Top Ten Copier & MFP Industry Predictions for 2012

Whoa! What a year for the industry with the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, the floods in Thailand, the continued devaluation of the dollar vs the yen, Xerox dumps wide format, Global Imaging Systems has taken over all of the SMB business from Xerox, and major copier manufacturers finally produce their own A4 MFP systems.

Speaking of Xerox, word on the street is that Xerox may be bought (this coming from a Print4Pay Hotel Member on the forums), a recent blog stated that the dancing partners maybe HP, Dell and IBM.  You just never know in this business.  I just though about this scenario today, Dell buys Xerox and keeps ACS and then spins off the imaging division!  You never know.

Last year saw these predictions Top Ten MFP Copier Industry Predictions for 2011.  I'm not claiming to be a soothsayer, not when you get 6 out of 10 wrong, however we were right with Kodak on the verge of Bankruptcy (stock is at .65 cents), Samsung did introduce the A3 MFP in the US, it was announced in 2011 that the IKON brand will disappear in March of 2012, and Copier Manufacturers did make the move and purchased MPS related companies.

What can happen in 2012?

1.  I'll go out on a limb, Xerox will be bought by....well someone

2.  Kodak files for Bankruptcy or is bought "A picture is forever, Kodak is not"

3. Ricoh USA finally comes clean and announces that Ricoh Americas Corp has moved to Malvern, PA

4. Sharp bows out of the commercial MFP business similar to what Panasonic did three years ago, however they will still continue to market A4 devices through distributors and the web, no more dealer and direct channel.

5. Chinese Manufacturer Siene Technology introduces first MFP and looks to establish USA dealer network.

6. Toshiba Business Systems withdraws from the copier/print hardware business, instead they focus on giving the hardware away for free to capture the clicks.

7. One of the Big four Xerox, Ricoh, Canon or KonicaMinolta will buy Auxilio, who ever does takes a major leap of faith in MPS.

8. Managed Print Services......the hype continues

9. Xerox announces additional layoffs in the US

10. USA MFP Copier manufacturer sees the introduction of the first segment 5 A4 MFP.

Some of these are meant to be light hearted and have no chance of coming true, so please take some of this as entertainment and figure out what could happen and what's not going to happen.  Above all I hope you enjoyed this!

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World!

Fifteen Trends at Managed Services Conferences: This blog offered insights from the Kaseya Connect User Conference, HTG Dallas and the Managed Print Services Conference. 7. Cloud Computing is Big Business for Small Business: This guest blog, ...go here for more

And our managed print services are helping them keep those costs under control. The other thing we're hearing about is process improvement. With Perceptive, and now Pallas Athena, we help them understand better what their processes are. ...go here for more

I’ve spoken with industry analysts, listened to co-workers and read plenty of IT prophecies form an opinion about what the New Year will bring. In my opinion, the two hottest managed services sectors entering 2012 are managed document services (MDS) and go here for more

Dec 27, 2011 Scottsdale, AZ. – MWA Intelligence, Inc. (MWAi), a leader in enterprise-class M2M (machine to machine) and M2P (machine to people) solutions and services, has been named as one of the Top Managed Print Services Organizations of 2012 by Greg Walter’s The Death of The Copier blog...read more here

-=Good Selling=-

10 Tips for "More Light With Less Current"

The information below was derived from a pamphlet that I found while cleaning out the attic. The pamphlet was printed in 1941 and was titled "800 Ways to Save and Serve", which was designed to help Americans with the World War II effort.

Times have changed this is for your enjoyment and nothing else.

You can reduce those electric bills by-

1. Eliminating colored bulbs. The greatly lessen the actual light you get.

2. Replacing dark shades and shade linings with light ones.

3.  Using one high wattage bulb in place of several smaller ones. A 100 watt bulb gives 50% more light than four 25 watt bulbs, yet uses the same amount of current.

4. Dust the bulbs and the linings of the lamp shades. Wipe off parchment shades, inside and out, with a damp cloth (Turn off electric before dusting).
5. Wash light bulbs occasionally, but be careful not to get the metal section wet. Dry thoroughly before replacing. Be sure electric is OFF while replacing.
6. If after washing the bulbs still look very dark, get new ones.
7. When you leave a room for more than 5 minutes, switch the light off.

8. If your rooms are due for a repainting, consider the lower electric bills you will enjoy by painting walls white or some pastel shade, thereby requiring less artificial lighting.

9. "Bargain" light bulbs are usually and extravagance. They dim quickly, but consume as much electric as good ones. Play safe by using the standard brands.
10. If you spend much time working in the basement, spare your eyes by whitewashing the walls so they reflect more light. If the joists overhead are exposed, you can increase the amount of illumination from the ceiling fixture without changing to a larger bulb. Simply nail several white painted boards or cardboards to the joists around the base of the fixture.

