Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A Inc. has announced it will transition the Muratec America brand this year. Muratec was acquired by Konica Minolta in 2017. At that time, the company contracted for use of the Muratec brand for five years, and will therefore retire the brand this coming year.

The move will also serve to take advantage of operational efficiencies from streamlining Konica Minolta's product lines. While the Muratec brand will be officially discontinued, all remaining Muratec-branded inventories will be sold until depleted.

"When we acquired Muratec, the intention was always to make them part of the company and after five years retire the brand, rather than maintaining two separate product lines," said Sam Errigo, COO, Konica Minolta. "That time has come, and as we review our business and the projected efficiencies to be realized, we believe this move will have a significant and positive impact on our bottom line."

Konica Minolta is committed to continuing to deliver the high-quality sales and maintenance business Muratec has provided since its acquisition, and will fully support its dealers and their customers during the transition. In the coming days, Konica Minolta will be contacting all Muratec dealers regarding next steps based on location, market needs and dealer representation.

In other news, Konica Minolta has announced a joint entry in IDC's first-annual Future Enterprise Best in Future of Work North America Awards with its IT services division, All Covered, and Southwest Tennessee Community College (SWTCC) has been named a finalist. The entry, SWTCC's Digital Twin Distance Teaching/Learning Platform, presented an initiative to retain and grow its student body.

IDC's Best in Future of Work North America Awards recognize that globally, organizations are experiencing seismic changes in where and how they work: how technology is changing work culture, digital and physical workspaces, and the ways in which humans and machines collaborate to get work done. The new award program was designed to showcase implemented initiatives in North America that display an agile and scalable approach to work to drive new value and competitive differentiation for an organization.

All Covered and SWTCC's Digital Twin Distance Teaching/Learning Platform was named a finalist in the category of Space, which required for "the digital work environment to be intelligent and dynamic, connected and secure, and independent of a physical place or specific time of day." IDC looked for corporate facilities to leverage technology and intelligence to create a safe and healthy environment.

The intention of the SWTCC Digital Twin Distance Learning/Teaching Platform was to facilitate remote instruction capable of mimicking — as closely as possible — an in-person classroom experience, which would effectively enable the simultaneous, real-time instruction of students in both physical and virtual classroom environments. Since there were no off-the-shelf solutions available that could deliver on budget, SWTCC and All Covered set out to develop the brand-new system. Working with multiple vendors and technology design engineers, the "Digital Twin" platform was created by integrating two large interactive touch panels for sharing teaching content and camera feeds, along with two high-quality cameras electronically "paired" to each course's Zoom session.

"Southwest Tennessee Community College has worked very hard with All Covered and our other vendor partners to design a distance-learning technology platform that will facilitate and replicate the real-time 'in-class' experience for students who may be attending remotely," said Dr. David Rosenthal, deputy chief information officer for information technology services, SWTCC. "We are proud to know that the Digital Twin platform is entirely unique to Tennessee and the mid-south, and we see the possibility of this project ultimately increasing our enrollment and adding value to the instruction provided to our students."

"The Future of Work Awards finalists exemplify the ways in which digital transformation is not only changing where and how we work from augmented work processes to hybrid work environments that continuously evolve work culture," said Amy Loomis, research director for the future of work, IDC. "Each submission delivered thoughtful, measurable and meaningful results and provides a practical framework for future initiatives."

"We are thrilled that our platform and SWTCC have been recognized by such a prestigious organization," said Judy Nguyen, national teaching & learning consultant, All Covered. 

"Any solution of this level requires hardware, design, installation and integration, and we are proud that All Covered's expertise was able to help SWTCC continue classes through the pandemic," said Jon Clemons, national practice manager — education IT services, All Covered.

IDC's 2021 Best in Future of Work North America Awards will be presented to winning initiatives at an awards ceremony in February 2022.