3 Common Weaknesses of other Copier & MFP's

Just yesterday the thread below was posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums

Hi, all! I have learned recently that envelopes are a weakness of Ricoh machines. So now I am wondering what weaknesses the other brands (KM, Toshiba, etc) have. I know color on Ricoh is supposed to be the best, but besides that, are there any specific problems with other machines that I can point to when selling Ricohs? Thanks!

Here's my response:

k, I'll chime in, when it comes to speeds and features I don't see many weakness from any of the manufacturers. That's not to say there aren't any.

Over the years, I learned to dig a little deeper than the brochure and the spec page. Of course one of the main resources has been to go here on the Print4Pay Hotel forums and ask a question about a certain model or manufacturer. Another tip is to download the print driver and the operators manual, believe it or not you'll be able to pick a system apart with the op manual as long as you also have a good understanding of the device you are trying to sell. Another decent resource is to search YouTube and see if there are any videos that describe "How to" do this or that with the device.

Over the years I relied less on trying to beat the machine specs, and more on how to beat my competitors, whether it's a dealer or a direct manufacturer. Look for weaknesses in the sales agreement, the maintenance agreement or the leasing company that they use, try to know more about how they do business and you'll be able to sell against them.

Just and FYI, I ran across a sales contract from a major direct branch in my market area. The contract was left for the customer to review and I was able to secure a copy for myself. At first glance there was nothing special, nothing glaring, just an average contract for sale, however when I went back to read it a second time I found three major points where I could make my case.

The first is that on the sales agreement there is also a section for the maintenance agreement. There was a guarantee that stated they would credit the customers account $25.00 for every hour that they were not there after the 8 hour default. What that tells me is that I can explain to the customer that 8 hours is the normal turn around for service and not 4. If 4 was the normal, then state it like they did with 8 hours.

The second was that their fantastic guarantee did not cover any units slower than 28 pages per minute. (all of this was in the small print).

There was one more, however I need to keep that close to home and not make them aware that I know another weakness in their contract. 
Just to review, sell yourself, sell your services, find a knock out feature, or a knock out workflow (meaning on the zebra xyz copier, they may have to use 15 click through's  of the mouse for a certain print setting, or they may have to go through 5 sub menus to get to a much used mfp feature). Do, the homework and remember the harder you work, the luckier you get.

BTW, I've revealed that on the Print4Pay Hotel Forums, click and become a member of the largest social network of Imaging Professionals in the World!


-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Toshiba "TWIT Notes"

Toshiba announced it is entering the electronic book market, with its new Toshiba Biblio Leaf:


o Solar powered

o 6” b/w touchscreen display

o 800x600dpi

o 2GB RAM

o SD memory card slot

o WiFi and 3G wireless connections

o $20/month subscription

o 12 hour battery life

o Expected price of $150.00

Toshiba announced it will outsource some of its system chip manufacturing to Samsung of South Korea. This will allow the company to grow its memory chip production.

Toshiba announced it is selling its Nagasaki, Japan system chip plant, which was losing money, to Sony Corp. for $599 million. Sony will use the plant to make CMOS sensors for cell phones and digital cameras.

Toshiba launched the world’s first 3D HDTV set that does not need special 3D glasses. The 12” flat screen, called Regza GL1, will sell for $1400.00

Toshiba announced that revenue from its nuclear plant business may reach $12 billion in next 3 years.


-=Good Selling=-

To Ricoh "What I Want for Christmas" 2010

Christmas Note:  Glass ornaments are the most popular of today's German Christmas decorations. One glass ornament in particular is very interesting. It is a pickle! Pickles were used as common German Christmas decorations on the Christmas tree. The legend of the pickle states that when decorating the tree, you must hang the pickle last and hide it among the Christmas tree branches. On Christmas Day, the first kid to find the pickle would get a special blessing for the coming New Year and an extra present

Back in 08 I posted a blog titled To Ricoh "What I Want for Christmas", some of those Christmas wishes came or are coming true almost two years later.  I had asked for Color Scanning on high volume units (got it and Santa made me happy), print files from USB or SD cards (got it, about two years late), a Gelsprinter Plotter (I got an Epson instead), a real A4 device (not some printer with scanner attached, don't have this yet, however Santa's suppose to bring me one after Christmas), a Digital Duplicator that duplex's 11x17 (nope, didn't get one of these either), Biometric Authentication (did not get and I'm really pissed), a wide format system that will scan in color (dagnabit, I was suppose to get this a few months ago, all I hear is that it's coming, thanx Santa another gift that everyone else got but me). 

So, this year I put together another wish list from Ricoh:

• Duplexing A3 Digital Duplicator that prints in two colors!
• 50, 60, 70 ppm A4 MFP that has the cost per page of the A3 MFP
• Low Volume wide format system with color scanning (4 pages per minute or less)
• A "Green" MFP that will let me use the same paper over and over (erase image)
• A Digital Color Envelope Press (really, really want this)
• A Booklet Finisher that will fold and staple thick stock for Segment 3 & 4 systems
• A folding unit that will create a "z" or "gate" fold on letter size prints or copies
• Embedded Print Cost Calculation Software that will allow us to charge by coverage used
• Embedded Print Software that will report what documents were printed and by whom
• A 20ppm A4 MFP that has a retail cost per page of .10 cents

I don't think I'm gonna see any of these this Christmas and I'm kinda wishy washy about next Christmas also, but I'm going to keep the faith that Father Christmas will make a few of these happen.

Do you have a wish list from another manufacturer or even Ricoh, if so post in the comments section!

-=Merry Christmas=-

This Week in Ricoh "TWIR Notes"

- More info on the new Ricoh A4 color laser MFPs, the Aficio MP C300 and MP C400 offering:


o while are A4 (meaning letter/legal size paper only), the main engine is so large, apparently it is designed to be a floor standing unit only

o 30ppm and 40ppm top speeds respectively

o Maximum recommended volume of 20K/month

o Document feeder scans at 30opm

o 8.5” color touch screen LCD display that tilts up and down

o 600x600dpi as copier and 1200x1200dpi as printer (1, 2 or 4 bits per pixel)

o Comes standard with single 550 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass

 Maximum paper capacity with options of 2,300 sheets

 Can handle up to 256gsm

 Auto duplex standard up to 163gsm

o Uses Ricoh PxP polymerized toner w/4 tandem OPC drum design

o 60 second warm up time with 15 second first color copy out time

o Optional fax board (up to 400dpi with optional RAM)

o Optional internal stapling finisher with hole punch

o Built-in print controller: (actual maker unknown)

 1.5GB RAM/160GB hard drive

 Intel Celeron 1GHz processor

 XPS, PCL and PostScript print drivers standard

 USB & 10/100BaseT ports standard

 Optional 1000BaseT gigabit Ethernet

 Scan to and print from USB thumb drive or SD digital camera memory card

 Scan to email/FTP/SMB/URL/NCP/TWAIN/LDAP/folder

• Optional File Format converter for user box like features

• Optional web browser

 Optional embedded software (uses UNIX and JAVA operating systems)

 Optional hard drive encryption kit and data overwrite kits


- Ricoh announced it will offer biometric readers in conjunction with Equitrac cost recovery options for its MFPs.

o “unlike card and password protected authentication, biometric characteristics can not be misappropriated through bullying”

o “this technology is the safest possible way to identify the user”

o As compared with proximity cards; “the replacement of cards and wasted paper is also costly”
- In a cost cutting move, Ricoh announced it is shrinking its wholesale division from 4 regions to only 2:
o Mark Conant (east) and John Stewart (west) are two RVPs left

o The district sales managers will now support all Ricoh, Savin & Lanier dealers, rather than having separate personnel for each brand

-=Good Selling=-

Multifunctional Copier Sales in 2010

Let's see I've got three more selling days before the end of the month, the end of the quarter and the end of the year. The last six months of sales has made up for the first six months of the year, I'll finish above quota (whew!) for the month, the quarter and the year.

