Weekend MFP Industry Notes Newsletter
2-20-2011
- Canon announced that it has finalized sale of its interest in a semiconductor plant in Singapore to Micron Technology of Boise, Idaho.
- Canon, Samsung and Hewlett Packard were all sued by Lodsys LLC in regards to alleged patent infringement over technology that exchanges info with customers via printers.
- Canon announced it will donate “one million dollars of in-kind printing services” from its LA branch to Operation HOPE. Curriculum will be printed by Canon and distributed by HOPE Corps to educate youth at no cost in area school districts, according to Canon’s VP of Zone Operations Eddie Saji.
- Marvell Technology (which makes print controller technology for companies like Xerox, etc.) was sued by Link A Media Devices Corp. over alleged patent infringement regarding hard drive technology.
- Zoran of California, which makes controllers for MFPs (i.e. Xerox, Canon, Ricoh, Sharp, etc.) as well as DVD players, Blu-Ray players, cable TV boxes and video games, announced it will be launching a product called “DirectOffice Mobile Print”.
o This new option for its print controllers will allow end users to print to their MFPs from smartphones and tablets via WiFi wireless technologies.
o Made in partnership with another print controller technology company, Software Imaging Inc. of England.
- Xerox announced it sold:
o Xerox 700 Digital Color Press to Fuller Davies, a printshop in Ipswich, England
o Two Xerox iGen4 EXP production color systems to EarthDigital of New Jersey.
- Xerox announced it terminated an undisclosed amount of employees from its research and development office in Webster, NY, in a cost cutting move.
- Xerox is showing its new production color wax printer, temporarily named “Xerox Production Inkjet System”. Details:
o uses the hot melted wax technology it acquired when it bought the Phaser printer division several years ago from Tektronix of Oregon
o this technology is also used in the Xerox ColorQube color wax copiers
o top speed of 2,200 letter size images per minute (500 feet per minute of paper on rolls)
o claims that company has several beta models in the field for testing in customer environments
o able to print on lightweight stock with no apparent ink soak through issues
o self adjusts in case wax nozzles are not firing properly
o print controller offers variable data option
o highest de-inkability rating from INGEDE, meaning it is easier to recycle pages printed on this device compared with water-based inkjet models
o supposedly based on 2,000 patents
o has intelligent scan bar that checks billions of hot wax droplets per second for registration
o pricing unknown at this time
- Xerox’s ACS office in Columbus, Ohio is in trouble after accidentally printing the social security numbers of 8,400 state child care providers on the outside of envelopes for a mailing, as part of its contract with the state.
- Xerox gave out a “Top Performer” award to XMC, a sales agent in Memphis, TN.
- Okidata is launching the pro905DP, which is a color desktop LED-based toner printer that is specially made for envelope printing. MSRP of $18,995 and includes an EFI Fiery.
- Hewlett Packard announced it has acquired Vertica Systems Inc. of Billerica, Massachusetts, which makes software that “helps business spot trends hidden in large amounts of data”. Purchase price not announced.
- Hewlett Packard announced that LG Electronics will relabel some of its printers in Asia. LG already relabels product from Lexmark.
- HP’s new CEO, Leo Apotheker, purchased a 6 bedroom home in Atherton, CA for $7 million.
- HP announced it won a 7 year, $281 million managed IT services contract from Oklahoma Healthcare Authority.
- Hewlett Packard announced HP Digital Health Solutions:
o Portfolio of products, solutions and partnerships
o holistically addresses the technology needs of care delivery
o expanded solution framework and formal reference architectures
o real-time information environment
o enable healthcare organizations to link to monitor health and deliver care to patients
o On display in the HP Health Solutions Center showroom in Plano, TX
- IKON, a division of Ricoh, announced it has filed suit against two former FM employees for supposedly violating a non-compete clause. The suit was filed against John Kolacinski and Robert Hornbeck, who now work for Myriad Litigation Solutions of California.
- Electronics For Imaging, maker of the Fiery print server, announced:
o It will buy back $30 million of its stock shares
o Has acquired Streamline Development, maker of PrintStream management information systems (MIS) software for printshop owners
- Ronald Lindsey Bafile of Atlanta, Georgia, was arrested by police after trying to sell fake $20 and $50 bills he made on a color copier to undercover police. Apparently he was selling the fake money to pay for his addiction to marijuana and methamphetamine.
- Anthony Paris, Kristy Guilds, Jeremy Rowe and Mitch McQuaid were all arrested in Oswego, New York, after trying to use fake $20 bills at a local McDonalds, that they made using a color copier.
- Kodak announced it sold a Prosper 5000XL production color inkjet system to Servinform, a printshop in Spain.
