Who's Afraid of Memjet "Part Duex"

This past weekend I was at the BTA Winter Break in Orlando.  While the education sessions are awesome I especially enjoy meeting with the 30 plus vendors being able to see what's new and different.

Back in June of 2009 I penned "Who's Afraid of Memjet".  Last year there were major announcements from Drupa from the likes of Toshiba, Fuji/Xerox, and Canon/Oce that all of them had purchased a license to incorporate the Memjets Waterfall print head technology. Toshiba to use it in MFP's, Canon/Oce developed a device called "Project Velocity" for an Oce branded wide format and then Fuji/Xerox will integrate the Memjet Water print head technology for wide format also. It was interesting that one of the comments on the blog was "this can't be good news for KIP".

While at the BTA Winter Break event I was able see the new Memjet C6010 printer.  What I saw was stunning, amazing and a marvel of color ink technology.  Sixty pages per minute, or 1 page per second of 100% coverage on letter size paper (this puppy can also print legal) with full bleed!! As soon as the print exited the printer the ink was dry, no jams, no bands in the color.  I saw prints that were done with coated inkjet paper (stunning) and also bond paper (typical matt type image).  I was more impressed though with the high capacity ink, black will hold 100ml, while the CMY will hold 50ml each.  Base on "normal office printing" the black ink will yield 4,600 pages, cyan is good for 7,500 pages, yellow cranks in at 5,050 pages and magenta trails with 4,830 pages.

I did ask the retail price on this system, however I forgot (arrgghh), but I was told that we'll see a memjet MFP in the 2nd quarter of this year.  Cost per page, and ink is the life blood of profit for Dealers and Memjet was keen to inform me that the ink tanks are designed for authorized refill.

My Thoughts

Document Management Software Drives Additional Click Revenue!

While at the BTA Winter Break event in Orlando I paid a visit to the Docuware booth.  I've been aware of Docuware for sometime, never had the chance to use their solution, but wanted to see if they had anything that was unique and special with Document Management and MFP's.

I was able to speak with Mary Williams who is the Marketing Communications Manager for Docuware, and she told me about a new feature with Docuware that would enable an MFP user to scan the Docuware archive from the MFP, select that document and then print that document from the MFP!

Whoa, I thought that was an awesome feature. I was not aware that this technology was available.  I asked Mary for some additional information on this.  Today I received the document which is titled "CONNECT to Toshiba Version 2", the first line of the document states Turn your Toshiba MFP into a portal to Docuware.

Here's a quick couple of paragraphs from that document.....

When Was the Last Time You Named your Printer or Copier?

"Can anyone come up with a fun and creative name for a Canon copier/printer? It's my job to name it since the office just got a new one the other day and I'm the new work study employee. All the other ones were named by previous work studies and were good like a leased Canon was Lisa Canon...since they leased a Canon. Thanks!"

Whoa, this was a thread I picked up the other day in my google alerts for a yahoo forum.  After 32 years in the industry, WTF,  I now find out that office workers actually give a name to the copier?

I have to admit that the old name for the Canon for Lisa Canon was pretty creative! Of course everyone could use the Lisa for Ricoh, Xerox, KonicaMinolta and the rest. So, I thought I would try my hand at thinking up some names for copiers.

Here we go ( I took these names that were popular in the Victorian Era:

Hope Xerox (hoping it works all the time)
Lottie Ricoh (we make a lot of copies)
Lulu Kyocera (our copier is a loser)
Benedict Arnold Toshiba (the copier never works right)
Dick KonicaMinolta (our copier sucks)
Nimrod Sharp (odd name for an odd copier)
Owen Savin (we owe a lot of money on this copier)
Pleasant Muratec (we like our copier)
Zebulon Xerox (it's our prized copier)
Newton Ricoh (we just got it)
August Kyocera (the month the new copier was purchased)
Merlin Toshiba (our system is amazing)
Avis KonicaMinolta (we're only leasing this system for a short time)
Beaton Sharp (we beat on this system all the time)
Charity Savin (a hand me down)
Eustace Muratec (our system is useless)
Faithful Xerox (always works well)
Hercules Ricoh (our system is a workhorse)
Marmaduke Kyocera (our system is huge)
Patience Toshiba (it'll work just give it time)
Postumus KonicaMinolta (our last copier died unexpectadly)
Temperance Sharp (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't)
Thurstan Savin (our system is always going through toner so fast)
Wy Muratec (why did we ever get this system)

I'm done, my favorites would be Hope, Benedict Arnold, Dick, Owen, Avis, Charity and Marmaduke.  But maybe we can name copiers and printers after rock stars right, these copiers and printers keep the wheels turning at the office everyday and with out them the paper process does start.  Think about Bruce, Billy, Mick, Ringo, Frank (I'm aging myself), and another thought might be to name them after songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Stairway to Heaven, Under My Thumb, Wild Horses.  

