OREANDA-NEWS. March 16, 2012. Ricoh Company, Ltd. will offer "start.ricoh" in Japan from fiscal 2012, followed by a sequential roll-out overseas to be announced later in a separate news release. Aimed at businesses, "start.ricoh" is a common portal for cloud services that integrates platforms for the development and provision of cloud services and offers new value to address the increasingly diverse working styles of customers. Looking ahead, Ricoh will respond to the diverse needs of its customers through "start.ricoh" by offering the following services.

     (1) Document services including printing, scanning and storage
     (2) Services to enable functions such as information sharing and video-based communication with remote locations
     (3) Cloud services from other vendors and partner companies

It will utilize a single-sign-on environment, through which customers can access multiple services with a single ID, and provide an environment that enables business processes and communication to take place securely, anytime, anywhere. At the same time, "start.ricoh" will reduce the time previously spent doing business administration by consolidating the management of usage status and other tasks previously managed on a per-service basis.

In early May 2012 Ricoh will launch a cloud-based printing service in Japan, the first "start.ricoh" service. The service will operate with digital multifunctional printers (MFPs) and printers to enable secure printing from smart phones and tablet devices and location-free printing independent of networks. This service will later be released in overseas markets.

Ricoh began offering document management services in the United States in 2001, and has since utilized a range of cloud computing technologies. These include @Remote, which monitors the operational status of MFPs and printers and assists support services such as automatic malfunction notification and automated supplier order placement, not to mention the Ricoh Unified Communication System, which was launched last year.

Moving forward, by offering the services developed under these technologies on "start.ricoh" and expanding the lineup of services tailored to increasingly diverse customer needs, Ricoh will not only create environments that allow printing, meetings and presentations to be performed without the need to carry around data, while also making multiple in-house and external cloud services available through single-sign-on authentication. It will also provide high value-added solutions which combine all these aspects. Ricoh will also combine its global network of IT services to offer the best IT environment for customers in the best way, and provide a one-stop solution for the secure use of services.