Ink / Toner Coverage Calculator

Ink / Toner Coverage Calculator was a recent topic on the Print4Pay Hotel Ricoh Family Group Message Boards.

One of our members from South Africa asked "Hi, i'm looking for an EXCEL Ink/Toner Coverage Calculator - anyone who can share one with me? Thanks"

In response another one of our members suggested "I don't think I understand your question. You want an Excel Spreadsheet that will... do what?

If you are looking for a program that measures actual ink/toner coverage, this one is nice:

APFill Ink Coverage Calculator is a unique tool for print shops and home users. Now you can optimize pages you print to spend less ink, toner and money. Ink and toner usage is usually described by printer manufacturers as so many pages of A4 using 5% coverage. APFill Ink Coverage Calculator helps you calculate ink and toner coverage on the page before printing. When you use APFill Ink Coverage you can estimate your cost more accurately. APFill will help you to estimate price based on paper density, paper format and original color density, so you can optimize pages you print and spend less ink, toner and money.

You can download a free 30 day trial, I'm gonna give it a go to see how it works. Here's the link

http://avpsoft.com/products/apfill/

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "A Week in The Life" John Carr

About a week ago I asked some members of the P4P Hotel to please post a blog for the Series "Copier Sales" A Week in The Life" John Carr from South Florida sent me this, so I'm posting for all. It's a good read and well put together!

A day in life Tuesday…….

Here it is Tuesday morning the alarm goes off at 4:30am. I make some coffee and head quietly to my office on the other side of the house. I turn on my personal computer and spend the next 45 minutes dealing with all my personal stuff.

6:00am on turn on the work laptop and make sure everything is synced to the blackberry and answer any emails that come through over night.
6:45am I am on the road to my networking meeting which starts at 7:30am.

This usually results in meeting at least one new person and an average of 3 referrals a month. Meeting ends at 9am.

I will then have at least one appointment in the area and finish up by 11:30am. Now it is lunch time, if I do not have a lunch appointment with and existing or potential client then I will meet with a strategic alliance for lunch until 12:30pm.

No closing appointments then now I am heading to the office. I get there and spend the rest of the day making pre-planned calls to set appointments with both new and existing clients.

6:00pm, time to head out on the highway for home or possibly the driving range! That is a typical Tuesday for this Document Management Consultant!




-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Indsutry Notes from 4/26/09

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

Hewlett Packard wins a $245 million bid from the California Department of Corrections.
- Won by the EDS division (EDS was acquired last year by HP)
- Length of contract is 4.5 years
- Included MFPs, printers and scanners on MPS agreement
- Document management software

4 executives announced their departures from EDS, now that HP has acquired the company. The following left to pursue other opportunities:
- Mike Koehler
- Bobby Grisham
- Tom Haubenstricker
- Mike Paolucci

SpencerLab, a division of Spencer & Associates Publishing, Ltd. conducted tests on color printing technology to determine the highest quality and accuracy.
- For photographic output, conventional silver halide processing won out over the
Fuji Frontier 570 digital system
- For digital toner based output from high-end systems, the Xerox iGen4 narrowly beat the Hewlett Packard Indigo Press 5500.

Canon launched “eProactive Service” which is advertised as a web-based solution allowing its dealers to communicate with customer’s Canon MFPs, for automatic service call placement and remote monitoring.

Canon, in an effort to grow distribution from loss of IKON and DANKA, announced it will open up new factory direct branches:
- Albany, NY run by Don Foley
- Boston, MA run by Chris Foley
- Harrisburg, PA run by Richard Fleck
- Hartford, CT run by Janet Cain
- Honolulu, HI run by Gerald Shioji
- Jacksonville, FL run by Ken Jones
- Richmond, VA run by John Whitehead
- Sarasota, FL run by Lisa Beebe

Canon announced it has signed a distribution agreement with Agfa, which will market the Canon imagePRESS production color systems to graphic arts community.

After first announcing it was being acquired by IBM, Sun Microsystems instead is being acquired by Oracle Corp. for $7.4 billion.

Ricoh claims that according to Gartner Corp, it sold more MFPs in the U.S. than any other manufacturer.

eCopy announced that is has reached a total of 100 connectors to connect its ScanStation to popular document management programs. This is a far larger offering than any other vendor in its class.

Toshiba’s stock price dropped 6% when reports surfaced stating that the company was planning on raising $5 billion by selling stock, thus diminishing the value of existing shares.

Toshiba president, Atsutoshi Nishida, announced that the company is in talks to buy nuclear fuel rod assemblies from Kazakhstan.

Toshiba’s Director of Product & Solutions Marketing, Joe Contreras, announced that its MFPs will now offer Ringdale FollowMe as an option. This allows end users to send print jobs, and retrieve them from any properly equipped Toshiba MFP, when they authenticate at the device.

Lexmark announced that its revenues fell 20% during last quarter, due to declining sales of printers and MFPs. It also announced that it will close a plant in Juarez, Mexico to reduce costs. This will eliminate 360 jobs.

Lexmark launched its X460 series of desktop A4 b/w laser MFPs offering:
- offers embedded Solutions Framework (eSF)
- requires extra RAM and HDD options
- MyMFP option gives a remote control panel feature to PC
- Can create personal settings and save them to USB
- 7” full color touchscreen LCD control panel
- Base MSRP starts at $999, up to $1679
- 40ppm top print speed
- 35opm top scan speed
- 1200x1200dpi
- 19,200dpi color scan resolution
- 300 sheet standard paper supply
- 50 sheet capacity document feeder
- Auto duplex standard
- NO finishing options
- Letter/legal size only
- Built-in print controller
- USB, 10/100BaseT ports
- 500MHz processor
- 256MB RAM standard (up to 640MB with options)
- Optional 80GB hard drive
- PCL and PostScript print drivers
- Optional fax board
- Three toner cartridge choices (3K, 9K or 15K yield, based on 5% coverage)
- OPC drum yield of 30K pages
- 80K/month maximum duty cycle
- Advertised cost per page of $0.0177 (for toner only)

Oce’ reported a 60% increase in sales for refurbished equipment. It sold 5,000 units in the past 12 months.

The Printing Industries of America stated that the winner of the Sutherland Ink Rub Test was the Oce’ CS650 (a relabeled Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6501). This tests the durability of postcards made by the MFPs and how they survive the U.S. Postal system.

Oce’ CEO, Rokus Van Iperen announced:
- Frank de Wit & Jan Dix has resigned from the board
- “Oce’ will continue to explore all realistic options to improve economies of scale, without excluding strategic alternatives, if beneficial for Oce’ and all stakeholders.”
- year on year revenue fell 6%
- operating income declined 29%
- 74% of its business is aftermarket supplies and service
- service/supply revenue declined 5.2%
- hardware sales declined 15.9%
- wide format printer sales fell 17.6%
- FM revenue grew 6.4%
- will lay off an additional 250 workers at its Poing, Germany plant

The National Resources Defense Council is pushing the paperless office by stating:
- The U.S. using 3.7 million tons of paper annually
- The average office worker print more than 1,000 pages per month
- 900 million trees are cut down each year for paper
- 40% of the waste in the U.S. is paper
- Record keeping constitutes more than 90% of office activity
- Over 80% of paper that is filed is never referenced again
- Over 45% of the office prints that are discarded, are discarded on the day that they are printed
- 89% of the time that an office worker edits a document on their computer screen, they reference a printed piece of paper

A man in Dublin arrested, thanks to a copier. Joe Sullivan, a bank worker, was caught transferring money illegally into his account, when he accidentally left the evidence of the transfer on the platen glass of a copier he was using.

