MFP Copier Blog

We continue to work to bring you the latest Copier, Copy Machines RFP's & RFQ's that become available on a weekly basis. However it's always good to check in every day to see what's new.  A little game that's played by many is that the dates between the official start of the RFP to the close date may only be a few weeks, thus it's important to get notified ASAP.  If you're a premium member of the Print4Pay Hotel, you'll get immediate email notification when any RFP or RFQ is posted (within minutes).     Enjoy!

3 Coin Operated Copiers Needed in New Jersey

Production System (Color) and Monochrome needed in Illinois

15 Copiers required in Ontario (close 9/2013)

14 Copiers needed in Washington (Closes 9/10/2013)

Digital Copier Cost Per Copy Program (closes 9/16/2013)

Copiers Needed in Missouri

5 Copiers Needed in Washington, DC

Copier Needed in Michigan

84 Copier Needed in California

22 Copiers Needed in Kansas

In total there are more than 166 copiers that are up for grabs!!!  You can secure your Premium Membership here.

-=Good Selling=-

Yup, with the new site and still having to keep down my day job.....I've been a little busy.  But before I post these I just wanted to tell you that I received a call from a Print4Pay Hotel member that is quitting his job of selling MPS and Copiers after 20 years with that company.  Basically, it came down that a new manager was hired and that manager wanted to micro manage the sales people to death.  I call this type of Management "Ikonisum", which relates to the many managers that were let go and found themselves a position at a Dealer.  They took those over bearing rules, reports, meetings and stuck them right where you know where.  It's a dam shame.....but someone else will benefit from their loss and this guy will surely land on his feet!!!

Canon 2525 Monochrome.pdf

Konica Minolta BizHub 363 System.pdf

kyocera C250i proposal.pdf

Copystar CS2560 pricing.pdf

Multi Konica Minolta BizHub25,36,42.pdf

savin c9075_Savin c9065_Savin C5502 price quote one dollar.pdf

savin c9075_Savin c9065_Savin C5502 price quote FMV.pdf

xerox WC7775PC.pdf

konicaminolta bizhub c452 proposal.pdf

konicaminolts c654 proposal.pdf

Please keep in mind that you need to pay the piper in order to view these, but you'll also have a one year Premium Membership for the Greatest Imaging site for Imaging Professionals in the World!!!

-=Good Selling=-

Many times a customer will not upgrade if they have remaining payments on the current lease and the system is working well.  Sometimes the savings for the new device or increased efficiency does not outweigh the....................... interest that will be paid on the remaining balance of the lease. 

Zero Interest Trade Up

What you can do is to present the sale in a different light. Tell the customer that the remaining stream of payments will be calculated at zero percent interest, thus there is no cost to borrow the remaining stream of payments.  

There’s many ways to figure this out. I’ll give you a simple one here for a 60 month lease.

Customer owes $2,000; the zero interest payment on 60 months would be $33.33 per month. 

You wanted to sell the system for $10,000 which included the $2,000 for the remaining stream of payments.  Your lease cost for this was $204.00 per month (using a rate factor of .0204).  You would have received $8,000 for your sale. 

Take your price of $8,000 and use the .0204 rate factor and the payment on the system is $163.20, add the zero interest, the total payment is $196.55.  You’ll need to break it down this way to the customer.

Basically you are paying the interest in your deal.  You then need to back out the deal for the total amount of the funding thus $196.55 divided by .0204 = 9,634.80 is the amount funded from the leasing company. Your sale is $7,634.80 and the $2,000 is still there to pay the remaining stream of payments.

-=Good Selling=-

As I prepare for the last week of the month I had some extra time to start reviewing the specs for the awesome 03 series (Metis). The Metis series include the C3003/3503/4503/5503 and 6003.  In the past many of the engineering names of the Ricoh copiers were based on Greek mythology and the same holds true with the use of Metis.  I pulled this from Wikipedia about Metis.

