WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES
3-29-09
The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from various trade publications.
- ImageSource magazine announced its Perfect Image Awards, which are given to successful independent dealers:
- Dealer of the Year = Modern Office Methods, a Lanier dealer with multiple locations in Ohio.
- Outstanding Service Program = Modern Office Methods
- Outstanding Sales Program = Thermocopy of Tennessee
- Outstanding Marketing Program = Impact Networking of Illinois/Wisconsin
- Most Innovative Customer Retention Program = Mr. Copy of California
- Best Implementation of Technology Strategies = Fisher’s Document Systems of Idaho
- Best Use of Company Website = Cell Business Equipment of California
- Outstanding Community Involvement = E.O. Johnson of Wisconsin
- Xerox wins a bid for Blue Valley Public School District of Kansas. Details:
- Includes Xerox MFPs with embedded QDirect Scan
- school printshop gets web-to-print RSA WebCRD
- Models included were WorkCentre 7655 color MFPs, WorkCentre 5600 series b/w MFPs
- Installed in 31 schools
- Print center has Xerox 4112 and Nuvera 144 production b/w systems
- Also includes DocuShare document management system
- Canon USA announced that current President and CEO, Joe Adachi was promoted to Senior Managing Director. He originally started with Canon in 1970. Seymour Liebman is now Executive VP, Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel, as well as Executive Officer of Canon Inc. Mark Haga is now Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
- Canon announced that it has made Carolina Office Equipment Company (CEOCO) an authorized full-line Canon MFP dealer. Details:
- COECO was formed in 1921 by Grober Robbins
- locations in Clinton, Fayetteville, Greenville, Kitty Hawk, Lumberton, New Bern, Raleigh & Rocky Mount, North Carolina, as well as Virginia Beach & Wilmington, Virginia.
- Currently 176 employees
- CEO is Chuck Robbins, GM is Randy Humphrey
- Was authorized by Paul Albano, Senior Manager of Canon
- German offset press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer (KBA) announced that its orders are down 36.7% due to slow economy. 838 employees will lose their jobs in a cost cutting move.
- German press maker, Heidelberg, announced it will lay off up to 5,000 workers to reduce costs.
- Variable data software maker, XMPie, announced a new option, called “Personaleffect E-Media”, which generates personal URLs. When a direct mail piece is generated, the prospects name is created into a website, that the end user can enter to respond to the offer.
- Former Xerox workers have reached a preliminary settlement against their former employer over benefits they claim they should have received. The U.S. District Court approved a $51 million settlement.
- Xerox announced new options for its 700 Digital Color Press:
- SquareFold Trimmer Module that creases a cover and trims face of booklets. The cover is creased so that the booklet has a square spine.
- FreeFlow Print Server Version 7 (Xerox branded print controller)
- GBC AdvancedPunch
- Xerox won a managed print services contract from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center:
- Was spending $10 million per year on machines, supplies & service
- Had 13,000 printers, copiers, fax machines and scanners for its 43,000 employees
- Was one device for every 2.5 employees
- Now has 3,000 Xerox MFPs
- Hope to save 35% annually
- Xerox sales agent, Mr. Copy, won a bid to provide DocuShare document management software to OwnerGUARD Inc., an insurance claims processor in San Diego, CA. The solution was named DocuShare Insurance Claims Workflow.
- Hewlett Packard won a managed print services contract from GES of Las Vegas:
- Originally had 754 copiers, printers and fax machines
- Has 1500 employees in 3 offices
- Was spending more than $1 million per year to own and operate devices
- New contract will reduce costs by 28%
- Now has just 268 HP MFPs
- Hewlett Packard announced it resolved its patent infringement case against Ninestar Image Co. Ltd. of China, which was making compatible cartridges for HP devices.
- Kyocera announced that it will be the official sponsor of the 2009 World Figure Skating Championship in Los Angeles from 3/23-3/29.
- Pitney Bowes announced that its mailing systems division will resell the Riso HC5500 high speed color inkjet printing system to customers looking to create full color variable data mailers. Pitney will compete against Riso branches and Riso dealers with the HC5500, which is jointly made by Riso and Olympus.
