Growth Opportunities for Wide Format & The PEiR Group

This week I had an interesting email from Joel Salus. Joel is the Author "Reprographics 101" blog ad over the years we've been able to trade some information here and there.  Joel's blog can now be located at the IRgA web site.  The email was so informative about wide format that I asked Joel if I could use him as our Guest Blogger for this month.  Enjoy!

Hi Art,

The last time I dropped you an e-mail, your son had just graduated from Infantry Boot Camp. I hope your son is doing well!

Today, I visited your blog and read a couple of articles you posted about the Photizo Group conference you attended in Scottsdale. I received a "complimentary" invitation to attend the conference, but, unfortunately, I couldn't make it because I've had a very heavy workload the past couple of months .... and that hasn't let up yet.

I wanted to take just a minute to drop you a note about one thing you said in one of your recent blog posts.

Below, I've copied a sentence form that recent post:

"There seems to be growth opportunities for wide format systems, and we also mentioned the potential explosive growth for 3D printers".

Art, you may recall,

The Birth of Managed Print Services "According to Art"

So, I'm just about to pack it in for the weekend after having to doggie sit for my sons dog while he's off at drill for the weekend.  "Nutbuster", that's my name for my sons dog cause she's just big enough to jump on you and well, the name states the rest. 

Anyway I came across this article The Origin of Managed Print Services: Xerox or HP? by Jennifer Shutwell.

Anything with Managed Print, Xerox or HP in the title will tempt me enough to give it a read.  Jen puts some excellent points across about the economics of Managed Print.  The article is an excellent read and two statements stood out for me "With the continuous incline and growth of printing volume between 1991 until 2007" and "The origin of MPS was from neither Xerox nor HP, but created from people seeing a need for management".

I wanted to elaborate on Managed Print and where I think the origin was.  Now, I'm not saying that this was a Jersey idea, however back in the mid eighties there was a Canon dealer that went by the name of Duplifax.  I hated when I crossed paths with them because they had a unique offering for their maintenance agreements for copiers.  Once sold, the copier was put on a "managed care" plan.  That plan worked off the yield of the toner cartridge.  What Duplifax did was to package four or five toners together and build in the cost for service.  For example, four toners had a yield of 40K copies.  So instead of selling the toner for $80, they would sell the "managed care" pack for $800 and include service, parts and supplies for as long as the toner lasted. If you got the yield of 80,000 pages then it was a good thing for you and if you fell short on the yield it was then a better deal for Duplifax.

To me, a seasoned copier professional the term of managed prints means to manage output from systems that print.  Analog copiers print, but they were printing an analog image from a photoconductor, fax machines made prints, and of course laser printers made prints also.  Somewhere in the mid 90's we saw our first digital copy machines that were able to print, copy and fax (scanning came later).  For those of us in the copier industry that knew what the cost per page was for fax machines, and laser printers (some of the first laser printers that remember came from a Canon print engine, I remember the engines well because the low end canon analog copiers used the same type of toner cartridge, those of us in the industry knew that these cartridges had a high cost per page when compared to traditional analog copiers) we were presented with a treasure trove of accounts that we could migrate to one system while lowering the customers cost for "printing".

In effect in the late 90's copier dealerships were already starting to migrate prints away from printers and managing the cost with maintenance agreements that covered everything but staples and paper!

So there we have it Jersey invented the "Managed Care" approach for copiers in the mid 80's and Jersey again led the industry by offering a "Managed Print Service" with their All inclusive Maintenance Agreements for Digital Copiers in the late 90's!

Did we make you laugh, groan or smile yet?  It's my perception that Managed Print evolved from the elite core of Copier Dealers from the 90's, even though most were not servicing or supplying laser printers then, the idea and concept transplanted to the printer industry.