The U.S. Patent office listed the total number of INKJET patents issued to the industry heavyweights:
- Silverbrook (maker of future Memjet high speed color inkjet printer) = 501
- Seiko Epson = 468
- Canon = 339
- Hewlett Packard = 322
- Brother = 282
- Fuji (provider of equipment to Xerox) = 184
- Samsung = 161
- Xerox = 136
- Kodak = 118
- Lexmark = 113
- Ricoh = 109
- Konica Minolta = 91
- Toshiba = 33



Dell launched the 1235cn and 2145cn desktop A4 color laser MFPs featuring:
- Both are actually made by Samsung of Korea
- 1235cn is actually the Samsung CLX-3175FN
- 2145cn is actually the Samsung CLX-6210FX
- 1235cn has MSRP of $399
- 17ppm b/w and 4ppm color
- Single drum design
- Advertised color toner cost per page of $0.21
- Advertised b/w toner cost per page of $0.045
- 2145cn has MSRP of $749
- 21ppm color or b/w speed
- 4 OPC tandem drum design
- Advertised color toner cost per page of $0.129
- Advertised b/w toner cost per page of $0.027

Sharp launched the MX-B401 b/w laser MFP featuring:
- Part of the “Frontier Series”
- Letter/legal only as it is an A4 design
- 40ppm top speed
- Optional fax board
- 8.5” full color touchscreen LCD control panel
- Base MSRP of $4995
- 35ppm scan speed
- 600x600dpi copy
- 600x600dpi scan
- 1200x1200dpi print
- 600 sheet standard paper supply
- Maximum paper supply of 2100 sheets with options
- 50 sheet document feeder
- Optional internal stapling finisher
- Built-in print/scan controller standard
- 800MHz processor
- 10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports
- 512MB RAM
- 80GB hard drive
- PCL & PostScript print drivers

The poor economy was reason cited for Sharp cancelling the launch of 5 different models in the Frontier A4 series, including print-only color models, and a 50ppm b/w MFP model.

LaserMonks helping the Environment "One Click at a Time"

Laser Monks has got it right, help the environment by recycling, use soy based toner, save some cash and give back.

Lasermonks use a soybean based toner, it's grown in fields rather than manufactured from fossil fuels. Lasermonks state that "Environmentally, using soy based toners is a win-win situation...industry leaders report that it takes about 2 liters of oil to make 1 lb of toner powder required for each oil-based cartridge. U.S. businesses, organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies currently consume more than 100 million cartridges per year. That equates to 100 million pounds or approximately 50,000 tons of material petroleum is used to produce."

Here's some fast facts about Lasermonks:

- run by the Cistercian monks of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta, Wisconsin
- offers cartridges filled with toner made from soy beans, for businesses who are concerned with the environment. It is unknown the long term effects of using soy based toner on a laser engine
- for every cartridge of soy toner it sells, the company will plant a tree in Brazil and donate $1.00 to a world hunger group
- for any cartridge purchased, the company promises a prayer
- soy toner is only available in black

I'm a big fan of their Trappist Preserves, if you haven't tried these I suggest you do, my favorite.....blackberry and peanut butter on whole wheat, yummy.

Now, you can't eat the toner, but I'm sure your laser printer won't mind the change of diet, take a trip here to find out more lasermonksgreen.

-=Good Selling=-

TWIX “this week in Xerox”

Xerox announced that its desktop printer sales fell 22% during last quarter, and will lay off 50 people from its Phaser printer facility in Wilsonville, OR. The company's total revenue last quarter fell from $4.3 billion to $3.6 billion.

Copier dealers in New York are complaining over the Buffalo public school district's decision to renew its contract with Xerox, rather than going out to bid. The district's CFO, Gary Crosby claims that because Xerox offered a discount off the current state contract, this allowed the school to order 300 new copiers from Xerox and avoid a bid process.

Xerox launched a managed print services program for its agents and VARs. Xerox Print Services provides its channel partners with access to training, services, supplies, software and equipment backed by Xerox.

Xerox, through its FM division, is now offering Xerox Litigation Services Processing and Review Dashboard, to enhance search of cases from document management systems.

Sales, Selling, More Sales & More Selling

Greg from Death of the Copier posted this, an I couldn't agree more. Death of the Copier.

Do You Sell for A Living ? We all Sell.

Copiers, printers, Blades, paper, toner, MPS, PM, managed services, paperclips - if you sell, keep selling, sell today, sell in a recession, sell in a depression, sell even though the gov't takes half, never stop.

You sell. You don't run from read the rest from Greg

Dam the torpedo's, charge like a rhinoceros and take no prisoners, its time run at full speed! No Soliciting SIGNS, FOOEY...keep on trucking, no ones goona stop us now!

-=Good Selling=-

Art

Copier Sales Proposals "Pricing on the Street"

Just wanted to give you all a heads up. I've uploaded new "Pricing on the Street" with cpc's that will blow your mind. Pricing from Canon, Ricoh, Xerox and KonicaMinolta.

Special thanks to the Print4Pay Hotel members that sent them to me for uploading.


If you're selling MFP's, or still calling them copiers, the Print4Pay Hotel currently has 6 active message boards for Ricoh Family Group, Sharp, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera , Canon and Xerox P4P In the early spring of 2009, we will launch Toshiba and OCE P4P Message Boards!

The Print4Pay Hotel averages 80,000 page views a month, with over 210,000 hits, and over 60,000 threads, we are the Global Resource on the Web for Copier Sales Professionals.

These quotes were recently uploaded:

Canon IPC6000 and A2100 Fiery
KonicaMinolta bizhub 1050e
Xerox 700 Digital Press
Canon iR7095
KonicaMinolta Pro C6501
Ricoh Pro 1106ex

Become a member while it's still FREE, talk to your peers, share inspirations, success stories, sales tips, quotes and much more. Start by following the link below.

http://www.p4photel.org/

-=Good Selling=-

What "brand of copier/multifunctional" device would I pay more for?

The title was a recent poll that I posted on the P4P Cafe Message Boards. We asked, What brand name would you pay more for? The players.....Ricoh, Xerox, Canon, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera, Canon and Oce. To say the least, I was taken back with the polling so far.

Here's the results:

Ricoh 21%
Xerox 3%
Canon 3%
KonicaMinolta 48%
Kyocera 18%
Sharp 0%
Toshiba 6%
Panasonic 0%
Oce 0%


I'm going to keep this poll open for awhile and if you have not voted, please do so. Click here What "brand of copier/multifunctional" device would I pay more for?

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales Proposals "Pricing on the Street"

Just wanted to give you all a heads up. I've uploaded three Kyocera quotes with cpc's that will blow your mind. Along with Oce, KonicaMinolta, Canon and Ricoh. Special thanks to the Print4Pay Hotel members that sent them to me for uploading.


If you're selling MFP's, or still calling them copiers, the Print4Pay Hotel currently has 6 active message boards for Ricoh Family Group, Sharp, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera , Canon and Xerox P4P In the early spring of 2009, we will launch Toshiba and OCE P4P Message Boards!

The Print4Pay Hotel averages 80,000 page views a month, with over 210,000 hits, and over 60,000 threads, we are the Global Resource on the Web for Copier Sales Professionals.

These quotes were recently uploaded:

Canon imageRUNNER 105 w/Fiery
Xerox DocuColor 242
Ricoh W2400
Xerox 4112 b/w unit with Fiery
Xerox 700 Digital Color Press w/Fiery/LCT
Canon imageRunner 3245
Become a member while it's still FREE, talk to your peers, share inspirations, success stories, sales tips, quotes and much more. Start by following the link below.

http://www.p4photel.org/

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 4/20/09

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

Riso made the following announcements about executive appointments:
- Don Michelucci is VP of Direct Sales (responsible for direct branches in U.S.)(hired from Ricoh)
- Todd DuLuca is president and COO

Ricoh announced it is partnering with IBM to create software that monitors the electrical power usage of its copiers. No ship date of pricing announced.

Two OCR scanning software providers are battling in court. Abbyy USA (maker of FineReader OCR) and Nuance (maker of Unity, PaperPort, etc.) are both suing each other over patent infringement.

In an effort to cut costs, the Gila Vista school district in Yuma, AZ is restricting use of its copiers, and drastically limiting the amount of copier paper purchased. In response, teachers are requesting parents to have their children come to school with a ream of copy paper.

Hewlett Packard’s Amin Mortazavi said that company will stop making desktop color inkjet printers that sell for less than $30, and focus on higher end models.

