From printing to consultancy, here's how Fuji Xerox innovates its business

From its beginnings as a photocopier company to what now seems like a consultancy business, Fuji Xerox's newly-established Innovation Office has opened the company up to a myriad of possibilities.

How does it do this? By emphasising a more customer-centric model.

"We believe the future of Fuji Xerox is what you want us to be," said Michael Chong, general manager of the Fuji Xerox Innovation Office at the recent Fuji Xerox DocuWorld 2016 held at their Singapore headquarters on Anson Road.

Its Innovation Office is a research organisation in Singapore where Fuji Xerox can now quickly correspond to global customers needs together with its other research and development units in Japan and the US. It began operations in October 2015.

Singapore is a key spot for Fuji Xerox due to its market presence, technology portfolio, innovation ecosystem, and agile development. It helps them to be closer to the Asia Pacific region.

Mr Chong believes that "no one single company can out-innovate in the market" and that we "all need to work together".

This sentiment of a sharing economy is evident in their collaborations between their customers and Fuji Xerox.

They believe in an "innovation ride together" where new concepts can be proven and developed alongside each other.

How they do this is by resolving customers' business challenges with new technologies as well as those under research in Fuji Xerox's Innovation Offices.

In some cases, Fuji Xerox creates a virtual showcase with three-dimensional (3D) modelling of some of their research activities.

Some innovations showcased at the DocuWorld event included building analytics. Data is key in determining many factors to the running of any business and FujiXerox can now assist with that.

Fuji Xerox could not reveal who their customer is in this ongoing research for a warehouse that stores pharmaceutical products.

But what was shared were the data such as temperature, humidity, and power usage and efficiency.

With these analytics, Fuji Xerox could come up with solutions on storage and facilities, and test out theories on a 3D model of the building. Not just a photocopier company anymore, is it?

Gaining such data came about from another innovation which were 3D sensors.

When you enter a room, sensors can go as far as to collect temperature change, voice direction, and, if needed, facial recognition.

Such technology can be used in a meeting room that can be monitored remotely or in a much larger scale such as a shopping centre or office block.

Another innovation with a great cool factor was using robotics for remote communication.

A desktop screen was positioned in portrait where someone from outside of the meeting room, or even overseas, can be 'present' through the screen - much like a Skype or Face Time video call.

What makes this different is that the machine can act like a human - it moves in the direction you need it to.

So, if someone was speaking in the far corner of a room, the robot screen can move in that direction and 'interact' with the people in the room.

Other awesome things it can do is scan documents for the remote person to view instantly. It's like holding a meeting while you're 'physically' there.

"If we cannot visualize, we cannot analyse," said Mr Chong. And that's what sets Fuji Xerox apart from other well-established companies - its ability to create foresight through its Innovation Centre.

spanaech@sph.com.sg