Konica Minolta sites Asia Pacific Business Innovation Centre in Singapore

Konica Minolta has launched its new Asia Pacific Business Innovation Centre (BIC) in Singapore as part of a cluster of five BICs which the company plans to set up around the world to facilitate and accelerate the growth of its ICT services business.  

Source: Konica Minolta. From left, Ryo Maruhashi, Managing Director, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Asia; Rachel Goh, Director, Business Innovation Centre, Yuji Inchimura, General Manager, Information and Communications Technologies Service Business Operations, Konica Minolta; Masatoshi Matsuzaki, President and CEO, Konica Minolta; Dr. Lee Shiang Long, Executive Director, Institute for Info Comm Research, A*Star; Terence Gan, Director for Electronics, EDB

“In the initial phase, the Asia Pacific BIC will be focusing on development of cloud-based service offerings such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and business process-as-a-service (BPaaS) to add to Konica Minolta’s Intelligent Office service offering.  The centre will also be working closely with customers to develop industry-specific cloud-based solutions. By providing the services through the Konica Minolta cloud infrastructure, Konica Minolta will deliver the economies of scale, savings and agility to the customers,” said Rachel Goh, Director, Business Innovation Centre, Asia Pacific, Konica Minolta.

The BIC aims to initiate, support and manage new business and technology development as well as to incubate new ICT service businesses for Konica Minolta in the Asia Pacific region. Potential collaboration partners include customers, solution providers, startups, research institutions, as well as crowdsourcing channels. The BIC is currently in discussion with Singapore’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R), a member of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) family, on such opportunities.

“The decision to locate the Asia Pacific BIC in Singapore underscores Konica Minolta’s confidence in Singapore as an attractive hub for Asia Pacific regional innovation activities.  Singapore’s central location in one of the world’s most dynamic, high-growth regions, combined with its vibrant innovation community, strong infrastructure and support network, make it an ideal choice to locate our Asia Pacific innovation centre,” said Yuji Ichimura, General Manager, ICT Service Business Operations, Konica Minolta.

Terence Gan, Director of Electronics at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said, “We are glad that Konica Minolta has chosen Singapore to locate its Asia Pacific BIC, the company’s first in the world. This is a good example of how global companies like Konica Minolta find value in our ICT capabilities to co-innovate and develop cloud-based solutions that can be scaled and exported globally."

The BIC’s activities will complement Konica Minolta’s Research and Development (R&D) in the creation of new service businesses.  Konica Minolta currently has R&D centres in Japan and USA, focusing on fields of imaging, optics, materials and nano-fabrication to enhance its existing business fields of business technologies, healthcare, measuring instruments, and industrial materials.