MFP Copier Blog
MFP & Copier Leads "The Bain of My Existence"
Do you remember... when leads were a weekly occurrence?
Many years ago, it was not uncommon to get a few leads a week. Back in the Eighties, they would come via fax from the manufacturer. Advertising was done through various media sources like radio, TV, direct mail, and print advertising.
In the last 12 months, I can count the leads on one hand that I've received from my territory from the manufacturer. That number is TWO! Well, maybe three, but no more. I've been driving myself up a wall trying to figure out why.
Is the territory so saturated with salespeople that everyone is covered? Hey, I'm in NJ, and pretty much you can't drive more than a quarter mile without finding a prospect.
Could it be that no one is interested in Ricoh MFPs? How about, maybe everyone is searching for copiers on the web and they are finding us before we find them? I tend to think if that were the case, then I'd have a few more leads than TWO! Maybe, just maybe, they are all connecting with the various websites that offer to get you proposals, and you never have to speak to a rep? Naw, I'm not buying that either.
I'm at a loss and have now resigned myself to the fact that I'll probably never get a lead from the manufacturer for my territory. For me, getting a real lead is gratifying and helps me through the rough and tumble times when we can put in an entire day of phone calls or in-person meetings and get nothing. Leads help me stay motivated!
Moving forward, I'll just have to get more creative and find avenues to generate my own leads. I've done it in the past with active blogging about copiers and MFPs. Donating to non-profits, bartering price for membership, and trading ads in association journals have helped in the past. However, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Now, you don't expect me to tell you what I'm going to do next, do you? It's no secret. I'm just going to work harder with the items I discussed above, along with working smarter with existing accounts to maximize the "other" services/products that we provide. Our existing accounts are a gold mine; we just need to understand how to mine them.
I'm kinda getting off the subject here. I'll tell you a funny story. I've spoken to my manufacturer's rep on several occasions about the lead thing. I even went so far as going to the manufacturer's site and putting in a false lead, just to see what happens. Well, what happened is the web page for "request a quote" does not work! Let me clarify, it has not worked for at least three months!! Every week or so, I go on and try to enter a lead, and every time nothing happens when you click the submit button! Son of a....., maybe this is why, right? Thus, I spoke with my rep about this for at least the fourth time, and you know what that person stated? "Yeah, you know what, we really don't see any leads from the website anymore." I'm like, WHAT, that's because the site is not working!!! That's the reason you're not seeing any leads. As my Father-in-law states, what do you expect from a pig but a grunt.
If my rep is reading this, I'm sorry, I think you do an awesome job in supporting me, however, you should fire your webmaster ASAP!
I would love to hear from others about how they generate leads or if you are getting leads from your manufacturer's website.
-=Good Selling=-
HIPAA Email Considerations from Top to Bottom
As many recent data breaches have clearly indicated, the average company's security and compliance performance is contingent upon the entirety of its staff, meaning that even one chink in the armor can lead to disastrous consequences. Take, for example, the Target breach, which was traced back to poor credential management used at one of the HVAC vendors it had on retainer for facilities management needs.
At the end of the day, health care providers are likely the most at risk of seeing a major compliance issue lead to increased vulnerabilities, threats and security risks. In the age of digital patient records management and communications, the various requirements of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act must be followed accurately and by every individual in the business to truly protect against fines, sanctions and other financial threats.
The BYOD question
One of the later advances in health care computing and communications strategies has been BYOD, which can quickly complicate HIPAA compliance audits and adherence. DOTMed News recently reported that nurses are often standing at the front lines of BYOD security and HIPAA compliance strategies, while the programs have likewise improved these professionals' abilities to manage medical information on the go.
Still, the source pointed out that companies will need to be especially careful when transmitting patient records, covered by HIPAA, through new devices.
"The BYOD phenomenon represents one of the greatest challenges for IT and administrative health care professionals because it's both a technical and behavioral challenge that can impact future technological developments," Kurt Linberg, Ph.D., provost at American Sentinel University, explained, according to the news provider. "If we look at health care history, new regulations tend to constrain productivity initially, but then as regulations, policy and technology improve there is more room for innovation implementation."
DOTMed News noted that all types of transmissions, even those going from a device to a printer, will need to be kept in check to maintain compliance.
