Polling Copier Sales People #5

P4PHotel has polled its membership for the Presidential Election. Our poll had two parts.

When asked who will be the next President of the United States of America?

(50%) John McCain

(50%) Barack Obama

When asked, who has the best chance of changing the economic growth when he becomes President?

(80%) John McCain

(20%) Barack Obama

Recently, I heard an analogy in reference to the Presidential Election, if you were electing a new CEO of a company, would the share holders vote for the seasoned veteran who has been with the firm for 20 or more years and has a proven track record or would they vote for the a newcomer who has little experience and has not proven them self. I'll bet you all know the answer to that one!

Ikon Reaches Out To Customers

August 27, 2008

Dear Valued Customer:

As you may have heard, IKON today announced that we agreed to be acquired by Ricoh Company, Ltd, subject to the satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions. A copy of the press release issued this morning is attached for your information. Ricoh has been one of our valued equipment partners for many years and we will now be joining forces with them to create a stronger global office solutions competitor.

As you know, Ricoh is a leading manufacturer of high quality multifunction products, printers, fax machines and related supplies, with a long history and global reputation for providing innovative, reliable and user-friendly equipment.

An important factor we considered when deciding to take this step was our mission to best meet the needs of our customers. We concluded that we would be better able to achieve this goal as part of a larger organization that was able to offer an enhanced range of end-to-end office solutions, including IKON’s expertise in color equipment sales and world-class service offerings, as well as Ricoh’s world-leading portfolio of office solutions equipment.

I want to assure you that we remain committed to you and your company, and have every intention of continuing to provide you with world-class service and support, regardless of the equipment you use. We fully expect that our suppliers will continue to do business with us on the same terms and conditions they have in the past and we will continue to provide you with the best solutions from our broad portfolio of product and service offerings.

While we are very excited about today’s news, it is important for you to know that it will take several months to complete this transaction. In the meantime, it will be business as usual for us. We anticipate that the transaction will close before the end of calendar year 2008.

I recognize that you may have questions regarding this announcement and your sales professional will be contacting you in the coming days to help answer any questions you may have. I want to thank you for your continued commitment to IKON and look forward to building on our relationship in the future.

Sincerely,

Matthew J. Espe
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Ricoh to Aquire Ikon

In one swift swipe of the Kantana, Ricoh has erased the after effects of the Xerox acquisition of Global last year. Ricoh has acquired the world's largest independent channel for document management and services. Ikon's fiscal year 2007 revenue of $4.2 billion, IKON has approximately 24,000 employees in over 400 locations throughout North America and Western Europe.


"IKON has terrific strength in areas that complement Ricoh's growth strategy," said Shiro Kondo, President and CEO of Ricoh Company, Ltd. "IKON has advanced Professional Services capabilities with a long list of satisfied large customers. IKON is respected as well for its production print sales and service expertise. We are excited to add the very experienced IKON management team and the thousands of skilled and dedicated IKON employees to the Ricoh family."


Where does this leave everyone else. especially Canon. Canon was slightly affected by the Global buyout and also from KonicaMinolta recently purchasing Danka Industries. I'm thinking Canon is going to be hit very hard, could Canon now make a play for HP, really what else is left to maintain market share. Devastating for Canon if they do nothing.l

Recently we (P4P) conducted a poll of our members as to "Who would Acquire Who in 2009", thinking nothing else could happen in 2008. Our readership had these results:

(18%) Ricoh acquires IKON

(18%) Canon acquires IKON

(55%) HP acquires IKON

(0%) HP acquires Danka

(9%) Canon acquires Danka

(0%) Ricoh acquires Danka


Well, another surprise in an industry that continues to evolve.


Here's some posts from today of our P4P members when they heard of the acquisition.

• the world as we have known it is rapidly changing.....any guesses what's next?I have heard that HP is in the process of actively opening direct sales offices around the county.
• Not here but Canon has to be reeling from this! To tell you the truth, I never expected Ricoh to do this.
• I knew IKON was looking at being purchased awhile back by HP so they have been on the market for awhile. Did I read this correctly... "requires the approval of the majority of IKON’s outstanding shares at its shareholder meeting and will result in IKON continuing as the surviving company" Sounds like IKON will be Ricoh's "brand" now. So the name Ricoh will be no longer or what?
• I would imagine it will be like the Lanier acquisition. Keep the name for the time being as it is a "brand" people know, but I would imagine that it will be blended into RBS in time. Everything Japan does is on a 5 year plan, so there is no hurry for them.
• It will be interesting. It might be a good time for some of the independent Ricoh dealers to look to Canon if they have an large Ikon company in their backyard. There is always fallout from these deals, there will probally be some very good Canon sales people looking to jump ship along with technicians.
• I dont think anything will change, I think they will also continue to operate under the IKon name carry the same brands canon km and the other manufactures will continue to sell to them why not and why change perhaps ricoh will have better placement in goverment and the major accounts but that would be it . When best buys bought out future shop they couldnt cahnge there name my thinking is that this will be the same with this deal.
• When Xerox bought Global and when KM bought Danka, Canon immediately dropped them. They won't sell to the competition. I know that on the Global deal that KM extended their agreement for an additional 2 years to allow for the transition....it should be interesting who the real copier %^$#$* are out there...
• Toshiba bought out a dealer here in Vancouver able who carried canon and sharp they continue to lead with canon soI don'tknow about globally but I would think they would rethink there strategy and continue there relationship with Ikon Danka where they really selling anything.

