Copier Sales "New RFP's Uploaded to Print4Pay Hotel"

I've posted some new information that's been posted on the Print4Pay Hotel Message Forums.

New RFP's For You!

6 MFP's RFP "Due 11/19/09"

32 or more MFP's RFP "Due ??"

70+ MFP's RFP! This HOt!

90 ppm MFP RFP "Due 11/6/09"

W--COPIER/PRINTER LEASING SERVICES FOR THE MIDDLE EAST DISTRICT USACE

12 MFP's RFP "Due 11/2/09"

All of these for you! Keep in mind that you need to be a member to view the Print4Pay Hotel message boards. Become a member of the largest group of copier professionals in the world!!

-=Good Selling=-

Take The I'll Vote For Chris Daggett Pledge

Take The I'll Vote For Chris Daggett Pledge

Connect With Print Audit On The Web In Three New Ways

The leading print management company has launched a redesigned website, a Facebook page and a Twitter account to keep customers connected and informed

CALGARY, ALBERTA (October 29, 2009) – Excellent communication is key to any successful business, and the ways in which we communicate have evolved considerably over the past few years. In order to better connect with their business partners and customers, Print Audit has expanded its presence on the web by unveiling a new website, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed.

The redesigned Print Audit website, located at www.printaudit.com, features a new user-friendly layout as well as several new features including how-to videos and an ROI calculator that demonstrates Print Audit 6’s potential cost and environmental savings. To benefit office equipment dealers, Print Audit has also added a dealer portal that offers a variety of tools that enable dealers both to increase revenue in current accounts and to sell more hardware, supplies and services. In addition, new industry specific web pages allow businesses to find solutions that will meet the specific needs of their organization.

“We have designed our new website so that it is easier to navigate and we have added a number of tools that will make it easier for companies to get started with print management,” said John MacInnes, President and CEO of Print Audit. “At the same time, our new social media presence will allow our customers and dealers to stay informed with up-to-the-minute news about our company and products.”

On Facebook and Twitter, Print Audit will share product updates, industry news, tutorial videos, upcoming events, achievements and job listings.

Print Audit will also run regular contests on Facebook, starting with a November contest to refer their friends to become fans of the company’s page. The first person to successfully refer 15 fans will receive a $50 gift certificate to Starbucks Coffee Co. For more information about the contest or to become a fan of Print Audit on Facebook, please visit http://www.printaudit.com/facebook.

To follow Print Audit on Twitter, please visit http://www.twitter.com/printaudit.


About Print Audit
Established in 1999 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Print Audit is the fastest growing print management company in the world. By providing businesses with innovative and practical print management software solutions, the company has helped customers recapture over $150 million in printing and photocopying expenses while saving an estimated 190,000 trees a year. Print Audit has offices located in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

For more information on Print Audit, please contact:

Angela Onstine
1.877.412.8348
pr@printaudit.com
www.printaudit.com

Outside of North America, please contact:

Print Audit - Europe
+44(0)1483 726206
www.printauditeurope.com
inquiry@printauditeurope.com

Print Audit - Australasia
+612 9922-3756
http://www.printauditaustralasia.com


Print Audit - South Africa
+086 110 5777 (Within South Africa)
+27 11 531 1869 (Outside South Africa)
www.printauditsa.com
info@printauditsa.com

Print Audit – America Latina
+55(21)2220 0939
www.printaudit.com.br
Informações em Português:
suporte@printaudit.com.br
Informaciones en Español:
espanol@printaudit.com.br

-=Good Selling=-

RISO ComColor is a "Rising Star"

I was up at 4AM today to take a 3 hour ride to Corporate in the pouring rain today! Most times I would dread the ride, especially since sleeping the night before is impossible when you know you've gotta be up so early! However this ride was a little easier to take since I would be taking a look at the new Riso ComCOLOR devices! WHOA!!

When I first heard about this product I was not impressed and thought there's no need for a system like the comCOLOR.

A few months ago, I took some weekend time to learn more about the RISO comColor devices, such as speeds, feeds, technology, quality and what it can and can't do.

About three weeks ago, I had an appointment for an existing account, while I was with the account, they explained that they have a direct mail business and were having problems with a current Pitney Bowes mail system and their current printers the WP50's were slow and they needed to ramp up mailings. I probed and probed as much as I could about how they print, what they print, how many and uncovered the problems. While doing this I uncovered the fact that this client was purchasing 250,000 pre printed color envelopes per month and was paying around .13 cents per envelope. Ah, yes the wheels started to turn, the brain started to smoke, and there it was, a solution that would save the customer thousands of dollars per month!!!!

I want to keep this short, however the customer also wanted to make some other changes like adding spot color, and or full color when needed, but most of the time black was going to be the ticket. But they needed speed!!!

ComColor to the rescue!!

The solution was to add two comcolor devices that will print in black or full color at 120 pages per minute (they can also print in tandem at 240ppm), capable of variable data, and capable of handling the print stream from the PB mail server. The cost per page for black was .0056 and the cost for full color was .026 (consumables). But the savings, where was the client going to save?? We suggested pressure seal paper for those not familiar with pressure seal paper go here. With maximum discount we were able to price of pressure seal paper at .03 per sheet (legal), and then suggested that one panel be used for the outbound postal indicia and the another panel for the inbound postal indicia. The other panels would be used to print the data and the message for the direct mailer. Did you see the savings yet? The customer was able to stop buying a quarter of a million envelopes per month to the tune of $32,500 per month!!!

The end result is the customer could do every mailer in full color and still save .07 cents per piece or a cool $17,500 per month and have his investment paid off in 6-8 months!!!

What's the moral of this story, do your research on products, keep your eyes and ears open, and you'll find cool solutions like this that will help drive business.

BTW, the client loved the quality for his direct mailers!! Every direct mail company should have one of these!

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Indsutry Notes from 10/27/09

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

Xerox now shipping 4 new mid-range color MFPs, the WorkCentre 7425, 7428, 7435 offering:
- replaces the 7325, 7335, 7345 & 7346
- actually made by Fuji of Japan
- 4 tandem OPC drum design
- Polymerized toner, called Xerox Emulsion Aggregate (EA)
- 7425 offers 20ppm color and 25ppm b/w
- 7428 offers 28ppm b/w or color
- 7435 offers 35ppm b/w or color
- optional fax board (only 400dpi)
- first copy out time as fast as 5 seconds for b/w, 6.4 seconds for color
- Duty cycles of 60K/mo, 80K/mo & 105K/mo respectively
- Base MSRPs of $10,499, $11,599 & $13,499 respectively
- Scanning is OPTIONAL and does not come standard with print controller
- 75 sheet document feeder
- Maximum scan speed of 54opm
- 1200x1200dpi (interpolated to 2400dpi)(2/4 selectable bit depth)
- 600x600dpi when copying or scanning
- Built-in print controller offers 667MHz processor
- PCL & PS print drivers come standard
- 1.5GB RAM and only a 40GB hard drive
- Comes standard with bypass and only one paper drawer
- Up to 256gsm paper handling in bypass or drawers
- Up to 12”x18” paper in bypass
- Maximum paper capacity with options of 5,140 sheets
- Can replace drawer 1 with a 60 envelope feeder
- auto duplex standard
- Optional Bates stamping
- 30 second warmup time from sleep mode (longer if turned off)
- gloss mode
- Optional EIP for embedded applications
- Optional SD card reader (print from digital camera memory sticks)
- Optional scan to searchable PDF (OCR board)
- Optional USB port for scan/print from thumb drive
- Optional thumbnail preview for jobs on hard drive
- Optional EFI Fiery print server with 1.86GHz processor and 80GB hard drive
- Optional internal stapling finisher
- Optional external finisher with stapling, hole-punching & booklet making

- Hewlett Packard launched three new laser MFPs available exclusively for its PartnerONE dealers:
- LaserJet M9059 is a 50ppm, b/w A3 unit, based on existing M9050.
- LaserJet M4349x is a 45ppm, b/w A4 unit, based on existing M4345
- Color LaserJet CM6049f is a 40ppm, color A3 unit, based on existing CM6040f
- All are actually made by Canon
- The only difference of the new models, versus the units that they are based on, is that they have toner cartridges that are keyed, so end users have to buy the toners from the HP PartnerONE dealer, and not on-line, or in a superstore

- Hewlett Packard announced that is sold an Indigo 7000 production color system to DS Graphics, a print for pay.

