Printer manufacturer prepares for “paperless office” in effort to boost global revenues in services. 
Ricoh has announced its intentions to lessen reliance on hardware in a move intended to improve global revenues related to services, Irish Times has reported.
The OEM aims to increase their 16 percent of €16.4 billion ($21.9 billion) revenue related to services, with Executive Vice President of Operations David Mills, Ricoh Europe, stating “it has to become the predominant part of our business, because otherwise we’ll become like the music industry”.
The announcement comes in the wake of a recent Ricoh-commissioned study from Economist Intelligence Unit that warns 37 percent of surveyed leaders beloeve their organisation will not be able to keep up with technological developments and disappear altogether.
Irish Times predict the change in direction will result in the “decentralisation of management and a much more virtual working environment. It could also mean death to the middle manager and the long-awaited birth of not just a paperless office, but one where computer hardware operating off a common server becomes a thing on the past”.
Mills continued: “We see the changes happening very quickly now. The speed of change is getting quicker and quicker” although state Ricoh customer are “still going to need hardware”.