So, You Wanna Buy A Color Printer

I had a demo to do today on a color printer, however the color printer had to a have a fiery. Well, the only printer I could think of was the OKI 9800 hn or the OKI 3461 (Print Shop in a Box). I arranged a visit to Oki for the customer, it was close. however six miles away from the house I got a flat, and I didn't have a spare (all baseball equipment). So, I took a 5-10mph ride home.

The demo went ok, and my rep tried to show the 3641 MFP more however client the has his heart set on a printer. Now, when it comes to printers we do not offer a cpp, why?? is beyond me, however the client is not interested in service. So he would buy the consumables as needed and service as needed.

As I am a numbers man, and I'll make more selling the MFP than the printer. I ran some numbers based on a cpp for the Oki 3641 and the Oki 9800hn getting supplies an service as you need them. To tell you the truth I was astonished at the numbers. I complied a spread that encompassed 20% coverage to 100% coverage.

Here's the document for you all, MFP vs Printer Workbook this is also great to use for other comparison's when up against printers, its quick and easy and all you have to know is the cpp of the printer you are working with.

So, here's a freaky number I got, if you did 5,000 pages of 100% color per month, you would spend approximately $2,460 per month for service, parts and consumables, on the other hand if you had an MFP at a flat cost per page your cost would be $425.00 WOW. I know these are not real world usage however even on the low end the flat cpp is the way to go on a color mfp!

-=Good Selling=-

Canon Dumps Ikon "MFP Wars"

Let the WARS begin. Canon officially cuts ties to Ikon. Canon will continue to sell spare parts and supplies for three years. Canon will provide "certain technical" support for at lease one year! Below is the letter from Canon.

October 31, 2008

TO:

Canon Office Imaging Dealers and Office Product Dealers

SUBJECT: Acquisition of IKON Office Solutions, Inc. by Ricoh Co. Ltd.

On October 31, 2008, Ricoh Co. Ltd. ("Ricoh") announced completion of its acquisition of IKON Office Solutions, Inc. ("IKON").

Canon USA and IKON have entered into a confidential agreement regarding the terms of their relationship following the acquisition of IKON by Ricoh. Effective upon the closing of the acquisition, the retail dealer agreements between Canon USA and IKON terminated, and IKON is no longer an authorized retail dealer of or authorized service provider for Canon-brand business equipment. IKON will no longer be able to place new orders for Canon-brand business equipment with Canon USA. However, IKON is not precluded from selling and may continue to sell its inventory of Canon-brand business equipment, spare parts and supplies, and is not precluded from providing and may provide maintenance and repair services for Canon-brand business equipment. In addition, Canon USA will continue to sell spare parts and supplies to IKON for three years, and will provide certain technical support to IKON for Canon brand business equipment for at least one year.

Sincerely yours,

CANON U.S.A., INC.

Top 5 Cold Call MFP/Copier Sales Tips

I received this in an email today, not sure who wrote it, however the material is good.

There are always a few very nice, but literally misguided souls in a telephone sales workshops, cold calling seminars, prospecting programs, and telemarketing training sessions.

They preface their questions with these words: “I heard somewhere that you should ALWAYS do such and such. What is your take on that?”

I have to resist flatly saying, “Never, ever do that!”

Here are 5 of the worst tips that these folks have heard, ideas that you should trash right away because they’ll only keep you from reaching your goals.

(1) “Never cold call.” This phrase is used to sell various things, including sales coaching services. My take: Always cold call! There’s gold in cold calling and that’s why it’s also called “prospecting.”
(2) “Don’t ask someone ‘How are you?’ after announcing who you are.” Leave this phrase, or something similar out, and you’ll sound like a recording and get shut down.
(3) “Ask people early on: ‘Do you have a minute to talk?’” Sometimes referred to as permission selling, it weakly gives control to the listener while asking him to buy a pig in a poke. If he says yes, he could be victimizing himself with a talk-a-thon, so reflexively, out of self-protection, he’ll say no. Don’t ever ask if you can sell something. Just do it!
(4) Don’t manage objections; upon first hearing one. Instead, say: “Thank you very much!” and go on to the next person, who may not object. I recommend using transition phrases to gently but firmly take the call to the next step, without hassles.
(5) “Always ASK your way to a sale instead of TELLING your way.” In theory, this ostensibly consultative approach is a winner, a soft-sell, but in the real world we need to be prepared to close and to close again through tie-downs, okay?

The worst tips are usually offered by cowards that really hate selling and aren’t very good at it. They appeal to your weakness.
Don’t buy any suggestion that promotes avoidance and indirectness instead of meeting the challenges of selling head-on.

MFP Industry Notes 11-2-08

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.

IKON, in a special meeting, approved the sale of the company to Ricoh Corp. for $1.6 billion. This means that shareholders will receive $17.25 per share. (now IKON sales reps await an announcement from Canon, as to the future of that relationship)

Former IKON executive, Bill Carpou, was hired as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Profit Recovery Partners, which is a national consulting organization for administrative cost reduction. (Ricoh had previously announced it would spend up to $18 million to keep IKON executives on staff)

If you are competing against the Ricoh Aficio C6000 color MFP (or its Lanier or Savin versions), important points to remember are:

Become a member of the P4PHotel (its FREE), then go to the Competition Lounge Forum to get the skinny on the Ricoh Aficio C6000

Ricoh announced details on it last quarter’s financials:
expects sales to drop for first time in 15 years
sales are estimated at 2.15 trillion yen, down 3.2%
operating profit down 17.4% & net profit down 18.3%

Ricoh announced it will spend $20 million to open two large factory direct branch showrooms.

Details: Will focus on production printingBe in Singapore and AustraliaBetween 6000 and 7500 square feet in size.

Another copier scandal.

This time it involves a public school district in Texas. District Attorney Fred Hernandez announced that all defendants were arrested and indictments returned. Arrests conducted by Texas Rangers. Involved the San Felipe/Del Rio Consolidated Independent School DistrictThose arrested included employees of Lone Star Copiers, a Xerox sales agent. People arrested are: Marjorie Thetford, former risk management supervisor of the school district. Keith Sutherland, Chief Financial Officer of school district. Mathew Stavely, owner of Lone Star Copiers. Gilbert Gene Ayala, of Lone Star Copiers. Violations apparently committed on 12/16/2002. Charge is that Lone Star Copiers convinced school district that they were buying off an existing state government contract, when in fact it was not contract pricing that was offered. Contract resulted in school district being over-billed by more than $1 million dollars. Possible sentence is 5 to 99 years in prison. Involved 22 copiers that were acquired, and also the removal of the previous vendor’s copiers which were then apparently resold by Lone Star Copiers.

When competing against the Xerox WorkCentre 7655 color MFP, remember these points:

Become a member of the P4PHotel (its FREE), then go to the Competition Lounge Forum to get the skinny on the Xerox WorkCentre 7633 color MFP.

Fuji Film of Japan (maker of most of Xerox copiers and printers) announced the following financial news:
Company is feeling effects of reduced Xerox equipment sales
Will fire 1,250 employees to cut costs, or 5% of its workforce
Restructuring costs of 8 billion yet ($81 million)
Stock shares went down 6.4%25% drop in profit
Will spend 35 billion buying back stock share to boost value

Metzgers Printing & Mailing of Ohio purchased a Xerox iGen4 production color system (MSRP is $640,000.00) CDS Global, a print for pay in Iowa, announced it will buy a second Xerox iGen3 production color system to produce the SmartMoney mailer. Xerox announced it will relabel a Samsung b/w laser MFP, and call it the WorkCentre 4260, running at 55ppm, but is A4.

Canon announced it will launch three new b/w production systems, the imagePRESS 1110, 1125 & 1135 offering: all made by Canon (unlike existing high end b/w Canon systems, the imageRUNNER Pro+ 7000 series, which are actually relabeled Kodak-made products)110ppm, 125ppm and 135ppm.
Designed to compete against similar products from Ricoh
All are driven by optional EFI Fiery print server

When competing against the Canon imageRUNNER C5185i color laser MFP:

Become a member of the P4PHotel (its FREE), then go to the Competition Lounge Forum to get the skinny on the Canon imageRUNNER C5185i color MFP.