In Greek mythology, Metis (μῆΤΙς, "wisdom," "skill," or "craft") was of the Titan generation and, like several primordial figures, an Oceanid, in the sense that Metis was born of Oceanus and Tethys, of an earlier age than Zeus and his siblings. Metis was the first great spouse of Zeus.^{read more here}

Paper Handling: All systems come standard with two 550 sheet paper drawers and a 100 sheet by pass. Total standard capacity at 1,200 sheets of paper. Maximum paper capacity would be 4,700 sheets with the optional Tandem LCT and side LCT (large capacity paper tray).

Supported Paper Sizes: Tray #1 is dedicated letter size only (I'm not a fan of this, you're paying good bucks for this system and I'd rather see the system with Tray #1 as a universal tray (accepting letter to ledger).  Tray #2 is a universal tray and will support statement, letter, legal, ledger and 12x18 and envelopes.  (Woohoo!  statement size is needed for healthcare and the ability to have 12x18 support helps a lot,  envelope feeding from the second tray is awesome and envelopes feed with out a hitch on the previous series). By-pass tray will up to 12x18, and envelopes plus there are many custom paper sizes that can be programmed.

Supported Media Weight:  Standard trays (1, 2, 3 & 4) will accept 14-80lb bond/166kb index (52-300gsm), same specs for the by-pass.  Duplex two sided print/copy will support 14-68lb bond/142lb index (52-256 gsm), I have a paper char located here to reference.

Media Types:  Plain, Recycled, Letterhead, Cardstock, Preprinted Paper, Bond Paper, High Gloss Coated Paper (another woohoo here, this is the first I've seen that HGCP is supported), Colored Paper, Envelopes, Labels & OHP (Labels and OHP are restricted to use form the by-pass tray only).  OHP is the common abbreviation for Overhead Projector, thus when OHP is stated as a media type it refers to a clear mylar media that can be copied or printed onto.  Does anyone ever copy of print on this stuff anymore, I can't even remember the last time I saw an Overhead Projector!

Document Feeder (ARDF):  Ricoh uses an ARDF (Auto Reversing Document Feeder) for the MPC3003 and the MPC3503.  The feeder will hold up to 100 sheets of statement, letter, legal or 11x17. The supported media weight is 11-34lb bond for both simplex and duplex.

Document Feeder (SPDF): Ricoh upped the anti with the new SPDF (Single Pass Document Feeder) which is standard on the MPC4503/5503 and 6003, this super feeder will hold up to 220 sheets of paper and will scan both sides of the page in a single pass!  Unlike the ARDF which needs to scan one side and then turn the document and scan the other side.  Scan speeds with this feeder is ridiculous!! Supported media weight is the same as the ARDF.

Exit Tray:  Standard 500 sheets and Maximum with option finisher is 1,650 for the MPC3003 and 3503.  Maximum output for the MPC4503/5503 and 6003 is 3,626 sheets.

Warm up:  Less than 20 seconds

Warm up from sleep mode:  Less than 10 seconds

Media Handling Options:  There are four available:  Two Tray Paper Bank (2 x 550 sheets), One Tray Paper Bank (1 x 550 sheets), Tandem Large Capacity Paper Tray (1,000 sheets x 2 letter only), Side Large Capacity Paper Tray (1,500 sheets letter only).

Output Trays and Finisher Options:  There are 7!  I'm going to short order these because blogs are suppose to be short.  Internal Shift Sort Tray, One Bin Tray, 500 Sheet Internal Finisher (not available on 6003), 1,000 sheet finisher, 1,000 sheet booklet finisher, 2,000 sheet booklet finisher, and a 3,000 sheet finisher.  You can go here and download the brochure.

Stay tuned next week when I've go over the scan, print and fax specs. All in all this will be an awesome unit to propose to existing clients and new prospects, the quality and feature set is one of the best to date.

-=Good Selling=-

Way back when in 1986 I went into business for myself at the ripe age of 29.  I had been selling copiers for a Minolta dealer in central New Jersey since 1982, and believe it or not by 1986 the owner was in a divorce, hooked on other stuff and the business just didn't open one day and the previous weeks pay checks had NSF. 