Ricoh has made the move to keep the factories busy fo a long time, of course here in the US there will be another branding issue. Most likely, IKON will be merged into RBS, however I wouldn't be surprised if it went the other way. For me, I don't think its going to have a terrific impact, for the Ikon customers, I'm sure there will be growing pains and many hassles keeping up with the changes.

You gotta love this business.

-=Good Selling=-

Art Post

Multi-function Sales Quotes for Copiers

Have you ever tried to find a competitive quote or proposal on the Internet? I've tried too and I've had no luck at all!

However, if you visit the P4PHotel, and register to become a member you can download actual proposals, quotes and view street pricing that has been recorded for various manufacturers and models. Who knows you just may find a competitors quote whom you lost a deal too or better yet get a true handle on what they are quoting and how they are doing it.

Our members are there to help in each other, and we have dedicated message boards for Ricoh Family Group, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera and Canon. Go and see what your peers are talking about in reference to solutions and hardware. Post messages and you'll be surprised on how many members are willing to help and share information.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier vs Printers "MFP Wars"

Picked this information up on the web the other day, would like to hear pros and cons in reference to where we are going as a whole in the indsutry.

90% of all companies do not know what they are currently spending on internal desktop and network printing. Print charges are typically underestimated by 30%-50% by ignoring charges other than the obvious hardware, maintenance, and consumable charges.

Buyers Laboratory Inc., Gartner

Quoting insight from major research companies, we've outlined the document trends that can benefit an IT or facilities manager responsible for an organization's documents.

Document Trend #1Paper use continues to rise.

Office paper use is increasing 6-8% each year1.
Paper use is expected to grow for the next 20 years1.
Paper is thought to be 30% faster and easier to read than a computer screen.

Document Trend #2Print volume is climbing.

Print volume is growing 10-15% each year. The internet, email, and intranets are big drivers.
Printing surpassed copy volume in 19953.
End-users are printing multiple originals, rather than making copies.
Color printers are bringing new documents to the network.
The number of documents created and distributed electronically — then printed at the time of need — continues to grow.

Document Trend #3

Copy and fax are becoming secondary technologies.
Copy volumes are stagnant or in decline. Long-held habits are changing.
Fax volumes are being challenged by email. Email is free and arrives "at-the-desktop".
"The heyday of the photocopier is past — the tide of history is with the printer." — Better Buys for Business

Document Trend #4

Document devices are converging.
Print, copy, fax, and scan are now common features of a single device.
Printer-centric MFP's hold advantages in five key areas4:
Network ability
Ease of use
Reliability
Print Quality
Total Cost of Ownership Document

Trend #5

Color is becoming mainstream.
Four years ago, color was $2.00/page, and very slow.
Today, color is as low as $.12/page, and up to 28ppm.
Color printers are currently the fastest growing segment of the printer business.

Document Trend #6

Output-Based solutions are the future.
In today's office, the as-needed approach to printer support is being replaced by Output-Based solutions ensuring reliable, hassle-free documents.
Research indicated that by 2005 75% of all printing would be done on a cost-per-page basis and 75% of all enterprises would outsource key technologies.
Enterprises should evaluate newer technologies — multifunction printers and new procurement options, including cost-per-page service contracts5.

1Xplor

2Dataquest

3HP

4IDC

5Gartner

Ricoh MPC Series "Turbo Charge Your Ricoh MFP"

How can you get the most out of your new Ricoh MP Series Multifunctional Device without breaking the bank and getting the best bang for your buck?

By adding the these three Ricoh solutions you can enjoy increased productivity, reduce paper, reduce costs and reduce down time. Along with knowing that you are doing your part to conserve resources.

The solutions that I've outlined will add less than $100 a month to the typical 5 year copier lease, and depending where your companies workflow and volumes stack up, the savings could be well over the investment.

Our first solution is to add Document Mall 3 year/1GB Solution with the MFP browser. Document Mall is a robust off-site Document Management Software SaaS (Software as a Service) that can enable your Ricoh Multifunctional Device to push documents to an off-site Document Repository. From the LCD screen of the MFP, any user can see the file folder structure and then select where the paper documents need to go. Document Mall will then organize documents by type, using indexing and full search. Document Mall can also be used as a collaboration tool, where you can work on documents together, edit documents and create markups. What I like most about Document Mall is the ease of use, along with the ability to access documents where ever there is an Internet connection. You don't have to have a degree in order to enjoy the benefits of Document Management and you don't have to have an IT infrastructure to keep the system updated and running. This package can be leased for under $60 per month.