Canon is now shipping the imagePRESS C1+, which replaces the imagePRESS C1. The new model features:

Base MSRP of $31,500

Top color speed of 14ppmTop b/w speed of 60ppm

Uses single OPC drum design

Offer Canon’s “V” toner (pulverized toner infused with wax, so no fuser oil)

1200x1200dpi (does not offer true 8 bits per pixel)

Multipass designUses 5 toners; cyan, magenta, yellow, black & clear

The clear toner allows engine to provide high gloss output

Can also be used for gloss watermarks, or spot gloss graphics

Print controllers choices include:

embedded EFI Fiery (relabeled as Canon imagePRESS Server T1v2)

external EFI Fiery (relabeled as Canon imagerPRESS Server Q2v2)

generic controller UFRII can handle thick, glossy and textured stocks (due to its slow print speed)

Canon reported its last quarter’s financials:

Predicts its first profit fall in 9 years

Profit dropped 26%

Net income fell 21%

Sales dropped 6.2%

Stock has dropped 54%

Will cut R&D spending by 20 billion yen

Will buy back $508 million of its own stock to boost value

Canon announced a new program to allow its customers to service their own imagePRESS C6000/C6000VP/C7000VP production color systems: Program is called; “Customer Productivity Program” Unknown if Canon dealers or branches will offer lower cpc pricing as a result.

Canon announced that one of its print for pay customers that owns an imagePRESS C7000VP, won an award for output from the production color system.

The Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation gave a 2008 Premier Print Benny Award to Peake DeLancey Printers, LLC. Of Maryland for a customer piece named; “The Yards Oversize Retail Brochure”.

Toshiba announced more financial news:

99% drop in profits

Will spend $1 billion to buy equipment from SanDisk, which is a joint venture in California that makes flash drivers, to keep company afloat

Will post operating loss of 150 billion yen

Stock shares are down 59%

Toshiba announced that one of its dealers won a bid to supply managed print services: For Offutt Nord, PLLC, a large firm with offices in West Virginia. Utilized PrintAudit software

Dealer was Aaron’s Products, Inc.

Will allow firm to increase billing by 200% in 4 month period

Cost of software captured in less than 2 months

Purchased 70 seats of PrintAudit

Replaced a Hecon system

The firm downloads data from PrintAudit in Microsoft Excel for billing clients

Toshiba announced it has authorized Collins Distributing Company to allow small copier dealers in the U.S. to acquire Toshiba MFPs for resale.

VistaPrint, a print for pay firm that specializes in selling full color variable data direct mail over the Internet, reported that its sales are up 44% to $114.2 million for last quarter.

Staples Corp., the office supply superstore chain, announced it has acquired a computer network services firm, Thrive Inc. of Concord, MA. Staples is using this acquisition to launch Staples Network Services across the U.S. (this follows Ricoh’s launch of a similar service from all their factory direct branches in the U.S.)

InfoTrends announced that only 2% of cut sheet paper is made by post-consumer recycled content in the U.S., and only 56% of paper consumed in the U.S. is recycled.

The Christian Science Monitor magazine has decided to cease producing the magazine in print, and instead will only offer content on-line.

Heidelberg of Germany (makers of offset presses) announced it may cut another 2,500 employees worldwide to cut costs due to declining sales.

Konica Minolta announced agreement to partner with Guided Therapeutics, Inc. to expand cancer detection technology using rapid and painless scanning methods.

More info on the new A4 color MFPs from Sharp, the “Frontier” series:

optional finisher can only staple up to 30 sheets maximum

Can not scan color to JPEG

Maximum of 38GB for document storage

Paper drawers can hold up to 28lb, paper only (no thick stock at all in drawers)

Can not auto duplex thick stock

Slow 11.5 second first color copy out time and 8.9 seconds for b/w

Main unit weighs only 107lbs. (is there any metal used at all?)

Has 19 different supply items

Top scan speed of only 35ipm

Looking for information on the level of data security for a competitor’s MFP? The best place to find this information is the JISEC website, which lists devices that have Common Criteria Certification. Go to http://www.ipa.go.jp/security/jisec/jisec_e/certified_products/certfy_list.html

For example:Sharp MFPs certifies only 5 functions at EAL2 Konica Minolta certifies 14 functions at EAL3 for

Konica Minolta bizhub C353EFI announced an updated version of its Digital StoreFront web to print software for print shops or CRDs. Version DSF 4.0 offers new features:

More powerful variable data printing features

Superwide format color inkjet options

Enhanced integration

Fulfillment module

EFI claims that DSF is being used in over 3,000 locations

Multi-record data list upload

PPML support

Tighter integration with print management solutions

Can store and modify usage of one or more records within data set for VDP job creation

Image galleries diplayed in single window as thumbnails

Supports FusionPro and XMPie variable data software

State of the art pricing engine

Xante’ of Alabama, announced a new product called the Illumina Digital Envelope Press+ featuring:

Can print up to 60 full color, #10 envelopes per minute

500 piece envelope tray

Can print on window envelopes

Can also print on up to 12”x18” paper

Auto duplex for paper

Includes built-in print controller with PostScript print driver

Based on Okidata-made color LED page printer

Top speed of 36ppm full color on paper

Optional extended warranties do not include consumer replaceable components (toner, drums, fuser, etc.)

Okidata launched a new desktop color LED page printer, the C830 series offering:

Up to 52” long banners

Up to 12” x18” paper size handling

Handles up to 220gsm paper weight

Base MSRP of $2199

Optional auto duplex

Built-in print controller

Optional network interface

Single paper drawer standard (can add second 530 sheet drawer)

Up to 30ppm color and 32ppm b/w speeds

1200x600dpi (does not offer true 8 bits per pixel)

Optional extended warranties do not include supplies

Lexmark announced it hired former Xerox executive, Robert Patton, as VP and General Counsel.

Oce’ announced it will relabel the Brother MFC-9840CDW desktop color laser MFP and call it the Oce’ cx2100.

NEC announced it will relabel the Konica Minolta bizhub C200 as the NEC ViVid Office 2020.

Kyocera announced that IKON will no longer sell its b/w laser MFPs.

According to industry author, John Dvorak, Dell Computer is considering acquiring Lexmark, so that combined, they could better compete against HP.

According to a recent industry magazine article, NewCal, a dealer in San Francisco area which sold out to Canon, was actually preparing to sell to Xerox (Global), but that Canon came in at the last minute and outbid Xerox by 20%.

Panasonic is entering negotiations to buy Sanyo. (Sanyo once made copiers in the 1980s)

MFP Copier Sales "You Gotta Have Heart"

We've all heard the story about Abe Lincoln and how many times he lost running office before he finally succeeded (geez, I'm writing this on the eve of us electing our next President), one of the oldest sales success stories. Never give up, never lose faith, be a grinder, his law partner said of him "His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest." I know a kid just like Abe.

For those who know me, they know that my passion is for coaching. Since my son turned 5, I added my name to the ranks of those who have coached Little League, Babe Ruth, Pony League and then graduating to Summer Collegiate Teams and Fall High School Teams. Over the years I have coached these young men in three D's of Life or better referred to as the 3D's of Baseball. Desire, Dedication and Determination, I have always preached that if you have these three qualities you can reach what you've always dreamed for whether in baseball, life or work. I am honored that some of these guys still find the time to call me and "shoot the bull".

Until, this summer, I would always recruit players or someone who knows someone would call me to be placed on the team. I don't run an elite team, just one where everyone gets to play no matter what the talent level is. This summer coming off the Collegiate season, I really didn't have the time to make a lot of calls and especially with the economy dragging. So, this summer I placed posts on local sports message boards in NJ looking for players.

I had a few calls, placed a few guys and then I had an email from a player. He stated that he was a LHP Pitcher and had pitched in HS and was looking for a fall team to play on. I responded with and email stated we would love to have you on the team. A few days passed and I didn't hear from him, then a few days later I heard from his father. I was a little surprised since I had not heard back from the player. His father and I spoke and he stated, "did my son tell you about his disability", (geez I thought), I responded with no he didn't. With that the father told me that his son has cerebral palsy in his right arm and has no use of it..........., however he is a hard worker and loves the game of baseball, his father reminded me of Jim Abbott . To tell you the truth, I was not sure what to do at that time. I then relied on why I coach, why I run the teams, its not for me its for the guys to get better and hopefully they will be able to advance and play baseball in college. With that I stated we would love to have him on the team.

