Photizo Transform 2013 Tuesday Roundup

Tuesday:

Long day of seminars, I took in a total of three. I was able to sit in on a seminar by Ed Crowley (CEO Photizo) for "How Connected Devices and Big Data are Changing Industries", Darrell Amy (Owner Dealer Marketing) for "Marketing Strategies for Managed Services" and Jared Hansen (CEO Breezy) for "The Importance of Mobility in the Future of Print".

Tomorrow I've been invited to a Round Table Discussion for the "Future of Imaging".

I was able to meet with a few vendors. One was Celstream which offers "printJinni" and I was intrigued by the offering of a print4pay mobile print solution that dealers could resell and it's device agnostic.

Verdiem offers a software service

When Was the Last Time You Named your Printer or Copier?

"Can anyone come up with a fun and creative name for a Canon copier/printer? It's my job to name it since the office just got a new one the other day and I'm the new work study employee. All the other ones were named by previous work studies and were good like a leased Canon was Lisa Canon...since they leased a Canon. Thanks!"

Whoa, this was a thread I picked up the other day in my google alerts for a yahoo forum.  After 32 years in the industry, WTF,  I now find out that office workers actually give a name to the copier?

I have to admit that the old name for the Canon for Lisa Canon was pretty creative! Of course everyone could use the Lisa for Ricoh, Xerox, KonicaMinolta and the rest. So, I thought I would try my hand at thinking up some names for copiers.

Here we go ( I took these names that were popular in the Victorian Era:

Hope Xerox (hoping it works all the time)
Lottie Ricoh (we make a lot of copies)
Lulu Kyocera (our copier is a loser)
Benedict Arnold Toshiba (the copier never works right)
Dick KonicaMinolta (our copier sucks)
Nimrod Sharp (odd name for an odd copier)
Owen Savin (we owe a lot of money on this copier)
Pleasant Muratec (we like our copier)
Zebulon Xerox (it's our prized copier)
Newton Ricoh (we just got it)
August Kyocera (the month the new copier was purchased)
Merlin Toshiba (our system is amazing)
Avis KonicaMinolta (we're only leasing this system for a short time)
Beaton Sharp (we beat on this system all the time)
Charity Savin (a hand me down)
Eustace Muratec (our system is useless)
Faithful Xerox (always works well)
Hercules Ricoh (our system is a workhorse)
Marmaduke Kyocera (our system is huge)
Patience Toshiba (it'll work just give it time)
Postumus KonicaMinolta (our last copier died unexpectadly)
Temperance Sharp (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't)
Thurstan Savin (our system is always going through toner so fast)
Wy Muratec (why did we ever get this system)

I'm done, my favorites would be Hope, Benedict Arnold, Dick, Owen, Avis, Charity and Marmaduke.  But maybe we can name copiers and printers after rock stars right, these copiers and printers keep the wheels turning at the office everyday and with out them the paper process does start.  Think about Bruce, Billy, Mick, Ringo, Frank (I'm aging myself), and another thought might be to name them after songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Stairway to Heaven, Under My Thumb, Wild Horses.  

So, the next time I sell a copier, I will ask the new owner what name they would like to use for their new copier or printer, and I'm sure I'll get one of those strange New Jersey looks and be escorted to the door. Hey!  If you've got any really cool names drop them here in the response section!!

-=Good Selling=-

Checking In & Out at The Print4Pay Hotel

This was an article written by Scott Cullen (Scott also operates The Week in Imaging) back in 04, I've  updated some of the numbers such as total members, membership demographics, page views and a few other items to keep it current. (Art)

By: Scott Cullen

When one checks into the Print4Pay Hotel it’s the guests who receive tips, not the staff. The Print4Pay Hotel: The Imaging Professional's Resource Center is a Website (www.p4photel.org) and message board focused on providing extensive imaging product information to resellers as well as a forum for imaging industry personnel to share knowledge. Although most members work for different dealerships, virtually all sell and service the Ricoh, Lanier, Savin, Sharp, Canon, KonicaMinolta, Toshiba, Muratec, Okidata, Lexmark, Xerox  and Kyocera family print devices.

The site also contains an impressive collection of documents, price quotes, competitive proposals, self help documents, RFP's, and brochures on various manufacturers office equipment. Art Post, CEO of the Print4Pay Hotel and Docusultant with Century Office Products in Edison, NJ, is the architect behind the Print4Pay Hotel. The site allows digital imaging specialists to share information and find answers quickly, says Post. It's also a place where imaging professionals can store their knowledge, search their knowledge, and share their inspirations, ideas and passion for the industry.

Launched twelve years ago on a MSN community, Post eventually switched to his

Top Ten Copier Proposals for December 2012

Alarming it's all I can say about a recent price/proposal I saw from a Kyocera Dealer that was quoting a penny per page for full color!  As I stated in a recent email to Print4Pay Hotel members if you're not aware of this new pricing strategy, well...then you're going to lose every deal!  Take a gander at these recent proposals from Kyocera and you'll see what I mean!

Each month on the Print4Pay Hotel forums we'll upload "Pricing on the Street" quotes, these quotes are certified as accurate since the pricing information is emailed to us from other Print4Pay Hotel members in the field.

We'll also receive and upload quotes and proposals from other Print4Pay Hotel members and these quotes will be "the proposal or quote" that was emailed to the end user.

