{"id":8339,"date":"2014-10-22T09:57:24","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T13:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=8339"},"modified":"2014-10-22T10:06:28","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T14:06:28","slug":"between-the-lines-overcoming-obstacles-to-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/editors-blog\/2014\/10\/between-the-lines-overcoming-obstacles-to-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Between the Lines: Overcoming Obstacles to Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vintage<\/a>A column in last Sunday\u2019s New York Times <\/em>Sunday Review section, \u201cWhen Uber and Airbnb Meet the Real World,\u201d hones in on the regulatory obstacles faced by tech start ups who are creating on demand apps for people who need something with people willing to do that job.<\/p>\n

Since we\u2019re all in the technology business, albeit office imaging, and the apps showing up in this industry don\u2019t make for an apples to apples comparison, I still think this column is worth referencing. Especially after reading the pull quote, \u201cThe belief that problems could be solved by software was the first wrong assumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although I\u2019m using that quote out of context I\u2019m sure we can all come up with plenty of examples in our industry where this is true. In context, when referring to Uber and Airbnb, the Times<\/em> columnist, Claire Cain Miller, writes, \u201cThe belief that problems can be solved without involving people is probably why many of these people did not meet with regulators and officials before starting services in new cities. And it has come back to haunt them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t seem to be the case with a couple of new apps from Kyocera\u2014CentraQ PRO and CentraQ\u2014introduced earlier this week (See story below.). Not that Kyocera needed to meet with regulators, but before rolling out these apps, it did \u2018involve\u2019 people.<\/p>\n

As Danielle Wolowitz, senior director, product planning and product marketing at KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc. noted in a press briefing earlier this week, \u201cWe\u2019ve gone out to some of our dealer council members who have installed it with their customers and taken that feedback and incorporated it into the product prior to launch. We want to ensure that all the business applications developed by Kyocera have been vetted through our channel partners to make sure they truly are what are customers are looking for in their environment. And we value that feedback prelaunch to ensure that the launched product goes out at the highest level possible for Kyocera.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going back to the Times <\/em>column on involving people, Julie Samuels, executive director of Engine, which advises start-ups on policy, said, \u201cThis libertarian, independent streak that runs through Silicon Valley compounds the issue. The good side is, it created this environment where people came together and made crazy amazing stuff that changed the world. The flip side is, sometimes it makes it difficult for those companies to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Times column concludes, \u2018That leads to yet another principle shared by both older and newer tech companies: Regulators are little more than roadblocks standing in the way of innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the office imaging industry expands its scope and reach, and innovation continues, let\u2019s consider ourselves lucky to be part of an industry that is creating \u201ccrazy amazing stuff\u201d that is changing the world even if on a small scale.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A column in last Sunday\u2019s New York Times Sunday Review section, \u201cWhen Uber and Airbnb Meet the Real World,\u201d hones in on the regulatory obstacles faced by tech start ups who are creating on demand apps for people who need something with people willing to do that job. Since we\u2019re all in the technology business, albeit office imaging, and the apps showing up in this industry don\u2019t make for an apples to apples comparison, I still think this column is worth referencing. Especially after reading the pull quote, \u201cThe belief that problems could be solved by software was the first wrong assumption.\u201d Although I\u2019m using that quote out of context I\u2019m sure we can all come up with plenty of examples in our industry where this is true. In context, when referring to Uber and Airbnb, the Times columnist, Claire Cain Miller, writes, \u201cThe belief that problems can be solved without involving people is probably why many of these people did not meet with regulators and officials before starting services in new cities. And it has come back to haunt them.\u201d That doesn\u2019t seem to be the case with a couple of new apps from Kyocera\u2014CentraQ PRO and CentraQ\u2014introduced earlier this week (See story below.). Not that Kyocera needed to meet with regulators, but before rolling out these apps, it did \u2018involve\u2019 people. As Danielle Wolowitz, senior director, product planning and product marketing at KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc. noted in a press briefing earlier this week, \u201cWe\u2019ve gone out to some of our dealer council members who have installed it with their customers and taken that feedback and incorporated it into the product prior to launch. We want to ensure that all the business applications developed by Kyocera have been vetted through our channel partners to make sure they truly are what are customers are looking for in their environment. And we value that feedback prelaunch to ensure that the launched product goes out at the highest level possible for Kyocera.\u201d Going back to the Times column on involving people, Julie Samuels, executive director of Engine, which advises start-ups on policy, said, \u201cThis libertarian, independent streak that runs through Silicon Valley compounds the issue. The good side is, it created this environment where people came together and made crazy amazing stuff that changed the world. The flip side is, sometimes it makes it difficult for those companies to engage.\u201d As the Times column concludes, \u2018That leads to yet another principle shared by both older and newer tech companies: Regulators are little more than roadblocks standing in the way of innovation.\u201d As the office imaging industry expands its scope and reach, and innovation continues, let\u2019s consider ourselves lucky to be part of an industry that is creating \u201ccrazy amazing stuff\u201d that is changing the world even if on a small scale. Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,1638],"tags":[1840,1839,1786,225,328],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8339"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8341,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8339\/revisions\/8341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}