The day came when Bryan arrived on the team. Bryan is about 6'0" and has good size for baseball. He had no use of his right arm at all and did a glove transfer similar to Jim Abbott.

I find it hard to describe all the great things about this kid. I saw it right away, he already had the 3 D's. His desire to succeed, his determination to get better and his dedication to the sport was probably more than all of the other guys on the team. He's enthusiasm to learn, to work hard and to soak up our knowledge was impressive. Did he throw hard, no, but he was a lefty, and all this kid needed was some confidence. Well, I must say that his attitude and perseverance won everyone over, team members, parents, coaches from other teams and players alike.

On one day he called me and asked if I thought he could pitch in college. I told him there is a college for everyone who still wants to play ball, and I thought he could pitch at some college. His outings kept on getting better and better and he quickly became one of our best pitchers. (confidence, desire, dedication and determination). I had spoken to Bryan and asked if he had contacted any colleges, he said he had however he was not getting much interest. I made a call to a local college and spoke to the coach and told him about Bryan, his demeanor and all of this kids attributes. A few days later the coach came to one of our games, saw Brian pitch and was impressed. He then called Brian and set up a visit with him and his parents to the college. As of a few days ago, Bryan will be going to college and will be playing college baseball.

On this past Sunday, we gave him the ball against one of the best fall teams in the State, we lost 2-1, however Brian pitched all 7 innings, allowed zero earned runs and only two hits. It was one of the finest memories that I will ever have and one that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. So many of us, will say why me and he says why not me? His Desire, Dedication and Determination hits home, and is a great story about a great kid who has the heart to compete, the heart to win and the heart to never give up.

My hats off to Bryan, way to go kid!

MFP Copier Sales Tips "Distance Yourself from The Pack"

Whew! I must say that they last ten years selling for a Ricoh Dealership has been interesting.

When I first started with my dealership back in 1998, Ricoh has just purchased Savin and Savin purchased Gestetner or something like that. Anyway it was easier to sell Ricoh when there was not a saturation of the marketplace that we have today. We all know that Lanier, Savin, Ikon, and Ricoh Business Systems all have the same boxes along with IBM and Toshiba carrying "x" amount of Ricoh boxes.

In essence there was a tremendous need to "Distance Myself from the Pack".

So, how do you make yourself different from the other MFP Copier Sales reps. Well, one of the first things I did was to give myself a NEW title. The title that I came up with was Docusultant (“DOCUSULTANT" Doc.u.sult.ant noun [dókya_súltant]. Professional advisor specializing in document management distribution and strategy.). Now, I can't tell you how many times clients have commented on the title and then asked what is a Docusultant, along with statements like "Interesting, Unique, I never seen this before". In that first moment I have created curiosity and distanced myself from Sales Rep, Account Rep, Sales Manager, Account Rep, and all if the countless other titles that just tell the customer you want to sell them something.

Something else that I keep with me at all times is a vertical market account list. I have eight or nine different vertical markets with my customers names and locations. At anytime during the meeting I can refer to other clients in the same industry that they may know. By referring to this list an asking them if they know any of these accounts establishes creditability that you have already placed successful equipment and solutions within their type of business. If you're not talking about this, again you're like everyone else and your customer does not want "everyone" else. They want creative, resourceful and out of the box thinkers and solutions. What you bring to the table is refreshing and not the same boring inexperienced rep or the rep who has no desire, dedication to the business. Setting yourself apart from the pack makes you unique, different and they will listen more intently when you speak.

Just lately, I have added another resource to set myself apart from the others and I tell you, no one is doing this and this is the resource that puts you in the number one position of creditability and knowledge within the first 5 minutes after you walk in the door for your appointment. It will also help you garner new business and keep on top of all of your clients. If I posted it here, the secret would be out and I would lose my competitive edge in my market place.

If anyone is interested in this last resource send me and email, I will only release this to others outside of my area art@p4photel.com

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Notes from 10-26-08

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.

Kodak’s print controller division, Creo, announced that it will produce a Japanese version of its products to expand its reach worldwide. The first product it will launch in Japan is a controller for the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C65XX series, even though it also partners with HP & Xerox as well.

Xerox announced that it will fire 3,000 employees to cut costs.

Details:
Hopes the reduction in headcount will reduce costs by $200 million
No sales positions were affected the company has eliminated 8,800 positions since 2005 for the last quarter financials:
$258 million net income up 1.6%Profit of 26 cents per share
Gross margins dropped to 39.2% from 40.1%
Will take a $400 million restructuring charge to pay for employee layoffs
Revenue up 2% to $4.4 billion (including benefit of weak dollar of 2%)
Equipment sales down 4%
Production print revenue down 1%
Production b/w systems down 11%
Printer sales down 2.7%
B/W MFPs up 15%
Color MFPs up 23%
Color revenue up 5%
Color pages were up 27%
FM revenue up 6%
Total machines in field up 6%
Supplies revenue up 3%
Will still employ 57,000 workers

Xerox announced it will resell Elixir Vitesse VDP software as an option for its production color systems.

Xerox launched a new option to assist print shop owners sell output from their production color systems, called “Mail Shop in a Box”:
web-based sales training
webinars seven step guide to success
interactive CD-ROM
walks print shop owners through developing strategic marketing plan
how to purchase postal certified software
how to develop mail piece design
how to acquire mailroom equipment demo videos
templates.
MSRP not announced.

Xerox announced new finishing options for its Nuvera production b/w systems:
In-line tape binder for bound books up to 125 sheets
Basic Finishing Module Direct Connect provides staple/sort, and a connection to third party finishing devices.
CP Bourg PowerSquare Booklet Maker combines saddle stitching, foldering, spine formatting and trimming to produce up to 200 page booklets
Lasermax Roll Systems DocuSheeter NV-R holds 50” diameter paper rolls and cuts into single sheets
CEM DocuConverter cuts, slits and stacks oversized printed sheets with multiple images and delivered on a conveyor

More details on the new Xerox 700 Digital Color Press (which Xerox positions as competition for the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6500):
Monthly print volume range of 20,000 to 75,000 per month recommended by Xerox
Xerox states that product is designed for average monthly print volume of only 35K/month, and at this volume customer would expect to place a service call every 5 weeks
Optional Light Production C Finisher will make booklets with up to 25 sheets of paper, up to 80gsm paper weight
End user can not use Bi-fold or Booklet mode in Copy Mode
Optional Professional Finisher offers maximum of 15 sheet booklets
Paper larger than 11”x17” can not be offset sorted
Maximum paper size of 13”x19.2”
Maximum image area of 12.48”x18.9”
On all paper sizes, there is a void area of at least 4mm
150 second warm up time from exiting sleep mode
Advertised as offering 2400dpi (actual is 600dpi, but divides pixel into quadrants)(does not offer true 8 bits per pixel)
Color consistency of DeltaE 7
Front to back registration during duplex of 1mm for drawers, up to 3mm for stack sheet bypass
Skew registration of 1mm
Xerox tells end users that they may have to turn off unit every 20,000 prints to reset
When unit needs hole punch tray or staple waste tray to be emptied, machine mistakenly tells end user to place service call
Can auto duplex coated stocks from the three internal paper drawers
End user is warned that when closing one of the three main internal paper drawers, that paper guides may slip and cause paper size mismatch error
Internal paper drawers hold up to 220gsm maximum paper weight only
Up to 300gsm in the bypass or optional paper feed unit (unit slows down when running thick or coated stocks, as slow as ½ speed)
Auto duplex supports up to 220gsm only
Supply yields published:
Unit holds two black toner cartridges at one time, each with a yield of 20,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
Cyan and yellow yield 22,000
Magenta yield of 21,000
Black OPC drum yield of 354,000
Cyan, yellow & magenta
OPC drum yield of 156,000 each
Toner waste bottle of 33,000
Charge corotron yield of 175,000
Fuser yield of 200,000
Main engine weighs 583lbs.

