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=-

Ricoh MP 301SPF Review

Whoa! Ricoh may have finally almost gotten it right with the new MP 301SPF system!

Kudos for bring this A4 31 page per minute system to market; with an MSRP of only $2,960  (or $2.00 a day for a lease) you get a lot of bang for the buck!  Network Color Scan, Network Print, Network Fax, Walk up Fax, and Copy all in a neat footprint that covers a space of 19.0 x17.7x18.1 (WXDXH). 

However the REALLY BIG NEWS is that the new MP 301SPF which will scan color, print, copy and fax in black follows the A3 (systems that print 11x17) cost per page model for toner!!!  Get this; the cost per page for black toner based on MSRP is only .0041! Nice, very nice indeed!!

It’s my understanding that the MP 301SPF will be the replacement for the MP201SPF. I hate to see the MP 201SPF go, however I believe the MP301SPF is an excellent replacement choice.

Basically, there’s a lot that I like about this system and I’m exciting to have this in our product line.  There’s so much that I like I just can’t fit them all in this blog.  The likes far outweigh the dislikes!

What I Don’t Like:

Retraction, it just came to my attention that the system will be capable of scanning mixed sized originals, even I make mistakes, the 52 page manual only has one small line stating that the system will accept mixed sizes for letter and legal. The document feeder in the brochure seems to be the same that was used for the MPC 305 which did not have the ability to scan mixed sized document, special thanx to Grandma T for pointing this out to me! BTW, I also went through the 207 page operator manual and there was no mention of mized size scanning or copying.

User Interface Screen:  What’s with the 4.3” inch color LCD?  Color LCD screens are cheap!  Why skimp on something that is used every day,  when it comes to LCD screens BIGGER is always better

Wireless Card (option):  Ricoh, have you all gone mad?  The MSRP for the wireless card is $593?? Why even offer one for that type of price?  Best bet is to pick up a wireless router with an Ethernet port and direct connect to the MP 301SPF and it will cost you $80 or so.

What I like:

Batch Scan: Nice feature for a value system, batch scanning allows you to scan the more than 50 originals into a single file.  You’ll select the batch scan feature before you scan and when the document feeder empties you just add the additional pages.

ARDF (automatic reversing document feeder), enables users to automatically scan two sided originals, nice and it was much needed with the A4’s.

Scan Speed:  For the price, 31 pages per minute black @ 300dpi and 21 pages per minute @ 300DPI for full color.  Nice that Ricoh is now quoting scan speeds at 300 dpi and not 200 dpi.

Document Server:  The Document Server is a feature I’ve been talking up for years, the MP 301SPF can store up to 3,000 pages and can really reduce costs if used properly in the office.  I instruct users to put their most popular forms, or information on the document server.  This eliminates the time to find the file and print to the local printer and also reduces cost because you would print to the MPC305 instead of the higher cost local printer.  Plus, if people are constantly asking you to re-print documents (which decrease your productivity), you can point them to Document Server and have them print the documents themselves.

Scheduled Print:  Set the time to print and away you go, excellent feature for workgroups!

Auto Job Promotion:  It’s about time!!  I love this feature; too many times in the office I’ll send a document that is a mismatch meaning the paper orientation maybe the wrong way or I selected the wrong paper size and or the wrong media. If I did not go to the system to clear the print job, no one else could print.  The Auto Job Promotion allows the print job error to be parked and allows others to print!  Nice.

Scan2PDF/A: Is a file format and ISO Standard for long-term archiving of documents.

Access2Cloud:  The browser card is an option and is needed to connect to cloud solutions, it’s only $170 but well worth the cost especially for scanning to MS 365 with UDOCX!

Scan2folder, scan2email, scan2cloud, scan2documentserver plus you can also set up scan2dropbox (you can do this on your own and is not a Ricoh solution)

What Should Have Been Added:

·    Document Feeder that can sense mixed sizes of originals, thus you could put letter and legal documents in the feeder, scan them to a folder and when you open the document you have both letter and legal size scanned pages.

·      Larger Color LCD Screen

·     Wireless Card as a Standard feature,  go figure I can buy a wireless printer from staples or Office Max for $200$300 or so and they have standard wireless print, why oh why does the wireless card for the MP 301SPF cost almost $600!!

·     Browser Card as a Standard feature.

Tips:

·        You’ll need to add the HDD (hard disk drive) in order to have Internet fax, LAN Fax, IP fax and Forwarding to email.

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh "Where's the ICE"?

Ice Ice Baby, Ice Ice Baby
All right stop, Collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly

First four lines of "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, which brings me to Ricoh ICE (Integrated Cloud Environment)  solution or the lack of it. I was floored when I read the first three lines of the lyrics and I was tempted to change the lyrics for this blog.

 Last May 2011 at the Ricoh Vision Dealer Meeting we were told about Ricoh new ICE solution.  The solution in short would consist of three cloud solutions that would have an annual fee (need to make it monthly guys), the three packages were Silver and you get scan2email, scan2evernote (evernote provides it own OCE & searchable pdf), the GOLD packages adds scan2google docs, scan2box of OCR and Excel files (good for only 2 users and 4GB of space, PLATINUM increases users to 20 and adds an additional 16GB of space.

