Ink / Toner Coverage Calculator

Ink / Toner Coverage Calculator was a recent topic on the Print4Pay Hotel Ricoh Family Group Message Boards.

One of our members from South Africa asked "Hi, i'm looking for an EXCEL Ink/Toner Coverage Calculator - anyone who can share one with me? Thanks"

In response another one of our members suggested "I don't think I understand your question. You want an Excel Spreadsheet that will... do what?

If you are looking for a program that measures actual ink/toner coverage, this one is nice:

APFill Ink Coverage Calculator is a unique tool for print shops and home users. Now you can optimize pages you print to spend less ink, toner and money. Ink and toner usage is usually described by printer manufacturers as so many pages of A4 using 5% coverage. APFill Ink Coverage Calculator helps you calculate ink and toner coverage on the page before printing. When you use APFill Ink Coverage you can estimate your cost more accurately. APFill will help you to estimate price based on paper density, paper format and original color density, so you can optimize pages you print and spend less ink, toner and money.

You can download a free 30 day trial, I'm gonna give it a go to see how it works. Here's the link

http://avpsoft.com/products/apfill/

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "A Week in The Life" John Carr

About a week ago I asked some members of the P4P Hotel to please post a blog for the Series "Copier Sales" A Week in The Life" John Carr from South Florida sent me this, so I'm posting for all. It's a good read and well put together!

A day in life Tuesday…….

Here it is Tuesday morning the alarm goes off at 4:30am. I make some coffee and head quietly to my office on the other side of the house. I turn on my personal computer and spend the next 45 minutes dealing with all my personal stuff.

6:00am on turn on the work laptop and make sure everything is synced to the blackberry and answer any emails that come through over night.
6:45am I am on the road to my networking meeting which starts at 7:30am.

This usually results in meeting at least one new person and an average of 3 referrals a month. Meeting ends at 9am.

I will then have at least one appointment in the area and finish up by 11:30am. Now it is lunch time, if I do not have a lunch appointment with and existing or potential client then I will meet with a strategic alliance for lunch until 12:30pm.

No closing appointments then now I am heading to the office. I get there and spend the rest of the day making pre-planned calls to set appointments with both new and existing clients.

6:00pm, time to head out on the highway for home or possibly the driving range! That is a typical Tuesday for this Document Management Consultant!




-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Indsutry Notes from 4/26/09

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

Hewlett Packard wins a $245 million bid from the California Department of Corrections.
- Won by the EDS division (EDS was acquired last year by HP)
- Length of contract is 4.5 years
- Included MFPs, printers and scanners on MPS agreement
- Document management software

4 executives announced their departures from EDS, now that HP has acquired the company. The following left to pursue other opportunities:
- Mike Koehler
- Bobby Grisham
- Tom Haubenstricker
- Mike Paolucci

SpencerLab, a division of Spencer & Associates Publishing, Ltd. conducted tests on color printing technology to determine the highest quality and accuracy.
- For photographic output, conventional silver halide processing won out over the
Fuji Frontier 570 digital system
- For digital toner based output from high-end systems, the Xerox iGen4 narrowly beat the Hewlett Packard Indigo Press 5500.

Canon launched “eProactive Service” which is advertised as a web-based solution allowing its dealers to communicate with customer’s Canon MFPs, for automatic service call placement and remote monitoring.

Canon, in an effort to grow distribution from loss of IKON and DANKA, announced it will open up new factory direct branches:
- Albany, NY run by Don Foley
- Boston, MA run by Chris Foley
- Harrisburg, PA run by Richard Fleck
- Hartford, CT run by Janet Cain
- Honolulu, HI run by Gerald Shioji
- Jacksonville, FL run by Ken Jones
- Richmond, VA run by John Whitehead
- Sarasota, FL run by Lisa Beebe

Canon announced it has signed a distribution agreement with Agfa, which will market the Canon imagePRESS production color systems to graphic arts community.

After first announcing it was being acquired by IBM, Sun Microsystems instead is being acquired by Oracle Corp. for $7.4 billion.

Ricoh claims that according to Gartner Corp, it sold more MFPs in the U.S. than any other manufacturer.

eCopy announced that is has reached a total of 100 connectors to connect its ScanStation to popular document management programs. This is a far larger offering than any other vendor in its class.

Toshiba’s stock price dropped 6% when reports surfaced stating that the company was planning on raising $5 billion by selling stock, thus diminishing the value of existing shares.

Toshiba president, Atsutoshi Nishida, announced that the company is in talks to buy nuclear fuel rod assemblies from Kazakhstan.

Toshiba’s Director of Product & Solutions Marketing, Joe Contreras, announced that its MFPs will now offer Ringdale FollowMe as an option. This allows end users to send print jobs, and retrieve them from any properly equipped Toshiba MFP, when they authenticate at the device.

Lexmark announced that its revenues fell 20% during last quarter, due to declining sales of printers and MFPs. It also announced that it will close a plant in Juarez, Mexico to reduce costs. This will eliminate 360 jobs.