October 22nd was the 70th anniversary of the invention of the world’s first toner based copier by Chester Carlson. This was after 4 years of tinkering in his mother-in-law’s beauty salon. The first toner was made from waxy moss spores. This invention led to the first Xerox copier in 1949, and the first successful model, the Xerox 914, was launched in 1959. Mr. Carlson died in 1968, while walking the streets of New York, after earning $150 million from his invention.

Oce’ announced that it will relabel the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6501 and call it the Oce’ CS665.

Oce’ announced the new VarioPrint 4000 series of production b/w systems:
will replace the current 2000 series (2105, 2110, etc.)
Model# 4120 offers 120ppm
Model#4110 offers 110ppm
Units are made by Oce’
Up to 2.5 million per month duty cycles
Uses Oce’s patented CopyPress technology meaning that fuser uses primarily pressure instead of heat to get toner to stick to paper
Oce’ PRISMAsync print controller offers PostScript and PCL print drivers
4110 can be upgraded to a 4120
Pricing not announced

Oce’ announced the Media Enhancement Model (MEM) for the VarioPrint 6000 series which will allow these production b/w systems to now handle up to 350gsm paper weights, including coated stocks.

EFI announced it has sold one of its two buildings in Foster City, CA. The buyer is Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company, which purchased the 163,000 square foot building and 30 acres of land for $137.5 million.

Ricoh announced that its Document Mall document management solution now offers connectivity to the CRM software, salesforce.com. This also happens to be the CRM package that is used by Ricoh’s factory direct branches.

Ricoh announced a free universal PCL print driver that supposedly will work with almost any brand of printer or MFP. Unknown how compatible the driver is, or how it accesses features of non-Ricoh devices. (Xerox recently announced a similar driver, which was found to have limitations for non-Xerox devices).

The driver is a free download from http://www.ricoh-usa.com/.

IKON announced its last quarters financials (possibly the last issued due to its impending acquisition by Ricoh) total revenue was $1.1 billion
operating income of $39.3 million
net income fell from $27.6 million to $21.8 million
interest expense of $13 million
no revenue growth
costs associated with pending acquisition trimmed $6.5 million from profits for the year, revenues declined $2 million
The European Commission approved the impending acquisition of IKON by Ricoh
The Brualdi Law Firm of New York is suing to try to stop the sale of IKON

John Bennett of England was sentenced to 7 years in prison and banned from ever owning a color copier after he was caught forging currency.

Konica Minolta purchased a Dutch copier dealer, Kopieersystemen Nederland BV. Purchase price not announced.
Konica Minolta announced it has opened a factory direct branch in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

Robson Print announced that it has purchased a Canon imagePRESS C6000VP to produce variable data direct mail pieces.

Kodak announced that it will allow Oce’ to sell its NexPress production color systems in The Netherlands.

The Seybold Report claims that 90% of the color laser copies/prints sold by print for pay shops are just short-runs of the same image. This suggests that variable data direct mail jobs are still not strongly marketed by the print for pay industry. The authors of the report claim it is due to lack of education of the print shop owners, and their customers about the benefits of using VDP to increase company’s sales/revenue.

Toshiba Vice President Masakazu in an interview stated:
will invest $3.7 billion in its semiconductor division
expects loss of $650 millionf rom now until end of 2010
will spend a total of $10 billion in research & development of computer chips “Our aim is to be No. 1 in memory production”

More details on what Kyocera announced to its dealers during the recent national dealer meeting:
In December, will start a new TV ad campaign to promote the new “TASKalfa” brand name (to compete with Ricoh’s “Aficio”, Konica Minolta’s “bizhub”, Canon’s “imageRUNNER”, etc.)
Ads will feature a spinning color pinwheel, and an animated character named “Alfi”
Will launch Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions (HyPAS), or allowing software to be embedded into the control pane of the MFP
Uses both Java and Web services
First partner is Equitrac
ScanFlow Studio allows end users to customize the control panel and is a free download
New color laser MFPs are 500CI, 400CI, 300CI & 250CIMay offer 8 bit color
500CI offers 50ppm b/w and 40ppm color
Black toner yield up to 25,000 pages based on 5% coverage
Color toners yield up to 18,000 pages based on 5% coverage
Up to two 80GB hard drivesColor LCD touch screen control panel
Up to 11”x17” paper
Built-in print controller with PCL and PostScript (Peerless technology)

Lexmark announced its financials for its third quarter:total revenue was down 5% to $1.13 billion will launch 38 new products this year has more than $1 billion in cash and marketable securities revenue from business class laser printers/MFPs up 4% to $760 million consumer product revenue down 21% to $371 million
gross profit margin of 32.5%
operating expenses increased 1.7%
the company repurchased $274 of its own stock to boost its value, including $100 million which was owned by Bank of America
total debt and liabilities of $2.28 billion
stock price dropped to $25.71
net income dropped fell to $36.6 million from $45.2 million
Lexmark announced details of some of its new models:
Model# X658 series of b/w laser MFPs
Floor standing A4 model
55ppm top speed
Most likely made by Fuji of Japan
Base MSRP of $3799.00
Copy/scan/print
Optional fax board
80GB hard drive
Full color LCD control panel
Optional extended warranties do NOT include consumables
Comes standard with one paper drawer
Can add up to three more 550 sheet paper drawers
Optional internal stapling sorter
Comes standard with document feeder and auto duplex
Model# X656 series of b/w laser MFPs
Desktop A4 model
Base MSRP of $2749
Copy/print/scan
Optional fax board
Comes standard with one paper drawer
Top speed of 55ppm
Most likely made by Fuji of Japan
Scans in color
9” full color LCD control panel (customer’s logo can be added to background)
Built-in print controller with 600MHz processor & 256MB RAM
1200x1200dpi
Document feeder and auto duplex
Optional extended warranties do NOT include supplies
Handles up to 75gsm paper weights only
Toner cartridge yield of 36,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
Model# X651 & X652 series
45ppm b/w MFPs
Scans up to 55opm
Base MSRP of $1599
Copy/print/scanOptional fax
7” color LCD control panel

Lexmark model# C540 series
A4 color laser printer
21ppm top speed
4 tandem OPC drum design
1200x1200dpi (not 8 bits per pixel)
Base MSRP of $349
C544 model offers 25ppm speed for $449
MFP version is the X540 with copy/print/scan for $599
Optional fax board
Optional extended warranties do NOT include supplies

Sharp began a very expensive TV ad campaign for its new Frontier series of color MFPs:
Ads running on cable news programs (i.e. Fox News, CNN, etc.)
New series features a brushed aluminum exterior
4 tandem OPC drum design
MX-C311 offers 31ppm b/w or color
MX-C401 offers 40ppm b/w or color
Both are A4 models (letter and legal size paper only)
Copy/print/scan
Optional fax board
Optional internal finisher (unit has the “hole in the middle” design, and staple/sort mechanism can be placed in the middle so that it does not hang off the side for a smaller footprint)
8.5” HD full color LCD touch screen control panel
Can play flash video clips
Both scan color up to 35opm top speed
IEEE-2600-2008 security standard compliant
Supports IPv6 connectivity standard
Optional hard drive erase data security kit
Features OSA, meaning units can have software applications embedded into the control panel
Remote Front Panel allows someone at a computer workstation to see exactly what someone at the copier control panel is doing
Can remotely change copier settings
Help desk could remotely show end user how to perform a function

Will be advertised as allowing a copier dealer to reduce service calls
All PM parts are removable without tools including:
4 toner cartridges
4 OPC drums
Primary mylar film transfer belt
Secondary mylar film transfer belt
Paper feed rollers
Document feeder rollers

Advertised as allowing end users to perform some service on their own (similar to Xerox’s strategy)

Customers will have access to “mySharp.com” where they can view 50 different video clips to train them on usage of the product

Reminders when competing against the Sharp MX-6200N color laser MFP:While b/w speed is 62ppm, the color speed is ONLY 41ppm (making it slower than the Konica Minolta bizhub C451)

Since Sharp outsources their print controller development, their standard controller offers only PCL standard.
PostScript is an expensive option
Sharp can only handle up to 110lb. index (can not handle or auto duplex 10point)
Paper drawers can only hold up to 28lb.
Sharp does not offer a biometric security option
The optional Sharp fax board supports only 400dpi for fax resolution (compared to 600dpi with bizhub)
Fax memory is only 8MB (as compared with 128MB)
Sharp does not offer dual fax line option
Sharp uses pulverized toner infused with wax
Optional booklet maker can only make booklets up to 15 sheets
Sharp does not offer tri-fold option
Since Sharp uses old-style fusing section, unit takes up to 3 minutes to warmup
Color LCD control panel does not tilt
No help keyDoes not offer on-the-fly toner replacement
If end users owns the optional LCT, it must be removed in order to access some paper jams
Does not have paper size sensors in paper drawers
If customer buys the optional EFI Fiery, they can no longer use the standard print controller


The country’s largest trade show for print buyers, Print Oasis 2009, will be held at the J.W. Marriott in Phoenix, AZ on 5/17-19/2009.MFP

MFP Wars "Sharp Rolls out new Color A4 devices"

“I expect the Frontier Series (MX-C311 and MX-C401) to eventually change the way we view MFPs entirely, said Ed McLaughlin, President, Sharp.