HIPAA email made easy
Health care organizations can partner with HIPAA email service providers to ensure those transmissions going through smartphones and tablets, as well as traditional devices, are safe, private and compliant with the law. By deploying these solutions proactively ahead of a new enterprise mobility strategy, companies will often enjoy a smoother step into the modern era of health care computing and data management.
David Bailey
Senior Vice President at Protected Trust
This Week in the Copier/Office Equipment Industry 10 Years Ago Fourth Week of June 2004
I tried to pull up some interesting information on world events from ten years ago this week. It seems that this week ten years ago was a bust.
Thus, I figured that I would go to the Print4Pay Hotel threads, and what I found was the introduction of the dreaded Aficio Color 3131(we all remember that bomb). Canon also introduced the Canon imageRunner C3220 this week. ENJOY!
6/24/04 9:02 AM
Topic by Guest
, Securing Your Document Workflow, in Washington D.C. Being held in the Ronald Reagan Building International Trade Center, the summit will include educational seminars, a product exposition, and keynote speaker General Wesley K. Clark. Ricohs educational
6/29/04 9:01 AM
Topic by Guest
RICOH CORPORATION INTRODUCES THE AFICIO COLOR 3131 DIGITAL IMAGING SYSTEM New Digital Imaging System Ideal for Demanding Production Environments West Caldwell, NJ, June 28, 2004 Ricoh Corporation, the leading provider of digital office equipment, today
6/30/04 12:39 AM
Topic by ibreatheozone 
for sale, these things fly so let me know what you want.have also cdrw for series, like 5, only one interface though.
6/25/04 8:30 AM
Topic by Guest
DocuTechs Now Able to Print on Coated Stock New capability enables Xerox DocuTech 6180 and 6155 to print on coated paper. Xerox Corporation's DocuTech PowerPlus Series enables printing on coated paper for the first time. With the new capability, the
6/28/04 5:28 PM
Topic by Guest
interested in saving time and money. For me this is the hottest product since the introduction of the AP3800C from Ricoh. Demo this product, cold call vertical markets with this product and take the money to the bank. Hats off to Ricoh!
6/28/04 7:04 PM
Topic by Guest
Canon U.S.A. Expands MEAP Enabled ImageRUNNER Product Line-up with New Color ImageRUNNER C3220 Digital Imaging System Monday June 28, 8:15 am ET Canon's Color Multifunction Office Solution Leads Industry by Providing Both High-Value Office Color and Java
6/30/04 6:32 AM
Topic by Junior
Hi Guys How do you input sub code/adress from G3 FAX MACHINE. Even if its not a ricoh product. The problem that we have is that the consultants at our customer each have their own sub code that they will give to their repective clients. The problem is to
6/30/04 6:01 PM
Topic by Guest
I have successfully uploaded the monster video, it is in the competition lounge under "beat the Canon 3200"! Go get it!!
6/25/04 10:55 AM
Reply by Old Glory
That's is the ETA for the Ricoh Warehouse. Unless you are around the corner, you are probably looking at another week at least before it gets to your dealership.
6/28/04 7:40 PM
Reply by Old Glory
I would suggest that anyone wanting this info should get it from their DSM or Ricoh Customer Service.
6/24/04 9:51 AM
Reply by JasonR
Some Ricoh guys were in my office last week and mentioned they had a document that outlined which driver gave better results from which application. They said they'd get me a copy, if they do I'll post it here. But I agree, PS is the way to go for best
6/29/04 5:09 PM
Reply by Guest
Try reloading firmware also be sure that all your componants are secure. Bring out your local Ricoh rep, you may just have a bad fax option. Is it still under warrentee? scott
6/30/04 5:16 PM
Reply by Guest
Print Shops that report to Larry Hunt Copy News, did not give this Toshiba a favorable report. It stated inconsistant copy and print quality along with frequent jams.
-=Good Selling=-
Do your MFPs have the buttons your customers need?
Imagine that employees at your customer's company regularly need to scan documents to Microsoft Office 365. The traditional workflow might be to scan a document to the network folder, find it, upload it to Microsoft SharePoint Online, and then send an email to a colleague asking for review or approval. Because each user scans to different folders, automating these processes is complex and the resulting multitude of Apps complicates the UI.
We have made it easier for everyone to work the way they like. Now each user can define their own personalized ‘Scan to’ Apps, which allow them to scan directly to the folders they use most.