So, the next time I sell a copier, I will ask the new owner what name they would like to use for their new copier or printer, and I'm sure I'll get one of those strange New Jersey looks and be escorted to the door. Hey!  If you've got any really cool names drop them here in the response section!!

-=Good Selling=-

Checking In & Out at The Print4Pay Hotel

This was an article written by Scott Cullen (Scott also operates The Week in Imaging) back in 04, I've  updated some of the numbers such as total members, membership demographics, page views and a few other items to keep it current. (Art)

By: Scott Cullen

When one checks into the Print4Pay Hotel it’s the guests who receive tips, not the staff. The Print4Pay Hotel: The Imaging Professional's Resource Center is a Website (www.p4photel.org) and message board focused on providing extensive imaging product information to resellers as well as a forum for imaging industry personnel to share knowledge. Although most members work for different dealerships, virtually all sell and service the Ricoh, Lanier, Savin, Sharp, Canon, KonicaMinolta, Toshiba, Muratec, Okidata, Lexmark, Xerox  and Kyocera family print devices.

The site also contains an impressive collection of documents, price quotes, competitive proposals, self help documents, RFP's, and brochures on various manufacturers office equipment. Art Post, CEO of the Print4Pay Hotel and Docusultant with Century Office Products in Edison, NJ, is the architect behind the Print4Pay Hotel. The site allows digital imaging specialists to share information and find answers quickly, says Post. It's also a place where imaging professionals can store their knowledge, search their knowledge, and share their inspirations, ideas and passion for the industry.

Launched twelve years ago on a MSN community, Post eventually switched to his

Top Ten Copier Proposals for December 2012

Alarming it's all I can say about a recent price/proposal I saw from a Kyocera Dealer that was quoting a penny per page for full color!  As I stated in a recent email to Print4Pay Hotel members if you're not aware of this new pricing strategy, well...then you're going to lose every deal!  Take a gander at these recent proposals from Kyocera and you'll see what I mean!

Each month on the Print4Pay Hotel forums we'll upload "Pricing on the Street" quotes, these quotes are certified as accurate since the pricing information is emailed to us from other Print4Pay Hotel members in the field.

We'll also receive and upload quotes and proposals from other Print4Pay Hotel members and these quotes will be "the proposal or quote" that was emailed to the end user.

Each month I'll list those proposals/quotes and "Pricing on the Street" here with the associated links.  You need to be a Premium Member in order to download the documents.  So without further ado here's the top quotes from Decemner 2012.  Enjoy!

• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 3050ci
• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 4550ci Color & Kyocera TASKalpha 4550
• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 4550ci
• "Pricing on the Street" for Kyocera TASKalfa 3500i
• "Pricing on the Street" for kyocera taskalpha 3500i v2
• "Pricing on the Street" for toshiba e-studio 4540C
• Sharp MX-B402SC
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mpc2051sp
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp4002sp
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp301pf

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFP's "Running With the Big Dogs"

What's the Golden Rule when selling office equipment? Know your competition or least what they are quoting.

Ever notice every time you walk the dog that he or she stops at every tree or fire hydrant, ever wonder what they're doing?

They are checkin out the competition. Who's who, whose doing what and where ya been! Amazing that they can find all of that out in a few whiffs of hydrant!

Well, we as sales people need to know the competition as well, what they're up to, what's their current maintenance pricing, leasing rates (did you know you can figure out the lease rate by backing out the payment), special promo's, or just how they are positioning themselves with the customer.  I just had a quote given to me a few days ago and there was some good value statements that I'll migrate to my quotes and proposals, so by being able to read the quotes and proposals from the competition you may be able to tweak your proposal and borrow from others!

Here's some threads I've uploaded to the P4PHotel Message Boards, click the links and you'll be brought to the page.

Canon IRC 2030 Proposal
Competitive KonicaMinolta proposal vs Toshiba
Canon imageRUNNER Advance 6065 proposal
Canon imageRunner Advance C7065
Konicaminolta bizhub25 proposal
"Pricing on the Street" Ricoh MPC4502

The Print4Pay Hotel includes boards for Ricoh Family Group, Kyocera, KonicaMinolta, Sharp, Toshiba, Canon, Muratec and Xerox.

-=Good Selling=-

The Transition of the Copier Industry "Part IV"

Part IV

During the 1928 Presidential Campaign the Republican National Committee ran an ad that stated based on the Harding & Coolidge administration that they had "put the chicken in every pot and car in every back yard".  With the introduction of many cloud based document management solutions like Doculex and Intellinetics the  right for Document Management Software for every business both large and small.  Forget about the paper and how about the electronic files, if you don't have a Document Management program how the heck are you finding the documents you created last week, last month or a few years ago?  I get it, they're stored on a drive, and then named under a nested folder which is under another nested folder an then another.