- Samsung announced it will offer a Managed Print Services Program thru its printer/MFP dealers featuring:
- Assessment Consulting Tool (ACT) which features a USB device to scan network for printers and MFPs
- Cost Simulation Tool (CST) is a tool to create a cost savings proposal
- SyncThru Admin 5 is a device management dashboard
- CounThru 2 Pro provides remote device management
- A recent study showed that approximately 75% of invoices generated by companies in the U.S. are paper based, thus proving the adoption of electronic invoicing is very slow.
- After starting a managed print services study in 2003, Boeing Corp. announced it finally chose a vendor to award a bid. Details:
- Originally had over 32,000 imaging devices
- Covers 195 offices in the U.S. and 168 locations in other countries
- Printers & MFPs provided by Lexmark
- Management of program provided by Dell Computer (which purchased hardware from Lexmark)
- Roll out will completed by 2011
- Plan is to reduce total imaging spend from $150 million to $110 million per year
- Charles Barbour of Boston was arrested after getting caught making fake $100 bills using a color copier. He allegedly sold fake $100 bills for $10 apiece.
- Staples is running a promo where it will give customer up to a $50 discount towards a new printer if customer brings in an old trade-in printer.
- Lexmark announced a new A4 b/w MFP, the X466DTE, offering:
- MSRP of $1679.00
- 40ppm top speed
- Letter/legal only
- 50 sheet document feeder
- Touch screen full color LCD control panel
- Auto duplex
- First page out time of 6.5 seconds
- Print/copy/fax/scan features
- Two 550 sheet paper drawers
- Toshiba announced a reorganization in its dealer division (called Toshiba EID):
- Steve Rhorer, formerly VP and GM of EID has left, and his position will not be backfilled
- Instead, top dealer division executives will report directly to Mark Mathews, current President & COO
- Larry White, VP of Sales
- Bill Melo, VP of Marketing
- George Colborn is VP of Service
- Sue Wilson head of Supply Chain Management, reporting to Steve Tungate
- Toshiba announced it will sell land it owns for 22 billion yen ($225 million) in an effort to raise cash.
- Equitrac announced it has named Jim Kano as Senior VP of Worldwide Sales & Marketing. He most recently served as VP of Worldwide OEM Sales for EFI, maker of Fiery controllers.
- Panasonic released a new A4 color laser MFP, the DP-MC210 offering:
- 4 tandem OPC drum design
- 21ppm top speed b/w or color
- 3.6” color LCD control panel
- Auto duplex
- 50 sheet document feeder
- 770 sheet paper drawers
- PCL print driver only
- 1200x1200dpi (does not offer 8 bits per pixel)
- Can scan up to 9600dpi in color or b/w
- Comes standard with READiris 7.0 OCR software
- Copy/scan/print/fax
- Base MSRP of $1995.00
- Samsung now shipping a new A4 b/w laser MFP, the SCX-5935FN featuring:
- 35ppm top speed
- Scan/fax/print/copy
- 7” color LCD control panel
- 80GB hard drive
- 80K/month duty cycle
- Auto duplex
- 1050 sheet paper capacity
- 1200x1200dpi
- 70 sheet document feeder
- Base MSRP of $1689.99
- MWAi, maker of remote device management systems, announced it is acquiring Print Control Software/ROI Print Manager. The company will develop end user management software applications. Also announced:
- Shane Hannan was appointed Senior VP of Sales & Marketing
- John Brostrom, who formerly ran ECi La Crosse (and founded the original LaCrosse Software) is now Senior VP of Operations
- Sharp announced it signed a multi-year agreement to be a sponsor of the New York Mets baseball team.
- Sharp lost a patent infringement brought against it by Samsung, over use of the Korean company’s LCD technologies.
- Sharp announced it is recalling 2,000 of its TVs, due to an overheating problem.
- Kodak announced plans to close two different manufacturing operations, and lay off 300 employees.
- The Wilkes County Georgia Board of Education awarded a copier bid to Milner Document Products, a Lanier dealer, which has offices in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina. Details:
- 17 units
- $2126.47 per month lease payment
- $0.009 for b/w clicks
- $0.08 for color clicks
- 36 month lease
- Apparently a lawsuit against Best Buy was granted class action status, over allegations that Best Buy sales reps were paid bonuses to deny honoring the company’s price match policy.
- Kyocera announced it has entered into an agreement with Pantone to get its new color laser MFPs, called TASKalfa, certified by Pantone.
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