With Udocx, each user can create a custom App that scans directly into, for example, SharePoint. Moreover, Udocx and SharePoint automation can inform the right person that a new document has been added to the SharePoint library awaiting their approval. In this way, Udocx increases your efficiency and eliminates mistakes.
Udocx Apps are easy to create and quick to configure, allowing the end-user to customize the functionality of their scanner to meet their individual needs. Color or black & white, optical character recognition, email notifications, document meta data, etc. – all available and configurable.
Learn how to help your customers customize their scanner’s touch menu at www.udocx.com.
Top Ten Copier Proposals & Quotes for June 2014
Kudos to the many Print4Pay Hotel members that are emailing us quotes they've ran across in the field. I know when ever I get one, it's usually because I've won the day and the quote is "the badge of honor". Keep them coming, if you're not aware of our promo, we are offering a FREE six month Premium Membership to anyone that sends us six quotes! No worries, we will redact whatever you want from the quote before we post it.
Here's a question for the next blog for everyone. With at least 50 quotes in the last 45 days. Can you guess the percentage of solutions that were including in those proposals?
Without further ado, here's our list of the Top Ten Copier & Print Proposals for June 2014.
- Ricoh MP C305SP proposal quote.pdf
- Sharp MX-1204N pricing_proposal.pdf
- Sharp MX-3610N pricing_proposal.pdf
- Sharp MX-M623N Pricing.pdf
- Sharp MX-M453N Pricing_Proposal.pdf
- Sharp MX-M623N Pricing.pdf
- Savin MP 3503SP Proposal.pdf
- Xerox 7830PT Proposal.pdf
- Xerox WorkCentre 7225 Color.pdf
If you have any that you'd like to see posted please send them to me at arthurkpost@gmail.com
-=Good Selling=-
Winners make things happen and losers wait for things to happen!
I Kissed A Copier and I Liked It!
I've been toying around with this blog for some time. For some of us old timers in the industry we've either heard or been told that we have toner in our blood. To have someone describe you as having toner in your blood is a compliment and implies that you eat, sleep and breath the Copier business.
For those of us old timers in the copier business, many of us can say that the copier business has been very, very good to us. Over the years we've developed a passion for our industry, a dedication to excel and the desire to be the best.
Passion....is described as an intense emotion or compelling enthusiasm. Over the years, I've been fortunate to meet others who share my passion about copiers. There's one person though that I haven't been able to meet. That person is Daria Huddy. Daria is from the land down under (Australia) and is a self proclaimed Industrial Copier Artist!
So, let me back track a bit. With the change of copiers from analog to digital and then to color came many features that most users don't even know about. The ability to stretch an image vertically of horizontally, ability to produce a mirror image, ability to compensate for color (which means if the copier sees any color on the glass (platen) you can have that changed to another color, the ability to manipulate color (here you can add more or take away color, such as I could add more green yellow or take away red). My point is that by getting into the underbelly setting of these features you can produce some really bizarre images. Which could be considered a form of an artist impression.
Daria, is that Industrial Copier Artist that takes artist impression to a new level! Her passion for copiers is undeniably tremendous!
Daria's youtube page states "For Toner-Heads, consisting of copier industrialists, and artists, to network to, while preparations are being made to form a cohesive community, away from the general public, which will take time and patience, but the process will start with making and sharing art and ideas".
Many of Daria's video's show a KonicaMinolta Bizhub in her home, here Daria lets her artist passion run wild. In many videos she can been seen hugging, kissing and copying well, lets say.... mostly her. In other videos Daria will visit copiers in other locations and give you copier usability demonstrations.
Don't get me wrong this blog is not to poke fun of Daria artist impression, yes some of the videos are off the wall, however, I'm astonished that one person can have so much PASSION for copiers!
You can check out Daria's Youtube channel here.
Daria, I love your stuff! Hey, ever think about trading that KonicaMInolta in for a Ricoh? 
-=Good Selling=-
Selling Copiers "Opportunties Abound to Make a Few Extra Bucks"
Some dealerships forbid their reps from selling into other territories. Maybe they don't have the coverage, maybe they don't like selling out of state.
Pahoda Image Products has created some exciting opportunities for reps who are interested in making some money when leads come in they can't handle.
When an opportunity comes in, we will pay 60% of the equipment's profit on the deal. This should roughly equate to 7% to 10% of the equipment's price. On a $10,000 copier, we expect you'll make about $600 for the referral when the customer buys their copier from Pahoda Image Products.