What an impressive statement from Ed McLaughlin, and I agree! Sharp is the world’s first true copier manufacturer to take a bold step into the future and go where no copier manufacturer has gone before (had to put that in there). There are other A4 devices on the market today, however these models are OEM’d by printer manufacturers (thus being printer centric) such as HP and Samsung. Xerox, and Muratec resell the Samsung devices, while HP markets their own device.

I am dumbfounded that the giants of the industry such as Xerox, Ricoh and Canon have sat on their hands and have not developed their own A4 device. Canon, Ricoh and Xerox have some A4 devices but they are primarily a printer with a scanner attached, thus you have the high cost per page associated with printers, slow first copy times, no finishing, and limited features that are essential for the day to day work flows of the general office.

Things I like about these units:

Optional Business Card Feeder
Speed 31 and 41 pages per minute in monochrome and color
Optional Internal Finisher can hold up to 280 pages and staple up to 30 pages
Direct USB Scanning and Printing
80 GB Hard Drive
500 Sheet Paper Drawers
Account Control up to 1,000 users
Color Scanning in TIFF, PDF, Encrypted PDF and XPS
In Bound Fax Routing
Automatically Staple Incoming Faxes
Large 8.5 inch Wide Screen Color Touch Display
38GB of the Hard Drive used for Document Storage with thumbnail previews and image view modes
User Authentication for Network Scanning

Things I Don’t Like:

Maximum Paper weight through Paper drawers is 28lbs
Max Paper weight through the by-pass is 110lb index
Slow First Copy Time for Color 11.5 seconds based on document feeder
Slow First Copy Time for Black 8.9 seconds based on document feeder
This unit only weighs 107lbs (a lot of plastic?)
19 different types of supplies

What I would like to have seen:

11x17 platen glass for scanning
Larger Capacity Document Feeder
Faster Warm Up
Heavier Paper Stock Capability


There’s a lot more that I like compared to what I don’t like here. However, I am concerned about the weight of the unit. 107 lbs seems very light. I guess time will tell. Another point and I think this will be a big drawback on the system; the system has 19 different supply items. I can tell you from first hand experience that the end users have a problem with stocking or buying all of these units if they are not on a cost per page. Heck, I don’t now the supply pricing yet, but having to have stock on all of these kits, toner, developer, drums, fuser, transfer belt primary, transfer belt secondary, DF roller, etc could cost the end user a few thousand dollars to keep them in stock. Keep in mind that these units can be replaced by the end user (so the brochure leads me to believe).

At this time I also have no clue as to the MSRP of each unit. What I can tell other dealers and sales people is that if you don’t have an A4 device to compete with this unit, YOU WILL LOSE BUSINESS, from existing accounts and potential new accounts. If you don’t think these machines and the others they are developing won’t get on State Contracts ASAP, you will lose business.

All in all I think the Frontier line will be a winner for Sharp. I think this will vault Sharp back to a top tier player in the industry. I also hope that my dealership calls Sharp and takes on this line ASAP!

-=Good Selling=-

Copier & MFP Sales Tips

MFP Copier Cold Calling

Some of us like and most of us of don’t like it. It’s the COLD CALL, the day from hell or the day to have some fun. If you've been doing it as long as I have, well then you to have paid a small fortune in shoes, along with sore ankles at the end of the day.

I must say the most daunting task is to open a door where you can’t see what is on the other side, will there be rejection or jubilation! Most times it will be rejection. Get use to it, its part of the job and comes with the territory. Attitude, Attitude and more tude will help you overcome the rejection and plow ahead. You always must keep in mind that you are there to give them a better solution or a better way of doing things, and if they are not interested then that’s their loss!

What, I hate most is a NO SOLICITING sign on the door. I think it’s rude and vulgar, every single one of these companies sell something to someone. Full speed ahead right? You may want to think twice about this and send the owner or CEO a fedex letter or package. That will get their attention.

Here are a few tips to get you going

Make Quality Cold Calls

Make a plan to visit those companies you'd like to do business with. Before you’re on your merry way do some research on those companies via the Internet. Find out the name of the CEO, CFO or the principal, find out what they do and who they do business with. When you're in the office, ask for help. “Can you help me? I like to know who is the person who takes care of your blueprint system”, then ask for additional help such as “When I speak to him or her, can you help with some additional information so I can be prepared when we speak” Your main objective is to get the “right” name and you also may want to ask what the best time to contact that person is.

Send literature

As soon as you get back to the office, send an opening letter and some literature. Be specific when you are going to call that person such as naming the date and the time of the phone call.

Follow up call

Remember that date and time that you gave them for the follow up call. Use it to your advantage and stage your call at the precise time you said you would. Even if you don’t get through, the message will leave a big impression that you followed up when you said you would.

Create Interest in the first 5 seconds

Hello Mr. or Mrs. Smith. Our company specializes in the cost reduction of wide format blueprint systems. Depending on what equipment you have now, and your objectives you may want to consider taking a look at our cost saving devices.

ABC (Always Be Cold Calling)

Over the years I have found Cold Calling to be the best way to find new business. Try some vertical market cold calling next time. For instance let’s say you want to focus on the AEC market. Do the research on the Internet in your territory and pick out ten firms that you think would need your services. Vertical Market Cold Calls are awesome, the more you do, the more you’ll become proficient in their needs and applications.

Xerography Turns 70

Who woulda thunk that 10-22-38 Astoria would go down in history. Just yesterday Xerography celebrated it's 70th anniversary. I can remember my first technicians class where we learned f Chester A. Carlson' Invention. Here's the history of Chester, Haliod and Xerox.

History of The Copier

Chester Carlson, the inventor of photocopying was originally a part time researcher, inventor and patent attorney. His job at the patent office in New York required him to make a large number of copies of important documents. Carlson started to find that this became a painful and tiresome procedure. This encouraged him to carry out experiments with photoconductivity and electro photography in 1938.

Carlson made history when he created the first "photocopy" using a zinc plate, covered with sulphur. He used a microscope slide with the words "10-22-38 Astoria" written on it. He placed the slide on top of more sulphur and under a bright light. After the slide was removed, a mirror image of the words remained.

Carlson tried to sell his invention to a number of companies, but he failed because the process was still underdeveloped and multiple copies were made using carbon paper or duplicating machines, and people didn’t feel the need for an electronic machine. Between 1939 and 1944, Carlson was turned down by over twenty companies, including IBM and GE. They believed that there was no major market for the technology.

In 1944 a non-profit organization called Battelle Memorial Institute, signed up with Carlson to improve the process of electro photography. In 1947, a small New York photographic paper company called Haloid approached Battelle and obtained a license to try and develop a new market based on the technology. While Haloid and Carlson were working on the development, they decided that the phrase "electro photography" was too mind blowing and didn’t have a good remembrance value, so they consulted a classical language professor at Ohio State University and later changed the name to Xerography, which meant "dry writing" in Greek. Haloid called the new copier machines Xerox, which were later trademarked in 1948.

Xerox introduced the first xerographic copier in 1949 which became so successful that photocopying became popularly known as Xeroxing. As the technology started developing, a new process of copying was discovered, which produced a copy of an electrostatic image by transferring a drum and a plastic powder called toner onto paper by being heated and fused. During the extensive adoption of the xerographic copier technology, Kodak's Verifax photo-direct copy machines were being used.

