Change and Transformation in the Private Sector
Ricoh’s journey from market leader in printing and documentation to major new arrival in the digital services sector is a prime example of successful reinvention. The company knew a change of direction was imperative, and the explosion in demand for digital created by the outbreak of COVID-19 emphatically confirmed it was making the right strategic choices.
Ricoh underwent a major digital transformation to ready itself for its new sector. That included a timely acquisition programme, comprising 17 specialist digital businesses of different sizes and locations across Europe, to introduce the complementary skills and technologies the business required.
The priority then was to ensure that the right internal systems were in place to quickly assimilate the new businesses into the existing organisation. Ricoh first introduced a single Cloud tech platform provided by Oracle, and then engaged KPMG to support its strategic business vision and growth strategy. The firm worked in close collaboration with the client to standardise Ricoh’s operating model and harmonise the processes, risk and controls, people and ways of working at the heart of the organisation.
The first step was to help Ricoh create a clear overarching vision, for which it achieved full support from the company’s leadership across Europe, including the newly acquired businesses. That alignment was secured through an extensive series of interviews, workshops and leadership visions sessions – all of them virtual – to explain Ricoh’s strategic goals and the shared future ahead.
KPMG then supported Ricoh in building a new operating model to harmonise the range of different systems it had acquired into a seamless whole. The goal was to ensure that all its processes, risks and controls would be industry-leading across finance, sales and supply and procurement operations – driving smarter and more agile ways of working, a clear view of common activities, and best-practice delivery methods, efficiencies and optimisation.
This process was underpinned by KPMG’s Powered Enterprise solution, a functional transformation solution that provides clients with a pre-configured model answer for adopting leading practice across the business. The solution focuses on the organisational design, technology and operating models used within key business functions and redesigns them as required. It taps into advanced processes, implementation methods and tools, leading to improved performance, enhanced agility and better value for businesses. It can also accommodate specific local circumstances and evolving customer needs.
The first deployment of the new operating model went live in Italy at the end of 2021, and it will be rolled out across Europe over the next three years. Within a very short space of time, Ricoh has moved from a product-based market leader to a thriving digital services company, the sector of tomorrow. It now has a significant operation across Europe, housing some of the best talent and expertise in the industry and state-of-art digital solutions for ever more sophisticated customers.
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