Hewlett Packard announced it won a managed print services based bid from Novartis International AG:
- A $41.5 billion pharmaceutical company
- 97,000 employees
- 140 countries
- 12 production sites and over 50 locations
- Headquarters in Switzerland
- Originally had 45,000 devices
- Will be reduced down to 8000 devices
- 44% cost reduction
- 400 million pages per year

Fuji announced that its Chief Corporate Advisor, Yotaro Kobayashi, will retire. He is 75 years old. He started with the company is 1958.

Wade Fuger of Pocatello, Idaho was arrested by police for making fake $20 bills using a color copier. This apparently discovered when he attempted to use them to pay a speeding ticket.

Office Depot is under investigation for allegedly over-charging government customers for purchases made on its website. The state of California apparently has already reached a settlement of $2.5 million, with other states waiting, including Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Nebraska, Missouri and others.

Toshiba announced appointments to fill recent departure of executives from the company:
- Fred Berger was named president of Florida & Georgia branches. Previously was senior vice president over 16 Ricoh branches. Before Ricoh, was an executive with DANKA.
- Mark Downing was named president of California & Nevada branches
- Wayne Wilkinson is senior vice president and general manager of all branches

Toshiba hopes to beat its forecast of a large loss because of drastic cost cutting. Original estimate was 280 billion loss, but now is projected to be 250 billion yen ($2.52 billion). The company announced it would cut 3,900 workers. Last month it had laid off 4,500 workers.

Canon announced that, due to declining revenues, it will delay again the building of a new toner manufacturing plant in Japan. New planned opening is 3/2010.

The state of Kentucky approved up to $1 million in tax incentives to Lexmark, so the company can spend $16.5 million to upgrade its plants in the state.

Sharp posted a $1.3 billion loss, which was greater than expected. To cut costs it will:
- lay off 1,500 workers
- shut down some production lines
- CEO, Mikio Katayama, stated they are considering moving manufacturing out of Japan to cut costs

A Toshiba/HP dealer in Indiana wins a managed print services bid for Hammond Lubricant Works, replacing Lanier equipment. Advanced Imaging Systems claims it will cut the company’s imaging costs by 23%.

eCopy announced new options for its solution systems:
- Barcode Recognition Service – adds the power of bar codes
- Image Enhancement – improves the accuracy of its OCR (optical character recognition)

Some vendors try to convince customers that the DPI, or dots per inch, is more important than bit depth. Consider this:
- 600dpi = a dot that is roughly 42 microns in size
- 1200dpi = a dot that is roughly 21 microns in size
- 2400dpi = a dot that is roughly 10 microns in size
- The human eye can see particles as small as 40 microns
- A grain of salt is about 60 microns

Xerox May Land Buffalo Schools Contract!

In a recent article from wibv.com, they reported that Buffalo Schools may contract with Xerox and no competitive bidding! This Wednesday night the contract could be awarded to Xerox for almost 300 copy machines with out any additional bidders.

"The leasing contract for close to 300 copy machines for the Buffalo School System could be awarded Wednesday to the Xerox Corporation, without any competitive bidding."

Oce is not pleased with this and offered this "We can compete with Xerox head on, head on," said John Bird of OCE Corporate Printing Division.

That doesn't copy well with the OCE company, which wanted to bid on the contract, but was told by the School District there would be not bidding.

"They're not allowing vendors to come in and compete against the current vendor. It's kind of a closed door policy," said Bird."

A little investigative reporting goes a long way, and if I were following up on this I would do a little bit of financial investigating on this one.

TWIX "This Week in Xerox"

Information was gathered from trade publications.

Xerox published a white paper on its bid win with Dillard’s department stores:
- replaced its b/w copiers with Xerox WorkCentre Pro color MFPs (473 each)
- installed remote management software, to track usage by employees and departments
- at corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, TX, installed a Xerox iGen3 110 production color system
- key-item color signs printed in Fort Worth, but merchandising shelf toppers are printed on each store’s color MFP
- Implemented a web-based DocuShare server for access to signage, HR forms, flyers, etc.

Xerox detailed how it uses direct mail campaigns to increase its sales:
-Campaign included a branded boomerang with stickers that included the recipient’s
name, state and company
- End users who responded by requesting an appointment with a Xerox rep were entered
into a drawing for a trip to Australia

Xerox announced it won a bid to provide a kiosk-type solution for selling copies at Office Depot locations. The solutions includes Xerox 7655 color MFPs and the AutoPay system from Equitrac that can accept credit cards.

Copier Sales "A Week In The Life" Wednesday!

About a week ago I asked some members of the P4P Hotel to please post a blog for the Series "Copier Sales" A Week in The Life" Larry Levine from California sent me this, so I'm posting for all. It's a good read and well put together!

A day in life Wednesday…….

As always the day starts off at 4:15 A.M. with a trip to the gym. Can’t start off the day without a trip to Starbucks while making the 19 mile drive into my office which is located a few miles from the beach.

At the office by 6:30 A.M. to sift through emails, enter the previous days work into my database, and research prospective clients through Reference USA. By 7:30 A.M. I am picking up the phone to try to catch a CFO who will actually answer their phone. By 8:00 I am in management meetings. Ironic the topic is getting our sales people to call on more new business.

By 9:00 A.M. I get back into my office and dial, dial, dial, voice mail, voice mail, voice mail. Does anyone like to answer their phones anymore?

Roll out of the office at 10:30 A.M. to head to a meeting to discuss how to displace a Ricoh direct account. For the next hour all I hear is I hate my rep… of course it is never the same rep for more than six months, my billing is always wrong, and oh by the way it takes an act of god to get them to correct any errors but I like the product. Another Ricoh give away uncovered ( this was posted on April 15th in the P4P message board). Asked the prospect if we could match what Ricoh offered could we do business? The answer was absolutely.

So for the entire afternoon conversation upon conversation occur with my Ricoh DSM, management, Ricoh DSM to try to figure how to get pricing down to next to nothing…… have you filled out the ADF support form yet is the first comment I hear from Ricoh DSM, then of course we need to take to Jersey then to….. crap I don’t give a damn just give me pricing to compete is all I care about.

So a wasted entire afternoon to find out Ricoh could give a rats A$$ about the dealers success but supports Ricoh direct giving equipment and service away with no profit.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales Tips "How Well Do You Listen?"

How well do you listen to your customer? I mean, really understand what your customers need and how they want it. Over the years of selling "down the street", I've learned to let the client do most of the talking and I'll do most of the listening.

Of course I'll ask a few key questions like why are you considering a new solution, do you have any pains in your day to day business that involve your printing or copying hardware. It took many years to understand that listening is the key to consultative selling and the key to success in being a top producer.

What makes a great sales person....., is that innate ability to inspire the client about a solution and have them ask "what if", "why not" and "how can we".

Most customers have a round about way of telling you what they want from you and your company. Like telling a story about a previous experience and or a rep that they had to deal with (listen to this carefully, they are telling you what they want from you when they tell you about their past experiences). I hear many complaints from clients about the pushy reps, the ones who only want to sell what they think the customer should have and not what the customer really needs. Heck, we have one guy at the office and 90% of his sales are always a 35ppm box, how is that? Customers will appreciate that you have met and interpreted their needs and will respond with references down the road.

Today, I was at a clients account and would have liked to pitch a 25ppm color system to them, this customer has an 18ppm digital system that scans, prints and faxes and also a color laser printer that prints upto 11x17. They printed more than 100,000 pages on the printer and only copied, faxed or printed 36,000 pages on their 18ppm digital system, plus they get service as they need it for both units.

I would have loved to sell them a c2500spf to replace both of the units, however the customer stated that business was slow and that they may look to buy the 18ppm from the leasing company. I listened..... and then asked to schedule another appointment to discuss their needs for the next three years.

-=Good Selling=-

imagePRO Ci40 HD Scanner Review "Paradigm Imaging"

Every now and then, a company will introduce a new piece of hardware that will break price a price barrier that was the norm for many years. I had the chance to see and test this unit at the AIIM/Ondemand Show in Phili, trust me this is one sweet scanner, plus it's eco-friendly and economical. Utilizing a new dual LED light system for optimum illumination, it uses less power than traditional fluorescent scanners.

