As pressure mounts to improve profitability, creative office technology dealers are uncovering myriad areas from which to trim and cut business costs. At the High Velocity Summit in mid-January, Konica Minolta announced REV’D UP 2.0, its enhanced dealer-performance program. The OEM’s All Covered IT solutions subsidiary and its digital presses for production printing are representative of the growing number of diversification opportunities in the channel. However, these aren’t the only paths leading to high velocity profits.
Konica Minolta has also rolled out an improved, DX-inspired software platform powered by AI automation: the bizhub vCare Pro-Suite for predictive, remote maintenance with a six-month trial. The multi-component vCare Solution is free for the manufacturer’s Pro-Tech Certified dealers. Designed to deliver “smart” reporting of bizhub MFP device data, vCare works behind the scenes, automatically notifying the service provider when issues arise. The new Pro-Suite features expedited configuration, reports Izzy Sanchez, director of service and support systems at Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. “Pre-COVID, setup took about three minutes,” he said. “Now, our engineers have got it down to one-button enablement.”
To help offset the decline of printed pages in the workplace, many office technology dealers focus on new customer acquisition: Up to 25% net-new account growth is required to break even in today’s competitive business climate, according to industry consultancy Strategic Business Associates. Konica Minolta data analysis reveals that some dealerships increased their net-new by as much as 40% in 2025. From a maintenance perspective, how can dealerships effectively manage all those additional devices?
Within the channel’s traditional A3 and A4 multifunction printer space, “We need to get better at service and operations,” stressed Sanchez, by improving the efficiency of tasks dealers are already providing. With an increasing number of machines in the field (MIF), optimization holds the key to profitability. And that’s where the latest predictive maintenance systems come into play.
The bizhub vCare’s Pro-Suite was direct-tested, tweaked, and benchmarked by Konica Minolta before it was released to dealers, noted Cody Walton, senior director of sales engagement, Konica Minolta Dealer Sales. The Japanese manufacturer learns a wealth of information from its U.S. direct sales operation. In turn, the OEM shares knowledge gleaned with the independent dealer channel, which accounts for appoximately 50% of its revenue in North America. Walton added that there’s about a six-month lag before refinements are shared with the independent dealer community. The OEM’s monthly firmware updates keep systems running smoothly for dealers. The process really is nothing new for Konica Minolta, which has been perfecting predictive, remote maintenance since 2008.
The vast majority of first-call resolutions no longer require on-site machine service. Instead, MFPs can be fixed remotely using bizhub vCare connectivity. Sanchez encourages dealers of all sizes to future-proof their MIF by taking a serious look at these types of advanced technologies. “AI and LLMs [large learning models] are armor for your technicians,” he emphasized.
Konica Minolta says, ‘Don’t roll that truck!”
Sanchez called bizhub vCare Konica Minolta’s ‘know-before-you-go’ virtual office technology. The ability to pinpoint impending or actual technical device malfunctions is all about being proactive, not reactive. “Troubleshooting is an old business model that requires ‘trunk stock,’” he explained. “Today, we are in the business of minutes, . . . so, dealers don’t roll tires unless they know what the problem is.”
AI can alert in advance, for example, if there is six-millimeter banding on a yellow drum. One of KMBS’s office technology dealers did the math and determined that each remote resolution costs $24 compared to $105 to roll a truck. “By using vCare, one person can manage a fleet of 5,000 devices,” Sanchez said. Walton noted that a single technician conceivably can run security patches on up to 250 devices simultaneously. “Konica Minolta’s firmware makes such a scenario possible,” he pointed out.
Managing consumables usage is another measurable. Under the terms of the bizhub vCare program, if a consumable, such as a drum unit, fails at 50%, Konica Minolta will replace it when a warranty claim is submitted. To prevent premature toner replacement, office technology dealers should closely monitor toner levels. Sanchez asked, “How much toner are your customers really consuming? You don’t want them discarding cartridges that are still 80% full because, when a toner cartridge is replaced, the dealer will probably never make back that profit before the end of the lease.”
Using bizhub vCare, dealers can create a supplies quote, based on toner coverage, that accurately predicts the number of days until a drum runs out. On the green front, “our machines are designed to consume every bit of that toner,” he stressed, “so the cartridges can be recycled with no negative environmental impact.”
In another profit-draining example, Konica Minolta’s technicians discovered that 50% of circuit boards returned under the MFP warranty actually were fine. The diagnostic tool built into bizhub vCare would not allow that to happen. “Dealers can’t look at devices as copiers,” Sanchez added. “They need to see the broader picture in terms of the SLA [Service Level Agreement].”
For many dealers, the remote-first approach is a complete shift in thinking that requires reeducating the workforce, which is why Konica Minolta offers expanded, three-day virtual training courses and is soon to create a master session. Beyond the metrics and costs, the high-tech approach is environmentally sustainable, too, as it helps to reduce unnecessary service visits, such as callbacks.
Another ongoing dealer concern is the workforce labor situation. How can they tackle the worker shortage and maximize the labor that they do have on staff? “What we’ve built responds to those issues,” Sanchez explained. How so?
The bizhub vCare remote package allows dealers to send their least-tenured techs to on-site calls in the field. More experienced people remain at the dealership, troubleshooting and evaluating problems with the help of AI. “A dealer’s best techs, those guys with 30 years of experience, are more valuable when kept in house,” Sanchez noted, while less-experienced techs can perform the nitty-gritty (but necessary) service at customer locations.
No matter how many field service calls are made during a given day, every office technology dealer’s goal should be to reduce that amount. If you’re rolling trucks to 15 to 20 on-site customers daily, wouldn’t it be great to knock that number down to three or five, with the balance resolved remotely? Internally at Konica Minolta, 17% of issues now are resolved remotely (approximately 8,500 of 50,000). The OEM’s ambitious goal is to move that needle above 70%. President and CEO Sam Errigo, who oversees Konica Minolta in the United States, has cited a longer-term edict of 85% remote resolution.
Konica Minolta reports that its top 10 office technology dealers are running bizhub vCare Pro-Suite. Still, Sanchez feels strongly that not enough dealers take advantage of all the predictive maintenance solution offers. From an ERP standpoint, for instance, “The e-automate integration [from ECI Software Solutions] is under-utilized,” he said. “There’s no guesswork involved. In one example, the order amount dropped from $160 to $77.”
In the not-too-distant future, Sanchez foresees the availability of vCare report cards and remote connectivity with machine management lists based on configuration. In addition, virtual service enablement is on the horizon via barcode scanning. In Europe, equipment technicians are using Konica Minolta’s proprietary AIRe Link RealWear headsets equipped with infrared cameras. “Heat sensors can detect printhead problems,” Walton concluded, adding that this type of show-me technology has applications beyond A3/A4 MFP devices in production printing and the industrial print space, which presently are in beta-test mode.