What else was I to do when there were a number of accounts for the picking? With that I got my brother (he had been a tech for a short time at Metro Business Systems which was a Canon Dealer in New Jersey) involved and another sales person who eventually turned in to a technician.  Since all of the accounts had Minolta products we needed to secure a source where we could get out parts and buy copy machines from.  That company was Century Office Products (the company I work for now). Back in the eighties when you bought copiers from another dealer (which was in violation of the dealer agreement), that dealer was "skating" copiers, which means that they would rid the copier of the serial number and then sell me it to me so I could resell the unit.  I think early on we were reselling the Minolta's and Mita units from another dealer in NJ (Budget Copy, no longer in business).

Buying copiers and parts from these dealers was not that easy, you needed to come in with cash for parts, supplies and the copiers. I can remember many times when we needed a certain copier, parts and supplies that we weren't able to get them in a timely manner.  When you're selling copiers and repairing them you need to get everything in a timely manner. We were probably buying these "skated" systems for about a year or so, and it came time to see if we could hook up with a manufacturer to get Authorized!

See, back in 1986 you could say it was like the Wild, Wild West there were so many opportunities for reseller copiers and fax machines. Since the eighties the copier industry has been whittled down in size so that only the strong survived.  Back in 1986 there were a glut of copier manufacturers and non manufacturers that were putting their label on the box and reselling the units. 

The 80's list of distributors and manufacturers here in the US for copiers were:

Minolta

Ricoh

Mita

Sharp

Toshiba

Monroe

Gestetner

Savin

Oce

Royal

Konica

Adler Royal

Lanier

Sanyo

Towa

Olivetti

AB Dick

Pitney Bowes

Xerox

Canon

Selex

I'm sure I've missed a few. The 80's and early 90's were the golden years to get into the industry because there were so many opportunities available and a glut of manufacturers and distributors. Many garage door copier companies graduated to become some of the largest dealers in their markets. 

If you have a credit card, could turn a screwdriver, and had some selling skills you'd be able to land an Authorized Dealer stamp for your business.

My how times have changed the players have changed in only 23 years. What was once a mighty field of 20 or so has now been whittled down to the likes of Ricoh (bought Savin, Gestetner, Monroe & Lanier) Canon (bought OCE), Xerox, Sharp, Kyocera, KonicaMinolta (merger Konica and Minolta), and Toshiba.  Two other copier aka MFP/MFP manufacturers/distributors are also active today and they are Muratec America and Samsung.

Thus, how can you start a new Authorized Dealership today?  What's it going to cost you? Could you afford to play with the likes of Canon, Ricoh, KonicaMinolta and the others? Can you meet the quotas for hardware and aftermarket? 

Most of those answers if not all of them would be no. Today, it seems if you wanted to get into the copier business you would need to start with purchasing copiers from distributors and then try to make the ascent to obtain an Authorized Dealership some where down the road.  However, there are some opportunities still out there with some of the not so major players.  Companies that come to mind is Muratec and possibly Samsung.  I know more about Muratec than I know of Samsung.  Muratec would be a good choice since they have A4 & A3 system, in addition they have many solutions and even a Managed IT program. 

What you'll need is a business plan, of course good credit, a plan to market in a territory where they need assistance for placement, an SE or two and maybe yourself selling and at least one sales person, and the Desire, Dedication and the Determination to succeed. 

The opportunities are out there, they may not be as easy as it was in the eighties or early nineties.  As long as their are offices there will always be a need for an office equipment/solutions dealer.

-=Good Selling=-

When you've been in the busy as long as I've been you see many reps come and go, however for those of us that stick around we have a tendency to never leave the business. 

I met Monte through the Print4Pay Hotel forums many years ago, it may have been in 04 or 05, even though we've never met we've been able to help each other with information through the P4P forums and ever now and then we get the chance to chat on the phone.

A few months ago, Monte introduced me toCC Scan and gave me a brief overview of the features and benefits of the program. I'm not able to offer CC Scan to my current prospects and current clients, although I wish I could. I'm sure many readers maybe able to use CC Scan as an additional tool or to add value to the MFP sale. Lately, I been asking every potential prospect if they are archiving or scanning to cloud based software and I would estimate that 60-65% have answered that question as a yes.  The key question would be "how are you doing that" and or please show me.  CC Scan allows you to.....well better that it comes from Monte than me.......

