BizAims

IKON Office Solutions was known as Alco Standard Corporation prior to its name change in January 1997. Since the 1960s Alco was a holding company with operations in a variety of industries including steel, gift and glassware, food service, aerospace, paper and office products. By 1992, Alco was a distribution company with two business groups—paper and office products. The paper business was spun off to Alco shareholders in December 1996.

Alco/IKON aggressively acquired businesses from fiscal 1994 to 1998, including traditional office equipment products and service providers, outsourcing and imaging services companies and technology products and services organizations. Beginning in fiscal 1999, IKON ceased its acquisition activity in North America and began to transform from a decentralized holding company of more than 450 acquisitions to an integrated operating company focused on document management products and services.

Beginning in 2000, IKON’s vision was to become the largest and strongest independent document management channel in the world. This vision was accomplished through three strategic priorities:

Growth – IKON invested in resources and programs to capture new market opportunities, retain and expand its customer base, and grow our market share in Europe through a city expansion strategy.

Operational Leverage – IKON improved efficiencies across the organization, including migrating its IT systems onto one platform and increasing competitiveness through continued process improvements.

Capital Strategy – IKON built a strong financial foundation through debt reduction, share repurchase, and working capital improvement initiatives.

In 2008, IKON was acquired by Ricoh Company, Ltd. As a Ricoh company, IKON leverages the manufacturing and engineering expertise of a global technology innovator, with the experience and reach of its locally based sales and services teams, to provide end-to-end solutions and one of the industry’s broadest portfolios of document management services.

Ricoh is a global leader in digital office solutions, and Ricoh technology is designed to empower businesses to improve critical processes, keep information secure, ensure compliance and promote environmental sustainability while reducing the total cost of ownership.

IKON and Ricoh’s strengths complement each other, creating an industry powerhouse that can push innovation and customer service to new heights. The combined strength of IKON and Ricoh creates opportunities to expand our capabilities, strengthen our service offerings, bring new solutions to market faster, and work harder to help customers reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Source: ikon.com;