Moving on to Embedded Print Director, all Ricoh MFP's now have the ability to embed software on a Java card, thus enabling features that can be used through the MPF's LCD display. Embedded Print Director will monitor every copy and print on Ricoh MFP's. The long and short of is that every print and copy can be tracked for charge backs and accountability. At the end of the year the system can provide a full report on what was printed, copied, identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies on the network and can help IT maintain a balanced budget for Total Cost of Ownership. A single MFP package can be leased for under $20 per month.

Ricoh MPC Series "Best of the Best"

You think I could have gotten a little more creative with the title?

Just about eighteen months ago Ricoh launched the MPC series, this series Incorporated the same engine for 5 different models and 5 different speeds. Let me tell you this was genius, from a sales persons point of view, if I knew one I knew em all. From a technical side and I do have technical back ground, these units just keep running and running and the quality is awesome from print one to 1,000,000.

What did Ricoh do right, well for one they introduced PxP toner, where the toner is chemically grown and particles are more uniform in size. Fuser oil was eliminated thus creating less user involvement, preventative maintenance was increased to 80,000 pages, support for heavy paper was added and to top it off color speeds were equal to black and white speeds!

From a sales point of view this system kicks butt because of several options that Ricoh added, such as a booklet maker to all of the systems, before this booklet makers were only available on the higher speed units. We know have heavy paper with 140lb paper through the 100 sheet by-pass and 120lb index through all of the paper drawers (this was unheard of in a Ricoh product).

Features that I like best is fax4ward to email, this really acts as a mini fax server, all inbound faxes can be routed to a folder or a single email address (what a way to save paper). The ability to store documents on the hard drive, view them in color and then print the documents from the MPC series, did I mentioned that you can also load them on the hard drive via the print driver! How about the ability to print onto 12x18 paper, thus giving customer in the AEC market place the ability to print half size CAD documents.

Above all, the reliability of this unit has been awesome in the field, not one complaint from one customer over the last 18 months and I probably have about 60 of these in the field. Whether the customer is making 1,000 or 10,000 pages a month the system does its work flawlessly.

In the near future Ricoh will be expanding this line up with an 18 & 22ppm system, thus covering a wider range of speeds and volumes. So, if you're in the Print4Pay Market, AEC (Architects Engineers Construction) or anyone who needs and awesome color unit. Go buy it, or lease it, the MPC2000, MPC2500, MPC3000, MPC3500, and MPC4500 is an awesome value that just keeps on running.

-=Good Selling-=

Paper Made From Rocks!

The race is on! Paper from Trees or paper from Rocks, which do we have more of? If it's my property I could be a millionaire, I got rocks all over the darn place!

I picked this quote up the other day and I thought naw, can't be done and if it could be done, would I have to go out and get me a new shredder? Are companies going to start sending me information printed on "rock paper", will I be able to burn it, shred it, cut it or use it to sop up a spill?

Here's the quote:

"Three companies have unveiled paper made from rocks. TerraSkin, ViaStone and Paperocks have introduced sheets of paper made from crushed limestone that when combined with resin, form a white, rip-proof sheet. The companies claim that using their products will save trees."

My first thought is that trees are a renewable resource aren't they, we can plant as many trees as we like to sustain our paper needs. What about rocks, we can't make plant more rocks can we? Can we shred it, fold it, burn it, and how about using it as confetti? Can you image if they used Rock Paper as confetti in the Canyon of Heros when the Giants won the Super Bowl? I can also remember lime products being pulled from Little League fields, lime was used to line the fields.

If paper gets wet it just bio degrades, wonder what happens with rock paper? Can we still make paper airplanes, paper mache and origami?

-=Good Selling-=

Selling Copiers "ECOPY DESKTOP + MS WORD + LAN FAX EQUALS"?

SOLUTION!!!! Yippee!!

We're all in for the hardware sale, and we all know you can't make living (just yet) selling third party solution software. However for the savvy reps we do have Ecopy Desktop!!

While in an account today, I was sizing up the hardware specs with the IT Manager, I asked about adding a fax option to a high volume unit. The IT persons interest peeked when I told him that they could reduce the amount of pages printed on stand alone printers if they added the fax option to the unit. We then spoke about the ability to fax forward faxes to a network folder and or an email address. From here all in bound faxes could be monitored and then distributed electronically. So far, so good.