Think about how much time you spend looking for documents whether they are paper based or electronic, if you don't have a managed document service/software you're inefficient.

What can Copier Manufacturers Do:

First they need to forget about all of the cool acronyms and marketing gimmicks.  Today's copier  manufacturers need to start buying companies (software) and focusing on business solutions or developing a new media (that's called R & D) that that will give them a renewable revenue stream (the old renewable revenue stream was putting toner on paper).  I'm of the opinion that manufacturers should start buying companies like dropbox, officedrop, box and document management software companies that have Cloud Document Management Services.  Why let others control the document when you're in the document business?

Manufacturers could bundle their own free service and then offer a pay service. There are many SBM accounts that could benefit from a cloud service document management software. Traditionally what's held the SMB business back is cost, ease of use, and training.  Cloud services billed monthly whether by storage or clicks to create a renewable revenue stream, it's kinda like cloud back up and disaster recovery solutions, the more you store, the more you'll pay.  But cloud document management software can have an immediate ROI impact, which is unlike backup and disaster recovery solutions (who the heck wants to sell insurance, not me).

Sell monthly/annual subscription services that allow SMB accounts to connect there MFPs to share point, ms 365, their CRM, their DMS or their business line of software.  I understand their are some 3rd party companies offering these services, but what do you have to lose beside pages?  Control the document stupid!

Here's a thought, maybe buy some of the most popular CRM's or business lines of software companies and develop those connectors for your MFP's.

Here's another idea,  how about selling print licenses, here you would install 500 printers (all inclusive except for paper), have the customer buy 5 or 10 million pages upfront and then renew the license when the prints have expired.

Do what Ricoh did, come out with your own business tablet and create customized software solutions that will improve a business processes. Printed pages may go away, however the document is here forever.

I don't believe I'll see the end of putting toner or ink on paper in my time, I do believe that one day there will not be a need for paper.  If you've ever watched any StarTrek episodes, you may or may not have noticed that you never see a sheet of paper.  Who knows maybe the likes of Toshiba, Sharp, KonicaMinolta, Ricoh, Canon, Kyocera, Xerox or Samsung will market the first transporter.

Our transition to a services led approach will require us to lead with more diverse services, managed print stream, managed print, document management and storage solutions. Stay tuned for part 5 and "Whats the future for copier dealers".

-=Good Selling=-

WTF, Memjet Partners with Fuji/Xerox, Canon/Oce & Toshiba

I was surprised to say the least!  While reading through the Drupa Press Releases (for those who don't know, DRUPA is the worlds largest print & imaging show. It's held once every four years in beautiful Dusseldorf, Germany.  I like to call it the Olympics of Print & Imaging) I read that Fuji/Xerox, Canon/Oce and Toshiba have partnered with Memjet to produce wide format systems that will incorporate Memjets Waterfall print head.

Fuji Xerox will integrate Memjets Waterfall printhead into a 42 inch roll feed wide format system for printing technical and production graphics.  Up to 1600x1600 dpi resolution. 1600x1600 will print at 150mm per second and lower resolution will print at 300mm per second.  What!  mm per second?  WTF is that?  A quick conversion will tell us that 25.4 mm equals one inch. Dang at 300mm per second you'll get full color output at 11.8 inches per second!  Thats' fast! The video on the left is the Fiji/Xerox unit at Drupa  Awesome!
Not to be outdone, Toshiba has also partnered with Memjet.  Here's a snippet from the Press Release:

Under the partnership, Toshiba TEC Corporation will initially work to integrate Memjet components into a Multi-Function Peripheral (MFP) product targeted for the office market. The MFP will feature a scanner, photocopier and color printer that produces high-quality color pages at 60 pages per minute, thanks to Memjet's revolutionary page-wide print head, controller chip, software and ink. A future MFP product co-developed by both companies is being exhibited at drupa, the world's largest print industry event in Dusseldorf, Germany, in the Memjet booth, Hall 5, E28.

So, while Fuji/Xerox and Canon/Oce are focusing their efforts on wide format, Toshiba will concentrate with incorporating the technology with MFP's.  I haven't heard of anyone writing about or seeing the "future" MFP at Drupa yet.  Wish I was there, maybe in four years, right?

Now Canon/Oce has developed a device called "Project Velocity" and it seems this will be an Oce wide format system that will also use the Memjet Waterfall print head.  In a recent press release it was stated that there would be a working wide format system on preview at Drupa for printing maps and posters at a speed of 500AO format sheets. I'm not even going to look that up. It's fast!  This system is reported to house six rolls of paper.

