Top 5 Picks from BTA Winter Break "Muratec MFX-3530 Reveal"

With the Northeast be crippled with a snowstorm, I was able to stay in sunny Orlando for an additional day after the BTA Winter Break.

This weekend Office Equipment Dealers flocked to the BTA Winter Break in Orlando for a two day event.  I'd like to thank BTA Southeast for the awesome event they produced. 

At every event I look for a new product or a new software or a service that will spark my interest.  One of these products is the new Muratec MFX-3530 A4 MFP. 

The new MFX-3530 is the flagship of Muratec's A4 MFP devices.  But instead of just writing down the specs of this new MFP, I'd like to point out some of the features that make the MFX-3530 your go to device when competing against other MFP's from the likes of Xerox, Canon, Sharp, Toshiba and Kyocera.

First on my list is the importance of PCL5 printer driver.  It was not until about a year ago that I realized how important it is to have the PCL5 print driver. This is going to be plain and simple,  if your MFP supports PCL5 then you have the ability to add third party solutions like Typehaus, which will give you the ability to create electronic forms.  Some of the other A4 competitors do not offer a pcl5 driver for their systems.

Second on my list is the scanning speed of the Muratec MFX-3530, 40 pages per minute at 300dpi in color.  Many of the other competitors A4 devices state their scan speeds at 200 dpi.  Since scanning is playing an important role in the office now. I will state the scan speed of the system before ever mentioning the print speed.

Third is the 80 pages DADF document feeder that will scan two sided documents in a single pass.  Prospects like this feature because they are always wary of their originals getting jammed or destroyed.

The four item I'd like to point out is ScanTag which allows users to

BTA Winter Break 2013 Reveal

Day one is over and thank you for that!

It all started for me last night wondering if my flight out of Newark, NJ was going to be cancelled due to the snowpocalypse that hit the northeast today. My flight was delayed for about 45 minutes and I arrived in sunny and warm Orlando about 11AM.  A quick ride to the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort and then another ride to Rosen Centre Hotel placed me there is time to catch the keynote speaker.

Our keynote speaker was Martin Brodigan CEO of Ricoh Americas.  Martin spoke for about 45 minutes about a services led approach that our industry has a whole needs to embrace.   A couple of interesting points that Martin pointed out where:

Where the Industry is Going:

• The affect is greater than first predicted, with the firms new "Tablet Demand & Disruption" survey showing that corporate printing has declined by 16% due to both tablet adoption and company measures to curtail printing (Morgan Stanley).

A recent survey of 700 US tablet users reveals 46% now print less and 41% argued that printing less was a "main benefit: of tablet adoption.

• The worldwide mobile worker population is set to increase to 1.19 billion in 2013, accounting for 34.9% of the workforce. The U.S. will remain the most highly concentrated market for mobile workers with 75% of the workforce being mobile for 2013 (IDC)
• The average mobile worker carries 3.5 devices (Forbes)
• Employers are now actively promoting the expansion of their mobile workforce and technology is enabling continuous communication with outside employees outside of the office (Telework Coalition)

Martin also made mention that they (Ricoh) had not seen a decline of 16% in printing.  He also went on to point out that partners like Ricoh were responding by offering programs to dealers like the Ricoh CHAMPS program that would allow dealers to go wider and deeper in their existing accounts with business process solutions. Martin then took the time to answer questions from BTA members.

The BTA format is actually pretty awesome,  BTA members, and sponsors are all in the same room which allows BTA members easy access after every break to go and meet with the sponsors of the show.  The education sessions are maybe 1 hour tops and then a 30 minute break, so there is more than enough time over the two day event to network with other members, and to follow up with any business that needs to be addressed.

I was impressed with the amount of dealers that were not from the Southeast, I'm guessing that there were others that thought a trip to Florida in February is not a bad idea.

Over the next few days, I'll be blogging about the top 5 solutions or products from the BTA sponsors that caught my attention.    BTW, if you're not a BTA member, well....you should be. BTA does an excellent job with these events as well as their support for on going education programs for dealers.

