The Next Generation of Smart Copiers has arrived!

The next generation of smart MFP's has arrived.  Back in June of 2009 and I wrote a blog titled "I Want My...I Want My.....Smart MFP.  Just a few years ago we were ecstatic that Smart Copiers were now capable of saving businesses countless hours of time for scanning document.  The statement I hear of lot of this year is "do more for less".

The Hot features a few years ago was scan2ocr (will scan a paper based document and drop in back into a word doc), searchable .pdf (will scan a paper based document and turn it into a searchable .pdf), scan2MS365 and MS Sharepoint (via UDOCX) and the standard features for scan2email and scan2folder.

Document Management Software

Today's Smart Copiers/MFP can now hold the keys to kingdom for productivity in today's modern office.  Smart Copiers can now scan2 document management archival systems, many of your document management software providers are now developing connectors for the Copier/MFP.  Basically this means that you'll be able to scan documents to nested folders directly to your document management system, and it doesn't stop there with some document management connectors that are designed for the likes of Sharp and Toshiba you'll be able to access that document from the Copier/MFP and the print the document from the Copier/MFP.  If you're looking for Document Management Software check out Doculex and Intellinetics.

Scan2Cloud

Scan2box, Scan2googledrive, Scan2dropbox are just a few of the really awesome cloud solutions that are available now from different manufacturers.  

Apps

In the near future we're going to see the potential for hundreds of apps that can be run from the MFP, thus the potential to improve business process with MFPs will be enormous.  Some little know apps are available right now for your ipad, iphone and ipod.  Ricoh Innovations has a couple of apps that allow you to use your smart phone as a scanner and then also run OCR of that document. Yeah, the technology is in it's infancy but I can't wait for some of this technology to mature.

-=Good Selling=-

8 Talking Points for Selecting an Imaging/Copier Vendor

I've been in down the street office equipment sales for 33 years, over that time I've seen and heard it all when I meet with prospects who are considering a new vendor or manufacturer.

Many times... and by the way I just had a prospect email me today that price only is the driving factor as to who they will buy from.  I sent then back an email declining to offer a proposal. I work for a well respected dealer with an excellent support team and I won't compete with many of the fly by night dealerships that are out their.  Having one of my customers wait two to three days for on-service, a week for parts or not getting a return call is not an option!

Please consider the below points as more of an educational process to choose the right vendor for your needs.

Know your present and analyze your future needs: Since almost all MFP/Copiers are leased, you need to have a handle on your present and future needs. Will I need Network faxing or walk-up faxing, scan documents to email, scan to folder, walk up authentication, TWAIN scanning, Apple Air Print, envelopes, scan2cloud, scan2folders to a network drive, paper sizes needed to print, scan, fax or copy, color scan, color copy, color print.

Know what your existing costs are: How can you make a decision on a new product or service if you don't know your existing costs. Consider the cost of the current lease if any, cost of current print devices, costs for supplies, cost for service, cost for maintenance agreement, how many sheets of paper you have used for printing or copying in a week, month or year.

Ricoh MPCW220SP Scanner Reveal

Within a few days Ricoh will be launching the new Ricoh CW2200SP wide format system.  For those of us that sell Savin, Lanier and Ricoh wide format, we've been waiting a long time for a color wide format multifunctional system that will copy, print and scan.

The CW2200SP will be Ricoh's first attempt at their own color wide format system,  they've had the piezo ink technology for quite some time however it was limited to their Gelsprinter line of color ink printers.

I was going to do a spec review, however I changed my mind and wanted point out what's unique and special in reference to the scanning function of this system.

Scan2 features:

If you're familiar with scanning on Ricoh MFP devices, then you're in luck, all of the functionality of scanning from Ricoh's popular MFP's has been adopted with the CW2200SP.

You'll be able to perform walk up on-the-fly color scan2email, just enter a users email address, you can also add a cc: a bcc:, a subject line and even a message (the large color screen will turn into a qwerty keyboard for easy typing), with a touch of the button the wide format document will be scanned and attached as a .pdf.

If you're not interested in color scan2email, you can adopt the color scan2folder. Just setup a folder on any ones PC, or you can even set up folders on your server.  With the AEC (Architects, Engineers, Construction)  industry you can set multiple folders maybe one for proposals, specs, bids, etc.

