MFP Weekend Industry Notes

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from various trade publications.

- Ricoh launched “Document Security & Management Services” (DSMS) through its factory direct branches, Ricoh Business Solutions (RBS):
- is a IBM/Ricoh joint venture
- Components are:
- Assessment & Deployment
- End User Services
- Managed Services
- Security
- Green Office
- Enterprise Content Management
- RBS apparently will resell IBM Managed Servers
- Mark Minshull was appointed as VP and Chief Technologist to head up program
- Aimed at large accounts
- When asked about dealer conflict, Mr. Minshull said; “I can’t guarantee it has no impact, but IBM is obviously in a lot of places already”



- Ricoh announced it will lease 13,320 square feet in the Golden Triangle complex in the Washington DC area for direct sales operations, and will next door to the GSA office of the federal government.

- Ricoh launched a new software solution for its MFPs, called Ricoh Reform PDC featuring:
- Actual created by FabSoft Inc.
- Base software sells for $3850.00 with annual support for $399/year
- Produces and distributes business forms from any host system, application or Ricoh MFP
- Once it captures print stream data, it place info into the form and automatically distributes it to the user’s selected print, e-mail, fax and archive system
- Reform Archive option $1455.00
- Reform Fax option $1875.00
- Reform E-mail option $1245.00
- With optional Reform Modular Object Scanning Technology (MOST) plug-in users are able to manage multiple forms on demand. End users can scan documents from Ricoh MFP to printers, fax machines, e-mail addresses and archives with specific options for each destination. $999 for each MFP
- Customizable interface on MFP
- Optional $1875 TagDoc feature adds bar codes to documents for workflow monitoring
- Optional $395 (per MFP) Document Authority Control (DAC) means that documents must be signed by certain parties before processing them

- Okidata launched an MFP version of the new C830 printer, called MC860 mfp offering:
- copy/print/fax/scan standard
- advertised as “only A3 color MFP that you can put on your desktop”
- 26ppm top speed color, 33ppm for b/w
- Scan to USB, PC, fax, FTP, folder and e-mail
- 33.6Kbps fax board standard
- Banner printing up to 48”
- Included document feeder holds maximum of 50 originals
- 5.8” color touch screen LCD control panel
- Comes standard with Nuance PaperPort and OmniPage OCR software
- Base MSRP of $3999.99
- Same paper supply options as C830 printer models
- Does NOT offer optional finishing
- Optional extended warranties do NOT include supplies

- In an article, Steve Stasiukonis, founder of Network Security Technology, details how he and his employees are able to break into banks and steal data. His company is a contractor that is hired to test the data security of its clients. The most common method they use is to rent a white minivan, place a magnetic sticker on the van of the appropriate copier dealership, and then enter the premises as copier repairmen. Once in, the unplug the copier from the network, and use its port to tap into the network to steal data.

- In a cost cutting move, Xerox announced it will cancel its annual Xerox PGA Classic golf tournament, normally held at the Irondequoit Country Club in New York.

- Apparently some low end Xerox color laser MFPs have an issue with scan to e-mail, where the MFP gives the attachment the same file name every time. Not only does this make it difficult on the recipient, and they may not know where the scan came from, but this also can cause problems with Microsoft Outlook, as once Outlook sees 100 e-mails with same file name, you no longer can open the attachment.

- At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer announced that in 2010 the company will replace Windows Vista operating system with Windows 7.

- Printer.com announced that in its tracking of printer supplies, it sees that retail pricing for cartridges has increased 3% to 6% during last year.

- PC World magazine conducted a survey of how end user’s felt about their desktop printers, and Canon was awarded with the highest marks for reliability, even above Hewlett Packard, who led in placements.

- Facing punishment by the federal government, and pubic outcry, Hewlett Packard stated it would stop one of its distributors, Redington Gulf, of selling its printers and MFPs into Iran.

- Study of color that the human eye can see by Bruce Lindbloom revealed that the most single visible colors humans can see is 2.4 million. In contrast, the average computer LCD monitor produces a maximum of 1.5 million.

- Sharp Electronics emphasized its relationship with Major League Baseball in a big way at International CES in Las Vegas, hosting seven big league stars at its booth and touting some new initiatives for the coming season:
- Sharp hosted autograph sessions at its booth the Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz, the New York Yankees' Joba Chamberlain, the Oakland A's' Matt Holliday, the New York Mets' John Maine, the Milwaukee Brewers' Prince Fielder and other players.
- Now Sharp, sponsors baseball's monthly "Player of the Month" awards, as well as the Hank Aaron Award.
- the company plans to be "very integrally involved" with the MLB Network, a 24-hour cable network that launched last week. Sharp, he said, has supplied a 108-inch LCD TV for the set of the network's flagship program.

- In Danbury, Connecticut, a total of $920 in counterfeit $20 bills made by a color copier was confiscated by city police Thursday in two arrests that were apparently connected.
- At 5:03 p.m. Thursday, police responded to a call from the owner of Sabrosura Restaurant at 268 Main St. on a possible counterfeit bill complaint -- three minutes after a similar call had come in to police headquarters from the Dunkin' Donuts at 101 White St.
- After investigating the two incidents, police said, they arrested Alan Kamba, 40, and Patricia Aeshilmann, 50.
- In that case, one of the city men, Jean DeOliveria, 20, of Fairfield Avenue, was allegedly caught Nov. 24 with about $7,000 in counterfeit currency in his truck in the parking lot of the New York Sports Club in Danbury, according to authorities.
- Authorities said he arranged to sell the cash to a New York man -- a man he didn't realize was a police informant.
- Following Thursday's incidents, Kamba was charged with first-degree forgery and sixth-degree larceny, while Aeshilmann was charged with second-degree forgery.
- Kamba was held on $100,000 bond and Aeshilmann on $5,000 bond. Both have a court date of Jan. 21.

- In 1865, President Lincoln created the Secret Service to track down counterfeiters, as at that time 33% of all currency was fake. Today the Secret Service estimates only 0.2% is fake.

- One Toshiba dealer buys another. James Imaging Systems of Brookfield, Wisconsin (suburb of Milwaukee), owned by Tom Tegeder, (a dealer for Toshiba, Savin, HP & KIP) acquired Marnett Business Center of Grafton, Wisconsin.

- Kodak announced that it sold one of its NexPress S3000 production color systems to Mr. Copy, a printshop in Dubai.

- A company named EcoFont has launched fonts that supposedly will use up to 20% less toner. The fonts are not solid, but instead are made from an array of small circles. The company claims you can still read the text, while reducing your costs and helping the environment.

-=Good Selling=-

- Former IKON executive, Dennis LeStrange, is now apparently running the North American branches of Neopost Mailing Systems.