Each month I'll list those proposals/quotes and "Pricing on the Street" here with the associated links.  You need to be a Premium Member in order to download the documents.  So without further ado here's the top quotes from Decemner 2012.  Enjoy!

• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 3050ci
• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 4550ci Color & Kyocera TASKalpha 4550
• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 4550ci
• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 3500i
• "Pricing on the Street" for kyocera taskalpha 3500i v2
• "Pricing on the Street" for toshiba e-studio 4540C
• Sharp MX-B402SC
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mpc2051sp
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp4002sp
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp301pf

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFP's "Running With the Big Dogs"

What's the Golden Rule when selling office equipment? Know your competition or least what they are quoting.

Ever notice every time you walk the dog that he or she stops at every tree or fire hydrant, ever wonder what they're doing?

They are checkin out the competition. Who's who, whose doing what and where ya been! Amazing that they can find all of that out in a few whiffs of hydrant!

Well, we as sales people need to know the competition as well, what they're up to, what's their current maintenance pricing, leasing rates (did you know you can figure out the lease rate by backing out the payment), special promo's, or just how they are positioning themselves with the customer.  I just had a quote given to me a few days ago and there was some good value statements that I'll migrate to my quotes and proposals, so by being able to read the quotes and proposals from the competition you may be able to tweak your proposal and borrow from others!

Here's some threads I've uploaded to the P4PHotel Message Boards, click the links and you'll be brought to the page.

Canon IRC 2030 Proposal
Competitive KonicaMinolta proposal vs Toshiba
Canon imageRUNNER Advance 6065 proposal
Canon imageRunner Advance C7065
Konicaminolta bizhub25 proposal
"Pricing on the Street" Ricoh MPC4502

The Print4Pay Hotel includes boards for Ricoh Family Group, Kyocera, KonicaMinolta, Sharp, Toshiba, Canon, Muratec and Xerox.

-=Good Selling=-

The Transition of the Copier Industry "Part IV"

Part IV

During the 1928 Presidential Campaign the Republican National Committee ran an ad that stated based on the Harding & Coolidge administration that they had "put the chicken in every pot and car in every back yard".  With the introduction of many cloud based document management solutions like Doculex and Intellinetics the  right for Document Management Software for every business both large and small.  Forget about the paper and how about the electronic files, if you don't have a Document Management program how the heck are you finding the documents you created last week, last month or a few years ago?  I get it, they're stored on a drive, and then named under a nested folder which is under another nested folder an then another.

Think about how much time you spend looking for documents whether they are paper based or electronic, if you don't have a managed document service/software you're inefficient.

What can Copier Manufacturers Do:

First they need to forget about all of the cool acronyms and marketing gimmicks.  Today's copier  manufacturers need to start buying companies (software) and focusing on business solutions or developing a new media (that's called R & D) that that will give them a renewable revenue stream (the old renewable revenue stream was putting toner on paper).  I'm of the opinion that manufacturers should start buying companies like dropbox, officedrop, box and document management software companies that have Cloud Document Management Services.  Why let others control the document when you're in the document business?

Manufacturers could bundle their own free service and then offer a pay service. There are many SBM accounts that could benefit from a cloud service document management software. Traditionally what's held the SMB business back is cost, ease of use, and training.  Cloud services billed monthly whether by storage or clicks to create a renewable revenue stream, it's kinda like cloud back up and disaster recovery solutions, the more you store, the more you'll pay.  But cloud document management software can have an immediate ROI impact, which is unlike backup and disaster recovery solutions (who the heck wants to sell insurance, not me).

Sell monthly/annual subscription services that allow SMB accounts to connect there MFPs to share point, ms 365, their CRM, their DMS or their business line of software.  I understand their are some 3rd party companies offering these services, but what do you have to lose beside pages?  Control the document stupid!

Here's a thought, maybe buy some of the most popular CRM's or business lines of software companies and develop those connectors for your MFP's.

Here's another idea,  how about selling print licenses, here you would install 500 printers (all inclusive except for paper), have the customer buy 5 or 10 million pages upfront and then renew the license when the prints have expired.

Do what Ricoh did, come out with your own business tablet and create customized software solutions that will improve a business processes. Printed pages may go away, however the document is here forever.

I don't believe I'll see the end of putting toner or ink on paper in my time, I do believe that one day there will not be a need for paper.  If you've ever watched any StarTrek episodes, you may or may not have noticed that you never see a sheet of paper.  Who knows maybe the likes of Toshiba, Sharp, KonicaMinolta, Ricoh, Canon, Kyocera, Xerox or Samsung will market the first transporter.

Our transition to a services led approach will require us to lead with more diverse services, managed print stream, managed print, document management and storage solutions. Stay tuned for part 5 and "Whats the future for copier dealers".

-=Good Selling=-

Covering the Copier & MFP Industry One Click at a Time

I thought this would be a great interview for everyone.  Scott Cullen has followed the copier industry since 1986 and has interviewed the who's who of industry professionals through out the years. He's a stand up guy and I've always enjoyed reading his articles. I thought it was time that someone would turn the tables an interview Scott. With out further ado, my interview with Scott Cullen.

When was your first Office Equipment Industry article and what was it about?