We can service Nationwide - as we are a Xerox NARS authorized partner. We have the ability to sell and service from Anchorage to Miami - From Bangor to San Diego. Anywhere in the USA.
Once we pay out $5,000 - we also work with you to get you a part of the click too. If you are in the job market - like working from home and want a national way to sell to huge clients, we are always taking on new reps too... but the point of this blog is to let you know we have Nationwide copier, printer and document management coverage available and would like to work with you to ensure you get paid well for out of region leads rather than hoping for the best. If your dealership won't let you take money this way, we can certainly pay them instead.
We get that we are all trying to make a buck here. We want to be a trusted resource to get copiers sold anywhere in the USA that is a mutually beneficial relationship to everyone.
We are basically married to Xerox on this program, so it would be a Xerox device we are quoting. You will get a copy of the quote as well as our invoice on deals you help us get.
We hope everyone is having an amazing 2014!
To your success,
Jesse Harwell
Pahoda Image Products
"Helping You Manage Document Production" 7475 W 5th Ave Suite 316
Lakewood, CO 80226
(303) 810-2382 (cell)
Riso Stops Offering Printed Brochures for Their Products?
Just about 18 months ago, Toshiba American Business Solutions offered up National No Print Day. Within a few days or weeks Toshiba cancelled the campaign. I heard they cancelled due to a not so good response from the printing industry. Ok a flub, everyone is allowed one every now and then.
Today, I get an email from my people that Riso (a company that lives and dies with putting ink on paper) is no longer offering full color printed brochures. If you want a full color brochure you'll have to print it from the web. WHAT?
Are things that bad at Riso that they can't pay for brochures anymore? What are they thinking? My only thought is, well....things could be that bad at Riso. If I were looking to cut costs, one of the first things I would look at is printing. But, if I'm Riso, what type of message am I sending to my current customers and prospects? We're broke, or we don't believe in putting ink on paper. Even though Riso is a company that relies on selling ink and hardware to turn a profit
I find it kind of sad that duplicators may have sung their last hurrah. Companies like Riso and Ricoh had their fair chance of developing duplicators that could print four colors in a single pass. yet, neither one of them did. Ricoh opted to put their bucks into production print and Riso decided to go the route of the ComColor.
Yes, it's ironic that a company that depends on putting ink on paper would then decide not to offer full color brochures to their dealers. Has Riso just made a flub or are things that bad that they can't afford to buy full color brochures.
Just a thought, couldn't you print your own brochures with the ComColor devices?
-=Good Selling=-
Samsung to Acquire Nuance?
Whoa! Read this today on a blog, will post that thread at the bottom of this blog. The blog goes on to state that the Wall Street Journal reported that Nuance has spoken to Samsung about the possible sale. It was stated that the talks happened earlier this year and was not sure if this would lead to a deal. The blog focused more on the Nuance's Dragon Dictation, Swype and Siri (first time of heard of Siri).
The blog did not mention about Nuances other products like eCopy and Equitrac. If you've been following recent industry press releases you would see the likes of Ricoh, and Canon that have recently bought software companies. I mentioned more than a year ago that the likes of Canon, Ricoh and KonicaMinolta need to purchase software companies to reduce their dependency on clicks from image devices
Just think, Samsung buys Nuanace, and then Ricoh, Canon, Xerox and well just about everyone else will have to purchase eCopy and Equitrac from Samsung. Samsung could vault themselves into a major solution provider for MFP's or they could spin off those divisions to the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Xerox or KonicaMinolta.
I believe it's a good deal for Samsung, and will ask around to see what else I can find out.
ere's that link: http://www.iphonehacks.com/201...ire-nuance-siri.html
-=Good Selling=-
This Week in the Copier/Office Equipment Industry 10 Years Ago Second Week of June 2004
Happy Father's Day! In just two weeks, we'll have run through the first half of the year. How time does fly! I've commented to my wife on many occasions that when your job comes down to monthly and quarterly numbers, it seems that there is no end to how quickly the months and quarters fly by.