The imagePRO (cool name also) Ci40HD boasts a new paper transport system, allowing for better media handling and more accurate scanning.

Paradigm Imaging Group (the largest distributor of wide format scan-print-and-copy systems in North America) introduced the imagePRO Ci40 large format scanner at AIIM/On Demand in Philadelphia.

The buzz around the show was THAT INCREDIBLE street price on a 40” scanner (imagePRO Ci40 HD m model). At $5364, it’s the lowest price ever seen for a black & white large-format scanner (This is an introductory promo).

In addition to AIIM/On Demand, Paradigm and the imagePRO Ci40 will be in attendance at the IRgA Convention April 29-May 1 in Pittsburgh (booth 502). Paradigm is also launching a media blitz with full page ads in the May issues of Imagesource and Wide Format Imaging and an email campaign to over 1 MILLION email addresses in the Architectural, Construction, Copy, IT, Manufacturing and Printing markets.

imagePRO Ci40HD Stats:

· 600 dpi true optical resolution and 9600 maximum resolution

· 48-bit color and 16-bit monochrome data capture

· Fast 3.3 ips color and 10 ips monochrome scan speeds

· Instant productivity from power-on – no warm-up, no waiting

· New Advanced Single Roller Paper Transport – Superior Paper Handling - Front Media Return Workflow

· One year on-site warranty with an optional two-year warranty upgrade

For more information on becoming a dealer or finding a reseller in your area, please send an email to info@paradigmimaging.com

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "A Week in the Life" Tuesday!

Tuesday!....."Woke up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head, found my way downstairs and drank a cup and looking up I noticed I was late, found my coat and grabbed my hat...." and with that I was off to my 10AM appointment.

It's strange how things work out, I got an email and then a call from my sales manager late yesterday asking me if I was ever notified of an appointment that was made for me. I stated I was aware of the one in the afternoon but not this one. I was then told that the afternoon appointment was cancelled and to go to this one. I looked again at the email with the address and noticed it was a mere 60 miles away, in Jersey 60 miles away could take an eternity to drive. So, I did the mapquest and the gas check (nice feature on map quest, tells you how much gas you'll use), mapquest stated 70 minutes with no traffic, no pit stops for coffee, so I figured 90 minutes.

I left at 8:30AM, made the usual stops, caffeine, mints, can of dip and away I went in a torrential downpour. I arrived that the account about 10 after 10 (what else is new). The appointment was at a church in the Jersey Pinelands (nice area, not much around except pine trees, sand and the occasional WAWA). I walked in, introduced myself and was received very warmly only to hear this, "gee, we called your office a few days ago and cancelled our appointment, we're so sorry you have to come out in this terrible weather!". Do I need to day more??? I sent a text back to my manager asking who's paying for the gas and the travel time wasted!

Well, being the trooper that I am, I decided I would cold call my way back to at the least the Garden State Parkway. In 18 miles, I found three places to cold call, all were pleasant and nothing happening at all three, will call them in a few days.

Making Calls

I was able to make a few calls from the car, just trying to catch up on the 80 phone calls that are stacked up, and I was able to pick up one appointment for later in the week. My next stop was to help a customer on an install, I told him I would train him on e-copy and wanted make sure all of the connections were made for LAN fax, Scan2email, Scan2folder. Cutting to the chase, the one PC had permissions set by an outside IT person that would not allow ecopy to install, I asked him to call and have the IT guy or gals make the changes so we could install. OH, it's one of those days huh!

Here in Jersey, it's its been cold, dark and damp for at least the last two weeks! Everyday is a day closer to better weather, seems like that's the same with sales, each day brings new opportunities!! Yea!

Home Office

I got back to the home office in one piece, just about 3PM, and then continued making calls till a little after 5, no appointments however , I got the follow up calls down to a more manageable 60. Hoping that the sun will shine tomorrow, late in the day, I heard one of our sales guys got the ax, puts it all in perspective doesn't it?

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 4/12/09

The following is a quick review of print production news from various trade publications.

Ricoh announced its Account Development Fund (ADF) Program to assist in large account take downs:
- Single take down deals or initial orders only
- Must be accounts with over $100,000 in hardware revenue installed
- Money can be used for short term price reduction, early lease buyouts or customer rebate
- Up to 8% of deal may be provided as support on low margin deals

Ricoh provided summary of features of its GlobalScan document management solution:
- GlobalScan 2.0 is server-based solution, where one server supports up to 250 Ricoh-made MFPs
- GlobalScan Serverless, no server needed, and install on one MFP
- Is scalable for enterprise-wide deployment
- Plug-ins deliver functionality and adaptable Frameworks for third party ECM software
- Customizable workflows can be initiated from MFP’s touch screen
- Works with:
- Microsoft Exchange
- Lotus Notes
- OCR
- EMC Documentum (using FrameWork and some development)
- FileNet (using FrameWork and some development)
- Hummingbird (using FrameWork and some development)
- Captiva InputAccel
- Captaris RightFAX
- Kofax
- OpenText LineLink
- Interwoven WorkSite

Ricoh announces some of its big solution sale bid wins:
- Trustway Insurance of Georgia:
- 54 MFPs
- 39 printers
- Third party hardware and software
- Managed IT contract (Ricoh TeknoForce)
- Covers 48 locations
- Tenet Healthcare
- 270 MFPs
- 29 color laser printers
- 75 color Gel inkjet printers
- Replaced Xerox
- Managed IT services

Ricoh announced its structure for its ITSE organization:
- Frank Borovsky – Vice President of Document Solutions & IT Services
- Jim Walters – Director of IT Services Operations
- Ben Bullock – Senior Manager National IT Services
- Has specialists for Healthcare, Government & Education markets
- Joyce Ouelelette – Director Solution Marketing


Ricoh launched two new production print color systems, the PRO C550EX and PRO C700EX:
- Base MSRPs of $54,290 & $62,690
- C550EX offers 55ppm full color and 60ppm b/w
- C700EX offers 70ppm full color and 75ppm b/w
- Uses engines from the MP C6000 and C7500 mid-range color MFPs, which compete against the
the Konica Minolta bizhub C552 & C652
- Base MSRP includes EFI Fiery E8100 print controller
- Supports up to only 80lb. cover in the paper drawers
- 110lb. cover stock must be placed in the bypass of the RT4000 large capacity deck for $4780.00
- Standard paper capacity is 5,300 sheets
- Finishing options include stapling, hole-punch, GBC punch, booklet maker and three ring binding
- SR4010 fifty sheet stapling finisher for $3150.00
- SR4020 fifty sheet staple and 20 sheet booklet maker for $5460.00
- SR5000 one hundred sheet stapling finisher for $5830.00
- Tab sheet holder for $47.00
- Hole punch kit for $920.00
- Cover insertion unit for $1160.00
- Z-folding unit for $7350.00
- 100 sheet document feeder comes standard
- Auto duplex standard
- Will be marketed with color click pricing as low as $0.0495, single click 11”x17”,
and b/w clicks as low as $0.0132.
- Designed to compete against the Konica Minolta PRO C5501 & C6501 systems
- Does not offer true 8 bits per pixel imaging

Oce’ announced it has authorized Advantage Sign Supply, Inc. of Grand Rapids, MI as a reseller of its wide format color printers. The company employs over 90 people in 10 facilities.

Oce’ claims that is facilities management division, Oce’ Business Services, won bids during past 12 months that totaled over $70 million. The largest was for American Airlines.

According to a survey conducted by John Peddie Research, up to a 44% increase in productivity can be experienced when a computer user adds a second computer monitor to their desk to see two pages at same time.

PrintShop Mail, a product of Objectif Lune, won award for best variable data software from the European Digital Press Association.

Patriarch Partners LLC of New York purchased the assets of Polaroid Corp. in bankruptcy court in Minnesota for $60 million.

Xerox announced that it has cut its pay of its CEO, Anne Mulcahy, to only $12 million, a decrease of 6%.

