Canon Solutions America Reveals Strategy at One-Year Anniversary Event (Includes Video)

It's been a year since Canon Business Solutions and Océ North America were consolidated into the newly created subsidiary Canon Solutions America (CSA). To celebrate the anniversary, Canon held an event here this week. Canon executives offered updates on the company's progress to industry journalists and analysts, a panel of customers discussed the role that Canon technology has played in their success, and visitors got to see Canon technology in action at the company's Customer Experience Center, in nearby Boca Raton.

(Click here to see video for scenes from the event or click on the video below)

CSA President and CEO Toyotsugu Kuwamura lead off the event by detailing how Canon accomplished the integration and combined the different sales groups. CSA revenues reached $1.7 billion in 2013, he said, and the 2016 target is $2 billion. Other Canon executives noted the growth in their segments, as well.

Francis McMahon, vice president of marketing for Production Print Solutions, added that U.S. customers printed 69 billion production pages in 2013. He noted that more than 800 types of media have now been certified to print on Canon digital printers, with more being tested all the time. "Over the course of 2013," he said, "we've partnered with every single paper mill in the United States of America."

On March 1, Canon Solutions America will open a new media lab in Boca Raton, designed for live testing across inkjet- and toner-based products. It will provide CSA the capacity to work with paper mills to test even more sheets with more inks, and much more quickly.

The newest paper addition is a 45-lb. coated sheet for the educational book publishing market. A Crown Van Gelder (CVG) product called LetsGo Silk was formerly only available in Europe. Through its media lab in Poing, Germany, CSA worked closely with CVG to optimize the product for Océ inkjet platforms. The sheet is now available to North American customers through Gould Paper Corp.