Next, we spoke about the advantages of LAN from from the desktop and here's where we hit a snag. The IT manager explained that all outbound faxes needed a cover page, and currently they were all using the same cover page that was created in an MS word document. In this fax cover page they had six different fields of information that needed input by the user. Now, my current LAN fax software only offers 5 different input fields, the one he was looking for was how many pages are being sent. Alas, we could not accomplish what he was looking for, I knew he wanted to reduce paper and I also sensed he liked the idea of reducing paper.

The solution that I proposed was e-copy desktop software. I explained how we can use his existing word template and keep this as a saved fax cover sheet for everyone. When they needed to fax from the PC, they would then print to ecopy desktop, then merge the file with the fax cover sheet that we saved in ecopy. From their, the users could use the markup feature for the fax cover page and input all of the information, plus when they selected the "view all" icon they could see how many pages were in that electronic document. This would then take the guess work out of figuring out how many pages were in a word, excel or something other type of document. Along with the feature of having the entire outbound fax saved to a file on the network.

In review, the speeds and feeds of the hardware were acceptable, however what made my system stand out from the others was the ability to combine E-Copy Desktop with the hardware to give the customer a real cost savings, real productivity savings along with a "green" solution. I also knew that no one else that the IT manager had brought attention to this type of solution.

We all need to sell hardware to live, however asking questions about "how do you do this and how do you do that" can lead to a very productive sales call.

Sharp Imaging "Giving Customer What They Need"

Finally...., and Kudos to Sharp Imaging!! Sharp announced on May 7th, 2008 and they will be the first Copier Manufacturer to release a full line of A4 multifunctional devices. If you don't know A4 print devices are not capable of printing or copying onto 11x17 (tabloid size paper).

I've been touting this type of machine for about two years know and feel that this launch of A4 MFP's could vault Sharp into #1 in MFP placements in the US. I checked Sharps web site and did not find any of these new devices yet.

Below are paragraphs from the press release.

New Business Workgroup A4 MFP and Printer Line:With the unveiling of a new line of A4 MFPs and printers - its largest line of multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) and printers ever - Sharp is providing A3 performance in a sleek A4 footprint, leveraging its heritage in enterprise solutions to offer features and functionality not available in any other line in this class.

The new A4 lineup, which will include 18 color and monochrome MFP and printer models in a wide range of Segment 3 and 4 speeds, leverages this proven formula. For example, the new MFPs use the same next generation multi-tasking MFP controller technology as other Sharp product offerings. In addition, all MFP models in the series will support the new 3rd generation of the Sharp OSA development platform, turning them into a gateway for document-based business communications by integrating the devices with network-based applications.

The new line boasts advanced remote access and device management capabilities. A new printer administration utility (PAU version 5.0) incorporates a Remote Front Panel feature that allows an IT administrator to remotely take control of the device’s front panel, giving them the ability to see exactly what the end user is seeing. The IT administrator can remotely change settings, show the user how to perform a function, or diagnose and often rectify problems without deploying a technician to the device. To gain enhanced levels of support, the IT administrator can also grant the service provider permission to perform this function directly from their dealership. This unique MFP capability dramatically reduces unit downtime and service expenses.

All models feature Sharp’s award-winning network security suites that can be enhanced through data security kits encrypting document data using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption and secure data erase, which overwrites the hard drive up to seven times.
Sharp has enhanced its new line with a bold new look that complements today’s office environment. Featuring a stylish, textural exterior with chrome accents, the new Sharp MFP line offers appealing aesthetics in a compact design. The new MFP models also feature brilliant Sharp displays: an 8.5 inch (diagonal) WVGA Color Touch panel with thumbnail previewing for easy in IT-oriented workflow intensive environments; each speed is also available with a 4.3 inch (diagonal) Advanced Super View (ASV) color LCD display providing easy navigation for non-workflow, price-sensitive applications. This new look will be adopted for future Sharp MFP and printer lines.

These should prove to be awesome systems with great price points for cost per page and hardware. If any has information on these systems, please send me an email art@p4photel.com

Selling Copy Machines "Going Green"

As a rebutal to my last blog and also to hop on the "Green" Band Wagon, I developed this for my cleints to read!

Want to Go Green!


· Eliminate your Fax Machine with a Fax Server: A fax server will eliminate the need to print faxes, which will reduce paper costs, reduce maintenance costs, and reduce toner costs along with hardware. Fax servers will also keep an digital copy of all inbound and out bound faxes (you’ll never lose another fax)

· Multifunctional Systems: These systems can print, scan, fax and copy in color for pennies and eliminate the need to have four different devices in the office. Multi-functional systems have a very low cost per page when compare to standalone fax machines, copy machines, laser or ink printers. Consider this the average laser printer and fax machine has a cost of .03 per page. Multifunctional Systems have a cost of .0125 per page. That’s a savings of over 50%! Where else can you cut your costs by over 50% these days? If you’re printing color documents on a laser printer, your savings could twice as much!