10 Years ago this week: Ronald Reagan's funeral held at Washington National Cathedral and burial service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library later in the day. (White House) (Washington National Cathedral)
6/14/04 5:19 PM
Topic by Guest
News Alert Print Story Sponsor Results Fuser Oil Online Store - Canon Printers Fuser oil and toner for Canon printers as well as Minolta, Ricoh, Sharp, Savin, Kyocera-Mita, Toshiba, Konica, Danka, Kodak. Low prices. fuseroil.com Smart Savings - Canon
6/11/04 12:32 PM
Topic by jswinberlin 
any advice on how the Ricoh 2035/2045 might be superior to the Canon machines I may see? Thanks for any help. Jerry
6/14/04 4:53 PM
Topic by Deanw
Customer has 4 year old Minolta Di520 running 360k per year. Would I be okay replacing with 45cpm ricoh or do I need to move up to 60cpm. Customer really interested in document server so I want to stay away from 55cpm ricoh because that document server
6/10/04 8:43 PM
Topic by Guest
Ricoh Plans To Triple IT Service Sales In Five Years Nozomi Toyama, 06.04.04, 1:10 PM ET Ricoh, a major maker of office equipment, plans to more than triple its sales from information technology and communications services over the next five years to
6/15/04 8:17 AM
Topic by Guest
Ricoh Printers Make Desktop Color More AffordableRicoh Printers Make Desktop Color More Affordable Ricoh's New Suite of Printers Makes Color More Convenient Than Ever for the Desktop Color Market. Ricoh Introduces Aficio CL1000N, Aficio CL2000/CL2000N
6/16/04 8:18 AM
Topic by Guest
Canon, Epson, HP, and Lexmark Support New ISO Standard That Helps Customers Evaluate Printer and Print Cartridge Yield Wednesday June 16, 7:00 am ET TOKYO PALO ALTO, Calif. LEXINGTON, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 2004-- Consensus-Driven Standard for
6/16/04 8:30 AM
Topic by Guest
Ricoh Co will start producing core components for copiers such as paper feed rollers and photoconductors in Shanghai in June, a Japanese business daily reported Saturday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said Ricoh will build a plant to manufacture such
6/10/04 5:13 PM
Topic by Guest
publication called Digital Press Digest or a company that goes by KACOX. They promote Minolta/Konica machines
6/16/04 8:12 AM
Topic by Guest
customers on the latest Panasonic and Kyocera Mita digital products. While sales reps often handle the initial training once the device is installed, Ultrex in-house IT specialist typically conducts the training on networked products. CSRs provide additional
6/10/04 5:21 PM
Topic by Guest
Press Releases RICOH CORPORATION INTRODUCES THE AFICIO 1515 SERIES New Multifunctional Systems Feature Embedded Scan to E-mail and Standard Duplex Copying West Caldwell, NJ, June 09, 2004 Ricoh Corporation, the leading provider of digital office
6/10/04 5:34 PM
Topic by Guest
E-Reader Automates Meter Readings Smart New Software Solution Now Available Ricoh is pleased to announce the availability of their proprietry e-Reader software. This small program takes a matter of minutes to install and set up on your network. The
6/14/04 5:24 PM
Topic by Guest
Press Release Source: Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon imageRUNNER and NetSpot Software Receive Several Best-in-Class Awards from BERTL Monday June 14, 8:30 am ET New Color-Enabled imageRUNNER C3100 Series and C6800, imageRUNNER Pro150+ and NetSpot Suite Are
6/10/04 5:26 PM
Reply by Guest
National Championship of Go Chess (female single) have been also invited in the competition. By sponsoring the competition, Ricoh has actively built up an excellent corporate image. Just like the game of go which is a challenge of wisdom and courage, Ricohs
6/10/04 5:52 PM
Reply by Neal
I used to get all of those publications when I was at MBS. I always thought it was part of Minolta.
6/11/04 10:26 AM
Reply by dmurrah
We tested this and it only sends the meter reads to Ricoh. Why would they go to all this trouble and not make it where it would work for the dealer community????? Has anyone else tested this?
6/11/04 12:22 PM
Reply by jswinberlin
I believe that when the day is done you get what you pay for and the Ricoh products are superior. We only sell the 18ppm machine at this point.