Lexmark launched its X460 series of desktop A4 b/w laser MFPs offering:
- offers embedded Solutions Framework (eSF)
- requires extra RAM and HDD options
- MyMFP option gives a remote control panel feature to PC
- Can create personal settings and save them to USB
- 7” full color touchscreen LCD control panel
- Base MSRP starts at $999, up to $1679
- 40ppm top print speed
- 35opm top scan speed
- 1200x1200dpi
- 19,200dpi color scan resolution
- 300 sheet standard paper supply
- 50 sheet capacity document feeder
- Auto duplex standard
- NO finishing options
- Letter/legal size only
- Built-in print controller
- USB, 10/100BaseT ports
- 500MHz processor
- 256MB RAM standard (up to 640MB with options)
- Optional 80GB hard drive
- PCL and PostScript print drivers
- Optional fax board
- Three toner cartridge choices (3K, 9K or 15K yield, based on 5% coverage)
- OPC drum yield of 30K pages
- 80K/month maximum duty cycle
- Advertised cost per page of $0.0177 (for toner only)

Oce’ reported a 60% increase in sales for refurbished equipment. It sold 5,000 units in the past 12 months.

The Printing Industries of America stated that the winner of the Sutherland Ink Rub Test was the Oce’ CS650 (a relabeled Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C6501). This tests the durability of postcards made by the MFPs and how they survive the U.S. Postal system.

Oce’ CEO, Rokus Van Iperen announced:
- Frank de Wit & Jan Dix has resigned from the board
- “Oce’ will continue to explore all realistic options to improve economies of scale, without excluding strategic alternatives, if beneficial for Oce’ and all stakeholders.”
- year on year revenue fell 6%
- operating income declined 29%
- 74% of its business is aftermarket supplies and service
- service/supply revenue declined 5.2%
- hardware sales declined 15.9%
- wide format printer sales fell 17.6%
- FM revenue grew 6.4%
- will lay off an additional 250 workers at its Poing, Germany plant

The National Resources Defense Council is pushing the paperless office by stating:
- The U.S. using 3.7 million tons of paper annually
- The average office worker print more than 1,000 pages per month
- 900 million trees are cut down each year for paper
- 40% of the waste in the U.S. is paper
- Record keeping constitutes more than 90% of office activity
- Over 80% of paper that is filed is never referenced again
- Over 45% of the office prints that are discarded, are discarded on the day that they are printed
- 89% of the time that an office worker edits a document on their computer screen, they reference a printed piece of paper

A man in Dublin arrested, thanks to a copier. Joe Sullivan, a bank worker, was caught transferring money illegally into his account, when he accidentally left the evidence of the transfer on the platen glass of a copier he was using.

The U.S. Patent office listed the total number of INKJET patents issued to the industry heavyweights:
- Silverbrook (maker of future Memjet high speed color inkjet printer) = 501
- Seiko Epson = 468
- Canon = 339
- Hewlett Packard = 322
- Brother = 282
- Fuji (provider of equipment to Xerox) = 184
- Samsung = 161
- Xerox = 136
- Kodak = 118
- Lexmark = 113
- Ricoh = 109
- Konica Minolta = 91
- Toshiba = 33



Dell launched the 1235cn and 2145cn desktop A4 color laser MFPs featuring:
- Both are actually made by Samsung of Korea
- 1235cn is actually the Samsung CLX-3175FN
- 2145cn is actually the Samsung CLX-6210FX
- 1235cn has MSRP of $399
- 17ppm b/w and 4ppm color
- Single drum design
- Advertised color toner cost per page of $0.21
- Advertised b/w toner cost per page of $0.045
- 2145cn has MSRP of $749
- 21ppm color or b/w speed
- 4 OPC tandem drum design
- Advertised color toner cost per page of $0.129
- Advertised b/w toner cost per page of $0.027

Sharp launched the MX-B401 b/w laser MFP featuring:
- Part of the “Frontier Series”
- Letter/legal only as it is an A4 design
- 40ppm top speed
- Optional fax board
- 8.5” full color touchscreen LCD control panel
- Base MSRP of $4995
- 35ppm scan speed
- 600x600dpi copy
- 600x600dpi scan
- 1200x1200dpi print
- 600 sheet standard paper supply
- Maximum paper supply of 2100 sheets with options
- 50 sheet document feeder
- Optional internal stapling finisher
- Built-in print/scan controller standard
- 800MHz processor
- 10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports
- 512MB RAM
- 80GB hard drive
- PCL & PostScript print drivers

The poor economy was reason cited for Sharp cancelling the launch of 5 different models in the Frontier A4 series, including print-only color models, and a 50ppm b/w MFP model.

LaserMonks helping the Environment "One Click at a Time"

Laser Monks has got it right, help the environment by recycling, use soy based toner, save some cash and give back.

Lasermonks use a soybean based toner, it's grown in fields rather than manufactured from fossil fuels. Lasermonks state that "Environmentally, using soy based toners is a win-win situation...industry leaders report that it takes about 2 liters of oil to make 1 lb of toner powder required for each oil-based cartridge. U.S. businesses, organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies currently consume more than 100 million cartridges per year. That equates to 100 million pounds or approximately 50,000 tons of material petroleum is used to produce."