Here's some things from last year that stuck in my mind from 2010

1) I wrote about two months of business that I couldn't get approved for credit.
2) I'm begining to see more "down the street" quotes that are trying to hold margins, rather than give away the store.
3) The emergence of micro leasing companies that are generating lease approvals but with a high interest rate.
4) I've seen more A4 devices quoted this year than the last two.
5) End users are more concerned about how to reduce the number of printed, copied and faxed pages (at one time I had to intiate the talk track).

Things that I have to be concerned about in 2011

1) More A4 MFP's will mean I'll need to sell more hardware and solutions to compensate for the lower cost A4 devices.
2) Credit will remain tight, I'll need to pick and choose my battles for revenue and profit.
3) The rise of Smart MFP's

All in all 2010 was better than 2011, my goal was to make President's Club for 2010 and my goal for 2011 is another President's Club and to increase my margins.

I'll be starting my 31st year in "down the street" sales for the copier industry in 2011. I'd like to say that I've seen it all, however as our industry continues to evolve there's going to be many changes coming our way, and we need to change and adapt new strategies and techniques that will put us on thier valued people that they need to do business with. Always keep in mind "the harder you work, the luckier you get".

How was your year, let me know by posting a comment!


-=Good Selling=-

ITEX 2011 Addresses the Future of Office Solutions

By Sand Sinclair, ITEX Conference Director

In its 11th year, the ITEX National Expo & Conference, the largest North American trade show in the imaging channel, is getting set to deliver real solutions, real opportunities, and real value to the thousands of dealers and providers who look to ITEX for trendsetting information to advance their business.

From education tracks with critical topics needing to be addressed (and are) by experts in their fields, to a huge exhibit floor with the newest technologies and professional services offered, ITEX has become the ideal venue to find the most credible solutions in the channel. Innovative technologies, mission-critical information, and collaborative business intelligence are strategically in place for ITEX 2011 attendees. A line up of state of the art office products and methodologies will soon showcase the ways, means and future of office solutions in order to thrive – right now, right methods, right road for beyond.

Each year the mega tradeshow addresses the current state of the industry – and economy – by providing a “power menu of information tools” at their annual expo, this year held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington DC, on March 22-23.

Power Hours and More

In a matter of two days, the all-encompassing ITEX Expo synergistically connects a vast exhibit floor with 35 strategically developed Power Hour classes within five education tracks. Presented by experienced industry experts and confident dealers with hands-on experience to share, valuable information is also found in mini-forums for more in depth focus, including the MPS Strategy Forum held simultaneously at the show, and two pre-conference workshops held one day prior to the official show opening. The latter addresses both Managed Services and Service Operations in half day workshops. All ITEX education is developed, reviewed and implemented from use of ongoing research and collaborative consulting resources then collectively assembled as salient topics within trendsetting track categories. All sessions address the current needs of office dealers and business providers.



Without question, as companies face the challenge of maintaining profit levels, it takes commitment to providing a broad menu of services to secure market share, while retaining existing customer business. By adopting modern strategies and implementing new methods, by adjusting dealer portfolios to meet market demand, by achieving new service benchmark levels, and readily getting trained where needed, providers can get ahead of the competition. Getting beside or beyond the hybrid dealer mind set today in order to grow your business takes commitment. It means sidestepping today’s economic uncertainty in favor of learning new means that will alter the course of your business. Ideally, ITEX provides the best opportunity for providers to both learn and network, finding good partnerships to advance company growth.

From solid education and product to special forums and Perfect Image Awards, from visionaries kicking off keynotes (MWAi / Intel) to current events for association members who network at the show – the tangible tools ITEX delivers will affect your company today – along with its future tomorrow. For detailed information visit www.itexshow.com.

Note from Art:  See you all at the show, it should be the premier event of the year!

-= Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "What to Do With Voice Mail"

Tired of playing voice mail tag?

Tired of the prospect not returned your calls?

To some this means that the prospect is not interested, while others will view this as a need to move on to the next call. To the really good marketers they see this as the prospect is too busy and has not found the time to return your call. Help the guy or gal out and set your own appointment!

Use this to your advantage!! The next time you get the dreaded voice mail, leave them this message.

Hi this is so and so with XYD company, I tried to reach you on several occassions, I going to be in your area next week. What I'd like to do is to stop by at 1PM to meet with you, if this is not convienent for you, please call me at (phone number). Other wise I'll see you then.

If they don't call you go on the appointment, and if they do call at least you've go them to communicate. It's a win win, and don't be a afraid to show up, 8 out of tens times they will see if and if not, they will remember you.


-=Good Selling=-

Tips for Securing the MFP & Copier Appointment

How many calls will it take to get an appointment?

It's a question I'm often asked by the newbie’s in the office. My answer is, it's a lot, I don't have any breakdowns for numbers nor do I bother to keep track of that stuff. I just go about my business making calls and lots of them.

It's very rare to get an appointment on the first call, unless you found the right person at the right time, it does happen from time to time. If I had to guess, I would tend to think it's about 10 times of reaching out to that person would be the average for me.

Over the years I found that you need to be cool, confident, and precise and deliver your benefit statement quickly to the right person.

First rule is to make sure who the "right" person is, meaning if you're selling copiers there's a chance that the CEO, CFO may not be involved in the preliminary discussions. The key for me is to ask the person who picks up the phone that is in charge of purchasing or evaluating this product or hardware at your company. More than half of the time they'll tell you who that person is, and then getting a hold of that person could be a horse of a different color.

What happens when the "gate keeper" won't give you the name of the "right" person? Well, for starters you could move on to the next call, and then schedule a follow up call in another week or so, and move the timing of the call to the early morning or late afternoon, you may get someone else that will give you the name of the "right" person. If that doesn't work, you can always look them up on the internet and see who's who in the company (try contacting someone else and ask for help). When that doesn't work take a trip over to LinkedIn and see if any of the key people are listed over there. Above all, the best answer I can give anyone is to not give up, sooner or later you'll get the "right" person.

Once you have the right person, you can do a "box" approach, such as leave them a voice mail, follow up a week later with a letter, and then either do a "drop off" or an email. Doing this will increase your chances the next time you call; the "right" person will at least speak to you. Of course then it's up to you to give a clean, clear and crisp pitch with an open ended question to gain the appointment.