· E-copy: Easy to use software that will allow you to convert documents to pdf’s, along with the ability to markup documents (circles, arrows, lines, notes, signatures). You can even fill in text on a pdf document, along with having OCR capabilities. This software eliminates the need to print documents, add notes and re-delivery the paper document. Everything can be accomplished with out printing paper!

· Print Management Software: We all have them the inexpensive printers that we bought for a few hundred dollars. Did you know that printing in color on these devices can cost as much as 60 cents a page for ink jet and 20 cents a page for laser? Print Management software coupled with a Multifunctional System takes the guess work out of printing (which device will save me money); the software will monitor and redirect the print job the lowest cost system on your network. This inexpensive software can save thousands of dollars!

Comments are Welcome!!

"Copy Machine Sales" Copier Manufacturers Confuse Me

Question: How do copier companies make money? Answer: By putting ink or toner on paper. Very simple right?

In a recent press release by Xerox, "more than 70 percent of Xerox total revenue comes from sales of supplies and services -- also known as "post-sale."


A recent press release by Ricoh in Europe made this statement: Chief executive Nigel Palmer revealed that printers now account for about half of Ricoh’s revenue and he told resellers that a move towards selling them should be a priority.“If you are not already doing it, please do it quickly. Within two years, three quarters of sales will be printers,” he said.





The Big Lie?


I have an issue here, I keep reading all of the hype about "Going Green" saving paper, do more scanning, print two sided more often and the latest craze is "Print Management Solutions"

Hey, if you're in the business of putting ink or toner on paper then why are manufacturers such as Xerox, Ricoh, Canon, KonicaMinolta, Sharp, Kyocera, Oce and Toshiba pushing scanning solutions such as Document Management Software? Scanning documents and not copying them should decrease paper usage, save trees, save oil, and other resources right??? Well, not entirely true from what I've heard, in fact scanning solutions may actually increase the amount of paper you use! Fact is most people who need to review a document will print it first and then make notes or markups on the document.


Most of these pages will be printed to low cost printers that are located next to the user and have a higher cost per page than multifunctional copiers and almost all of the low end printers use AIO cartridges (All in One, toner, drum, developer unit), its estimated that half of these end up in the landfills. So, if we're using more paper, more ink and toner, and more cartridges how the heck are we "Going Green" and how are we saving resources?


I have a current customer that scans every document they receive, they then index and archive the documents. Before they started scanning their monthly volume of copies and prints was about 25,000 pages. One year later, their volume is now 34,000 pages per month!





"Going Green"


Here's a thought, most manufacturers have reclamation facilities that will accept spent cartridges. You can ship the empties back at no charge, why not implement some type of credit to the end user for returning all of the spent cartridges, the drum kits, and fuser kits. Once at the reclamation center, they can be rebuilt or recycled! Manufacturers may be able to capture more of these cartridge's and decrease the amount going to landfills.

Remember the first two statements? 70% of Xerox revenue if from supplies and service, Ricoh states that three quarters of sales will be printers.

Scanned documents migrate to lower end printers with a high cost per page. Whats the answer, Print Management software can re-direct print jobs to more efficient printers that have a lower TCO, and paper will never go away!





-=Good Selling=-

New Lease or Re-Lease Tis the Question

I've spoken to many p4p members in the last two weeks and have also placed a few calls to leasing reps that I know. Pretty much the general agreement is "business is stagnate".

What's alarming is lease upgrades, where most clients could be upgraded 12-18 months prior to the end of the lease we are now seeing these clients going deeper into the end of the lease, waiting until the last few payments and even customers that are in renewal are waiting too long to notify the leasing company of their intent. Can't say I blame em, seems everyone is just trying to wait it out for a recovery.

Which brings me to the question of re-leasing the equipment that the customer already has. There are some opportunities out here. Consider this, a client leased a system for 36 months for $10,000. The system is in good shape, the leasing company wants $2,500 to buy the equipment. At this time the customer can't cut a check to own the system or just wants lower payments and they would like to keep their present system.

Here's where you can step in and re-lease them the same equipment for a shorter term and save them money on the existing lease payments. First and foremost get the buyout figure from the leasing company, add your sales cost to the base of the machine and then present (in the case above) a 24 month lease with a $1.00 purchase option. Where the client had lease payments of $289.00 per month you can now re-lease the equipment for $243.00 per month ($1.00 purchase option). No machines to order, no out of stock situations, the existing system works fine and has all of the features you need. You could even extend the term to 36 months and save them more on the monthly payments. Also, keep in mind that the recent economic stimulus package allows the customer to write off the entire lease amount ($1.00 purchase option) that year!

Since almost every leasing company has a "roll over" clause, the key is to get in as early as you can. If anything this is just another avenue to venture down when considering a customers options if they do not want to explore a new piece of equipment or need to lower payments.

Would appreciate any comments on this.