- According to Computer Resellers News magazine, Hewlett Packard took the #1 spot from Xerox in desktop color laser printer sales in the U.S. Details:
- HP was in sixth place last year
- Xerox was number 2, and Lexmark was number 3

- Hewlett Packard launched BookPred, a service that will allow users to purchase printed copies of scanned pages of a book. It also launched MagClould, allowing anyone to publish their own magazine, and printing it at a print-for-pay location near to where the reader ordered the issue. All work will be sent to printshops that own HP Indigo systems.

- More details on the new alliance between Canon and Hewlett Packard:
- HP will begin advertising Canon copiers on its website on 11/1/09
- HP will resell imageRUNNER, imageRUNNER ADVANCE, and imageRUNNER ADVANCE PRO series
- Speed range from 23ppm to 105ppm devices
- According to Larry Trevarthen, HP’s Worldwide Director of Market Development,
HP also has access to the imagePRESS production print products
- All the devices will initially carry the Canon name
- The products will be identical to what Canon dealers sell, including supplies
- Service will be provided by a Canon factory direct branch primarily. Only if there is no Canon branch in the area, will the service contract be offered to a Canon dealer.
- Canon currently has 60 factory branch locations, but will expand to 90 locations within 2 years
- HP will support Canon copiers with its Web JetAdmin utility
- HP will also modify its Universal Print Driver to support Canon copiers
- Starting in early 2010, HP will begin to develop its own print controllers for the Canon copiers

- Lexmark announced a new program for copier dealers:
- Has created a line of 15 models that will not be sold on-line or through retailers
- These “XS” models will only be available through copier dealers
- 5 are A4 b/w MFPs, 3 are A3 b/w MFPs, 2 are A4 color MFPs, 2 are A3 color MFPs, 2 are A4 b/w printer, and 1 is A4 color printer.
- Speeds range from 35 to 55ppm
- All have a published MSRP, but not a published street price
- All have large touch screen LCD display
- Offer eTask software for embedded application ability
- Have high yield cartridges so they are ideal for managed print services contracts
- Lexmark claims it has signed up 150 dealers in the U.S. so far, and hopes to have
300 total in next few years
- Typical opening order is $12K to $30K to become authorized
- Product is actually ordered from Tech Data or Synnex, instead of directly from Lexmark
- Will have it first dealer meeting in Kentucky

- Lexmark announced results of its last quarter’s financials:
- Will let go of 825 employees to cut costs
- Still employs 3000 in its Lexington, Kentucky facility
- Total revenue fell 15% to $958 million
- Laser unit shipments declined 22%
- Total hardware revenue down 24%
- Supplies revenue down 12%
- Net income down 73%
- cash on hand of $900 million
- Service revenue (including MPS) down 14% to $654 million
- gross profit margin up to 32.7%
- total long term debt of $648.7 million
- total liabilities of $2.45 billion

- According to Lexmark:
- 44% of their revenue is from inkjet, and 56% from laser
- Average employee generates 10,000 pages per year
- Each filed or stored document is printed 19 times
- 20% of print pages are lost
- In 2000, there were 60 trillion pages printed
- In 2012, there will only be 55 trillion pages printed
- 98% of page printed come from an A4 device
- 80% of all print jobs are 3 pages or less

- Lexmark still fighting a company that makes generic cartridges for Lexmark printers. Static Control Components Inc. is appealing a ruling in the Sixth Circuit U.S. District Court, which allowed Lexmark to shut down Static Control.

- Lasercare, a dealer in Los Angeles, CA that services HP, Xerox, Lexmark and other brands, claims it has fixed its 100,000th printer, since it was founded 22 years ago.

- Toshiba announced it will borrow $90 million from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to complete the new nuclear engine plant in Chennai.

- Toshiba gave out its “Top Achievement” awards to the following dealers for outstanding service:
- Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office
- Copy Products Inc.
- Stargel Office Solutions

- A company is suing leading research firm, Gartner, over the accuracy of its Magic Quadrant reports. ZL Technologies, maker of email search/archive software, is claiming that it was unfairly ranked low in comparison to its competitor, Symantec. The case will be heard in the 9th US District Court in San Jose, CA.

- Gartner announced that it forecasts an increase in tech spending globally by 3.3% to $3.3 trillion in 2010. However, it claims that tech spending will not return to pre 2008 levels until 2012. This year experienced a 16.5% drop it IT hardware spending according to the research firm.

- Photizo Group, which offered consulting and training to dealers for managed print services programs, announced it has opened up its fifth office, this time in London, England. It also has offices in Boston, New York, Austin and Kentucky.

- Equitrac announced it is shipping version 4.0 of Equitrac Office, featuring:
- print management system for corporate enterprises
- improves security of confidential documents
- network based authorization, authentication and accounting
- enhanced reporting of media usage
- end user popup notifications including hyperlinks
- web-based Release Station allowing print jobs to be released using web browser
- Follow-You Printing now allows Xerox and Sharp copiers to have embedded application to over-ride printing rules and print color instead of b/w
- Supports Apple Remote Desktop

- Ricoh’s complaint seeking to bar Okidata from selling any more printers and MFPs in the U.S. won review by U.S. trade officials. The U.S. International Trade Commission said it would investigate the charge that Okidata is violating Ricoh patents.

- Sharp gave out more details on its recent dealer meeting in Washington DC:
- Total US revenue was down 3%
- Has self-financed leases on a few major account deals, but has no plans to open up
its own leasing company
- Has a total of 440 dealers in the U.S.
- Is adding 20-40 new dealers per year, but also losing about half that many per year
- Has 10 factory direct branch operations from 13 acquisitions
- Has temporarily halted acquisitions, until economy improves, but still hopes to have 25 locations total in next few years
- Goal is for branches to account for 45% of sales in U.S.
- 4 of its 10 largest dealers are Global dealers (owned by Xerox)
- While it launched the Frontier series of A4 MFPs last year, it only has sold a total of 7000 units
- Healthcare vertical market is where most A4s are sold, accounting for 14% of units sold
- Only 310 of its 440 dealers are selling the Frontier A4 models
- In 2005, the total number of 31ppm+ A3 units was 479,431, and in 2008 was 563,309
- In 2005, the total number of 31ppm+ A4 units was 21,779, and in 2008 was 116,536
- Now has 135 technology partners for its OSA embedded solutions offering
- Now offering Front Panel, or ability for end user to customize the copier LCD display
- My Sharp Digital Signage, allows end users to run an announcement on the LCD display
- Future models will come standard with OSA, rather than current option for $349
- Will replace the existing AR-M207 20ppm b/w copier with the MX-200D, also 20ppm
- Will replace the AR-M257 and AR-M317 models in 2010 with ones with new design to match rest of product line
- Will replace the MX-M620 and MX-M700 models with models that also incorporate new look, and will also have pull out keyboards, and 150 sheet document feeder that scans both sides of
original at same time

- Konica Minolta announced it has opened up a new factory direct branch in Sydney, Australia. Details:
- located in Macquarie Park
- tall, multi-story glass building
- includes offices, showroom and warehouse in one facility
- surrounded by 200 native trees
- on first floor in front of building is large showroom, which has carpeting with a CMYK pattern stitched in to accent the new mid-range color and production color systems
- building also includes training facilities for technicians and end users
- an on-site café is also inside for use by guests and employees
- person in charge of facility is David Cooke, Executive General Manager of the branch

- Kyocera announced a new embedded solution for its HYPAS equipped MFPs. The new Capture2go allows end users who have an Apple iPhone to scan to the phone, or print from the phone to Kyocera MFPs.

- PrintAudit, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, announced that its managed print services software is now compatible with Macintosh computers.

- IBM executive charged with insider trading. Robert Moffat, a 31 year IBM veteran and confidant to IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, allegedly conspired to commit securities fraud. He was arrested by the FBI, which believes he netted $20 million in illegal profits.

- Samung of Korea announced it will spend $2.3 billion to build a color LCD manufacturing plant in China, set to open in 2011.

- Current and former Kodak employees have asked a federal judge for final approval of a $4 million settlement that would resolve a long running class action lawsuit accusing Kodak of failing to properly compensate its employees.

- Oce’ announced it will resell eCopy solutions to go with its relabeled Toshiba and Konica Minolta MFP offerings.

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Canon "TWIC Notes"

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

Canon announced it has purchased Document House, a $6.7 million Xerox/HP dealer in Scandinavia. It will now offer Canon and HP products only.

- Canon announced a change for the generic print controllers it sells for its printers and MFPs. Instead of offering standard a PostScript print driver from Zoran, it will now charge end users $1400 for a PostScript driver from Adobe. (or a customer can buy an EFI Fiery if offered)

- Canon stated that since Ricoh bought IKON, it has signed up only 23 new dealers in the U.S.

