PMA February 2010 : Page 10
Connections Newsline www.pmanewsline.com Noritsu coNcludes lucidioM trANsActioN q In mid-December, Noritsu America Corp., Buena Park, Calif., completed the acquisi- tion of Vienna, Va.-based Lucidiom Inc., originally announced at PMA 09. The re- lationship offers photo services retailers of all sizes a complete imaging solution that creates new revenue streams for photo department growth and profitability in the rapidly expanding social expression age. PMA magazine spoke with Steven L’Heureux, COO, Noritsu America, and Stephen Giordano Jr., CEO, Lucidiom, about the future direction of the com- pany. PMA: How did the Noritsu acquisition of Lucidiom happen? L’Heureux: President and CEO Yukihiko Chayama joined Noritsu in July 2008. Part of his mission from the board of di- rectors was to transform Noritsu from one of the finest printer manufacturers into a more complete solutions provider for the photo industry. He looked at differ- ent companies to bring into the Noritsu family to be highly complementary to the technology we were already providing. The workflow between Noritsu printers and Lucidiom kiosks was an obvious fit. We share many common customers and had already been working closely with them. Once we embarked on the strategy to become a complete solutions provider, it seemed natural. Also, the industry was beginning to shift, where our customers no longer wanted to be the system inte- grator. The day of buying a printer from one vendor and a software solution from another, and cobbling it all together your- self, has come to an end. Customers are now looking for streamlined solutions. PMA: Why do you think customers are looking more for solutions? Economics? Staffing? L’Heureux: Customers are demanding more sophisticated solutions. Now they want to do posters, T-shirts, and so forth. 10 PMA — February 2010 — www.pmai.org Steven L’Heureux The sophistication of the front end has become greater. When you make the workflow complex, it’s difficult for the retailer to build that robust solution that meets the consum- ers’ needs. It forces them to turn to the vendors. PMA: Traditionally, Noritsu has devel- oped its own technology. This is a quite a change in direction. L’Heureux: We have sophisticated re- search and development, on both the hardware side and the software side. What we saw was the opportunity to grow the market much more quickly with ac- quisition; and, frankly, Lucidiom was an ideal acquisition. Lucidiom has 55,000 ki- osks installed worldwide, and its software was already installed in Noritsu machines among our largest customers. We didn’t need to develop our own kiosk solution. Giordano: Every business has to look at building versus buying. Building can sometimes get a more elegant solution Stephen Giordano that hits the mark, but buying gets you to market faster and gets a change in your culture. A great example is Fiat taking a major- ity interest in Chrysler. Fiat has obviously been in the car business for awhile, but they needed to change their thinking to get into the U.S. market and to expand in- ternationally. They also gained automatic worldwide distribution for Fiat products. With Lucidiom, Noritsu is getting the same thing. They’re getting a new way of approaching self-service imaging and online processing. Ultimately, the real reason it makes sense is we had no overlap, really. There are no products being discontinued by Lucidiom or Noritsu. There’s a great syn- ergistic value to this relationship. L’Heureux: Our goal is to make this as seamless a transition as possible to our customers. Our focus is to make it as easy to do business with our customers as possible. Our focus is on growing the business. The commitment of Noritsu to these objectives should be evident to the
Newsline
Noritsu concludes Lucidiom tran saction
In mid-December, Noritsu America Corp., Buena Park, Calif., completed the acquisition of Vienna, Va.-based Lucidiom Inc., originally announced at PMA 09. The relationship offers photo services retailers of all sizes a complete imaging solution that creates new revenue streams for photo department growth and profitability in the rapidly expanding social expression age.
PMA magazine spoke with Steven L’Heureux, COO, Noritsu America, and Stephen Giordano Jr., CEO, Lucidiom, about the future direction of the company.
PMA: How did the Noritsu acquisition of Lucidiom happen?
L’Heureux: President and CEO Yukihiko Chayama joined Noritsu in July 2008.
Part of his mission from the board of directors was to transform Noritsu from one of the finest printer manufacturers into a more complete solutions provider for the photo industry. He looked at different companies to bring into the Noritsu family to be highly complementary to the technology we were already providing.
The workflow between Noritsu printers and Lucidiom kiosks was an obvious fit.
We share many common customers and had already been working closely with them. Once we embarked on the strategy to become a complete solutions provider, it seemed natural. Also, the industry was beginning to shift, where our customers no longer wanted to be the system integrator.
The day of buying a printer from one vendor and a software solution from another, and cobbling it all together yourself, has come to an end. Customers are now looking for streamlined solutions.
PMA: Why do you think customers are looking more for solutions? Economics?
Staffing?
L’Heureux: Customers are demanding more sophisticated solutions. Now they want to do posters, T-shirts, and so forth. The sophistication of the front end has become greater.
When you make the workflow complex, it’s difficult for the retailer to build that robust solution that meets the consumers’ needs. It forces them to turn to the vendors.
PMA: Traditionally, Noritsu has developed its own technology. This is a quite a change in direction.
L’Heureux: We have sophisticated research and development, on both the hardware side and the software side.
What we saw was the opportunity to grow the market much more quickly with acquisition; and, frankly, Lucidiom was an ideal acquisition. Lucidiom has 55,000 kiosks installed worldwide, and its software was already installed in Noritsu machines among our largest customers. We didn’t need to develop our own kiosk solution.
Giordano: Every business has to look at building versus buying. Building can sometimes get a more elegant solution That hits the mark, but buying gets you to market faster and gets a change in your culture.
