Email from Canon P4P'er "Ricoh Direct Pricing"

It seems like this is going on all over the country!!

I wonder what the new president of Ricoh would say or if he even cares. Ricoh is very good product but would sell themsleves to the devil to get a deal.

I don't think they care, its all about the boxes. Personally, I think they have no idea what Direct is doing in the field.

I have mentioned before that all resources are being invested in IKON / RBS and support (field and financial) is being scaled back on the Dealer side at Ricoh. Just wait until April 2009! The current Ricoh leadership would applaud this situation and toast to it with an expensive glass of red wine.

What happens in April 2009 besides Aprils Fool Day!

Local IKON office has tried the same garbage, we've made inroads and won three of the last four deals by simply being different. Packaging evrything together as a solution. FaxPress, Alchemy Document Management Software. Identifying how we can help them not just today but to formulate a document managemet strategy that will take them through the next five years.

quote:

Originally posted by Art Post:
What happens in April 2009 besides Aprils Fool Day!

I'm not sure what else happens, but I do know that Ricoh hasn't implemented any structural changes in IKON and April 2009 is when they plan to do those.

Here in Dallas, we've been seeing plenty of low-ball deals from the local Ricoh branch & IKON, particularly over the past 2-3 weeks. Our guess is that it is due to the fact that March is the end of Ricoh USA's fiscal year, so they are just moving boxes for next to nothing.

I agree with Neal being different by just paying attention to the client works. Direct's game plan is to turn everything to a price deal. Peel the onion back and we all uncover a wealth of opportunity to beat direct. It takes time but you have to know where to play and where to back away.

What kind of structural canges do you think they are going to implement? Does anyone have any insider info?

At this point I do not believe a word that anybody at Ricoh has to say. If any changes are made I would be hard-pressed they would stick to any of them. Personally, Ricoh Corporate is full of hot-air. They should be thankful there is the dealer channel as we pay attention to the bottom line and our clients.

RUMOR has it that Ricoh will change the name of the company to IKON Americas Corporation, effective August 1, 2009. RBS will fold into IKON, with several offices closing across the country. This new IKON direct organization will be the only distribution channel selling 'Ricoh' brand products, while the remaining "strong" Independent Dealers can sell Lanier and Savin (for a limited time) at an approximate 20% higher price than IKON will enjoy. RFG Dual Line Dealers will be requested to drop their other manufacturer's product line, in order to receive that pricing! They are preparing to replace the Ricoh logo on the headquarters building in New Jersey, yet Ricoh University will remain unchanged. Top RFG (Lanier and Savin brand) no longer have the ability to win a Dealer Trip, yet they can join the IKON National Trip to Venezuela next year. April Fool's! Oh sorry, it's only 3/25/09.

Good one, that was a nice read.

GMAN:


You should have waited for April 1st, I'm sure this post would have sent a ripple throughout corporate!!

I agree that was a great Post. I hope someone from Ricoh Corporate signs up in P4P.

There's a few on the site, however no high level execs, they need to be aware of what goes on in the field. Not that they would change anything, but maybe it will clue them into to why RBS loses millions of dollars each year instead of making profit!

Yup, I agree should have waited for the 1st, then you could have led us on for a couple of hours

The sad thing it, 95% of it was believable.

Rest assured Art and all, that just like I found this web-site back in 2004 and have watched almost daily since and posted some, the folks you want to be reading this, ARE.

I personally don't see this to be very believeable. Financially it doesn't make sense to destroy Ricoh's independent community which if you read this, every independent selling RFG would immediately drop them and pick up another manufacturer (we have already). If they went forward with this they would know that they would immediately loose a large percentage of their distribution and more importantly of that percentage it is the most with decent margins, as we all know that IKON/RBS and not making money by giving equipment away. In today's economic times it just doesn't make sense. Of course what they are currently doing doesn't make sense either, but I have to believe that they wouldn't commit suicide???