In 1986, an article on BIS CAP (Now Info Trends) conference I covered in Boston on small business for Office Systems magazine.

How the heck did a rock n roller like yourself get connected with the Office Equipment Industry?

I had just lost my dream job the previous November where I was writing for a cable TV magazine in Connecticut. The magazine was sold to a competitor and they shut us down. I spent most of November and early December helping a friend in his landscaping business and in January worked as a freelance proofreader for a book publisher. Around that time I saw an ad in the paper from Office Systems magazine looking for an associate editor. I applied, got called for an interview and within in a week was offered the job. Turns out that was the only job I ever had in my life that I didn't get through some sort of networking. I did get a great reference from Peter Funt (Son of Candid Camera's Allen Funt) who was the publisher of the cable TV magazine.

You've been to a lot of dealers events over the years, what two events stands out more than the others?

First is a Canon dealer meeting in Scottdale, Arizona in the eighties. It was my second dealer meeting and even though I was still learning my way around the industry, it was a great time. That's the only dealer meeting where I go to go horseback riding.

The second had to be a NOMDA dealer meeting Las Vegas in the mid nineties. What made that great was the camaraderie I had with my colleagues in the press when there were many more publications covering the industry as well as many PR people for the various manufacturers who to this day remain my friends. What made this one memorable was we all went to dinner at Hugo's Cellar in the Four Queens and then to a show with 60s pop star Johnny Tillotson ("Poetry in Motion"). It was an amazing evening, and yes, a fair amount of alcohol was involved.

What was the worst dealer event you ever covered?

Transform 2012 Conference "Hotter Than Ever"

Day one had passed and then day two, and overall, I'm impressed with the event. I actually ran into a few Print4Pay Hotel members and finally after all of these years got to meet Lee Rummage from RJ Young. When I tell you the Transform Conference was HOT, well it was that and then some, just about 1PM there was a huge brush file that developed only a mile away on Route 4.  Traffic is bad enough in the Orlando area and this fire had four or five choppers in the sky and flames that were reaching 30 feet high (I'll be posting the video on the p4p forums in the next few days).

On Wednesday evening Oki hosted the evening reception @ Hiltons Signature Island. Food, drinks and networking, at this time I also had to the chance to meet Greg Walters (Death of the Copier) and now the newly elected President of the MPSA. I also ran across many new contacts and believe it or not many readers of the mfpsolutions blog.

I also had the chance to speak with Tim Brien from Oki, Lou Stricklin, Carl Mica and Jim D'emidio (President) all from Muratec. On another note representatives from Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, Oki, Lexmark and KonicaMinolta were in attendance. however there were no shows from Sharp and Toshiba....think about it.

On Thursday morning Ken Schmidt (Former Director of Harley-Davidson) presented and engaging keynote address about customers and how you need to break the mold and have them start talking about your company. Thursday evening we were rounded up and attended an event at the Orlando Harley Davidson dealership. Boy did that bring back memories of my 1980 Harley Roadster/Sportster.

There were also 16 different talk track seminars slated for Thursday and another 13 for Friday. I didn't have the chance to attend any of these because I was busy on the show floor along with a Press Luncheon/Press Tour and still had to close my month since we close on the 24th of the month.

I was also able to talk with Adobe about Leanprint (if your a Print4Pay Hotel member we have something special from Adobe in the next week or so), Preton about their SaaS toner optimazation software, Great America with Collabrance, Print Audit with their Premier program, ESP with an awesome new product that will allow you to do an enery assessment for all devices that are plugged in (even water coolers and refridgerators), Falcon Technologies with an awesome Cloud Ipad Sales Software app, BEI Service Providers, Oki and their Total Managed Print Solution and Intellenetics which has an awesome Cloud Based Document Management System that is......so unique that I'll have a blog dedicated to the solution.

Other partners in attendance American PrinterWare, BTA, ChannelEyes, CompTia, Digital Gateway, DocSolid, ENX Magazine, FMAudit, HP, In-Map, Intel, Intronics, Genius Bytes, Global Printer Services, LMI, Lexmark, Mirrored Image, MPSA, MWAi, N-Able, Newfield IT, Nuance, ODC, Parts Now, PREO, PrintFleet, PowerSource, Ricoh, Supplies Network, Synnex, The Imaging Channel, Xerox and YSoft.

I'm a copier guy, never really got into MPS (cause my dealership only dabbled in it), but like everyone else I know what MPS is about. MPS is facing the same set of issues as the MFP industry, so called declining page volumes, lower profits and how can we change in order to be prepared for the future.

I can see the convergence of elite/hybrid MFP and MPS dealers/companies that are or will make the transformation to MSP (Managed Service Provider). So while a lot of the talk track seminars were centered around MPS there were also a few that centered around MSP.

So, far I've enjoyed every minute of this show, I also wondered why there were not more MFP dealers here. We all put toner on paper right?

Forget about ITEX, forget about the Dealer shows, if you want the real spin on what's going on with the imaging industry (remember we put toner on paper) you all need to make the trip to Scottsdale, AZ next year. Whether your engaged with MPS, or MFP's we all put toner on paper. Photizo is committed to helping those that put toner on paper to become more successful, more profitable and enlightening us on the latest trends and technologies that affect our business model.

If you're considering going to a show next year I would highly recommend the Transform 2013 which will be held in Scottsdale, AZ next year.