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFP's "9 Tips to Start the Year Right"

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? 

Even me with 32 years in the "down the street" sales can still learn a few things.  Over the last few years I've made the effort to schedule vacation time a few days before Christmas and then the week after Christmas.  I don't go anywhere, will do a few things around the house that need attending, take some longer naps (I need em), get some of the odds and ends done that I've put off like re-registering the car. 

More importantly, I'll take this time to recharge.  Things that I like to do during my time off that will help me with next years sales.

1. Re-read a few chapters of my favorite sales books. (you've got to stay on top of your game, there's nothing new in sales, so it's always good to review and make sure you're doing all of the right things)
2. Make a list of my goals for next year.  (I'll make one or two major and then 5 or 6 minor ones).
3. Update my data base in our CRM software. Out with the crap and in with the new. (In my case, just like the old index cards, some accounts will get lost in the shuffle.  I'll take this time to make sure every account gets a call)
4. Make a list of 20 "Net New" Companies that I'd like to get as accounts. (Kinda my wish list for accounts that I'd like to get into for the new year)
5. Educate myself about what my competitors have to offer for hardware & software. (Sometimes we get so caught up with prospecting, researching, quoting and closing that we find ourselves not knowing about new products and software from the competition, I'll take a trip to their web site to review)
6. Make some follow up calls to make sure I have some January business. (There's always some loose ends that need to be taken care of)
7. Review pipeline for first quarter. (What can I say, you always need to know what you need to do to make things happen and have the business that will pay you the big bucks)
8. Relax (My most favorite, this will also include power naps, mindless entertainment, and a few good flicks)
9. Family Time (Other than relaxing I'll make sure I help the wife or the kids with something special, if it were not for them I might not have the desire, determination or dedication to be the best at what I do)

The industry has  been good to me and I'm pretty sure it's because I've always worked hard.  With out hard work and passion I probably would have wilted many years ago.  But, after 32 years there's always something new and something new to learn.

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh's New SP5200SR Copier MFP Review

Whoa!  It's been four days since I posted a blog, just goes to show you what the end of the month, the end of the quarter and the end of the year can do to you when you're still selling!

I'd like to put my thoughts down about the new Ricoh S5200SR series, pretty much what I like, what I don't like and some of the unknowns that I see about the new product.

Over the last 3 or 4 years I've been a big fan of A4 Copier/MFP devices. For years I couldn't fathom why major manufacturers like Xerox, Ricoh, Canon and KonicaMinolta (The Big 4) were not developing their own A4 strategy. I'm thinking the proliferation of MPS (Managed Print Service) in recent years changed the mind set of the Big 4 to enter the A4 MFP marketplace with their own home grown devices.

Ricoh SP5200 series

One of the most confusing aspects of this series is the model number, there is a laser printer version and an MFP version.  The model numbers for the laser printers are SP5200DN and SP5210DN. The SP5200DN prints at up to 47 pages per minute and the SP5210DN prints at up to 52 pages per minute.  D represents Duplex, white the N represent Network .

Here's where it gets confusing, in the MFP series we have an SP5200S, SP5210SF, and the SP5210SR.

The SP5200S prints and copies at up to 47 pages per minute and out of the box offers print/copy/color scan/store. While the SP5210SF offers out of the box configurations with print/copy/color scan/store/fax and an inner one bin tray (for fax receptions), and has a print speed of up to 52 pages per minute. 

The flagship of the series is the SP5210SR offers the same out of box configuration as the SP5210SF except that the fax is an option and the 1 bin tray is replaced with an internal 50 sheet stapler (50 pages for letter and 30 pages for legal). What ever happened to keeping it simple. When talking about the systems it's crucial to make sure  that you know the difference between the DN, S, SF & SR versions of the device.

For time being I'm gonna put the laser printers on the back burner and from here on I'll be writing about the MFP version in general.

Ricoh USA Website in Countdown Mode to......

For the last ten days if you paid a visit to the Ricoh USA web site the main banner was replaced with a banner of a "cloaked" product and a picture of a color GUI (Graphical User Interface) that is placed on their copiers.  As of Friday or it might have been Thursday the countdown was down to 1 day left.  I'm thinking it was Thursday when the one day was left. I didn't have the time to visit the site on Friday, nor Saturday, but had the chance today to pay a visit and see what the hype was.

I'm thinking I knew what the hype was, the delayed launch of the SP5200 A4 series multifunctional products.  The SP5200 multifunctional series is much needed to compete with the Canon 1700 series.  We were suppose to see it here in the US in November.

