Ricoh New MP6002, 7502, 9002 "Print Features Reveal"

Last week I posted Ricoh MP6002, 7502, 9002 series "Scanner Reveal" , this week we're going to cover some of the exciting new print features for the Ricoh MP 6002SP, 7502SP and the MP9002SP, keep in mind that these light production systems can also be purchased with out the network print and scan. 

Tip:  If you really want to know what a system can and can't do, go to the manufacturers web site and download a copy of the operators manual.  I've won a few deals because I pointed or specific advantages that I had over another product, showing the end user prints/copies from the manufacturers owners manual will provide proof that you are speaking without forked tongue.

Here's a few hardware print specs for review:

• 250GB Hard Drive
• Integrated USB 2.0 Type A port and SD card slot
• System Memory = 1.5GB
• Print Controller = Celeron M @ 1 Ghz
• PDF Direct Kit
• Print from USB & SD card slot
• Up to 1200x1200 dpi
• Optional Adobe PSIII Genuine
• Optional Parallel, Gigabit, Wireless LAN and Bluetooth
• Optional Genuine IPDS
• FPOT (First Print Out) MP6002SP = 3.9 seconds, MP7502SP = 3.2 seconds, MP9002SP = 2.9 seconds
• USB 2.0 Type B High Speed
• USB 2.0 Type A High Speed (used to connect external devices such as card reader, keyboard or Bluetooth
• Standard HDD Encryption  & DOSS

What I like:

Dr. Print Offers to Cure Your Print Pain

Who says you can't have fun and offer up FREE print solutions?  We've just landed the guru of print to our Print4Pay Hotel forums!

Just about a week ago me and the wife paid a visit to the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, NJ aka Jersey Shore. The sweet smell of the salt water, the blistering sun, the throngs of people and who the heck do I run into?  The Doctor of Print....aka Dr. Pcl5, it was like old times again!

Geesh, I hadn't seen DP in almost 20 years!  So what do people from Jersey do when they're at the boardwalk, you guessed it we drank together, ate Italian hot dogs, clams, lobster, laughed together and reminisced about the glory days of selling copiers.

But there's more to this than you think,  I took the time to show Dr. Pcl5 the Print4Pay Hotel forums, and convinced him with about 5 beers and 5 shots of tequila (we poured the tequila in the beer) to come on board as our Print Doctor.  After the 5th beer and tequila we were in bad shape, Dr. Pcl5 decided it was time to pack it in the for the night and I had to be driven home by the wife. But, it was an eventful time with an old friend and a new member of the Print4Pay Hotel forums.
Here's a small sampling of Dr. Pcl5 knowledge. In the past has offered up customized print solutions for Fortune 500 companies and is experienced with almost every Operating System and applications being used by some of the largest companies in the world!  Both Dr. Pcl5 and I agree that print is NOT dead, it's just more of a moving target and niche print systems and solutions will continue to grow and provide print stream management opportunities that will increase click, revenue and professional services. 

Think about it, does anyone of your customers or potential customers experiencing pain with their printing? Do they have this pain every day or is it just once in awhile, does the pain subside on different days of the week and increase on other days?  Have you been avoiding your customer because you couldn't offer them a pain free solution or you just couldn't find the right Doctor to collaborate with? 

I say, the wait is over!  Dr. Pcl5 wants you to post your toughest print questions and he promises that he can offer up a customized solution that will cure your customer, earn your respect and win you additional business with new and existing accounts. It's starting to sound like Ron Popiel now right?

What's the cost........, well there is NO cost, all you have to do is be a member of the Print4Pay Hotel forums, post you thread about your print pain and Dr. Pcl5 will analyze and offer up a solution to cure the print pain! Click here to find your pain free print solution!

