migrate all of its sites to the nbn and SD-WAN tech creating a system by which working from home requires only an internet connection. The deployment has also improved speed and efficiency by 30% and reducing costs by 15%.
The firm is leveraging Macquarie Cloud Services and Macquarie Data Centres for data hosting and colocation services, with this environment expanded as Macquarie builds out its wider data centre campus across Sydney and Canberra, and its largest facility in IC3 Super West.
“The groundwork we laid with Macquarie for these services set us up to be fully remotely connected when the pandemic and work-from-home restrictions set in. 500 people suddenly had to go home, and productivity remained and even improved in some areas,” added Jones.
Security and sovereignty were also a key consideration for Konica – its technologies are at the centre of how Australian companies collect and harness highly confidential data and personally identifiable information (PII) from photos, scans, and more. Macquarie’s data sovereignty and all-local staff reduce risk and help to protect this data.
How is Konica Minolta adapting global trends?
Having succeeded through major disruption to its industry, Konica is embracing the new norm of hybrid work and building its tech services around it. The company is looking to expand its Microsoft Teams footprint to support increased sales activity and internal communication.
“We’re seeing major sales happening via Teams, and we want to embrace that rather than seeing it as temporary.We want to encourage more video communication – it’s easy to lose context over email and we’ve seen that cause avoidable issues between staff,” said Jones.
“We want to encourage more video communication over Teams, and even video communications sent over email. Macquarie’s partnership with Microsoft, particularly its Azure Expert MSP status, is a huge asset to us to drive and make these changes stick.”
“It’s not luck that Konica Minolta has stood the test of time in one of the most heavily disrupted industries,” said Luke Clifton, Group Executive, Macquarie Telecom.
“This company has an unwavering ability and commitment to adapting and providing the services its customers need now and for the future. Fortunately, we too have adapted over the years, allowing us to support Konica with new technologies to support its growth and its important role in campaigning for supply chain responsibility,” Clifton further commneted.
