Dubai: Canon opened an innovation centre in Dubai to boost its B2B (business-to-business) offering and provide a one-stop shop for all the imaging software and hardware solutions as a service.
It is Canon’s second centre in the Europe, Middle East and Africa after Germany.
Anurag Agrawal, managing director of Canon Middle East, said that the centre is an evolved showroom concept, and Canon has chosen the UAE to develop the centre to its full potential and establish it as a model for showrooms of the future.
“It provides businesses and other entities with a live demonstration and also assist in offering a manageable system while assuring cost saving, added security, and opening new communications scenarios for end-consumers,” he said.
He added that the company spends 8 per cent of its annual revenue on R&D (research and development) every year.
The company has been ranked in the top five positions globally in terms of number of US patents signed consistently for the past five years.
Agarwal said that one of the most striking findings is the widespread lack of awareness on how to go about digitisation, or digital transformation, and the cost associated with increased printing and scanning.
Canon recently commissioned a report called ‘Office Insights’ to understand how businesses handle documents. The report revealed that 70 per cent of respondents believe printing and copying documents are essential. It also confirmed that businesses are turning to digitisation for efficiency.
“We have dedicated studios that can be used for product shoots, including augmented and virtual realities, and businesses can cut down their expenses and pay as they use,” he said.
Ammar Al Malek, executive director of Dubai Internet City (DIC), said that DIC has Fortune 500 companies but only less than 10 have innovation centres in Dubai, Canon being one of them.
He said that its investment to set up a centre proves that Dubai is the location of choice for established and emerging innovators.
