Recently we sat down with Jan Baláš, Vice President of Sales, Europe, to get his view on what is driving Y Soft’s innovation. The following is Jan's outlook on our Y Soft's future innovations.
Where we are right now? Our business is growing, and our culture of innovation drives us forward. Let me explain.
Managed Print Services (MPS) providers are expected to deliver strategic value to customers in areas beyond MPS. As the industry moves toward Digital Transformation, strategic value will be led more by software and services, many of which are provided by partners such as Y Soft. That is one of the reasons we invest so much in innovation and that is why I say that innovation is driving us forward.
Our innovation journey is correct
Considering that innovation is the key to success for customers and our partners, it can be a huge challenge to anticipate and meet future demands. However, I already see that the innovation journey and strategic direction we started on years ago, is correct. Consider Europe, a mature market in terms of MPS and print management. It is no longer enough to focus only on print and document capture. For example, there is a significant opportunity in 3D printing. Our goal, when we started with 3D printing in late 2014, was not to just be a manufacturer of 3D printers. We decided to bring innovations to the 3D printer itself to make 3D printing in Education more valuable than what was currently on offer. And, we wanted to offer 3D print management capabilities which we did in 2016.
There’s more to do on 3D printing in Education. Schools would like to offer something extraordinary to their students. We are eager to help them and are working on additional ways to be part of student’s projects where they can realize their ideas, ambitions and dreams. We feel strongly that tomorrow’s innovators are in school today and need access to technology that can help them build tomorrow.
Security is becoming more and more important
The Quocirca report made an important second point: Security is a core focus area for investment now and for the foreseeable future. So we made considerable investments to ensure the security of YSoft SAFEQ.
Additionally, Y Soft, through
Y Soft Ventures, has invested in companies like GreyCortex, where AI plays a key role in detecting suspicious anomalies in network activity; exploration into how this technology can be used in the print environment can yield fresh solutions.
The Y Soft innovation growth engine
If we want continued growth, innovations in entirely new areas are needed. This includes how we offer our solutions and the support and service from our sales and support teams. The GreyCortex technology is one example of our growth engine. There is more.
You’ll see in
YSoft Labs that we are developing and experimenting with robotics to automate testing. While used only internally now, we anticipate this to be an exciting future area. We are also developing solutions that can help organizations with processes involving employees – known as Human Capital Management.
I would be remiss in not mentioning our
Automated Scan Workflow solutions. Increasing productivity and reducing the complexity of scan processes and connecting to other business systems is an area that we continue to innovate in as well as print workflows.
Finally, our Applied Research and University Relations program allows us to work with students on their theses, provide internships and ultimately hire great talent.
These are the many ways that innovation is engrained in our culture and drives everything that we do.