Here's some fast facts about Lasermonks:

- run by the Cistercian monks of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta, Wisconsin
- offers cartridges filled with toner made from soy beans, for businesses who are concerned with the environment. It is unknown the long term effects of using soy based toner on a laser engine
- for every cartridge of soy toner it sells, the company will plant a tree in Brazil and donate $1.00 to a world hunger group
- for any cartridge purchased, the company promises a prayer
- soy toner is only available in black

I'm a big fan of their Trappist Preserves, if you haven't tried these I suggest you do, my favorite.....blackberry and peanut butter on whole wheat, yummy.

Now, you can't eat the toner, but I'm sure your laser printer won't mind the change of diet, take a trip here to find out more lasermonksgreen.

-=Good Selling=-

TWIX “this week in Xerox”

Xerox announced that its desktop printer sales fell 22% during last quarter, and will lay off 50 people from its Phaser printer facility in Wilsonville, OR. The company's total revenue last quarter fell from $4.3 billion to $3.6 billion.

Copier dealers in New York are complaining over the Buffalo public school district's decision to renew its contract with Xerox, rather than going out to bid. The district's CFO, Gary Crosby claims that because Xerox offered a discount off the current state contract, this allowed the school to order 300 new copiers from Xerox and avoid a bid process.

Xerox launched a managed print services program for its agents and VARs. Xerox Print Services provides its channel partners with access to training, services, supplies, software and equipment backed by Xerox.

Xerox, through its FM division, is now offering Xerox Litigation Services Processing and Review Dashboard, to enhance search of cases from document management systems.

Sales, Selling, More Sales & More Selling

Greg from Death of the Copier posted this, an I couldn't agree more. Death of the Copier.

Do You Sell for A Living ? We all Sell.

Copiers, printers, Blades, paper, toner, MPS, PM, managed services, paperclips - if you sell, keep selling, sell today, sell in a recession, sell in a depression, sell even though the gov't takes half, never stop.

You sell. You don't run from read the rest from Greg

Dam the torpedo's, charge like a rhinoceros and take no prisoners, its time run at full speed! No Soliciting SIGNS, FOOEY...keep on trucking, no ones goona stop us now!

-=Good Selling=-

Art

Copier Sales Proposals "Pricing on the Street"

Just wanted to give you all a heads up. I've uploaded new "Pricing on the Street" with cpc's that will blow your mind. Pricing from Canon, Ricoh, Xerox and KonicaMinolta.

Special thanks to the Print4Pay Hotel members that sent them to me for uploading.


If you're selling MFP's, or still calling them copiers, the Print4Pay Hotel currently has 6 active message boards for Ricoh Family Group, Sharp, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera , Canon and Xerox P4P In the early spring of 2009, we will launch Toshiba and OCE P4P Message Boards!

The Print4Pay Hotel averages 80,000 page views a month, with over 210,000 hits, and over 60,000 threads, we are the Global Resource on the Web for Copier Sales Professionals.

These quotes were recently uploaded:

Canon IPC6000 and A2100 Fiery
KonicaMinolta bizhub 1050e
Xerox 700 Digital Press
Canon iR7095
KonicaMinolta Pro C6501
Ricoh Pro 1106ex

Become a member while it's still FREE, talk to your peers, share inspirations, success stories, sales tips, quotes and much more. Start by following the link below.

http://www.p4photel.org/

-=Good Selling=-

What "brand of copier/multifunctional" device would I pay more for?

The title was a recent poll that I posted on the P4P Cafe Message Boards. We asked, What brand name would you pay more for? The players.....Ricoh, Xerox, Canon, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera, Canon and Oce. To say the least, I was taken back with the polling so far.

Here's the results:

Ricoh 21%
Xerox 3%
Canon 3%
KonicaMinolta 48%
Kyocera 18%
Sharp 0%
Toshiba 6%
Panasonic 0%
Oce 0%


I'm going to keep this poll open for awhile and if you have not voted, please do so. Click here What "brand of copier/multifunctional" device would I pay more for?

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales Proposals "Pricing on the Street"

Just wanted to give you all a heads up. I've uploaded three Kyocera quotes with cpc's that will blow your mind. Along with Oce, KonicaMinolta, Canon and Ricoh. Special thanks to the Print4Pay Hotel members that sent them to me for uploading.


If you're selling MFP's, or still calling them copiers, the Print4Pay Hotel currently has 6 active message boards for Ricoh Family Group, Sharp, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera , Canon and Xerox P4P In the early spring of 2009, we will launch Toshiba and OCE P4P Message Boards!

The Print4Pay Hotel averages 80,000 page views a month, with over 210,000 hits, and over 60,000 threads, we are the Global Resource on the Web for Copier Sales Professionals.