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 2/22/2012

UniPrint(TM) Launches Infinity Managed Print Solution "Organizations are adopting managed print services with the goal of reducing the cost of printing while improving document processes and efficiency," said Scott Hornbuckle, Senior Market Analyst at leading managed print services research and consulting ...read more here

Konica Minolta To Exhibit Healthcare Solutions And Managed IT Services At ...
Services range from IT management, email security, server and network monitoring and 24×7 client help desk support designed to support healthcare specific IT requirements Managed Print Services for Healthcare – Konica Minolta's Optimized Print Services ...read more here

Managed print services are benefiting a list of segments that include defense contractors to financial services and healthcare providers. Enterprise businesses are starting to realize the bottom line benefit to getting their output under control....read more here

HP IPG shares recent solution offerings by the Company in print and imaging segment, technological advancements in the recently launched products, managed print service adoption and awareness rate and with other vital details....read more here

Managed Print Services is another focus area for growth. On the enterprise front, Print consolidation and Green initiatives are driving corporates to relook at their printer deployment and explore opportunities for savings, this is an area where HP is ...read more here

Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFP's "Add Value to You Web SIte"

More often your potential customers and current customers are using the web to do research long before you get a phone call.   They'll do much of the leg work on what they need or what they would like by searching google, reading blogs or going to web sites such as yours.  What's the problem with most web sites in the office equipment industry? There's no interaction for the for the potential new customer or the existing customer. Let's face it, your customer or potential customer will call you when they have questions that can't be answered by your web site, however if another site answers that question you may be losing opportunities.

Web sites need to have current information and something that they can interact with on a daily basis. There are some very nice office equipment web sites out there, and they incorporate a current blog, current press releases via feedzilla and there are those that have interactive polls along with widgets that can help a customer decide on what product would be best for them. Office equipment dealers that have web sites with these attributes will stand the best chance of having the customer call them and they are either ready to order or have some additional questions for the rep to answer.

I found a neat widget from the folks at Pahoda Imaging that will enhance your web site.  Best all of the widget is free.   You can get three different widgets that you can put on your blog and web site, these widgets will allow your customers to compare features and TCO for different manufacturers and models. 

1. Compare HP, Lexmark, and Xerox Printers
2.Compare HP, Lexmark, and Ricoh Printers
3.Compare HP, Lexmark, and Kyocera Printers

Keep in mind that these text link say printers however they also have MFP's in the links also.  What I like best is the ability have something that is quick, reliable and something that will help my customers understand that we are leaders in our market place and have the resources to educate them on the total cost of operation. I'm sure these widgets can be customized also, so you if you support Ricoh, Lexmark and Kyocera you'll be able to have a widget for that also (this may not be free).

-=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.

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

Nov 14, 2011 Ontario, Canada. — PrintFleet Inc., a global leader in managed print software announced today that it has launched its latest PrintFleet Enterprise software version, Impact. PrintFleet is pleased to announce that after a year of focused R&D and substantial investment, its next series of product has been launched. As with all recent....read more here

IT solution providers report that more businesses these days are open-minded about managed print services that consolidate printing and related document management costs. Demonstrating those cost savings is a key component of managed print sales. ...read more here

James Laszko, CTO for managed services provider Mythos Technology, talks about his success with managed print in this excerpt from the webinar "Do You Own Your Customers' Entire IT Environment?" Mythos implemented its managed print services just two ....read more here

Tim Brien, director of managed print services for OKI Data, and James Laszko, CTO for managed services provider Mythos Technology, discuss reseller success with managed print in this excerpt from the Q&A session of the webinar titled "Do You Own Your ...read more here

Will managed print services contracts cannibalize machine and supplies sales for traditional printer manufacturers? Will managed print services contracts cannibalize machine and supplies sales for ....read more here

C3 Office Solutions, a value-added service provider of document imaging, copiers, printers, managed print services and digital display solutions, has moved to new offices in Irvine with expanded ...,read more here

HP joins as first Platinum Sponsor November 14, 2011 -- Midway, KY  -- Photizo Group will lead the print services market in a new direction at the Transform 2012 Global Conference in Orlando, Florida on May 24-25, 2012. Transform 2012 is the next evolution of the popular Global Managed Print....read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

OKI will be demonstrating the company's proprietary Managed Print Services (MPS) solution Total Managed Print™ (TMP) within their booth (#302), and will be discussing the solution's value to the channel during a breakout session entitled “The 30-Day ...read more here

"We wanted to get control of our costs, make genuinely positive green decisions and refocus our IT resources on core functions and services." Sydney Institute adopted HP's Managed Print Services, which offered automated supplies, reporting functions ...read more here