By the numbers from Photizo:

Global Imaging Market:

$120B global hardware market revenue predicted in 2015 (forecast 360, June 2011)
1% rate of global hardware market revenue decline between 2010 and 2015 (forecast 360, June 2011)
$118B size of global supplies market in 2015 (forecast 360, December 2012)
2% growth rate of global supplies market between 2010 and 2015 (forecast 360, December 2012)
$78B global MPS market revenue in 2015 (2011 MPS Market Size, Share and Forecast Report)
20% rate of global MPS Market revenue growth between 2010 and 2015 (2011 MPS Market Size, Share and Forecast Report)
9 out of 10 most rapid MPS expansions are taking place in less developed regions like Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

More MPS:
$725 average cost per year, per employee to print (pre-MPS)
30% average percent of savings after implementing an MPS program
60% average reduction of hardcopy fleet carbon emissions after implementing MPS
50% percentage of office printing revenue expected to be under MPS contract by 2014
3rd rank of MPS engagements in relation to other IT projects
12% amount of IT budget represented by printing

Stay tuned for my top 7 solutions I liked from the Transform 2012 show.

-=Good Selling=-

Nobody Ever Got Fired for Buying a Xerox

Harry Hecht is our Guest Blogger for April, and according to Harry he's been in the office equipment business since Chester Carlson invented Xerography, and a little known secret is that Harry was actually Chester's assistant! Really???  Harry's been around for as long as I remember, and he always brings inspiration, vision and a can do attitude!

I asked for a couple of sentences in reference old copier companies for a blog I'll be posting in a couple of days, true to form, Harry gave me just a tad bit more, so without further adieu, enjoys Harry's ditty about the good ole days in the copier business!

Do you remember the days when a complete copier line included one or maybe two models? Selling at full retail was not only a possibility but a regular occurrence? When Xerox owned 90% of the market and the saying that "nobody ever got fired for buying a Xerox" was an unfortunate reality for the independent dealer? I may be dating myself, but I remember those days well and had to still have a lot of respect for the competition, camaraderie and "wild west' aggressiveness of many of the entrepreneurial manufacturers that competed against each other during the 70s and 80s.

Here are some copier manufacturer names that may serve as a blast from the past for many of you. Names like IBM, Kodak, 3M, Saxon, Royal, Apeco, Savin, Van Dyke, Escofot, Olivetti, and Mita just to name a few. These companies hit the streets with Direct and Dealer Sales forces with the hope and confidence of stealing business away from THE BIG X. The products sold during that time were crude, barely passed a copy, and in some even came with tongs and fire extinguishers -just in case there was a jam and a fire broke out. Oh those were the days. No need to worry about supply pirates and 2 hour response time. Profit margins were Huge and and the Yen was valued over 500 Y to the dollar. Getting in front of customers and demonstrating your product using the sales order ( already filled out ) was sales training of the day. Your manager would say" don't leave the office without an order"!.Talking about pressure. If a customer accepted your demonstration, your competitor would be in the lobby waiting their turn to try and hammer out a deal on the spot and or leave the machine in the customers office until they fell in love with it or just used it and stroked you along- yikes!

Well, time to wake up to a new  and renewed set of technology companies now entering the copier and printer space. Samsung, Dell, Lexmark, Brother, Epson plus all of the Big Players- Konica Minolta, Canon, Xerox, Ricoh, Sharp, Kyocera. Where does it end?. We now deal with information overload, the world wide web, 1,000s of SKU product numbers, accessories, tight margins and 40% discounts. What the heck happened? Opportunity is still there for all of us, however success and prosperity is a game of inches verses miles. Without knowledge and a well thought out plan and execution, who knows who the next fallen Angels list will look like.

Need to contact Harry?  Here's his LINKEDIN page.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier & MFP Industry in Turmoil... the Final Five!

A few years ago I posted a blog that outlined the "MPF Wars the Final Five" copier/mfp providers. 

Since that post  on September 28th Xerox purchased Affiliated Computer Systems for $5.5 billion, which propelled Xerox in to the business solutions and information technology business.  Soon after on November 16th of 2009 Canon announced plans to purchase OCE.

In some recent less noticed news Canon Canada closed an office and handed over the  accounts to a local dealer in Nova Scotia, Ricoh Canada closed their Saskatchewan office and cut a deal with WBM Office Systems to take over accounts and took on many of the technical and sales staff and expertise previously employed by Ricoh Canada. RJ Young (USA) cut a deal with Ricoh for more than 6,000 MIF for the  Columbus, Tupelo, & Biloxi, MS and Huntsville AL locations of Ricoh/Ikon. 6000+ MIF.

In the last month Canon finally sealed the deal with OCE to finish acquiring the outstanding shares of OCE (a group of shareholders held out for additional cash), and back on  May 11th of 2011 Canon announced the creation of Canon Information And Imaging Solutions, Inc.. 

Ricoh Corporation announced that they are re-branding and uniting Ricoh and Ikon Office Solutions in the US under one brand.  Ricoh is moving towards being known as a business solutions provider.  KonicaMinolta acquired All Covered back in January of 2011 and has been on a buying spree for acquiring addition IT companies to put under the All Covered umbrella. Just last week Kyocera Mita America (didn't even know they were still using the Mita name anymore) announced that they are changing their name to Kyocera Document Solutions America, thus Kyocera Document Solutions America is re-branding also wants to be know as a business solutions provider also.