Capture Component based in San Juan Capistrano, California has just released its newest version of ccScan Now integrating all manufactures of MFP’s and offering an alternative to eCopy that is a fraction of the price.

This software allows users to scan document directly to cloud based repositories like Box.net, Salesfroce.com, Google Drive, SharePoint 365 along with several other cloud providers. Users simply scan the document at the MFP and key in Metadata at the point of scan and documents are automatically filed correctly and named correctly to the cloud. All companies are either looking at cloud solutions or they have already implemented one. At a cost of only @$360 annually you now have a solution to offer that your competitor may not. Want some help on a presale?

Monte Jensen with 20 years of experience in the MFP space is there to help with trial licenses and web-ex demos.

So, Monte knows his stuff, as a matter of fact he is my "go to" guy when I have a question about eCopy (speaking of eCopy, have you ever tried to get support out of them...).  Maybe you're looking for that special lockout feature, or maybe you're looking to build your Pro Services, or better yet you're looking to drive additional profits and margins.  CC Scan offers you many choices, no quotas and the opportunity to be "the expert" with Scan2cloud solutions and it's device agnostic!!!!

You can reach at 415-286-1127 or email him at monte@capturecomponents.com  and as Monte would say......

"Good Solution Selling"

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh Plotworks "Way To Screw Up the W3601"

UPDATE: I posted this on blog on the old blog site back in late May of this year.  To date and since the introduction of Plotworks I have not sold one W3601, I'm usually good for 1.5 of the W3601 every month.  What I have sold is about at least 6 of the CW2200SPs, ask me if I'm making any commissions on them and the answer is pretty much no, because of the system being so overprice. As Vince would say, "that's my two cents".

When do you say enough already? 

In recent weeks it seems every major and minor player in the industry now has some version of a scan2cloud app that can run on their MFP's aka copiers. Since I've been in the copier business for 33 years I've seen many apps/integrated software solutions from various manufacturers that were either dropped after a short time, never worked right or when you called the manufacturer for support their SE's did not have clue on how to alleviate the issue which left you in a bad situation with your customer! The reason for the terrible support is because the MFP aka copier manufacturer did not develop the app/software, they just re-sold the product.

The Cloud is here to stay and the more I talk about Scan2Cloud with my clients I'm getting feedback that being able to access these documents anywhere is a great time saver for them. In those discussions with prospects, many of them are already using Dropbox and MS Office 36. However they are scanning to their folder on the PC or scanning to email and then migrating the document to dropbox or MS Office 365 with additional clicks and entering data. Many MFP users are not even aware that most MFP's will allow a user to set up a dropbox folder on the MFP.  Of course the problem with scanning to one folder is that you still have to migrate that document to another folder or sub folders. 

I'm also hearing that more clients and prospects are embracing the thought of moving to  MS Office 365, and why not when the cost of the cost of MS365 starts at $5.00 per user per month for Small Business, $12.50 per user per month for Small Business Premium and $15 per user per month for Mid Size Business! It's a no brainer that for $150 per user per year Small Business Premium you get all of the bells and whistles except for Active Directory Integration.

MS 365 has a lot of bang for the buck for the small business and will save business many hours of administrating software, re-loading software, and updating licenses for their general use of MS Office application software.   One of the features of MS 365 is that you also get MS sharepoint that will allow you to store documents.

So how can you turn paper into fully searchable files and store them automatically in the right location for MS 365, Dropbox, SharePoint or any other business application? 

UDOCX has SMART SCANNING and yes they are a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel, but wouldn't you rather get support from the people who developed the Smart Scanning Cloud application rather then going through a second or third party that just bundled a few applications, gave it some fancy cloud name and then couldn't support it to you or your customers satisfaction?  I know I'd rather get my fruits and veggies from the farm rather than the grocery store, because the farmers will be more knowledgeable about their products.  Thus you need to go to the source for one awesome scan2cloud solution like UDOCX.