TRUMBULL, Conn., Nov 07, 2011 -- Oce, a Canon Group Company and an international leader in digital document management, today announced the Document Printing Systems division of Oce North America has begun selling the Canon imageRUNNER 1700 Series of monochrome, multifunctional office devices. These compact, yet effective systems will easily integrate with existing MFP and printer fleets and allow users to control their devices in a flexible and convenient print solution....read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

The company went to tender and the incumbents won against Ricoh and Fuji Xerox with HP's Managed Print Service provided by Laser Plus. “We were trying to get most of our gear on multi-functional devices,” Watson says. “That took away some of the ...read more here

"Our revenue growth for the quarter was once again stronger than expected, highlighted by core growth of 10 percent year on year driven by a double digit increase in high end hardware, supplies and managed print services," said Paul Rooke, ...read more here

In total 1200 dealer partners from across Europe, including a significant number of UK dealer partners, attended the event where they were able to learn about the Konica Minolta managed print service offerings, a range of new products and green ...read more here

Equipment sales are up sequentially as well, reflecting progress we've made in reducing backlog, creating demand for new products and the effectiveness of our growing Managed Print Services. There is no doubt that we have industry leadership in MPS, ...read more here

Cedar Rapids, IA) – GreatAmerica Leasing Corporation released a new website today Collabrance LLC, a GreatAmerica subsidiary that will help independent telecommunication, office equipment, and information technology (IT) dealers provide IT services to their small and medium size business customers. Collabrance LLC will assist dealers in providing a comprehensive managed services solution to their customers under ...read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

Lloyd Bryant still leads the imaging and printing group (IPG) at HP Canada (NYSE: HPQ) as vice-president and general manager, but a number of the executives under him now hold new positions following a series of staffing changes announced last week that come into effect on Nov. 1. “We're excited to announce several changes in our IPG business management structure that will create multiple synergies for...read more

 
Cummins has 40,000 employees and global operations throughout 200 countries and territories. With such a vast distribution of locations comes the challenge of selecting, deploying, managing and maintaining technology – even output devices. Its existing fleet of printers, copiers, fax machines and...read more
 
Channelline CEO Robert Cohen talks with Gary Gillam, VP North American Channel Operations at Xerox, talks about where the printing industry is headed today, and where the opportunities are for partners, especially managed print services. Gillam also discusses how VARs can deal with an issue managed services raises, the loss of the constant contact with customers that comes from selling print supplies, that has been so important to printing VARs in the past...read more and video 
 
-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

TRUMBULL, Conn., Oct 03, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Oce, a Canon Group Company and, an international leader in digital document management, today announced that Managed Print Services (MPS) has been added to Oce's GSA Schedule 36 Contract, allowing Oce North America, Document Printing Systems to sell MPS to the federal government. MPS focuses on the proactive management of existing fleets of...read more

Faced with slowing growth in developed markets, HP could be considering a radical step to pull in more enterprise IT business: a move to monthly subscription-based printing services. On Friday, Vyomesh 'VJ' Joshi, head of HP’s imaging and printing group, told ZDNet UK the company is looking at a new business model that should be coming "soon — very soon". He would not be drawn about the model, preferring to confirm guesses. Here's how the conversation went, at an event for press and analysts in Dublin:VJ: Let me give you a hint. Think about what changed the DVD market. What did Netflix do? ...read more

-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Print Production Certification Tests

I'm excited to announce a new feature on the Print4Pay Hotel forums!  We just launched our first Certification Testing for the Print Production Industry. 

In all we'll have 10 tests that are intended to help you learn more about the terms, instruments, technology and language that's used in the Print Production Industry. The speeds and feeds are up to you. These Certification Tests are posted in the Print4Pay Hotel U forums.

We realize that the growth in the Copier/MFP industry is at the very high end.  However, the systems from Canon, Ricoh, Xerox, HP and KonicaMinolta require you to be an expert with work flow and know what your system can and can't do along with your competitors. Now we can't tell what each machine can and can't do, but we can help with growing your knowledge in the Print Production Industry.

The Certification Testing is open to all members, however all of the research documents will need to be downloaded from the Print4Pay Hotel forums.  These documents will be posted in on the P4P's Document Library for easy access.

For each week for the next 10 weeks we'll post a new Print Production Certification on the forums.  We'll be uploading new documents to the P4P Document Library also.  Make no mistake!  This is an excellent way to gain additional knowledge and become and expert in a matter of months.  Upon completion of a passing grade you'll be able to print out your Print Production Certificate that recognizes your achievement.

