Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announced new Managed IT and Managed Print Services program for its Dealer community. The program provides Dealers with new growth opportunities by allowing them to offer comprehensive print and IT services along with award-winning products.

Under the new Managed IT and Print Services program, Dealers will be able to offer customers desktop management, email security, server and network monitoring and 24x7 client help desk support from All Covered, a division of Konica Minolta focused on delivering high?performance Managed IT Services to small? and medium?sized businesses. As part of the program, Dealers will also be able to offer comprehensive managed print service (MPS) capabilities that now extend to enterprise accounts as part of Konica Minolta’s Enterprise Optimized Print Services (OPS) program. The new technology platform for Enterprise OPS is a result of a collaborative development agreement with Pharos Systems International, a leading provider of enterprise print management solutions and Konica Minolta.

“Today’s news demonstrates the next-steps in Konica Minolta’s growth strategy by expanding our leading technology and print services to our Dealers,” said Sam Errigo, Senior Vice President, Business Intelligence Services, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. “With services provided by All Covered and backed by Konica Minolta, Dealers and customers can count on a consistent level of service and capabilities nationwide from a company they trust. Konica Minolta dealers will be able to gain a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace with new service portfolios designed to provide cost-effective management of IT and print environments.”

Later this year, Dealers participating in the program will be able to offer Konica Minolta’s Optimized Print Services (OPS) on a national level for enterprise accounts. Leveraging technology from Pharos, OPS will deliver true enterprise-level managed print services for environments ranging from the office to central reprographics departments (CRD) and commercial printers. The new and feature-rich functionality provides visual updates on a worldwide basis for monitored networked MFPs, printers, servers and routers that can be accessed from an iPad, Tablet PC, or any web browser. Other new features include comprehensive management reporting, applications reporting, end user printing patterns and drag-and-drop floor planning tools.

“Konica Minolta has established a long term strategy to serve their customers’ printing needs worldwide – whether in the distributed fleet, the print/copy center, or with externally sourced print. They have found in Pharos a partner with a shared vision, the technology and the subject matter expertise to execute their strategy. Konica Minolta respects Pharos’ independent perspective associated with multi-vendor solutions in the MPS space,” stated Kevin Pickhardt, CEO of Pharos Systems.