23 October 2008, Pages – 33

Canon Inc. (Canon) is a manufacturer of digital multifunction devices (MFDs), plain paper copying machines, laser beam printers, inkjet printers, cameras and steppers. Group’s products are divided into three product groups: business machines, cameras, and optical and other products. The business machines product group is divided into three sub-groups consisting of office imaging products, computer peripherals and business information products. The office imaging products consist mainly of office network digital MFDs, color network digital MFDs, office copying machines and personal-use copying machines. Computer peripherals include laser beam printers, inkjet printers and scanners. It manufactures and markets digital cameras and film cameras. Canon's optical and other products include semiconductor production equipment, mirror projection mask aligners for liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, broadcasting equipment, medical equipment, large format printers, and electronic components.

Industry trends and drivers have a direct or indirect affect on IT spending of all companies operating within an industry. For example – increase in sourcing from low cost countries might influence Canon to relook at their supply chains, resulting in selling opportunities for SCM solutions, collaboration tools etc. Thus, we can conclude that industry spending on any particular IT product or service is an important indicator of the criticality of that product or service for the industry. Based on the IT spend information available in ‘TechNavio^TM’, we have computed a ‘criticality score’ for various IT products and services, for Canon.

Various company level developments and events are important indicators of selling opportunities and drive the sales of IT products and services. For example – an acquisition by Canon might result in opportunities for IT migration and integration services. By tracking these sales drivers (using ‘TechNavio^TM’), we have arrived at a demand score for each product and service.

Through an in-depth analysis of industry trends and drivers and company level developments and events, we have made the ‘IT Selling Opportunities Map’ for hardware, software and IT services for Canon. These maps have been divided into four zones representing Level I, Level II and Level III opportunity areas. Level I opportunity areas have the highest scores and hence, there is a high probability that Canon will buy these products and services. Level II opportunity areas have lower scores and hence, lower probability to sell to Canon Level III opportunities have the lowest scores and hence, unlikely to sell to Canon.

The report is meant for IT vendors and intends to help them identify selling opportunities within the company. Further, the identified sales drivers can be used to penetrate these accounts or increase current share of the customer's wallet. Also, the report lists key IT spending decision makers, which will enables salesperson to directly contact the key executives within the company.