These quotes were recently uploaded:

Canon imageRUNNER 105 w/Fiery
Xerox DocuColor 242
Ricoh W2400
Xerox 4112 b/w unit with Fiery
Xerox 700 Digital Color Press w/Fiery/LCT
Canon imageRunner 3245
Become a member while it's still FREE, talk to your peers, share inspirations, success stories, sales tips, quotes and much more. Start by following the link below.

http://www.p4photel.org/

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 4/20/09

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

Riso made the following announcements about executive appointments:
- Don Michelucci is VP of Direct Sales (responsible for direct branches in U.S.)(hired from Ricoh)
- Todd DuLuca is president and COO

Ricoh announced it is partnering with IBM to create software that monitors the electrical power usage of its copiers. No ship date of pricing announced.

Two OCR scanning software providers are battling in court. Abbyy USA (maker of FineReader OCR) and Nuance (maker of Unity, PaperPort, etc.) are both suing each other over patent infringement.

In an effort to cut costs, the Gila Vista school district in Yuma, AZ is restricting use of its copiers, and drastically limiting the amount of copier paper purchased. In response, teachers are requesting parents to have their children come to school with a ream of copy paper.

Hewlett Packard’s Amin Mortazavi said that company will stop making desktop color inkjet printers that sell for less than $30, and focus on higher end models.

Hewlett Packard announced it won a managed print services based bid from Novartis International AG:
- A $41.5 billion pharmaceutical company
- 97,000 employees
- 140 countries
- 12 production sites and over 50 locations
- Headquarters in Switzerland
- Originally had 45,000 devices
- Will be reduced down to 8000 devices
- 44% cost reduction
- 400 million pages per year

Fuji announced that its Chief Corporate Advisor, Yotaro Kobayashi, will retire. He is 75 years old. He started with the company is 1958.

Wade Fuger of Pocatello, Idaho was arrested by police for making fake $20 bills using a color copier. This apparently discovered when he attempted to use them to pay a speeding ticket.

Office Depot is under investigation for allegedly over-charging government customers for purchases made on its website. The state of California apparently has already reached a settlement of $2.5 million, with other states waiting, including Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Nebraska, Missouri and others.

Toshiba announced appointments to fill recent departure of executives from the company:
- Fred Berger was named president of Florida & Georgia branches. Previously was senior vice president over 16 Ricoh branches. Before Ricoh, was an executive with DANKA.
- Mark Downing was named president of California & Nevada branches
- Wayne Wilkinson is senior vice president and general manager of all branches

Toshiba hopes to beat its forecast of a large loss because of drastic cost cutting. Original estimate was 280 billion loss, but now is projected to be 250 billion yen ($2.52 billion). The company announced it would cut 3,900 workers. Last month it had laid off 4,500 workers.

Canon announced that, due to declining revenues, it will delay again the building of a new toner manufacturing plant in Japan. New planned opening is 3/2010.

The state of Kentucky approved up to $1 million in tax incentives to Lexmark, so the company can spend $16.5 million to upgrade its plants in the state.

Sharp posted a $1.3 billion loss, which was greater than expected. To cut costs it will:
- lay off 1,500 workers
- shut down some production lines
- CEO, Mikio Katayama, stated they are considering moving manufacturing out of Japan to cut costs

A Toshiba/HP dealer in Indiana wins a managed print services bid for Hammond Lubricant Works, replacing Lanier equipment. Advanced Imaging Systems claims it will cut the company’s imaging costs by 23%.

eCopy announced new options for its solution systems:
- Barcode Recognition Service – adds the power of bar codes
- Image Enhancement – improves the accuracy of its OCR (optical character recognition)

Some vendors try to convince customers that the DPI, or dots per inch, is more important than bit depth. Consider this:
- 600dpi = a dot that is roughly 42 microns in size
- 1200dpi = a dot that is roughly 21 microns in size
- 2400dpi = a dot that is roughly 10 microns in size
- The human eye can see particles as small as 40 microns
- A grain of salt is about 60 microns

Xerox May Land Buffalo Schools Contract!

In a recent article from wibv.com, they reported that Buffalo Schools may contract with Xerox and no competitive bidding! This Wednesday night the contract could be awarded to Xerox for almost 300 copy machines with out any additional bidders.

"The leasing contract for close to 300 copy machines for the Buffalo School System could be awarded Wednesday to the Xerox Corporation, without any competitive bidding."

Oce is not pleased with this and offered this "We can compete with Xerox head on, head on," said John Bird of OCE Corporate Printing Division.

That doesn't copy well with the OCE company, which wanted to bid on the contract, but was told by the School District there would be not bidding.

"They're not allowing vendors to come in and compete against the current vendor. It's kind of a closed door policy," said Bird."

A little investigative reporting goes a long way, and if I were following up on this I would do a little bit of financial investigating on this one.

TWIX "This Week in Xerox"

Information was gathered from trade publications.

Xerox published a white paper on its bid win with Dillard’s department stores:
- replaced its b/w copiers with Xerox WorkCentre Pro color MFPs (473 each)
- installed remote management software, to track usage by employees and departments
- at corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, TX, installed a Xerox iGen3 110 production color system
- key-item color signs printed in Fort Worth, but merchandising shelf toppers are printed on each store’s color MFP
- Implemented a web-based DocuShare server for access to signage, HR forms, flyers, etc.