- When Canon launched the new imageRUNNER ADVANCE series, Canon highlighted its copier history:
- 1970 – first copier, the NP-1100
- 1984 – first digital copier, the NP-9030, a 30ppm b/w device, but did not connect
- 1987 – first digital color copier, the CLC-1, did not initially connect
- 1989 – launched the CLC-500, became the best selling color copier of its day
- 1992 – launched the GP55, offering digital b/w unit with fax/copy/print/scan

- Canon announced it will spend $220 million to launch its own managed print services effort, with goal of gaining $1.1 billion in annual revenue by 2012.

- Canon announced another partner for its MEAP embedded solutions, this time GBCblue which it offering the COPYblue solution:
- converts Canon imageRUNNER MFP into a self-service kiosk
- MFP acts as an interface to access a back-end transaction server managed by GBCblue
- Developed for public environments such as convention centers, libraries, hotels and airports
- User is prompted through the touch screen LCD on copier
- Accepts all major credit cards

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Xerox "TWIX Notes"

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

- Fuji of Japan announced that, for the third time in a row, it won the bid to supply the 12,467 locations of 7–Eleven convenience stores in Japan with a color copier. Details:
- 7-Eleven is the world’s largest retailer
- Japan represents 35% of the retailer’s locations
- First put copiers in its stores in 1982
- The install of new models will be completed in March 2010
- Based on the “Imari” color laser engine used in current Xerox labeled color MFPs
- Supports payment by debit and credit cards

- Former Xerox, CEO, Anne Mulcahy, announced she has joined the board of directors of Johnson & Johnson. She is also on the board of Target, Citigroup, and The Washington Post.

- ACS, a division of Xerox, announced it is adding 300 positions to its Lexington, KY office.

- Amcon, a Global/Xerox dealer, won the Allegheny County/City of Pittsburgh bid. Details:
- 310 each of 35ppm MFPs
- 210 each of 55ppm MFPs
- 16 each of 75ppm MFPs
- 7 each of 95ppm MFPs

- Xerox announced financial results for its last quarter:
- Total revenue down 16% to $3.68 billion
- Profit fell 52%
- Post sales revenue down 11%
- Total equipment sales down 29% to $802 million
- Color equipment sales down 31%
- Production equipment sales down 27%
- Color printer sales down 35%
- B/W copier sales down 44%
- Color copier sales down 25%
- Gross margin up to 39.8%
- Cash balance of $1.2 billion
- Debt reduction of $938 million
- Total debt of $7.4 billion
- Service annuities down 5%

- Xerox announced it sold an iGen3 production color system to Budco, a print for pay in San Diego, CA. Budco’s biggest account is Ford Motor Company, which uses the iGen3 to produce full color, variable data postcards to increase sales. It claims that a recent mailing increased sales of its extended service plans by 35%, a 6% increase over mailers that were not personalized.

- Xerox is holding a forum for the healthcare industry to discuss electronic records management. The “Healthcare Thought Leadership Workshop” is being held 11/3-4/09 at the Gil Hatch Center in Webster, NY.

-=Good Selling=-

Happy Halloween from the Print4Pay Hotel

Had some extra time to get this done today. Can you pick out the characters in the Jib Jab Video!!!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Copier Sales "New Leads, RFP's Uploaded"

I've posted some new information that's been posted on the Print4Pay Hotel Message Forums.


New RFP's For You!

4 HV Units Due 10/27/09

Wide Format Due 10/30/09

Purchase of Folder/Inserter Due 11/2/09

Wide Format "Due 11/09/09

30 MFP RFP Due 10/30/09

LEASE SERVICES AT FORT BUCHANAN PUERTO RICO "Due 11/17/09"

The current copier lease with CBS expires at the end of 2009

30 MFP RFG "Due 10/30/09"

125 Copier Systems Maintenance Service "Due 10/29/09"

2010 COPIER REPAIR "Due 11/10/09

Leads

Lead for 90 MFD's (replacement in 09-10)

All of these for you! Keep in mind that you need to be a member to view the Print4Pay Hotel message boards. Become a member of the largest group of copier professionals in the world!!

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 10/23/09

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

A British company introduced the world’s smallest printer. PrintDreams launched a small handheld device, called the PrintBrush, which is moved by hand across a sheet of paper to create an image. It is wireless, and has a small inkjet printing mechanism. To fully image a letter size piece of paper requires moving device back and forth across the page, and from top to bottom.

- In an interview, Canon Vice President, stated that the company “has intentions” of making a move similar to Xerox in regards to the acquisition of computer services provider, ACS.
- “Definitely, it’s time for us to go into this area” said Chng.
- “At the moment it looks like we’re wide open to options” said Lim Kok Hin, Canon Senior Director & GM.

- Computerworld magazine reported that McCormick & Co. had been hit with the Blaster worm (computer network virus) that was being spread by infected desktop network printers. (brand of printers not named). Other worms that may infect unprotected printers are Sasser and Conficker.

- Another patent infringement lawsuit. U.S. Ethernet Innovations LLC, which has acquired the Ethernet technology patent from 3Com Corp., has sued Apple, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Toshiba for patent infringement.

- Azerty, a division of United Stationers, announced it has launched “HQueue”, a managed print services program for copier dealers & VARs.

- Xeikon, a division of Punch Graphix of Belgium, announced it has sold a Xeikon 6000 production color system to The Colad Group, a printshop in Buffalo, NY.

- Olympus, which makes high speed color inkjet printers for Riso (ComColor series), is previewing a new product using its own name. The new product (no model# yet), will sell for approximately $400,000, will uses rolls of paper, handle up to 2 million pages per month, and have color click charge of 5 cents for full color. Image quality unknown.

- What are expectations for sales reps selling managed print services?(according to ImageSource magazine)
- 20 voice to voice contacts with C-level decision makers should yield:
- 7 appointments, which should yield
- 4 quick-view print environment evaluations, which should yield
- 2 closed MPS contracts

- GreatAmerica Leasing Corp. announced it now has $1 billion in assets, according to CEO, Tony Golobic.

- GE Capital Leasing announced an 87% drop in earnings.

- Interesting statistics from BEI International about copier service:
- Average number of managed copies/prints per technician is a little over 1 million per month
- Average number of service calls per technician is 66
- Average service call length is 75 minutes
- Average numbers of calls per day, per technician is 3.7
- 4.83% of all copiers working in field are analog
- 60.91% are digital
- only 5.9% are color

- LaserCare Technologies of Los Angeles, CA announced that it has recycled its 300,000th printer cartridge since it started business 20 years ago, according to president, Paul Wilhelm.

- American TonerServ Corp. of Santa Rosa, CA, is a competitor to LaserCare, and its CEO, Chuck Mache, claims the company is selling more than 1,000 cartridges per day.

- Oce’ announced it sold one of its Oce’ VarioPrint 6250 production monochrome systems to Integrated Book Technology of Dulles, Virginia to produce on-demand books.

- Oce’ announced its production print engines will be used by a company which is printing the world’s first individualized newspapers. InterTi GmbH of Berlin, Germany will be launching “niiu”, which will be based on personalized information from end user’s choice of international news sources, blogs and RSS feeds. They will be using the Oce’ JetStream high speed color inkjet system.

- More details on Oce’s financials:
- 9.9% drop in revenue year over year
- Operating loss of 25 million euros
- Eliminated 1170 employees, towards goal of total reduction of 1500
- Incurred 32 million euro restructuring costs (employee severance packages)
- Sold 7 million euros worth of its internal lease portfolio
- Sold some selected real estate holdings
- Color share of revenue fell from 25% to 24% due to customer reluctance
to print in color
- Wide format revenue down 19%

- IDC released statistics on document management:
- Executives spend 45% of their time working on documents
- 610 billion emails are sent each year
- 50% of all emails are printed
- 7.5 billion documents are created in offices each year
- 1 trillion pages are printed each year

- A similar company to XIPPA, is RSource of Boca Raton, FL, run by CEO Larry Reid. He announced that he has just hired former Key Bank executive, Allen Snelling, as President of RSource.
- Sharp announced that it will offer X-Rite’s ColorMunki Design product to allow end users to calibrate their computer monitors and color MFP/printers.

- X-Rite announced that its new CFO is Rajesh Shah, formerly of Cadence Innovation LLC, maker of automotive interiors.

- Scotland Yard detectives are asking retailers in the country to stop selling desktop color laser printers as they are being used to make fake drivers licenses. They claim they have found 30,000 fake cards in the last 18 months that were made on color laser printers.