Last May Ricoh gave us a preview of ICE at the 2011 Ricoh Convergence Dealer Show,  I didn't go to the booth and I should have because I'm thinking ICE  was not even running at the time (I could be wrong). If you're going to run ICE or any othr Cloud solutions on a Ricoh MFP you'll need order the browser unit for $170,  I'm thinking that this should be standard with all of the systems, but a recent rumor had told me that the official launch is now slated for November of this year and not a Convergence which is set for the first week of June in Vegas.

I've been told that Ricoh Europe has had the browser units running on the European Ricoh MFP's for over a year now. I had know of one solution provider UDOCX is already supported Ricoh and Xerox systems with a "Cloud Based Document Processing Service" and today I just found Fabasoft which offers Cloud Integration to Ricoh MFP's.

I believe that Cloud Integration of MFP's offers end users a multitude of choices and services that can make companies just as productive as their employees.  While I'm at it I also believe that there needs to be open open operating systems for all MFP's.  Manufacturers needs to adopt the Andriod OS and I think you'll see terrific apps that will be developed for MFP's.

But, what I really wanted to talk about is that there are applications available right now that will allow your MFP to have some sizzle.  Dropbox, it's free, you can get 2GB of storage and guess what?  You can set this up as a scan2dropbox  folder right on the MFP. It's awesome, no more scanning to folder or scanning to email or emailing the document back to myself.  Wait.... Dropbox also has an Android app!  How cool is that, all of my files on my phone!  Walk up to the MFP press my dropbox button and away it goes.  How about adding a PS option to your customers MFP's, include it in the deal and make sure they set it up.  Then you'll be able to print from your dropbox account when you're at the customers office .

How about the UDOCX solution it's available in the US, it's not expensive and you'll have scan2sharepoint, cloud printing and scan2fax!
Point is, for most of us that are selling Ricoh or Savin, we're get our butts kicked with similar solutions that are already in place from other manufacturers.  Take the time to check out Dropbox, UDOCX and Fabasoft you'll be glad you did and you'll be on your way to selling cloud solutions.

Betcha I don't get an invite next year either :)

-=Good Selling=-

Why Sell Copier and Managed Print Solutions by the Penny

I'm going to borrow something from This Week in Imaging and Scott Cullen.  Scott reported that while having breakfast with at the Kyocera Dealer Meeting that a Dealer stated that “the truth is 80 percent of the people out there don’t need solutions.”

Mind you I have no clue who the dealer is or if they are a Kyocera Dealer only or have multiple lines, however the statement that "the truth is 80% of the people (think he meant customers) don't need solutions." is just plain wrong! I'm thinking maybe that Dealer Owner (if it was a dealer owner) doesn't go out much in the field anymore and is listening to reps who don't want to sell solutions or just don't understand the solutions that they have.

I'll admit getting the customer to commit to buying, installing, implementing and training on any of the solutions (Equitrac, Ecopy, NSI Autostore, UDOCX, Global Scan, Digi Docflow) is a tall task. I speak about solutions all of the time for every appointment, I'm finding interest, and in some cases I can sell the solution but have had to back down because "we didn't feel comfortable supporting the solution." What I find in the field is at least 50%-60% would like to have the solutions that we offer. The stumbling blocks that I run across are many and I'll list a few from my point of view and from other Print4Pay Hotel members that I've spoken to or communicated with through the Print4Pay Hotel forums.

• Upfront cost of the solution
• The Cost of  the Implementation of Solution (time in the customers eyes)
• Training (what happens when the person or people I have trained leave, retire or are replaced)
• Maintenance/Upgrades (who's going to monitor or keep track of the maintenance costs and upgrade when needed and will I need additional training for an upgrade)
• Change the Process (we're to thin with staff already and to change the process would be a burden on productivity)
• Support (Who do I call, are you/they proactive, can I get them on the phone asap)
• What Solutions Can We Support (this is from the dealers perspective, do I have the personnel that is capable of doing this right, or will we dabble and flounder)

Daily Document Management Industry Notes from Around the World! 4/2/2012

Doxim has spent the last decade helping financial service providers to streamline creation, management, storage and access of customer documents such as statements, confirms, loans and tax forms. Adding Arius OpenAdvantage® to this mix is a natural ...
See all stories on this topic »

A new cloud-based document management service, SurDoc, allows users to back up, share and edit -- including digitally sign -- a variety of documents on the cloud using desktop and mobile devices. The SurDoc service is compatible with popular Web ...
See all stories on this topic »

While LegalZoom provides legal documents to the consumer market, there are very few solutions to help small legal businesses manage documents, conduct billing, manage tasks, and run reports. So it's only natural that several web-based applications are ...
See all stories on this topic »

Document management software would love to be Paper 2.0, but paper won't go away without a fight. I'm not here to defend paper. In fact, just the opposite. So if you're in love with paper--forms and pamphlets and every kind of document that you can ...
See all stories on this topic »

TriCerat announced a new version of Simplify Suite version 5.5 desktop management software and unveiled its new Scanect software at the show. Scanect is designed to help law firms quickly scan archived documents directly to a document management system ...
See all stories on this topic »

Actnet Print Concepts (ACTNET) announced some new and exciting developments to its Enterprise Document Delivery (EDD) solution, in a move designed to provide its customers with solutions that continue to meet the ever-changing document management needs ...
See all stories on this topic »

Objective CEO Tony Walls told ZDNet Australia that in order to comply with the law, government agencies like Customs needed strong document management systems to keep track of everything. "The national Archive Act ... basically says that if you create ...
See all stories on this topic »

-=Good Selling=-

Introduction to Document Management with the Cloud

Hooray!, another Guest Blogger!  This weeks guest Blogger is Constanze from Fenestrae, Constanze is in charge or marketing for UDOCX.  When is comes to an MFP Cloud solution for
I was reading an interesting article here on the mfp solutions blog about “document management” and how it is defined differently depending on the technical background of the individual referring to it.