Xerox detailed how it uses direct mail campaigns to increase its sales:
-Campaign included a branded boomerang with stickers that included the recipient’s
name, state and company
- End users who responded by requesting an appointment with a Xerox rep were entered
into a drawing for a trip to Australia

Xerox announced it won a bid to provide a kiosk-type solution for selling copies at Office Depot locations. The solutions includes Xerox 7655 color MFPs and the AutoPay system from Equitrac that can accept credit cards.

Copier Sales "A Week In The Life" Wednesday!

About a week ago I asked some members of the P4P Hotel to please post a blog for the Series "Copier Sales" A Week in The Life" Larry Levine from California sent me this, so I'm posting for all. It's a good read and well put together!

A day in life Wednesday…….

As always the day starts off at 4:15 A.M. with a trip to the gym. Can’t start off the day without a trip to Starbucks while making the 19 mile drive into my office which is located a few miles from the beach.

At the office by 6:30 A.M. to sift through emails, enter the previous days work into my database, and research prospective clients through Reference USA. By 7:30 A.M. I am picking up the phone to try to catch a CFO who will actually answer their phone. By 8:00 I am in management meetings. Ironic the topic is getting our sales people to call on more new business.

By 9:00 A.M. I get back into my office and dial, dial, dial, voice mail, voice mail, voice mail. Does anyone like to answer their phones anymore?

Roll out of the office at 10:30 A.M. to head to a meeting to discuss how to displace a Ricoh direct account. For the next hour all I hear is I hate my rep… of course it is never the same rep for more than six months, my billing is always wrong, and oh by the way it takes an act of god to get them to correct any errors but I like the product. Another Ricoh give away uncovered ( this was posted on April 15th in the P4P message board). Asked the prospect if we could match what Ricoh offered could we do business? The answer was absolutely.

So for the entire afternoon conversation upon conversation occur with my Ricoh DSM, management, Ricoh DSM to try to figure how to get pricing down to next to nothing…… have you filled out the ADF support form yet is the first comment I hear from Ricoh DSM, then of course we need to take to Jersey then to….. crap I don’t give a damn just give me pricing to compete is all I care about.

So a wasted entire afternoon to find out Ricoh could give a rats A$$ about the dealers success but supports Ricoh direct giving equipment and service away with no profit.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales Tips "How Well Do You Listen?"

How well do you listen to your customer? I mean, really understand what your customers need and how they want it. Over the years of selling "down the street", I've learned to let the client do most of the talking and I'll do most of the listening.

Of course I'll ask a few key questions like why are you considering a new solution, do you have any pains in your day to day business that involve your printing or copying hardware. It took many years to understand that listening is the key to consultative selling and the key to success in being a top producer.

What makes a great sales person....., is that innate ability to inspire the client about a solution and have them ask "what if", "why not" and "how can we".

Most customers have a round about way of telling you what they want from you and your company. Like telling a story about a previous experience and or a rep that they had to deal with (listen to this carefully, they are telling you what they want from you when they tell you about their past experiences). I hear many complaints from clients about the pushy reps, the ones who only want to sell what they think the customer should have and not what the customer really needs. Heck, we have one guy at the office and 90% of his sales are always a 35ppm box, how is that? Customers will appreciate that you have met and interpreted their needs and will respond with references down the road.

Today, I was at a clients account and would have liked to pitch a 25ppm color system to them, this customer has an 18ppm digital system that scans, prints and faxes and also a color laser printer that prints upto 11x17. They printed more than 100,000 pages on the printer and only copied, faxed or printed 36,000 pages on their 18ppm digital system, plus they get service as they need it for both units.

I would have loved to sell them a c2500spf to replace both of the units, however the customer stated that business was slow and that they may look to buy the 18ppm from the leasing company. I listened..... and then asked to schedule another appointment to discuss their needs for the next three years.

-=Good Selling=-

imagePRO Ci40 HD Scanner Review "Paradigm Imaging"

Every now and then, a company will introduce a new piece of hardware that will break price a price barrier that was the norm for many years. I had the chance to see and test this unit at the AIIM/Ondemand Show in Phili, trust me this is one sweet scanner, plus it's eco-friendly and economical. Utilizing a new dual LED light system for optimum illumination, it uses less power than traditional fluorescent scanners.

The imagePRO (cool name also) Ci40HD boasts a new paper transport system, allowing for better media handling and more accurate scanning.

Paradigm Imaging Group (the largest distributor of wide format scan-print-and-copy systems in North America) introduced the imagePRO Ci40 large format scanner at AIIM/On Demand in Philadelphia.

The buzz around the show was THAT INCREDIBLE street price on a 40” scanner (imagePRO Ci40 HD m model). At $5364, it’s the lowest price ever seen for a black & white large-format scanner (This is an introductory promo).