I've got a head start on this and we've already posted the first two certification tests, and they can be accessed here.

Print Production Certification Test 1

Print Production Certification Test II

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

HP, Printelligent Partner on Managed Print ServicesThe acquisition could help HP's channel partners extend their customer relationships in Managed Print Services. Technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of ...read more

HP Stakes New Territories in Traditional Printing and BeyondAfter its recent acquisition of Printelligent, a leader in managed print services (MPS), HP is rolling out HP Partner Managed Print Services, the first of several channel-enabled MPS offerings that HP plans to launch over the next year. ...read more

Lyra's New Report Forecasts Short Revival for Single-Function Monochrome Laser ...Over the long term, factors such as the adoption of managed print services (MPS) and the migration to shared multifunction devices will slow the growth of the monochrome laser printer market. This transition will affect the A4 workgroup segment the ...read more

ACAS publishes social media usage guideHP Managed Print Services and the Environment - HP Managed Print Services (MPS) can help your organization meet its operational and sustainability goals. Discover ways to reduce costs, reduce paper usage, streamline your recycling and disposal process, ...read more

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

Now, customers with HP environments can get a global follow print solution, cutting cost, reducing paper/toner waste and improving security. Of course, Cirrato being what it is, this still means centrally controlled direct printing with minimal impact on network, infrastructure and support. read more

Digital systems include color and black-and-white printing, devices, laser and solid ink network printers, workflow solutions and managed print services. Carr's 360 approach and assessment methodology, specializes in workflow optimization and is ...read more

PrintFleet Inc. provides print management and assessment software along with a host of training, business development, and support programs for dealers, distributors and manufacturers in the imaging and managed print services industry. ...read more

Printers and copiers are an environment that is ripe for greater efficiency and cost savings. Pick any department or any business process and you can bet that printers and copiers are essential tools to get the job done. But despite their importance to company performance, printers and copiers are rarely managed as a corporate asset. Often budgeting and planning is decentralized across various departments. This inevitably results in increased operating costs and lost opportunity for process improvement. read more

Thanks for reading the first of many posts, writings and musings here at the Business Transformation Center. You may or may know of my other blog, “The Death of The Copier,” or DOTC. If so, great. If not, that’s good too. The title sometimes invokes emotion – it always does with copier dealers. Readers of ...read more

Ricoh Americas Corporation recently introduced ChaMPS, a Ricoh Managed Document Services (MDS) Program to help its dealers transform their business model to a services-based model to meet customers’ document management needs. The program is comprised of three components—Proven Methodology, Best-in-Class Resources and Ricoh’s Industry Leading Services—which will be offered cafeteria-style. read more

-=Good Selling=-

Daily MFP Industry Notes from around the World

Here's nother interesting note from my drive home today, during a stretch of 15 miles once I gotover the Raritan River, I counted 107 businesses that were related the auto industry such as gas stations, car wash, auto parts, car dealers (new and used) etc.....

A former German investment banker has been accused of insider dealing and encouraging his two associates to invest in shares in Océ prior to its acquisition by Canon in 2010. read more

Convertible Solutions has developed a new double weight postcard stock to enable the printing of 24 point postcards on HP Indigo, Kodak Nexpress, Xerox iGen and other digital presses. The Double Thick Impact Cards are designed for printers and direct ...read more

Working with ACS, A Xerox Company, the county created the Gold Coast Health Plan to help physicians better manage individual patient care and track progress across the local medical community. ...read more

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Aug. 24, 2011 -- As it marks the 20-year anniversary of the first Fiery® digital print server, EFI™ (Nasdaq:EFII) today launched the next-generation Fiery platform. Fiery technology is long recognized in the industry for its blazing speed, color accuracy, image quality, and intuitive user-interface, and with this launch increases operator productivity, produces more..read more

TOKYO, August 24, 2011 -- OKI Data Corporation, an OKI Group company specializing in the printer business, today announced the receipt of HardwareMAG's Silver Award for its A4 color digital LED multifunction printer, MC361dn in Singapore. ...read more

Aug 24, 2011 Ramsey, N.J. – August 24, 2011 – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop, today announced a Speaker Series in the Konica Minolta Booth #2227 at GRAPH EXPO 2011 from September 11-13 at McCormick Place South in Chicago. read more

-=Good Selling=-

Daily MFP Industry Notes from around the World!

