Macquarie Telecom enables Konica Minolta’s new role in a hybrid workplace

Macquarie Telecom, part of Macquarie Telecom Group (ASX: MAQ), today 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 specialises in business and industrial imaging products and services. The Japan-headquartered company employs close to 500 people and works with more than 6,000 customers across Australia. 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.

The company has worked with Macquarie for over 20 years, and turned to it for a new, expanded agreement to help streamline its telecoms and data networks. This has positioned the organisation 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 cloud and workplace flexibility.

“The future we’re aiming to deliver for Australian businesses is all about responsibility, connectivity and security, easily the most important qualities we need in light of COVID-19,” 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 technology, creating a system by which working from home requires nothing more than an internet connection. The deployment has also improved speed and efficiency by 30 per cent and reducing costs by 15 per cent. 

The company is also 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, including its largest facility being constructed, IC3 Super West.

“The groundwork we laid with Macquarie for these upgraded services set us up to be fully remotely connected when the pandemic and work-from-home restrictions set in,” added Jones. “500 people very suddenly had to go home, and productivity remained and even improved in a number of areas.”

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.

Sticking with the new norm

Having succeeded through major disruption to its industry and now the pandemic, Konica is embracing the new norm of hybrid work and building its technology 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,” said Jones. 

“We also want to encourage more video communication between staff – it’s easy to lose context over email and we’ve seen that cause avoidable issues between staff. We want to encourage more video communication over Teams, and potentially even video communications sent over email, to change this. 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.”

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Media Contacts:

Laura Bradley

Watterson (for Macquarie Telecom)

laura.bradley@watterson.com.au 

+61 413 069 407