Xerox revealed that it reimburses its CFO, Lawrence Zimmerman, $125,000 per year, for the cost of traveling between his home in Boulder, CO and his office in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Xerox announced it won the bid put out by Proctor & Gamble, to manage its worldwide print operations. Details:
- Will reduce energy used by 30%
- Will reduce paper usage by 20%
- Creating of a web portal for on-line learning and equipment procurement

Police arrested Ayad Al-Musawi in the state of Washington, after the Xerox worker was found to have stolen nearly $300,000 worth of printer supplies from the company and attempted to sell them over the Internet. In his house they found almost 10,000 wax sticks that go in Xerox Phaser color wax printers.

Kyocera launched more desktop b/w laser printers, the FS-2020D, FS-3920DN & FS-4020DN featuring:
- 37ppm, 42ppm and 47ppm respectively
- Maximum paper supply of 2500 sheets
- Auto duplex
- Uses amorphous silicon ceramic drum technology
- A4 design, letter/legal size only
- 128MB RAM, upgradeable to 1.15GB
- MSRPs of $1044, $1424 & $1583

The City of Reno, Nevada was able to fend off a protest about its copier bid award. Details:
- Bid was awarded to The Ray Morgan Company, a 4 year contract for $189,429 per year
- Protest was turned in by John Burton, owner of Rabbit Automation, who claims his bid would save City of Reno $400,000 over term of bid
- Protest was rescinded when Mr. Burton found out that City of Reno could force him to
post a $165,000 bond

OfficeMax claims that it has recycled over 10,431,200 print cartridges last year.

Better Buys for Business magazine reported results of a study of businesses in the U.S.:
- 32% of buyers have plans to make a purchase or lease within 12 months
- 15% expect to purchase or lease in 3 months
- The most important factor in buying decisions:
- 42% say price
- 27% say total cost of ownership
- 21% say service
- 20% say computer networking
- 19% say past experience
- 12% say brand experience
- 10% say features
- 4.5% say speed



Sharp posted its first loss in half a century (1950), and will eliminate 1500 workers. The total loss was $1.3 billion.

Sharp President, Mikio Katayama, announced it will open factories in China to cut costs.

Toshiba has a reorganization of its copier division, called Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS):
- Toshifuii Matsumoto, who was chairman & CEO, was demoted to chief marketing executive
- New CEO and chairman is Masahiro Yamada
- Previously, Mr. Yamada was Deputy General Manager of Document Systems Business Group at corporate headquarters in Japan.

Spencer & Associates, led by David Spencer, announced it will have a meeting in Chandler, AZ on 6/4-6/09 to discuss the future of inkjet and toner technologies.

According to Lyra Research, the printer cartridge industry is $8 billion per year worldwide, and that refilled cartridges make up 27.5% of the total.

According to survey conducted by Office Dealer magazine, here is what buyers are looking for in a vendor:
- Solid Service
- Competitive Pricing
- Diverse Product Offering
- Integrity
- Genuine Concern For Customer Needs
- Minimum Mistakes
- Responsive To Inquiries
- Smooth Interaction
- Good Humor
- Respect For Customer Opinions

Hewlett Packard claims that by the year 2010, it will have collected a billion pounds of electronic products and supplies in recycling efforts. According to HP, this is the equivalent of the weight of the Golden Gate bridge.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "The Last Resort"

When all else fails trying to get in touch with a prospecting customer, make a last ditch effort.

There are some situations when you have tried everything within your power and still make no connection. After you have made many attempts to get an appointment, there is one last-ditch tool you might want to try. A sales rep I know has used it, and says that 90 percent of the time, people will reply. So when you have tried everything else, try this fax:


(Date)

(Name)
(Company)
Fax #:

Dear (Name),

I’m sure you have an excellent reason for not returning any of my calls.

Because I don’t want to be a nuisance, please choose from the following options and fax this back to me at (123) 555-7890.

· I’m on safari and haven’t gotten my messages.
· I’ve been drowning in work. Call me next week… I will take your call then.
· I am not working here anymore; call in care of NASA.
· I am sorry and will call you back soon.
· Please call me back at _____ a.m. / _____p.m. on ___/___/09
· I hate you and don’t ever want to talk to you.
· Other ________________________________________


Sincerely,


(Your name)

What's a "Hot Spot Printer?"

Ricoh is pleased to announce the introduction of the new Ricoh Aficio SP C420DN-KP HotSpot Printer. The SP C420DN-KP replaces the SP C410DN-KP.

What is a HotSpot Printer?

A Ricoh HotSpot Printer allows users to print documents securely simply by emailing the file they wish to print to a HotSpot Printer or loading the file to the HotSpot Printer’s webpage. Any user with an Internet-enabled PC, laptop, PDA, or cell phone can use a HotSpot Printer. With HotSpot printing, there is no need for Drivers, additional Software or access to the network hosting the printer!
Printing to a HotSpot Printer is incredibly easy. Each HotSpot Printer has a unique URL (web address) and E-mail Address.



1. Upload files to the printer’s webpage (URL), or forward E-mails – with or without attachments – directly to the printer’s E-mail address.
2. Receives a unique Release Code for each print job.
3. Enter the secure Release Code at the printer and retrieve print job.

HotSpot printing is convenient, secure, and easy-to-use.

Ricoh Aficio MP W5100/MP W7140 "Preview"

Digitising your drawings has many advantages. It saves legacy documents for the future. It streamlines your workflow and speeds up the job turnaround. Capture, store and distribute documents efficiently with the Aficio MP W5100/MP W7140.

Overview
In the 1980s, Ricoh was the first company to market a digital and plain-paper wide format device. Since then, they have developed an impressive range of wide format products.

Key Features:

Excellent productivity: 7 A0 and 14 A1 ppm (MP W7140); 5 A0 and 10 A1 ppm (MP W5100)
Uniquely compact design with a single footprint

Monochrome printing at 600 dpi and standard colour scanning

Flexible workflow solutions: choice of two controllers

Copy, Print and Scan documents up to 30 meters long (MP W7140 only)

Attractive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)


Effortless Job Management

Increase your print efficiency. Browse folders and check the contents of files on the display. Management tasks like changing the queue, holding and deleting jobs also happen via the touch of a panel. Web Image Monitor carries out similar functions from your desktop computer. It’s interface has been designed for optimum usability.

Digitising your drawings has many advantages. It saves legacy documents for the future. It streamlines your workflow and speeds up the job turnaround. Capture, store and distribute documents efficiently with the Aficio MP W7140.

Smooth Operation

Operating the MP W7140 is straightforward with the wide colour LCD touch screen. This panel has a simplified screen function as an extra convenience when you need basic commands only. Operators do not need extensive training to work with the MP W7140. Printing and scanning can be done at the same time. The removable scanner option* separates the printer and scan unit, allowing several people to perform tasks at the machines simultaneously.
*MP W7140 only.

Safe and Secure

When circulating digital data, it is vital to keep them from prying eyes. The Aficio MP W7140 lives up to the latest security standards.


S/MIME protects your e-mailed data

Information on the machines hard drive can be encrypted

User authentication by password averts unauthorised use of your device

The Data Overwrite Security system prevents access to or reconstruction of confidential information.


Ricoh’s engineers know how precious your time is. That’s why they have done their best to save you hassle. The new Aficio MP W7140 proves that sophistication can be user-friendly. Its many advanced features are easy to access; complex print jobs suddenly become simple.

Daily tasks have never been easier. With Ricoh’s unique roll holders, anyone can change (heavy) paper rolls quickly and easily. They are always centred without hassle. The paper trays have a unique flexibility for paper width and adapt to the roll format. They accept each roll size, from 210 to 914 mm in width. In case of a jam, the display shows instructions for paper removal. The MP W7140 is always up and running.

-=Good Selling=-

Review of the Ricoh MP 171 Series

Ricoh is pleased to announce the introduction of the new Ricoh Aficio MP 171/MP 171F/MP 171SPF Digital Imaging System. This all-in-one efficient, low-end system delivers high-level capabilities into the small to mid-size office. It also extends its reach into larger office environments as a complete business solution to networked workgroups. The addition of a HDD option offers these systems enhanced security capabilities that broaden customer range even further, since the need to protect data is a priority in every size office these days.

Whats New!

The ability to add 2 optional 500 sheet paper trays brings the maximum paper capacity to 1350 sheets.