I have found the following definition on the web:

“Document management is the process of handling documents in such a way that information can be created, shared, organized and stored efficiently and appropriately. For many businesses, the focus of document management is on the organization and storage of documents. They want to be able to store documents in an organized and secure way that still allows documents to be found easily.” (http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/management/g/documentmgt.htm)
In my opinion you must expand the definition of “Document Management” to include the words “electronic” and “digitized”.

Document management should be the process of handling ALL kinds of documents in such a way that information can be created, shared, organized and stored efficiently, appropriately and electronically. Organizations should be able to store electronic documents in an organized and secure way that allows digitized documents to be found easily.

Thus, organizations must implement document management systems (like SharePoint) while also employing technology to digitize physical documents accurately and efficiently.

General advantages of document management systems:

Reduce storage through digital archiving

No lost files

Faster, structured and easy retrieval and search

Compliancy and security

Structured input (scan)and output (print)

Improved cash flow (business critical documents)

We designed UDOCX to be a fast, structured and SIMPLE way to get paper documents from any multifunctional printer/scanner or copier, enrich them with optical character recognition and metadata, and accurately store them into SharePoint (or SharePoint Online) for further processing, workflow, or archiving.

I will concentrate more on the advantages/user cases of SharePoint during the next weeks. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me constanzek@fenestrae.com

-=Good Selling=-

MFP & Copier Industry Weekend Notes 2/26/2012

March will see the end of the first quarter of 2012 and I hope we're all doing well! I'll be off to Cabo San Lucas in 10 days for our companies Presidents Club Trip. I'm looking forward to relaxing with no web, no phone, no calls!

So, what's big for this week? Well Ricoh launched new C4502/5502 and what's really cool is that we now have the ability to connect to cloud services. I'm looking forward to getting our first one and setting it up with UDOCX, can't wait!!!

I've started a new forum for posting our "best sale of the month", I think it would be educational for all of us to hear you brag about the sale, how you nailed it, how you found the customer, did a solution deal the deal, how much GP of revenue you gained, and or clicks that you captured. There's also a $25 gift card incentive for one P4P'er each from from one of our advertisers. Tell us About Your Best Sale this Month!

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, Pahoda Imaging, Dealer Marketing Systems, Industry Analysts, The Week in Imaging

Recent Blogs of Note
SMART MFP's 2the Cloud
 I dare you...
Managed Documents "The Next Big Thing"?
7 Tips When Competing with the Direct Channel
Chip Crunk Talks About RJ Young’s Acquisition of Ricoh Direct Branches

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum Threads

New from Ricoh the C4502/5502
Profit Breakdown Question
New Samsung 11 x 17" Colour MFPs due Oct 01 USA
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Oce cutting my throat in every deal!!!
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RBS Takedown
New Ricoh 4410SPF "brainshark" review
Tell us About Your Best Sale this Month!

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library
Customer Expectations 770 Digital Color Press v1-03 For Launch
Oki MPS files
"Unlocked" Winning Proposal Generator for MPS & MFP's
Production Print Study Excel Guide
Effective emails for obtaining appointments
5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact

Press Releases
Top North American School Districts Choose Print Audit®
Industry analysts from BERTL, Inc. award Canon for "Best Wide Format Product Line of
Research shows decision making swing toward individuals, says Ricoh
Konica Minolta to Exhibit Healthcare Solutions and Managed IT Services at HIMSS 2012
Paper-Intensive Businesses Use New Xerox DocuMate 4760 to Easily Scan Piles of

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!
Illinois
Georgia
Colorado
South Africa
West Virginia
Ohio
Texas

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & Quotes
End User Report for Xerox 700 vs KonicaMinolta
konicaminolta bizhub c360
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Ricoh S5200 proposal
Ricoh C751 proposal

The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

SMART MFP's 2the Cloud

Mick Jagger wrote "I live in an aparttment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block" in the song titled "Get Off of My Cloud" way back in 1965.  Who would have thunk that the "Cloud" would now play an import part of sharing, colaborating and migrating business documents almost 50 years later!
I'd like to share a recent post on the Print4Pay Hotel forums from our friends at UDOCX.

Last year, we have been talking mostly about UDOCX and its ability to integrate multifunctional devices from companies like Ricoh and Xerox (Canon and Sharp soon to come) with Microsoft services including Office 365 and SharePoint Online.

People often ask if you can still use UDOCX even if you haven’t migrated to a cloud-based infrastructure and are still using a traditional, on-premise installation of SharePoint.

The answer is YES!

