people connected together
change for better
By now, most organizations are aware that diversity makes business sense. A McKinsey study stated that their findings “were startlingly consistent: for companies ranking in the top quartile of executive-board diversity, ROEs were 53 percent higher, on average, than they were for those in the bottom quartile. At the same time, EBIT margins at the most diverse companies were 14 percent higher, on average, than those of the least diverse companies (exhibit).”
At Ricoh, we believe that a diverse workplace — one that accurately reflects the communities where we do business will make us a stronger organization, and one that’s better able to meet our customers’ needs. We are committed to creating a diverse organization – but that’s not where it ends for us.
We are empowered by our partners, technology and customers allowing us to imagine beyond today and our own diversity goals.
According to the American Community Survey, just 30.5 percent of Americans with a visual disability had full-time, full-year employment in 2017. At a time when Americans with disabilities are nearly three times as likely as those without a disability to never go online, making connectivity and collaboration accessible and intuitive is vital to bringing people of all abilities into the digital workplace.
Ricoh USA, Amazon Web Services and an Ivy League university have partnered on a pilot program to deliver an accessible, easy-to-use solution that could benefit all members of the campus community, ultimately enabling them to work smarter, and more seamlessly.
RICOH Intelligent Voice Control delivers intuitive voice-activated controls for Ricoh’s intelligent devices. The pilot program of these MFPs is currently underway and leverages Amazon’s AWS Alexa for Business service combined with Ricoh’s Smart Integration Platform technology. The university community will benefit from the enhanced accessibility and collaboration features this platform will deliver.
“Ricoh firmly believes in making education accessible for all, regardless of disability. When this university approached us with the idea of voice controls for visually impaired users, we were excited to play a role in the important work of helping open the door for anyone with more diverse abilities,” said Steven Burger, Head of Engineering and Vice President, Portfolio Management, Ricoh USA, Inc. “This technology has the potential to change the way millions of people collaborate and learn – and it has a myriad of office applications, as well. With the introduction of voice enablement, we’re expanding the ways our customers interact with their work. That means streamlining and ease of use, so people with different workstyles operating in the same environment can all get the most out of their Ricoh technology. In a results-driven world full of fast-turn demands, voice controls’ flexibility and efficiency are immense value-adds.”

 

imagine. change.  More than a tagline, it’s what drives our relationships in the present and what we use as our guide to the future.  The future we imagine leverages technology for diversity and inclusion.
To learn more about Ricoh’s Dynamic Workplace Intelligence, visit this webpage or follow the company’s social media channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.