Ricoh visit to LJMU

07 August 2009

 

LJMU’s reputation for business excellence and our leading edge PRINT Strategy have brought senior management from Ricoh Japan, Europe and the UK to see our success and to learn more about the WoW initiative.

Last year, IKON, LJMU’s PRINT Strategy partners, became part of Ricoh, one of the largest IT companies in the world.  IKON has been keen to showcase the developments that staff in CIS and its own experts have achieved in producing the PRINT infrastructure.  This is not only regarded as ahead of the field in the Higher Education sector but market-leading. 

The Ricoh visitors included Kirk Yoshida (Deputy President Ricoh Corporation), Simon Sasaki (CEO Ricoh Europe), Shuzo Saito (President and Chief Operating Officer Ricoh Europe), Eiji Kometani (Ricoh UK Chairman), David Mills (Ricoh UK CEO), Paul Braham (Director Ricoh UK Enterprise Services Group) and Seiya Iwanaga (Corporate Planning Officer for Ricoh UK). 

After meeting LJMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Brown, the Ricoh delegation travelled to Kingsway House where Jo Ives explained the work of the Graduate Development Centre.  The group then visited the Avril Robarts Learning Resource Centre to see a demonstration of the PRINT facilities that give our students easy access to printing, copying and scanning.  Key to the progress that IKON and CIS have made is the way that Equitrac, the Print Accounting system, tap and print technology and virtual purse arrangements have been designed and configured. 

The Ricoh visitors had arrived from Lytham St Annes where they were involved in sponsoring the Ricoh Women’s British Open Golf Championship.  After their visit to the University, the group travelled to Manchester Airport where IKON provides the services for all the screen displays.

Peter Hinton, who led the PRINT Strategy team, commented on the visit: “It is impressive that some of the most senior managers from Ricoh have taken the time to visit us.  The enthusiasm that they showed for the WoW programme and their understanding of the success of our PRINT Strategy confirms the strength of our strategic partnership with IKON.  We expect that this partnership will now bring further benefits through the closer contact with Ricoh.”

Pictured

First photo (left to right): David Mills, Allan Bickerstaffe, Paul Braham, Kirk Yoshida, Eiji Kometani, Professor Michael Brown, Shuzo Saito, Simon Sasaki

Second photo: IKON and LJMU PRINT Strategy team in the Avril Robarts Learning Resource Centre