You can scan documents directly from your multifunctional scan/copy/print devices to on-premise SharePoint document libraries. We even support hybrid environments where some SharePoint destinations are local and some are cloud based. To read more about configuring UDOCX for hybrid environments, click here.
How?

Your UDOCX-enabled multifunctional devices communicate through the UDOCX cloud service to either SharePoint Online or a local, on-premise installation of SharePoint. Your employees may access your on-premise SharePoint services even when they are traveling or telecommuting. Because UDOCX connects to SharePoint using the credentials of the currently logged in user, all of the same connectivity rights are available to the UDOCX service during that session. The location of the SharePoint server, in the office or in the cloud, is completely transparent to the end user, therefore if you can access your SharePoint services over the Internet, so can UDOCX. This also helps to explain why UDOCX does not require any on-premise hardware or software. UDOCX is a completely cloud-based Internet service.

Is it secure?

UDOCX uses the same domain-level authentication and security that you’re already using on a daily basis in your organization. Setting up UDOCX requires absolutely no security changes to your existing environment and it completely adheres to SharePoint’s (formidable) security protocols.
This ensures that all configurations are 100% compliant with any security policies that your organization may already have in place. UDOCX never grants a user more or less SharePoint access than they would normally have from their workstation.

In a nutshell, UDOCX is a cloud-based service that leverages the latent technology inherent in today’s multifunctional copy/scan/print devices to provide seamless Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange integration, both on-premise and in the cloud.

Any questions? Ask us!

BTW, yes UDOCX is a Proud Partner for the Print4Pay Hotel forums
-=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=-

Do You Trust the Cloud

Actually the thread that was posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums was "Can you Trust the Cloud"  which was derived from a Xerox white paper that was posted many months ago.   Below I'd like to post some snippets from the threads that we had posted.  This thread was one of the more popular threads on the forums and continues to be read and additional threads posted.

From SSG:  A good white paper from Xerox XGS.
xgs_whitepaper_cloud_computing.pdf

From SSG:  I am learning about scanning to the cloud from any MFP via email by opening a free account at www.box.net and....

From SSG:  A real interesting concept from Lexmark https://smartsolutions.lexmark.com/ssds/
You can basically upload dozens of free.....

From TXEAGLE:  If only they would offer this on their B2B laser MFP's.

From AP:  Most of my customers do not trust the cloud, those who do already have something working.

From Constanze:  You can even scan directly and securely to the cloud from your Ricoh MFP(to Microsoft Online, Office 365 BPOS, SharePoint). Just take a look at www.udocx.com or at our....

From CASHGAP:  This pretty much sums it up...http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-19/

Look forward, reason back. How many of us have big generators in the parking lot because we like to be in control of our own electrical uptime? Very.......

From JASONR: I totally agree, "not trusting" the cloud is an irrational fear.

From SSG:  I just watched a video from the investment website called Motley Fool. They are stating that Cloud Computing is the next big thing to invest in. http://www.fool.com/shop/newsl...rce=irbsitlnk0000141 and point out the big three .....

From ANON:  Buy an LG phone and get 50 GB of free Cloud storage on www.box.net .

http://storagenewsletter.com/n...l/lg-box-partnership

From SSG:  Is 2012 the begining of the end for File Servers as more companies move to Cloud Storage? http://storagenewsletter.com/n...-egnyte-file-servers "Forrester found that 41 percent of information workers surveyed were using.......

There's may additional replies to this thread.  According to the Xerox white paper the we're pretty much going to have to trust the cloud.  The white paper even spoke about intellegent documents that would update themselves with new content. 

Personally, I'd like to see more MFP's? Copiers have browser units in them that would allow us to use the MFP more open applications, meaning you would not have to use the "Ricoh, Xerox, Canon or KonicaMinolta" scan2cloud offerings.  You could use the solution that works best for your document workflow and one the fits your financial concerns. 

-=Good Selling=-

Weekend Copier & MFP Industry Threads

Thought I'd just take the time to share some of the interesting threads that have been posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums in the recent week. If you're not familiar with the site, the Print4Pay Hotel forums designed for the Imaging (copiers, mfp, printers, mps) Professionals to seek information, gather knowledge and collaborate with Industry Peers in a secure setting.  To date we have over 2,300 registered members from all almost every country in the world.  Visit the Print4Pay Hotel and then click on the link for forum access (it's FREE).

Most Viewed Threads
Monocomponent vs. Dual Component
Comments on the Canon 1730/1740/1750 Models
Sharp MX-2310U/MX4111N
Western Digital Factory Under Water
Question for everyone..... with leasing are any of
Kodak & Possible Buyers?
Rumor has it.....
New Rep needs encouragement

Most Popular

Ricoh SP5200 Brochure
Top Color Production Systems?
Check this ^%$^ out!
Cloud Poll
HDD Wiping/Reformatting
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Q. How does your company handle networking charges?

Request for Proposals

Purchase of one (1) unit Taskalfa Kyocera-Mita
Pennslyvania
New Mexico
South Carolina
STATEWIDE IT PROCUREMENT OFFICE (NC)

Daily Copier & MFP Industry Notes from around the World

Fuji Xerox (Kanagawa / Japan; http://www.fujixerox.com/) has developed a biomass plastic containing more than 50% by weight of plant-derived materials for use in mechanical components in interior moving sections of its printing and copying machines. The company began introducing...need to read more?

