Ricoh Americas Extend Services Offerings to Include EMC Syncplicity

Ricoh Americas Corporation is giving its customers a better way to access information through an expanded partnership with EMC Corporation.

Ricoh will extend its services offerings to include EMC Syncplicity, an enterprise file synchronization and sharing solution, which will serve as another tool to help Ricoh customers improve workflow and make information accessible to those who need it to run their business – known as information mobility.

This agreement expands Ricoh’s increasingly strategic partnership with EMC’s enterprise content division, a longtime partner providing Ricoh and its customers with content management solutions including document capture and document management.

Syncplicity is a subscription service that gives workforces all the mobility and flexibility of personal cloud file-sharing solutions, such as Dropbox, with additional capabilities to help satisfy IT’s growing concerns surrounding security, administration, control, enterprise visibility and audit trails for compliance. Syncplicity is an alternative to using FTP sites, which can be cumbersome and offer limited administrative controls, as well as email to transfer large files, whose size restrictions often block photos and video sharing.

“At Ricoh, we’re focused on helping customers manage their ever-changing workflow needs in today’s dynamic work environment,” said Jason Dizzine, director, product marketing, Ricoh. “Having the ability to seamlessly access and share digital files across multiple computing platforms is one essential component.“

Like personal cloud storage services, Syncplicity provides workers with access to documents, files and shared folders from their PCs, tablets, smartphones, and Web browsers both inside and outside of the office. Workers can keep files where they are and share them with one click – no extra dragging and dropping. The software automatically syncs newest versions across all authorized users and devices.

Syncplicity, however, also helps solve a growing security threat posed by the increasing use of personal cloud storage services. These consumer-class services offer IT little to no visibility or control, and put sensitive data at risk. For example, users who leave a company can potentially take proprietary information with them.

More than 8 in 10 (84%) of IT professionals surveyed by Harris Poll in 2014 agreed that: “adoption of free file synchronization and sharing products by employees creates a potential security problem.”

Ricoh’s deepening partnership with EMC helps customers address this issue. Syncplicity offers industry security, administration and control features to help keep files secure and organizations in compliance. IT can manage read, write and access permissions folder by folder and document by document. IT can also remotely wipe corporate data from workers personal devices if they leave their jobs. With Syncplicity’s policy-driven StorageVaults, file storage can be in the cloud, on premise or in a hybrid cloud (a combination of both).

That’s why Ricoh and EMC are addressing the problem.

Jeetu Patel, GM, Syncplicity business unit said: “The new mobile workforce is demanding ways to easily access, share and collaborate on files on all their devices. To enhance mobile productivity and prevent files from leaking into the consumer-oriented file sharing solutions, enterprise file sync and share solutions need to be able to bridge the gap between files no matter where they live – both digital and non-digital. We are excited to be working with Ricoh, a clear leader in helping businesses gain control of both digital and physical documents in the workplace, as they deliver innovative productivity and file security solutions to both their own workforce and to their customers.“