Sharp Middle East has launched the Open System Architecture (OSA) - Network Scanner Tool (NST) for its range of Multi Function Printers (MFP), the company said. It transforms the Sharp MFP into a hub for all existing applications - making document ...read more

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug 22, 2011 -- School districts across the country are going digital to better manage time-consuming administrative processes such as student enrollment, payroll and data storage -- and in turn, are saving money and time. Using Xerox Corporation's DocuShare(R) Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Platform administrators are able to focus their energies on what matters most -- educating students....read more

UXBRIDGE, U.K. – 17 Aug, 2011 – Xerox has appointed Martin Boyle general manager of Xerox Scotland and Ireland, where he will lead direct and indirect sales teams for Xerox’s full portfolio of products and services. read more

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 22, 2011, HP Enterprise Services today announced that NHIC Corp., a subsidiary of HP, has been awarded a $72.3 million, five-year contract renewal by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to continue servicing Durable Medical Equipment (DME) suppliers in 11 northeastern U.S. states and the District of Columbia. read more

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Industry Notes for 3/25/2011

Special thanx to all of our P4P Hotel Forum Members & Moles for posting this information on the Print4Pay Hotel forums.

- Sharp announced it has acquired a large independent Ricoh copier dealer in England, named IOT Holdings. Details:

o IOT was originally founded in 1964

o Was not a Sharp dealer, so MIF will be converted

o Offices covered entire country

o Specialized in managed print services

o For CEO, Martin McCarney, will remain on board reporting to Paul Molyneux, Managing Director of Sharp UK

o Purchase price not announced

- Sharp just held its annual dealer meeting in Las Vegas, and main attraction to its dealers was the new 10.1” color touchscreen LCD on new MFPs that works similar to an Apple iPhone with its multi-touch functions. The theme for meeting was the new “UI” which stands for User Interface.

- The G-7 group of countries decided to take action to weaken the value of the Japanese yen. The recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant problems caused the yen to rise, impacting the profits when Japanese goods are sold overseas. In addition:

o The Bank of Japan pumped an additional 3 trillion yen into money markets Friday to keep financial markets stable, the fifth straight day of action.

- Xerox announced it sold an iGen4 110 production color system to the University of South Africa printshop.

- Xerox announced it won a managed print services contract from the City of Rochester, New York:

o Claims it will save city more than $2 million

o 5 year contract

o Reduced total number of devices from 459 to 168

o Contract included 24 of the ColorQube color wax copiers

- RISO announced that its high-speed ComColor color inkjet printers (which are actually made by Olympus), are now compatible with transpromo and forms solutions from Solimar. It also announced availability of MICR (magnetic image character recognition) ink for check printing applications.

- InfoTrends estimates that over 10,000 lawsuits have been filed against desktop printer manufacturers in regards to alleged premature replacement of supplies. Customers are claiming that the printer forces them to change out the cartridge, even though the cartridge is not completely empty. Companies named in the lawsuits are Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark and Samsung.

- The supply of ink and toner cartridges for devices made by Canon (which HP relabels), Epson and Kyocera may be impacted by the temporary closure of plants in Japan.

- Canon announced the following plants in Japan are temporarily closed:

o Utsunomiya = optics

o Oita = compact printers

o Toride

o Ami in Inashiki-gun

o Hirosaki

o Yuki

o Tsukuba – chemicals

o Fukushima

o Kasama – plastic molding

o According to the BBC (British Broadcasting Company), three of the above plants suffered serious damage

- Former IKON executive, Steven Yeffa, was hired as a CFO for Solar Universe, of Livermore, California.

- MGI announced it sold a MGI Meteor DP60 Pro production color system (based on engine from Konica Minolta) to Alphagraphics printshop of Macon, Georgia.