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announces the launch of SchoolFlow®, EducationFlow®, HealthFlow® and LegalFlow®, customized electronic document management suites developed in conjunction with Prism Software to address workflow demands across key vertical markets. Fully integrated with Konica Minolta’s...what to know more?


One of the questions I hear frequently is about the potential impact of memjet – the inkjet print head technology – on the wide format digital print market. This question is likely to become even more common following the announcements at Graph Expo and LabelExpo that two companies have become the first to integrate the memjet print head technology into wide format digital print solutions...read more

UDOCX will be at the SharePoint Conference next week in Anaheim. My collegue and UDOCX Product Manager Fabien van 't Woudt will be attending the conference next week monday and tuesday (3rd and 4th of October 2011). Please let me know if you need any additional information...read more

Redwood City, Calif. and Ramsey, N.J. - All Covered, a division of Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. (Konica Minolta) focused on delivering high-performance Managed IT Services to small- and medium-sized businesses, is pleased to announce that Vertical IT Solutions, a Managed IT outsourcing company based in Tampa, Florida, has joined All Covered...read more

-=Good Selling=-
You know the story, it is not free.

You built a TV or a stereo into your cost and gave it away at N/C to the Decision Maker. I heard of one DM who get a free Recreational Trailer ($15k) if he signed on the dotted line.... and he did. ($10k copier + $15k trailer = $25k lease). I let how the DM handles these gifts up to themselves. If they object, no problem but the price remains the same. Is this ethical business practice?...want to read the rest?

MFP Scan2Cloud Poll from the Print4Pay Hotel

I'm watching the Giants lay waste to the RAMS, hopefully it stays that way!  In the mean time, a few months ago we posted a poll on the Print4Pay Hotel forums titled "Scan2Cloud Poll".

 We asked "Please vote on your estimation of what cloud-based solution integration would best help you in the field to capture additional business?

With many manufacturers having or ready to release scan2cloud services, we figured we'd ask the guys and the gals in the field what they would like to have.  I always like to see these polls turnout because I feel that the salespeople on the street have a better grip on what their customers want and not some wishy washy product manager trying to come to grips of what customers want.  Tell me when was the last time a product manager was in the field trying to sell a solution to an end user?  NEVER!

"Please vote on your estimation of what cloud-based solution integration would best help you in the field to capture additional business?


Scan2Microsoft SharePoint/Microsoft exchange server/Mircosoft 365/OCR & searchable pdf/Scan2Print (unlimited users)  50%

Scan2Fax Documents/multi cloud fax numbers (unlimited users) no mfp fax modem require 17%

Scan2Cloud/Documents stored offsite 33%

Scan2Evernote/Scan2box.net/Scan2google docs/Scan2email w/ OCR 4 Word & Excel/Scan2print (2 users) 0%

Scan2Evernote/Scan2email w/OCR & searchable .pdf 0%

There you have it, what I can tell you is that the first two poll questions are features that come with the UDOCX solution, 67% of our members felt that this was the best choice for them.

The third solution is a basic scan2cloud that is now being offered by a few different companies and last but not least are the last three.  But, key in a 4 & 5, this is a cloud solution soon to be released by one of the Big 4 (Xerox, Ricoh, KonicaMinolta and Canon) and not one member voted for that solution.  I can tell you upfront that the product being offered with those features will BOMB.

So you wanna know who?  Well, I ask you to log on to the Print4Pay Hotel forums and we'll show you which on eof the Big 4 it is.

-=Good Selling=-

Print Audit Secure $1.00 per month per...

Tonight I was able to get a sneak preview of Print Audit Secure before the official launch tomorrow.

Here's what I can tell you, if you're not selling it, then your competitor is!

Print Audit secure allows for secure printing to MFP's and Printers. Plus it can be released via pin, swipe or passcode from any browser enable device! That's right, your smart phone, your iphone, your tablet, your andriod, and blackberry. Plus if you have a browser unit in the MFP, the print job can also be released by accessing the browser of the MFP.

What's the most popular reason people will give to hold on to their printers?? We've all heard and replied with a golly or a schucks, that reason would be, "I print confidential financials", or "we print HR documents all of the time". With Print Audit secure there's no more excuses especially with "follow me" printing. I'm at the mpf or printer on the 3rd floor, no problem I can release the prints via my smart phone on the printer I'm at!

What's one of the most annoying and wasteful items in the office? Well, it's those darn prints that were never picked up. Wasted paper, wasted toner, wasted time, lost pages, shredded pages, what happened to my document and let me re-print it again! Print Audit Secure solves it, the page is never printed unless it's released and there's a really nice purge feature if the document is not released in "x" amount of time.

Another outstanding feature is that Print Audit Secure is OEM neutral, that means all of us can sell it!!

Ok, ok, you may say but I've got locked print and I can do the same thing right? Well kinda, but wouldn't you much rather have a cool knockout feature, a different talk track, follow me printing, and excellent support (and we all know what support is like know from the manufacturers)for $1.00 per device per month! What!!??? Thats's what I said.

Print Audit Secure seems to be at the right place at the right time.