I'm just as happy with getting to speak to the "right" person and them telling me that they don't have a need for my services now. Once I hear that I can then ask, what would be the best time to contact you in the future (I then get to move the call out "a" amount of months and concentrate on those other calls), and or what would be the best way for us to become and valued vendor? Either you'll get, call us in "x" amount of months, or the "right" person will ask you when you are available for an appointment (this has happened and happens more than you think).

Calling for appointments is part of your job, you do whether you like it or not. Have fun with it; see it as a challenge rather than a problem. Give yourself congrats when you get an appointment, and while you're at it make another appointment, they seem to come in bunches.

In closing, about two years ago, I cold called a company, and as luck would have it (the harder you work, the luckier you get), I met the right person. I was at the right place at the right time, we scheduled an appointment and I sold him a new copier, we'll the next day he called and cancelled and stated he just wasn't ready yet to commit to a long term lease. Well, yesterday he signed another order and did not cancel so after an additional geesh 100 phone calls and maybe another 100 emails I got the order back. It took two years, and you know what he told me, he told me that he would have not bought a new copier from anyone else but me, because of my work ethic and knowledge. Hope this helps!!

-=Good Selling=-

A Jersey Shore Christmas

Yeah, it's been 5 whole days since I've blogged, and shame on me, but I've been up to my ears in honey due things to do to get ready for Christmas!  To my boss, I've also been concentrating on closing the year strong and making sure that I'm shutting down the store on the 17th for a well deserved break (crossing my fingers).

So, being on the road so much give me time during my lunch break (right) to cruise on those less traveled roads, cut through towns with names like Scobeyville, Ocean Grove, Lake Como,  and Squankum. With time on my hands, and a digital camera, I bring you some of the finest decorated home for Christmas at the Jersey Shore.

Geez, I think the dates wrong on the camera, however this picture was taken in Belmar, NJ

I really enjoyed the large wrap around porch and the enormous amounts of garland.

Sea Girt, NJ

One of my favorites here, especially the colors of the house. I believe this shot was taken in Sea Girt, NJ.  Awesome!

Sea Girt, NJ

Another Majestic home in Sea Girt, NJ just a couple of blocks from the beach!

Light House in Sea Girt, NJ

Light House in Sea Girt, NJ, across the street is the boardwalk an then the ocean.

Inn at the Beach

Don't remember what town this was, however it's right off the beach in either Avalon, Belmar or Spring Lake.

Belmar, NJ ?

Another grand ole house at the Jersey Shore, simple decorating makes it another one of my top
choices!

Twin Lights Light House, HIghlands (rear pic)

This is a picture from the back of the Twin Lights Lighthouse, name twin light because there are two towers on either side of the structure. The first time I saw the Twin Lights I thought it was a castle on top of the hill.  Wait until you see the view in the next picture.

Twin Light Light House, Highlands, NJ

It's just an awesome structure that sits on one of the highest points on the East Coast of the US.  This lighthouse over looks the Atlantic Ocean, Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers along with Sandy Hook Bay.









That's all I have time for now, will try to get some additional pics of other home at the Jersey Shore, hope you  enjoyed them.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Manufacturer Shuffles from 4 to 2 Regions

Yesterday was another one of those days that make you wonder what in the hell is wrong in the world today!

I had just finished my 10AM appointment to gather last minute lease docs, and check and was then off to see another account when I got the call.  A friend at a local copier company called to tell me that Rikon had just condensed their Dealer Regions from 4 to 2. Ok, I thought why are you calling me to tell me this?  Well, with the consolidation word on the street is that up to 50% of the Rikon Dealer support people will be out of a job come December 31st. Could this be true?

The first thing that hit me was the fact that it's three weeks before Christmas and or the Holidays.  How does a company do this to long standing employees? Couldn't they have held out until the end of the fiscal year (March 2011)?  Plus, did they really need to reduce the Dealer work force, or could they have focused on making their Direct Operations more responsible for turning a profit and booted those people if a profit was not turned. The word came down is they wanted to make the Dealer Channel more like the Direct Channel...well, ok maybe the next thing we'll hear is that they want the Dealer Channel to lose money like the Direct Channel?

This was posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums yesterday; "Today, Rikon employees (Dealer Division) were had to Call IN and they received one of two PRE-RECORDED MESSAGES:

A. You have been eliminated


B. You are being re-positioned

Now, I doubt it was explained that way, but if this is true (again I heard this from a few sources), couldn't it have been done in a more professional manner? Is there a more professional manner or is this now the norm in Corporate America? If this is the norm, how low is this that no one could at least call the employees and explain that they no longer have a position. I for one would be extremely disappointed with the entire process.

I understand business is business, but there was no alternative, was Rikon going to go out of business if they didn't make a move until the end of the fiscal year? Maybe the new Rikon head honchos were concerned that they may have been on the chopping black come the end of the fiscal year.

BTW, the letter that went out to dealers made no mention of the layoffs/terminations. Yesterday, we lost some good people that have provided excellent support through out the years, I for one, wish them well and hope that they'll be back up and running soon.

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 11/29/10

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

- Okidata reports financial data:
o Worldwide hardcopy revenue declined 12% in first half of 2010 to only $675 million
o Operating loss of $34 million for first half of fiscal year
o Printer revenue down 22% as compared with 2006
o Printer revenue is 33% of total company

- The Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA) announced that U.S. businesses originated $4.9 billion in leases and loans to invest in capital equipment (which includes MFPs), which is up 14% from this time last year.
o 2.95% of borrowers were delinquent 30 days or more, down 3.41%
o Lenders in October considered just 1.2% of the loans in their portfolios as losses unlikely ever to be paid, down 1.7%
o 73% of all credit applications were approved, up from 72% last year

- Epson announced that in Europe, it will relabel desktop b/w laser AIOs from Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company). In addition, Epson sold its printer R&D unit in the Philippines to Kyocera.

- Epson announced it celebrated its 20th anniversary of launching piezo crystal inkjet technology:
o competes with technology used by HP and Canon, known as thermal inkjet, that uses heat to vaporize liquid water-based ink and fire it through printhead nozzles
o Instead uses mechanical pressure generated by a piezoelectric element when an electric current is applied to push droplets through nozzle
o Developed by current Epson president, Minoru Usui
o Is division of Seiko, the watchmaker.
 After launching its first dot matrix printer in 1968, the EP101, Seiko Corp. decided on the name “Epson” in 1975 as the division was the son of the EP printer.
o First printer to use technology was the Epson Stylus 800 in 1993
o Technology superior as it produces more precise ink droplets, resulting in sharper and smoother prints, with lower operating temperature
o Able to use synthetic colorants
o Will roll out its first color production inkjet system, the SurePress L4033A in late 2011

- Sharp announced it is the official sponsor of a 13 foot by 9 foot video wall at the September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. The video wall will be constructed of 9 Sharp PN-V601 60” color LCD panels.

