Weekend MFP Industry Notes Newsletter
10-31-2010
- Lexmark CEO, Paul Curlander, announced he will be quitting his post in spring of 2011:
o He led Lexmark for 12 years
o He will be replaced by Paul Rooke, who is currently President of Imaging Solutions division, and has been with company since its inception
o Shares of Lexmark plunged 20% after announcement
o Total quarterly revenue of $1.02 billion, up 6% from last year
o Quarter’s net income of $72 million
o Current market capitalization of $3 billion
o Is constant source of buyout rumors
- Xerox’s ACS division announced a new website named “My Medicare Advocate” offering:
o Helping retirees with Medicare enrollment
o Range of written materials
o Details on 2,200 managed care plans and 1,800 prescription drug plans
o Provides employers with option to offer their retirees licensed call center advocates
o Enables human resource departments to devote fewer employees to handling retiree medical issues
- Xerox announced that it sold six Xerox Nuvera 288 production monochrome systems to Mail-Gard, a print shop in Warminster, PA
- Xerox announced it will let go of 2,500 jobs in 2011, to increase its net income by $250 million
- Xerox announced it sold two Xerox 700 Digital Color Press systems to Solopress, a printshop in Southend, England.
- Hewlett Packard announced that Consolidated Graphics (CGX) has purchased HP Indigo 7500 production color systems for locations in:
o On system for Prague (Czech Republic)
o Three systems for PBM Graphics in North Carolina
o CGX now owns 50 Indigos
o The 7500 can handle stocks up to 400gsm and uses up to 6 colors
In addition to traditional CMYK, can also use light magenta, light cyan, or white ink
- Japanese companies complained that their profits are being affected by the weakness of the U.S. dollar, which sunk to a 15 year low of 81.7 yen this past week.
- Microsoft claims that Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in PC history:
o Was launched on 10/22/2009
o Sold 90 million copies by 3/2010, and 240 million total as of 10/1/2010
o Most likely will release Windows 8 in 2012
- Kodak announced it sold a Kodak Versamark production color inkjet system to Newsfax International of England.
- Sharp announced two new laser A4 MFPs, called the Frontier Scan Centric series:
o MX-C402SC is based on MX-C401 color laser MFP
o MX-B402SC is based on MX-B401 b/w laser MFP
o The “Scan Centric” feature these models offer includes:
A document feeder that can scan both sides of original at same time
Can feed up to 100 originals
Top speed of 50opm
Can handle small-size thick stock originals, so end users can scan a business card, checks, ID cards, driver’s license or insurance card without needing to place on glass and manually flipping over to capture second side
o Has same features and options as the existing models they are based on, including the optional pull-out QWERY keyboard, and optional internal stapling finisher
- Canon announced that an increase in sales of MFPs worldwide resulted in a 30% increase in earnings from that division.
- Canon’s CEO, Fujio Mitarai, announced that it won’t make a higher offer for the Oce’ shares that it does not already own. 10% of the shares are still held by investment firms that are hoping for a better offer.
- Canon announced the winner of its Business Leap competition.
o The contest was for the printshop with the best business plan to move into corporate and marketing communications (marcomm) sectors.
o Winners was Nassjotryckeriet of Sweden
o Prize was a free Canon imageRUNNER Advance C9070 production color system
- Canon has filed a complaint alleging that the government of Guam illegally awarded a copier bid to Xerox:
o Contract was given to Guam’s Department of Education
o Canon claims that contract was awarded without going out to competitive bid
o Claims that competitive bid would have saved $4 million
o Canon’s dealer in Guam is Island Business Systems and Suppliers
o Xerox is charging $133,000 per month
- Ricoh announced that production of MFPs/printer parts is being disrupted in China due to a strike by disgruntled employees.
o Involved 1,300 people at Ricoh Elemex factory in Shenzen, China
o “There were demands concerning pay” a Ricoh spokesperson stated
- IKON, a division of Ricoh, announced it has completed its install of new copiers and a document management system at Portland Public Schools in Oregon. The DMS used was Fortis, from Westbrook Technologies.
- Ricoh announced it is planning on offering a biometric authentication solution for its MFPs, by use of software from Equitrac, and biometric scanners from BioStore.
- Kodak announced that it narrowed its quarterly loss to $43 million due to increases in sales of inkjet printers and a digital camera patent licensing deal with an un-named rival.
- Laserfiche, maker of document management software, sued SAP, accusing the company of stealing its “Run Smarter” trademark.
- Solimar Systems of San Diego, CA announced new version of its iCONVERT software:
o Compatible with MS Windows 7 Professional and Windows Server 2008
o Emulates IPDS printers commonly used in mainframe and midrange environments
o Generates PostScript, PCL, PDF and TIFF data for printers that do not support AFP
o Printer monitoring for SNMP enabled devices
o Can email administrators when problems occur
o Can specify is blank back pages are to be included in the output
o Can tune appearance of gray shading
- Samsung sued. A putative class of consumers filed suit against Samsung, claiming that the company made HDTV’s with a faulty component that causes the TVs to stop working after one year.
- Okidata announced it opened up a factory direct office in Russia to boost sales of its color LED printers and MFPs.
- Flexprint, a managed print services dealer, announced it won a contract from Consolidated High School District of Illinois:
o Claims it will save the schools $10,000 per year
o Includes 350 printers
o $5,241 per month
o Has a 30 day out for convenience clause
o Includes purchase of $28,747 on existing inventory
o Includes free printer replacement
o Current volume is 300,000 b/w pages and 14,000 color pages per year
- HP Toner cartridges apparently now involved in terror plots. Packages originating in Yemen, placed on cargo airplanes, were discovered with toner cartridges containing explosive materials, wires and cell phone electronics designed to set the bombs off.
