Oki & Ricoh "My Top Choices for Print Shop in a Box"

The print4pay market, some will say it is one of the hardest accounts to break into and others will say they are the easiest to breakdown the walls and establish long term relationships.

As B2C color improves, along with improved thick stock media ability, there are a few color printers that I'll refer to as a "Print Shop in Box". You might ask what's a print shop in a box, I got this saying from a printer in New Jersey that referred to his color printer as a "Print Shop in a Box" and the term has stuck with me. That printer was referring to the quality of color, the ability to handle many different types of media (envelopes too), and the ruggedness to run 60K, 70K or more worth of prints per month!

When I look at some color laser printers that would fit the mold of the "Print Shop in a Box", the Oki PRO920WT, Oki pro511DW and the Ricoh C831DN have what it takes.  I'm thinking we'll see many additional "niche" type printers as the demand for office printed page declines.

We'll take a brief look at the Oki pro511DW. Imagine this a color A3 LED printer that will print full color labels with variable data from a roll of media (3 inch core) ! I love the concept, have never seen one, but wish I was able to sell some of  these.

Here's a quick run down with specs:

Why Copier Manufacturers Need to More Involved w/ Social Media

So you think just because you're using the likes of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace that this is your social media campaign?  Most copier manufacturers seem to tout the latest press releases, product releases, green issues, contests or some off the wall little no facts.    If this is your benchmark for a social media presence then you need to take a step back and understand that most manufacturers are missing the boat with web forums.

There are tens of thousands of forums, maybe more.  We run a web forum titled the Print4Pay Hotel, site is dedicated to those of us in the imaging industry. It is a secure forum and you need to register in order to view and post messages.  There are also many non secure forums, these are forums that allows end users to read the messages (threads, posts, replies) but in order to post a message you may need to become a member.  In these forums members/users will ask questions or carry on conversations through the forum, the web forum is an easy way to find out what a product can do or can't do. Many users feel more comfortable talking about a product or service in a third party secure forum.

Let's look at this hypothetical situation, some company bought a XYZ color production system and to date they are not happy with with the system due to print quality not being what they expected.  They've had numerous service calls and still the same result.  As an end user what else can you do?  A lot of end users are turning to web forums where they can find additional information, in the color print production this would be Print Planet (there are others, however I follow this one). Once on the forums the end user can read what others have posted in reference to the same unit, and they may be able to get a workaround or help from another user that has the same system.

Top Five Short Notes for MFP & Copier Industry

Sometimes you'll have the ability to rattle off 500 to 600 words with a blog and sometimes you're just left with a  little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Thus this brings to me my Top Five Short Notes for the week or the last two weeks.  If it's popular I'll try and continue for everyone. 

1.  Seems traffic at Graph Expo in Chicago was excellent for Monday and Tuesday of this week, however Sunday was no where near as good with 9/11, and the Bears game.

2.  Ricoh seems to have a definite hit on their hands with the new Ricoh C651 series print production color system!  Traffic was awesome and reviews were just as good.  I for one am chomping at the bit waiting for us to get our first system in the door.  More to come on this unit very soon!

3. Even though I run the Print4Pay Hotel forums, and I'm still out on the street selling, I still find the time to make the forums work for my customers.  I had an issue with postscript printing of booklets, and internally I had no one to turn to that could help me.  With the recent downturn of support and this goes for all manufacturers, I turned to the P4P forums and found a workaround that a fellow P4P'er had posted a few months ago.  I turned the customer onto the workaround, it worked and all was good for the account.  As one P4P'er stated a few years ago, "The service you have and are providing is INVALUABLE. Any RFG consultant/rep worth their salt should be utilizing your site. I would highly recommend you charge a reasonable fee for these services, as the information you provide from around the world cannot be packaged adequately by the manufacturers. Other associations from other industries charge for memberships; this is a very small investment that provides tremendous "edown-in-the-trenches" resources to the members."  BTW, the Print4Pay Hotel has a FREE basic membership.

4. I just read an article about Kodak and about how they are reinventing themselves as a digital player for print production and printers.  I'm thinking this was a recycled article and I'm thinking they've been trying to do this for years.  About a year ago Kodak was high on my list to sell their print production business, however with Ricoh still struggling with IKON, Canon still trying to join two different cultures with themselves and OCE, Xerox, ACS and Global still buying dealerships, KonicaMinolta???  Anyway you slice it, seems like no one may have the cash to pull off something big.

5. When will it start,  meaning it's not a matter of if it's going to happen, however when and by whom.  I see Auxilio as a prime target to be bought by like the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, or KonicaMinolta, hey maybe even Lexmark or Okidata.  To me the writing is on the wall. With the BIG 4 focusing on health care, government and law, Auxilio is fruit that's ripening on the vine and ready to be picked!

Well that's for those thoughts that have been pounding around in my head for the last few days, enjoy, comment if you wish but above all good selling to everyone!!

-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Print Production Certification Tests

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

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

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

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

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

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

Print Production Certification Test 1

Print Production Certification Test II

-=Good Selling=-