The last four years have been chaotic for the office equipment business, the downturn in the global economy, the floods of Thailand, the Great Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami and the continued rise of the Japanese yen has caused billions of dollars in loses for most of the Japanese Imaging manufacturers.

So, what's my take on all of this.....we're in for the ride of our lives! Many industry pundits are declaring the end of the paper is upon us, and these were the same pundits that declared many years ago that fax was dead and then copiers/mfp's were dead and behold the coming of Managed Print (the supposed holy grail of profit).  But the entire industry is making the change from being imaging manufacturing providers to business solution providers. 

"Those who manage the network will control the imaging devices" is another term I've heard lately.  Dealers will need to evolve also, whether it's Managed Services, Business Solutions and or IT Services, or a combination of all three (and all three can be incorporated under IT services).  It's much easier to change the copier company than the IT provider. 

Not in any order, my picks for who will stay and who will leave the copier imaging industry:

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 4/18/2012

Yup, I know it's been awhile since I posted these, but been busy in my day job sellin (still pays the bills). If you need daily info I post it all here http://copierquestions.websitetoolbox.com/

Equisys is pleased to announce the launch of Version 5 of Zetadocs for NAV, the latest version of the popular document management add-on for Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
See all stories on this topic »

OpenText™ today announced the availability of OpenText Document Server, Alchemy Edition, version 9 (OpenText Alchemy), the latest version of OpenText's popular document management solution which helps small-to-medium-sized ...
See all stories on this topic »

Today, document management and imaging company, Version One, today announces that Greg Ford has been appointed as the company's new managing director. Greg, who succeeds, Julian Buck, will be looking to deliver significant year-on-year growth.
See all stories on this topic »

Canon India Pvt. Limited, India's No 1. complete digital imaging company today announced the launch of new range of imageRUNNER 1700 series and Document Scanners to further strengthen its stand as the market leader in India in Document Management Space ...
See all stories on this topic »

KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc. (www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.com/us), headquartered in Fairfield, NJ, is a leading provider of computer-connectable document imaging and document management systems, including network-ready digital ...
See all stories on this topic »

This not only improves accountability by helping lenders comply with regulations, but allows for a more organized document management system. Documents, which can be digitally stored on secure file servers, can be retrieved at anytime from anywhere.
See all stories on this topic »

-=Good Selling=-

KYOTIER Hybrid Color 3-tier Cost Per Page Pricing tool

In recent weeks I've had a couple of blogs referencing a Kycoera Dealer in California that was or is going to start advertising for full service and supplies for color pages @ .02 cents per page.  The kicker of course, is the coverage. How much color coverage will "you"" the dealer allow on the page to charge .02 cents.

A few days ago I had an email from a Print4Pay Hotel member that asked me to forward him any information that I had about the color coverage amounts.  After a few emails I found out that the Print4Pay Hotel member also sold Kyocera, and that they had been doing some research on other Kyocera Dealers that are advertising the customizable tiered pricing for color.  I was sent a dealers advertising document (clicking the link will take you the file on the Print4Pay Hotel forums), KYOTIER, now I'm not sure if this is the name the dealer gave the pricing plan or if it's Kyoceras but I'm thinking it's the dealers. 

This dealers flyer (dealers advertising document) is stating three tiers of color.  The first tier useful color, which states "all black and pages with useful color".  Off to the right is a sample of useful color stated 5% coverage. Basically it's two color images maybe a little bit bigger than a quarter and the cost per page for useful  color is .01 or same cost as black based on a monthly volume of 12,500 pages of black and useful color.

The second tier is everyday color, which states "pages with a little more color". Off to the right is a sample of everyday color stated at 15% coverage. So, color coverage from 5.1% to 15% will cost .025 per page.  The sample coverage shows a color photo that I estimate takes up 20% of the page and then two more color logos that look like they are about a half dollar in size, along with some black large header fonts and some very small black fonts. more on the next page

2 Cents for Color MFP Cost Per Page/Coverage Meter

About a month ago we had a report from Monte Jensen (Premium P4P Hotel Member) that stated that the new Kyocera Color MFP’s were now capable of customizing the meter for page coverage.  Selling Copiers & MFP's "Color Cost Page for 2 Cents" It seems this being kept on the down low especially since I couldn’t find out anything on the Kyocera USA web site.

Monte is back as or guest blogger with some additional information about the customizable meter, I’ve also posted the links for the documents and they’re being kept in the Documents Forum on the Print4Pay Hotel. You can download here. 

I now understand the 2 cent color offering much more.

Every Kyocera Taskafa product now has 3 meters. The first meter is black, the second meter is full color and the third meter is customizable.

We have customized it so that any document with less than 6% cyan magenta yellow bill will click that meter. This is regardless of black fill.

The attached document first page is a printout from the MFP. It is a report of the last page printed. As you can see black was 5.24% and add cyan, magenta and yellow together is 4.41%. This is a report based on the document or page 2. Another words we printed page 2 and page 1 is the coverage result.

We are now gathering customers documents and printing them and getting reports. If a customer is printing a repetitive document such as letterhead we can do a quick analysis of it and advise them if it falls into 6% threshold. We see this is a real game changer and have already beaten our competition many times with this lockout.

