–       Sharp of Japan and it financial troubles again making news:

  • Sharp announced it rejected an initial offer from Samsung of South Korea to buy its copier division.
  • According to Bloomberg News, Sharp will sign deals with three financial institutions for loans that equate to $313 million.
  • Sharp stated it is hoping that many more banks will come to its aid.
  • Has to come up with $2.1 billion to pay off a bond that is due in September, 2013.
  • According to DigiTimes magazine, Foxconn Electronics (aka Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan), may be interested again in buying into Sharp, now that Samsung has invested over $100 million.

 

–       Street pricing seen in print for pay market:

  • Xerox Digital Color J75 Press w/LCT/hole-punch/saddle-stitch/staple/FreeFlow controller for $1864.39/month, on 60 month FMV lease.  Color clicks @ $0.039 and b/w clicks @ $0.0099.  11”x17” billed as one click.
  • o   Canon imagePRESS C6010 w/Fiery/RADF/POD/saddle-stitch/hole-punch/tab feeder for $1895/month on 63 month FMV lease.  Color clicks @ $0.04 and b/w clicks $0.01.  11”x17” billed as one click.

 

–       Toshiba & Okidata announced that their jointly made A4 color MFPs will launch in April, 2013:

  • color LED technology (instead of laser)
  • 4 tandem OPC drum design
  • pulverized toner technology
  • target of 30,000 units per year globally
  • expects A4 market to grow 10% per year worldwide
  • 9” color touchscreen LCD control panel
  • Built-in print controller
    • actual maker unknown
    • optional embedded application solutions

 

–       Toshiba’s GM of its office equipment division, Hidetaka Nonami, stated; “Toshiba will further expand areas in which customers can use color MFPs and we will also propose further usage of MFPs, not only for offices but also for stores and establishments such as retail and service related areas.”

 

–       Toshiba claims it sold more A3 MFPs in China in 2012, than any other company.  According to Key Research, a total of 507,300 A3 MFPs were sold in China last year for all brands, with most of units sold in the lower segments.

 

–       Toshiba announced it will open a factory direct branch in Myanmar(formerly known as Burma, located north of Thailand).

 

–       Hewlett Packard announced a new free app for Samsung made Galaxy smartphones:

  • provide way to directly print to more than 180 HP network printers and MFPs, both laser and inkjet
  • user can choose printer settings, like duplex, color, orientation and paper type
  • connect via WiFi or wireless direct print

–       Hewlett Packard announced it has issued another critical data security update for certain LaserJet printers and MFPs.  Details:

  • Christoph von Wittich, a data security expert in Germany, was credited with detecting the flaw.
  • The telnet debug shell flaw could allow remote hackers access to sensitive data.

 

–       The Serious Fraud Office of England announced it has opened up an investigation into the purchase of Autonomy Corp. by Hewlett Packard.

 

–       Hewlett Packard reported results of last quarter’s financials:

  • total revenue down 6%
  • income down 20%
  • printer/MFP division revenue down 5.31%

 

–       Hewlett Packard announced it won bid to supply 1.5 notebook computers to the country of India for use by students in the Uttar Pradesh region.

 

–       Ricoh announced that it will be expanding its presence in Asia in 2013, to grow its sales in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

–       Ricoh launched a new color inkjet wide format printer, the MP CW2200SP featuring:

  • support for 500 ft. paper rolls
  • optional 2 roll feed
  • built-in scanner
  • built-in USB and SD card slots
  • GELJET ink technology
  • 600x600dpi
  • up to 36” wide printing
  • built-in print controller
    • 3GB RAM
    • 250GB HDD
    • 1GHz processor
    • PostScript and HP GL print drivers
    • 10/100BaseT port
    • optional 1000BaseT Gigabit port

 

–       Ricoh announced it will have display production print solutions at the upcoming 2013 National Postal Forum in San Francisco, CA.

 

–       Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company) announced it will offer scanning batch software from i2 Software, as an option for its MFPs.

 

–       Kyocera announced it will sponsor the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship until 2017 in Europe.

 

–       Xeikon announced it sold an 8500 production color system to Optichrome of England.

 

–       Fuji announced it will launch its new Jet Press 540W, which is a production color inkjet web fed system.

