Toshiba TEC: “People in Armenia are very open to new ideas”

Interview of General Manager CIS at Toshiba TEC, Kathrin Maske, to Mediamax and Itel.am

- Please outline the basic directions of activity of Toshiba TEC. How widely are your company’s services and production represented in Armenia?

- Toshiba TEC Germany Imaging Systems GmbH is part of the globally operating Toshiba TEC Corporation, which was formed in 1999 as a result of the merger of TEC Corporation, founded in 1950, and the copier/MFP Division of Toshiba Corporation. Toshiba Corporation is majority shareholder of Toshiba TEC Corporation and active in various high-tech industrial sectors.

Toshiba TEC was not active before in Armenia and just recently started its activities by signing a distribution agreement with an Armenian company “Task”.

“Task” was chosen by Toshiba Tec as our official distributor for our office products in Armenia, to sell and service our products at the highest level. “Task” was fully trained at our premises in our European headquarter in Neuss (Germany) and also locally in Yerevan by our specialists.

The base of our cooperation is mutual trust and partnership and we believe that we found in “Task” the right partner to successfully carry out our strategy in Armenia.

- Why you decided to enter Armenian market and how important is the whole region for Toshiba TEC?

- Before we start activities in a country, we carefully study the circumstances and possibilities. Armenia is a very interesting country for us, which economy is developing rapidly. But it took us some time to find the right partner, a process of which I’m happy to say, is finally finished.
Regarding other markets, as of today we are active in Georgia and now in Armenia. Regarding Azerbaijan, we are currently in the phase of market research.

- What are the basic advantages of Toshiba TEC in Armenia?

- Toshiba Tec has developed the e-CONCEPT strategy, which allows the end-user to control its document workflows and costs and to optimize it. The most of the companies are not aware about the real costs involved in document handling.

Up to 3 % of companies turnover is spent for output and content management. Many companies spent more money on printing, copying and scanning than they spent on research and development. The paper consumption is still increasing by 6-8 % each year. Often companies use more than 5 times more printers than they really need. What they need is a specialist for paper output, who can analyze the paper output systems and answers the questions about how much output you are really producing and what are the real costs.

Together with our partner “Task”, we analyzed the Armenian market and see a huge potential for this type of consultancy and services. The excellent products and reputation of Toshiba and the outstanding skills and knowledge of “Task” will be the winning combination in this market, I’m sure.

Toshiba TEC held a workshop in Budapest in mid March and the main goal was to share the experiences of the Toshiba e-CONCEPT among our partners. We had our distributors joining from all over Europe who provided us with very valuable feedback and input. Now we will sit together with our partner “Task” and discuss the consequences and possible changes for the Armenian market.

- What do you expect from the Armenian market?

- The motivation and enthusiasm which I met in the Armenian market leads me to very high expectation in terms of future market positioning but also innovation. People in Armenia are very open to new developments and ideas which is the optimal base for growth. And growth is our major goal here. But as Henry Ford said: “Getting together is the start, working together is the success!” So the next years will be filled with hard work from our side and our partner “Task” to make us as successful as in other markets.