However, I bit at the banner ad and was expecting to see something on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  Well, the countdown banner is gone, the old banners are back up and there is no press release. Heck, maybe they'll post it on the overnight or first thing in the AM.  It's not surprising since.....

12 Gas Saving Tips "800 Ways to Save & Serve"

Your Gas, Electric and Phone Bills

The information below was derived from a pamphlet that I found while cleaning out the attic. The pamphlet was printed in 1941 and was titled "800 Ways to Save and Serve", which was designed to help Americans with the World War II effort. Times have changed this is for your enjoyment and nothing else.
Ideas on keeping them "down to earth"

Conserve Cooking Fuel

1) Fuel is a victory essential. Conserve your bit by lowering the hear once the watter is boiling. It will remain at this tempature. Buy an oven thermometer so that the roasting and baking can be done at the most economical, recommended temparture.

2) Don't heat a whole tea kettle of water when all you need is two cups.

3) Remove sediment in your tea kettle.

4) Cook most vegetables in the smallest possible quantity of water - this saves vitamins and minerals too!

Digital A3 Envelope Press from Ricoh? I Think....

I've been around this business long enough to know a good thing when I see it.  My roots are in the Print4Pay market of the office equipment business.  My first introduction to the Print4Pay business was when I began selling the Minolta 450Z analog copier to print shops, advertising agencies, newspaper and basically any company that needed to reduce or enlarge a document by 1/10th of 1%. Gosh darn those where the good ole days right?

In the past few years dedicated "digital" envelope presses have emerged from the likes of Xante, Oki and a few other third party suppliers.  If you're not familiar with these devices I'll make it short and sweet, it's a tweaked OKI  Color LED (Laser Emitting Diode) print engine with A3 (up to 11x17 print) print capability.  These LED (technically not laser, but is laser quality or better, depends on who you ask) are then married with an envelope feeder attachment   and then an exit conveyor attachment.  The feeder feeds envelopes into the by-pass area of the paper feed system.  There you have it, a digital press that can produce 4 color envelopes with for consumables of about 2 cents each.

Price...., the systems are pricey, with  most models that will range from $16k-$22k per system.  You have to see a whole lotta envelopes to make up that kinda cash.  If the price was right for these systems, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that every print shop and CRD would have one.  The fact is the price is not right and not every print shop has one or can afford to have one. 

120 Ways to Save on Food "8 Tips on Vegetables & Fruit"

The information below was derived from a pamphlet that I found while cleaning out the attic. The pamphlet was printed in 1941 and was titled "800 Ways to Save and Serve", which was designed to help Americans with the World War II effort. Times have changed this is for your enjoyment and nothing else.

VITAMINS ARE EXPENSIVE

Save those Vitamins! They're most precious part of your food and the more of them that you get inside you, the fitter you'll be for those stressful times. Here are eight common-sense rules for conserving vitamins, as recommended by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company:

1. In cooking vegetables, raise the temperature to the boiling point as rapidly as possible. Heat may then be lowered.

2. Foods shout not be put through a sieve while still hot.

3. When cooking, use as little water as possible.

4. The water used in cooking is valuable for soups sauces, and gravies.

5. Chopped fruits and vegetables should be prepared just before serving.

6. Start cooking frozen foods while they are still frozen.

7. Frozen foods which are to be served raw should be used immediately after thawing.

8. Stirring air into foods while they are cooking cause vitamin destruction.

P.S.

read more 8 bonus tips

Copier & MFP Color Cost Per Page Poll

Over the years the Print4Pay Hotel has conducted many "secure" polls that are only available to registered members on our forums.

Just yesterday we started our Second Annual Color Cost per page poll.  Within the forums we allow our members to click the Color Cost Per Page that they are charging end users. The poll is anonymous so no one knows who clicked what cost per page and what monthly volume.  After two days we've already posted 156 page views.

It's essential that we as sales people, Dealer Owners, and the Direct Channel can get a view of what is being charged for the Color Cost Per Page.  Here you can see the average cost per page, the low cost per page and the high cost per page, plus you can match them with monthly and quarterly volumes.

In recent days 67% of our members stated that the Color Cost Per Page on a 50 page per minute color MFP doing 5,000 pages per month is below .........yup gonna have to be a member to get that information.  Membership is FREE, you just gotta put up with a weekly email of updates on the latest industry threads from our members.  Keep in mind that our forums are secure, no end users, no bs registrations. So if you can take a trip here, become a member of the worlds largest group of copier, print and mfp professionals in the work.