A great example is Fiat taking a majority interest in Chrysler. Fiat has obviously been in the car business for awhile, but they needed to change their thinking to get into the U.S. market and to expand internationally.
They also gained automatic worldwide distribution for Fiat products.
With Lucidiom, Noritsu is getting the same thing. They’re getting a new way of approaching self-service imaging and online processing.
Ultimately, the real reason it makes sense is we had no overlap, really. There are no products being discontinued by Lucidiom or Noritsu. There’s a great synergistic value to this relationship.
L’Heureux: Our goal is to make this as seamless a transition as possible to our customers. Our focus is to make it as easy to do business with our customers as possible. Our focus is on growing the business. The commitment of Noritsu to these objectives should be evident to the Industry. It’s a doubling down on our investment in the business.
PMA: Will your products continue to be interoperable with other manufacturers’ equipment?
Giordano: Both companies see themselves as the leaders in white-label technology for photofinishing. Noritsu printers have worked with Fujifilm and Kodak kiosks and third-party websites, and Lucidiom kiosks have worked with other printers.
That’s another reason the companies are a good fit. We aren’t in this game to say, “You must use Lucidiom and Noritsu, or else you are out of the business.” We’re in the game to say, “We’re here to help you be in the business, whether you need a printer, a kiosk, or the software to put them together.” PMA: What does this combination say about the future of the industry?
Giordano: We don’t believe we are in the age of digital photography any more. As an industry, we were in the analog photography business for 100-plus years.
Then digital photography lasted from about 1998 to 2002.
We believe, since 2002, the industry has been in this age of expression. The challenge most retailers have been having is, rather than deliver digital services, they should help customers express themselves.
Look at MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and so on; it’s about social expression and people telling stories.
As soon as retailers help customers tell stories, maybe through a folded greeting card – this is the age where we will see profitability.
If you talk to innovative specialty retailers, they will tell you their finishing business is up 10 percent to 15 percent, and their margins increased. That’s because these retailers see the market is not about telling stories with a print, but telling stories in ways customers want to tell them.
In 2010 and 2011, we’re anticipating further adoption by the mass channel and photo specialty to this new way of thinking. As this business grows, margins will increase.
L’Heureux: The set of solutions the industry offers will grow tremendously, but they are also going to be complicated; so they will turn to vendors like Noritsu and Lucidiom to deliver a more complete solution.
Giordano: We see only growth opportunities in the market. We think this industry is on the verge of some serious growth. If you look at the 2009 trends in specialty photo, in particular, finishing has been strong; and margins have continued to improve with more creative products. We’re ramping into the curve.
– BY GARY PAGEAU Be social at PMA 2010 u PMA offers many ways to interact using social media, with Twitter feeds during PMA 2010, the PMA 2010 Blog, and a PMA 2010 photo group on Flickr. Tell others you’re attending PMA 2010, and become “a fan” of PMA on Facebook. Also, check the hash tags #pma2010 on Twitter for all PMA 2010-related tweets, no matter who posts them. PMA Newsline is also the place to read PMA 2010 news and product trends. Links can be found on www.pmai.org and www.pmai.org/pma2010. PMA 2010 is the place to get ideas and talk with peers face to face about what they are doing and what new waters they are treading. Online communities can also provide a way to consistently network, no matter where you are. WIRELESS PHOTO SHARING: THE CASE FOR CAMERAS THAT MAKE CALLS When it comes to picture taking, very few people use just one device. In fact, according to the 2009 Camera/ Camcorder and Digital Imaging Survey, conducted by PMA, 77 percent of U.S. consumers use two or more devices for taking pictures. Camera phones are the second most-used picture taking device, used by 37 percent of consumers. On average, those consumers do 28 percent of their picture taking with camera phones.
From a technical point of view, both cameras and camera phones allow users to take, preview, and save pictures. Cameras generally have an edge in picture quality, due to their higher resolution, larger sensor size, and optical zoom – features not found on most camera phones. On the other hand, a feature all camera phones have – and most cameras don’t – is wireless connectivity, allowing instant sharing of pictures via messaging, email services, and internet uploads.
If so many consumers resort to camera phones so often for taking pictures, and wireless connectivity is what sets camera phones apart from cameras, one might conclude wireless connectivity (such as Wi-Fi) would be a very desirable feature on cameras; but research shows wireless connectivity might not be as important as it seems.
When asked why they used their camera phone to take pictures instead of their digital cameras, only 20 percent of consumers said they wanted to send those pictures to someone else or upload them online. Wireless connectivity was also only the twelfth feature desired in cameras by photo enthusiasts – after better high ISO performance, higher definition video, geotagging, and other features – as reported in another PMA report, the Rise of the Amateur.
So what do people really like about camera phones?
Being there any time consumers need to take a picture turns out to be the best feature of camera phones.
This is what camera phone users say they like most about them, as well as why the majority of people have taken pictures with them instead of their digital cameras.
Had they had their digital camera with them, they would have almost certainly taken the picture with that instead of their camera phones.
Being there at all times is a feature cameras could use. So instead of Wi-Fi, think of features that turn cameras into everyday accessories, such as a calendars and calculators. Since all these features already exist or could be built into camera phones, just give consumers a camera that makes calls. Yes, it would be bulkier than most slick camera phones, but not as bulky as having to carry both a camera and a phone.
– BY DIMITRIOS DELIS
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