In 1969 Verifax prints required supplies costing 0.15 dollars, where Xerox prints could be made for 0.03 dollars including paper and labour. At that period, thermo fax photocopying machines where very popular in libraries and resource centres. The minimum wage for a US worker was 1.65 dollars and thermo fax photocopying machines produced letter-sized copies for around 0.25 dollars. Xerographic copier manufacturers took advantage of the high perceived value situation and by the early 1970s they marketed specially designed paper for only xerographic productivity. By the end of the 1970s the xerographic procedure was one of the known requirements for most paper producers and office paper brands.

In the 1980s, Xerox’s ability developed into allowing colour photocopies to be made. Around this time, some copier machines started to be replaced from the older drum-based procedure to a new technology using a transfer film or an inkjet. They also gradually become more advanced by being able to use untreated plain office paper for copying. As the copier technology progressed further, photocopiers were capable of printing duplex, two sided documents and the ability to sort and staple documents.In recent years, photocopiers have replaced the older analogue process to the latest digital technology.

With digital copying, copiers now effectively include a laser printer with an integrated scanner. This provides the copier with many capabilities such as automatic image quality enhancement and the ability to scan documents while printing them independently. Several digital copiers can function as high-speed scanners and can send documents via email or to a local network. When copying a set of twenty pages twenty times, a digital copier scans each page only once and then uses the stored information to produce twenty sets. This process is called automatic digital collation and is one of the greatest advantages of digital copiers. When trying to do the same with an analogue copier, each page will need to be scanned twenty times, which will generate one set at a time, or by alternatively using twenty separate output trays for the twenty sets.

Low-end copiers also use digital technology and tend to consist of an ordinary scanner with an inkjet or a relatively inexpensive laser printer. These are much slower than a technical sophisticated office machine, but they are built in at a lower cost. Some low-end copiers also provide all-in-one solutions allowing colour copying combined with a printer and fax machine which is a great advantage for someone with a low budget.

Coloured toner became available in the 1950s, however full colour copier machines were not commercially available until 3M released the Color-in-Color copier in 1968. The Color-in-Color copier used a dye sublimation process instead of the previous electrostatic technology, although the first electrostatic colour copier became available when Canon released it in 1973.

The Ultimate MFP

I was on the phone today with a potential customer. This customer has a high volume somewhere in the area of 10 million pages per month. So we starting talking about technology and where it is and where is might go. We spoke in length about the HP Edgeline, CTP for Duplicators, however where we ended up is talking about just adding a splash of color to a monochrome document.

Well, I know the HP Edgeline (highlight color) can do this, however his media requirements does not make the Edgeline a good fit. As a matter of fact it seemed there is no good fit for him. His statement was that they need to add a single color line or a word in color and with his present equipment he would have a charge of six cents per page just for the splash of color. His customers would not pay the price.

In another thought I remember a system from SeriPrinter that actually had a VDP head at the end of the curing process. My question to all of the manufacturers out there is why can't a laser system be developed that prints monochrome but allows the user to add a splash of color or logo with with ink similar to the Seri Printer?

I would tend to think the market for a dedicated system would be tremendous. Thoughts from anyone????

-=Good Selling=-

Art

Copier Dealerships "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" Part Deux

Well, I had a pretty good rant in my last blog about "The Ugly Copier " Dealerships and I figure I might as well tell it like it is for the the "The Good Copier" Dealerships.

I should have had a few more drinks like the guys in the picture to the left. Acutually, that picture was from a reception that I attended in Sendai, Japan a few years ago. I'll tell you one thing the Japanese know how to have a good time!!

The Dealerships that will vault to the next step in their evolution will have these attributes:

• Monthly Sales Meetings to Establish Goals


• Inventory


• Test Equipment


• Demonstration Systems


• Marketing Campaigns including Web, Email, Mail, Local Advertising and Telemarketing


• Monthly Ongoing Training for Hardware & Software


• Systems to Train on


• Product Launch Meetings


• Short and Long Term Goals


• Yearly Raises


• Quarterly Company Meetings


• Specialists for Third Party Solution Software


• Financing for Growth

Successful dealerships must have a core plan, a strategy for winning business and knowing where their strengths and weaknesses are. Plotting a course focusing on your strengths will allow you to garner more business and higher profits. I truly think the days of a dealership being able to be an expert in all markets may be coming to an end. So, the focus will be more of picking three or four or maybe five different markets where your products and level of support is plus, thus this will enable "The Good" Dealership to have a win, win and dominate business in those markets. Easy to do this in large market areas, however in smaller markets you still may have to go after all markets.

-=Good Selling=-

Art

Copier Dealers "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly"

What type of dealership do you work for? Being in the industry for 28 years allows me to have worked will all of them, the Good the Bad and the Ugly!

I had heard from a friend of mine today, he was so feed up with the dealership he worked for that he was contemplating leaving the industry altogether. That would be a shame after that person had devoted 10 years to the dealership and 30 years in the industry.

It behooves me on how a dealership can expect you to perform at or above quota when all of the below is lacking:

• Demo Equipment


• Inventory


• Systems to Train on


• Systems to Print Samples Prints for Clients


• Meetings to Reach Goals


• Monthly "Team" Numbers


• On Going Training for Hardware


• On Going Training for Software


• New Product Launch Meetings


• Antiquated Expenses (Based on Fuel prices from 1999)


• Yearly Raises (Cost of Living)


• Goals (Whether hardware, or GP)


• Credit

The above example would be one of the "Ugly" Copier Dealerships and I do know a few of these.

Some may think that these are the worst of times for dealers while other will admit that these are the best of times. The best of times can be attributed to Copier Dealers that have the 3 D's to success. Desire (you can't teach this, you either have it or you don't), Determination (to always succeed at a high level no matter what you do), Dedication (to YOUR business and the industry), hey it's your lively hood right?

The Ugly Dealerships are still operating like it was 1986 and the Bad Dealerships are stuck in the nineties. The Good Dealerships have the 3 D's and are embracing technology and putting money and resources into the next generation of people who will succeed in our industry.
Enough said, I work for one of the three, The Good, The Bad or the Ugly!

Ricoh Universal Print Driver

The Ricoh Universal Print Driver uses bidirectional communication to connect with and determine the capabilities of the printing device. For newer devices, the Universal Print Driver provides the full functionality of the device including advanced features and finishing capabilities.

Ricoh Corp. Press Release

Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced the latest release of its PCL6 Driver for Universal Print designed to expand the versatility of an organization’s printing network. The Printer Command Language (PCL) driver enables users to print from a wide range of systems without downloading separate drivers for each output device, reducing a company’s total cost of ownership. It is compatible with a wide range of PCL printers and multifunction products (MFPs) from Ricoh, as well as other major manufacturers.

Ricoh’s PCL6 Driver provides a single, flexible driver that eliminates the need for product-specific drivers in order to operate print devices in one network. Time-consuming tasks such as analyzing driver compatibility, installing drivers at individual workstations and retraining users on how to access specific print features are no longer necessary, streamlining the printing process throughout an organization. In addition, the PCL6 Driver shortens the certification process for new print devices and enables administrators to integrate new machines onto the network without installing any new drivers.

“The versatility Ricoh’s PCL6 Driver provides to a business’s printing capabilities truly simplifies operations, both for IT administrators and regular employees,” said Hede Nonaka, executive vice president, Ricoh Americas Corporation. “Managing multiple print drivers is a constant battle for an organization, particularly for companies with multiple printing devices and employees working remotely. We are excited to introduce the PCL6 Driver, as it increases workflow efficiency by enabling seamless printing from anywhere in the network.”

The PCL6 Driver for Universal Print is available as a free download from Ricoh’s website. For more information on all Ricoh products and solutions, please visit www.ricoh-usa.com.

Top 5 Items when Leasing or Purchasing an MFP Device

These are my top five items I would address when needing a new MFP/Copier.

1. 1. Know your present and future needs: Since almost all MFP/Copiers are leased, you need to have a handle on your present and future needs. Will I need Network faxing or walkup faxing, scan documents to email, scan to folder, walk up authentication, TWAIN scanning, paper sizes needed to print, scan, fax or copy, color scan, color copy, color print.
   