Here's a sample of one of our Second Annual "Color Cost Per Page Polls"

Question:
Please check your average color cost per page for 10,000 plus pages per month.

Choices:
.08
.075-.079
.070-.074
.065-.069
.060-.064
.055-.059
.050-.054
.045-.049
.040-.044
.035-.039
under .034

Question:
Please check your average color cost per page for 7,000-10,000 pages per month.

Choices:
.08
.075-.079
.070-.074
.065-.069
.060-.064
.055-.059
.050-.054
.045-.049
.040-.044
.035-.039
under .034

Question:
Please check your average color cost per page for 4,000 - 7,000 plus pages per month.

Choices:
.08
.075-.079
.070-.074
.065-.069
.060-.064
.055-.059
.050-.054
.045-.049
.040-.044
.035-.039
under .034

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World!

Mission Viejo's AUXILIO Inc., a managed print services (MPS) provider for the healthcare industry, is holding an informal webinar on Friday, Dec. 8 at 8 am hosted by Modern Healthcare. ...read more here

NEWSBYTE, Dec. 6, 2011 - Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) has enhanced its offerings for the public sector by combining the power of Lexmark multifunction product (MFP) technology with ImageNow from Perceptive Software. To save valuable time when submitting documentation for services, the Lexmark MFP and ....read more here

Despite CEO Meg Whitman saying that 2012 would be a year of balance sheet rebuilding, HP(HPQ) announced another acquisition Monday, purchasing German software company, Hiflex Software GmbH. HP spent more than $11 billion in 2011 making ....read more here

The lawsuit was filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of all HP LaserJet owners by David Goldblatt of New York, who recently purchased two of the printers. The lawsuit accuses HP of violating California's consumer ....read more here

Brother strengthens senior sales team with print industry veterans

Printer manufacturer Brother has expanded its sales team with the appointments of two senior managers.  Cathy Ellis (pictured) joins from Dell, where she was the UK head of its printer business for three years. She will take up the newly created position of head of sales, online partners, developing Brother’s online partner network, and ....read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Document Capture Workstations "Is the Time Right"?

A few days ago I was flipping through the MFP Report and there was an interesting article on an HP device listed as a "Document Capture Workstation".  The MFP Report states that the HP Scanjet Enterprise 8500 fn1 was previewed at Innovation Impact in Shanghai a few months ago.

I'm all over this technology!  Many years ago I mentioned that Hi Speed Network Scanners Stations are needed in the office, but you'd have to spice them up with some additional features like:

• Scan2email
• Scan2folder
• Scan2ftp
• Scan2sharepoint
• Ability to run third party software such as ecopy, digidoc flow, NSI, etc....
• Network Fax
• Cloud Fax
• Scan2Print
• Scan2fax

What is Jetmobile?

Recently Jetmobile signed on as an annual supporter of the Print4Pay Hotel. I'll admit I knew little about Jetmobile and what they did until I spoke with Stoney Tuckness Director of Business Development. So without further ado, I've posted the first Print4Pay Hotel Interview with Stoney @ Jetmobile. Please go here for online demo.

Stoney what is Jetmobile?

Jetmobile is an ISO 9001 certified company with 17 years of experience developing enterprise-class software solutions for the printing industry. Jean Francois d’Estalenx established Jetmobile in 1994 in Paris but has since grown into a global company with strong representation in all 3 major regions; Americas, EMEA, APJ.  Jetmobile headquarters are located in Nampa, ID, Paris, France & Singapore.  Jetmobile is nearing 70 employees, 45 of which make up our research and development department and quality control. This reach and scope allows Jetmobile to tailor our already flexible software based on regional needs as well as offer technical and sales support 24/6 in local languages.

What type of Jetmobile products are there?

Jetmobile offers 3 major products; SecureJet, MicrDIMM, and BarDIMM. These products are sold as either OEM products from major printing manufactures or through indirect channels.

 What are the benefits of each product?

Jetmobile’s BarDIMM turns your HP LaserJet printer into a barcoding expert. BarDIMM supports over 90 barcoding formats, numerous manufacturing symbols in multiple languages, is fully scalable, and supports color.

Jetmobile’s MicrDIMM allows for ad hoc dynamic check printing including signature lines, logos, and addresses, removes the need for pre printed check stock, and minimizes security risks of pre printed checks or third party check printing services.  Our flagship product is SecureJet. SecureJet is a security, mobility and traceability solution for print devices. SecureJet is a next generation, enterprise-class, fully scalable, security, mobility, and traceability, solution. SecureJet allows customers to minimize printing cost, increase security, and prove utilizations and efficiencies as well as providing knowledge for actionable print environment optimization.