I've been following Memjet and Silverbrook Technologies for sometime.  Recently some of their print heads have shown up in print devices that were more the size of an A4 printer.  I've only seen one and all I can say is that the user was excited about the speed but..... let me put it this way there was an issue with the color.  However, with partnering with the like of Xerox, Canon and Toshiba and the possibility of having color matching rips, I'm thinking the sky is not the limit any more for Memjet.   

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Wars & The Plain Paper Copier Industry

Most evenings I'll do a little bit of cruising around the web searching for copier information.  I ran across a white paper written by William R. Bolton in 1995 titled "The Plain Paper Copier Industry". 

Basically the paper was an outline of the plain paper copier industry up until 1994 or 95.  I used this paper to research a blog "Top 19 Old Copier Manufacturers That Faded Away".

Just the other day  I had an Anon (Anonymous) response to the blog I wrote for the "final five", it seems I ticked someone off because I projected that Sharp would not be one of the final five left in the industry.  ANON pointed out that although the blog was a nice read, they thought that my projection of Sharp was not correct because Sharp had just started operations of a 2nd manufacturing plant in China that was capable of producing 250,000 MFP's per year.  I responded with the fact that I saw the press release that Sharp is gearing up for the anticipated of more demand, but I think it's more for the Chinese Market Place. Here's the press release.  I'm also taking a guess that since the Great Flood in Thailand and the fact that one of Sharps copier manufacturing plants is located in the area of the Great Flood.  The Sharp factory was not damaged however Sharp had problems with securing parts from other suppliers that were affected.
Which brings me to back to a certain paragraph in the white paper.  History repeats its self right.  The white paper predicted that only 7 to 8 copier manufacturers would be left in the global market place by 1997.  Let's see if we can get this right: 
Xerox, Ricoh, Sharp, Canon, Toshiba, Oce, Mita, Konica, Panasonic and Minolta.  This would be 11 copier manufacturers that were players in 1994.  I did not include Kodak due to the fact that their plain paper copier line was OEM'd by Canon.  I can't remember when but Konica & Minolta merged thus leaving 8 manufacturers somewhere in 2002. 

Copier & MFP Industry in Turmoil... the Final Five!

A few years ago I posted a blog that outlined the "MPF Wars the Final Five" copier/mfp providers. 

Since that post  on September 28th Xerox purchased Affiliated Computer Systems for $5.5 billion, which propelled Xerox in to the business solutions and information technology business.  Soon after on November 16th of 2009 Canon announced plans to purchase OCE.

In some recent less noticed news Canon Canada closed an office and handed over the  accounts to a local dealer in Nova Scotia, Ricoh Canada closed their Saskatchewan office and cut a deal with WBM Office Systems to take over accounts and took on many of the technical and sales staff and expertise previously employed by Ricoh Canada. RJ Young (USA) cut a deal with Ricoh for more than 6,000 MIF for the  Columbus, Tupelo, & Biloxi, MS and Huntsville AL locations of Ricoh/Ikon. 6000+ MIF.

In the last month Canon finally sealed the deal with OCE to finish acquiring the outstanding shares of OCE (a group of shareholders held out for additional cash), and back on  May 11th of 2011 Canon announced the creation of Canon Information And Imaging Solutions, Inc.. 

Ricoh Corporation announced that they are re-branding and uniting Ricoh and Ikon Office Solutions in the US under one brand.  Ricoh is moving towards being known as a business solutions provider.  KonicaMinolta acquired All Covered back in January of 2011 and has been on a buying spree for acquiring addition IT companies to put under the All Covered umbrella. Just last week Kyocera Mita America (didn't even know they were still using the Mita name anymore) announced that they are changing their name to Kyocera Document Solutions America, thus Kyocera Document Solutions America is re-branding also wants to be know as a business solutions provider also.

The last four years have been chaotic for the office equipment business, the downturn in the global economy, the floods of Thailand, the Great Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami and the continued rise of the Japanese yen has caused billions of dollars in loses for most of the Japanese Imaging manufacturers.

So, what's my take on all of this.....we're in for the ride of our lives! Many industry pundits are declaring the end of the paper is upon us, and these were the same pundits that declared many years ago that fax was dead and then copiers/mfp's were dead and behold the coming of Managed Print (the supposed holy grail of profit).  But the entire industry is making the change from being imaging manufacturing providers to business solution providers. 

"Those who manage the network will control the imaging devices" is another term I've heard lately.  Dealers will need to evolve also, whether it's Managed Services, Business Solutions and or IT Services, or a combination of all three (and all three can be incorporated under IT services).  It's much easier to change the copier company than the IT provider. 

