Kyocera buys ECM reseller

– Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company of Japan) announced it acquired Alos Solutions of Germany
– provider of capture and Enterprise Content Management solutions
– over 100 employees based in Germany and Switzerland
– several thousand customers, including Kraft, BP, AT&T and Unilever
– dealer for ABBYY, Kofax, Alaris & Docuware solutions

Kyocera to boost production in Vietnam

– announced it will increase manufacturing output of small laser printers and MFPs in  Vietnam by 25%
– at plant in the northern Vietnam port city of Hai Phong from the current 800,000 units to 1 million units in the year through March 2019
– will begin construction of facilities for parts production, toner filing and logistics
– workforce of over 4,300 employees has dispatched some 30 Vietnamese trainees to a research and development center in Japan

Toshiba wins MPS contract from UFC

– Award for multi-year managed print services contract from Ultimate Fighting Championship
– Includes fleet of eSTUDIO MFPs
– Includes locations in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo

Toshiba holds shareholders meeting

– Led by CEO, Nobuaki Kurumatani
– “Although we have put an end to liabilities of excess of assets, we are still in negative territory for retained earnings available for dividend payments and so will forgo a year- end dividend”
o “We deeply apologize to you anew”
– One shareholder commented; “Toshiba has pulled out of a crisis, but its future is uncertain”, as CEO did not provide any details on plans to grow revenue.

Toshiba to make parts for electric cars

– plans to spend 30 billion yen ($270 million) adding 50% more capacity for power semiconductor devices, which improve energy conservation in electric cars
– devices are used to convert between direct and alternating currents and adjust voltage
– also used in home appliances, industrial machinery and solar power equipment

Hon Hai to buy more dealers for Sharp

– Hon Hai Precision (aka Foxconn of Taiwan, and parent of Sharp) announced that it will set aside $108 million to acquire copier dealers in North America and Europe
– hopes to generate more than 450 billion yen in sales from its smart business solutions segment in fiscal 2019 — up 36% from fiscal 2017.

More dealer acquisitions

Marco , headquartered in St. Cloud, Minnesota, announced it has acquired Rudzianski’s Business Equipment of Dubuque, Iowa
o Marco now claims to have 1,180 employees working out of 50 locations supporting 32,000 customers

Proven IT of Chicago, Illinois announced it has acquired Resolve Technology Group (RTG) of Chicago
o Proven IT is dealer for Canon, Xerox, Toshiba and HP

Visual Edge Technology, headquartered in Canton, Ohio announced it acquired the following:
o Business Technology Partners of Orlando, Florida
§ A Xerox and HP dealer
§ Will be folded into AXSA Imaging Solutions, which it acquired in 10/17
o N2N Technologies of Indianapolis, IN
§ A managed IT and cloud services provider for engineering and education verticals
§ Will be folded into Netwise Resources, which it acquired earlier
o Dunn’s Business Solutions of Gaylord, MI
§ Dealer for Kyocera
o Office Systems of Barre, Vermont and Concord, New Hampshire
§ Dealer for Toshiba, HP, Canon and KIP

Pacific Office Automation headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon acquired:
o Yost Business Systems of Idaho
o Dealer for Kyocera and Ricoh

Ricoh holds national dealer meeting

– The “ConvergX 2018” event was held in Las Vegas, Nevada
– Breakout sessions included:
o emerging importance of data, device and network security
o Security developments and trends
– Total attendance of 1,200 dealer owners and personnel attending from the U.S., Canada, and Latin America
– Jim Coriddi, vice president, dealer division, Ricoh Americas, gave overview presentation:
o expected to increase the channel’s production of revenue by 25% in the coming fiscal year
o dealers were responsible for 43% of all unit placements across the enterprise, government, production, and SMB
o has completed the sale of 1/3 of its contracts in the SMB space to 20 different dealers
o enhancing its service capabilities, including initiatives for helping dealers reduce service and installation costs by 50%
o now has a total of 21 solution specialists supporting dealers in the U.S.
o is suggesting to its dealers that they focus on vertical markets, and hire sales reps from outside the MFP industry, and instead source from vertical market customers
o expanding its capabilities in industrial print, most notably with the previously released 9200 and the new 7200 production print machines
o Ricoh is increasing moving “toward recurring revenue models”
§ “will likely revolve around subscriptions for everything from software to printing infrastructure”
o Claims that Ricoh is number one provider of A3 color and b/w MFPs (Ricoh does not certify their numbers for the U.S.)
– New slogan is “Ricoh Ignite in 2018.”
– Joji Tokunaga, Ricoh CEO, stated that Ricoh plans to “expand printing horizons” and execute multi-year growth strategy including:
o “we are still a printer company”
o Cloud-based workflow tools designed for the small and medium-sized business market.
o A new inkjet system to offset the transfer of offset print volume to digital.
o A textbook designed to show off Clickable Paper, a way to make print interactive.
o Collaboration with academic and corporations to develop bioprinting
o “plan to invest in 3D printing”, and acknowledged that acquisitions are likely
o “We have put together a three year journey and growth strategy specifically on commercial and industrial printing and printing on more than paper,” he said. “We have to do a better job to articulate our IT network and support capabilities too.”

Ricoh now shipping new color PPS

– Launched the new Pro C7200 series of production color laser systems, replacing the C7100X series
– Offers CMYK plus a 5th toner, choices are:
o Invisible red toner (can only be seen in UV light)
o Neon pink or neon yellow
o White or clear
– In-line sensors and calibration technology for better front-to-back registration and color consistency
– 2400x4800dpi (does not offer true 8 bits per pixel imaging)
– VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) technology
– Available in 85ppm or 95ppm models
– 17” color touchscreen LCD control panel
– Handles up to 49.6” media in simplex mode
o Up to 27.5” long in duplex mode
– Supports printing on synthetics, window clings, rich linens

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