How about color scan2cloud, yup I've tested Ricoh MFP's with scan2dropbox and it works very well, you might even want to think about getting a middleware product like UDOCX for scanning to
sharepoint or MS 365.

An additional nice feature is

Copiers & MFP's "Scan2Cloud Middleware Reveal"

Scanning from MFP's, every business is doing it, everyone I speak to admits it's been a boon to saving them time.

All of your current manufacturers MFP's now have standard scan2email and scan2folder. In recent months MFP manufacturers have sweetened the pie by adding additional background functionality when you scan2folder.

Such as creating a text searchable .pdf, performing OCR (optical character recognition) back to a word doc or an excel doc, or even scan2 a power point file, and least we no forget scan2cloud functionality.

It's  truly is amazing that you can walk up to the MFP and have these time saving features at the touch of a button, right?

Well, kinda, if you're a small account and all you need is to create searchable /pdf's here and there, or the occasional scan2word or scan2excel, these systems will work fine.  But what about more intensive users, lets say accounts that want every document scanned as a searchable .pdf and every document is 30-50 pages and you want to drop them off to the cloud?  This is where it can get

Muratec MFX-2590 MFP "The Hottest Little MFP from Texas"

On October 2nd & 3rd of this month I was able to travel to White Plains, NY to take part in the BTA East Region "Grand Slam Event".  FYI, I had an awesome time!

I was delighted to see my guys from Muratec at the BTA event.  If you're not familiar with Muratec..., then you haven't been in the copier/printer industry that long. Muratec is based out of Plano, Texas and when it comes to support from a copier/mfp manufacturer...no one does it better than Muratec!

Below I'll touch on some of the knockout/lockout features that the MFX-2590 that makes this system tops on my list of A4 MFPs.

I was able to speak with Greg, Lou and Jim about this really cool Muratec MFX-2590 A4 (does not print/copy 11x17) that will copy (black), network print (black), network color scan, walkup and network fax (black). At first it looked like any other A4 MFP that's on the market today, however the first feature that stood out was the huge color LCD display. I'm thinking it was about as big as the display on my kindle fire, the size of the screen was 8.5 inches and that's awesome for an A4 MFP!  The comparable Ricoh that I sell has a color LCD screen that is so small that you'll need binoculars to see (just a little joke)!  But most important,  it is the size of the screen that matters because a larger LCD color screen will promote ease of use and users will find the system a pleasure to work with.

Ok, so I'm impressed with the size of the screen right, I then start looking at the extended features like scan2email, scan2folder and what do I see?  Scan2print....it's all about the sizzle and the Muratec MFX-2590 is loaded! Scan2print is something that I thought every MFP system should have, think of it like this, you've got a color document in your hand, located on the 1st floor is the MFX-2590, you need to make a color copy but you don't have a color copier, all you got is a color laser printer and it's on the third floor.  The scan2print feature will allow you to scan the color document and send it to color print on your networked color printer (you scan program up to 5 networked print devices)!  Not only that, but you could send the document to print to another printer or MFP on your WAN (wide area network).  Features like scan2print, allows end users to tap into existing hardware resources without the need to get a color printer or MFP for each department or each floor.  When it comes to dealers and sales people the Muratec MFX-2590 allows us to be more creative with our solutions approach and gives us knockout features that aren't available on other similar devices!

Right, at this point I'm thinking I'd really like to be able to sell the Muratec MFX-2590, Greg and I start talking about scanning and again the MFX-2590 was sizzling with a one pass dual scan document feeder! I stated WTF, you're telling me this A4 MFP will scan both sides of document in one pass?  Yup....so when your working with two sided documents the MFX-2590 will scan 40 images per minute for color and a blazing 62 images per minute for black!  Woo Hoo!

So, we've got the awesome 8.5 color screen, the scan2print, the single pass duplex scan, the 80 page document feeder, scan2usb, scan2hardrive on the copier (enables a document library right on the copier), print from USB (awesome for vistors that have to print),  PC faxing (LAN fax), Walkupfax, Shift/Sort output (each set printed or copied set if offset from each other), ID card copy (means you save a lot of aggravation when you copy a health card or license), scan confirmation stamp (puts a little stamp on every scanned document) and this box is screaming with "sizzle" and value!