Not in any order, my picks for who will stay and who will leave the copier imaging industry:

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World! 4/3/2012

The pioneer in Managed Print Services (MPS) for health care, has been distinguished for its vendor neutral business model by a Quocirca researcher as a 'best of breed' independent MPS company that focuses on business process transformation that ...
See all stories on this topic »

By Laura Stotler Independent UK managed print IT services company M2 has launched its Intelligence platform. The new platform is part of the company's core managed print services software and enables end users to proactively monitor and manage their ...See all stories on this topic »

Manchester, UK – 3 April 2012 – M2, the UK's leading independent managed print IT services company, today announced the launch of its pioneering 'Intelligence' platform, an addition to its core managed print services software, which enables end users ...
See all stories on this topic »

Ryan said that, as part of the technology upgrade, Super A-Mart also engaged Brennan for a managed print service (MPS) in partnership with Ricoh Business Centre (RBC). According to Ryan, the MPS forms part of a vendor consolidation process that enables ...
See all stories on this topic »

IRVINE, CA  -- 04/03/12 -- Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (http://business.toshiba.com), a leading managed document services (MDS) provider and business printing solutions innovator, today introduced the B-EX4T2, ...See all stories on this topic »

"Our managed print service fixes these frustrations so we felt a film featuring some of our people smashing printers to pieces with axes and sledgehammers was apt and long overdue. "We felt it our duty to take on the burden of corporate plc and every ...See all stories on this topic »

-=Good Selling=-

Toshiba Does its best David Blaine!

Last week we saw two major stories from Toshiba with the press release of copier/MFP that has disappearing toner (erasable), and then a program that will magically reformat your pre-printed pages along with claims to save toner and paper (Adobe Lean Print). Erasable toner, great idea, but who the heck wants to print in blue? Do you get the feeling that this is may be the last hurray for Toshiba?  What happens if Lean Print and Erasable Paper do not increase Toshiba’s MIF (machines in field)?

Existing Toshiba copiers will not be able to erase the toner on the paper, in order to have the erasable toner feature you’ll have to shell out some shekels for a new Toshiba MFP.  Plus, it’s been reported that a latent image will still remain on the page even after the toner has been removed.  Personally, I don’t think the Feds will be buying any of these systems. I’m not sold on either one of these new releases from Toshiba. It seems Toshiba has created some traction in recent weeks, but I doubt either of these new features will increase sales for the long term.  Adobe Lean Print at $99 per user seems a little pricing and what happens if you don’t like the way lean print will magically reformat your pages, you’ll have to print the documents again and again.  Where the heck is the savings now?   One of the videos that show the reformatting of twelve pages to four, Adobe Lean print reformats the single pages to three columns per page looking more like a news paper article.  You can get a better view here of what the pages look like.  I’m finding hard to believe that the font size will not be smaller from the original document.  I going to check give the 30 day trial a shot and see what happens, more importantly I’m trying to think of applications that I would use this for, as of right now I got nothing.

As far as the erasable toner goes, when was the last time you ran the same sheet of paper through a copy machine five times?  The Toshiba MFP system uses heat to remove the toner image, I can only think after using the same sheet of paper times there’s going to be some degrading of the paper. 

 Here's paragraph from House of Japan

"This is a special kind of toner that loses its color when heated, so this technology makes it look as if the printing has disappeared. With this system, one sheet of photocopy paper can be used at least five times, so this product combines economy with ecology."

So back to my initial thoughts, both of these releases have some WOW & Sizzle factor to them.  With Toshiba at a paltry 3% of the US market share I’m thinking it’s more of a flash in the pan and Toshiba may finally wave the white flag when it comes to manufacturing copiers.

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World!

Newport City Council (NCC) has cut its print-related costs by more than 25 per cent, resulting in nearly £90000 savings, by applying the same Managed Print Service (MPS) tools and techniques Xerox uses to save millions for large enterprises.

NCC is undergoing a major IT transformation initiative focused on improving technology infrastructure across its 50+ sites to increase business efficiency and support flexible working practices. Xerox’s managed print service is helping the council realise this vision and has also helped significantly reduce the IT support resources required and lower direct printing costs. you can read more here

Level Platforms, one of the pioneers of managed services in the channel, is expanding beyond its remote monitoring and management software products to include managed services delivered to and on behalf of its MSP partners.

As part of its upcoming multi-city road show and the release of its Managed Workplace 2012, Level Platforms is unveiling comprehensive network operations center and help desk services. The new offerings will provide Level Platforms’ partners with an outlet for offloading many managed services tasks and provide a new level of support within the vendor ecosystem.

Level Platforms has been developing its NOC and help desk services for more than a year, opting to build from the ground up internally rather than cobbling together off-the-shelf software and outsourcing management to a third-party provider. CEO Peter Sandiford calls the new services a natural evolutionary step in the development of Level Platforms’ product and service offerings. you can read more here

Jan 24, 2012 IRVINE, Calif. – Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (http://business.toshiba.com), announces the debut of the world’s first Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) equipped with proprietary wipe technology for multifunction printers (MFPs). This new Toshiba technology allows users to determine a range of security settings, including the invalidation of encryption keys and data invalidation when a drive is removed from its housing or connected to an unauthorized host system.