   
2. Know what your existing Costs are: How can you make a decision on a new product if you don't know your existing costs. Current Lease if any, costs for supplies, cost for service, cost for maintenance agreement, how many sheets of paper you have used for printing or copying in a week, month or year.
   
   
3. Interview your vendor: Ask for references, ask how long the rep has been with the firm, ask how long they have been in business, ask about third party software, its not just about printing, copying, scanning and faxing anymore. Today there are many third party software solutions that will integrate with your mfp to simplify or increase productivity. Ask for quotes on three different systems that he or she thinks would meet your needs.
   
   
4. What is the Cost: When leasing, ask about the end of lease options. What is best for you $1.00 purchase option or Fair Market Value. Ask about hidden charges such as documentation fees, insurance, interest rate, lease return clause and return fees.



5. Ask " How Can We Save Money" without losing productivity or quality: Any rep worth their weight in salt will be able to structure a cost savings proposal for you. However, you need to ask.

MFP INDUSTRY NOTES 10-19-08

The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications.


- In an interview, Kirk Yoshida, chairman and CEO of Ricoh stated:
o After IKON is officially acquired by Ricoh, IKON sales reps will be told to “refrain from soliciting any Ricoh, Lanier, Savin or Gestetner account of an authorized Ricoh, Lanier or Savin dealer.
o The main focus will be upgrading current IKON customers to Ricoh products (it is estimated that IKON has 720,000 non-Ricoh products in the field)
o After acquisition, Ricoh’s office equipment revenue will surpass that of Xerox worldwide
o Currently, Ricoh’s revenue is $16 billion, while Xerox’s is $17.2 billion
o Canon’s office equipment revenue is $11 billion, but $24.9 billion overall

- Ricoh claims that during the Total Print! Show in England, it sold 18 of the new Aficio PRO C900 production color systems. The company will also sell the product in its InfoPrint division, which it acquired from IBM. The product will be labeled InfoPrint ProC900

- Ricoh announced that Nori Goto, who was running all operations in the U.S., will be returning to Japan. Martin Brodigan, who previously ran the Canadian operations, was promoted to President and CEO. Dennis Dispenziere, formerly Director of Account Services, is now Senier Vice President and CFO.

- Ricoh launched several new A3 color laser MFPs, the Aficio MP C2800/C3300/C4000/C5000 series featuring:
o These replace the Aficio MP C2500/C3000/C3500/C4500 series
o 28ppm, 33ppm, 40ppm & 50ppm speeds respectively (color or b/w)
o Base MSRPs of $10,750, $12,550, $13,995 & 17,250
o Use polymerized toner, called Ricoh PxP technology
o Full color touch screen LCD control panel
o Up to 1200x1200dpi (does not offer 8 bits per pixel)
o Paper drawers hold up to 140lb. index, up to 11”x17”
 Two 500 sheet paper drawers standard
 Top drawer holds letter size portrait paper only
 100 sheet stack bypass holds up to 140lb. index
o Auto duplex supports up to 90lb. index only (can not auto duplex 10pt.)
o 6.5 second first copy out time for color and 3.9 seconds for b/w
o 45 second warmup time
o Optional analog fax board
o Reversing automatic document feeder holds up to 50 originals, up to 50opm scan speed
o Built-in print controller
 Scan to e-mail/LDAP/SMB/FTP/URL/TWAIN
 600MHz processor for C2800/C3300, 1GHz for C4000/C5000
 1GB RAM and 80GB hard drive
 PCL print driver standard
 Optional PostScript driver
o Optional finishers include booklet maker &2/3 hole punch
o 120K PM cycle

- A Ricoh branch sales rep apparently gave a $3500 bribe to a school official. In White Plains, NY, Arthur Ross, formerly head of purchasing for Mount Vernon School District, was convicted by Westchester County Court of accepting the bribe, and then awarding a contract to Ricoh. The 5 year contract was for over $1 million, and included 73 copiers, and was awarded on 8/3/2005.



- Ricoh also announced it will launch on 12/1/08 a new series of A4 color laser MFPs, the Aficio MP C2030, C2050 & 2550 featuring:
o 20ppm and 25ppm speeds
o Letter/legal size paper only
o Optional internal finisher with stapling
o Optional hole punch
o Built-in print controller
 Scan to e-mail/LDAP/SMB/FTP/USB/TWAIN
o Full color LCD touch screen control panel
o 1200x1200dpi (not 8 bits per pixel)
o Optional fax board
o 26 second warmup time
o MSRPs not yet announced

- Street pricing seen in the print for pay market:
o Xerox 700 Digital Color Press w/Creo/LCT/staple sorter for $60,100. Color click at $0.049 and b/w clicks at $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Used Xerox DocuColor 242 w/Fiery for $12,500 with color clicks at $0.069 and $0.0129 for b/w clicks. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Canon imageRUNNER C5185 w/Fiery/booklet maker for $20,500 with color clicks at $0.069 and $0.01 for b/w. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Canon imageRUNNER 7105 w/Fiery/booklet maker/LCT/hole-punch/cover inserter for $34,100 with b/w clicks at $0.0042. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o IKON Print Center PRO1050 w/stapler sorter/paper feed unit for $37,500 with b/w clicks at $0.0039. 11”x17” billed as one click.

- When IKON stops selling Canon, and combined with loss of distribution of DANKA and Global, Canon will lose $1 billion in sales worldwide.

- Xerox announced new finishing options for its monochrome (b/w) production print systems:
o SquareFold Booket Trimmer provides creased covers, and face trims the edges of booklets
o High Capacity Stacker allows up to 5,000 sheets on a roll away cart
o Enhanced Booklet Maker, saddle stitches up to 25 sheets (100 page booklet)

- In the cable TV show “Mad Men”, the one of the props on set is the first Xerox copier, the 914 model.

- Xerox now offering version 7.0 of its FreeFlow server with following new features:
o Base MSRP of $4000
o enhanced color matching
o intuitive interface for simple job submission
o customizable security features
o can scan documents from MFP and have them routed to production systems for printing

- Xerox’s document assessment program is called Office Document Assessment:
o Uses both FM Audit and PrintAudit to track printer usage
o Takes 8 to 12 weeks to complete
o Uses Lead Six Sigma Methodology
o Includes three components:
 “Voice of Customer” is result of customer interview of company environment
 “Voice of the Process” maps out workflow
 “Voice of the Environment” discusses all costs such as employee labor, equipment kilowatt hours of power used, and cost of square footage taken up by machines.
o 30 consultants cover the U.S.



- Oce’ claims to have won a bid where it replaced 1100 copiers and printers, and 1000 fax machines with 400 networked MFPs.

- Strahm Automation & Mailing Services of Kansas City, MO acquired an Oce’ ColorStream 10000 production color system. This system uses rolls of paper, and produces full color at 172ipm.

- Integrated Book Technology of New York purchased Hewlett Packard Indigo 7000 production color system, which can print full color at 120ppm.

- Home Dialysis Plus announced it will create a machine to clean blood using inkjet cartridge technology from Hewlett Packard.

- A firm in Montreal, Canada was launched to market used, refurbished copiers to businesses in the U.S. It is called “copierscopiers.com”

- Sharp announced a new option for its MFPs, from Cyptek Corp. The option is the DCL310S Netgard card reader, which companies or government agencies can use to prevent unauthorized usage of the MFP.

- Brother Corp. announced it will use Pitney Bowes technicians to provide on-site service to end users who have Brother laser printers.

- Toshiba provided more details on its Encompass program:
o a document assessment program for managed print services
o According to Bill Melo, VP of National Accounts Marketing & Operations, stated that up to 13% of its sales are result of document assessment
o Manages both Toshiba and non-Toshiba branded equipment
o Uses Six Sigma Methodology
o Has 9 analysts to cover the U.S., who receive a straight salary
o Uses FM Audit’s USB discovery tool
o Average time to complete an assessment is 4 days
o Creates a floor plan of customer’s office using Adobe Illustrator
o Data is imported into Toshiba’s Encompass, which includes QuickQuotes to create proposal for end user
o Currently Toshiba is producing 2,000 proposals per month
o Encompass is available to dealers on a subscription basis (pricing not stated)

- Kyocera at its dealer meeting announced that for its new TASKalfa series of copiers will have a 3 year or 300,000 click warranty for all parts. In other words, dealers who sell these models would not have any parts cost for up to 3 years.

