Samsung Electronics last week rolled out 26 printing devices and applications at a regional conference here attended by some 125 dealers. The company also sent a strong signal that it was going after corporate business customers by offering customized print software rather than just hardware.
The company aims to more than double its revenue to become a "top two brand in the regional laser printer market", according to Samsung Asia's President and CEO Sang-Jin Park, who added that the company would enhance its partner network and extend its presence into non-traditional areas.
The approach will be to offer hardware combined with software applications and Samsung said it recognizes a need to strengthen its relationships with corporate resellers.
Samsung Electronics sees printing as the fourth wave for the company, for whom the first wave was the memory chip business. The next was mobile phones, where at the end of last year it was the No.2 provider but hopes to reach the top spot this year by selling 200 million handsets, and then after that came flat panel televisions.
The company is setting ambitious targets for all business sectors in advance of its 40th anniversary next year. Park said that by the end of last year Samsung had achieved US$100 billion in revenue, being the third biggest electronics company behind Siemens and HP.
"If we continue our growth pattern, we hope we can achieve the No. 1 position to celebrate the 40th anniversary. (This is) very ambitious, to become No. 1 in the world, but all the executives are working very hard to achieve this," he said.
Samsung's printing division now contributes just US$2.5 billion to its revenues, whereas its big divisions such as color TVs or mobile phones were each earning more than US$20 billion, Park said, noting that "eventually we would like to position the printing division among them, so you can imagine how fast we should grow".
"We have a long way to go, but we have had a good start, and good accelleration," the Samsung Asia president said.
Launched last week was what Park called "one of the widest selections of printers and print solutions", from the world's smallest color laser printer to the fastest A4 digital multifunction printer.
Many of the new products featured enhanced connectivity capabilities, including wireless and USB ports, providing the ability to print from, or scan to USB sticks, while selected models featured a "Premium Black" glossy finish that Park said would add a contemporary edge to modern offices.
Samsung executives emphasized a commitment to the corporate sector, leveraging partnerships with global leaders like IBM, Microsoft and EMC, with whom it has developed an enhanced line-up of document and device management applications that create more streamlined workflow and efficient printer performance.
Many of these applications are based on JScribe open architecture developed in partnership with IBM and CCP and which, running atop Samsung OS, enable applications to be customized to specific needs or vertical industries.
Samsung will also soon open a regional applications center in Singapore that will augment two other such centers, one in London in the UK, and the other in Irvine, California.
In a round-table interview, Park observed that "the printer business could make Samsung an experienced solutions vendor", and he indicated that the company may move further in that direction, with it possibly becoming a "fifth wave".
He also said that Samsung hoped to integrate some business applications into its mobile handsets, as well.
Samsung would also enhance its channel network, service infrastructure and reorganize internally to support and drive the next stage of its business growth, Park said, adding that by the end of the year "we aim to expand our channel coverage by increasing our pool of corporate and official authorized resellers".
It would strengthen its corporate channel coverage by over 80 percent, while Samsung also intends to increase its printer headcount with dedicated resources for B2B business. In addition, it will also invest in enhancing its service infrastructure by benchmarking market practices, according to a press statement.
Samsung registered more than 80 per cent growth in 2007 as it successfully penetrated the corporate segment. Key customers come from a diverse range of industries across the region including the government, financial services, telecoms, retail, energy and automotive. 7-Eleven in Singapore and Thailand, the Ministry of Education in Malaysia and Singapore, Vodafone and BP Service Stations in Australia are among its key customer wins last year.
The new printers showcased last week are monochrome and color laser beam printers as well as monochrome and color laser multifunction printers, along with Samsung printing applications developed in-house or with partners for document management, device management and billing.
Samsung's new printers embraced design principles, being smaller and some with the premium black finish and the company emphasized partners with programs such as its PowerPartner program, which it was trying to strengthen, where it was working with IBM and EMC to address vertical markets, according to senior vice president for marketing, digital printing division, Jang Jae Lee.
Another aspect, he said, was optimization which included customization for the SOHO, SMB and corporate markets as well as being "green", or eco-friendly, where the company had won a Greenpeace award.
The Samsung printing applications introduced last week comprise document management with the SmarThru Workflow network software for corporate data distribution. This enables users to digitize and send scanned and faxed documents to multiple locations at the same time--including e-mail, fax, server message blocks and FTP sites.
With plug-ins developed along with Microsoft and EMC, Samsung's SmarThru Workflow, Microsoft SharePoint Portal, and EMC Captiva storage application allow users to convert hard copy documents into a variety of formats including editable Microsoft Office documents. High security is ensured with user authentication verifying that data is sent to the intended person.
For device management and billing applications, Samsung now offers SyncThru Web Service, an embedded Web service found on all Samsung network printers that enables IT managers to easily and remotely manage a network printer in a network without additional software installation.
Another service is SyncThru Web Admin Service which provides remote management of multiple network print devices by enabling IT managers to easily integrate Samsung products with current printers.
These are based on the JScribe open architecture developed in partnership with IBM and CCP that offers a standard platform for the customization of applications to meet specific customer needs.
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