“As the needs of our customers constantly evolve, Toshiba is committed to remaining at the forefront of product innovation,” said Joseph Contreras, director, Product and Solutions Marketing, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. “Toshiba’s new SED security technology improves data security and reduces the risk of sensitive information stored on copiers and printers leaving your company. When the SED is removed or stolen from the MFP and installed into another device, the data is invalidated automatically. If the SED is returned to the MFP without being installed into another device, data will not be invalidated and is accessible.” you can read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Copier & MFP Industry Predictions for 2012

Whoa! What a year for the industry with the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, the floods in Thailand, the continued devaluation of the dollar vs the yen, Xerox dumps wide format, Global Imaging Systems has taken over all of the SMB business from Xerox, and major copier manufacturers finally produce their own A4 MFP systems.

Speaking of Xerox, word on the street is that Xerox may be bought (this coming from a Print4Pay Hotel Member on the forums), a recent blog stated that the dancing partners maybe HP, Dell and IBM.  You just never know in this business.  I just though about this scenario today, Dell buys Xerox and keeps ACS and then spins off the imaging division!  You never know.

Last year saw these predictions Top Ten MFP Copier Industry Predictions for 2011.  I'm not claiming to be a soothsayer, not when you get 6 out of 10 wrong, however we were right with Kodak on the verge of Bankruptcy (stock is at .65 cents), Samsung did introduce the A3 MFP in the US, it was announced in 2011 that the IKON brand will disappear in March of 2012, and Copier Manufacturers did make the move and purchased MPS related companies.

What can happen in 2012?

1.  I'll go out on a limb, Xerox will be bought by....well someone

2.  Kodak files for Bankruptcy or is bought "A picture is forever, Kodak is not"

3. Ricoh USA finally comes clean and announces that Ricoh Americas Corp has moved to Malvern, PA

4. Sharp bows out of the commercial MFP business similar to what Panasonic did three years ago, however they will still continue to market A4 devices through distributors and the web, no more dealer and direct channel.

5. Chinese Manufacturer Siene Technology introduces first MFP and looks to establish USA dealer network.

6. Toshiba Business Systems withdraws from the copier/print hardware business, instead they focus on giving the hardware away for free to capture the clicks.

7. One of the Big four Xerox, Ricoh, Canon or KonicaMinolta will buy Auxilio, who ever does takes a major leap of faith in MPS.

8. Managed Print Services......the hype continues

9. Xerox announces additional layoffs in the US

10. USA MFP Copier manufacturer sees the introduction of the first segment 5 A4 MFP.

Some of these are meant to be light hearted and have no chance of coming true, so please take some of this as entertainment and figure out what could happen and what's not going to happen.  Above all I hope you enjoyed this!

-=Good Selling=-

What Happens When You're Numero Uno in Copier & MFP Sales

Every now and then I like to have a little fun with the blog.  Today, I had a few chuckles at Ricoh 's expense and a few others.

If you're number one, it always seems you're going to take some heat about something. In 20 or 30 years it would be interesting to see what the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Xerox and KonicaMinolta are doing and how they got there.

I'm thinking the past 4 years and the next 4 years will define how companies like  Ricoh, Xerox, KonicaMinolta and Canon will be moved forward or backwards.

I need to get to the chuckles right?  I was speaking with an RICOH person today just chomping it up about us being in the business for a long time and that person made a statement that they had to travel to Malvern for a corporate meeting, with that statement I could tell there was some, well...let's just say it was evident with the tone that Malvern is the NEW HQ as GMAN's (Member of Print4Pay Hotel) been stating for sometime! First chuckle!

But, even more unsettling was that I received a "ricoh" document the other day.   Nosey me, I clicked on all of the TABS and found out that what I thought was originally a "ricoh" document was actually  a document developed by IKON many years ago and then converted to Ricoh. Hey, there was the second chuckle of the day.

Sometimes I wonder....did Ricoh Americas buy IKON or did IKON get paid to take over Ricoh Americas? Ha!! Another chuckle, you really gotta laugh at this stuf.

Here's another, I follow Canon and Oce. Since the Canon take over, the web is flooded with OCE Press Releases, yet I get almost nothing coming from Canon. What gives?

What about this, how the heck can Toshiba, Sharp, or Kyocera Dealers and Direct Branches feel about their manufacturers marketing programs when there are virtually ZERO Press Releases for MFP, MPS or copier related products?

 I have alerts set for all four and I see more from Kyocera, less from Toshiba and a minuscule from Toshiba and Sharp.  By far the most press releases are in this order Xerox, Oce, Ricoh and KonicaMinolta. 