As a dealer we are concerned that we are lowering our service margins. In the past when we would charge eight cents for the same document our margin was much greater. If we do not increase our volume of equipment sales or print volume then we will have lowered our profit.

Meters are automatically collected using a tool called pagetrac developed by LMI solutions. This utility is installed on a customer’s network either on a client or server and e-mails meter reads to us. However if the customer changes something on the network pagetrac may malfunction and we will need to reinstall.

Me:  Monte brings out a good point about the concern of lowering their page margin.  However I tend to think that you could also increase your margin by having a cost for color that is over 20%, this could make up the difference or even add additional revenue in some cases.

Will this become the norm in the industry? 

-=Good Selling=-

Weekend Copier & MFP Updates for 2/12/2012

Seems Kycoera now has a cost per page billing model based on coverage, similar to Xerox's Cube. Plus, could there really be a move by Direct to start selling off Direct Banches that are Losers? You can read more on this in the forums and the blog.

Look, I've added BLI reports for FREE, get the full report, these are limited to what I found and they are in the Competition Lounge & Street Pricing II forums.

You've heard it before, we need your help in clicking on the banner ads, these banner ads support the P4P and keep the basic membership FREE, give them a click to see what's new, you maybe surprised at what you find.

On another note we've posted "Effective emails for obtaining appointments", and they are great! They are not from me, but from your peers, check em out in the P4P Document Library!

Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!
Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile, Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN

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Recent Blogs of Note
Death of the Direct Copier Channel? "part two"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "Color Cost Page for 2 Cents"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "From Rags to Riches for 20 cents a Day"
The Death of The Direct Copier Channel?
Selling Copiers & MFP's "P4P Hotel Members Are Quota Busters"

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum Threads
ITEX 2012 OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE DEALER EDUCATION INCLUDING
... and you thought copiers were boring!
RICOH/IKON sales merge
Canon shaking up the great white north
Konica Minolta 10% Price Increase April 01/12
Using email to set appointments
Ricoh 2352 & 2852?
Print4Pay Hotel TV
ELP New Product Video

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library
Effective emails for obtaining appointments
5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact
FREE Xerox® Phaser® 6280DN vs. Lexmark C544dn
FREE KonicaMinolta bizhub PRESS C8000 BLI Production Print ReviewFREE
FREE Kyocera TASKalfa 7550C BLI Test Reports

Press Releases
Canon U.S.A. Receives Seven Winter "Pick" Awards from Buyers Laboratory LLC
Fuji Xeroes in on rivals with 'revolutionary' new printer
Japan's Ricoh & group companies downgraded to 'A'
Konica Minolta Launches bizhub C754/C654 Color MFP Series Featuring New INFO-Palette
Print Audit® Welcomes INNATO to its New Premier Subscription Program

P4P Poll Questions
January 2012 Sales Quota Poll
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!
GENERAL OFFICE EQUIPMENT (MFD’S) FOR THE CITY OF
REQUEST FOR COPIER PROPOSALS The School District of University
12 MFp's in Illinois
MFP & MPS RFP in California
17 MFP's in Michigan

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & Quoteskonicaminolta bizhub c360
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Ricoh S5200 proposal
Ricoh C751 proposal
Kyocera 3500 Quote

-=Good Selling=-
The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

Selling Copiers & MFP's "Color Cost Page for 2 Cents"

The other day I had an email from Monte Jensen from KBA Docusys and a Print4Pay Hotel member on the west coast here in the U.S.  He was pretty excited because they were releasing a new Color Page model being billed for as low as 2 cents per page!  This is for their Kyocera line of Color MFPs. Of course this peaked my interest and I replied that I'd like to know more about how this is being done. 

What I got from Monte was that their Color Page was 2 cents based on 2% coverage!  I thought how the heck are they going to do that?  Last I knew,  the only manufacturer that was capable of doing that was Xerox and only with their ColorQube MFP series.  Monte was not clear on all of the details about how Kyocera was able to accomplish this and I hadn't heard that Kyocera was capable of this. 

So, I dug and dug and found out that Kyocera may had launched this coverage based CPC plan last year in Europe, and may have had some pilot programs here in the US.  Now, I knew it existed and needed more info.  I sent many emails last night and low and behold a Print4Pay Hotel member from Canada confirmed that Kyocera does indeed have a three tier system coverage based CPC plan.

Here's what I received:

Weekend Copier & MFP Updates for 2/5/2012

There's been a few interesting developments this week such as customized cost per page billing, major delays in getting equipment due to the hard drive shortage, a major recall of printers and MFPs from KonicaMInolta and the resignation on Canon.jp CE0.  You can read more on this in the forums and the blog.

Look, I've added BLI reports for FREE, get the full report, these are limited to what I found and they are in the Competition Lounge & Street Pricing II forums

You've heard it before, we need your help in clicking on the banner ads, these banner ads support the P4P and keep the basic membership FREE, give them a click to see what's new, you maybe suprised at what you find.

Hotel's Production Print Certification Testing!  That's right now posted on P4P U Certifications & Testing are the first five tests in a total of ten tests. There will be a new test posted each month for the next five months!

Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!