In addition to AIIM/On Demand, Paradigm and the imagePRO Ci40 will be in attendance at the IRgA Convention April 29-May 1 in Pittsburgh (booth 502). Paradigm is also launching a media blitz with full page ads in the May issues of Imagesource and Wide Format Imaging and an email campaign to over 1 MILLION email addresses in the Architectural, Construction, Copy, IT, Manufacturing and Printing markets.

imagePRO Ci40HD Stats:

· 600 dpi true optical resolution and 9600 maximum resolution

· 48-bit color and 16-bit monochrome data capture

· Fast 3.3 ips color and 10 ips monochrome scan speeds

· Instant productivity from power-on – no warm-up, no waiting

· New Advanced Single Roller Paper Transport – Superior Paper Handling - Front Media Return Workflow

· One year on-site warranty with an optional two-year warranty upgrade

For more information on becoming a dealer or finding a reseller in your area, please send an email to info@paradigmimaging.com

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "A Week in the Life" Tuesday!

Tuesday!....."Woke up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head, found my way downstairs and drank a cup and looking up I noticed I was late, found my coat and grabbed my hat...." and with that I was off to my 10AM appointment.

It's strange how things work out, I got an email and then a call from my sales manager late yesterday asking me if I was ever notified of an appointment that was made for me. I stated I was aware of the one in the afternoon but not this one. I was then told that the afternoon appointment was cancelled and to go to this one. I looked again at the email with the address and noticed it was a mere 60 miles away, in Jersey 60 miles away could take an eternity to drive. So, I did the mapquest and the gas check (nice feature on map quest, tells you how much gas you'll use), mapquest stated 70 minutes with no traffic, no pit stops for coffee, so I figured 90 minutes.

I left at 8:30AM, made the usual stops, caffeine, mints, can of dip and away I went in a torrential downpour. I arrived that the account about 10 after 10 (what else is new). The appointment was at a church in the Jersey Pinelands (nice area, not much around except pine trees, sand and the occasional WAWA). I walked in, introduced myself and was received very warmly only to hear this, "gee, we called your office a few days ago and cancelled our appointment, we're so sorry you have to come out in this terrible weather!". Do I need to day more??? I sent a text back to my manager asking who's paying for the gas and the travel time wasted!

Well, being the trooper that I am, I decided I would cold call my way back to at the least the Garden State Parkway. In 18 miles, I found three places to cold call, all were pleasant and nothing happening at all three, will call them in a few days.

Making Calls

I was able to make a few calls from the car, just trying to catch up on the 80 phone calls that are stacked up, and I was able to pick up one appointment for later in the week. My next stop was to help a customer on an install, I told him I would train him on e-copy and wanted make sure all of the connections were made for LAN fax, Scan2email, Scan2folder. Cutting to the chase, the one PC had permissions set by an outside IT person that would not allow ecopy to install, I asked him to call and have the IT guy or gals make the changes so we could install. OH, it's one of those days huh!

Here in Jersey, it's its been cold, dark and damp for at least the last two weeks! Everyday is a day closer to better weather, seems like that's the same with sales, each day brings new opportunities!! Yea!

Home Office

I got back to the home office in one piece, just about 3PM, and then continued making calls till a little after 5, no appointments however , I got the follow up calls down to a more manageable 60. Hoping that the sun will shine tomorrow, late in the day, I heard one of our sales guys got the ax, puts it all in perspective doesn't it?

-=Good Selling=-

MFP Weekend Industry Notes 4/12/09

The following is a quick review of print production news from various trade publications.

Ricoh announced its Account Development Fund (ADF) Program to assist in large account take downs:
- Single take down deals or initial orders only
- Must be accounts with over $100,000 in hardware revenue installed
- Money can be used for short term price reduction, early lease buyouts or customer rebate
- Up to 8% of deal may be provided as support on low margin deals

Ricoh provided summary of features of its GlobalScan document management solution:
- GlobalScan 2.0 is server-based solution, where one server supports up to 250 Ricoh-made MFPs
- GlobalScan Serverless, no server needed, and install on one MFP
- Is scalable for enterprise-wide deployment
- Plug-ins deliver functionality and adaptable Frameworks for third party ECM software
- Customizable workflows can be initiated from MFP’s touch screen
- Works with:
- Microsoft Exchange
- Lotus Notes
- OCR
- EMC Documentum (using FrameWork and some development)
- FileNet (using FrameWork and some development)
- Hummingbird (using FrameWork and some development)
- Captiva InputAccel
- Captaris RightFAX
- Kofax
- OpenText LineLink
- Interwoven WorkSite

Ricoh announces some of its big solution sale bid wins:
- Trustway Insurance of Georgia:
- 54 MFPs
- 39 printers
- Third party hardware and software
- Managed IT contract (Ricoh TeknoForce)
- Covers 48 locations
- Tenet Healthcare
- 270 MFPs
- 29 color laser printers
- 75 color Gel inkjet printers
- Replaced Xerox
- Managed IT services

Ricoh announced its structure for its ITSE organization:
- Frank Borovsky – Vice President of Document Solutions & IT Services
- Jim Walters – Director of IT Services Operations
- Ben Bullock – Senior Manager National IT Services
- Has specialists for Healthcare, Government & Education markets
- Joyce Ouelelette – Director Solution Marketing