But we're not done! Now I'm sounding like Ron Popeil.  There was another touch screen button for "Scan Tag", ok well what is that I asked.  Scan Tag is a document imaging tool that enables users to input meta data at the MFP control panel and then automatically scan and index the document without having to return to their PC.  Scan Tag has been integrated to work with document management software applications like Doculex, Docuware, Idatix, SmartSearch, Sentryfile, Rebus, Intact and Computhink.

I've seen a lot of the new A4 devices from the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, Kyocera, and Sharp and in my opinion the MFX-2590 has awesome features for the end user and for resellers you have a combination lockout features that no other manufacturer can bring to the table.

Kudos to Muratec and the MFX-2590, btw the way I'll be posting on video of the MFX-2590 in action on the Print4Pay Hotel forums, pay us a visit, get registered, it's free!

-=Good Selling=-

PS  Muratec is not a sponsor or advertiser with the Print4Pay Hotel, however the Muratec MFX-2590 is "The Hottest Little MFP from Texas".

Ricoh MP6002, 7502, 9002 series "Scanner Reveal"

It seems about every 18 months Ricoh will refresh a series of multifunctional copier systems.  The latest refresh of the MP6001/7001/8001/9001 completes the entire line change to the new "istyle" series. 

The new Ricoh MP6002 (60 page per minute device), the MP7502 (75 page per minute device) and the MP9002 (90 page per minute device) will be the new models moving forward. The new MP 7502 will be the replacement for the MP6001 and MP7001. There will be six different models in all, MP6002/MP7502/MP9002 will not come from the factory with scan and print.  The MP6002SP/MP7502SP/MP9002SP will all come from the factory with color scan, network scan and black network print.

Scanning:

The speeds are awesome!  When scanning at 300 dpi with the single pass dual scan document feeder you'll be able to scan black at 88 ipm for single sided and 176 ipm for double sided originals.  Color scanning at 300dpi will run at 88 ipm for single sided and 120 ipm for double sided originals.  Thus if you are using document management programs like Doculex or Intellenetics you'll be able to breeze through those documents in seconds!

Scan2folder, Scan2email, Scan2ftp, Scan2url are all standard features and you'll be able to scan from 100dpi to 600dpi. Let's say you have ECM (Enterprise Content Management) software then you'll be able to take advantage of the Ricoh's  1200DPI TWAIN scan driver. 

But!  What I like best is that the new Ricoh MP6002/7502/9002 is that you can add a browser unit (the browser unit is an option and the unit allows the MFP to connect to the Internet)!  Thus if you're a Microsoft Sharepoint or MS365 user you'll be able to scan directly Sharepoint & MS 365 with the UDOCX Cloud solution.  With UDOCX there's no need to install software on the server, no maintenance, it's a true access & go solution! 

There's a few other items I like also, even if you don't have the browser unit, you'll be able to use two really cool FREE cloud storage solutions.  One is dropbox where you can get a free 2GB service, dropbox sets up as a simple scan2folder on your PC or notebook, you'll then set a path from the MFP to your folder. That's it!  Anything you scan will then be sync'd with the folder on your pc/notebook and replicated in on the Dropbox Cloud.  The other service is OfficeDrop, they'll offer you a free 5GB solution, sets up similar to dropbox, however with OfficeDrop you'll be able to label your files.  With the labeling feature you'll then be able to search those files.

Output formats for scanning on the Ricoh can be single and multi page  page TIFF, PDF, JPEG, high compression pdf, encrypt pdf, and PDF/A. If you're not familiar with PDF/A is a file format and also an ISO standard for long term archival of scanned pages.

Ricoh has also added as a standard feature a nifty scan2usb and scan2sdcard.  Users will be able to scan to a usb drive or sd card, along with that users will also be able to print from these devices.  I was able to test this on a Ricoh MPC4502 and not only can you print the files but you can also view the files from the USB drive or SD card right on the awesome 8.5 inch color display.

I'll be you thought I was done right?  Nope, there's one other noteworthy feature and that's JBIG2 compression support. In a nutshell JBIG2 compression for scanned black images will enhance compression and allow companies to make better use of their document storage solutions.  FYI, for you those of you that are dealers, I highly recommend this leasing company, truly a pleasure to do business with LCA.