The Scan to Media option allows users to scan documents to a USB memory stick or SD Card and take it with them.

The optional 80GB Hard Disk Drive allows for more advanced printing features such as Locked, Hold, Store and Store and Print.

The optional HDD also allows for more advanced security features and enables paperless fax.

An optional SDK allows users to work with software developers to create solutions to meet their specific workflow requirements.

Available Options:

500 Sheets x 1 or 2 Paper Bank(s)2 Cabinet options available Cabinet FAC19 & Cabinet FAC44, Printer/Scanner Kit (Available for Aficio MP 171 only), Adobe PostScript 3*, IEEE 1284 Parallel Interface*, IEEE 802.11a/g Wireless LAN Interface*, Fax handset**, 80GB HDD*HDD Encryption Unit*, Data Overwrite Security Unit*, Gigabit Ethernet Board*, USB 2.0/SD Slot*, VM Card Counter Interface Unit, Accessibility Handle, HD-PLC Ethernet Adaptor.

Total Cost of Operation

The cost per page is estimated at .009975 for consumables, on-site service costs will vary from region to region. The MP171SPF incorporates some nice features in order to reduce costs, such as LAN Fax, Color Scan2Email, Sample/Hold/Locked and Stored Print (reduce potential waste from lost or incorrectly printed jobs), Sample Print with the HDD Option, Multifunctional Design, and Precession Laser Printing at 600dpi.

Comparably priced to its predecessor models, the expanded feature set of the MP 171 series provides you with the competitive edge to secure your current MIF, while opening doors to accounts that were previously unreachable. Its productivity-enhancing capabilities include Digital Copying, Network Printing, Color Network Scanning, Network Security, Super G3 Faxing, and LAN/Internet/IP Faxing enable you to configure a solution to precisely meet the needs of your small business or workgroup prospects.

MFP Copier Polls "Print4Pay Hotel #10"

Polling Copier Sales People #10

The Print4Pay Hotel consistently runs polls among our members. Global membership is now over 2,200 members from 144 countries.

Our membership includes Dealer Sales People, Dealer Owners, Manufacturer Sales People, Sales Managers, Service Engineers, Customer Service Engineers, Dealer Sales Managers, Product Managers and Management.

I urge everyone to become a member, talk to your peers, exchange ideas, share competitive quotes and get a daily dose of P4P MFP Inspiration.

P4PHotel members responded with these answers in recent polls on the P4PHotel Message Boards.

I thought is was time for some new polls, so I am closing these out and list the results:

Do You Think Every Copier Manufacturer Needs an A4 line of Machines?

Yes: 75%
No: 25%

How Low Will Color Cost Per Pages Go:

. 075 12%
.070 24%
.065 28%
.060 12%
.055 4%
.050 0%
.045 0%
.040 4%
.035 16%


Next poll results: I'll be posting the P4P Hotel's final results for Monochrome Cost Per Page Poll from Segment 1 thru 6

-=Good Selling=-

Art Post

Copier Sales "A Week in the Life" Monday

Monday???.....Everyone knows that a great copier sales person week starts late Sunday, because they called it quits early Friday!

With that in mind, Sunday night is geared to getting these type jobs accomplished.

• Answering emails that came in late Friday
• Preparing any quotes or orders needed on Monday
• Researching items needed to quote early in the week on Monday or Tuesday
• Checking your calendar to make sure there are no conflicting appointments
• Going through your account list to see if there any viable upgrades coming soon
• Rewriting your list of things to do

Whew, after all of that is done, it's MONDAY, yea!!! Time to make some sales YEA!!

The dreaded drive to the office, for someone like me, a late owl, I always find myself in a rush on Monday morning. Can you believe my wife picks out here clothes the night before? Well, not me, I'm a man and can figure that out in an instant, so off I go to work with two different color socks because it was still dark and I don't see that well in the early AM. Stop for coffee, and off to drive 33 miles which will take almost 90 minutes in order to get there by 8:30AM.

So, I'm at the office, get the laptop, get my presentation binder, my cell phone, my coffee (another one), and note pad into the office. I'm in off to my 25 square feet of space, give the usual how ya doins, take in some more coffee and time to start our sales meetings.

Boring, boring and find my self nodding off, four hours into the day. The the time comes for me to speak about an interesting appointment I had last week............oh bother...., do I have too? After two to three hours of yaking it up I'm ready to make some follow up calls before my 3PM appointment that I made very close to my home (yea!!)

Dialing for dollars, "I'm sorry Mr. so an so just stepped away from his desk, would you like his voice mail?", "I'm sorry Mr. so and so is not in today, would you like his voice mail?", "Mrs so an so just got called into a meeting, would you like to leave a message?", "Hi you reached so and so and please leave a message", "This is Mr. so an so, and I'll be out of the office from so on and so forth", "We just upgraded our systems two weeks ago", "Can you send me information", "Mr so and so passed away two months ago", "Miss so an so does not work here any longer", "We were just purchased by another company and luckily all of the purchasing decision's are made out of state", "Yes, we'd like to have you come in, however the only open time slots are 8:30AM or after 5PM" Whew!

Appointment (yea!! yea!!) off I go, another cup of java, back out on the open road in NJ, sun in my face, wind in my hair, listening to the home opener of the METs, and stuck in traffic! Arrrggghhh. Where's the cell, looks like I'm gonna be late and have to call the customer.

Shaking hands, meeting new people, checking to make sure no one has TB and we're good to go. That appointment went well, need to do research and have another appointment set up for two days from now in order to close so business. Once I get outside, since it's 4:00PM, gee....I still have time to cold call (yea!!!). Hit about 5 places, dropped off cards, got cards, and I'll make those calls on another day! Ok, it's close enough to 5PM to go home (remember, I'm only 15 minutes from home), get some eats, kiss the wife, walk the dog, take out the garbage, watch the news, and then spend an hour or two at night getting ready for TUESDAY!!!!!

-=Good Selling=-

TWIC Notes "This Week in Canon" 4/5/09

- Canon won a “Best of Show” award in the b/w production print category during the OnDemand show last week in Philadelphia for its new imagePRESS 1110, 1125 and 1135 products.

- Canon announced it has acquired Virtual Imaging Inc., of Deerfield Beach, FL. The company specializes in providing diagnostic imaging solutions and a medical systems integrator.

- Xerox and Canon both successfully defended themselves in court against Kirsch Technologies, who had sued them over alleged illegal use of a fax technology patent that the company owns.

- Canon launched a new website to promote its office equipment products, called “Let Your Business Run” featuring the following topics:
- Color
- Document Management
- Document Distribution
- Productivity
- Security
- Cost Recovery
- Device Management
- Usability
- Accessibility
- Environment

- Canon announced that it will offer the Creo print controllers as an option for its imagePRESS production color devices.

- Canon launched UniFLOW solution offering:
- follow me secure printing, where end user prints job, and then walks up to any Canon MEAP enabled device on the network to retrieve their print job
- access to MFPs via Proximity Card, Swipe Card or a Pin Code that is associated with a Windows Active Directory (AD) login

Print Audit Rules with Print Audit 6

Newest version of Print Audit’s flagship print management product boasts hundreds of cost-saving and environmentally friendly improvements based on customer feedback

CALGARY, ALBERTA (April 7, 2009) – In 2008, Print Audit 5 helped companies around the world save 190,000 trees, recover $150 million, and redirect half a billion pages to more efficient print devices. Now print management company Print Audit is releasing the next version of its popular flagship product, Print Audit 6, which will give companies even greater control over every document produced in their environment.

“Our waste has decreased to less than approximately 8% and paper usage in total is now under control. I estimate Print Audit has reduced our cost of operation to one quarter of what it used to be, all this has easily been worth the price of admission,” said George Herrera with the University of Texas.

Armed with hundreds of new features, enhancements, and improvements, this new print management solution was developed based on customer feedback.

“Our customer’s needs change and evolve over time, and Print Audit 6 reflects those changing and progressing requirements,” said John MacInnes, President and CEO of Print Audit. Our customers spoke to us about the tough world economy, with their need for greater document security, and their concern for the environment – and I am proud to announce that Print Audit 6’s new features and improvements speak directly to those concerns.”

