R&D FOR THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Intelligent and Connected Workplace (ICW) is a dynamic and digitally transformed work model that enables smarter ways of working and ultimately driving digital transformation. As a fuel for change, research and development (R&D) activities are essential for defining the drivers that enable workplace evolution.
That’s why in Konica Minolta, following our long history of innovation started in 1873, our Digital Services R&D team aims at delivering solutions and Digital Services to support the company initiatives towards digital transformation and to create meaningful values for people and society.
This means that the emphasis is on delivering services that are built around our customers and the way they work. Therefore, Konica Minolta is designing an integrated portfolio of customizable services for the intelligent connected workplace to put our customers and partners in control of their IT and be more efficient, productive, and secure.

PEOPLE, SPACES AND TECHNOLOGIES
Within the R&D team of Konica Minolta, five years ago we started thinking about workplaces as a network of people, sensors and technologies that, when combined, create a sort of fabric that enables understanding the world around us.
In other words, putting people at the core of our research we focus on the data that are produced around them: that’s the fundamental element upon which we can derive useful information for making better decisions.
RESEARCH FOR NEW VALUES
We work on a set of research activities that focus on empowering teams and individuals with digital services and solutions that enable them to be adaptive, creative, and able to ultimately make informed decisions about their work life and wellbeing.
Within the framework of the intelligent connected workplace, flexibility and adaptability are key elements of hybrid work strategy, built upon the changes ignited by the COVID-19 crisis.
PILOTING AND CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
Keeping in mind the importance of being customer-centric, our strategy is grounded in delivering Proof of Concept and Pilots that are built through active customer engagement. Our research specialists are navigating the customers from concept design, through research, agile development and testing to the first steps of pre-productisation.
Starting from strategies to support innovation and management of information in offices, our services target flexibility also for the manufacturing context. For instance, the Suspicious Behaviour Detection solution has been developed as a pilot for Cermat, one of our customers that is managing printing services for exams, in the interest of the Czech Government. Our Video Solutions Services (VSS R&D) ensure the protection of sensitive data and valuable assets and can automatically detect suspicious behaviour, creating a security area around Konica Minolta’s production printers or in a restricted area.
Another example of our services is the Box Defect Detection solution that combines the Konica Minolta technology for Quality Inspection with Mobotix IoT cameras to ensure that delivery boxes meet criteria of high quality. Box Defect Detection system locates all defects and anomalies of delivery boxes running on the production line, identifies their size and severity and commands the separator on your production line to send the defective box to a washer or out of the line instantly.
FOLLOW THE RESEARCH OF KONICA MINOLTA
Our research programmes increase the generated values for Konica Minolta within the contexts of Digital Workplace, Cognitive Services, Cloud Services, Industrial/Imaging Services, and Digital Healthcare. Follow us on Linkedin to keep up with the latest results of our research