- When asked if using only dealers would allow Samsung to gain marketshare in the MFP industry, SungHwan Yo, VP of Product Planning, stated; “We may re-evaluate the possibility of buying a direct operation”

- Vermilion County, Illinois, is reviewing its decision to award a $200,000 copier bid to CDS Office Technologies, after protests were raised by other dealers.

- EFI announced it has purchased another wide format color inkjet printer manufacturer. Raster Graphics of San Jose, CA, maker of Daytona series products, was purchased for $3 million.

Former Mount Vernon Purchasing Agent Convicted of accepting bribe from Ricoh Americas Corp Rep

We at the Ricoh Family Group P4P Hotel have followed this closely and posted many comments, since it hits so close to home. A former head of purchasing for Mount Vernon School District has been convicted for accepting bribes, below is the press release from the local Mount Vernon paper. I don't know the law, but I feel that the sales rep and Ricoh Americas Corp should also be held accoutable for offering the bribe, right??

WHITE PLAINS – The former head of purchasing for the Mount Vernon City School District was convicted Friday of bribe receiving, official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities.Arthur Rose, 49, of Mount Vernon, was convicted in Westchester County Court on two counts of bribe receiving as felonies, three counts of official misconduct as misdemeanors and one count of receiving unlawful gratuities as a misdemeanor.

Between mid-June and mid-July 2005, rose, the former head of purchasing at the school district, accepted a bribe of $3,500 from a sales representative of Ricoh Americans Corporation for his assurance that the company would receive a five year contract from the district for 73 digital copiers, support products and related services.On August 3, 2005, based on Rose’s recommendation, the school district gave Ricoh the contract which exceeded $1 million.

Between June and September 2006, Rose solicited and received a bribe in the form of a $10,000 donation to his church from the owner of Tri-State Supply Company, a custodial supply company, in exchange for future business, which was later awarded.When sentenced, Rose faces up to seven years in state prison.

Ricoh Vision Observations from P4P Hotel Members

Special Thanks to P4P members, IT Dude and Old Glory for this valued information on the 2008 Ricoh Dealer Show held in Orlando, Florida from 10/13-15.

"It was refreshing seeing Yoshida back at the helm, however Ricoh obviously has a tremendous amount of damage control to do within the dealer channel. There were a number of dealers not present at the dealer awards dinner, and Ricoh obviously had no knowledge of this as they called out names only to get no replies. Quite a few whispers about Cannon aggressively seeking out these disgruntled Ricoh independents. Congrats to fellow P4P,er Drew Murrah as his company won an award in Black/White MFP category. Overall it seemed like the dealers that have been able to get away from just "box" selling to more of a solution type sell thru are making money and many had record years last year, and are expecting the same next year even with the bad economy."

"I felt the attendance was much lower this year, especially at the Awards Dinner which is a shame because the entertainment was awsome. Search Chris Bliss on YouTube and you will get an idea of what I mean. You can see his juggling there but his comedy was even better.

Regarding the new color boxes...the issue really isn't A3 vs A4, it is the issue of price and the assumption is that you can't get a lower price without giving up the ability to do 11x17. It may be true but Ricoh promises to be competitive despite having 11x17. I was told that the new low end color will be $2,000 cheaper (retail) than the current counterparts. Now they may do like they did with the new wide format color scanner and have a lower retail but no margin...won't know until we get pricing.

Ricoh put a lot of emphasis on environmental issues. Expect to hear more about Ricoh's Cradle-to-Cradle philosophy. I personally am not one that believes that climate change is manmade. However, our job is to fulfill the needs and wishes of our prospects and to that end, Ricoh has what it takes. No company within our industry (and few without) can claim anywhere close to the same record as Ricoh can. Ricoh says (and I believe it despite my personal beliefs) that 75% of the public will buy green when they perceive that quality and price are equal. Solution selling can mean a lot of things and for some companies, it may be providing a solution that includes recycling of toner bottles and end-of-life demanufacturing. In the past I have tuned out such rhetoric but I beleive now that is a mistake. We have a lot to offer in this area with much more to come. Be watching for the Ricohvalue.com website where you will be able to calculate things such as how many extra trees are necessary to print to an HP vs a Ricoh. (derived from Power=Energy=Carbon Emmissions=footprint, etc.)

Other thoughts about the show.

CAP - Card Authorization Package which allows an employee identification cards to provide network authentication into the system.

You owe it to yourselves to investigate DigiDocFlow. Very low cost embedded Document Management Solution.

Ricoh has a new (and according to Ricoh exclusive) offering that allows a user to email a print job to a device. The user then gets an email reply with the release code. They then go to the device, type in the code and out comes the print job. This is designed for use with internet hotspots. I can't tell you how often I wish I could print out an attachment that I have received on my BlackBerry but can't view because of the small screen. With this, I could walk into a Books-a-Million that has this and walk out with the print.

The new MFP Platform is called Cosmos. Be watching for Big Bang information coming the week of November 17-21. During this week, Ricoh will be launching the new color boxes in 25 different cities.

Ricoh's new selling strategy is called REV = Real Enhanced Value. Part of this initiative is 5 websites:ricohconnects.com for trainingricohpresents.com for PowerPoint presentationsricohproposes.com replaces eToolsricohsaves.com replaces the COG Calculaterricohvalue.com to calculate environmental impacts of decisions as well as present vs proposed calculations.

All of these offer significant enhancements over their predecessors except for ricohvalue which is new."

Great job from these P4P'ers and we hope to have a few more observations from other P4P members in a few days!

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh Launches New MFP Color Products

From what I've read the C2800/C3300 boxes are identical, however they are not the same as the C4000/C5000. I'll have to take a deeper look and see what the differences are.

But to say the lease the initial MPC2000/2500/3000/3500/4500 were incredible systems and I can oly hope that they have replicated the reliability and quality with these new systems!

Here some recent threads I picked up in reference to the new Color MFP's from Ricoh.

Ricoh is pleased to announce the introduction of the new Ricoh Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Digital Imaging System Product Release Schedule. Built on the phenomenal success of the Aficio MP C2000/C2500/C3000 & C3500/C4500, these new models offer additional functionality, productivity, image quality and ease of use.

Kudos to Ricoh!

-=Good Selling=-

RICOH AFICIO MP C2800/C3300 & C4000/C5000 SERIES HIGHLIGHTS;

Faster output speeds (equal BW/FC speeds on all models)
Benchmark image quality (New PxP toner, 1,200 dpi print resolution)
Faster warm-up and first copy out times
Better paper handling (up to 140lb. Index from all front trays)
Side LCT option for more flexibility
Scan-to-Media option (Scan to USB or SD Card removable media)
Longer PM schedule (120K vs. 80K)
Latest Document Solution & Security features

Ricoh Americas Unveils Color MPC2050/2550

Awesome, to say the least, I haven't been very patient waiting to have our own A4 devices. To tell you the truth I would have been satisfied with A4 monochrome devices, however I'll admit that to have three new COLOR models the MPC2030, MPC2050 (20ppm) and MPC2550 (25ppm) is a stunning addition to the Ricoh lineup of MFP's!!!

Here's a few specs for ya:

An internal finisher with optional 2/3 hole punch
Standard duplexing at nearly 100% of mainframe speed.
Scan to email (w/LDAP), scan to folder (SMB, FTP, NCP), Network TWAIN and Scan to Media (USB/SD Card)
Full color VGA/touch panel monitor
1,200 dpi
Super G3 fax modem with JBIG compression, LAN fax, Internet Fax and auto Fax Forwarding to email/folder
Secure Print, DOSS and HDD Encryption
PxP supplies and a fast warm up time of 26 seconds

These systems are slated launch on December 1, 0f 2008. I'm hoping that these do not have AIO devices and they are similar to all of our other MFP's when it comes to toner cartridges and drum cartridges. I really like the internal finisher, the 2/3 hole punch and the fact that we can scan2usb and SD card. At first glance it seems like the Document Feeder is from the MP161SPF, you can also pick out the USB Slot on the left side of the system.

As of right now I do not have any reports of the MSRP or the estimated CPP. More on this in a few days!!!!