Ricoh Agenda "What Happened"?

"A Driving Force" was the theme for Ricohs National Sales Meeting in Dallas, Texas.

First things first...my take on the meeting...curious, Ricoh was making every attempt to assure their dealers that they are their main concern and that there will be no more "new points" of distribution. They spoke about the consolidation of Lanier Direct to Ricoh Direct and also the merger of Lanier and Gestetner Dealers to for a new National Network that will distribute Lanier Branded Systems and Solutions.

I had the opportunity to speak to many dealer principals and sales people, some are not affected with the direct operations and most are, still the biggest complaint is how can Direct Branches sell for less than what Dealers are buying for!

Sam Ichioka called for a "Balance among all our Channels and Brands", I felt that he was referring to a level field of pricing for all. Tom Salierno, then explained about the dropping of the Gestetner brand name in lieu of Lanier and stated that Lanier had more than double the brand name of Lanier (Gee, wonder if I can buy the brand name of Gestetner and import MFP's from China and start my own business). At this point Tom then dropped the bombshell than Effective May 31st, 2007 that Global is no longer an Authorized Dealer for Ricoh and they are to be considered a competitor! Also stressed from Tom was equitable support for all brands and channels.

However, some of the scuttlebutt on the floor was that dealers that are affected by direct branches may band together to find out why dealers are losing business to direct branches. I agree, as a dealer rep, I see systems being sold for less than our max dealer cost, how is that and why is that? Maybe it's time Ricoh made the branches accountable for profit, seems to be dealers are subsidizing the Direct Branches. I could be wrong, however something is not right with the ship.

Moving on, I was very impressed with some of the new products to be delivered some time in the near future. A new C2000SPF, 20 ppm in color and monochrome, this will allow us to have a lower cost color mfp under the C2500spf (killer box). The new line of wide formats, a new 4ppm, new 6ppm and a printer only version (it's about time), all of the units will be equipped with an embedded control that will lower cost and improved print and copy quality that will improve halftones. A new 55ppm & 70ppm color MFP is coming to a location near you in the near future! I must have dozed off, because I can't remember the when this will be introduced (stayed out late the night before and had a few too many sarsaparilla's!)

Steve Berger's group will be launching two new websites, one called the "Jagged Edge" in reference to HP's Edgeline technology. I'm sure we'll have all of the guts and glory of this unit in the near future. Another site is "X marks the spot", you got it direct info to cut Big X down a notch or two.

Moving on there were three seminars: Differtiating Your Business in a New Era: The MFP as a Document Portal, New Products and Strategies: Expand your business....Grow MIF, Revenue and Profit, plus a seminar with @ Remote that seeing is believing.

In reference to the @ Remote seminar, a few people that I spoke to are still very skeptical of allowing all of the information to go to Ricoh servers first and then to the Dealers, Jayson just wanted to know who owns the information if you are getting @ Remote for FREE! My thoughts and his were it is our information, however he thought the idea of Ricoh knowing IP addresses and volume information was not the ideal situation.

All in all if I were to rate the show from start to finish on a scale of one to ten, I would have to rate this as a 4 (Hey, did I miss breakfast Friday morning!, where was it?). I have been at five agendas in the last eight years, and thought that Dallas was ok, the event at Cowboys Stadium was a wash out with he weather however we did get to meet Drew Pearson (#88) and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, food was ok, however the event was cut short by early severe thunderstorm that rolled through about 7:30PM and delayed the transportation to the stadium. Once we got there, we had about two hours and then back to the Hotel. I was also disappointed that there were no regional meetings where we could all get together and review the regional awards and meet some of the other dealers in the region. Golf, Botanical Gardens, JFK Tour and Skeet shooting was the order of the day for Thursday afternoon, I opted out and took a ride to Plano, Texas to look at the new Samsung 45ppm box (I'll have more on that in a few days). The food was terrific and the accommodations were first class at the Hyatt. I guess I was hoping for a few more in depth seminars on how to develop some new sales strategies.

The expo was filled with almost 20 different vendors and count em, three different leasing companies. I saw the new 1180 fax, the new 45ppm and 55ppm AIO dedicated laser printers along with MONSTER MAYHEM! Steve Berger's group rocks and they have pulse of the competition! The info and they way they present it to reps is the best! Plus, get this we're going to "podcasts" for most of the products and the Mayhems in the future. My son, has and IPOD, and I guess I either be grabbing his or buying my own. Can't wait for the "podcasts" this will be the ultimate sales tool.

Well it's late still have to upload pictures to the RFG site, not tonight however.