- Freescale Semiconductor, a spinoff of Motorola, announced it is launching a new processor design to be used in future MFPs. The P1022 will offer:
- Dual core processor with each providing 1GHz of speed, or 2GHz total
- 2GHz revealed 60% faster performance than 1GHz
- Rather than one processor running at 2GHz, two 1GHz is supposedly better due to less power consumption (peak of only 3 watts), and less
heat generation inside the copier
- Designed for color or b/w MFPs running from 30ppm to 50ppm in speed
- Possible buyers are generic print controllers makers including Zoran,
Global Graphics, Pagemark & Peerless.

- A dealer in Minnesota, Marco Inc., announced it has purchased Venture Computer Systems. This expands Marco’s reach into Southern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. Marco was founded in 1930 as a typewriter dealer. Now it offers IT equipment, MFPs and office furniture with annual sales of $60 million, with CEO, Jeff Gau. Jon Eckhoff was owner of Venture. Purchase price not announced.

- Managed print service software vendor, PrintFleet announced that founder Brian Cosgrove is now Chairman and dCEO, and has hired Chris McFarlane as President.

- According to Synnex CEO, Kevin Murai, 70% of all pages printed never get picked up from the output tray. (note from Art: I'm call BS on this statement)

- Z Corporation announced it is now shipping the ZPrinter 350, which makes a three dimensional object using lasers cutting a white substance at 0.08 inches per hour. The device sells for $29,500.00.

- InkStop, headquartered in Cleveland, and owns a chain of stores that refill printer cartridges, announced that it will close all 152 locations in the U.S. due to impending bankruptcy.

-=Good Selling=-

Ask Art "Copier Lease Insurance Question"

Received this email from Philip John another Print4Pay Hotel Member ( I actually got him hooked up with Paradgim Imaging for Wide Format Products) in NY:

Hi Art

Hope all is well. I had a question for you about insurance (it could become a blog topic :) )

My client has a 8 copiers on a 60 month lease with insurance coverage from the leasing firm. In month 24, one of the copier was damaged by a flood situation.

Simultaneously they had also closed one division, so technically they now only need 7copiers.

Is it possible that the lease company receive the payment for damage from the insurance company and thereafter adjust the lease to now reflect a lower payment for 7 copiers?

Or does my client have to get a new copier to replace the old one? (assuming at no extra cost to them)

Thanks for your help.

Philip

Hey Philip:

If memory serves me correctly, the lessee (your customer) needs to file a claim with the insurance company that holds the policy on the lease. They will need to contact the leasing company in order to get the contact information.

Now, since no one knows what the policy states we can be assured of one thing, and that is that the leasing company will be paid for thier loss, and the billing of the lossed copier should stop. Your customer needs to get a copy of that policy to dot the i's and cross the t's. I don't beleive that the lessor (your customer) will have to lease another copier if they do not want to

Here's a side note for everyone in reference to insurance on copier leases, this is a profit center for the leasing company! If you can avoid taking their monthly insurance premium and call your BOP (Business Operating Policy) and have the leasing company listed at the "loss payee". In most cases this may not cost you any additional monies since your company would be covered for "x" amount of dollars for equipment. If not, have them add a rider for "x" amount, no doubt it will be less expensive than the leasing companies policy!

Art

-=Good Selling=-

Toshiba eXCHANGE "The Empire Strikes Back"

Awhile ago I posted a blog titled "Toshiba Exchange & 5 Reasons it Will Fail". It seems after two months someone from Toshiba finally got around to reading the blog (a real bunch of web guru's there, huh?).

They also posted as ANON and as my regular readers know, I don't post replies from ANON's usually it's mean, dispirited and full of jealousy.

So, in the reply they stated since September of 09 till now they have logged 2,200 members. In my blog, I assumed they would have 2,000 members across the country, with half of them signing up in the first 30 days or so. Toshiba reports 2,200 members now signed up, I would assume from the amount of members that Toshiba has more like 4,000 to 5,000 "Toshiba People". Hell, they'll probably never tell me! They also reported in the two months that they have had 68,0o0page views in almost two months. Well that's expected, something new......30 page views (which is not alot, since there are probably a few members with a BOAT load of page views, remember the word BOAT here) per "unique member".

I'm glad you have so many members registered with alot of page views, however the one thing you did not comment on is how many "threads" have been posted, how much information is being exchanged, if it helped drive business, if it fixed a problematic machine, and or if it is helping your reps sell more solutions or boxes. A forum or community is only as good as the people who drive the board with information. The non mention of this information tells me your site is a flop and and the fad will wear down quickly. No to mention the tens of thousands that you probably spent to get it running!

There's some great forums out there like Copier Talk, CopyTecNet that really help the masses when it comes to technical issues, the information is always new, the content is real, and there is no censorship. The same is true of the Print4Pay Hotel, however the P4PHotel is geared more towards Dealer Owners, Principals, Sales Managers, Sales People and Marketing. One note about all of these forums is that they are FREE, they are open to all, and they all strive to help everyone!

Here's what I posted at the end of my blog in August:

The truth to the matter is that when you get right down to it, there aren't that many people in one organization that can drive a social site and make it a viable wealth of knowledge. I'm sure it will start off like a bat outta hell, however after the initial launch has come and gone so to will the members.

Now, your comment at the end was kind of was expected and dispirited, but you're hiding behind an ANON tag because you're either jealous or afraid to post who you are.

OH, and by the way aren't you the same TOSHIBA that sold the Soviets advanced Milling Machines in the Eighties? Remember the "Toshiba Submarine Scandal"?

Click here is you don't, or as one good American stated "To this day, no one in my family will buy anything made by Toshiba."

-=Good Selling=-

Print4Pay Hotel Member "Biggest Deal of My Life!"

I had the opportunity to meet Brian, geez back in 2002 or 03 at a Ricoh event titled "Sell the Solution" in New Jersey.

We were all there to see who would win a trip to Japan. I won the trip, however Brian banged it out with this HUGE order!! Kudos to Brian. Brian has also been a member and proud contributor to the Print4Pay Hotel Forums and web site. If you're reading this, awesome job and congrats wish I had something like this to hang my hat on!!!

Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / and Allegheny County Airport Authority.

Worked on for approximately 5 Years. When first approached they were mid way through a 5 year Contract with TOSHIBA Equipment. The contract reached its maturity and was extended for 3 additional years. The people in charge of the purchasing for this constantly changed. When a solid team was in place, they went through a year long process to gather current needs from department heads and create a co-op for this bid between the three entities.

I had several meetings with their buying and influencing team before a formal RFP was sent out. We learned first what they felt was important to them, and then helped to educate their people on the specifics of their needs, learn about the difference between products, but more importantly providers. We had several discussions regarding different manufactures of products and helped to educate on the importance of realizing what is available not only at the time of the sale but during the entire contract period. There were also many discussions about the different type of dealerships, distributors, and arms of Manufactures; and how they operated. Most importantly how this would translate to their needs over the term of the agreement.

Two bids were executed. The first bid included a 15 day walk away clause to protect the buyer. At the last minute my powers decided not to bid. Due to a lack of response because of that verbiage a new RFP was sent out with a verbiage retraction.

With 12 days to complete a 350 Page Bid Response, we got busy. We competed against every manufacturer that you can imagine.

RICOH BUSINESS SYSTEMS
IKON – RICOH
TOSHIBA
SHARP – COMDOC and VAN DYK
VAN DYK was the incumbent.

The end result was the award to Amcom Office Systems for the value proposition that was delivered. The initial contact includes:

310 - 35 ppm XEROX MFEs

201 - 55 ppm XEROX MFE’s

16 - 75ppm XEROX MFE’s

7 - 95ppm XEROX MFE’s

7 - Vend Machines

Main Buying Criteria:

GREEN INITIATIVES:
Xerox Smart Kit Technology, EA Toner, Total Green Initiatives
Provide equipment defaulted to double sided print
Scanning in an intelligent format with a developed plan to decrease the amount of paper that was to be distributed, used, and reduce O-Zone emissions, and packaging from excess re-print.

TECHNOLOGICAL DELIVER ABLES
EIP Platform, Post Script Std Accessory, Job Build

SOLUTION TO PROVIDE DESKTOP PRINT REDIRECTION
All systems

SCALABLE SOLUTION
All Systems include print copy scan and fax where needed. All systems available to be upgraded with additional features as needed.


CHALLENGES:

Due to the nature of the size of this bid, and being a government agency, the most difficult piece of this was having to defend the proposed solution against slanderous accusations by defeated vendors. They had the right to review and challenge any piece. We had 12 days to put the package together and everything from using the right color pen to not missing a signature had to be absolutely correct.