-=Good Selling=-

KIP stings Ricoh, Oce & Xerox w/ New 6ppm System

I'll commend KIP, someone over there was thinking when they made the decision to offer color scanning with their monochrome wide format systems. Kudos to KIP! Ricoh, Xerox and Oce are now under the gun in the low volume wide format market.

KIP recently introduced the 3100 a 6 page per minute wide format device, with the sexy color screen, the 3100 seems to be the 3000 with a few more bells and whistles and a chip that speeds the system to 6 pages per minute over the 4 page per minute 3000.

The KIP 3100 (6ppm) MSRP with a single roll feeder is $13,995, compared to the Ricoh W2400 (4ppm) with an MSRP of $13,418. I would say 90% of the time these systems are leased rather than purchased. The KIP 3100 60 month lease cost is $272.90, while the Ricoh W2400 is $261.65. Which would you lease? It's a no brainer for $11.00 more per month you get 50% more speed from the KIP3100. However it doesn't stop there, Ricoh also has a 6ppm device the Ricoh W3600, the MSRP is $16,120, since the release of the KIP3100 the Ricoh W3600 is $2,125 higher than the KIP 3100!

KIP has positioned the 3100 to beat the Ricoh W3600 in every combination, dual roll feeder, printing and scanning. At the high end with dual roll feeder, print and scan the KIP 3100 is still almost $1,100 less on MSRP.

Probably the best move for KIP was to offer the 3100 with color scanning capabilities, thus allowing companies to scan legacy color documents, renderings and plots for a mere $29 a month more for the lease! When was the last time you priced a wide format color scanner (even a cheapy), typically they are $7,000 or more. For the customer who does not have a need for high volume color scanning, the KIP3100 fits the bill!

I sell the Ricoh systems and I must admit its going to be hard to compete against this beast. The only drawback I see if the lower exit for the prints or copies. I have not seen one company in the field that was happy with it. Kudos to KIP! I wish Ricoh would have introduced color scanning!

Selling Copiers "Ricoh Family Group Salespeople"

Have you ever heard the term "Buyers are Liars"? If you can't trust your customer who can you trust? Well, first thought is you can trust other sales people who are in the same industry as you. But, how do you find these fellow salespeople or better yet, how can you communicate with them?

There is a place on the web called the P4PHotel. The P4P Hotel was started in 2003 for Ricoh Family Group Salespeople to share product knowledge, competitive pricing, marketing ideas, solutions and collaborate with your peers in the industry. The P4P hotel (Ricoh Family Group) now has over 1,100 members from all over the world. The site averages 120,000 hits a month, along with and average of 100 members logging on every day. Since its inception, the message boards have over 20,000 posts pertaining to the copier industry. As one member stated"it's a time line in the copier industry".

The P4P Hotel added dedicated message boards for KonicaMinolta, Canon, and Kyocera just about a year ago. Personally, I have gained so much knowledge from others over the years that I am convinced that Ricoh Family Group salespeople are the most knowledgeable in the industry because of the the P4P Hotel.

I invite everyone to become a member and log onto their prospective manufacturers boards, and help share the knowledge. If you're in the business for the long haul, it's the only place to got!

Good Selling

-=Art Post-=

Selling Copiers "Bring Back the Good Ole Days"

Selling Copiers “The Good Ole Days”

Pac Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong were cool and everyone had to wear Raybans, Nike Sneakers and Members Only jackets. In 1982 I sold my first copier, I had started as a technician and I was fantastic at taking developer units apart to perform PM’s. My only problem was I could never put them back together so they would work right. Thus my career in selling copiers started.

Looking back I believe the first copier I ever sold was a Minolta 310, moving platen, 1-99 copies, one paper tray (letter & legal) and an exit tray! I can also remember selling a few used Minolta 101’s early on (liquid plain paper).

A typical day was to get into the office early, wait I forgot one of the pre-requisites of selling copiers, you had to own a station wagon or a hatchback in order to delivery and demo the copiers. Yep, I was the delivery guy, the pick up guy, the loaner guy and brought copiers out for demonstrations! Well back to the typical day, I worked at a very small Minolta dealership, I arrived early and by about 9:30AM I would then start calling potential clients to setup demonstrations for copiers, typically you would call for appointments in the AM and try to do the demo in the after noon.

When telemarketing, we always had our fair share of “I’m not interested” and they would hang up on you. Well, being young and foolish, I called those people back and told them how polite they were and then hung up on them!! I must say that we able to set 10 appointments a week for demonstrations, out of those ten I may have sold one or two, not great however for a young guy it paid the bills.

There were those days when you were sick and tired of making the phone calls, you could pack a demo machine in the car and then knock on doors all day long. There were no emails to answer, no advanced training, heck we had two or three models and all they did was make copies! What a wonderful life! I must admit the thrill of knocking on client’s door, speaking to the right person and then being able to give a demonstration all in the same day was nirvana! The only thing that could top that was bring back a check and leaving the copier at their office! Yes, we sold many copiers that way.