Ricoh launched two new production print color systems, the PRO C550EX and PRO C700EX:
- Base MSRPs of $54,290 & $62,690
- C550EX offers 55ppm full color and 60ppm b/w
- C700EX offers 70ppm full color and 75ppm b/w
- Uses engines from the MP C6000 and C7500 mid-range color MFPs, which compete against the
the Konica Minolta bizhub C552 & C652
- Base MSRP includes EFI Fiery E8100 print controller
- Supports up to only 80lb. cover in the paper drawers
- 110lb. cover stock must be placed in the bypass of the RT4000 large capacity deck for $4780.00
- Standard paper capacity is 5,300 sheets
- Finishing options include stapling, hole-punch, GBC punch, booklet maker and three ring binding
- SR4010 fifty sheet stapling finisher for $3150.00
- SR4020 fifty sheet staple and 20 sheet booklet maker for $5460.00
- SR5000 one hundred sheet stapling finisher for $5830.00
- Tab sheet holder for $47.00
- Hole punch kit for $920.00
- Cover insertion unit for $1160.00
- Z-folding unit for $7350.00
- 100 sheet document feeder comes standard
- Auto duplex standard
- Will be marketed with color click pricing as low as $0.0495, single click 11”x17”,
and b/w clicks as low as $0.0132.
- Designed to compete against the Konica Minolta PRO C5501 & C6501 systems
- Does not offer true 8 bits per pixel imaging

Oce’ announced it has authorized Advantage Sign Supply, Inc. of Grand Rapids, MI as a reseller of its wide format color printers. The company employs over 90 people in 10 facilities.

Oce’ claims that is facilities management division, Oce’ Business Services, won bids during past 12 months that totaled over $70 million. The largest was for American Airlines.

According to a survey conducted by John Peddie Research, up to a 44% increase in productivity can be experienced when a computer user adds a second computer monitor to their desk to see two pages at same time.

PrintShop Mail, a product of Objectif Lune, won award for best variable data software from the European Digital Press Association.

Patriarch Partners LLC of New York purchased the assets of Polaroid Corp. in bankruptcy court in Minnesota for $60 million.

Xerox announced that it has cut its pay of its CEO, Anne Mulcahy, to only $12 million, a decrease of 6%.

Xerox revealed that it reimburses its CFO, Lawrence Zimmerman, $125,000 per year, for the cost of traveling between his home in Boulder, CO and his office in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Xerox announced it won the bid put out by Proctor & Gamble, to manage its worldwide print operations. Details:
- Will reduce energy used by 30%
- Will reduce paper usage by 20%
- Creating of a web portal for on-line learning and equipment procurement

Police arrested Ayad Al-Musawi in the state of Washington, after the Xerox worker was found to have stolen nearly $300,000 worth of printer supplies from the company and attempted to sell them over the Internet. In his house they found almost 10,000 wax sticks that go in Xerox Phaser color wax printers.

Kyocera launched more desktop b/w laser printers, the FS-2020D, FS-3920DN & FS-4020DN featuring:
- 37ppm, 42ppm and 47ppm respectively
- Maximum paper supply of 2500 sheets
- Auto duplex
- Uses amorphous silicon ceramic drum technology
- A4 design, letter/legal size only
- 128MB RAM, upgradeable to 1.15GB
- MSRPs of $1044, $1424 & $1583

The City of Reno, Nevada was able to fend off a protest about its copier bid award. Details:
- Bid was awarded to The Ray Morgan Company, a 4 year contract for $189,429 per year
- Protest was turned in by John Burton, owner of Rabbit Automation, who claims his bid would save City of Reno $400,000 over term of bid
- Protest was rescinded when Mr. Burton found out that City of Reno could force him to
post a $165,000 bond

OfficeMax claims that it has recycled over 10,431,200 print cartridges last year.

Better Buys for Business magazine reported results of a study of businesses in the U.S.:
- 32% of buyers have plans to make a purchase or lease within 12 months
- 15% expect to purchase or lease in 3 months
- The most important factor in buying decisions:
- 42% say price
- 27% say total cost of ownership
- 21% say service
- 20% say computer networking
- 19% say past experience
- 12% say brand experience
- 10% say features
- 4.5% say speed



Sharp posted its first loss in half a century (1950), and will eliminate 1500 workers. The total loss was $1.3 billion.

Sharp President, Mikio Katayama, announced it will open factories in China to cut costs.

Toshiba has a reorganization of its copier division, called Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS):
- Toshifuii Matsumoto, who was chairman & CEO, was demoted to chief marketing executive
- New CEO and chairman is Masahiro Yamada
- Previously, Mr. Yamada was Deputy General Manager of Document Systems Business Group at corporate headquarters in Japan.

Spencer & Associates, led by David Spencer, announced it will have a meeting in Chandler, AZ on 6/4-6/09 to discuss the future of inkjet and toner technologies.

According to Lyra Research, the printer cartridge industry is $8 billion per year worldwide, and that refilled cartridges make up 27.5% of the total.