- More details on the new Ricoh A3 color laser MFPs, the Aficio MP C2051 and 2551 series:
o top speeds of 20ppm and 25ppm respectively
o Base MSRPs of $6,450 for C2051 and $8750 for C2551
o uses 4 tandem OPC drums w/PxP polymerized toner
o Induction heating belt fusing system
o 8.5” color touchscreen LCD control panel w/customizable icons
o 30 second warmup time, 10 seconds to recover from sleep mode with 9.2 second first color copy out time
o 600x600dpi as copier, 1200x1200dpi as printer, 4 bit (does not offer true 8 bits per pixel)
Apparently, the 1200x1200dpi is only available if end user buys the optional PostScript print driver, and when choosing this mode, the engine slows down to half speed
o Document feeder holds only up to 50 originals with top color scan speed of 44opm
o Auto duplex standard, but can not handle card stock
o Comes standard with two 250 sheet paper drawers and 100 sheet stack bypass
With options, can expand paper supply to 4,400 sheets maximum
• $580 to add 550 sheet paper drawer
• $1780 to add two 550 sheet drawers
• $1990 for 2,000 sheet letter drawer
• Bypass can hold up to 100 sheets, up to 12”x18” for tabloid full bleed output
• Bypass holds up to 256gsm for simplex output only
• Option can convert paper drawer to envelope feeder for $280
o Support App2Me for panel integration with third party software
o Includes 1 user license of Personal Paperless Document Management (PPDM) for simple OCR loaded on one PC
o Finishing options include
250 sheet internal shift tray (no stapling) for $338
• Optional 2/3 hole punch for $765
o Optional $1375 analog fax board
200dpi standard, can upgrade to 400dpi maximum with $195 RAM board
Optional Internet Fax
o Built-in “GW” print controller
Actual maker unknown (most likely Oak Technology)
600MHz Intel Celeron processor
1.5GB RAM standard (can not upgrade)
160GB hard drive standard
• Requires $605 File Format Converter Kit to use boxes
• Comes standard with hard drive data overwrite, but ISO 15408 Common Criteria certified data overwrite is a $390 option
PCL & XPS print drivers standard
• PostScript print driver for $611
10/100BaseT port standard
• 1000BaseT port is $460
• WiFi for $565
• Optional USB port is for scan to and print from thumb drive
o Also accepts SD digital camera memory cards for $356
o Accept connection from digital camera for $267
Optional IPv6 support
Scan features standard include Twain/email/LDAP/SMB/FTP/URL
• Optional OCR called “ESA Transformer”
• Optional GlobalScan NX for routing
- Samsung of Korea announced it is finally shipping its A3 color laser MFPs into the U.S. Details:
o models to ship are the MultiXpress CLX-9350ND and 9250ND
o Base MSRPs of $14,498 and $10,802 respectively
o top speeds of 35ppm and 25ppm respectively
o 8.9” color touchscreen LCD
End users can customize the interface
o 10.5 second first color copy out time
o Black toner yield of 25,000 pages based on 5%
Color toners yield 15,000 pages
Imaging units yield 75,000 pages
Waste toner receptacle yield of 75,000 pages
o Advertised as offering up to 2400dpi (with interpolation, and offers up to 4 bits per pixel)
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o Optional 600dpi fax board
o Reversing document feeder holds up to 100 originals (does NOT scan both sides of original at same time)
o Paper drawers have LEDs that light up to indicate when they are running low on paper
Standard bypass holds up to 12”x18” paper, up to 100 sheets
comes standard with two 520 sheet drawers
optional 2,000 sheet letter size stand
maximum paper capacity of 3,140 sheets
o Optional external stapling, bookletmaking finisher
o built-in print controller:
actual maker unknown
1GB RAM (can upgrade to 2GB)
250GB hard drive (only 88GB for document storage)
PCL, PostScript and XPS print drivers standard
10/100/1000BaseT and USB ports standard
Scanning includes TWAIN/email/USB/FTP/SMB/HDD/WebDAV/PC
eXtensible Open Architecture (XOA) allows for optional embedded software
o Also shipping the MultiXpress SCX-8040ND and 8030ND b/w A3 MFPs, have same features as the color models except:
Top speeds of 40ppm and 30ppm respectively
Base MSRPs of $11,374 and $9916 respectively
Single OPC drum
- Survey on proposed new leasing rules, by Deloitte:
o Only 7% of companies polled are ready for new rules, which would force companies to put leases on their books
o 80% say it will add burden to their financial reporting
o 40% said it will make it more difficult to obtain financing
o 40% believe it will force them into shorter term leases
o 35% don’t believe that their company’s lease data is accurate
o 25% believe it will require them to upgrade their existing IT systems
- Interesting statistics published by the Managed Print Services Association (MPSA):
o Average percentage of company revenue dedicated to printing costs = 5%
o Gartner found that 22% of documents printed are never collected or used
o It costs far less to talk on cell phone for an hour than to print for an hour
o 65% of prints/copies end up in trash at end of day
o 30% of call to IT help desks are print related
o Low desktop printer/MFP acquisition costs can frequently lead to ineffective use of devices, which results in many companies being oblivious of how many assets they have or how they are used
o Many companies print demands are not centrally managed
o Fujitsu Siemens Computers reports that office workers print an average of 22 pages per day
50% admitting to having printed same document several times by mistake
2 out of 5 pickup someone else’s print jobs by mistake
8% admit to printing emails before reading them
o 90% of companies don’t have a clear picture of their printing and copying costs
o 85% would choose a “green” printing option if one was available
o Hardware costs cover only 10% of total cost of ownership (TCO)
o Consumable costs cover 60% of TCO
o Service costs cover 30% of TCO
- Sharp announced it filed a lawsuit against a former Sharp branch copier sales rep in Phoenix, AZ. The lawsuit is aimed at Brenda Luettenegger, for allegedly violating a non-compete clause.