Delivery:

The County had requested delivery be completed for the first leg which included 406 machines in 60 days.
We completed delivery and installation from Aug 10th to September 3rd.

BACKGROUND ON AMCOM:

Amcom Office Systems, located in Imperial Pa – a suburb of Pittsburgh, is a fully owned Subsidiary of Xerox Corporation. Amcom was founded in the late 70’s and operated as a privately held company until 1994 when GLOBAL IMAGING SYSTEMS acquired Amcom as core company.

Amcom has grown to a $25,000,000.00 Organization with 101 employees. Amcom maintains 2 Buildings with an inventory level of $3,000,000.000. Although Amcom is a subsidiary of XEROX, they operate under the Decentralized Business Model that GLOBAL IMAGING established.

All Decision Making, Inventory, Service, Supplies, Dispatch, Accounting, and Sales are located and managed locally. Amcom’s President, Anthony Massari, and Regional President for Global Imaging Systems, Dick Peterson, work out of this office as well as Amcom’s full team of executives.

BACKGROUND on Brian Miller

Brian Miller is employed by Amcom Office Systems as a Major Account Executive, where he has worked for 5 years. His career in copiers began in 2002 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Brian is 32 Years old and is an accomplished musician as well as business professional. He has and continues to serve on committees as a board member for different for Non Profit organizations; currently working with the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and holds a Bachelors degree in Jazz Music Performance with a Concentration on the Drums. Brian resides in Pittsburgh with his wife and two daughters.

-=Good Selling=-

Color Copying & Printing Can Be Expensive (Unless....)

This months featured Guest Blogger for the P4P Hotel is David Murphy from Riso.

About a week ago, David and I had the chance to speak for about an hour on some of the everyday costs associated with color copying and printing.

Color Copying Can Be Expensive (Unless…)

About 14 months ago, Citigroup issued a memo to its employees announcing a new corporate cost-cutting policy. The memo stated that “the use of color copying and printing dramatically increases our copying and printing costs. Color presentations are unnecessary for internal purposes; therefore going forward color copying and printing should only be used for client presentations.”

To help reduce these unnecessary costs, the memo also stated that color photocopiers would be removed altogether from some Citigroup office locations. Somehow this internal memo got in the hands of the press. The story was picked up by CNN and others, making for interesting discussions about how far a big company would go to cut its costs.

Looking back on this story (which you can view here), one of its interesting aspects is that it occurred before the national financial meltdown and before most executives really started worrying seriously about cost cutting in a fight for the survival of their enterprise. As the economy begins to emerge from its current crisis, some managers will start to think about investing for the growth of their organizations. What will the fate of color copiers be? Will the color-printed page be considered an “unnecessary” expense?

For many, perhaps the answer is yes, especially considering that the market price for toner-based color MFPs ranges from about five to eight cents per color copy. When a black & white page can be printed for well under one cent per page, how can an organization justify such an exponential increase in costs just to add color? Since the market price of color copying isn’t likely to fall much further anytime soon (mostly for technological reasons), the best chance for organizations to justify printing in color would be some new technological breakthrough to be introduced.

Technological breakthroughs in printing don’t happen very often, but one happened this summer when RISO introduced its new family of ComColor high-speed inkjet printers. With color costs per page as little as one cent and with an average CPC of about two and a half cents, this unique product launch has already begun to disrupt the MFP market. What’s more is that RISO’s ComColor also has a very aggressive cost for monochrome output, which can be less than a half cent per page.

What these low operating costs mean is that an organization would pay about the same low cost for black on ComColor as it would ordinarily pay for output on a high-speed monochrome MFP. It also means that color output could be produced for about half the cost of color-enabled high-speed MFPs. Further, ComColor’s color costs are comparable with the monochrome costs of many other devices like laser printers and workgroup MFPs.

Because ComColor uses an inkjet technology, its color output doesn’t have the same appearance of that produced on a color laser printer or other toner-based color MFP. ComColor also doesn’t print on glossy paper. But in an office environment, how “necessary” (as Citigroup might ask) is it for users to print everyday documents in vibrant graphic-quality color on glossy paper? In a 2009 InfoTrends survey, enterprise workers stated that their most frequently printed office applications are word processing documents, emails, spreadsheets, presentations, and web articles. Certainly, the majority of these types of documents shouldn’t typically require laser-quality output. If they can be printed attractively and effectively in black for less than a cent per page and in color for only a small amount more, then it is difficult to understand why anyone would want to pay “unnecessary” incremental costs.

Sure, there are some features that electrophotographic (toner-based) MFPs have that ComColor lacks. Yet, there is no comparison when it comes to productivity and reliability in higher volumes. ComColor’s print speeds of 90 to 150 pages per minute, whether in black or color, with static or variable images, on regular paper or card stock, or in simplex or duplex modes. There is no reduction in speed. In terms of reliability, ComColor’s heatless inkjet imaging process and its simple, but advanced paper-handling system make this device a true office workhorse.

The bottom line is that color printing can be expensive…unless you select a device that is specifically engineered to produce attractive color pages at the lowest possible cost and at the highest possible speed and reliability. There are many other features and benefits of this new breakthrough technology. If you’re interested, you can learn more at http://www.newinkjet.com/. If Citigroup knew what ComColor could do for its communications costs, its executives would perhaps still be rolling out their color MFPs. The only difference is that they might be rolling in new ComColor high-speed inkjet printers to replace some of them.

David Murphy
RISO, Inc.

Note from Art: Where are the vertical markets for the ComColor? I have one, and it's a killer app for this system. Guaranteed to capture 200-400K per month and even higher numbers. I'll be blogging about this in the next few days. KILLER APPS for the ComCOLOR!

-=Good Selling=-

Formax Announces MailDoc Software

Formax Dover, NH September '09: Formax introduces MailDocTM Software Suite, a powerful easy-to-use tool for generating Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) and Bar Code Recognition (BCR) marks. MailDoc places marks directly on the page to allow intelligent inserting of varying multi-page documents.

Two versions are available, MailDoc Beginner and MailDoc Professional. The Beginner Suite generates basic OMR or 1D BCR marks to process varying multi-page documents, and works with printers operating at any speed.

The Professional Suite offers these basic elements, in addition to sequence checking, automatic document diversion, grouping documents with similar addresses, selective feeding, simplex to duplex printing, and e-mail document capability. These additional features increase document security and help to reduce printing and postage costs. Options for the Professional Suite include electronic overlays with a company logo, message or border, and other customization.

OMR and BCR coded documents allow users to fully utilize a Formax inserter. They provide enhanced security, target marketing with selective feeding, and diverting sets based on selected criteria. MailDoc Software Suite is simple-to-use, with Windows-based drag-and-drop interfaces. It works independently of your accounting package, so there's no need for IT involvement or restructuring of data.

Formax MailDoc is the complete package, helping to reduce printing and postage costs while enhancing document security and target marketing outreach.

Formax MailDocTM is a powerful, easy-to-use software suite that generates Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) and Bar Code Recognition (BCR) marks directly on documents for intelligent inserting of varying multi-page documents such as invoices and statements. MailDoc reduces printing and postage costs by sorting through your unprinted documents and collating those that are intended for the same recipient so they are sent in the same envelope. Convert traditional simplex printed documents to duplex printing with MailDoc to reduce paper costs and provide additional postage savings.

In addition, MailDoc allows you to fully utilize a Formax inserter equipped with OMR or BCR through enhanced security of sequence check marks, target marketing with selective feeding and diverting of sets based on selected criteria. Adding electronic overlays with company logos, messages or borders can enhance your printed document image while eliminating the need to inventory pre-printed forms.

MailDoc Advantages

Simple-to-use, Windows-based drag-and-drop interfaces
Unlimited printing speeds
Runs independently of existing accounting packages
Generate Basic OMR or 1D BCR marks
Sequence check marks
Target marketing utilizing selective feeding

Formax is an industry leader in the design, engineering, sales and support of paper processing equipment. The company's goal is to continually introduce new and innovative products while providing an unequaled level of service and support for authorized dealers worldwide.

Contact your Formax Account Executive at 800.232.5535 for further information on these and other Formax products.

-=Good Selling=-

Office Equipment Industry "Final Results"

At the Print4Pay Hotel Forums, we've had this poll running for quite a while. Time to close it down and add a few new ones! ENJOY!

What's the next big development that will shake up and rattle the office equipment industry?

