Konica Minolta "Steps Ahead" at 2005 ImageAmericas Business Conference & Expo

Technology Showcase and Workshops Focus on Leading Color and Production Technologies

RAMSEY, N.J. -- May 3, 2005 -- Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) today kicked off its annual ImageAmericas Business Conference and Expo in Nashville, Tenn. Themed "Step Ahead", this year's conference will feature product and solution offerings, outline the corporate strategy for the upcoming year, and provide a wide-range of educational seminars geared towards helping the dealer community increase revenue and more effectively meet customer needs for color in the general office, and production print. The event brings Konica Minolta dealers from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and Latin America.

"ImageAmericas is an outstanding opportunity for our dealers to come together, share their insights, learn about new products and marketing strategy, and begin the fiscal year with renewed enthusiasm," said Jun Haraguchi, president and CEO, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, U.S.A. "We rely on the continued enthusiasm of our dealers and this show helps us showcase our commitment to supporting our dealers and customers with leading-edge products, solutions, programs and training, and to making Konica Minolta a company that they can grow with."

"We are building a company that everybody wants to work for and a product line that everybody wants to sell," continued Haraguchi.

"Step Ahead" -- A Strategy for Growth

Themed "Step Ahead", this year's ImageAmericas will center on Konica Minolta's commitment to providing its dealers with the technology, training and support that will help them excel in serving the needs of their customers, successfully grow their business, and in turn, reinforce Konica Minolta's leadership position in the industry.

"As the first full fiscal year following the merger, 2004 was a year of preparation for Konica Minolta. We are now heading into our year of expansion in 2005. With the hard work of our employees and dealers in North America, a successful 2005 will lead us into a period of significant growth," said Shoei Yamana, executive director and general manager, MFP Sales and Marketing Worldwide Headquarters, Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. "To reach this period of significant growth -- achieving our fiscal goals and our goal to become the leader in customer satisfaction in the industry -- we have put a series of programs in place to create new value in our products, technology and productivity, and set a new value mark for our customers."

ImageAmericas Conference Programs

The ImageAmericas Conference will feature three primary programs: a Technology Showcase featuring the current product and solutions offering from the company; a Production Print workshop that will equip dealers with a business plan for successfully selling into the production market; and a series of workshops and seminars by Konica Minolta executives and product specialists, as well as business partners, customers and dealer partners, that will focus on products, service and solutions.

Technology Showcase

The Technology Showcase highlights the versatility of Konica Minolta's core product offerings. The showcase will be broken down into the two primary market focuses for the company -- Workgroup and Production Print. The following products and software applications will be highlighted:

Workgroup Area

-- bizhub C450 - featuring the new bizhub OP technology with the fax option and the latest PageScope software for document scanning and storage (PageScope Workware). The three major components of bizhub OP are the bizhub Architecture, the Emperon Print System and bizhub Open API.

-- bizhub C350 - highlighting the combination of cost-effective color output, and advanced scanning functionality and document management with the Unity software suite

-- DIS Products - including the PS 5000C Color Book Scanner, PS 7000 Monochrome Book Scanner, KIP Wide Format Printer and the Miru Scanner for check scanning

-- Konica Minolta Printing Solutions Products - a wide-range of desktop monochrome and color printers, including the PagePro 9100N Network Printer, magicolor 7300 EN Color Laser Printer, magicolor 2430 DL Color Laser Printer, magicolor 2450 EN Color Laser Printer, and the magicolor 5450 EN Color Laser Printer

-- Monochrome MFPs with Solutions - Konica Minolta's lineup of monochrome devices will be featured with a variety of third-party and Konica Minolta-developed solutions, including the: bizhub 7145 with DocuBreeze; bizhub 7255 with powerful finishing options; bizhub Di5510 with AHT's OneRIP2 print controller; and the bizhub Di3510F with Rebus Recollect.

Production Print Area

-- bizhub PRO 1050 - featuring 105ppm output, production-level paper handling and advanced finishing functionality, the bizhub PRO 1050 will be shown with a variety of third-party software solutions.

-- bizhub PRO C500 - with 50ppm color output, superior image quality and a wide-range of finishing options and media support, the bizhub PRO C500 will be shown with two new image controller options, highlighting the device's versatility and effectiveness in all markets.

-- bizhub PRO 7085 and bizhub PRO Di850 - these award-winning monochrome production workhorses will feature with PageScope Remote Care (PSRC) for remote diagnostics and PageScope Net Care for network output device management.

In addition to this expansive technology showcase, Konica Minolta will also be previewing its lineup of new color and monochrome products that will be launched in the coming year.

Production Print Focus

The launch of the bizhub PRO 1050 and bizhub PRO C500, as well as strategic partnerships with third-party software providers, has opened up the production print market as a significant revenue opportunity for Konica Minolta's dealer channel. With this new opportunity comes the challenge of learning a more complex work environment, the need for advanced technical knowledge, and the development of a new business plan for selling this level of equipment.

To arm their dealers with the knowledge necessary to succeed in this marketplace, Konica Minolta has designated a full day towards teaching its dealers about the marketplace, outlining the steps that can be taken to compete in this market, and developing a business plan that can be executed on when they leave the meeting. Morning sessions geared for all dealer personnel offer an overview of the production print market, as well as address specific vertical markets: central reprographic departments (CRD), data centers, and commercial print.

Following the morning sessions, dealer personnel will be broken into four audiences -- dealer principals, sales managers, service managers, and application specialists/systems analysts/color specialists -- where they will complete their business plan. The four tracks will focus on: Production Print's ROI Potential (Dealer Principals); Are You Ready to Sell Production Print? (Sales Managers); New Clients, New Services, New Challenges? (Service Managers); and Variable Information Print (Specialists).

In-Depth Seminars

As part of the Konica Minolta's effort to provide more support than ever before, Konica Minolta executives and product specialists, as well as business partners, customers and dealer partners, will conduct in-depth seminars at the meeting focusing on products, service and solutions. The seminars will be broken into four tracks with content geared towards principals, service, sales and application specialists/systems analysts. Topics will include: The Four Cornerstones of Service Profitability - Transitioning from Monochrome to Color; Document Lifecycle Analysis - What You Need to Know to Expand Your Business; Power Up Your Workflow with PageScope; Digital Solutions in the Engineering and Education Markets; Document Security and MFPs - How Secure are Your Customers' Confidential Documents; What the Numbers Really Mean - How First Call Effectiveness Equals Improved Revenues; and Monochrome to Color - The Brilliant Transition!.

About Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc., offers a broad range of multifunctional digital imaging solutions inspired by its bizhub(TM) brand of powerful solutions that serve as the central resource for document scanning, in-house printing, copying, faxing and electronic archiving and distribution. From high-quality color and monochrome bizhub systems for workgroups and small offices, to advanced high-volume bizhub PRO(TM) production printing systems for large corporations and print-for-pay services, Konica Minolta is leading the industry toward integrated, networked hardware/software solutions that are more simple, reliable, and cost-effective. Complementing its bizhub solutions, Konica Minolta also offers desktop laser printers, microform digital imaging systems, wide-format printers and scanning systems for specialized applications.