 

 

 

–       Xerox announced its top third party solutions partners for 2012:

  • C. P. Bourg finishing solutions
  • Rochester Software Associates production software
  • Nuance cost recovery and document capture solutions
  • Plockmatic finishing solutions
  • Cleo Streem fax servers
  • Y Soft cost recovery solutions
  • Cirrato cost recovery solutions

 

–       Xerox announced it will sell one of its headquarters buildings, the 29 story Xerox Square building in downtown Rochester, NY.

  • 1,400 Xerox employees work there
  • was built in 1967 by Xerox
  • at 440 feet, is tallest building in the city
  • sold to Buckingham Properties
  • Xerox will now lease the building
  • price not announced

 

–       Xerox announced it is beta testing a new solution for education vertical, called “Ignite”, which is a cloud-based grading solution:

  • automates process of hand grading student tests
  • teachers use forms that can be scanned in using Xerox MFP
  • images are uploaded to Xerox site
  • service is smart enough to be able to recognize hand marks, such as coloring in a section of an image, so more versatile than typical multiple choice test scanners
  • papers are graded, and results sent back to teachers
  • planned launch this fall
  • $15 per student per year plus setup fee of $10K to $20K

 

–       Xerox, according to Marketing Research Consultants, started a new program in which it is trying to convince dealers to take on its product line, in geographic areas of the U.S. not covered by existing Global locations.

 

–       VTT Research published results of survey of consumer trust of advertising:

  • 63% for print
  • 41% for TV
  • 25% for web

 

–       EFI launched version 2.4 of its PrintMe Mobile solution including:

  • dashboard includes search, filters, tags
  • data export/import features to identity, configure and check the status of hundreds of printers from a central location
  • administrators can track mobile printing usage in job accounting software (i.e. Equitrac, GoPrint, PaperCot, Print Audit and Sepialine Argos)
  • supports Apple iPads, iPhones and Android devices

 

–       DocuWare, maker of document management software, announced it has renewed its status as a Microsoft Gold Partner.

 

–       Canon sent out unusual direct mail piece to the press, to launch a new digital camera.  The mailer contained a silver pen, that had a tiny, built-in projector, that when activated, displays on a wall an advertising message about Canon’s new products.  Cost of mailer unknown.

–       Canon now shipping new desktop A4 color laser MFPs, the imageCLASS MF8280 and MF8580 series featuring:

  • 14ppm top speed for MF8280 and 21ppm top speed for MF8580
  • Base MSRPs of $449 and $599 respectively
  • 50 sheet document feeder
  • 150 sheet paper drawer and single sheet bypass on MF8280
    • 250 sheet paper drawer and 50 sheet bypass on MF8580
    • Auto duplex on MF8580
  • fax board on MF8580
  • 1200x1200dpi
  • 4 tandem OPC drum design
  • 7 line color LCD display
  • built-in print controllers
    • 512MB RAM
    • 802.11 wireless printing support
    • Google Cloud Print compatible
    • PCL print driver on MF8580
    • USB and Ethernet ports

 

–       Kodak announced a new option for its Scan Station 520EX desktop scanner, called “BOLT Direct” which offers:

  • o   software made by Bolt Document Management Inc.
  • o   plug and play scanning solution for Microsoft SharePoint
  • o   allows users to name, route and index their scans
  • o   integrates into scanner’s touchscreen LCD display and keyboard interface
  • o   able to also integrate into enterprise content management software from Laserfiche
  • o   OCR engine

 

–       PrintFleet of Canada, announced that it achieved record revenues in 2012, for its managed print services software solutions.

 

–       Formtek Inc. announced it won a Alfresco document management system solution contract from the University Michigan’s College of Engineering.

 

–       Kofax of Irvine, CA announced version 6.0 of its Kofax Transformation Module document capture solution featuring:

  • o   Touchless Processing that automatically classifies, separates and extracts content from any scanned document type
  • o   self-learning techniques
  • o   reduces end user need for manual document review

 

–       Kofax launched a new capture solution named “Mobile Capture for Driver Licenses” featuring:

  • o   uses the camera in a mobile device
  • o   VRS image enhancement
  • o   automatically extracts name, address and other content
  • o   can read all 50 states’ driver licenses and barcodes

 

–       MGI announced it sold a Meteor DP8700XL production color system to the Vatican, the worldwide headquarters of the Catholic Church, now led by Pope Francis.