UDOCX will set up in minutes as long as your MFP has a browser and it's connected to the web. That means no additional software to run on a server, no maintenance costs for the software and no downtime.  UDOCX allows you to scan the document as PDF/A, have it OCR'D add Metadata and then send it to the likes of MS Office 365, SharePoint, Dropbox, Alfresco and Xerox Docushare while depositing the document in the right location every time. 

UDOCX (Fenestrae) now has partnerships with Ricoh, Xerox, Canon, Fujitsu, Alfresco. Mircosoft, Sharp and Xerox Docushare. Fenestrae was founded in 1990 and has offices The Netherlands (HQ), US, Germany, Spain, and Hong Kong.  To date they manage more than 1,000 clients in more than 40 countries.

As a rep that is still out on their in the field and still selling to down the street prospects and customers I want to make sure that every system I sell has a browser unit in the system. I want to make sure that I have the Scan2Cloud talk with my customers and prospects, so I can help them with their business process. I feel that UDOCX is one of those unique solutions that I feel is well supported and I'm at peace of mind recommending this solution over any solution that my MFP/copier manufacturer is recommending.  If you have the time check out UDOCX and their powerful Scan2Cloud solution.

-=Good Selling=-

Darby........during the Christmas of 2003 my wife brought me a little furball with a wagging tail. This little furball with the wagging tail would grow to almost 200lbs, actually he weighed 198lbs today. He is a mix of a Rottweiler & Mastiff with brindle coloring. 

I was elated and never in my life did I have a dog this large or one that tested me for love, obedience and trust.  He and I enjoyed many walks, many rub downs (oh how I loved to rub him down), it seemed the older he got the more he enjoyed the rubdowns!  However his large size was a blessing for him as he would sit at the dinner table and wouldn't need a chair and rested his head on the table as he was waiting for a treat or a scrape of food.  Darby was also the connoisseur for deserts, busy bones, rawhides & chickie sticks and any thing else he could wrap his mouth around. He also thoroughly enjoyed watermelon!!

At a young age Darby stole many napkins off the dinner table and would proceed to eat them until he got is treat, I can remember him devouring an entire chicken one night, and then a box of chocolates. He was tummy up in his bed that night!

My wife and I were not Darby's owners as to we were his humans that were entrusted with caring for him, which included long walks at the beach, nightly strolls under the stars, slipping and sliding in the snow and surviving a few Hurricanes.  A couple of things that Darby had a dislike for was CATS, string beans, and going to the vet.  He hated the vet and would have to be dragged out of the car, and coaxed into the exam office, on most occasions he just laid down outside and the vets office and would not move. It's really tough to get a 200lb dog to move when he doesn't want to.

In fact one year when the wife and I went on vacation my father in-law was in charge getting Darby out, on one of those vacations my Father in Law slipped going down the stairs and grabbed DB (Darby's nick name) and DB held like a rock and stopped my Father in Law from hitting the concrete!  All in all DB was a champion of mixed breeds.

At 9 1/2 years DB still had spunk, liked his walks, and was always yakking at my wife to give him additional treats, it was not uncommon that after eating 4 cans of food, whatever he could grub from the table that he would also get and additional 2 busy bones or chicky sticks at night. My wife and Darby had a special relationship since she was the first one home every day, he would climb into the bay window and start wagging his 3 foot tail and you could hear it hitting the window from the outside of the house, DB would then exit the window and head for the door to great his "mommy". DB was also an expert at dishing out the love and kisses for everyone.

I wanted to get this down on some format because often as time passes on, so do some of our memories, of course we have the pictures but sometimes not the words that described those picture and events.

Today, we had to put our beloved Darby to sleep, in the last month he had developed a limp which got worse by the week. It was confirmed that he had developed bone cancer and in a large dog..well that's not so good. Since he was so large, amputation was not an option.  When a dog has bone cancer chances are it will develop quickly to the lungs also. 