In addition to being more accurate and easier to use, the newest incarnation of the print management software focuses on these three key customer concerns: cutting costs, the environment, and document security and regulatory compliance.

To begin, Print Audit 6 contains an advanced rules engine that allows customers to fully customize how print jobs behave. By allowing managers to create their own highly configurable rules, Print Audit 6 Rules gives companies a virtually unlimited number of avenues to cut costs and improve their printing inefficiencies in the ways that best suit their unique companies.

At the same time, enhanced document security and regulatory compliance features give companies the new ability to either prevent confidential or sensitive documents from being printed or to notify specific users by email when documents with certain titles have been printed.

Finally, to help companies meet green initiatives and conserve resources, Print Audit 6 offers companies an infinite number of ways to reduce paper waste and make environmentally conscious choices. Print Audit 6 can encourage or force people to print on both sides of the page, send print jobs to more economical and environmentally friendly devices or to not print at all. As a result Print Audit customers can expect to eliminate those abandoned print and copy jobs while at the same time saving money and trees.

Other enhancements in Print Audit 6 include new analysis, recovery and pricing features, as well as greater ease of use and increased accuracy.

For more information about Print Audit 6, please sign up for a webinar:
http://www.printaudit.com/webinar.asp

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 4/5/09

4-5-09

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

- Samsung now shipping a new A4 black/white laser MFP, the MultiXpress 6555N featuring:
- 55ppm top speed
- Letter/legal only
- 250K/month maximum duty cycle
- Maximum of 3,240 sheet paper supply
- Scan/print/fax/scan
- Auto duplex standard
- Document feeder holds up to 100 originals
- 80GB hard drive
- Color LCD control panel
- 256MB RAM standard (up to 512MB with option)
- 600x600dpi (4800dpi interpolated) (not 8 bits per pixel)

- Oce’ announced its last quarter’s financials:
- Total revenue of 658 million euro, a decrease of 6.3%
- Color now accounts for 27% of revenue
- Non-recurring revenue declined 14.8%
- Recurring revenue decreased 3%
- Imaging supplies decline 26%
- Machine population declined by 5.5%
- FM revenue increased 6.4%
- Headcount reduced by 413
- The net debt to earnings ratio was 2.96, just below the maximum of 3.0 that is required
by its banking covenants

- Ricoh announced a new optional embedded solution:
- made by Nuance Corp.
- named the Ricoh Personal Paperless Document Manager
- lets users customize the Ricoh MFP touch screen menus directly from their PC
- allows scanning at the MFP with single icons for scan to desktop, creating a searchable PDF
- can convert to Word document
- can scan directly into ECM solutions
- pricing not announced

- New York City Comptroller and Mayoral candidate William Thompson, stated that there was a “troubling pattern of mismanagement” in the New York City Department of Education. Apparently, the department signed a lease with Xerox for copiers that was supposed to cost $31,000,000 for length of contract. However, the actual amount spent so far is apparently $67,593,295.85.

- An antitrust lawsuit filed by Media Sciences Inc. against Xerox was thrown out by a District Court in New York. Media Sciences makes generic cartridges that work with Xerox devices, and Xerox has sued the company for patent infringement, with the case still pending.

- Xerox announced that it won three document management bids with its DocuShare Virtual Filing System solution:
- Manteca Unified School District of California to eliminate 200 filing cabinets,
saving $300,000 in storage costs
- U.S. Pretrial Services in Los Angeles, eliminating 12 filing cabinets
- City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii to automate the tracking of 75,000 absentee voting ballots

- Fuji, who makes most Xerox branded copiers and printers, announced some new monochrome MFPs, which will offer 35ppm, 45ppm & 55ppm speeds, as well as color scanning at top speed of 45opm. Most likely Xerox will be bringing to the U.S. under the Xerox name later this year.

- BERTL gave its “Five-Star Exception” rating after testing the new Frontier series of Sharp A4 color laser MFPs.

- Hewlett Packard announced new software for managing MFPs:
- HP Web Jetadmin Enterprise Edition offers technical support, maintenance and services required to maintain enterprise device management environments
- HP Business Intelligence Module offers reporting of usage
- HP IT Operations Module for IT operations with scalable performance
- HP Advanced non-HP Device Support Module manages non-HP devices in fleet
- HP Open Extensibility Platform to deploy custom device settings across fleet of HP devices, as well as capture device settings and data
- HP Web Jetadmin 10.2 provides controls for access, color usage, PIN authentication, security, and supplies management
- HP Universal Print Driver 5.0 for use on any new HP printer and/or MFP
- HP Output Server Solution to manage fax features
- HP Delivery Notification Solution for Manufacturing automates proof-of-goods delivery by scanning and capturing signed paper invoices and routing them through accounts receivable

- Lexmark lost a legal battle in a Federal Court in Kentucky. The company had sued Static Control Components Inc. for patent infringement since it makes generic parts and cartridges for Lexmark printers. This may end Lexmark’s “Prebate” program, where end users get an upfront discount on their toner cartridges, if they promise to send back the empty cartridge to Lexmark, thus preventing another company like Static Control from refilling it, or using the parts.

- EFI, maker of Fiery print controllers, announced management changes:
- Toby Weiss, new general manager
- Bryan Ko, new general counsel

- The City of San Francisco passed the country’s first “Do No Mail” legislation, however it is non-binding at this time.

- Bitstream Inc., maker of PageFlex variable data software, announced it will integrate with DirectSmile. This will allow users of PageFlex to spell out the prospect’s name or message in images, rather than text in Direct Mail applications.

- Toshiba has been sued for patent infringement by the University of New Mexico in regards to technology for making semiconductors. The college is seeking damages and reimbursement of legal fees.

- After Toshiba sent out a memo denying that the company is considering selling its copier division to Canon, some industry trade magazines are now predicting that a potential buyer may be Fuji-Xerox.

- Kodak launched a new TV ad campaign to promote its desktop color inkjet printers:
- total spend of $30 million
- focus is on Kodak’s lower cost per page
- tagline is “The World’s Most Expensive Liquid Isn’t Found In the Middle East”
- “Last year America paid $5 billion too much for inkjet printer ink”

- An obscure company has filed suit against a number of Japanese manufacturers for alleged patent infringement. Papst Licensing GmbH & Co. claims that Canon, Olympus, Fuji, and others illegally used digital camera technology owned by the German company. Papst is a collector of patents, as it recently received a settlement fee from Seagate, over hard drive technology.

- Panasonic launched two new b/w MFPs, the DP-8025 (25ppm) and DP-8032 (32ppm) featuring:
- Are A3 models, handling up to 11”x17”
- Replace the DP-2330 and DP-3030 models
- Company has dropped the WORKiO name from its products
- Base MSRP of $7060 & $8235
- Comes standard with scan to SMB, FTP, e-mail/LDAP
- Optional print controller for $819.00
- PCL print driver only
- Optional PostScript driver for $200
- Requires $304 expansion board
- Fax kit option for $1489
- Comes standard with only 32MB RAM
- Can add 64MB for $236 or 128MB for $469
- 80GB hard drive option for $407
- Comes standard with two 550 sheet paper drawers and 50 sheet bypass
- Auto duplex standard
- Document feeder holds up to 50 originals and has scan speed of only 30opm
- Uses b/w touchscreen LCD control panel
- To make floor standing, choose one of these:
- Copy desk is $366
- Third drawer and stand for $769
- Two more drawers for $1054
- Hanging stapling finisher for $2014 and staples up to 30 sheets
- Toner yield of 15,000 pages with 5% coverage per page
- Drum yield of 60,000 pages
- Developer yield of 120,000 pages

Copier Sales "Lock Out The Competition"

We all look for the lock out features of a third party solution or a hardware feature that will enable us to get the sale. However, did you know that you can also have a certain product or certain line that will lock your competitors out?

Guess what? You can have that with wide format products from Paradigm Imaging. I'll give you a quick story of a recent sale that I had.