6/11/04 3:00 PM
Reply by Guest
Jerry: You said they are primarily interested in scanning. May I assume that they are interested in electronic paper management as well? If so, Canon may propose their fine eCopy solution as well. Virtual Copier is a powerful very cost effective solution
6/14/04 12:58 PM
Reply by Scott Holloway
The Canon units I have seen all do TWAIN interface scanning. This means that you go to the copier, put the documents in the adf, go back to your pc and open the TWAIN interface and click on the scan button. Keep in mind this means no one can use the
6/14/04 5:12 PM
Reply by Guest
Di520 is digital (I believe it was Minolta's first 50CPM/ppm digital). Most initial digital offerings from any of the manyufacturers that had a print controller were very slow and never came close to the advertised print speed! reps were reluctant or did
6/14/04 9:22 PM
Reply by Neal
the 520 may have been the first of Minolta's digital systems but it was a workhorse. Th finishing unit woule do folding. I'd go with the 60...the capabilities of the doc server as well as printing speed, duplexing speed, the scanning all are value added
6/15/04 9:46 AM
Reply by Deanw
Thanks for the input everyone, this is for a small private school. Their minolta isn't even connected for printing. They just want a basic workhorse machine.
-=Good Selling=-
Selling Copiers "A Week in the Life" Monday
Monday???.....Everyone knows that a great copier sales person week starts late Sunday, because we called it quits early Friday (especially in the summer)!
With that in mind, Sunday night is geared to getting these type of jobs accomplished.
- Answering emails that came in late Friday
- Preparing any quotes or orders needed on Monday
- Researching items needed to quote early in the week on Monday or Tuesday
- Checking your calendar to make sure there are no conflicting appointments
- Going through your account list to see if there any viable upgrades coming soon
- Rewriting your list of things to do
- Catching up with any updates on the Print4Pay Hotel
Whew, after all of that is done, it's MONDAY, yeah!!! Time to make some sales!!
The dreaded drive to the office
For someone like me, a late owl, I always find myself in a rush on Monday morning. Can you believe my wife picks out here clothes the night before? Well, not me, I'm a man and can figure that out in an instant, so off I go to work with two different color socks! Silly me, I need to take a note from the wife.
Stop for coffee, and off to drive 33 miles which will take almost 60 minutes in order to get there by 8:00AM. Megalopolis, is what we call it.
Prepare the laptop, get my presentation binder, find my cell, get another coffee, and I'm ready to hammer the phones today! Oh, today is Monday right? Oh crap, SALES Meeting, forgot all about that....boring, boring and find my self nodding off (even after all that coffee). The time comes for me to speak about an interesting appointment I had last week............oh bother...., do I have too?
After two to three hours of yaking it up I'm ready to make some follow up calls before my 3PM appointment that I made very close to my home (yeah!!)
Dialing for Dollars
I'm sorry Mr. So an So just stepped away from his desk, would you like his voice mail?"
"I'm sorry Mrs. So and So is not in today, would you like his voice mail?"
"Ms So an So just got called into a meeting, would you like to leave a message?"
"Hi you reached So and So and please leave a message"
"This is Mr. So an So, and I'll be out of the office from so on and so forth"
"We just upgraded our systems two weeks ago"
"Can you send me information"
"Mr So and So passed away two months ago",
"Miss So an So does not work here any longer"
"We were just purchased by another company and luckily all of the purchasing decision's are made out of state"
"We don't need any stinking copiers" (click)
"Yes, we'd like to have you come in, however the only open time slots are 8:30AM or after 5PM" OMG!
Appointment
Off I go, another cup of java, back out on the open road in NJ, sun in my face, wind in my hair, listening to my fav talk radio, and stuck in traffic! Arrrggghhh. Where's the cell, looks like I'm gonna be late and have to call the customer.
Shaking hands
Meeting new people, checking to make sure no one has TB and we're good to go. That appointment went well, need to do research and have another appointment set up for two days from now in order to close so business. Once I get outside, since it's 4:00PM, gee....I still have time to cold call (yea!!!). Hit about 5 places, dropped off cards, got cards, and I'll make those calls on another day! Ok, it's close enough to 5PM to go home (remember, I'm only 15 minutes from home), get some eats, kiss the wife, walk the dog, take out the garbage, watch the news, and then spend an hour or two at night getting ready for TUESDAY!!!!!
-=Good Selling=-
Top 10 Copier & Printer Proposals for May 2014
So, a few weeks ago I posted Top 5 Copier & Printer RFP's for Second Week of May 2014. I thought that I would have the time to post these each week. However, the weather has been so beautiful these last few weeks that I've taken a great liking to sitting on my favorite couch in the evenings. No computer, no phone, and no ipad. The thought of another terrible winter has swayed me to enjoy more time outside.
The amount of quotes and proposals that we've been getting is awesome! Just the other day someone sent me 37 quotes! I've posted 5 already and will be posting the rest throughout this month.