At this time, I can't tell you who Dr. Pcl5 is, all I can tell you is that Dr. Pcl5 is the Guru of print, the King of SAP, the Duke of ERP, and the Lord of Linux and residing somewhere at the Jersey Shore.
-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 3/27/2012

ROCHESTER, NY, Mar 27, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- For the third consecutive year, Xerox (NYSE:XRX) earned the top position in managed print services (MPS), according to analyst research group Quocirca's 2012 report. Xerox maintained its leadership, ...
See all stories on this topic »

By Robert Dutt Major managed print services provider alliances in Canada and the United States are coming together to increase their ability to do cross-border business. Canada-based National Print Services Alliance (NPSA) has announced that it will be ...
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Opt2Vote supplies electronic vote counting solutions to the 32 Scottish local authorities as well as managed print services to UK councils. It is based in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. IDOX will pay an initial consideration of £2.7m, with a further ...
See all stories on this topic »

As a hosted service, Intellivue(TM) can also complement our Managed Print Service offering by using Multi-Function Device printers for scanning. The shared device approach combined with the efficiency gains inherent in routing documents electronically ...
See all stories on this topic »

Manchester, UK - 27 March 2012 - M2, the UK's leading independent managed print IT services company, today announced that it has been appointed to the Government Procurement Service, YPO and ESPO agreement for print audit ...
See all stories on this topic »

The move was prompted by Danwood's acquisition last May of Document Express, a £10m-turnover managed print services provider based in Oldham. Document Express, which installs and maintains printers, copiers and other equipment, was founded in 1994.
See all stories on this topic »

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFP's "Where's the Hard Drives?"

Almost 30 years ago, Clara Peller screamed "Where's the Beef?" to American and Canadian TV viewers.  "Where's the Beef?" was a popular slogan in the Eighties to lure hamburger eaters from the likes of McDonald's and Burger King over to Wendy's.

In recent weeks, Copier Dealers have been asking "Where's the Hard Drives?".  Severe flooding in Thailand has affected shipments of MFP's to the US.  The flooding from October 23rd left many hard drive factories under water. 

Pictures that were posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums showed massive flooding in several industrial parks.  Just about three weeks after the flooding almost 1,000 Hitachi HDD workers went on strike and further disrupting the supply chain. 

Later in the month of December came the announcements from many Copier and Printer Manufacturers that there would be disruptions to the supply chain.  There were some reports of disruptions that may last 3 - 6 months. In a recent post on the Print4Pay forums a Hitachi VP claimed that it will take almost a year for the Global Hard Drive industry to recover from the impact of the flooding.

"Where's the Hard Drives?",  seems that 4 hard drive manufacturers have 90% of the market, Western Digital, Seagate, Hitatchi and Toshiba. Almost thirty three percent of all hard drives are manufactured in Thailand.  Read more here

When I first heard about the floods in Thailand, I really didn't think there would be that much of an issue with MFP's in the US.  Goes to show you how much I know.  In recent weeks, I've been alerted to the back order of MFP's due to the flooding.  Again, I thought no big deal a few extra days here and there and it won't be a big thing.   The lasted is that we have four or five MFP models that are projected with 3-6 month back orders, one particular model had a June back order.  Dam, I had just sold 5 of these to one of my accounts!  "Where's the Hard Drives?" Now, I'm hearing from other reps from other manufacturers that they're now seeing additional MFP's  models placed on longer than usual back orders.

Even though Thailand manufacturers almost one third of the worlds hard drives it might be a good bet that they supplied at least or more than 50% of the hard drives to Copier manufacturers (this is just a guess) and that's the reason for the shortages.  Least we forget about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year and it seems we've had a perfect storm to really wreak havoc with the Copier Industry.

What good is a digital copier without a hard drive, it's like having a hamburger without the meat, it just doesn't work! Which leads me to this short story, many years ago, we had a local Jack in the Box (just like a Wendy's MickyD's or BurgerKing), however you had to drive up, place your order with a giantic clown head.  One night in particular, I placed my order, got my burgers and to my surprise all I got was the *&($#(* bun! 