The time came to upgrade one of my larger accounts in New Jersey, they had eight MFP's plus a wide format MFP all from Ricoh. I took the time to visit every department and review their needs for new hardware and also to see if anything had changed from three years ago. Most of the departments were ok, except for the Engineering Department, this department had a Ricoh 240W MFP. When speaking with the department head, I uncovered the need for wide format color scanning and printing. Now, if you're familiar with Ricoh wide format products, well to say the least we have nothing to offer that copy, scan and print in color!

So, what to do........, we are a dealer with Paradigm Imaging. Paradigm Imaging has three wide format color MFP's that will allow for color scanning, printing and copying. Alright so far so good, now I need to check the meter on the Ricoh 240W just to make sure the the Paradigm Supra would fit the bill for volume and speed. Checking the meter on the 240W, I found that it produced 9,000 LF in three years, now that's low volume for this unit, one more thing to check let me go back to the head of Engineering and see if printing at 2 "d" (monochrome)size per minute will work. I did, and speed was not a concern, color scanning was the main issue with the need to print color wide format. Ok, time to make a long story short.

Since we had the relationship with Paradigm Imaging and the Engineering Department needed Color wide format scanning, printing and copying, we were able to produce a quote that met their needs. I truly felt that if we didn't have the Paradigm machines Engineering would have made some calls to get pricing for something we could not offer. If they had done that, the doors would have opened up and their would have been multiple proposals from other sources. The end result is we were able to secure an Eighty Five Thousand Dollar order by having a unique color wide format MFP.

If you're a dealer where you have heavy direct channel pressure, the Paradigm line is great to have in your back pocket. Check them out they have excellent support and wide range of wide format products!

One more thing check out the new Ci40, the most afforadble scanner on the market fir CAD and technical drawings!
-=Good Selling=-

Copier Life Expectancy

There is a great post on this topic on the Ricoh Family Group P4P Hotel Message Boards. The question asked "Does anyone have any data on copier life expectancy?"

Here's what our members answered with:

I would say as long as they have parts available, whether new parts or from old trade ins. One of the conversations that I have with people is that unlike before, our systems now have two lives to consider.

Because our systems are now an integral part of the overall technology of a business or organization, they need to not only realize that there are both a mechanical and a functional lifespan to their system.

As I said earlier, as long as there are parts available, we can keep a copier going, however, because they are asking these systems to be a huge part of their technology they must consider when that unit ceases to be a productive part of the business. When does it functionally become a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution. Just as a business doesn't want to use 5,6 or 7 or older computers because of their becoming obsolete, do they really want a vital piece of their technology to become a drag on productivity. Just my two cents worth.

Indiana

Yes, I agree, most companies outgrow their copier. Obviously, the most important change was in connectivity. Digital technology and modular technology added to reliability and total uptime for productivity. Whereas with analog machines, they are older, cheaper and they can be rebuilt until the cows come home.

DC

Ricoh use to claim that they would guarantee parts availability for 7 years after a product was discontinued. Not sure if that still holds true but that was the standard.

USA

It is actually the law that any manufacturer must maintain parts for 7 years after the last date that the product is sold new.

Texas

What kind of law? How would that be enforced on overseas manufacturers?

DC

It appears that is a legend. I couldn't find any federal law covering that, but here are some state laws covering it...

Parts Availability Laws

Can your item be repaired? If parts are required, are they available to a servicer? In some states, the answer may be "no."

California:
7 years after date of manufacture for goods with a wholesale value of $100 or more, 3years for items valued at $50 to $99.99. This law covers functional parts only.
Connecticut:
4 years after the date of final sale.
Indiana:
7 years after the date of final sale.
Rhode Island:
4 years after final sale.
New Hampshire:
For goods valued at over $100, parts and service info for the period of time covered by the warranty.
BTW, these are enforced on overseas manufacturers because they cover any product "sold within the state".

TN

Is this site great or what? Thanks! I guess if you are an overseas manufacturer wanting to do business in every state, you would probably adopt a policy that would cover the laws of every one. No telling how much the rest of the country is paying for laws passed in the state of California. I bought a stud finder the other day. It came with instructions to wash my hands after every use because the State of California has determined that lead in the plastic may be hazardous to my health.

TX

Have a comment, would like to read more? Log on to the P4P Hotel and then register for your OEM partner.

That's just a few of the threads on the topic, in my 28 years in the field, I would have to say that we are still servicing some machines that are over 10 years old! It all depends on how long the manufacturer will keep parts on hand for. The average life span of a copier will vary greatly and is dependent upon usage, technical expertise and environment.

-=Good Selling=-

Xerox Outsourcing to India's HCL Infosystems

This press release caught my eye and I'm still trying to figure out if it means more jobs lost in North America and Europe. Below is some information pulled from the web in reference to this deal.

To outsource data center to India's HCL Infosystems Ltd in six-year $100 million deal
* HCLto manage disaster-recovery preparation and consolidate xerox's data centers in North America and Europe -
* Says HCL agreement not connected to its last year's 4,900 layoff

Info from Xerox on Data Centers:

Xerox operates Xerox data centers around the world and will transfer information submitted online by customers and other third parties to the appropriate Xerox office for the purpose of delivering services or responding to customer requests. If you are located in one of the 15 European Union Member Nation States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), Canada, or any other nation with privacy legislation you should be aware that personal information submitted to Xerox online may be transferred to a data center in the United States.

Info on HCL Indias:

The Group's principal activities are to provide software and hardware/systems software and networking services and infocom and internet services. The Group operates in three segments, namely: Computer Products and Related services, Telecom Products, Office Automation and Services and Internet and Related services. The Computer Product and related services comprises of sale of computer hardware and system integration products and providing a comprehensive range of IT services, including system maintenance and facility management in different industries. The Telecom Products, Office Automation and Services consists of sale of telecommunication products, office equipment products and related comprehensive maintenance services. Internet and Related Services include Internet related products and services consisting of internet access services, virtual private network, other connectivity services and sale of related hardware.

Are you thinking what I thinking....I'll be using this when needed as needed when selling against you know who.

-=Good Selling=-

Traffic at AIIM/On Demand Show

I've been reading some reports from various press people and manufacturers that stated whow attendance was good and some even better than expected. If you've been to these show in past years, you would know that you could get lost in the sea of people. Take a look at this video clip and look at the traffic in the aisles, tell me what you think. I thought attendance was way off.



-=Good Selling=-

Coolest Product at "On Demand Show" 2009 Brother Doc Viewer

I almost walked right by this device at the On Demand Show in Phili. If you're a Star Trek buff like me, did you ever see anyone on Star Trek holding a sheet of paper???
Naw, paper was out in the 25th Century.

Behold,.......... the Brother Document Viewer, weighing in a mere 600 grams and no larger than a sheet of letter size paper, and you've got yourself a portable document viewer than can store up to 10,000 pages. Let's put that into perspective, according to industry experts, that's about 1 four drawer file cabinet!

The screen is monochrome only and the page turn speed is rated at one second per page. I was also told that the Brother Document Viewer will retail in the US for about $1,000. Well, my first thoughts were that this is a little pricey for something to just view your documents, however I believe devices like this will be improved and in as little as five years, we could have a touch color screen, editing capabilities for documents, massive storage and the ability to rout the documents through a wireless network These devices will be the "on ramp" to a true paperless office! True tree huggers will love this device!

Applications right now for this device??? Your guess is as good as mine. Applications in the future are unlimited, no needs for sales orders, leases, service tickets, anything that has to be read and signed could be executed on a document viewer and stored.

Here's some info on tech stuff I got off the web:

SV-100B which was unveiled by Brother Industries on 12th of this month is an information terminal with an Electronic Paper component based on EPD (Electronic Paper Display) Technology by E.INK Corporation of U.S where the EPD is enabled by electronic ink that carries a charge enabling it to be updated through electronics. Electronic ink is ideally suited for EPDs as it is a reflective technology which does not requires any front or backlight and it is viewable under various lighting conditions including direct sunlight and further it does not requires any power to maintain an image. The product highlights is its ability to store information equivalent to 10,000 sheets of A4 size documents. Well this is done with the help of SV-100B 2-Gbyte microSD card. Want more go here Brother Document Viewer Star Trek here we come!