- Oracle Corp. won a lawsuit it filed for patent violation against SAP, and a federal jury ordered SAP to pay Oracle $1.3 billion in damages. New HP CEO, Leo Apotheker was running SAP at the time of the infraction. SAP will appeal the decision. HP’s former CEO, Mark Hurd, now works for Oracle.

- HP’s new CEO, Leo Apotheker, announced that the company will dump its current Siebel CRM, (division of Oracle) and instead go with Salesforce.com.

- In a press release, new Hewlett Packard CEO, Leo Apotheker, stated that he will refocus the company’s R&D to increase software sales. “With software, companies can add much value to any product which is intended for HP customers”.

- Hewlett Packard filed a patent for “multi-threading” called “Parallelization in Printing” that will supposedly enable servers to speed up processing of large multi-page print jobs.

- HP reported its last quarter’s financials:
o profit up 5%
o total revenue up 8% to $33.28 billion
o net income of $2.5 billion
o operating margin decreased to 9.9% from 10.2%
o PC sales up 4% to $10.3 billion
o Services revenue up 0.4% to $9 billion
o Software revenue up1% to $974 million
o Printer/MFP division revenue up 8% to $7 billion
 Supplies revenue up 6%
 Commercial hardware revenue up 22%
 Consumer hardware revenue down 2%
 Commercial printer/MFP units up 43%

- EFI announced a printing solution for owners of Apple iPads. The company released PrintMe Connect for AirPrint, a free software package, allows users of iPads, iPods or iPhones to print to a Fiery driven MFP.

- Apple will roll out a second generation iPad next April, according to Wall Street analyst, Brian Marshall. In addition, the company announced it purchased the former headquarters of HP in Cupertino, CA for use as new office space.

- Lexmark announced that some of its products will now be sold by Best Buy.

- Ricoh stated that its worldwide sales decreased 1.9% to $5.8 billion last quarter.

- A retired Columbia University professor who held the sole patent covering a method of producing LEDs and laser diodes has died at age 83. Details:
o Gertrude Neumark Rothschild began research career with Sylvania Research Labs in Bayside, NY in 1950s
o Later worked at Philips Labs in Briarcliff Manor, NY
o Joined Columbia as professor of materials science in 1985
o Her patents led to laser and LED technologies used in laser print engines, DVD players, computers, instrument panels and background lighting in cell phone screens.
o In March, 2008, she sued LG, Nokia, Pioneer, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba for patent violations
o She received settlements totaling $27 million according to her lawyer, Albert Jacobs.

- A company finally shows a desktop color inkjet printer based on Memjet technology. Details:
o Company is Astro Machine Corp. of Illinois
o Unit will be called AstroJet Color Page Printer
o 1600x1600 dpi and 1600x800dpi modes
o Lower resolution delivers up to 3600 letter size pages per hour
 Unlike traditional inkjet models, coverage does not slow down print speed
o Can also handle up to 9,000 number 10 envelopes per hour
o Maximum sheet size of 9.5”x17”
o Maximum paper thickness of 0.5mm
o USB port
o Weighs 75lbs.
o 20”Wx24”Lx17.25”H
o Pricing and ship date not announced

Impact Networking, a dealer with locations in Illinois and Wisconsin, announced it has adopted Pickard Elementary School in Chicago, providing its 432 elementary students with Christmas gifts.

- FM Audit Inc. of Jefferson City, MO announced it has added a “Green Reporting” feature to its managed print services software that will allow dealers to provide info to customers on their printer’s paper consumed, supply usage and power consumption.

- Fuji Xerox president, Tadahito Yamamoto, gave an interview to the press about future of printing business:
o Company is three years into reinvention as a managed print services provider
o Due to maturing hardware markets, is scrambling to diversify its revenue mix
o Spent $761 to build the Yokohama Minatomirai research and development facility
o Will spend $755 million on R&D this fiscal
o Company’s current ingrained hardware manufacturing culture is proving difficult to change
o Looks to IBM as role model

- Sony Corp. announced it is selling its digital photo printer division (dye sublimation technology) to Dai Nippon, which currently makes the Screen color inkjet production printing systems.

- Notable Solutions Inc. (NSi) reports that 25,000 customers now have one of its AutoStore document capture server solutions.
- Toshiba announced it is entering the portable data center market, and has opened up a demo center in Tokyo. It hopes for $240 million in revenue for this new division by 2015.

- Toshiba announced that its total worldwide revenue last year was $69 billion, but that its TEC division (which offers MFPs & printers) was only $2 billion.

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Canon "TWIC Notes"

Canon launched a new desktop A4 color laser MFP, called the imageCLASS MF9220Cdn featuring:

o MSRP of $1495

o 25ppm top speed b/w or color

o 3.5” color LCD display

o Scroll wheel on control panel to choose features

o No warmup time from sleep mode

o 4 tandem OPC drum design

o Canon pQ polymerized toner

o Auto duplex standard

o Built-in print controller with Windows GDI printing only

 MF9280C model offers PCL & PostScript print drivers for $2295 MSRP

o Scan/fax/print/copy standard

- Canon announced it will be official office equipment vendor for New York Islanders hockey team.

- Canon reported that its dealer’s sales are up 10%, but its branches are up only 2%.

- More details on new b/w laser A4 MFP from Canon:

o 40ppm and 50ppm models

o Tentative launch in summer of 2011

o Will not use Canon imageCHIP print controllers

o Will not support MEAP embedded application platform

o 4” monochrome LCD panel

o Optional hanging corner staple finisher

o Will not have cartridge based supplies (like its printers)

o Color version in late 2011

- Canon announced that it is collaborating with Accenture to expand its managed print services business, initially in Europe. Accenture details:

o headquarters in Ireland

o U.S. headquarters in New York

o Was originally a division of Arthur Anderson

o Split away and was called Anderson Consulting

o Renamed Accenture in 2001

o Has 204,000 employees

o 200 locations in 120 countries

o World’s largest outsourcing firm

o Has 96 of Fortune Global 100 as customers

o Last fiscal year revenue of $21.6 billion

o Is largest competitor to the ACS division of Xerox

o Signed 4 year partnership contract with Canon

o In past, Canon has been customer of Accenture for finance and accounting

Note from Art:  Well it seems A4 is here to stay whether we like it or not, a 50ppm unit from Canon, whew that will be awesome, we'll have to wait and see where the cost per page falls.

-=Good Selling=-

What's Your Average MFP Copier Lease Sale?

We posted this poll on the Print4Pay Hotel foums a few months ago. 

I know what my average lease sale is however wanted to hear from others.  I recently had exchanged a few emails with a leasing company that I wanted to do business with, however they made a statement that the lowest amount they would fund is $20 or $25K, I can't remember which it was. Any how their (leasing companies) statement was that $22,500 (I'll meet them halfway) was the number that they found to be the average copier/mfp lease sale and would they would not take a deal for less than that.  Funny, if the $22,500 was the average should there have been deals under that????

Ah, enough said on that, here's how our Print4Pay Hotel members responded when posed with:

What's Your Average Lease Sale?