Here's a few webinar dates, I suggest everyone take a real good look at this game changing lockout solution!!

Be one of the first to check out Print Audit Secure!

Beginning September 15th, Print Audit's President and CEO, John MacInnes, will be conducting weekly informational webinars to introduce Secure.

Please register now at http://www.printaudit.com/securewebinar

UDOCX and Scan2Fax "Eric the Office Worker"

When we last heard from Eric "the office worker" he was was our featured office worker in these blogs:  Eric the "Office Worker" Gets a Supra Wide Format!, Print Audit Green with "Eric the Office Worker" and Ecopy Desktop & "Eric the Office Worker" along with Ricoh's PPDM enables an Epiphany for Eric the  "Office Worker"

The last we heard of Eric, he was working for DigDug Systems in Frostberg, MD, since then Eric the "Office Worker" has moved back to New Jersey (home of Rhutts Dogs) and found a job with GigaHertz Power System in Wannakopier, NJ.

Over the years Eric has developed into a techie guru of sorts.  Eric's new job was to process order that were faxed to the company daily. He was one of 12 people that gathered the incoming order, entered the order in the system and then made of copy of the order for filing.  Eric alone (cause he was on top of his game) would process almost 100 orders per day and keep in mind that he was one of 12 users gathering documents from the three fax machines that were dedicated for inbound faxing.

Did I ever tell you Eric's last name?  It used to be Betterbid (sounds like a copier sales person name to me) and he got tired of that and had it changed to Sakash (whoa, sounds like another copier salesman's name too), but enough with Eric's name.  With three fax machines and 12 users there was a lot of jam ups at the fax machines, orders were getting mixed up, misplaced and lost!  Eric was also having a hard time with Wanda (you know Wanda, large girl, ornery and quite intimidating at the fax machines), Eric always waited for Wanda to finish getting her documents and then he'd meander and slither to the fax and lift his documents.

After many months of gathering faxes, processing, misplacing and losing faxes, our "Office Worker" that would be Eric make a mental note that there's gotta be a better way! So Eric went on a mission to see if there was a better way so he didn't have to deal with Wanda anymore.  Eric started search for all sorts of fax terms on the Internet, on one particular search Eric found this link MFP's can now Scan2Fax with UDOCX .

"Whoa" he thought, this could be the holy grail that he was looking for.  Eric in the past had some knowledge of MFP's, and by the looks of the video he figured he check out what MFP's were in use by GigaHertz.  Eric discovered that GigaHertz was using Xerox and Ricoh MFP's (Multifunctional Product) and with additional research realized that each of these machines were capable of adding a "browser" module to the MFP. 

Geesh he thought, if this technology could be added to the MFP's, well first he wouldn't have to deal with Wanda anymore and he wouldn't lose a fax, misplace or have to copy incoming faxes anymore! There'd be no more lines, no more mixups and no more Wanda.  It's sounding like a win win for our boy Eric right?

Well, kinda, Eric knew that technology is not cheap, and what would be the cost and would management go for it.  No one's spending additional money nowadays unless they can get an immediate ROI, right?

On the sly Eric made a few calls and found out from a UDOCX dealer that all three of the fax lines could be eliminated which means no line charge, no call charge, no long distance, no taxes, no fees to pay anymore.  Along with that for an additional few dollars every user (remember the other 11 workers) could have their own "Cloud" fax numbers! Imagine that everyone having their own dedicated fax number!  No more going to fax machine (yeah), no more butting heads with Wanda,  (yeah), no more lost faxes, no more misplaced faxes and no more copying of faxes. Plus Eric could use Scan2fax from the MFP and always have a digital paper trail!! 

When Eric did the math, GigaHertz could eliminate all of the fax lines, increase productivity and save money each month.  The beauty was in the ROI and the fact that the Scan2fax service was a monthly subscription, thus there's no lay out of cash, no IT people or resources needed because the software is running in the cloud!!

So, what did Eric do??  Well as all good workers Eric made a mad dash to the Controllers office with information in hand, on the way he ran into Wanda, fell, broke his pelvis and had to go to the hospital.  Wanda felt so bad for Eric that she delivered the information on UDOCX scan2fax to the controllers office. 

Wanda called Eric a few days later see how he was doing and told Eric that when he comes back to work at GigaHertz in Wannakopier, NJ that he would have his own cloud fax number!!!

-=Good Selling=-

Weekend Copier & Multifunctional Print4Pay Hotel Notes 7/30/2011

My summer Collegiate Baseball season has ended, not a great year for the team record wise, however I'm always delighted being able to coach the game!

The end of July really, already!  It's been an ok year so far, I've already met my annual quota (our year ends in December), Presidents Club is in the bag and I'm going to try and focus on driving additional profit along with adding more potential accounts that have multiple units.  So, at least for now I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis!

So for all our Print4Pay Hotel Members and Members to be, here's some links of our latest and greatest threads. Check out the new beta portal here.

Recent Document Uploads:

"Pricing on th Street" for Xerox_Quote WC7755PC
"Pricing on the Street" for Lanier LDC 365C proposal
"Pricing on the Street" for IKON_Quote Ricoh MPc 6501
"Pricing on the Street" for Canon iR6075

There's many more, just the latest from today!