Without further ado, here's our list of the Top Ten Copier & Print Proposals for May 2014.
- Sharp MX-4110N
- KonicaMinolta Bizhub C452
- Xerox WorkCentre 7545
- Canon imageRUNNER Advance C5045
- Proposal Five (Muliple Xerox Proposed Systems)
- Proposal Four (xerox) WC 5855 x1 _ WC 5855 x2
- Xerox BID Xerox WC3615_W5355_WC5355_WC5855APT_WC7835PT_WC7855PT
- HUge Samsung _ Ricoh Deal.pdf
- Canon imageRunner Advance C5235.pdf
- Utiliquest MX-B402SC (2).pdf
If you can, please keep these quotes & proposals coming. We're giving away a FREE six month Premium Membership for every 6 proposals that are emailed to me. Please send to arthurkpost@gmail.com
-=Good Selling=-
When Does Your IT Provider Start to Care About Your Cost Per Page?
In the last month, I've had to visit the same doctor's office about six times. It seems I developed cataracts in both eyes. I opted for the surgery, and everything went very well.
Not being a frequent visitor to doctors' offices, these trips to the same eye center piqued my interest about how much paper they use. This particular eye center had three separate print devices (all A4). One was an older HP that was just used for printing, another was an older Canon fax machine, and last but not least was an older A4 Panasonic copier. They also had a small Fujitsu scanner that they used for scanning insurance cards.
Scanning the insurance cards into their EMR software is a good thing. The eye center also has a new website where you can request and change appointments, view payments, bills, and medical notes. I also saw many PCs and was surprised when I saw a few nurses with notebooks. Awesome, I thought, they really have it going on!
Every new patient is bombarded with at least six or seven forms that are printed on the HP (I asked), and at the end of your visit, you are then presented with another two to three sheets of paper. When the time came for the surgeries, each patient’s file had at least another 20-30 sheets of paper (additional forms and reports).
I was there twice for surgery in two weeks, and each day they had 15 cataract surgeries planned. I asked one of the nurses at the eye center where they get all the forms and reports for the surgeries, and she explained that they were printed on another printer (I was not able to see that one). Thus, the wheels started to turn, and I would estimate that this eye center is probably printing at least half a million pages per month!
When you're as old as me, you can make a good guess as to what the cost per page is for each of these devices. I figured two decent MFPs could, on the low side, save them as much as a penny per page. At a penny per page, that's $5,000 per year.
But the question I really want to ask them is, "Why does your IT provider not care about your cost per page?" They’ve got all this awesome technology, but their imaging systems are straight out of Bedrock.
I think that while their IT provider may be awesome at navigating them through the maze of IT technology, they are probably a bunch of dopes when it comes to imaging. This leaves an opening for someone like me to ask the question, "When does your IT provider start to care about your cost per page?"
I’m thinking that will be enough to get me an appointment so we can at least have the discussion about imaging and then move the discussion to the fact that we are also an IT provider. Wouldn't they really want to do business with someone who can deliver both IT and imaging?
I estimate the imaging systems they have are at least five years old. That’s a cool $25,000 that the eye center could have re-invested or saved over the years.
I never told them what I did for a living, but I did ask for the name of the person in charge of their office technology. In a few days, I'll be calling for an appointment with a wealth of knowledge about their paper workflow. It may or may not pan out, but if I had had my head buried in my phone (as almost everyone did, except for the elderly), I would have never seen the forest for the trees.
I believe that everywhere you go, there are opportunities; you just need to pay attention.
-=Good Selling=-
Is the cloud the end for MFPs?
"With more and more companies moving to the cloud, the age of MFPs is coming to an end. Being able to work anywhere, anytime, fewer people come to the office and even less use the MFP. Therefore, new solutions, such as mobile capture, replace MFPs."
Will MFPs really meet their end? Probably not. But the cloud has far reaching consequences on the market and customer expectations.
Many smaller, progressive companies embrace cloud technology to increase productivity and lower costs. These customers need an MFP capable to scan to services like Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, Google Drive, etc. These companies do not have servers to host their DMS solutions. So how will you convince them to install and maintain a server for their capture solution?
Here at Fenestrae, we don't think a capture server is needed. Instead we offer our software as a service. Visit www.udocx.com for more information or leave a comment below to tell us what solution you offer.