$1,000 - 2,900   =  0%
$2,901-  6,900   =  18%
$6.901 - 9,900   =  53%
$9,901 - 14,900 =  12%
$14.901 - 19,900 =  0%
$19,901 plus        =  18%

So, 71% all all leases were under $9,900 and a whopping 83% were under $14,900.  Not sure why the total come up with 101%, and I'm not even going to try to figure that out.  We're going to continue to keep this poll open on the Print4Pay Hotel forums and we'll come back to this in a few months to see where the numbers are then.  I'm betting Dollars to Doughnuts that findings will be similar.

What was that leasing company thinking about? 

-=Good Selling=-

Recent MPF & Copier Polls on the Print4Pay Hotel Forums

Ricoh MP C3001 & MP C3501 "Spec Review"

It seems Ricoh hit another home run and put additional runs against the competition when it comes to color multifunctional devices!  Check out these features and what's included in the base system!

What's New!!

2-ppm increase in output speeds


􀂙 Faster warm-up/recovery times

􀂙 Faster original scanning speeds

􀂙 Greater amount of std./max. RAM

􀂙 Larger Hard Disk Drive

􀂙 300 g/m2 paper support & Duplexing via Bypass Tray

􀂙 Envelope Feeding from internal tray (Opt)

􀂙 Side Tray

􀂙 Improved environmental specifications


􀂙 Induction Heating (IH) Fusing

􀂙 Improved High Compression PDF

􀂙 Quota Setting mode

􀂙 App2Me, PPDM Standard

􀂙 Print From USB/SD (Optional)

􀂙 Scan-To-Web Mail (SSL over SMTP)

􀂙 Standard HDD encryption & DOSS

General Capabilities:

Output Speed (LTR) (FC/BW)


MP C3001: 30/30-ppm

MP C3501: 35/35-ppm

Warm-up Time: 23 seconds

Recovery From Sleep: Mode 13 seconds

Scanning Speed:  51-ipm (FC/BW @ 200 dpi)

Fusing: Technology Induction Heating

Typical Electricity:  MP C3001: 1.62 kW/hour*


Consumption (TEC):   MP C3501: 1.83 kW/hour*

*Lowest in industry (as of September, 2010)

Need more?  We've got the rest of the specs, brochures and CPP on the Print4Pay Hotel forums, go here and become a member of the largest social network group of copier/mfp professionals in the world!!

-=Good Selling=-





-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Canon "TWIC Notes"

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places for posting these great threads

Canon announced a new option for its imageRUNNER MFPs that have the MEAP platform for embedded applications.

Details:
o FACSys Connector from emFAST Inc.
o Works with FACSys fax servers
o Can route content either to fax numbers or to many popular content management systems
o Ensures that all fax transmissions are captured and recorded with audit logs and images stored for retrieval

- Canon announced it won a “Center of Excellence” award for customer service from PC Magazine, related to its consumer digital cameras and desktop printers.

-=Good Selling=-

ComCOLOR Where are You!

It's been over a year since I've seen Riso's ComCOLOR devices. At first I was skeptical of the quality and thought with that type of quality and the MSRP there’s no way this system can make a dent in the office equipment industry.


In late November of 2009 I was shown samples of the output from the ComCOLOR; basically it was Riso’s test sample file field kit. The images were awesome and I was blown away. With the quality I saw and the MSRP I figured there was a place for this system.

Thus out with my sample packs I went, I picked up a few accounts that were highly interested and two actually came in for a demo. I almost sold a ComCOLOR in December of 2009, however it never got delivered (that’s another story to tell, thanx RISO), and I’m kind of glad it didn’t. I had secured another demo prior to the Print On Demand Show in Phili of 2010. My client loved the speed and the output was acceptable for the end product he needed to produce except for one tiny thing…….. bleed thru of the image on two sided documents were not acceptable. Well, back to the drawing board, off to the Print On-Demand Show to look for the Holy Grail, I was sure I’d find the right paper at one of the largest shows on the East Coast. As I went from paper vendor to paper vendor, all had nothing to offer, ohhhh bother…….., this was not good. I then went to the small booth where Riso was showing the ComCOLOR and they sighed and exclaimed as of right now there was no paper that would limit the bleed through, however we have this awesome inkjet paper (11x17) but….it’s a little high with a cost per sheet of .12 cents (this is from memory now and at my age it’s a little tougher and tougher every day), ooohhh bother, .12 cents won’t cut it either.

So as the hours turned to days, the show was over and the days turned to weeks and the weeks went to months there was no Holy Grail for the paper. What I did realize after the show is that all of the print samples that I was showing was printed on premium ink jet paper that had a cost of .12 cents a page, don’t ya think there should have been a label or something, maybe a disclaimer??? Ooohhh bother, I should have been more diligent in asking about the media.

We’re now almost a year later and I have to tell you, I haven’t sold a ComCOLOR and haven’t seen one in the field, your guess is as good as mine to where they are hiding. I’m still trying to pitch the quality and speed however the MSRP price of these units are way over priced and probably the reason why you don’t seem em in every CRD or Print Shop. Now with Memjet heads finally coming to market in various systems like the Astro1, I think we can count the days of the demise of the ComCOLOR and possibly RISO.

Since August 9th there's been seven blogs on their www.risoprinter.com site, last year at this time before Murphy left they had a few blogs posting every week, plus they were tweeting the heck out of the product. It seems the ComCOLOR is grasping at straws; one blog based on MPS, another for single pass promo and secure MICR. In their latest blog they tout that Imaging Channel (not sure who they are, will research) had taken a  “fresh look” at Riso’s Youtube video, if you ask me, maybe Imaging Channel should have tried one of these and then asked themselves if they would fork out 40K-70K for so so color.

Riso, I’d love to sell your product, however maybe it’s not ready for me or I’m not ready for it, or maybe we’ll never understand each other.

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh's Zeus "Father of Gods and Copiers"

Hesiod's Theogony  labeled Zeus as "Father of Gods and men".  Ricoh Corporation is set to launch "Zeus" (engineering name) their first (home grown, one member of the P4P'er is claiming Lexmark, I'm thinking no to the Lexmark thingy) color A4 multifunctional device within weeks.  Over at the Print4Pay Hotel forums there's been quite a bit of talk about these new systems.  Word at the Hotel is that there will be four different models.  The Aficio MPC300 and the MPC300SR (Finisher) will be 30 page a minute color A4 devices, and then the MPC400, and the MPC400SR (Finisher) will be 40 page a minute color devices. 

It's been a few years since I attended a meeting at Ricoh to discuss the emergence of A4 devices and what type of effect they were having on the market place. Almost three years from the anniversary of that meeting Ricoh will officially enter the color A4 market with a Segment Two and Three system.

I'm hoping that Ricoh does not follow the likes of Sharp, Samsung and KonicaMinolta when it comes to cost per page pricing.  For years I've been touting that what we (Sales) need in the field is an A4 device whether color or monochrome that has an A3 cost per page model.  If this goal is to capture additional clicks then why even lower cost A4's to market with higher cost per pages than A3 models.  The one downfall of the A4 MFP's is the lower hardware cost, which means lower profits (hey, I thought no one made a profit on the box and it was the supply revenue), which in turn means everyone will have to sell more boxes to maintain current profit levels!  We'll see, I'm hoping for a kick butt Cost Per Page, but I'm not betting the ranch here.