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFPs "1 Awesome Way to Increase Profit through Knowledge"

What happens when you have no one to turn to about a specific solution on a piece of hardware? You know what I'm talking about, there always seems to a question or two that you know the exact spec or the workflow involved.

I'll give you a scenario, you were at the customers office and had a great meeting, however some additional questions came out of left field about an "xyz" solution.  You could tell the client was hot on this and if your system had the capability you would have a better chance to demo the solution, propose the solution and close the sale. To add fuel the fire the client wants the answer asap since they are making the decision within the next 24-48 hours.  Typically you'll call your manager, or someone within your organization first, and it's not uncommon that they won't be available (seems to happen all to often) or do not have the answer.  You'll then try the manufacturers dealer or direct channel rep, most times it can be a hot and miss here also especially with the recent reductions in staffing. Plus what happens when you need the answer the next day coming off a late afternoon appointment?

My golden rule is the more knowledge you have the better you chance to close additional sales and increase profit from your knowledge with hardware and solutions.

Let's face it, there are not that many guru's (docusultants) in the copier and MFP business.  These are the guys and gals that eat, sleep and breath the industry.  You could also refer to them as the "geeks" of imaging.

Back in 2003 I created a loose knit group of copier people within MSN communities,  probably eight or nine of us to start, and we grew and grew.  Today sees the Print4Pay Hotel forums as the only forum of it's kind that allows copier & mfp people to share information, discuss hardware, software solutions, comp plans, new products, price quotes, leads, new trends, new solutions along with daily threads on new products in a secure closed forum. There's a  "core" of copier and MFP guru's that help each other, with no strings attached.  There's also a handful of solution manufacturers that monitor the site and provide support through the forums.  The best part about the forums is that they are FREE. The Print4Pay Hotel has over 3,000 followers in the industry.

So, the one awesome tip is to click this link Register for the Print4Pay Hotel forums and get timely information on products and solutions that will help you add value, add profit and close sales.  Here's another link for our testimonial page. Enjoy and have an awesome New Year!

-=gOOD sELLING=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

OKI will be demonstrating the company's proprietary Managed Print Services (MPS) solution Total Managed Print™ (TMP) within their booth (#302), and will be discussing the solution's value to the channel during a breakout session entitled “The 30-Day ...read more here

"We wanted to get control of our costs, make genuinely positive green decisions and refocus our IT resources on core functions and services." Sydney Institute adopted HP's Managed Print Services, which offered automated supplies, reporting functions ...read more here

TRUMBULL, Conn., Nov 07, 2011 -- Oce, a Canon Group Company and an international leader in digital document management, today announced the Document Printing Systems division of Oce North America has begun selling the Canon imageRUNNER 1700 Series of monochrome, multifunctional office devices. These compact, yet effective systems will easily integrate with existing MFP and printer fleets and allow users to control their devices in a flexible and convenient print solution....read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

EFI, a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today launched PrintMe® Mobile, a new mobile print solution available to IT resellers and managed service providers. PrintMe Mobile can help resellers with mobility practices, office technology solutions or managed-service businesses increase revenue opportunities and deliver new value-added services by meeting customers’ mobile printing needs. PrintMe Mobile provides SMB to,,,,read more here

There's now a new service provider in the Managed Network Services (MNS) sector and growing Managed Print Services (MPS) sector. Agiliant is officially open for business and is targeting customers looking to optimize their overall network performance, ....read more here

Pitney Bowes has launched its Managed Print service – a core element of the wider Marketing Lifecycle Services http://www.marketinglifecycleservices.com/ suite - designed to help marketing departments execute the print process more efficiently, more affordably and with uncompromising quality. Recent Pitney Bowes research reveals that European private and public sector....read more here

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Nov 03, 2011 -- The explosion of color printing represents lots of green for imaging vendors reaping the rewards of high aftermarket profitability when compared to monochrome printing. According to survey results delivered through a new study from International Data Corporation (IDC), users of color devices reported that 47% of their weekly print volume contained color on the....read more here

 

....read more here

-=Good Selling=-

NEW YORK, Nov 02, 2011  -- Oce, an international leader in digital document management and delivery, announced today that the company has been placed by Gartner, Inc. in the Challengers Quadrant of the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS) Worldwide.*

Daily Managed Print Industry Notes from Around the World!