RISO will enter the MFP game and make a splash 10%
Ricoh changes name to Ikon Americas Corporation 11%
Canon really does buy the Toshiba MFP business for distribution 27%
HP buys XEROX 19%
Sharp's A4 products outsell Sharp's A3 products 27%
None of the above 6%

Can0n needs to add distribution, this poll was started before the Canon & HP announcement that they would share some MFP products. I still think Canon has to add distribution. After this recession is over, the office equipment industry will never be the same.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "New Leads, RFP's & Pricing on the Street"

I've posted some new information that's been posted on the Print4Pay Hotel Message Forums.

Quotes from the Field:

Canon imageRUNNER ir3235
Canon imageRUNNER ir5065
Ricoh Aficio mp4000spf
Ricoh Aficio mp7000spf
Ricoh Aficio 420ND
Xerox WC 5632
Xerox WC 5765
Xerox Phaser 6369
Kyocera KM 4050
Kyocera KM 8020
KonicaMinolta Bizhub C220
KonicaMinolta Bizhub 751
KonicaMinolta Bizhub 362
Toshiba 10 MFD bid
KonicaMinolta 10 MFD bid

Pricing on the Street

Xerox DocuColor 252 w/Fiery
Ricoh Aficio PRO 907EX

New RFP's For You!

RFP for 5 mono mfp's systems Federal
RFP for Document Management System due 10/28/09
RFP for 3 MPD Systems for (Submission Deadline 11/9/09)
RFO for 50ppm Color Copier RFP "Due 10/29/09"
RFP for 9 MFP's Due 11/2/09
RFP for 66 MFP's Due 10/27/09

Leads

Lead for 90 MFD's (replacement in 09-10)

All of these for you! Keep in mind that you need to be a member to view the Print4Pay Hotel message boards. Become a member of the largest group of copier professionals in the world!!

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Indsutry Notes 10/16/09

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

- One solutions vendor buys another. Visionet Systems, a business process outsourcing firm in Cranbury, NJ, announced it has acquired eDoc Synergy of Chesterfield, MO. eDoc was founded by Affan Waheed, a former employee of Express Scripts, and provided a service to digitize medical records.

- Microsoft is set to launch Windows 7 operating system on 10/22/09. According to IDC’s Director of Vertical Industry Practice, Mark Walker stated; “The operating system is meaner and cleaner than its predecessor. It has gone back to the first principals.’

- The falling value of the US Dollar continues to pummel the MFP industry. For example, Zacks Investment Research said the following about Canon; “We believe the sharp appreciation of the yen is eroding Canon Inc’s revenue and profits. The company expects to improve profitability through product launches and cost-cutting efforts. We expect revenue in 2009 to be hurt by weak consumer spending and worsening global economy and believe the company will struggle to meet expectations in fiscal 2009. We maintain our SELL recommendation on Canon shares.”

- In an unusual effort to increase sales, Riso is running ads for its new high speed color inkjet systems in a electric utility’s website. The eCatalog is from BC Hydro, a large electric utility in Canada.

- Offset press maker, Heidelberg of Germany, announced it will cut an additional 1500 jobs to boost profitability.

- DocuForce, a dealer in Kansas, won a copier bid from Butler County for color and b/w models. Total revenue not announced.

- Buyers Labs Inc. (BLI) gave a 5 Star rating to PrintAudit 6, a rules based managed print services software package.

- Document management use in healthcare can help avoid costs in an audit of Medicare payments. Since the government started their audits (called RACs), in just 5 pilot stated, $993 million in Medicare overpayments has already been recouped. The RACs expand to all states in 2010, and supposedly require 5 times as much research as a traditional audit.

- A federal judge in Texas has dismissed Hewlett Packard & Lenovo from an inventor’s lawsuit accusing them of infringing on a patent related to modems used in the company’s computer product line.

- Hewlett Packard is apparently considering making another acquisition, after is just swallowed EDS for $13 billion. Industry authors believe the company will buy Brocade Communications Systems Inc., which makes routers and switches for blade computer servers, as well as software. Some analysts place Brocade’s value at $4 billion.

- Is getting rid of all paper files a good idea? The U.S. National Archives announced that based on its testing, CD/DVD experiential life expectancy is only 2 to 5 years, even though published data life expectancy is often cited as 25 years or longer. Why is this? The dyes that record data in the CD/DVD material can be impacted by the environment, and lose their data. The phenomenon is called “Bit Rot”.

- The City of Denver’s faulty printer allows drunk worker to keep his job. Apparently John Delgado, who was caught drinking on the job, could not be fired when the printer attached to the Breathalyzer machine failed to print out the test results.

- Lexmark now shipping the T656dne, which is an A4 b/w desktop b/w laser printer, with a 7” touch screen color LCD, and 55ppm for $1999.00.

- Lexmark won a managed print services bid from RC McLean & Associates, which is a medical practice management company that provides billing and other professional services to anesthesiologists and other medical specialists across the U.S. Lexmark claims the contract will save RCM over $120,000 per year.

- Statistics from Lexmark on healthcare industry in the U.S.:
- $7 billion per year is spent on processing insurance claims
- Average cost for a medical practice to process an insurance claim is $10-$15 per claim
- Turnaround time for claim is 30-90 days
- Paper claims take average of 35 minutes to process
- Paper claims are rejected 30-35% of the time
- Only 1% of electronically filed claims are rejected

- Another use for inkjet printers. Students at UC Berkeley have invented a way to grow biological cell cultures, but squirting glucose using inkjet heads in a low cost printer, into grooves dug into CD-ROMS that contain the cells. They are hoping to perfect this technology to offer an alternative to normal $30,000 systems that labs have to acquire to do the same thing.

- Toshiba was notified that it will be fined the European Union over claims that it conspired to fix pricing of electric power transformers.

- Toshiba previewed a new high definition television, called the Cell Regza, which is a 55” flat screen model that displays 8 different channels at the same time in 8 windows on screen. It uses the same computer that is in a Sony PlayStation video game. It can also record all 8 channels nonstop for 26 hours on an internal hard drive. Suggested MSRP of $11,000.00.

- Toshiba announced it has implemented Web Content Management software from Autonomy Corp. for its office equipment website for dealers and end users. Unknown the cost of the contract.

- In another acquisition of a computer network services company, Emerson Electric Co. announced it had purchased Avocent Corp. for $1.2 billion.

- Another example; Sykes Enterprises of Tampa, FL, paid $263 million for ICT Group of Newtown, PA. ICT Group provides services to contact centers in the U.S.

- InnerWorkings Inc. of Chicago, IL, announced it won a managed print services bid from InterContinental Hotels Group. This is apparently a mulit-million dollar contract.

- The Graphic Arts Show Company announced that the total attendance for PRINT 09 was 18,999, not including vendors.

-=Good Selling=-

Copiers Are Misssing "Where Have They Gone"!

Picked this up on "g" alerts today. Seems like the Public Library in Jacksonville, Florida is missing $500,000 dollars of equipment! What's missing you might ask? To start it's 40 computers and 21 copiers. Now, I can understand computers that can go missing, misplaced or maybe even tossed out, not that big easy to move, however 21 copiers!!!

Here's what they said:

Staff originally listed the value of these at $489,000, but on Wednesday they said it was a mistake and might have been overstated. Many of the items are old, like the computers, and may not be worth anything.

Still they are missing, and no one knows were they are. So they're checking again.

"We also need to go back and make sure those items are not somewhere in city government, that they are not in another department," library official Stacy Bucher said.

If you ask me,they were probably sold at auction for a few dollars, or they have a terrible way of processing their information.

-=Good Selling=-

Xerox "The Week in Review"

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

- A judge in New York granted Xerox’s motion to dismiss an antitrust claim made against the company. Media Sciences, maker of generic printer supplies for Xerox printers, was trying to establish that Xerox maintained an unfair monopoly on the market for cartridges & ink for its printers. Xerox is still suing Media Sciences for patent infringement.

- Xerox announced it will license software from Preo Software Inc. of Alberta, Calgary, Canada. The software supposedly will allow end users to measure their color coverage on their documents that they plan on printing to their new Xerox ColorQube color wax copier. In theory, this would allow users to know upfront what their cost per click would be before they actually print the page, and get billed by Xerox.

- Xerox’s ACS division announced it won a $4 million contract from the State of Wyoming to develop an electronic health record and health information exchange portal.

- ACS, a division of Xerox, also announced it won a bid to provide employee benefits administration from Ford Motor Company. Terms and revenue not announced.

- In order to be named the “Official Copier of the Olympics”, Xerox used to pay $50 million per year to the International Olympic Committee.

