Macquarie Telecom upgrades Konica Minolta's telecommunications, data networks

Imaging specialist Konica Minolta has tapped Macquarie Telecom to upgrade its telecommunications and data networks as part of an ongoing digital strategy.

The telco was brought in to deploy SD-WAN, NBN, cloud and data centre services to provide an improved work-from-home experience for employees, while also improving network speeds and efficiency.

The upgrade is part of a wider digital strategy, which also includes a separate major SAP S/4HANA overhaul, as Konica Minolta seeks to bolster its cloud and workplace flexibility.

“The future we’re aiming to deliver for Australian businesses is all about responsibility, connectivity and security, easily the most important qualities we need in light of COVID-19,” Konica Minolta CIO Nick Jones said.

“Macquarie shares that vision, and has worked with us to develop a new, much higher-value agreement that leverages its new technologies, helping us to deliver our digital strategy.”

Konica Minolta also tapped MacTel sibling companies Macquarie Cloud Services and Macquarie Data Centres for data hosting and colocation services.

“The groundwork we laid with Macquarie for these upgraded services set us up to be fully remotely connected when the pandemic and work-from-home restrictions set in,” Jones added. “500 people very suddenly had to go home, and productivity remained and even improved in a number of areas.”

The company is also looking to continue working with MacTel to expand its Microsoft Teams footprint to support increased sales activity and internal communication.

“We’re seeing major sales happening via Teams, and we want to embrace that rather than seeing it as temporary,” Jones said.

“We also want to encourage more video communication between staff – it’s easy to lose context over email and we’ve seen that cause avoidable issues between staff. We want to encourage more video communication over Teams, and potentially even video communications sent over email, to change this. Macquarie’s partnership with Microsoft, particularly its Azure Expert MSP status, is a huge asset to us to drive and make these changes stick.”

MacTel group executive Luke Clifton said, “It’s not luck that Konica Minolta has stood the test of time in one of the most heavily disrupted industries.”

“This company has an unwavering ability and commitment to adapting and providing the services its customers need now and for the future. Fortunately, we too have adapted over the years, allowing us to support Konica with new technologies to support its growth and its important role in campaigning for supply chain responsibility.”