Leads, RFP's RFQ's:
Bid for 23 MFP's in Canada
Bid in Canada for two Print Production units
Request for Proposals for 2 Copiers in California
RFP for 3 Print Production Units in Richmond
Copier lead in New Hope, PA

Many more of these also!!!

Recent Interesting Threads from P4P'ers:
Rumor has it....(Xerox to Market MFP's through Global only?) 
Material Data Safety Calls to the Manufacturer

Cloud SAS (Software as a ServicePoll)
New Sharp End of lease HDD feature
Xerox marketing FREE 120PPM Copiers
List your favorite funny copier moments

MFP Cloud Threads:
UDOCX in hybrid environments
Print email from the cloud (Video)
Generic advantages and differences of UDOCX vs.in house installs

These are just some samples of the threads from this week alone!! The Print4Pay has over 2,300 world wide members that are dedicated Imaging Professionals. Take a trip here www.p4photel.com/eve (registration link, don't worry man, it's FREE) and become a part of the largest social group of Imaging Professionals in the work and the opportunity to discuss solutions, best practices, rumors, and make new friends in the industry (it's nice to have a secure forum that's not out there for the public, eh?)

-=Good Selling=-
Art Post
"One of the Top 40 Most Influential People in the Imaging Business"

1,000 Ways to Increase MFP Sales

Really, did I say 1,000 Ways to Increase MFP Sales.  Yup indeed I did.  Over at the Print4Pay Hotel forums there are over 100,000 threads related to MFP's from the top sales people in the world.  The Print4Pay Hotel forum was founded back in 2002 and to date we have over 2,300 registered members from around the world!

Now, I didn't say that I had them categorized in a list, however if I did, I'd be getting BIG BUCKS for them. The idea of the forums is for sales people to share information that will help them close additional sales. Let's face it, I've been a down the street rep for 31 years and I still don't have all the answers and even though I work for a large dealer we still don't have all of the answers alss.  However, on the Print4Pay Hotel forums there are expert reps that are willing to help and share information with others.  Let's say that I need  help with a fiery question, I know that I'm not an expert and there are very few resources I can turn to from the dealership that I work for. Realistically some of the answers you get back from the manufacturers don't make a bit of sense either.  This is when I turn to the forums to post the question or questions and in turn can get the responses I'm looking for or get some real world advise as to what will work, will not work or someone else has found a creative workaround!

So, I'm gonna list a few of them here and I urge you to follow this link to be a Print4Pay Hotel member, btw, it's FREE, no charge, nada, all we ask is that you register with correct info and none of the BS info like Mickey Mouse, or 908.555.1211 for a bs phone number. I personally approve every member to make sure we have people in the industry on the forums and not end users. On to....1,000 Ways to Increase MFP Sales!

1. You gotta give it time and stay in the industry for more than three years, this will allow you to upgrade existing accounts.

2. You gotta make at least 100-200 touches per week. A touch can be anything from an email, a phone call, a drop in, or a meeting, the sales will come believe me!

3. You gotta eat, sleep and breath the industry! It will show when you meet with clients and discuss hardware or software solutions.

4. Be creative, think out of the box for hardware and software solutions, just because the customer wants a (5) 45 ppm systems does not mean those are the right systems.

5. Eat, sleep and breath ROI, nothin is finer that being able to save a customer money and be able to place hardware and software solutions without increasing their costs (matter of fact we have ROI spread sheets posted on the forums).

6. Stop with the 60 month leases!! Sell the shorter term and SELL the finance savings, proposing 36 month leases will have you back in the door in the 30 months instead of 44 months!

7.  How about this one, the customer does not want to lease for 36 months, wanted to buy, however they don't have the funds to BUY now! Well suggest a bakers dozen lease (more on this in the forums)

8. - 1,000 That's all I'm gonna give you here, go to the forums get registered, log in and I'm sure you'll find at least 1,000 Ways to Increase MFP Sales.

Print4Pay Hotel Registration

-=Good Selling=-

I Want My....I Want My..... SMART MFP

MTV, the Eighties, what a special place in time for some of us!  So, where am I going with this??  Not really sure yet, however I wanted to give end users a little more insight on today's MFP's (Multifunctional Products/Printers).

Years ago we called them copy machines,  of course they were used to make copies, about ten to twelve years ago we saw the transformation of copy machines (analog) to digital copiers.  The only difference was that the manufacturers had the technology to convert the scanned page to a digital format and then use a laser beam to write the image to the photo conductor (drum).  The old copiers (analog) that were unreliable, service intensive and the butt of office jokes was transformed into reliable hi speed copiers that could scan and print from the network. 

So, a few years back, digital copiers took another leap forward with the ability to add software cards (Java) that would allow the digital copiers to become work flow and information hubs in the office.  This next generation is what I call a SMART MFP, pretty much they are designed to work with software that will enhance productivity and increase efficiencies in the office. 

Today's SMART MFP's will allow users to scan documents as scan2word, scan2excel, scan2ftp, scan2url, scan2sharepoint, scan2folder, scan2drive and process them as search able pdf's, editable pdfs, index, and OCR and that's just the tip of the iceberg.  I could probably bore you to tears with all of the applications that are available today.