I can also remember some funky brands of copiers such as Apeco, Royfax, Yorktown, Rex Rotary (this one hung on a wall) 3M VQC’s , SCM and of course Xerox. The Japanese were just starting to make inroads in the copier business at then. I can remember a customer telling me once that he was looking at a Ricoh, then Ricoh was a joke and we always responded with “What’s a Ricoh”? My how times have changed.

Let’s see over the years I have been kicked out of offices, had a customer once drop off a machine and smashed it on the ground at my office (bet you the leasing company liked that), had the hatchback open on the car while I was driving, the copier and the gurney went onto the highway and then into a patch of sticker bushes, dropped a machine and cart in downtown Princeton (not a good day), and then walked in on a lady who was nude sunbathing in her back yard (I had the wrong address for the demo).

Back then we had time to sell, nowadays our time is spent answering emails, trying to keep up on 30 different models of copier, 10 models of laser printers, fax machines, scanners, third party solutions software, manufacturers solution software, forecast sheets, delivery forms, Return Goods Forms, co-coordinating delivery, installations, training (I use to be able to train in 15 minutes, now its more like and hour or longer) helping customers with print, scan and fax issues. Lets not forget about the 5 calls a week in reference to how can I do this with my machine or why won’t it so this!

Technology stinks bring back The Eighties!!!

Copier Sales People "Selling Color Wide Format"

Tired of selling Digital Copiers, tired of the competition, pricing and bs that comes with it. Look no further! Paradigm Imagings EIS Supra was just awarded a BERTL's BEST Award!

Besides having almost no competition in the market place the EIS Supra is a Color Multifunctional Wide Format system that will Scan, Print & Copy in color! Margins are good and the competition is minimal at best. If you're currently selling monochrome wide format you must get into the end of the business, there are lots of opportunities for all us! Tell em P4P Hotel sent you.

Costa Mesa, CA - May 14, 2008 - Paradigm Imaging Group, a leading supplier of large-format scanning, printing and document archiving solutions, announced today that they have received the coveted BERTL’s BEST Award for the EIS Supra, awarded in the category of BEST Value for Price MFP Color Wide Format System.

BERTL analysts review current product lines and new product introductions to identify the select group of devices and software that stand apart from the others. BERTL’s BEST covers the entire digital imaging and document management arena. Earlier this year the EIS Supra was awarded the BERTL Four Star rating based on its versatility, ease-of use, and its use of best-of-breed components. BERTL recommends the EIS Supra for the facility management, CAD/GIS and reprographics markets.

“We are proud to receive this prestigious award from BERTL and will continue to offer innovative, versatile and technically sophisticated solutions while providing our customers, with the highest level of service,” says Randy Geesman, President of Paradigm Imaging Group.

About BERTL

For over 15 years BERTL Inc. has been the primary source for objective, independent product evaluation reports and comparative analyses on digital imaging devices and workflow solutions. Covering more than 5,000 products from all major manufacturers, BERTL publishes the world's most extensive and diverse library of evaluation reports on copiers, printers, MFPs, production and workgroup scanners, wide format devices, fax machines and color production equipment devices. For more information about BERTL visit http://www.bertl.com/.

About Paradigm Imaging Group

Paradigm Imaging Group is a large format solutions provider whose expertise extends from scanning and printing products to imaging systems integration, software development and product distribution. Paradigm counts among its clients, companies in reprographics, architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing, as well as numerous public agencies at all levels of government. Since 1989, Paradigm has grown to become a leading provider of large format scanning and printing solutions

Samsung Deals another Blow to MFP Giants (Ricoh, Canon, KonicaMinolta)

You here it from me over and over, A4 devices are the way to go!

Samsung has launched their 6555N Multifunctional System, a 55 page per minute device that incorporates a 7" LCD display, 1200x1200 dpi, max paper capacity of 3,240 sheets. The system will color scan out of the box along with an FCOT of 5 seconds, a FPOT of 8 seconds and a max monthly volume rating of 250,000 pages per month. Optional sorter/stapler, fax module and three additional paper trays are available. Get this, the MSRP is $3,995!!



First glimpse tells me that this system is based on the 6354n (45ppm) device, Samsung has changed from older the mono 7" screen to a color 7" screen and beefed the speed from 45 pages per minute to 55 pages per minute. From the picture it seems like the document feeder may have been changed also, not sure, I'll have to wait until I see one of these bad boys.


No 11x17 capability, but who the heck needs 11x17 anymore! Personally, I think the MSRP is two low. It should be more like $6,995, thus allowing dealers and salespeople the opportunity to upgrade older A3 devices to SCX-6555N. I have a few 6345N's in the field generating an average of 8,000 pages per month and no reported problems.


