Weekend MFP Industry Notes Newsletter
10-24-2010
- Xerox reported financial results from its last quarter:
o Includes ACS, which Xerox acquired for $6.4 billion
o Total revenue of $5.43 billion, up 48%
o Profit of $250 million, up 103%
o Laid off 100 employees during quarter
o Projects spending $400 million on restructuring, as it will lay off 2,500 more employees
o Has 133,000 total employees currently (76,500 in the ACS division)
o Paid off $1billion in debt, with $9.5 billion remaining
o Predicts debt will be reduced to $8 billion by end of 2011
o iGen3 & iGen4 production color installs up 54%
o Nuvera production b/w installs up 2%
o 13% increase in equipment sales
o 5% increase in supply sales
o Finance income dropped 10%
- Xerox announced it won a managed print services and business process outsourcing contract from Ingersoll Rand.
- Are Star Trek fans disappointed? Xerox has renamed their desktop A4 color wax printers. Formerly known as Phaser, which was name of weapon on the old science fiction TV and movie series, the printers will now carry same name as the floor-standing A3 color wax MFPs, called ColorQube. The ColorQube 8570 and 8870 desktop color A4 wax printers will replace the Phaser 8850 and 8860 models, offering a top speed of 40ppm. The Phaser name will still be used by Xerox color desktop models that use laser/LED and toner technology.
- Xerox announced it has developed a video camera that could be installed on school buses to catch bad drivers. The “CrossSafe” cameras would take high quality images of vehicles that could be in violation of traffic laws by passing the blinking stop sign arm on buses. Xerox’s ACS division announced it won a contract to install them on street sweepers in the City of Chicago.
- Hewlett Packard sued by some of its shareholders. The lawsuit claims that HP permitted or encouraged illegal kickbacks and bribes to government agencies to win bids. In August, HP had agreed to pay a $55 million fine to settle a U.S. Justice Dept. probe over alleged bribery.
- Hewlett Packard announced it would hire 2,000 workers in Bulgaria for a development and support center.
- Hewlett Packard announced it had completed its $1.5 billion acquisition of ArcSight, maker of security software.
- Hewlett Packard, at its Innovation Summit in Singapore, announced that it will offer Toshiba MFPs to its managed print services customers in Asia/Pacific region. HP already is offering Canon MFPs in the U.S. Unknown if HP will offer Toshiba MFPs in the U.S.
- Hewlett Packard announced it has appointed Gail Galuppo as new Senior VP of Worldwide Strategy & Marketing for the printer/MFP division. Ms. Galuppo was hired from Western Union, and will work from San Diego office, reporting to Vyomesh Joshi, executive VP.
- Hewlett Packard is threatening to cancel a large number of resellers for failing to sell enough HP maintenance and warranty service contracts (HP CarePacks), according to Computer Resellers News magazine.
- Hewlett Packard won a managed print services contract from large law firm, Allens Arthur Robinson:
o locations across Asia and Australia
o 3 year contract
o Also includes document management system (DMS)
o Replaced 408 printers with 206 MFPs
o Reduced page volume from 61 million pages to 24 million
o Claims will reduce costs by $3 million over life of contract
o Help desk calls about printer/MFP issues down from 30% of total to 3%
o Attorneys no longer have a personal printer
- Dr. Kenichi Okada of Keio University in Japan announced that he has developed a “smell-o-vision” TV using Canon inkjet printer technology. “We are using the inkjet printer’s ability to eject tiny pulses of material to achieve precise control”. The prototype TV can squirt scents that resemble mint, grapefruit, cinnamon, lavender, apple and vanilla. Unknown if it will actually come to market.
- EFI announced a new version of PrintMe, that will allow users of Apple iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Google Android cell phones to print to an Internet enabled device.
- In a surprise move, Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie, announced he is leaving the company.
- Adobe announced it will ship a new version of Acrobat software, called Acrobat X, featuring:
o rebuilt scanning and OCR engine
o scanned files are 50% smaller
o automatic color and grayscale detection
o uses OCR software from IRIS of Belgium
o integration with MS SharePoint
o ability to export files to MS Word or MS Excel
o basic commenting functionality
- CVision of Queens, New York, announced it won research grants from the National Science Foundation to develop new JBIG compression technology to increase speed of OCR scanning. The company’s goal is to allow copier companies to have built-in OCR that can make a searchable PDF as fast as the copier’s scan speed.
- Sharp announced it will scale back its laptop computer operations and instead focus on making the new Sharp Galapagos tablet PC. Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported that Sharp will cease all PC desktop and laptop manufacturing due to declining sales.
- Loffler Companies, a Konica Minolta dealer in Minnesota, was named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the U.S.
- Ricoh announced that it is now on the Premier Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) contract, to enable its branches, IKON and dealers to market to member healthcare facitlities.
- Samsung of Korea filed suit against Panasonic over patents in the manufacture of secure digital memory cards.