Stay tuned for next week when I'll go over all of the cool new print and fax features!

-=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=-

Ricoh A4 MFP vs Canon A4 MFP "Who Wins with Scanning"?

In recent days I had the chance to get additional information about the Ricoh SP5200 A4 MFP and the Canon 1750if A4 MFP.  My last blog titled Ricoh A4 MFP or Canon A4 MFP "That is the Question" mentioned some of the plus and minuses for each system.  So, let's consider this as a follow up for the additional information I've been able to find out.

Scan Speed
Ricoh touts a scan speed of the SP5200 series over 30ipm at 200dpi, while the Canon 1750IF has a scan speed of 52ipm at 300dpi.  When it comes to scan speed we'll give the advantage to the Canon 1750IF since the Ricoh SP5200 will slow down even further when scanning at 300dpi.

Document Feeder
The Canon 1750if will hold up to 100 originals compared to 50 originals for the Ricoh SP5200 series. However, Ricoh does have a "batch mode" this is used when the user has more than 50 originals.  Thus you could scan 100 pages but would have to baby sit the scanner.  At this time I'm not sure if the Canon has a "batch mode" for scanning.   Advantage to Canon 1750IF again.

Searchable PDF
It's standard on the Canon 1750IF and searchable .pdf is not even an option on the Ricoh SP5200, you'll need to buy a third party solution. Canon  1750IF Advantage.

Scanning of Mixed Size Originals
Let me start with the Ricoh SP5200 series first, you can't load mixed letter and legal documents in the scanner and expect to have letter and legal size .pdf's when they are scanned.  We tried this at the office and they all scanned as letter documents when we opened them up with Adobe Reader. You would either have to copy all letter size and then make a setting change on the MFP to scan legal size.

Personally I see the market for these types of the devices the Canon 1750if and the Ricoh S5200 series for legal, title, mortgage, health and municipalities.  Why even bring a device to market that can't Scan mixed sized originals.  Seems Ricoh choose to use an inexpensive document feeder that is not capable of reading documents larger than letter size. Could this be directly related to the Ikon aquisition, meaning that Ricoh is not enabling R & D like they did before the Ikon aquisition?

On the other hand, I put this out there for a few Print4Pay Hotel members to see if the Canon 1750IF is capable of scanning mixed size originals and I'm waiting to hear back from them (we get all of our information from guys and gals on the street who are selling these devices).  However from viewing the brochure of the Canon 1750IF it seems that there is a sensor on the rear end of the document feeder tray.  Thus, the Canon 1750IF should be able to scan mixed size originals.   Major Advantage Canon! UPDATE!! I've heard back from two Print4Pay Hotel members and both stated that the Canon 1750if will scan mized sized orginals.

Scanner ease of Use
This is going to be a tough one, however I'm a big fan of "the bigger the better" and the Ricoh SP5200 series does have an impressive LARGE COLOR LCD user interface.  The Canon 1750IF has a monotone black/gray display and the LCD is half the size of the Ricoh SP5200 series.  Take if from me the large color user interface on the Ricoh is a pleasure to use.  Advantage to Ricoh.

Scanning is a large part of every day use of these types of devices.  Typically if I scan more than 50 pages every time I walk to the device, then I'd rather have a machine that can drop the documents in and then walk away.  Same with speed, under 2 minutes to scan 100 pages or over three minutes on the Ricoh device.  But there will be users that don't ever scan 50 pages at a time?  Thus the 100 page document feeder may not play a critical role in the assessment of the device.  The same can be stated for mixed size documents, there may be some companies that just scan letter and have no need to mix letter and legal.  And then how about searchable .pdf?  Yup, it's a nice feature, and yup I would like to have it, but what about the everyday user that just wants to save the image and will never ever do a search when they open the document.

When it comes to speeds and feeds the Canon 1750IF looks like a clear winner, IF the user has a need for all of those features. IF not, then both systems are a lot alike.  We'll need to sit down and see what's best for the user, what makes the best sense, will it be ease of use of features that are never used. You can then look at cost per page, and total TCO.

I had fun with this and I hope you enjoyed it also.