- The Association of Retired Xerox Employees (ARXE) claim that 25% of its members (8,000 of 33,000) will be affected by the elimination of supplemental health care coverage provided by Xerox. The group, led by David Coriale, filed a lawsuit in Rochester federal court to try and force Xerox to reinstate the benefits.

- Xerox launched CategoriX software, which will supposedly automatically classify documents for the legal vertical market. Pricing not announced.

- Xerox also plans on launching a program to provide managed print services in the cloud. “The managed print services in the cloud will be targeted at mid-market companies having a sizeable number of imaging and printing devices. The services will be offered on per-device, per-month basis.” Said Princy Bhatnagar, a Director in Xerox’s Office Business Group.

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Ricoh "TWIR Notes"

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

- Ricoh announced it won a bid from AREVA Inc. AREVA is a nuclear power equipment maker, with facilities in 43 countries. Details of the contract were not announced.

- Ricoh announced it now has a special discount pricing program for members of NAPL/NAQP, allowing it to increase its sales of production print systems to printshops in the U.S.

- Ricoh announced it sold another Ricoh Aficio PRO C900 production color system. This time it placed a unit at Grover Printing, a Consolidated Graphics printshop in Houston, Texas.

- In Japan, Ricoh launched the “Pretend You Are a Copier” program, which enables children to experience 6 copier processes through experiments.

-=Good Selling=-

Paradigm Imaging Releases New imagePRO FLEX

Costa Mesa, CA – October 13, 2009 – Paradigm Imaging Group, a leading distributor of large-format scanning and printing solutions, announces the release of the new imagePRO FLEX Multi-Function System.

Paradigm Imaging’s exclusive imagePRO FLEX system features the imagePRO Gx 42 HD PLUS Series scanners, which deliver the highest definition CCD image capture available on the market. These scanners also feature a state-of-the-art feed mechanism, allowing for the safe scanning of delicate originals, such as tissue patterns and delicate artwork.

Here are a few of the highlights of the new imagePRO FLEX:
• Gx 42 HD PLUS Series Scanner:
o Instant-On, long-life 2D LED illumination system
o 1200 dpi optical resolution
o Fast 12ips monochrome and up to 4ips color scan speed
o Up to .8” max media thickness (T models)
o 48-bit color data capture
o Network ready with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity

• Rocket Scanner Controller
o Includes Windows XP® Professional
o Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 1.4Ghz processor
o 2GB DDR PC2-5300 memory
o 250GB SATA-150 (7200 rpm) 8MB cache hard drive

• Exclusive Paradigm imageFLOW® scan-print-copy software
o Touch screen and keyboard control
o Interactive scan-print-copy controls
o Over 550 printers supported
o Includes over 325 ICC output profiles

• Mini 101 keyboard with touch pad
• 15” touch screen panel
• iP-FLEX stand accommodates printers up to 49 inches high
• One-year on-site warranty with an optional two-year warranty upgrade

The imagePRO FLEX is available in four models:
• imagePRO FLEX Gx42C
o Color scanning speed up to .75 inches per second
• imagePRO FLEX GxT42C
o Color scanning speed up to .75 inches per second
o Thick document scanning up to .8 inches
• imagePRO FLEX Gx42E
o Color scanning speed up to 4 inches per second
• imagePRO FLEX GxT42E
o Color scanning speed up to 4 inches per second
o Thick document scanning up to .8 inches

The integration of the imagePRO Gx 42 HD PLUS series scanners into the FLEX System makes it a perfect solution for any application requiring high quality color capture – artwork, graphics, and photographs. With over 550 printers supported by Paradigm’s imageFLOW® software, the imagePRO FLEX is an economical, versatile, scan-print-copy solution.

“The imagePRO FLEX is a valuable addition to our popular line of multi-function systems, allowing us to offer a full spectrum of solutions to a wider variety of markets. The ability to utilize equipment that already exists in the client’s facility is the key component of the imagePRO FLEX System, and another example of our customer-driven philosophy,” said Randy Geesman, President of Paradigm Imaging Group.

About Paradigm Imaging Group
Paradigm Imaging Group is a large format solutions provider whose expertise extends from scanning and printing products to imaging systems integration, software development and product distribution. Paradigm counts among its clients companies in reprographics, architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing, as well as numerous public agencies at all levels of government. Since 1989, Paradigm has grown to become a leading provider of large format scanning and printing solutions.
###

-=Good Selling=-

Sammy "Going After the Big Dogs"

Samsung, or as I refer to as "Sammy", talk has it that they will be coming to market with some A3 devices somewhere down the road. Talk, also has it that they would like to be a full line OEM with the likes of Ricoh, Canon, KonicaMinolta, and Xerox.

Fact, besides Sharp, none of the above manufacturers have yet come to market with thier own (OEM) A4 device as of this time. Yes, there are some rumors that Ricoh or Toshiba will come to market, but as of right now, nada!

When I talk about A4 devices, it's not the inexpensive machines from Oki, Panasonic or HP, but the more robust units such as the HP M5035, the Samsung 6545, the Sharp Frontier Series, these are substantial units that are capable of handling 20,000 pages each and every month for 60 months. The players thus far are Xerox (OEM Samsung), Muratec (OEM Samsung), Sharp (OEM), Samsung (OEM)

I still can't fathom that the likes of Canon, Ricoh, and KonicaMinolta have stood by the side lines during the A4 transition. My, how many placements have they lost to these A4 devices, five thousand, ten thousand?

So far, none of these manufacturers have taken my advise, and that is to develop and A4 device to compete with the cpc of A3 devices, meaning the toner cost per page would be in the area of .0028-.004. What the heck are they waiting for? The time is right!

My father in-law quotes this all the time, "what do expect from a pig but a grunt"

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "New RFP's Uploaded"

After many hours of research, we've uploaded six new RFP's (requests for propoals) for multifunctional devices or products, or whatever we are calling them these days.

One of the RFP's is for 66 units. All are due to expire in 30 days or less. You need to be a member of the Print4Pay Hotel, click the link and you'll be a member of the largest group of Copier Professionals in the World!

What is and RFP?

A request for proposal (referred to as RFP) is an invitation for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service. A bidding process is one of the best methods for leveraging a company's negotiating ability and purchasing power with suppliers. The RFP process brings structure to the procurement decision and allows the risks and benefits to be identified clearly upfront.[1] The RFP purchase process is lengthier than others, so it is used only where its many advantages outweigh any disadvantages and delays caused. The added benefit of input from a broad spectrum of functional experts ensures that the solution chosen will suit the company's requirements.

The RFP may dictate to varying degrees the exact structure and format of the supplier's response. The creativity and innovation that suppliers choose to build into their proposals may be used to judge supplier proposals against each other, at the risk of failing to capture consistent information between bidders and thus hampering the decision making process. Effective RFPs typically reflect the strategy and short/long-term business objectives, providing detailed insight upon which suppliers will be able to offer a matching perspective.

Similar requests include a request for quotation and a request for information.

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 10/09/09

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

Investment firm, KKR, is on track to own up to 16.5% of Kodak. Former Kodak CEO, George Fisher, is one of KKR’s senior advisors. (Does Mr. Fisher see Kodak as a future acquisition target?)

Kodak’s proposed settlement of a race discrimination lawsuit goes before Judge Jonathan E. Feldman.
- Lawyers filed a motion asking for approval of a payout of $21.4 million
- Attorney’s fees would take $9.7 million of the payout
- The rest would result in payment to former employees of ranging from $1000 to $75,000 apiece.

Kodak announced that its board of directors has amended its contract with CEO, Antonio Perez, so that he remains in his current position until 12/31/2013. The previous contract ended in 2010.

Will new accounting rules change copier leases?
- Since 1976, all industries have been allowed to account for equipment leases as either a capital lease or an operating lease
- Operating leases allow customer to account for the copier lease as a monthly expense rather than an asset that goes on the balance sheet.
- The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has put together a project designed to change the rules by eliminating operating, or off-balance-sheet leases. This could go into effect in 2011.

A dealer in Michigan grows by focusing on solutions:
- ImageSoft Inc. of Southfield, MI, was named to Inc. 5000 fastest growing U.S. businesses
- Revenue growth rate of 87.47%
- Named one of Metro-Detroit’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For
- Has 44 total employees
- Just opened satellite offices in Grand Rapids (MI), North Carolina and Oregon
- Founded in 1006 by Scott Bade, James Leneschmidt & Steve Glisky
- Has 143 customers ranging from government, healthcare, insurance, education and manufacturing
- Just won bid for electronic content management (ECM) system for Oregon Judicial Department, which handles 600,000 cases per year

Intel Corp. demonstrated a chip-based authentication scheme that could allow or prevent devices to access a computer network. It is called vPro with Active Management (AMT) technology, and could also be used to prevent non-original manufacturer-made cartridges from being used in printers and MFPs.

