Sharp’s financial troubles continue

– Financial Times newspaper reports on latest issues

– “First it cut wages, but Sharp has a new demand for long-suffering employees; the struggling electronics group has set them targets to buy company goods”

– “By end of January, executives are to buy $1622 of Sharp products, middle management $811 and front line staff $405 worth” of Sharp made products

– “Sharp is still in a fragile position, with just 181 billion yen of equity supporting a 1,787 billion yen balance sheet”

– Reportedly considering closing remaining overseas TV factories to cut costs

 

Sharp wins MFP contract

– Award from Southern Seminary of Louisville, KY

– Sold through local dealer, Miller Document Solutions

– Included fleet of A3 MFPs as well as a production color and b/w system for CRD

– Also included the PaperCut cost recovery solution

 

Toshiba’s financial troubles continue

– Reuters News Service reports on latest issues

– “Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is likely to recommend a fine of about $60 million for the scandal-hit Toshiba for cooking its books over the past 7 years”

– Toshiba has set aside 8.4 billion yen for penalties

– Company said it inflated profits by about 155 billion yen over roughly 7 years

– The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that there are 70 shareholders who are poised to institute a class action lawsuit by mid-December, demanding 400 million yen in compensation

 

EFI announces its keynote speaker

– Company has hired Steve Wynn, chairman of Wynn Resorts, to be its keynote speaker at its upcoming EFI Connect 2016 event in Las Vegas

– Steve Wynn launches several casino resorts in Las Vegas, including Golden Nugget, Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Encore and the Wynn.

 

Salesforce hires Microsoft executive

– Microsoft’s head of its Dynamics CRM division has been poached by its competitor

– Salesforce.com hired Robert Stutz as its new Chief Analytics officer

 

Samsung smartphones can explode?

– Starla Briggs, of Springville, Utah claims that on 6/23/2015, her husband’s Samsung Galaxy S3 “suddenly exploded on their bed side table”

– “Just an explosion, like Bam!, causing flames high in bedroom”

– “all the smoke alarms in the house went off”

– She is pursuing Samsung for $2500 in damages

 

MGI to launch 3D printers

– MGI is headquartered in France, and is best known for its Meteor production color system (based on engines made by Konica Minolta) and its JetVarnish UV coating systems

– Will have a booth at upcoming Printed Electronics USA 2015 Conference in Santa Clara, CA

– Will display the new CERADROP X-Series, which uses inkjet technology

– Printing with high resolution with nano-particles, conductive metal inks, semiconductors, and other bio-chemical formulations

– Ship data and pricing not announced

 

HP wins production color contract

– Award from Bennett Graphics of Tucker, Georgia

o Installed an Indigo WS6800 production color systems

– Award from Sun Print Solutions of Salt Lake City, UT

o Installed a PageWide Web Press T230 production color inkjet system

– Award from Range Inc., of Brainerd, MN

o Installed an Indigo 7800 production color systems

 

Canon wins production contract

– Award from Nuss Printing of Havertown, Pennsylvania

– Installed an Oce’ VarioPrint DP110 production b/w system

 

Canon closes office

– Closes office at 100 Oakview Drive in Trumbull, CT

– Layoffs are to begin 12/31/15 and run through 2/29/16

 

Smithers Pira survey results

– Compound growth rate of 7.4% projected for book publishing

– Up from $131.5 billion in 2013 to $187.8 billion in 2018

– Digital printing of books will grow to 20.6% by 2018

 

Xerox wins production contract

– Award from Alphagraphics of Denver, Colorado

– Installed a Xerox Versant 2100 production color system

– One of reasons it acquired the system was to run #10 envelopes

– Used to produce materials for manufacturing, engineering and construction verticals

 

Xerox launches new solutions

– Workflow Automation Solution for New Business Processing, for underwriting process for insurance companies

– Workflow Automation Solution for Claims Processing for insurance vertical

– Workflow Automation Solution for File Management for human resources departments

– Workflow Automation Solution for Policies and Procedures Administration

– Pricing not announced

 

Digital Nirvana survey on QR Code usage

– Adoption has been hovering around 30% of cellphone users

– Marketers indicate that use of QR Codes is on the rise

– Men use QR codes slightly more than women

– Majority of QR code scanners are now older than 35 years old

– QR code scanning continues to dominate in retailing

– Growth in mobile payments via QR codes is rising

 

Former IKON/Ricoh CEO gets new job

– Matt Espe, who led IKON to be acquired by Ricoh, left to become CEO of Armstrong Flooring

– Now also accepted position on board of directors for NCI Building Systems Inc., a manufacturer of metal products for nonresidential building industry

– Prior to IKON he was in charge of the lightbulb division of GE.