A few questions about the new Zeus:

• Where will the cost per page be for color and monochrome?
• Will it be manufactured in China or elsewhere?
• Will it have an ARDF and not and not an ADF?
• Will it have additional Paper Feed Units?
• Will it work with APP2ME?
• Will it have a Document Server?
• Will it print from an SD Card or USB?

Really, I can't wait for this system to hit the streets!!!  Zeus could really be the "Father of all Copiers" and be an exciting new product that will increase sales, in a industry that really needs a shot in the arm! 

-=Good Selling=-

Print4Pay Hotel Weekend Copier & MFP Updates! 11/15/10

Print4Pay Hotel Weekend Updates!

Here's some of serious content from the last few days that's been posted on the Print4Pay Hotel's forums in recent weeks. It has been busy with over 37,000 page views, and 39 new members for the month of October.

Most Viewed Threads:

How Much do National Copiers Vendors Charge to Decommission a HDD?
Rumor has it.....
These CPP Pricing Documents were just uploaded
Total Cost of Ownership
Does any National Copier Vendor still have their own in house leasing service?
OMG! Copier Rep Turned into POS! Read this!

Most Interesting Threads:

New Samsung 11 x 17" Colour MFPs due Oct 01 USA
What is "Workflow"???
Most Prevalent Third Party MPS Providers
New Ricoh Link
The Effect Currency Evaluations have on the MFP industry

Posted Price Quotes:
KonicaMinolta bizhubc280 cpp pricing
Canon iRC 2550_3080_3080i cpp pricing
KonicaMinolta bizhub PRO 950-PRO 1050 cpp pricing

Leads, RFP's & RFQ's:

RFP for 2 50ppm (one color) for Northeast US
RFP for one 50ppm mfp in Ohio
RFP for 8 MFP's in the North East "Expires 12/8/10"
RFP for 31 MFP Copiers "Expires 12/13/10"
Lead for 70ppm is South Dakota


The Print4Pay Hotel is the world's only business/social site dedicated to people who work in the office equipment industry. Go ahead log on.....become a member of the Print4Pay Hotel!

become informed, share and maintain your knowledge.

-=Good Selling=-

Last Week in Copier "Industry Notes" 11/7/10

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places for posting these great threads!

Take a moment and join the largest group of copier professionals in the world. Here's the link for the P4P Hotel forums!

-The Secret Service claims that it has pulled $182 million in fake bills from circulation in 2009, more than double the $79 million it pulled in 2008. Almost 62% of this counterfeit U.S. currency was made using color MFPs

- Okidata now shipping new desktop A4 b/w MFPs that it is sourcing from Lexmark. The new B700 series are actually based on the Lexmark X650 series, which offer a large 9” touch screen color LCD control panel.
o Speeds range from 42ppm to 52ppm
o Base MSRPs range form $625 to $1249
o (so while Okidata touts its own LED technology in its color engines as superior to laser, it uses Lexmark laser engines for its b/w products)

- The Flagstaff, AZ fire department reported that a fire in the University of Northern Arizona Student Union was caused by an overheating copier.
- Fuji announced it has opened a new research and development lab for printing technology, called the R&D Square in Yokohama, Japan. Other details mentioned:
o In 1985 is made its first laser printer for relabeling by other vendors
o In 1986, launched first printer that it marketed on its own, called the Fuji Xerox 4105
o In 2001, purchased laser printer business from NEC Corp.
o Its other R&D lab for printers is the Ebina Center in Kanagawa, Japan
o Tadahito Yamamoto is President and Representative Director
o Has developed new technology called “SLED”
o SLED is “Self-scanning Light Emitting Device”
 features an electronic pulse each time the opening is only one point of light-emitting LED light, LED light points, one by one, move to the front.
 A line of LED light-emitting operations signal to control an input.
 Each SLED chip has a total of 57 LEDs
 In conventional LED printer, to offer up to 1200dpi, it needs to double the drive chip and twice the signal line, but the multi-chip Fuji ASIC drive can operate 14, 592 light points
 Traditional LED technology print images with color transitions that are not natural

- FMAudit of Jefferson City, Missouri, announced version 3.2 of its managed print services software, that it claims has 180 new features.

- Sharp announced it paid $305 million to complete acquisition of Recurrent Energy of San Francisco, which develops solar projects. (however, the company apparently still has not yet spend any R&D for production print products for its copier dealers and branches to sell)

- Sharp’s VP of Marketing, Mike Marusic, gave out more details on the design of the document feeders on its new Frontier “Scan-Centric” series of color and b/w A4 MFPs:
o Color version has base MSRP of $8945
o b/w version has base MSRP of $5695
o Top print speed of 40ppm
o Ruggedized rubber feed tires that can handle thicker card stock
o Rollers can also handle the raised letter of plastic credit cards or ID cards
o Cards pass straight through to the other side of the document feeder (unlike when feeding normal paper originals) so the cards are not bent or damaged
o Viable alternative to production scanners

- Sharp gave out details of its last quarter’s financials:
o Company slashed its full year profit projection by 20%
o Warned of “increasingly severe business condition”
o Net profit of $175.2 million for last 6 months
o Revenue up 16.7% to 1.5 trillion yen
o For full fiscal year expects net profit of 30 billion yen
o Big decline in demand for large size color LCDs
o No mention made of its office equipment division

- Digitex Corp, a Canon/Ricoh dealer owned by Mark Kinley in Houston, has purchased Capco Systems, another Canon dealer in Houston. Capco was previously owned by Constantine Pontikes, and was originally named Houston Typewriter.

- According to some authors, Google Docs will soon have a new feature that will allow users to print documents to any Internet-connected printer, anywhere in the world. For it to work, users will have to install small piece of software on a computer that’s on the same network as the printer. The computer has to be turned on and connected to the Internet for the print service to work.

- Microsoft launched a beta version of Microsoft Office 365, which is a cloud based package that offers a complete set of business functions.

- Artifex Software Corp., maker of print drivers, announced version 9.0 of its Ghostscript drivers featuring:
o PostScript Level 3 compatibility
o PDF 1.7
o PCL 5e, 5c & XL
o Microsoft XPS
o PostScript to PDF conversion
o XPS to PDF conversion
o ICC based color rendering workflow
o Stores two separate color space settings
o Support for optional content to the PDF interpreter
o Claims to have 100 OEM customers

- Scan capture software maker, Kofax, reported that last quarter it had revenue of $216 million, which was up 27%. (Kofax is very popular in the healthcare market, and its leading reseller is IKON/Ricoh)

- Kodak was ordered by government in England to pull its TV ads claiming that its color inkjet printers would save end users money as compared with using other brands. The agency claims that the Kodak ads were misleading.