- Street pricing seen recently in the print-for-pay marketplace:
o Hewlett Packard Indigo 5500 production color system with Pantone mixing station = $299,000.00
o Xerox 800 Digital Color Press with clear toner/bookletmaker/Fiery = $225,000.00
o Xerox 700 Digital Color Press w/Fiery/LCT/stapling finisher for $49,000 with color clicks @ $0.049 and b/w clicks at $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Used Canon imagePRESS C7000VP w/Fiery/LCT/booketmaker/cover inserter/hole-punch for $79,900. Color clicks @ $0.057 and b/w clicks @ $0.013. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Canon imageRUNNER 8105 w/Fiery/LCT/booketmaker/cover inserter for $32,000 with b/w clicks @ $0.0042. 11”x17” billed as one click.
- IKON/Ricoh and GE Capital were sued in Florida. Apparently, customer Kenneth Hackett & Associates is trying to get out of their lease due to a dispute over click charges.
- Kodak an acquisition target? That is the opinion recently published by George Conboy, President of Brighton Securities.
- Brainware Inc. of Ashburn, Virginia, announced contract wins for its Intellicapture scan capture software:
o Will be relabeled by Oracle as Oracle Forms Recognition
o Installs include:
NEC Europe
Mueller Industries
Lafarge
Rabobank
Cook’s Childrens Hospital
Resurrection Healthcare
Gilead Healthcare
Gunderson Lutheran Healthcare
Mayo Clinic
- Canon announced that so far this year, it has planted 38,000 trees in the U.S. as part of its Generation Green Program. Canon makes the donation for every qualifying imageRUNNER MFP sold.
- Jefferson Parish School Board of New Orleans was sued by CIT Leasing for failing to make payments on its copier lease. The 5 year lease started on 6/15/2006.
- Carr Business Systems, a dealer owned by Xerox/Global in New York, announced it won a contract as a preferred office equipment supplier for the members of the Greater New York Home Furnishing Association.
- MGI of Australia announced it sold a Meteor DP60 Pro digital color system to JP Graphics, a printshop in Appleton, WI.
- Kyocera (Kyoto Ceramic Company) announced it will sponsor the Anderson Cooper 360 show on CNN cable TV.
- Toshiba announced it will resell the new 700 and 7100 wide format b/w systems from KIP.
- Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the next version of Macintosh computer operating system will be called Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
- Gregory Lavallo and Amelia Abdulmagid were arrested for using a color copier to make fake $100 bills in Amsterdam.
- The Ottawa Hospital of Canada announced it awarded a contract to Telus Inc. for software system to run 3,000 Apple iPads on a wireless network, with access to its database.
- According to Steven Waldren, director of AAFP’s Center for Health IT, the fed government payments for EHR installs is taxable.
- Cerner wins customer award. Ovum, a division of DataMonitor, announced that based on a survey of the ambulatory healthcare market (not hospitals, which are acute care), that Cerner’s EHR software is number one. More details:
o “Cerner is the most versatile and multi-faceted”
o eClinicalWorks in second place
o GE Healthcare in third place
- Cerner announced it will build a new 600,000 square foot office at Village West in Kansas City, Kansas that will employ 4,000 personnel. Total investment of $16.5 million.
- The Hospital Corporation of American (HCA), headquartered in Nashville, TN, with locations across the U.S. , is apparently testing Cerner’s EHR. This is significant as its current system is from Meditech.
- Siemens, maker of EHR system and other technologies, announced it will layoff 17,000 people worldwide due to slow sales.
- Epic, maker of EHR systems, won more hospital contracts:
o Yuma Regional Medical Center of Arizona, which has 333 beds, and contract is worth $73 million.
o Moses Cone Healthcare, which has facilities in North Carolina and employs 7,400 people. Total contract value up to $120 million.
o Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York
- Katina Candrick was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and a $163,000 fine for stealing information on 1,200 patients while working for MedAssets.
- Athennhealth, maker of EHR systems, announced that its revenue has grown 33% this past quarter to $63.1 million
- Allscripts, maker of EHR systems, announced it won contract from the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center of New York.
- HIPAA data security breach. Keystone Mercy Health Plan and AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan, insurance providers in Pennsylvania, reported the loss of an unencrypted portal flash drive that contained patient data for 280,000 members.
- GE Healthcare announced EHR installs at:
o Capital Region Healthcare in Concord, NH
o Decatur Memorial Hospital in Decatur, IL
- McKesson, maker of EHR systems, announced it won a contract from Greater Florida Anesthesiologists.
- McKesson agreed to pay the state of Connecticut a $15 million fine to settle charges of illegally inflating drug costs.
- Cause of data theft named after Greek god. The Zeus malware program is being blamed for many thefts of customer information. The computer virus first appeared in Europe in the mid-90s. and the makers continue to modify it to circumvent whatever security measure are put in place. It is a keylogger software, meaning it affects a PC, and then tracks keystrokes, making it ideal for tracking bank account information.
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