SMBs, like larger enterprises, depend on printing for a variety of business activities. Even the smallest office needs a fast, reliable, cost-effective printer capable of professional looking output. Yet SMBs have limited expert resources when it comes to handling common print management tasks...read more

Ricoh unveils new tiered structure as its looks to double print sales in UK Print vendor Ricoh is to debut a new a new tiered structure for its channel partners in the UK. “There wasn’t a strong feeling in the indirect channel about Ricoh – what we do, and what we’re about,” explains Steven Hastings, who took over the role of IT distribution manager at Ricoh last November... read more

India represents a 120 billion-page opportunity over the next three years. Content in India is growing at twice the global rate, and there’s a definite movement from analog to digital printing. India is also the fastest-growing managed print services (MPS) market in the Asia Pacific. To leverage this opportunity we recently announced a three-year growth strategy. We are strengthening our geo-expansion programs to optimize young consumer opportunities in non-metro and upcountry markets...read more

Relevant market insight is priceless and can come from unexpected sources.

“Our greatest competitors are not other restaurants, but TV sets,” said Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado, the former owner of a successful chain of brewpubs [George Will, Washington Post, 09/01/2011]. He had the foresight to open a restaurant in downtown Denver when it was not the “place to be.” His keen market insight led to placing advertising for other restaurants inside his pubs to build downtown customer traffic... read more

Yet SMEs are faced with limited resources and expertise when it comes to the common tasks of dealing with printer problems and ordering supplies. Today, the vast majority of SMEs purchase their printer or multifunctional device separately to supplies such as ink and toner, with most purchasing these on an ad-hoc transactional basis. Printers can place a huge administrative and support burden on staff, which diverts them from their core activities...read more

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Sep 06, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The death of the printed page has been greatly exaggerated, and although print volume will remain relatively flat between 2010 and 2015 (0.1% CAGR), combined U.S. printer and multifunction peripheral (MFP) page volume will reach 1.2 trillion at the end of the forecast period...read more

-=Good Selling=-

Copiers, MFPs and "The Power of the .001 (one thousands of a penny)"

The Power of the .001 (one thousands of a penny)

It's getting kind of late but thought I'd give a stab at this.  The lowly penny and the power of profit that can be collected from Copiers, Printers and MFP's that are under maintenance contract is astounding.  

Years ago, with out the aid of copier maintenance software it was interesting to see what machines were pulling a profit and which were not.  When I was a newbie in the industry I can remember the service manager coming to me with a service card that outlined the cost that incurred with "x" machine and he had to make the call either try and get the system out of the field (thanx for the lead, just what I wanted to deal with a customer whose machine was breaking all the time) or to lose money on the system and raise the maintenance contract next year.

Today, maintenance software to monitor and track profits is now the norm for all dealers and manufacturers.  Thus with low profit systems or those systems producing a loss can be identified ASAP and measures can be put in place to make the system profitable.  The easiest way to make them profitable is to raise the cost of the maintenance agreement.  Most maintenance agreements sold now are all inclusive, meaning all parts, PM kits, consumables (toner, developer) and labor are included. Thus the cost per copy (I call it the cost per page) now rules the industry for most contracts.

So, what the heck does a penny get you?  Not much anymore, can you add a penny per page to a cost per page program, well you can if you 'd like to lose customers!

Here's some quick calculations on the power of the penny or in this case .001 (one thousands of a penny).  We'll deal with assumptions here for easy math.