-=Good Selling=-

BTA Winter Break " Office Dealer Retreat to Orlando"

The Business Technology Association's (BTA) Southeast district will host it's annual Winter Break event at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando on February 8th and 9th of this year.

This will be my second BTA district event and I'm looking forward to getting the heck out of New Jersey for a few days and enjoy some decent weather.  Registration starts at Noon on the 8th and at 1PM Martin Brodigan CEO of Ricoh Americas Corp will kick off the even with the keynote presentation.

I'm a big fan of these events, and not just for the networking with other dealers and vendors. I'll also get the chance to sit in on 5 Educational Sessions.

Presenters for this event will be John Hamilton, President of Service Strategies Corp and lead a presentation for "Why is Service Quality Difficult to Manage?

Doug Johnson, Senior VP of Supplies Network will speak about "MPS Operational Excellence-The Key to MPS Profitability"

Milton Bartley, President & CEO of Image Quest will enlighten us with "adapting Leadership to Capitalize with Managed Services"

Sally Brause, Director of Human Resources Consulting of Great America Financial Services will present "You Be the Judge: How Would You Resolve These Challenging Human Resources Issues?"

In addition we'll also be captivated with Greg Walters and Jennifer Shutwell of Walters & Shutwell for "Parlaying MPS & Mobility".

The event will end at 6PM on Satuday and there is also an evening event for the BTA members.  Keep in mind that you don't have to be a BTA member in order to attend, yes it will cost a few extra dollars however it is money well spent.  BTA is your Association that supports Dealer initiatives, education, legal services and much more.  I recommend you take a trip here to learn more about the event and more about how BTA can help your Dealership.

-=Good Selling=-

BTA's Capture the Magic Dealer Event

Top 5 (#1) Products/Solutions A BTA EAST Grand Slam Event

I'm going to go over the first one of my top five picks for the BTA East Grand Slam Event was that was held last week in White Plains, NY. 

I've spoken about it and everyone else is also suggesting the need for office equipment dealers need to diversify from just selling copiers and printers and no one states it better than "Old Glory" from the Print4Pay Hotel forums,  Peter Drucker quote before, "Every company needs to prepare for the total abandonment of everything that it does." This is probably no truer anywhere else than it is with our industry".

Number #1 on my list at the BTA East Grand Slam Event

First off is Universal Laser Systems, in a sea of dealer tables there was "big red", and since I'm a hardware guy at heart,"big red" caught my attention.  At first I thought "big red" (I'm going to call it big red because the system does not have a name just a model number) was some type of futuristic printer.  Even after the first two minutes of the conversation I thought the system would fire a laser beam at a sheet of paper and produce color images on the page without the use of toner.  The Universal Laser System will acts as a big printer, however it's what the print does with the laser beam.  The laser beam is used to cut (die cut). mark,  engrave and create photographic images on virtually any type of media!  

My first thought is that this system would make an awesome on-demand puzzle maker.  But I was then handed a sample of images that were etched on wood, plastic, metal, glass and an ipad.  Think of the possibilities for producing ad specialty products on demand, or even placing a few of these in malls or resort areas!   Now, it's been a few weeks since the show and I'm thinking the system I saw was in the $15-$20k range, and at $300 to $400 per month on a lease, this system has some potential!  I was told you can hold margins, and was also told there are no consumables except for the different types of media. 

So, if you're looking to diversify and you're not sold on Managed Network Services, Business Process Optimization or selling boring on-line back up services you've seriously have got to check out this product!

Universal Laser Systems is looking for office equipment dealers to resell the product and here's another item that's on my wish list to sell, and make no bones about it, I will be able to sell one of these puppies.  Check out the video below.  BTW, this is just one of many videos on YouTube that are located on Universal Laser Systems youtube channel.




look for me to post #2 & #3 later this week or maybe late tonight.

-=Good Selling=-