My wife and I are saddened by losing our BEST FRIEND, however we look back at the 9 1/2 years (which is a long time for a big dog) and we remember how much love and enjoyment he gave us. 

Our little Sadie (a rescues we got about 12 months ago) is not sure what to do and she knows something is amiss. I also wanted to remember that my wife gave Darby his name and at the time the best name I was able to come up with was snot, we were much better off with Darby!

We miss you Darby!

I ran across yet another scam from a copier dealer.  First let me point out that 99.9% of the dealers out there are great at what they do and great to do business with. 

However in any industry there are always a few bottom feeders that go to any length to fatten their wallets and steal from others.  I just wish that one day we could rid our industry of those problematic bottom feeders.  I'm hoping that by writing about it will be greater attention to some of the issues at hand.

A big part of our business to help prospects to lower their costs that are related to hardware, service and supplies. Since most copiers aka MFP's are leased there is usually a fixed cost associated with the lease and in some cases the monthly or quarterly service and supplies.  Once we have the price that the customer is paying most sales people will try to see if they can lower the cost by swapping out the old lease with a new lease (upgrade the existing lease).

This is where it gets sticky, when you're working with a new account, the lease you are proposing to upgrade is not yours.  Not yours, meaning you (your company) were not the originated vendor for the lease, it was another copier dealer.  In the course of negotiating the new lease the professional sales person will get together with the prospect and figure out the remaining stream of payments that is owed on the old lease to the leasing company. Once they have a agreed on the number of payments, a check for the remaining payments will be paid back to the prospect when they enter into a new lease.  That check to the prospect can be handled in a few ways, the company can offer to pre-pay the remaining payments on the lease or just continue to pay the monthly payments on the old lease until the copier has to be returned. In most cases the old copier is stored at the same location where is was installed.  Removing the copier from that address needs prior approval from the leasing company.  Removing it without the consent of the leasing company may put in default of the lease. Ninety-nine percent of the time all goes well and there are no problems.

Here's the scam I've seen and where the problem starts is that the sales person aka dealer owner tells the customer that they will remove and store the system (no letter goes to the leasing company about the system being removed nor does a letter of intent if one is needed at the time the system is removed), that dealer then tells the customer that they will make the payments on the old lease for the remaining stream of payments.  Thus the bottom feeder of a dealer cuts a check back to the customer either monthly, or quarterly or in some cases they don't make any payments because they are horrible payers. But the real scam is the copier, remember the copier that is suppose to be sitting in the dealers warehouse?  (Please keep in mind that the copier may have to sit in the warehouse for 6, 12 or even 24 months).  The bottom feeder of a dealer then takes the leasing companies property and rents it to another company for a term that is shorter than the term that is left on the lease!

The leasing company is getting hosed because instead of getting a system back early or getting a system back with a low meter read they will get the system back with higher usage. Think of it this way, you leased a car, traded it in early with 30K mileage, the car dealer did not return the car to the leasing company but they put in their rental fleet. Here the cars gets additional wear and tear and is then returned on the end of lease date.

The customer is in violation of their lease and could be called into default, and what happens if the dealer goes out of business (like a dealership did here in NJ), the customer is left holding the bag for the remaining stream of payments, probably no copier to be found, a legal mess and still making payments on the new copier.

Here's my point, these bottom feeders need to go. There is no room for them in the industry as there is no room for PED's in baseball. Just as you would have a lowjack system on a car, maybe it's time that the leasing companies put them on their copiers. This way they can track the movement of them, and it one is turned off then that would raise a red flag.  I'm not sure if the leasing companies are willing to pay for this and if they are then I'm sure everyone will pay with higher monthly payments for copiers.

If you know of a dealer who is doing this, turn them in, and get rid of the bottom feeders of the industry.

-=Good Selling=-

Geesh, where do I start?  One MFP with 5 different flavors of speed. Keeping with tradition of most copier manufacturers the speed of the system is somewhere in the model number.  Take the first two digits of the model number and you have the copy/print speed of the system, the 03 represent the 3rd generation of the product. All systems will print at 1200x1200 dpi, standard 250GB Hard Drive, 1,200 sheet paper supply, Full Color TWAIN & Scan2email, Scan2folder, Scan2FTP, up to 12x18 media, embedded USB & SD card slots for print from and scan to.