- eCareme Technologies Inc. announced it will launch a cloud printing service that will allow end users to send their print jobs to any 7-ELEVEN store in Taiwan that has a connected MFP. Pricing not announced.

- Ricoh announced it will provide 32 MFPs and printers for the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Yokohama, Japan.

- Ricoh announced the launch of “Ricoh intelligent invoicing” or i-invoicing, which allows customers to outsource the receipt and production of all invoices to Ricoh. Ricoh claims that this will save customers 70-90% using the system. The initial launch will only be in Europe.

- Ricoh announced it is the “Official Document Solutions Partner” for the Philadelphia Eagles football team.

- Lexmark, whose CEO last week announced his is departing, now announced that it is combining its laser and inkjet divisions into one, called Imaging Solutions and Services or ISS, led by Executive VP, Marty Canning, reporting to new CEO, Paul Rooke.

- Business Research & Testing Laboratories (BERTL) gave out Fall 2010 Best Awards to:
o HP LaserJet PRO P1606dn b/w laser printer
o Ricoh InfoPrint 1357EX b/w production print system
o Sharp MX-M753N b/w laser MFP
o Kyocera Copystar FS2026/C2126/FS3040/3140 MFPs
o Konica Minolta bizhub C35 A4 color MFP
o Ricoh Aficio MP 4001/5001 b/w MFPs
o Xerox 7755/7775 MFPs

- Former IKON executive, Jim Gallagher, was hired as VP of Sales for McGrath Systems, a human capital management firm.

- Hewlett Packard sold an Indigo 7500 production color system to Group Momentum, a printshop in Sydney, Australia. It also sold an Indigo 5500 to ASAP Digital of Sheffield, England.

- Apple sued Motorola, alleging that the company’s smartphone lineup and operating system it sues infringe on iPhone patents.

- Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company) announced it will buy the Software Engineering division of Epson in the Philippines. This office employs 70, and currently writes software for Epson printers and MFPs.

- Hitachi announced it has developed a new continuous inkjet print head technology, called “RX”

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Toshiba "TWIT Notes"

- Toshiba announced that it has submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to certify its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor design.

- Toshiba announced a reorganization:
o Peter Davey is now Director of Professional Services and Advanced Technical Support
o Chris Applegate is Director of Client Services
o Sally Anderson is Director of Marketing and Communications
o Make Briante is Director of Service Operations

- Toshiba was awarded the “First In Class For Dealer Support” award from Marketing Research Consultants.

- In an interview, Toshiba’s VP of Marketing, Bill Melo said that its Professional Services Group focuses on:
o Document Output Management
 Optimization of customer’s fleet of printing devices and their document workflow
 Assessment conducted
 Consolidation of hardware
 Move customer to managed print services instead of traditional copier lease
 Reduce total customer spend
 Minimize customer disruption
 Solve needs of security and compliance
o Managing Print Infrastructure
 Pull printing (aka “follow you” printing)
 Reduce waste
 Claim that 30% of print jobs in typical office are abandoned on exit tray
o Document Capture and Workflow
 Digital storage
 Archival and records management
 Fujitsu scanners
 Solutions from Nuance eCopy, Docuware and Drivve
o Security
 Fastest growing area
 Securing documents
 Hard drive encryption
 Securing sent documents

-=Good Selling=-

Veterans Day is Tomorrow!

“ I do not intend for 'honor, courage, and commitment' to be just words; I expect them to frame the way that we live and act. ”

Charles C. Krulak (1942 – )

31st Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps

Happy 235th Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps!






Thank you veterans of all branches

This Week in Canon "TWIC Notes"

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places for posting these great threads!

Take a moment and join the largest group of copier professionals in the world. Here's the link for the P4P Hotel forums!


- Canon announced that in India, it will open up a store called “Canon Image Square”, which will showcase all of its imaging products, similar to Apple’s retail store concept.

- Canon will spend $184 million to build a new inkjet printer plant in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. It will employ 5,000 workers, and make 5.5 million units per year.

- Canon launched the imageRUNNER C1030 desktop A4 color MFP featuring:
o 22ppm color and 30ppm b/w print speeds
o Base MSRP of $2595 (the “iF” model is $500 more, and provides PCL print driver and fax board)
o 600x600dpi (advertised as offering 2400dpi with interpolation)
o Document feeder scan speed of 20opm
o 3.5” color LCD display that tilts (not touchscreen, instead uses scroll dial)
o 100 sheet stack bypass
o 250 sheet paper drawer
o Can add two more 250 sheet paper drawers
o Built-in print controller
 Actual maker unknown (most likely NetSilicon)
 UFR II LT printing standard (similar to Windows GDI)
 PCL print driver optional
 PostScript print driver optional
 768MB RAM standard
 10/100BaseT & USB ports (no 1000BaseT Gigabit available)
 Windows LDAP authentication standard for scanning
o Optional uniFLOW v5.0 for server-based authentication, cost tracking and print release
o Fax board optional

- Canon has announced its “Power of Five” to highlight 4 of its solutions partners:
o Therefore Corp., a provider of document management system that integrates with Canon MFPs
o Nuance eCopy
o IRIS of Belgium, which Canon owns 17%, for OCR
o NT Ware, which apparently is the supplier of uniFLOW

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Xerox "TWIX Notes"

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places for posting these great threads!

Take a moment and join the largest group of copier professionals in the world. Here's the link for the P4P Hotel forums!

According to security vendor, MS Lab Inc., the company is still detecting malware distribution related to Xerox MFPs. The trojan poses as an automatic message from Xerox WorkCentre Pro MFPs, to look like a scan to email. Cybercriminals are behind this attack, and hope end users are tricked into opening up the email message and clicking on the attachment labeled; “Scan from Xerox WorkCentre P9275821”, which would then launch an executable file to steal data from end user’s computer. Since this is not the first time that this has been attempted, it would indicate that it must have a high rate of success.

- Xerox announced it sold an iGen4 production color system and two 700 Digital Color systems to Scottish Police Services Authority of Scotland.

- Xerox’s ACS division announced it has purchased Spur Information Solutions of England, which makes software for parking enforcement.

- Mr. Copy, a Xerox owned dealer in San Diego, CA, announced it will offer DocuShare on Demand, which is a hosted document management solution, connected to its customer’s Xerox MFPs. Pricing starts at $39.95 per year for 5 users.

- Xerox announced that its research & development spending is now only 3.5% of revenue, or $189 million per quarter.

-=Good Selling=-

Xerox ColorQube 8570 "What's the Total Cost of Operation?"

I really enjoy writing the "What's the Total Cost of Operation?" for printers.  What amazes me most is the recommended monthly volumes and the monthly duty cycle claims from the manufacturers. 

Alright, before we move forward let's get the monthly duty cycle thingy out of the way.  All manufacturers will advertise a Monthly Duty Cycle, most when reading this will not interpret this correctly, some may even think that a Monthly Duty Cycle of 85,000 pages per month means that this printer can and will print 85,000 pages each and every month!  That statement is not correct and as far as I'm concerned Manufacturers should get out of the habit of reporting a Monthly Duty Cycle.  What is actually meant is that the printer may be able to achieve that volume per month on occasions.