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh Innovates with Scan2iPhone & Scan2iPod App

I've had an iPod touch for awhile, but never had the chance to play around with it. Over the last week or so, I've been having some fun with all of the different apps and games. I'll have to admit I love some of the games but hate the fact that they give you the opportunity to pay for additional features. Whatever, the game cost .99 cents and I think I dumped $20 bucks or so on upgrades, kinda wish I had that opportunity with PACMAN when I use to sit at the bar for hours dumping quarters into the machine.

Anyway, I downloaded the app for Ricoh Innovations for scanning documents on my iPod touch and this will also work with the iphone, not sure about the new droid phones.

So, under some not so good light at my desk I used the app to scan some pages. It's easy!!! You open the Ricoh app, take the picture and you'll then have the opportunity to deskew the document, clean the document or keep as is. When you're done you can them export to all these Google docs, email, Evernote, Dropbox, or export to your picture gallery. When exporting to everything but your picture gallery you send as a .pdf or .jpeg.

Within a minute or less I had the document in my Google docs and then sent to my email account. One of the nice features that I noticed is that once the document is sent it's not deleted, this enables you to send the document to another if needed. It kinda almost felt James Bondish, being able to take a picture of the document and have it captured and secured with one of my accounts.

The image quality is good. Keep in mind that you can tap the screen of the iPod or iPhone and you'll be able to focus and then see the AE lock on the screen.  I did not have the chance to export as a jpeg to see that quality. Keep in mind it's more for documents, sketches and stuff like that. Once I opened the doc, of course it was readable, but the quality kinda reminded me of a poor quality fax (but, I then realized that the document I captured was printed via inkjet printer and it was taken from an image from the web, thus 72dpi). I printed the document to my printer and it printed exactly what I scanned.

I'm thinking a better quality document will produce much better results and I really didn't have the time to run out to the car to get some good originals nor did I want to print from the inkjet. When I'm back in the office I'll give this a shot with some clean documents.

So, I'm thinking this is an awesome app, especially for those of us in the field. Instead of using scan2email or faxing the documents to the office. I can take a picture of them and email them or upload to my Google docs (this way I always have a copy of the documents).

It's the sizzle that sells the steak right? I'll going to incorporate this app into my presentations, and I was just thinking a neat demonstration would be to have email2print setup at the office and then just email the scanned page to the MFP's email address. That would be the sizzle!

Dam, I couldn't wait till I got to the office so I went to the car and pulled a clean original and processed through the Ricoh app. You know it did a very good job, not A1 perfect, but good enough for FREE and good enough to read and process documents!!!

-=Good Selling=-

Smart MFP's "To the Cloud"

It's not often that I get excited about a third party solution provider for copier and MFP's.  Print Audit remains one of my favs, however another company has garnered my attention.

I found UDOCX (short for Unified Document Exchange) on a thread that they posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums.  In fact we were discussing cloud based MFP solutions and UDOCX was one of two companies mentioned as Software As a Service (SAAS)

You all know what I do, off to the web to check out their web site.  So, what I found out is that this seems to be be AWESOME.  Probably what I like most is that NO software is required to "Print from", "Scan2", "Print Email", "Scan2fax" and more!

I borrowed this from the brochure:

UDOCX is a cloud-based document processing service that extends your browser-embedded MFP with mail, print, store and fax features without the need to install or maintain any additional software or hardware and while protecting a company’s compliancy and security policies.

Just lately and I'm talking the last 6-12 months, I've heard more IT people say that they don't want additional software on their servers nor do they want to store/maintain an additional server.  UDOCX requires no server is sold as a monthly subscription service, buy it for one MFP of a fleet of MFP's.  You may ask, what's the cost, well,.....I know the cost however I'll leave that to the folks at UDOCX and I believe the cost is extremely reasonable for the features and service that's provided.

I was able to connect with UDOCX the other morning, we had a webex for 6AM my time from the folks in the Netherlands. So I've had the opportunity to view how the software works with the MFP browser and they were able to show me "ease of use" with the solution.

So, if you get the chance go to the UDOCX web site, download the brochure, view the site, set up a trial and above all tell em that you heard about them from the Print4Pay Hotel.

-=Good Selling=-