What I see in the field is that most end users still treat the MFP as a commodity, clients looking to buy on price instead of buying on savings . Let me elaborate on the savings, the savings would come from saving countless hours of handling and managing a paper based work flow. If you can cut 10-20 hours a month of labor, that's a big savings. How about if you could cut 5 hours of labor per month per employee?  It can be done with today's SMART MFPs.

If I were an end user I'd want my MFP to process all of those mundane tasks related with the handling of paper. I'd also want my MFP to tell me who is printing what (files) and how many along with having restrictions of what files they can and can't print. If I were using forms, I'd like to be able to have my MFP print onto  NCR paper and auto staple these forms so I don't have to buy them from a print shop.  While I'm at it, why can't I have a virtual (cloud) fax numbers for all of my employees do they can send and received faxes from the PC's without wasting time going to and from the MFP. 

Good news is that everything I mentioned above can be done with SMART MFP's.

-=Good Selling=

Weekend Copier & Multifunctional Print4Pay Hotel Notes 6/11/2011

My apologies for not posting as many blogs,  it's been very busy with selling and baseball.  My summer Collegiate Baseball Team is now 0-6, not a good way to start the season, however we have only one place to go and that's up!

The baseball season is very long and it's not all about winning, it's about having the right attitude, playing the game the right way, working hard to improve your skills, working with a team, and trying to out think the other player (hitter or pitcher) and the other team. I follow the three D's of Baseball which are Desire, Dedication and Determination, believe it or not these three core values can take you through life to be the best at any sports and can help you through your selling career also.

Desire to be the best and a true professional in what you do.
Dedication to the industry or the sport. Eat, sleep and breath everything you do.
Determination to get back on your feet and never ever give up, out work everyone else and you'll be in a winner in whatever you do!

So for all our Print4Pay Hotel Members and Members to be, here's some links of our latest and greatest threads. Check out the new beta portal here.

Recent Document Uploads:
FINALLY, AN AFFORDABLE LOW-VOLUME, WIDE-FORMAT SOLUTION (intro letter)
HP new MFPs M4555 & CM4540 MFP
"The Final Frontier in Cost Control"
"Pricing on the Street" for Canon iR6065
"Pricing on the Street" for KonicaMinolta BizHub 751
"Pricing on the Street" for Xerox 5775PT
"Pricing on the Street" for Canon iR6075
"Pricing on the Street" for Konica Minolta BizHub 950
Sharp 4101n street price and service cpc


There's many more, just the latest from today!

Leads, RFP's RFQ's:
Arizona town needs copiers
Request for Proposal - Black and White Copier/Printer
Copier lease & purchase in Mid Atlantic USA
RFP for 3 Print Production Units in Richmond
RFP for two color systems in Canada
Many more of these also!!!

Recent Interesting Threads from P4P'ers:
Rumor has it.....
Intro Letters that have been successful
Interesting Take Over by Xerox...

JOINT STATEMENT BY SHARP ELECTRONICS CORPORATION AND EDWARD MCLAUGHLIN
MFP's & Cost Per Page Agreements

MFP Cloud Threads:
UDOCX in hybrid environments
Print email from the cloud (Video)
Generic advantages and differences of UDOCX vs.in house installs

These are just some samples of the threads from this week alone!! The Print4Pay has over 2,300 world wide members that are dedicated Imaging Professionals. Take a trip here www.p4photel.com/eve (registration link, don't worry man, it's FREE) and become a part of the largest social group of Imaging Professionals in the work and the opportunity to discuss solutions, best practices, rumors, and make new friends in the industry (it's nice to have a secure forum that's not out there for the public, eh?)

-=Good Selling=-


Art Post
"One of the Top 40 Most Influential People in the Imaging Business"

Scan to the Cloud for eCopy & Salesforce.com

This is Hot!  Finally an ecopy connector for salesforce.com, I'm sure this can be an additional product for all of us to focus us.

Announcing the connector for Salesforce.com for Nuance eCopy Sharescan. Partnering with Nuance a company called 2112 http://www.scan-to-salesforce.com has announced they have released a “connector” for eCopy Sharescan that will allow users to scan documents directly into Salesforce.com accounts using an eCopy enabled MFP or scanner. Batch scan using barcode cover pages will allow users to scan batches of documents that will then be converted to individual PDF files and automatically uploaded to the correct Salesforce account.

Salesforce.com is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with regional headquarters around the world. Salesforce.com has its services translated into 16] different languages and currently has 82,400 customers and over 2,100,000 subscribers. The application runs in the cloud, so the user can access it anywhere through an Internet-enabled mobile device or a connected computer. The Sales Cloud includes a real-time sales collaborative tool called Chatter, provides sales representatives with a complete customer profile and account history, allows the user to manage marketing campaign spending and performance across a variety of channels from a single application, tracks all opportunity-related data including milestones, decision makers, customer communications, and any other information unique to the company's sales process. Other activities can be done on the Salesforce cloud. These include using the Jigsaw business data to access over 20 million complete and current business contacts from right inside Salesforce CRM, and designing and automating any process in Salesforce CRM.

VP Shashi Klamath “We see a great need in the marketplace to scan and store documents directly into Salesforce.com accounts leveraging a company’s existing infrastructure. This simplifies and automates that process saving companies thousands of dollars in paper document storage and labor.”
 
-=Good Selling=-