According to survey conducted by Office Dealer magazine, here is what buyers are looking for in a vendor:
- Solid Service
- Competitive Pricing
- Diverse Product Offering
- Integrity
- Genuine Concern For Customer Needs
- Minimum Mistakes
- Responsive To Inquiries
- Smooth Interaction
- Good Humor
- Respect For Customer Opinions

Hewlett Packard claims that by the year 2010, it will have collected a billion pounds of electronic products and supplies in recycling efforts. According to HP, this is the equivalent of the weight of the Golden Gate bridge.

-=Good Selling=-

Copier Sales "The Last Resort"

When all else fails trying to get in touch with a prospecting customer, make a last ditch effort.

There are some situations when you have tried everything within your power and still make no connection. After you have made many attempts to get an appointment, there is one last-ditch tool you might want to try. A sales rep I know has used it, and says that 90 percent of the time, people will reply. So when you have tried everything else, try this fax:


(Date)

(Name)
(Company)
Fax #:

Dear (Name),

I’m sure you have an excellent reason for not returning any of my calls.

Because I don’t want to be a nuisance, please choose from the following options and fax this back to me at (123) 555-7890.

· I’m on safari and haven’t gotten my messages.
· I’ve been drowning in work. Call me next week… I will take your call then.
· I am not working here anymore; call in care of NASA.
· I am sorry and will call you back soon.
· Please call me back at _____ a.m. / _____p.m. on ___/___/09
· I hate you and don’t ever want to talk to you.
· Other ________________________________________


Sincerely,


(Your name)

What's a "Hot Spot Printer?"

Ricoh is pleased to announce the introduction of the new Ricoh Aficio SP C420DN-KP HotSpot Printer. The SP C420DN-KP replaces the SP C410DN-KP.

What is a HotSpot Printer?

A Ricoh HotSpot Printer allows users to print documents securely simply by emailing the file they wish to print to a HotSpot Printer or loading the file to the HotSpot Printer’s webpage. Any user with an Internet-enabled PC, laptop, PDA, or cell phone can use a HotSpot Printer. With HotSpot printing, there is no need for Drivers, additional Software or access to the network hosting the printer!
Printing to a HotSpot Printer is incredibly easy. Each HotSpot Printer has a unique URL (web address) and E-mail Address.



1. Upload files to the printer’s webpage (URL), or forward E-mails – with or without attachments – directly to the printer’s E-mail address.
2. Receives a unique Release Code for each print job.
3. Enter the secure Release Code at the printer and retrieve print job.

HotSpot printing is convenient, secure, and easy-to-use.

Ricoh Aficio MP W5100/MP W7140 "Preview"

Digitising your drawings has many advantages. It saves legacy documents for the future. It streamlines your workflow and speeds up the job turnaround. Capture, store and distribute documents efficiently with the Aficio MP W5100/MP W7140.

Overview
In the 1980s, Ricoh was the first company to market a digital and plain-paper wide format device. Since then, they have developed an impressive range of wide format products.

Key Features:

Excellent productivity: 7 A0 and 14 A1 ppm (MP W7140); 5 A0 and 10 A1 ppm (MP W5100)
Uniquely compact design with a single footprint

Monochrome printing at 600 dpi and standard colour scanning

Flexible workflow solutions: choice of two controllers

Copy, Print and Scan documents up to 30 meters long (MP W7140 only)

Attractive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)


Effortless Job Management

Increase your print efficiency. Browse folders and check the contents of files on the display. Management tasks like changing the queue, holding and deleting jobs also happen via the touch of a panel. Web Image Monitor carries out similar functions from your desktop computer. It’s interface has been designed for optimum usability.

Digitising your drawings has many advantages. It saves legacy documents for the future. It streamlines your workflow and speeds up the job turnaround. Capture, store and distribute documents efficiently with the Aficio MP W7140.

Smooth Operation

Operating the MP W7140 is straightforward with the wide colour LCD touch screen. This panel has a simplified screen function as an extra convenience when you need basic commands only. Operators do not need extensive training to work with the MP W7140. Printing and scanning can be done at the same time. The removable scanner option* separates the printer and scan unit, allowing several people to perform tasks at the machines simultaneously.
*MP W7140 only.

Safe and Secure

When circulating digital data, it is vital to keep them from prying eyes. The Aficio MP W7140 lives up to the latest security standards.


S/MIME protects your e-mailed data

Information on the machines hard drive can be encrypted

User authentication by password averts unauthorised use of your device

The Data Overwrite Security system prevents access to or reconstruction of confidential information.


Ricoh’s engineers know how precious your time is. That’s why they have done their best to save you hassle. The new Aficio MP W7140 proves that sophistication can be user-friendly. Its many advanced features are easy to access; complex print jobs suddenly become simple.

Daily tasks have never been easier. With Ricoh’s unique roll holders, anyone can change (heavy) paper rolls quickly and easily. They are always centred without hassle. The paper trays have a unique flexibility for paper width and adapt to the roll format. They accept each roll size, from 210 to 914 mm in width. In case of a jam, the display shows instructions for paper removal. The MP W7140 is always up and running.

-=Good Selling=-