- New embedded solution for MFPs from Kyoto Ceramic Corp. (Kyocera) Executive Technologies, Inc., the developer of SearchExpress Document Management software, announced the entire family of SearchExpress products can be integrated into Kyocera’s HyPAS enabled multifunctional products (MFPs), allowing users to capture, index, route, search and manage paper and digital documents.
- Trendler USA of Jacksonville, FL announced it will make generic toner cartridges for several Kyocera MFPs, including FS1120, 2540, 2060, 3920, 3040, 3050 and 5050.
- Standard Register announced it has completed a $10 million refresh of its national network of digital printshops. Now offering:
o High speed digital color with in-line finishing
o High speed digital b/w
o Wide format printing
o Web2print software
o Customized booklets, flyers, mailers, kits, binders and posters
o Upgrade included 5 super centers and 3 satellite centers
o Will upgrade remaining 11 satellite centers in 2011
- Intel announced it has formed a partnership to create a new standard for solid state hard drive technology, including:
o Dell
o EMC
o Fujitsu
o IBM
o Amphenol
o Emulex
o Fusion-io
o IDT
o Marvel Semiconductor
o Micron Technology
o Molex
o PLX
o QLogic
o STEC
o SandForce
o Smart Modular Technology
o Noticeably absent is HP
- OpenText of Canada, maker of fax servers (FaxPress & Rightfax) and DMS (Hummingbird) announced it has purchased StreamServe Inc., for $71 million, which makes electronic forms software.
- Keane Inc., a company which specializes in offering managed IT services to healthcare industry, announced it was acquired by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) of Japan for $1.2 billion.
- Allscripts, a vendor of EHR, announced that last quarter’s revenue was $192.5 million compared to previous quarter’s revenue of $190.3 million
- McKesson, EHR vendor, announced it won contract from Cowherd Family Medical Center of Heber, Arkansas.
- Federal authorities arrested 4 people in connection with $200 million fraudulent Medicare claims in Miami. The companies involved were American Therapeutic Corp. and Medilink Professional Management Group, and had to do with bogus mental health therapy sessions.
- Auxilio, a company that specializes in offering managed print services to the healthcare industry, announced it won another bid in New York, with a $3.5 million, 3 year contract from New York Hospital Queens.
- Surescripts Inc. announced it is expanding its nationwide e-prescribing network with a new service that will allow for exchange of clinical health information. It includes:
o Up to date summaries of patient’s recent visits
o Secure messaging tools
o Net2Net Connect for sending and receiving clinical info outside their network
o Message Stream for electronic exchange of clinical info
o Clinical Message Portal for those without EHR that wish to send and receive info
- Results from healthcare survey conducted by SK&A:
o Survey of 213,500 medical offices
o EHR adoption at hospital-owned offices grew from 44.1% to 54.9% (10.8% increase)
o EHR Adoption at health-system owned offices grew from 50.2% to 61.2% (11% increase)
o Overall, medical office EHR adoption has grown from 36.1% to 38.7% (3% increase)
o Most commonly used EHR functions are:
28.4% use electronic patient notes
27.3% use electronic labs/x-rays
25.9% use electronic prescribing
o Physician offices with more exam rooms, more physicians on staff, and higher daily patient volumes have highest EHR adoption rates
o Physician specialties with highest adoption rates
Radiology = 59.9%
Pathology = 59.8%
Aerospace medicine = 59.5%
Dialysis = 59.3%
Emergency medicine = 57.6%
o Which states use EHR more?
Northern states = 40.9%
Southern states = 40.1%
Minnesota = 62.6%
Utah = 55.4%
Wisconsin = 52.3%
- Survey data released by during the recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA):
o Practices with EHR systems that were not owned by hospitals or integrated delivery systems (IDNs) reported $49,916 greater total medical revenue as compared with those with paper medical records
These practices also reported greater expenses per physician ($105,591), but had greater median revenue per physician ($178,907) than those with paper medical records systems
After 5 years of EHR use, had operating margin that was 10.1% greater than practices using EHR for 1 year
o Practices with HER system that were owned by hospitals or IDNs had operating margin that was $42,042 higher than those with paper records
o Medical records staff per physician decreased by 44.12% after install of EHR
o 62% of medical practices will limit the number of new Medicare patients they accept if scheduled reimbursement cuts, totaling more than 30%, go into effect
o Almost 50% stated that they will stop seeing new Medicare patients altogether
o 75% said they planned on delaying purchase of new equipment or facilities
o 50% are planning on reducing staff
o 45% may put off purchasing EHR
- Cerner, maker of EHRs, which recently announced it will build a new office in Kansas, is now asking Kansas City for $50 million in industrial revenue bonds to pay for new computers and other equipment in the new facility. If approved, the city would own the equipment and lease it back to Cerner.
- Siemens, maker of EHR, won contract from Charleston Area Medical Center of West Virginia.
- iSalus Healthcare, maker of EHR systems, announced that the CEO it recently fired, Mark Day, is now suing the company. Mr. Day claims he was fired after reporting that he was suspicious that employees were stealing software.
- Epic, maker of EHR systems, won a contracts from:
o Rush University Medical Center of Illinois.
o New Hanover Regional Medical Center of North Carolina for $56 million to replace McKesson Horizon system
- The Kansas Foundation for Medical Care Inc. and University of Missouri Board of Curators published a list of preferred medical software providers, including GE Healthcare and McKesson. Noticeably absent is Kansas City-based Cerner Corp.
- CapSite announced that its survey reveals that 41% of hospitals will invest in new health information management (HIM) solutions in 2011.
- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will implement auditing procedures to check healthcare providers that are claiming funds for install of EHR systems.
Original Post