As my father in-law always stated "what do expect from a pig, but a grunt". True, you can take a visit to the Toshiba, Sharp and Kyocera....and where the heck are the mfp's and or copiers?? You really have to get down the page or dig deep to find them.

Thank you to Ricoh for sticking to MFP's and Copier for now, Hoping I'll be around in 30 years to see how all of this shakes out!

-=Good Selling=-

Daily Managed Print Service Industry Notes from Around the World!

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) has announced a seven-year deal with Xerox managed print services through which it aims to save £1.2m. The deal, part of a wider project by Logica to create an intelligent back-office infrastructure for the Trust, means that UCLH will now have only one print supplier to manage. Before....read more here

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS), a leader in managed print services (MPS) that help organizations reduce cost by printing smarter, working safer and maximizing their green savings, continues leaving its mark in multifunction printer (MFP) innovations with the introduction of the....read more here

In 2012 what we’re focusing on is enabling our partners to sell more than just the box. While our core hardware business is very important to us, Lexmark, through a number of acquisitions over the last couple of months and through our own research and development, has come up with a number of tools to enable us help our channel partners go outside that normal channel sell. It’s very important for us as a print vendor to provide a compelling reason to partner with Lexmark, and we....read more here

Reading, UK, 22nd November 2011: Kyocera Mita UK Ltd is delighted to announce that it has successfully retained its Carbon Trust Standard certification following an audit by the Carbon Trust. The retention of the certification indicates that Kyocera Mita UK has continued to improve its carbon efficiency since the Standard was initially awarded in 2008. During a period of significant growth for Kyocera Mita UK, the company has achieved a....read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MPF's "The Perfect Storm"

Since 2007 our industry has been tested with the Great Recession, many of the companies we did bsuiness with are now out of business or just fighting to stay alive.

Some say the Great Recession is over, I'm not buying it, I think we've never come out of it.

The Great Recession is one part of the Perfect Storm that's humbled our industry.  Years ago, talk was that the copier industry was always the least affected when there was an economic slowdown.  Those days are gone...probably forever. 

In early March the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 8.9 devastated Northern Japan with a Sunami, failure of the Fukushima Nuclear reactors and caused severe supply chain issues for companies like Ricoh, Canon, Toshiba, Fuji Xerox along with all of the secondary tech companies that supported the copier/printer industry. We're still feeling the effects of certain MFP models that are on the "constrained" list. Some toner supplies are still in short supply and some key factories were closed in Northern Japan to never open again.

Just last week, seems I was not even aware of this until a Print4Pay Hotel member posted a thread on the forums about the sever flooding in Thailand.  A quote for Storage Newsletter "The HDD industry never encounters such a natural disaster in its history. Earthquakes in Japan had a minor effect compared to what's happening in Thailand."

25% of all Hard Drive assembly plants are located in Thailand, 95% of all Copiers and MFP's are equipted with Hard Drives.  The shortage looms on the copier industry again, in addition another company named Nidec was hit hard.  Here's a thread from a Print4Pay Hotel member about Nidec "And everyone better hope that Nidec's factories that were hit by the flood were not its printing related factories. Few know Nidec, but they make a solid portion of the motors and brushes found in copiers."

I admit I knew nothing of the flood, and how devastating the flood is for the people of Thailand and the effect on the Bang Pa Industrial Park.

It seems it been one thing after another, the economy, the devastation in Japan and now the historic flooding in Thailand.  I'll be watching the situation with Nidec and the Hard Factories closely and I'm sure there will be additional threads posted on the Print4Pay Hotel forums from other P4P'ers.

Anyone have anything they can add on the situation in Thailand??

-=Good Selling=-

Daily MFP Industry Notes from around the World 8/17/2011

·    Indiana Business Equipment recently completed a studyofthe county's use of printers, copiers, fax machines and multi-purposes devices, with an eye toward serving the county's needs as a single, central vendor. On Monday, Copyco Office Solutions came before the commissioners with  a  similar proposal.

·   FOSTER CITY, Calif., Aug. 17, 2011  -- EFI (Nasdaq:EFII) today announced it has teamed with Xerox Corporation to provide customers worldwide with the EFI Digital StoreFront™ (DSF) Web-to-Print solution, giving print providers a new front door to their business. Available first in the United States, Xerox Corporation's direct sales team and channel partners are now offering the award-winning solution. Read more here

·   ROCHESTER, N.Y., Aug 17, 2011  -- Xerox Corporation will manage global print operations across more than 460 Cisco offices, making printing services easily accessible to employees working from different locations, using a variety of desktop and mobile devices.