But, let me give you a small scenario with the occasional duty cycle of 85,000 pages per month on the Xerox ColorQube 8570DN.  First, the printer is rated at a speed of up to 40 pages per minute in color.  In a recent report from PC Advisor they stated the the speed for a full page 22mb full page color photo exited at 2.1 ppm (pages per minute).  Let's use this scenario with a print speed of 2.1 pages per minute.  In one hour we would have 126 pages printed.  Now we'll take 85,000 pages and divide by the hourly speed of 126 pages. It would take roughly 674 hours to reach the 85,000 page mark. Considering there is 160 work hours per month, it would take 4.2 months to run the 85,000 pages. :(

Remember we're having fun with this, different files will produce different print speeds.  One of the keywords in how manufacturers rate print speeds is the word "upto", in the case of the Xerox ColorQube it's "upto" 40 pages per minute. Now, if the printer was capable of 40 pages per minute in color, it would take 35.4 hours to run the 85,000 pages and that's not counting the time to replace the paper. The ColorQube has a 525 sheet paper tray, thus you'd need to fill the paper tray almost 162 times! 

To be fair, the ColorQubes recommended monthly volume is 8,000 pages per month per Xerox web page. Additional items that I find annoying is that there is no clarification if the 8,000 recommended or the 85,000 monthly duty cycle is a combination of monochrome (black) and color. I would assume by reading the brochure that I could run all color through the unit. Well, I went and read the brochure and it's amazing that there is no recommended monthly volume on the brochure, however what's mentioned twice is the Monthly Duty Cycle of 85,000 pages! :(

To the cost per page:

The 8,000 color pages per month based on a 20% coverage of the document means the consumable (solid ink and solid ink maintenance kit) cost per page will be .1230 cents for color and .0208 for monochrome (black). Your monthly cost for consumables not including parts or service for color will cost you a whopping $984.00 per month. Over the course of 60 months, you'll spend an estimated $59,040!!!!

Well, what happens when if my documents average 40% coverage? 

The 8,000 color pages per month based on a 40% coverage of the document means the consumable (solid ink and solid ink maintenance kit) cost per page will be .2427 cents for color and .0208 for monochrome (black). Your monthly cost for consumables not including parts or service for color will cost you a whopping $1,941.60 per month. Over the course of 60 months, you'll spend an estimated $116,496!


Take a peak here for some page coverage examples.

End result is if you are need of reproducing 8,000 color pages per month, there are many alternatives that will save thousands of dollars such as a true Color Multifunctional Copier/Printer. These types of machines can have a color cost per page of under .10 cents per page which includes all consumables, on-site maintenance, labor and parts!  You can take the extra money that you saved by reading this and send me the difference! :)  If you are interested in a Color Multifunctional Copier/Printer check out our other site and we'll get you hooked up with a Print4Pay Hotel Cost per Page expert that would be more than happy to prepare a cost savings scenario for you!

-=Good Selling=-

This Week in Canon "TWIC MFP Notes"

Special thanx to Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places for posting these great threads!

Take a moment and join the largest group of copier professionals in the world. Here's the link for the P4P Hotel forums!

Canon announced that an increase in sales of MFPs worldwide resulted in a 30% increase in earnings from that division.

- Canon’s CEO, Fujio Mitarai, announced that it won’t make a higher offer for the Oce’ shares that it does not already own. 10% of the shares are still held by investment firms that are hoping for a better offer.

- Canon announced the winner of its Business Leap competition.

o The contest was for the printshop with the best business plan to move into corporate and marketing communications (marcomm) sectors.

o Winners was Nassjotryckeriet of Sweden

o Prize was a free Canon imageRUNNER Advance C9070 production color system

- Canon has filed a complaint alleging that the government of Guam illegally awarded a copier bid to Xerox:

o Contract was given to Guam’s Department of Education

o Canon claims that contract was awarded without going out to competitive bid

o Claims that competitive bid would have saved $4 million

o Canon’s dealer in Guam is Island Business Systems and Suppliers

o Xerox is charging $133,000 per month

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Dealers and the Copier Factory!

We (Dealers) all hear about, and see it on the Print4Pay Hotel forums , along with quotes from the field.

We ask ourselves how the hell can Direct MFP Manufacturers continue to offer cost per page contracts that are lower or equal to the cost fact sheets that they give to MFP Dealers, plus dump product that is below dealer cost in most cases? When will the madness end?

For example: Recently a Ricoh 907EX Pro with Bookletmaker, Print and Scan Controller, 3 Hole Punch, Postscript and LCT sold for $27,000.  The MSRP for this base system and the accessories is $68,600. The discount from MSRP is almost 61%!!! What I can tell you is this happens with all of the Direct Branches and not just Ricoh equipment.  I see the quotes come across the forums and we see the same for Canon, Xerox, KonicaMinolta, and others.  Who can sell at a 61% discount and make a profit, especially when you price service at .0042 per click for 11x17, that means you're getting .0021 for letter and the smart CRD, Repro shop is running most jobs 2 up and then cutting them in half.  How foolish are you?

The answer is........no one can sell at this price and make a profit, or not a profit on "that sale" or the service on "that sale".  Years ago I was at a meeting and I remember it clearly because the VP (not dropping names) told me to make sure I spelled his name right when I posted items on the Print4Pay Hotel forums. His statement to those of us in the room is that the US companies like Canon, Kyocera, Ricoh, KonicaMinolta and others were nothing more than a "mega dealer", they get their pricing from Corporate and then marked up the equipment for US distribution. Gee, that's a real surprise.

Moving on, each Direct Manufacturer here in the US has different divisions (now called Channels) of distribution.  We all know they have a Direct Channel aka always in ending in BS, then there's the Dealer Channel and some even have other levels for Printers, Scanners and Internet Distribution.
At the end of the year, we all have to state our profit and loss right, we're all good on this.  The Dealer Channel is a money maker for the US Manufacturer, probably giving them their largest percentage of profit (this is guess, but it's an educated one on every thing I hear from the field, please prove me wrong).  You then have the other Channels to report profit and loss such as the channel that end in you know what _BS. Now, we don't get to see these reports and alas I don't even think it's possible to see the profit level of the Manufacturer's for the America's, wait let me check for ya.................it seems the posted P & L's is listed for the Americas and but there is no break down provided for each Channel.

Alas, at the end of the year as long as the Direct Manufacturer reports a profit, I'm thinking so what if the Direct Channel lost 8%, the Dealer side made us 12% and we posted a 4% profit.  We can report back to Corporate with a profit.  Profit is what it's all about right? 
So, can Direct Manufactures continue to lose money on their Direct Channel's?  Yes sir, as long as the Dealer Channel comes through with sustainable profits. Funny, I hear from many P4P'ers and read all of the "MFP News" and I always hear the same message from the Direct Manufacturers, and it kinda goes like this "We're very concerned about our Dealers", "Our Dealers are our Top Priority", "Dealers got us to where we are today".  Got me thinking, do they love us because they like us, or we're making em boat loads of cash!

-=Good Selling=-