XYZ Dealership has 500 systems that are on a cost per page contract. Each system generates 5,000 pages per month on average for a total of 2.5 million pages per month.  The XYZ dealership needs to generate additional profit because the owner needs a new boat. By adding .001 to each renewing contract each month, the added profit is $2,500 per month. Over the course of a year that's $30,000.  That's enough for the boat payments!  Really, if your current contract cost was .01 (penny) would you (the customer) be upset if the monthly increase was .001(one thousands of a penny) = $5 per month (Don't think so). What about an increase of .002 for each page, well now we're talking $5,000 per month and gee the owner can get an even bigger BOAT!

Now, here's some really crazy numbers for you.  The XYZ Dealership has 3,000 systems that are under a cost per page contract and each machine averages 10,000 pages per month.  The average monthly page volume is 30 million pages!  Adding just .001(one thousands of a penny) per page will give a profit of $30,000 dollars per month and a cool $360,000 dollars for the year. Now we're talking about a really really big boat!

Can the 3,000 systems averaging 10,000 pages a month be achieved, you betcha, it may take awhile but the opportunities are there especially with the emergence of managed print services in the last few years. 

Most profits from dealers go right back into the company, higher wages, additional people, new technology, cost of living.  I just thought it was neat run the numbers and see where they came out and have some fun!!

-=Good Selling=-

MFP's & Cost Per Page Agreements

It's that time of year for me and my apologies!  I've been very busy trying to get my summer Collegiate baseball team ready for opening day.  We open Memorial Day Weekend and then play 30 games in 60 days.

I had an email the other day from a rep that was new to the industry.  I was asked "Can you tell me what information I can read to understand cost per copy to figure contracts for my customers for toner and service. "

The first thought that came to me is that this rep is really new and possibly there is nothing in place from management to help this rep sell. He may be the only rep, and he may be working for a small mom and pop that may be selling other things such as furniture, postage machines, shredders and office supplies.

Cost Per Page and Cost Per Copy, both mean the same.  Usually if a rep states a cost per page or a cost per copy it means that all consumables (toner, developer, drums), parts, labor and maintenance is included for that price.  Cost Per Page for multifunctional copiers (that's what we're gonna call it from here on in) for black pages can be anywhere from .004 (usually reserved for print production) all the way to .03.  Pretty much depends on the speed and volume of the unit. An average cost per page should be somewhere around .0125 for a black page. 

Since color multifunctional copiers are gaining more acceptance most dealers and direct that offer Cost Per Page Contracts have a separate charge for black like .0125 and then a separate cost for color (average color is in the are .075), again Print Production units will have the lowest Cost Per Page and the low volume Multifunctional Copiers will have the highest Cost Per Page. 

Most Dealers and Direct Branches will make you commit to an annual volume for the pages, and then bill monthly or quarterly.  The billing could be in arrears or in advance.  Overage charges apply when you've made more than your contracting volume for any month, quarter or year.

Lately, there's seems to be a growing trend to incorporate the copier lease and the Cost Per Page on the lease agreement.  What that means is that you have two charges from the leasing company one for the basic lease of the copier and then the Cost Per Page Agreement.  I'm kinda wishy washy about this, in one hand this type of agreement protects my customers from upgrades and  on the other hand my customer is contracting for all of the pages to be copied or printed upfront (there's no way of getting out of it), and then are automatic increases for the Cost Per Page built in every year.

One other side note for the newbie is that most manufactures have a wholesale Cost Per Page "fact" sheet, this information details the yields of the consumables, yield of certain parts and the estimated "meantime before failure" with that they then associate an average labor charge.  In essence the manufacturer is going you a delta at your cost and you can process from there.

In the end Cost Per Page or Cost Per Copy are two of the same.  There are hundreds of variations for cost per page agreements, make sure you read your agreement and understand your agreement.  From there you can consult with your customer for the best plan of action.

-=Good Selling=-

Weekend Print4Pay Hotel MFP Industry Threads!

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-=Good Selling=-