- Equitrac announced that it won contract from its 25,000th customer, with the inking of a deal with John Moores University of Liverpool, England:

o reduced printing by more than 4 million pages per year

o supposedly will save $250,000 per year

o cutting paper usage by 23 tons

- Gartner released its finding of U.S. MFP sales during last quarter of 2010:

o claims that Canon had most marketshare with 18.6% of sales (even though Canon does not certify its numbers)

o totals include low end products sold through websites and office supply/computer superstores

- Hewlett Packard’s Ann Livermore, Executive VP of Technology Solutions Group, stated “HP is particularly interested in acquiring intellectual property to support vertical markets…”, thus implying that HP is going to buying up software companies

- A Delaware judge late Thursday ordered that the letter that led to former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd's August resignation be unsealed.

o A lawyer for Mr. Hurd, Amy Wintersheimer, said in a statement that she planned to appeal the decision, meaning that the letter won't be made public anytime soon.

o The letter detailed his alleged improper relationship with a female employee

- Balboa Capital of Irvine, California, announced it is expanding its copier lease division, by hiring former employees of Great America Leasing.

-=Good Selling=-

5 Reasons Not to Buy a Refurbished Plotter from the Internet!

My Momma did NOT raise a fool! Today one of my clients asked to quote on a 42 inch plotter. As always, I whipped up a competitive quote for one of our Epson’s and emailed it over to them. After a follow up call I found out that they are going to buy a refurbished HP from some jackhammer web site that is offering the 42 inch plotter for around $2,700. I also found that this plotter was intro’d in 2009 and is possible two years old already. So, here are 5 compelling reasons to stay away from a refurbished product.

1) If you’re not buying directly from the manufacturer, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the system is not refurbished but it’s been USED and ABUSED.

2) It’s refurbished why? Because it did not work out of the box (it was a DEFECT), and pray tell who refurbished the product, was it someone with a good six months experience with plotters. You’ll never know until you get another repair bill.

3) Will the web reseller of the product put someone on site to make a repair if the plotter arrives and it’s still broken? If they don’t who will you call, someone you’ve never done business with before.

4) Support: You’ve got the plotter, you set it up, and you have questions about the operation or the print driver. You call the manufacturer and they tell you the system is out of warranty and if you need phone support you gotta pay!!

5) The print driver disks, and the manual are missing, along with that you did not comprehend the specs right and you find out that the stand is optional along with the network card and additional memory. The cost is not longer $2,700 plus now you’re losing productivity because you need to order the additional items, wait for them to arrive and then install them.

When I first got into the copier business, one of the best quotes I ever heard was “The thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service”. In this case the poor service would be all of the above.

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 3/13/2011

Everyone this will be my last blog until 3/24/2011, off to Aruba with the wife for President's Club!!! Yippe!

- Hewlett Packard officials are refuting a story being published in Asian newspapers that claims that the company is going to sell its hardware business to Samsung or Lenovo. HP executive, Bill Wohl said; “irresponsible reporting and should be dismissed as market rumor and speculation”

- A California judge ruled that HP may keep shielded from the public documents related to its summary judgement motion in a long-running class action suit over an alleged display screen defect in its Pavillion notebook computers.

- IDC reports that the worldwide printer and copier market grew by 7% in last quarter of 2010.

- ProSource, a Konica Minolta dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio, announced it acquired docuVision, a local document management systems dealer.

- ECi, which makes software used by copier dealers to run their business (OMD, LaCrosse, NexGen, etc.) announced it has acquired FM Audit, which makes managed print services software. Purchase price not announced.

- Thomas Reprographics, NRI and CallPrint have formed LINK Document Services Group, which will be a joint venture to provide managed print services to customers in the U.S. LINK’s first action was to acquire Sepialine, Inc. and its Argos software platform.

- Toshiba announced it will invest to expand its plant in Houston, Texas which makes electric motors for hybrid automobiles.

- Lexmark is preparing itself to be sold, according to Frank Voisin, of iStockAnalysis. The company has taken following recent actions that are common when a company wants to sell:

o amended its employment agreements

o ensuring continued employment and benefits for senior executives in case of change in control

o providing bonus if terminated without good cause following change in control

- Police in Gainesville, FL arrested Douglas Brian Osborne after he attempted to use fake $20 bills at a local Stubby’s restaurant that he made using a color copier.

- Police in Texas are searching the Alamo area for people who are using fake $20 bills made on a color copier to buy products from local Kmart, Walgreens and Lowes stores.

- Nuance announced the availability of a Macintosh version of its PDF Converter software.
- Kodak announced it has borrowed $250 million via a private placement of senior secured notes due in 2019. $50 million of these funds will be used to refinance a previous loan that was due in 2013.

-=Good Selling=-