As part of a new managed print services (MPS) strategy, Xerox will provide the Cisco workforce with more cost-effective ways to produce and manage documents, improving the efficiency of the print environment by 20 percent. Using the Xerox Enterprise Print Services (EPS) platform to support a new cloud-based mobile print solution, Cisco will allow employees to securely print from any device, anytime, anywhere without downloading software, mapping to a printer or booting up their laptops. Read more here

·   Dunlap, Ill. — The Dunlap school board approved a centralized printing program on Aug. 10 that will save $350,000 over the next five years.

Currently, the district has 337 printers, along with 11 copiers, eight fax machines and seven multi-functional devices. Read more here

·    BBT Group, a supplier of office copier and print products, purchased the Preston-based company for an undisclosed sum. The Coventry company, which opened an office at Salford Quays earlier this year, said the deal would boost its presence in the North West.

"Oakham Business Systems has a great reputation with very loyal customers and is an excellent fit for our business," said Philip Runciman, director of BBT Group. "The acquisition offers Oakham clients an expanded portfolio of products and services including document management and managed print services." BBT Group has a turnover of about £6m and employs 50 staff. Runciman added: "This is an exciting time for the business as we grow our nationwide offering and extend our presence in the North West."

·   Toshiba and Lexmark are partnering to nudge the managed print services market forward. Specifically, Toshiba Encompass managed print services now leverage Lexmark Fleet Manager 2.o software. As we’ve said before: A growing number of technology vendors are promoting managed print solutions… but only about 20 percent of MSPmentor 100 companies have embraced managed print services so far. Here’s the update.  Read more here

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Proposals And Quotes that we've Seen

Over the years one of the biggest attractions of the Print4Pay Hotel forums is the "P4P Hotel's Industry Proposals & Quotes" Forums. To date we have over 300 quotes and proposals that are available for download.

These quotes are pretty much "badges of honor", if you lose the deal you're not asking he customer for the copy of the are you?  Winners make things happen and yes Winners are able to get the copies of the Losers quotes.  I find these quotes to be invaluable, for example how a certain dealer, salesperson or direct branch will go about designing the proposal (and there are some really good ones), along with how poorly some will design one. Believe me, in my proposals and quotes I taken some of the really good stuff and incorporated into my own.  So you can learn from seeing other companies proposals and quotes.  Plus, there's more much when reading between the lines as to what is on the proposal and what isn't.  It's the what isn't on the proposal that tells the take of how to attack a weakness in the future.

Here's a running list of the last 50 that we've posted, you can access them on the Print4Pay Hotel forums when you become a Premium Member!  Enjoy!

		Konica Minolta Quote Soup 2 Nuts!
		Kyocera State of NJ Contract
		IKON_Quote Ricoh MPc 6501
		Lanier LDC 365C proposal
		Xerox_Quote WC7755PC proposal
		Ricoh MP C400SR Proposal
		KonicaMinolta BizHub C451 Proposal
		TaskAlfa 500ci quote
		Ricoh MP C3500 Quote from RBS
		"pricing on the street" for Xerox W7120pt
		"pricing on the street" for Xerox WC7765p
		"pricing on the street" for Xerox 4595
		"pricing on the street" for Xerox WC 5775pt
		"pricing on the street" for Xerox WC 7435p
		"pricing on the street" for Xerox WC 7425p
		"pricing on the Street" for Canon iR6065
		"Pricing on the Street" for KonicaMinolta BizHub 751
		"Pricing on the Street" for Xerox 5775PT
		"Pricing on the Street" for Canon iR6075
		"Pricing on the Street" for Konica Minolta BizHub 950
		"Pricing on the Street" for Xerox 5790PT
		Sharp 4101n street price and service cpc
		pricing on the street for Ricoh PRO907EX
		RBS/IKON blank lease
		pricing on the street for Xerox P4595CP
		pricing on the street for ricoh pro1107ex
		pricing on the street for canon iR8095rev
		pricing on the street for KoncaMinolta BizHub950
		Xerox WorkCentre 5735PT
		Street Pricing
		Ricoh Cost Per Page Quote
		pricing on the street Ricoh MPC 4501 multitray
		pricing on the street ricoh mpc2551 multitray
		pricing on the street ricoh mpc 2551
		pricing on the street ricoh mp2851
		Ricoh MP2500 multi tray
		Ricoh MP2500
		Anyone have any contracts/pricing info for Ricohs new color A4s?
		mp6501 c
		Xerox WC7775P Workcentre
		ricoh mp7001 _mp2851
		Assorted Bid Summary for KM, Ricoh, Toshiba, Kyocera
		copystar cs-250ci color
		Xerox WorkCentre 5665 "Pricing on the Street"
		Canon imagePRESS 1110S
		Ricoh Aficio PRO C901 "Pricing on the Street"
		Xerox 4112 Quote
		kyocera/copystar proposal for cs 820 -=Good Selling=