- According to one industry publication, the new Sharp copiers with the “Apple iPhone-like” touchscreen color LCDs, have been locking up in product demonstrations.
- The largest Sharp dealer in Canada, is Pitney Bowes, with a number of locations in the country. (while Pitney Bowes spun off it copier business in the U.S. as Imagistics, which is now part of Canon, it did not do so in Canada)
- Square 9 Softworks of New Haven, CT, maker of the SmartSearch document management software (DMS), announced that it now has panel integration option for both Xerox copiers (with EIP) and Sharp copiers (with OSA). It is also working on integration with Kodak desktop scanners.
- Kyocera (aka Kyota Ceramic Company) launched two new A3 color laser MFPs, called the TASKalfa 255C and TASKalfa 205C featuring:
o Are part of “SMARTtech” series or “Simple Management and Replacement Technology”
Claims that a PM can be performed in under 10 minutes due to cartridge based, tool-free design
PM cycle is 300,000
o Ken Colby, Director of Printer Products for Samsung, claims that 75 of its 150 A4 dealers in the U.S. have already signed up for this new A3 product
o advertised as offering benefits of A3 paper size, at the price of competitive A4 units
o Base MSRPs of $8259 and $7149
o Top speeds of 25ppm and 20ppm respectively
o Max duty cycles of 40K/month
o Very small 4.3” color LCD touchscreen
o Amorphous silicon (ASi ceramic) drum with expected life of 200,000 pages
o Black toner yield of 12,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
Color toners yield 6,000 page each
Waste toner receptacle with yield of 7,500 pages (unit apparently does NOT recycle toner)
o 45 second warmup time, 13.6 second first copy out time
o 600x600dpi actual print resolution
o Auto duplex standard
o Maximum paper supply of 1,600 sheets
Comes standard with 550 sheet drawer and 50 sheet bypass
Drawers hold up to 64gsm
Max paper size of 11”x17”
Bypass can hold up to 140lb. index
o 50 sheet document feeder standard (top scan speed of 20opm)
o Shipped with no Styrofoam packing in the box
o Shipped on pallet entirely made of cardboard instead of wood
o Optional 400dpi fax board
o Optional 50 sheet stapling finisher
o Built-in print controller
Made by Peerless (now a division of Kyocera)
800MHz IBM PowerPC processor
USB port on control panel
10/100/1000BaseT ports
PCL, XPS and PostScript print drivers
1GB RAM standard (can upgrade to 2GB)
No hard drive available
IPv6 support
Integration with MS Windows Active Directory standard
Optional HID card reader
Scan to email with LDAP/SMB/SMTP/FTP/TWAIN
- OpenText of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, (maker of RightFax, FaxPress, and document management software) announced it has completed its acquisition of Metastorm of Baltimore, Maryland, which makes business process management software, for $182 million.
- DocuLex, maker of document management software, announced that it has new feature allowing end users to pull email out of Microsoft Exchange 2010.
- In the recent budget submitted by President Obama, it includes adding 1,054 agents to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce new healthcare regulations. (this is first part of original plan to add 11,000 agents to IRS)
- HIPAA Data Breach Update:
o Charleston Area Medical Center of West Virginia announced that it inadvertently exposed personal protected patient information on its website. The breach impacted 3,655 patients and exposed them to potential identity theft, as the info included their social security numbers. Patient data on the website had been accessed more than 90 times, with some of the site’s hits formcing from Indian and Germany.
o St. Francis Health System of Tulsa, Oklahoma announced that its HIPAA breach impacted 84,000 patients, after a computer was stolen from one of its outpatient facilities.