OpenText Corp. was awarded with a “Strong Positive” listing from Gartner’s 2009 MarketScope for Records Management providers. OpenText offers enterprise content management software, including Captaris RightFax.

The global market for printer, copier & MFPs declined in first half of 2009 according to Gartner:
- shipments totaled 51.3 million units including office and home use devices
- a decline of 20.2% compared to year previous
- office printing devices down 24.5%
- HP holds 40% marketshare, down 3.4%
- Canon has 19%, Epson 14.2%, Brother 6.2%, Samsung 4.9%

VistaPrint, a large print for pay, continues to grow its revenues:
- Since 2005, revenues grew from $90 million to $515.8 million (450% growth)
- CEO is Robert Keane
- Incorporated in Venlo, Netherlands
- Has sales offices in Lexington, MA, Barcelona (Spain), Montego Bay (Jamaica), Winterthur (Switzerland) and Paris (France)
- Has 20 million repeat customers
- 60% of its sales are through its website
- Printshops are located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and Venlo
- Average on-line order is $33.00
- Ranked 16th on Fortune 100 Fastest Growing Companies
- Recently became the provider for Fedex Office (formerly Kinko’s) web-to-print sales

In order to increase print volumes, Hewlett Packard is now offering templates for brochures, fliers and business cards through its MarketSplash website for owners of its printers. The site also will offer a print fulfillment option, giving end user the ability to choose a local HP authorized print service provider.

Hewlett Packard announced changes at its Graphics Solutions business unit. Michael Hoffmann has been replaced by Christopher Morgan as the new Senior Vice President.

Hewlett Packard filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, seeking to stop several companies from selling compatible printer cartridges that violate HP patents. Companies listed were:
- Zhuhai Gree Magneto-Electric of China
- InkPlusToner.com of Canoga Park, CA
- Mipo International of Hong Kong
- Shanghai Angel Printer Supplies of China
- SmartOne of Hayward, CA
- Shenzhen Print Media of China
- Comptree of City of Industry, CA
- Jingjie Imaging Products of China
- Tatrix International of China
- Ourway Image of China

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Hewlett Packard is considering merging its printer/MFP division with its computer division. Details:
- The printer and PC operations had been combined early in the decade, but HP CEO Mark Hurd separated the units soon after he took over 4 years ago.
- PC unit is run by Todd Bradley
- Printer/MFP unit is run by Vyomesh Joshi (who spent $1 billion in R&D to develop the Edgeline)

Fogra of Munich, Germany, announced it has certified the Oce’ CS665 Pro (relabeled Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6501) as a Validation Printing System, meeting the requirements of the latest ISO-based FograCert certification. The is the approved standard for sheet-fed and web offset printers.

On Wednesday, October 21st, at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, before Judge Jeffrey White, the three major OCR engine makers will argue over their patents, with representatives from Nuance, ABBYY and IRIS appearing.

New managed print services solution. Dynamic Supplies announced that its PrintSolv software will now automatically sends printer and copier information back to a fulfillment system. It monitors client’s toner levels and proactively flags an order when the level reaches a predetermined threshold. The new feature is called “Proactiv Supplies Fulfillment”

Oce’ reported its last quarter’s financials:
- Reported a net loss of $36 million
- Revenues declined 10%
- operating income down 14%
- net income down 1%
- Share value feel 6.5%
- CFO, Hans Kerkhoven stated that Oce’ would continue to use cost-cutting to mitigate revenue declines and would not forecast a return to net profit
- Has cut 1,170 jobs so far this year, with a targeted total of 2,350 jobs to be eliminated
- net debt of 566 million euros
- color is now 31% of revenue
- non-recurring revenues down 23%
- recurring revenues down 7%

Konica Minolta’s Australian division announced it has now placed 500 bizhub PRO systems in the country, for a third of the production print market. The latest sale was a C6501 to Oxford Printing of Sydney.

Pitney Bowes steals an executive from Ricoh. Lori Ann Cerullo, formerly VP and GM of Ricoh’s InfoPrint division, was named VP of U.S. Sales for Pitney Bowes, in charge of the Document Messaging Technologies business unit.

Pitney Bowes released results of a survey that found 57% if alumni chose direct mail as the preferred method to receive information about the school that they attended.

Toshiba announced it will cut in half the amount of research and development money it spends on computer chip/semiconductor technology

Toshiba announced it will launch an LED lightbulb capable of producing 810 lumens, the equivalent of a 60 watt lightbulb. The bulbs will sell for the low price of $101.00.

Toshiba completed the purchase of Fujitsu’s hard drive business for $334 million.

Toshiba announced it is letting go of Jerry Lumpkin, who was VP in charge of the company’s computer division, known as Toshiba America Information Systems.

Des Plaines Office Equipment, a Sharp dealer owned by Chip Miceli, announced it is purchasing one of its competitors in the Chicago marketplace, by acquiring ABM Office Equipment (Xerox and Kyocera Copystar), which was owned by Gaylord Smilden. This is Mr. Miceli’s third acquisition in 3 years.

Duplo, maker of duplicators, three years ago announced it would relabel Sharp copiers, and call them the Duplo Docucate series, and hoped to add $40 million in sales annually to the company. This target was never reached, and when asked if they would continue, the company responded; “ we are reconsidering our business direction for Docucate in 2010”

Lenovo, which bought the PC business from IBM, announced it will relabel the Lexmark X543dn desktop color laser A4 MFP and call it the Lenovo MC8300DN. This their first Lexmark product, as the other desktop products that the Chinese company relabels are from Brother and TECO of Taiwan.

Kyocera now offering a managed print services program, called FASTrack, which is based on FMAudit software.

Kyocera gave out more details on its platform for embedded software in its MFPs, called “Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions” or HyPAS:
- provides separate Java and Web Services software developer kits
- Java embedded applications allow company to extend the existing feature set, with more advanced serverless capabilities
- Web Services applications can be implemented on a range of platforms using almost any
programming langurage
- PanelPlus, based on Java, offers pre-programmed OneTouch buttons for scan to email,
scan to PC, or FTP with customizable icons
- PrintQ Manager server based software enables print user authentication and authorization via Active Directory, provides print job queue on control panel and integrates with HID card readers
- KYOcapture is a relabeled version of NSi’s AutoStore
- Equitrac Office and Express
- OpenText RightFax
- Future product is a scanning utility for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch

NEC announced it will relabel the Kyocera TASKalfa 620 and call it the NEC IT6200. In addition, it will relabel the Kyocera TASKalfa 820 and call it the NEC IT8200.

Netaphor Software Inc. announced it is now shipping SiteAudit version 3.0, offering new features of its managed print services software.

Print Audit, makers of managed print services software, announced it is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 operating systems.

Trying to sell document management solution? Here is a few facts:
- 4 drawer file cabinet holds about 10,000 pages of paper
- 100 gigabyte hard holds enough info to fill 200 filing cabinets
- Documents can be organized into logical electronic files that can be retrieved through
convenient keyword searches
- Document privacy and security are improved through password protected access
- Information is backed up regularly to create disaster recovery strategy

Industry research company, Raymond James & Associates stated the following about IT sales:
- Sales increased by 6.5% in second quarter as compared to first quarter of 2009
- Expects IT sales to fall 10.6% as compared to last year
- Sales for SMB focused resellers are expected to fall 15.5%
- Large corporate account shipments fell 15.7% compared to last year
- Sales to public sector increased by 1.3%

According to Access Markets International Partners of New York, the country of India will spend $.13 billion in 2009 on printers and printer supplies, which is a 7% increase.

Dell Computer was ordered by the New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, to pay $4 million in restitution for deceptive and fraudulent business practices. The charge was that Dell pressured customers to fix their own computers, even though they were under warranty.,

Results of a survey conducted by Business Roundtable revealed:
- U.S. chief executives are not ready to step up hiring or capital spending
- 40% expect to cut U.S. jobs over the next 6 months
- 13% expect to add jobs
- 35% expect to lower capital spending
- 21% plan on increasing capital spending
- 51% expect their sales to increase slightly over next 6 months
- Expect U.S. gross domestic product to decline 0.9% in 2009

Canon announced it is pulling out of the 2010 Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show in February, 2010 to cut costs.

Lasermaster International Inc. (LMI), maker of generic toner cartridges, announced it is building an 86,000 square foot manufacturing facility to add on to its plant in Phoenix.

-=Good Selling=-