 

Ricoh wins production contract

– Award from PHD Mail of England

– Installed a Ricoh IP5000 production color inkjet system

– To be used for transpromo output

 

Ricoh lets go of a senior executive

– The company announced another reorganization

– Dave Greene, who was Senior VP, in charge of both direct and wholesale division, was let go

– Jim Corriddi, VP of Wholesale, will not report directly to Martin Brodigan, who is still President and CEO of Ricoh Americas

– Professional services, solutions, traditional services group and break fix services now all report to Mona Abutaleb, Senior VP of Ricoh, and President and CEO of MindSHIFT (managed IT services division)

– Tim Vellek remains as Senior VP of Marketing

– Dean Nolley – VP of Global Sales

 

Ricoh launches new solution

– Will now resell software from Syncplicity of Santa Clara, CA

– Makes an enterprise-grade file sync and share solution

– Claims its current customer list includes:

o Texas A&M University

o Merck Corp.

o Associated Press

o Boston Red Sox

 

Ricoh loses argument

– Ricoh attempted to stop Lexmark from winning an bid for MFPs from the U.S. Army Contracting Command

– The Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied Ricoh’s claim that it was not allowed a chance to clarify part of its bid, as its bid was rejected for not adequately describing its transition during phase out period

 

Man caught making fake money

– Mark Andrew Halberg of Faribault, Minnesota was arrested by local police for allegedly making fake $50 bills using a color MFP

– Was using the money to acquire methamphetamine

 

Fuji displays future MFP models

– Fuji is maker of most of the printers and MFPs that carry the Xerox brand

– Products were displayed at DocuWorld event in Kuala Lumpur

– 36 new printer and MFP models to be launched

– Use LED instead of laser printheads

– Use polymerized toner instead of pulverized toner

– Optional Smart WelcomEyes Advance 2 feature, is an infrared camera built into the front of the MFP, which scans the environment for the heat generated by human bodies

o When it detects the heat signature of a human, it wakes up from sleep mode

o Facial recognition to identify user for authentication

– Supports NFC (near field communication) smart cards to authentication (aka follow me)

 

Production color system maker acquired

– Flint Group of Luxembourg announced it has acquired Xeikon of Belgium

– Xeikon is maker of production color LED systems that uses toner and sold primarily to the packaging industry

– Flint Group is a provider of ink for offset presses, as well as other products for the commercial print industry

 

U.S. Postal Service reports volume

– Recorded a 14.1% increase in package volume

– 11.1% increase in shipping and package revenue

– Posted net loss of $5.1 billion

– Overall revenue increase of $1.1 billion to $68.9 billion

– First class and standard mail volume down 2.2% and 0.3%

 

Feds go after fake toner cartridge maker

– The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a seizure and forfeiture order to Printer Cartridge Recycle of Auburn, WA

– The firm was accused of importing printer/MFP cartridges that infringe on HP and Canon patents

 

Kodak Alaris publishes survey results

  • Hospitals handle forms for 544 million patients each year
  • Converting transactions from manual to digital could save healthcare providers $6.7 billion each year
  • 12 million Americans very year are misdiagnosed
  • Patients spend 274 minutes in the ER before they are admitted on average

 

Managed IT company appeals ruling

  • A judge will hear the case of 2 former Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) employees who lost their jobs after reporting problems with the EHR that CSC helped implement at Hanford Medical Clinic of California
  • CSC was originally ordered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to pay back wages of $186,000 to the 2 former workers
  • The workers had reported that the EHR was not accurately tracking medical restrictions, creating potential for hospital workers to be exposed to disease

 

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