- More HIPAA oversight? Senator Stuart Smalley (aka Al Franken of Saturday Night Live fame) of Minnesota was named the ranking member of a new U.S. Senate committee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. His duties will include; “oversight of laws and policies governing the collection, protection, use and dissemination of commercial information…”
- In new statistics released by RedSpin Inc., and IT security audit firm regarding HIPAA breaches:
o Private health information of more than 6 million people has been compromised since 8/2009
o Breaches occurred in all but 7 states in the U.S.
o Average breach affected about 27,000 people
o Average of 82 days passed between discovery of breach, and when it was reported to federal government (law requires notification within 60 days)
o 6 out 10 breaches were intentional and malicious
- Imprivata released EHR survey results of hospital executives:
o 75% claim meaningful use (investing in EHR systems that qualify for federal stimulus dollars) is the top budget priority in 2011
o 54% cite physician adoption of EHR to be greatest challenge to meeting meaningful use rules
o 48% believe that password management issues will slow physician adoption of EHR systems
o 87% say that the time it takes for an EHR system to access a patient record affects physician satisfaction
o 73% say that EHR access time impacts patient care
o 50% report that at least 26% of physicians are accessing EHR remotely
o 65% have deployed personal devices for physicians, or have plans to deploy by end of 2012
o 49% have virtual desktop infrastructure or have plans to implement by 2012
- Canon now shipping a new option that allows it to sell one of its color copiers as an output device for MRI reports, radiology reports and CT scans:
o Option is called the Canon imagePRESS Server T1 V2 Controller
o Works with Canon imagePRESS C1+ color copier (single drum 14ppm unit) that is already equipped a Canon CYPHER PS Print Server
o The T1 V2 processes DICOM (digital imaging and communication in medicine) data, which is used in radiology systems (instead of traditional PCL or PS)
- Does healthcare vertical really buy biometric units? Genesis Healthcare of Zanesville, Ohio announced it is investing in biometric finger vein readers from Lumidigm. Reasons:
o Coupled with BIO-key software, it integrates into most EHR software, including Epic, Allscripts and others.
o Helps compliancy with new HIPAA regulations
o “Because skin dryness is so prevalent in the healthcare industry, due in part to constant hand washing, traditional fingerprint sensors can produce up to a 20% failure rate” according to Bill Spence, VP of Lumidigm
- Sutter Health gives out more details on its Epic EHR implementation:
o Chain of 26 hospitals in California
o Originally had systems from IBM (MedSeriesIV) and Siemens, awarded a contract to Epic in 2007 for $500 million
o After originally putting the brakes on the project, it announced it would spend an additional $400 million to complete Epic EHR project by 2015.
- University Hospitals of Ohio announced it awarded its EHR project to Allscripts, for its Sunrise Enterprise Acute Care EHR version 5.5, in all 7 of its hospitals.
- Siemens Healthcare announced it won more Soarian EHR contracts:
o Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System of Amarillo, Texas
o Peconic Bay Medical Center of Riverhead, New York
o Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, LA
o MaineGeneral Health of Maine
- McKesson, an EHR vendor, announced it won a contract from Parrish Medical Center of Titusville, FL.
- eClinicalWorks announced it won an EHR contract from Riverside HealthCare of Chicago, Illinois.
- ImageSoft, a dealer in Michigan, announced it has won document management contracts (with Hyland OnBase software) from Duke University and Henry Ford Hospital.
- According to a survey on EHRs conducted by the University of Chicago, 78% of Americans favor the use of electronic medical records systems. Other data:
o 59% believe it will reduce costs
o 72% support sharing of data between providers
o 80% favor electronic prescriptions
o 79% believe that access to their personal health records (PHR) on-line would keep them better informed
o 48% are concerned about privacy of records
o 64% believe that the benefits outweigh privacy concerns
o 44% are not willing to pay more to get benefits of electronic records
o 57% do not believe that use of electronic records would impact their choice of physician
- Record Nations, a national network of document scanning service provider, published results of survey:
o Rate of medical record scanning grew 22% in 2010
o Scanning requests to get space back grew 11%
o Requests to scan from businesses that were closing was up 8%
o Requests to scan due to “green” concerns up 4%
- Survey conducted by Oce’ reveals the following about document management systems:
o 30% were only managing paper records
o 81% said it improves process of filing and retrieval
o 47% able to use in business process workflows
o 40% said collaboration was easier
o 77% use to improve processes and operational efficiencies
o 72% use to reduce paper and save storage space
o 50% use to comply with regulations
o 21% use to increase competitive edge
- Palisades Medical Center of New Jersey, which had chosen Siemens Soarian as its EHR, announced that it chose DB Technology’s RASi software as its document management system.
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