Ricoh will call them workflow enhancements however since I'm an old timer in the business I'll refer to them as new features.

• Improved Home Screen with Document Server operability: The tilting home screen now measures from diagonal corner to corner at nine inches.  Also with customizable color touch screen LCD. Doc Server will now allow for up to 200 folders with the ability to designate personal or shared along with user name and password protection.  In the field I always talk about the FAB (Feature Advantage and Benefit of the Document Server), this is an awesome workflow solution and can win you many deals.  There's more about this on the forums.
• Embedded Smart Card Reader (Option): At first I wasn't sure what this was, it's and embedded card reader, for example you can use it for authentication to the system or even use it for secure printing applications (Print Audit Secure is a really nice one).
• New Smart Operation Panel Option: Why oh why is this an option?  Sell the sizzle right?  The smart operation panel replaces the 9 inch color display with a 10.1 full color touch screen with "pinch, flick, tap and zoom". We'll also be able to program some colorful "quick screens" that will promote additional ease of use.  One P4P Hotel member put it like this, Ricoh touts that they are a ECO friendly manufacturer, then why would they make us throw away a perfectly good color LCD displays in order to install the New Smart Operation Panel?  Couldn't they at least give us a credit for the non used ones and they can re-use them on additional systems? 
• High Capacity Standard Document Feeders with faster scanning speeds: The MPC3003 & 3503 comes standard with a 100 page document feeder and the MPC4503,550, 6503 comes standard with a single pass document feeder of 220 pages!! Yikes, since it's a single pass scanner and you're working two sided originals you'll be able to scan or copy 440 pages at once! Love it.
• Standard Gigabit Ethernet Card: With previous systems the Gigabit Ethernet Card was an option that retailed for $599. It is now a standard feature. 
• Scan to Searchable PDF (option):  Take those paper based documents and turn them into searchable .pdf's is an awesome feature for people that need to review or find content when a paper based document is scanned. This feature only can save hours of time. I'm not a big "option" fan, Ricoh should have included this as a standard feature and compensated with a higher MSRP.
• ID Card Copy: Place the ID card on the platen glass copy the first side, flip the card and both images come out side by side on one sheet of paper!  It's about time, right?
•  Auto Paper Draw Closing: Watch out for your tie, as I understand it, you give the paper draw a small nudge and the draw will then close on its own.  (Something else that can break right)
• Poster Printing: Years ago you needed to buy software that would allow you to print multiple pages to create a poster from your document, now you can do this right from the printer driver.
• Folding without Stapling: Just think for years we've had to jury rig the sensor in the stapler to make this happen for accounts. Nice feature just a TAD too late, however it will be a great selling point.
• Standard Envelope Feeding from Paper Tray #2: With the option Paper Feed Unit, you'll also be able to feed envelopes from trays 3 & 4 also.
• 500 Sheet Internal Finisher: Available as an option on the 3003.3503,4503 and the 5503.  In the past a finisher on these models would have required and additional foot print to the base unit. The internal finisher would now rest in the paper exit area for one nice neat cubed package.
• Flat Booklet Production with SR 3170 Finisher:  Seen it, love it, more professional and takes up less space when you need to pack booklets in a box.
•  Distributed Scan Management: Something new.... allows administrators to set up customized scanning workflows that match document submission preferences of the recipient.
• Improved MFP Browser:  I'm loving this because I can finally start selling the heck out of UDOCX with their scan2cloud solution for MS365.

So, there's a lot of sizzle in the new color systems, and for an industry that has lacked creativity with MFPs in recent years it's good to see that some manufacturers are finally starting to get it.  A few items I'd like to see in the future is a standardized OS (operating system) for all MFP's.  In the future, I'd like to be able to plug in my smart phone or tablet to the system and be able to print, scan and fax to or from my applications.

Next week (if I have the time), we'll go over the specs of the new systems.

-=Good Selling=-