What's next for Sammy a 75ppm device, maybe 85ppm, are all of the A3 devices made by the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Fuji Xerox, KonicaMinolta overpriced? It all depends on if you need 11x17 to print copy or scan.


Realizing, that the cost per page of the SCX-6555N is twice that of a 55ppm A3 device. The SCX-6555N still has a home in the SMB market place especially if the user is average 10,000 pages per month. At a cost per page of .016 the SCX-6555N will have a total cost of ownership of $13,995 with out any options. Take a similar A3 device that has an MSRP of $20,000 and a consumable cost (based on 600,000 pages) of $5,100, thsu we have a TCO of $25,100. That's a HUGE difference. Some will argue that the 55ppm A3 devices will last longer and have a larger paper supply, and I might agree, however I could buy three of the SCX-6555N's and still be under the $25,100.


What I'd really like to see is the likes of Ricoh, Canon, KonicaMinolta, Fuji Xerox to wake up and smell the coffee! We don't have to bring to market A4 devices with a very low MSRP, we can bring them in higher and we can sell the reliability, quality and a lower cost per page. Currently we are producing 55ppm A3 devices with cost per pages under a penny, why o why can't we do this with an A4 device!! Come on people Wake UP!!

The Software Storm, the MFP, and Document Management

I'd like to introduce Russ Hetzberg of PSIGEN Software Inc, as our Guest Blogger for May 2008.

The last few years have seen rapid growth in the type and quantity of software for MFPs. At the base of everything inside the MFP is the embedded real time operating system that runs on the processors. Above this you may find Java and/or .NET development platforms, interfaces to network file systems, network authentication technology, recognition technology, security technology, web servers, I/O management subsystems, and more.

All of this ‘platform enabling’ technology is enticing to independent software vendors, who have quickly added document management, print management, fax management, and more to the list of MFP software solution alternatives. These solutions deploy a variety of different architectures, from fully embedded within the MFP, to partly embedded and partly external, to fully external. The solution architecture can impact infrastructure issues as diverse as MFP performance, network security, and network bandwidth utilization.

With all of these new choices, MFP customers may feel that clear thinking about MFP software solution architecture is akin to determining the mix of software stack required for production Linux and/or Windows servers on the company network. The relevant question is how to help customers get an effective deployment in place, for a target application such as document management, in an increasingly complex software solutions landscape.

Good document management deployments for MFPs start with an accurate understanding of requirements. Adding a basic document capture and retrieval system to the printing/copying/faxing services of a few MFP devices can be easy enough. An unattended capture application can process scans received at a network folder, convert images to PDF with hidden text, and then leverage the full text OCR results to deliver retrieval using free desktop search tools. More complex document management installations may address requirements like multiple document types, capture workflow, document separation, document indexing, document quality/image pre-processing, and migration to content management systems.

The software storm for the MFP is a good thing. It has helped turn the MFP into a strategic platform for document management. And this is making the art of solution selling the key to success in this marketplace.

Russ Hertzberg has over 20 years of increasingly responsible experience with established technology providers (IBM, Novell, Scantron) and small cap/startup firms (NetSoft, PSIGEN Software, Inc). Russ has a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Brown University. He also completed the Executive Program in Management at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School.

Ode to the Copier Repairman

I can't take credit for this, this was reposted on the Print4PayHotels Ricoh Family Group Message Boards today. It is a good read. Enjoy!

An Ode to the Copier Repairman Of all the heroes great and small;comes he, the most unsung of all.

You've seen him before, you know him well;

he comes to do battle with the copier from Hell.

He steps through your door, a glaze in his eye,a tool kit in hand, and toner on his tie.

The problems, oh yes, he's seen them all, this week;the jams, the rattles, the chortles, the squeaks.

The customer tells him "It's broke, see, right there!"As slowly he pulls out what's left of his hair."Okay," says he, "I'll have it fixed in a snap!

"The office manager replies, "It's a piece of crap!

"The insults bounce off, he's heard them before;

The same stale old wisecracks, a million times more.

He opens a panel, flips a lever, turns a screw;

Meanwhile the damn thing takes a leak on his shoe.

The consummate professional he's trained to be;but respect?

Hell, he gets less than Rodney D.

The copies are streaked, too light, or too dark;

the last time it was serviced was on Noah's Ark.

He's got it running, now, cleared the jams, stopped the drips,removed from its insides seven pounds of paper clips.

His hands are shredded, and he's covered with grime;

some wiseguy walks by, "Didja fix it this time?"

He smiles as he cleans the covers and mirrors,tries his best to ignore people's insults and sneers;

takes some comfort in knowing five 0' clock's getting close.

Of filth, slime, and insults, he's had his daily dose.

So when your copier hiccups, and threatens to die,Please be kind to your Repairman, with toner on his tie.