Recent Blogs of NoteThe Death of The Direct Copier Channel?
Selling Copiers & MFP's "P4P Hotel Members Are Quota Busters"
Ricoh A4 MFP vs Canon A4 MFP "Who Wins with Scanning"?
Selling Copiers & MFP's "First Contact"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "The Tax Man Cometh"

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum ThreadsITEX 2012 OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE DEALER EDUCATION INCLUDING
The Death of the Direct Channel?
Fire! Fire! Fire sale @ KonicaMinolta!
SP 5200 Series A4
Canon President Steps Down as Forecast Misses
Using email to set appointments
End of 2011 Sales Quota Poll
Print4Pay Hotel TV
ITEX 2012 in Las Vegas


NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library 5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact
FREE Xerox® Phaser® 6280DN vs. Lexmark C544dn
FREE KonicaMinolta bizhub PRESS C8000  Production Print ReviewFREE
FREE Kyocera TASKalfa 7550C Test Reports
FREE Kyocera TASKalpha 5550ci  Lab Test Report

Press ReleasesCanon President Steps Down as Forecast Misses
Kyocera Mita America Multifunctional Products and Printers Named ...
Xerox Unveils IaaS, Backup SMB Cloud Services
Ricoh's Unique New Publishing Event Showcases the Industry's Future:
Konica Minolta 3rd Quarter/March 2012 Consolidated Financial Results

P4P Poll QuestionsJanuary 2012 Sales Quota Poll
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!Request for Proposal For Digital Copiers in Houston
3-Year Copier Lease
Health Support Services Needs Color COpier
200K copier Bid in Meid West USA
3-Year Copier Lease

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & Quotes
Ricoh S5200 proposal
Ricoh C751 proposal
Kyocera 3500 Quote
"Pricing on the Street" Canon 3245i
"Pricing on the Street" KonicaMinolta bizhub423

-=Good Selling=-

Weekend Copier & MFP Updates for 1/29/2012

Superbowl week is upon us GO GIANTS!!
For those who delve deep into the forums, there is so much awesome content from the p4p members.Please make sure you read all of the new links and then pick and choose what interests you! For those readers that are not members please use this one time lifetime FREE registration link!

Print4Pay Hotel's Production Print Certification Testing!  That's right now posted on P4P U Certifications & Testing are the first five tests in a total of ten tests. There will be a new test posted each month for the next five months!

Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, leads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!

Recent Blogs of NoteRicoh A4 MFP vs Canon A4 MFP "Who Wins with Scanning"?
Selling Copiers & MFP's "First Contact"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "The Tax Man Cometh"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "Where's the Hard Drives?"
I Want My....I Want My..... SMART MFP

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum ThreadsITEX 2012 OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE DEALER EDUCATION INCLUDING
Winning Proposal Generator for MPF's or MPS
Ricoh SP 5200 Series A4imageRUNNER 1700 Series
New Units from Ricoh 1st quarter 2012
Keyboard for Ricoh MFP's
End of 2011 Sales Quota Poll
Global Imaging Systems Names...
Lexmark and Anheuser-Busch ink MPS deal

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact
Reduce_Costs_through_Printer_Consolidation
Multifunction-Printer-
Ricoh Staple cost analysis
Ricoh Black Laser Cost Per Page Yield Analysis

Press ReleasesKyocera Mita America Multifunctional Products and Printers Named ...
Océ Outlines Five Key Attributes to Consider When Purchasing a Wide Format ScannerXerox Reports 14% increase in EPS on Flat Revenue
Ricoh is one of the world’s most sustainable companies for the eighth year
Konica Minolta to Exhibit Award-Winning Solutions and IT Services at LegalTech

P4P Poll QuestionsNew Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!Need a Lease of 62 Copiers in......
Copiers Need for Fort ______ School District
Health Support Services Needs Color COpier
200K copier Bid in Meid West USA
3-Year Copier Lease

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & QuotesKyocera 3500 Quote
"Pricing on the Street" Canon 3245i
"Pricing on the Street" KonicaMinolta bizhub423
"Pricing on the Street" Xerox WorkCentre 5150PTQ.pdf
Ricoh Production Print Cost Per Page "Consumables" Analysis

-=Good Selling=-

Weekend Copier & MFP Updates for 1/15/2012

With the Giants game fast approaching I had to get this blog out early for everyone.  Some good stuff this week.

Stethos USA will be holding weekly webx on how to look for opportunities with their Enhanced Laser Printing Solution, I've got a couple in the works and it's a lot less than Planet Press, make sure you sign up for the webx, see if below on the links.

Another nice Blog form Vince McHugh titled "Who makes Xerox Copiers \ MFDs???", and then some awesome cost per page analysis that I did for assorted Ricoh hardware, you can check these out in the Print4Pay Library forums.

There's a cool link in the Premium Members section for a FREE Cost Per Page Analysis for Printers, and MFP's, we're adding more information as we go.

P4P Hotel's Production Print Certification Testing!  That's right now posted on P4P U Certifications & Testing are the first five tests in a total of ten tests. There will be a new test posted each month for the next five months!

Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!

Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile,  Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN

Recent Blogs of NoteCopiers & MFP's "The Hidden Cost of Staples"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "3 Short Follow Up Stories"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "Add Value to You Web SIte"
Selling Among Wolves
Who makes Xerox Copiers \ MFDs???
Top Ten Copier & MFP Industry Predictions for 2012

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & QuotesX700XV Xerox X700i Digital Color Press (FREE)
"Pricing on the Street" Canon 3245i
"Pricing on the Street" KonicaMinolta bizhub423
"Pricing on the Street" Xerox WorkCentre 5150PTQ.pdf
Ricoh Production Print Cost Per Page "Consumables" Analysis

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum ThreadsEnd of 2011 Sales Quota Poll
Got A Situation! What would ou do?
Awesome FREE Widget for laser printer TCO
Hinds audit turns up $35K in stockpiled ink, toner
Both HP and Lexmark increase prices Jan 01 2012
kyocera taskalfa 3050ci - What can you tell me about it?
How To Make Money With ELP- Product Introduction
Competitive Info Xerox Workcentre 7500 Series
Why is single clicking an 11×17 on a “copier” legal?

Press ReleasesCanon launches the industry’s fastest USB-powered portable scanner for small offices
Ricoh is the world’s best performing business for sustainability performance among IT
Konica Minolta Updated Free App "PageScope Mobile" Adds Cloud Connectivity to
Fuji Xerox Launches New Eco-Friendly Monochrome Digital Multifunction Devices for SMB
KYOCERA MITA achieves ISO Certification for latest TASKAlfa series of colour and black mfp's

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document LibraryRicoh Staple cost analysis
Ricoh Black Laser Cost Per Page Yield Analysis
Ricoh Cost Per Page Analysis for Black SOHO MFP's
Ricoh Production Print Cost Per Page Analysis
Ricoh Wide Format Cost Per Page Analysis for Consumables

P4P Poll QuestionsNew Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!Large copier Bid in California
One Wide Format Monochrome Plotter, Copier and Color Scanner Device
State of North Carolina
200K Copier Bid in Illinois

-=Good Selling=-

What Happens When You're Numero Uno in Copier & MFP Sales

Every now and then I like to have a little fun with the blog.  Today, I had a few chuckles at Ricoh 's expense and a few others.

If you're number one, it always seems you're going to take some heat about something. In 20 or 30 years it would be interesting to see what the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Xerox and KonicaMinolta are doing and how they got there.

I'm thinking the past 4 years and the next 4 years will define how companies like  Ricoh, Xerox, KonicaMinolta and Canon will be moved forward or backwards.

I need to get to the chuckles right?  I was speaking with an RICOH person today just chomping it up about us being in the business for a long time and that person made a statement that they had to travel to Malvern for a corporate meeting, with that statement I could tell there was some, well...let's just say it was evident with the tone that Malvern is the NEW HQ as GMAN's (Member of Print4Pay Hotel) been stating for sometime! First chuckle!

But, even more unsettling was that I received a "ricoh" document the other day.   Nosey me, I clicked on all of the TABS and found out that what I thought was originally a "ricoh" document was actually  a document developed by IKON many years ago and then converted to Ricoh. Hey, there was the second chuckle of the day.

Sometimes I wonder....did Ricoh Americas buy IKON or did IKON get paid to take over Ricoh Americas? Ha!! Another chuckle, you really gotta laugh at this stuf.

Here's another, I follow Canon and Oce. Since the Canon take over, the web is flooded with OCE Press Releases, yet I get almost nothing coming from Canon. What gives?

What about this, how the heck can Toshiba, Sharp, or Kyocera Dealers and Direct Branches feel about their manufacturers marketing programs when there are virtually ZERO Press Releases for MFP, MPS or copier related products?

 I have alerts set for all four and I see more from Kyocera, less from Toshiba and a minuscule from Toshiba and Sharp.  By far the most press releases are in this order Xerox, Oce, Ricoh and KonicaMinolta. 

As my father in-law always stated "what do expect from a pig, but a grunt". True, you can take a visit to the Toshiba, Sharp and Kyocera....and where the heck are the mfp's and or copiers?? You really have to get down the page or dig deep to find them.

Thank you to Ricoh for sticking to MFP's and Copier for now, Hoping I'll be around in 30 years to see how all of this shakes out!

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World!

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) has announced a seven-year deal with Xerox managed print services through which it aims to save £1.2m. The deal, part of a wider project by Logica to create an intelligent back-office infrastructure for the Trust, means that UCLH will now have only one print supplier to manage. Before....read more here

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS), a leader in managed print services (MPS) that help organizations reduce cost by printing smarter, working safer and maximizing their green savings, continues leaving its mark in multifunction printer (MFP) innovations with the introduction of the....read more here

In 2012 what we’re focusing on is enabling our partners to sell more than just the box. While our core hardware business is very important to us, Lexmark, through a number of acquisitions over the last couple of months and through our own research and development, has come up with a number of tools to enable us help our channel partners go outside that normal channel sell. It’s very important for us as a print vendor to provide a compelling reason to partner with Lexmark, and we....read more here

Reading, UK, 22nd November 2011: Kyocera Mita UK Ltd is delighted to announce that it has successfully retained its Carbon Trust Standard certification following an audit by the Carbon Trust. The retention of the certification indicates that Kyocera Mita UK has continued to improve its carbon efficiency since the Standard was initially awarded in 2008. During a period of significant growth for Kyocera Mita UK, the company has achieved a....read more here

-=Good Selling=-