 

–       Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system sales are apparently not meeting expectations.  “I think the Windows 8 system is no better than the previous Windows Vista platform.” stated Don-Soo Jun, an executive with Samsung.

 

–       Martin Yale Corp, maker of off-line finishing and shredding equipment, announced an operating loss of over $1 million in 2012.

 

–       The Nubeprint Managed Print Services Compliance Report published results of its study of devices installed worldwide:

  • o   29% of all printers and MFPs are fully MPS compliant
  • o   32% have some major limitations
  • o   4% are not compliant at all
  • o   67% do require advanced MPS management technology
  • o   the number of printer cartridges that get lost, or never reach the printer, is 7-9%

 

–       Shore Communications Research published results of survey stating that over $400 million spent annually in the financial services vertical market to prepare unstructured documents for back office applications.

 

 

–       Xerox previewed a new technology for healthcare vertical called “Digital Nurse Assistant” featuring:

  • o   keeps track of both nurses and medications that have been ordered for their patients
  • o   system relies on small digital tag worn by nurses
  • o   system recognizes nurse when he or she enters patient’s room
  • o   patient’s info then appears on in-room display

 

–       The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) published data on the number of physicians who have successfully submitted for Meaningful Use rules by EHR vendor in 2012:

  • o   Epic = 26,337
  • o   AllScripts = 17,186
  • o   eClinicalWorks = 10,754
  • o   NextGen = 8,783
  • o   GE = 7,551
  • o   McKesson = 3,859
  • o   athenahealth = 3,515
  • o   Practice Fusion = 3,474
  • o   Greenway = 3,465
  • o   Cerner = 3,166
  • o   Vitera = 2,981
  • o   eMDs = 2,315

 

–       Marilyn Tavenner, acting CMS Administrator, announced that she will not consider delaying the launch date of 10/1/2014 for implementation of ICD-10 coding system for healthcare market.

 

–       SRS announced it won an EHR contract from Commonwealth Orthopaedic Centers of Northern Kentucky.

 

–       Epic announced EHR contract from WellStar Health System of Georgia.  The hospital also announced it has leased 21,000 square feet for a new data center.

 

–       Siemens announced it won contracts:

  • o   Soarian EHR with CPOE contract from Howard University Hospital of Washington D.C.
  • o   Soarian EHR from South Jersey Healthcare
  • o   East Texas Regional Healthcare System
  • o   Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services

 

–       CPSI announced it won EHR contract from Johnson County Healthcare of Wyoming.

 

–       McKesson announced contracts from:

  • o   Thousand Oaks Radiology Group of California
  • o   Covenant Health of Knoxville, TN
  • o   Capital Region Health Care of Concord, NH

 

–       AllScripts announced it won contract from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York.

 

–       eClinicalWorks announced EHR contract from Coastal Medical of Rhode Island.

 

–       Meditech announced EHR contract from Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center of Kentucky.

 

–       SuccessEHS announced EHR contract from Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center of Wisconsin.

 

–       Access Software announced an electronic forms software solution contract from St. Barnabas Medical Center of New Jersey, integrated into their Cerner EHR.

 

–       Brazilian police announced that 5 doctors were suspended for using fake silicone fingers to clock in their colleagues on a time clock that used fingerprint recognition, so they could get overtime pay.  (biometric reader option for Konica Minolta MFPs reads finger vein patterns, and not fingerprints)

 

–       MedAssets, one of the largest healthcare GPOs, announced it has expanded its relationship with Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

 

–       The U.S. Healthcare Index published study that show approximately 60% of the 1.2 billion clinical documents created annually are in unstructured form, such as dictated notes or paper records.

 

–       HIPAA Breaches:

  • o   The Department of Veterans Affairs of Nebraska and South Dakota admitted that they were routinely transmitting unencrypted PHIs, affecting as many as 400,000 veterans.
  • o   St. Peter’s Health Partners of Troy, NY notified 23 patients that their PHIs were exposed, when several employees improperly access their medical records.
  • o   The University of Connecticut Health Center notified 1,400 patients that their PHIs were exposed after an employee improperly access their medical records.
  • o   Northwest Primary Care of Milwaukie, Oregon notified some patients that their PHIs were exposed when a staff member inadvertently attached PHI info to an email sent to the wrong person.
  • o   The IRS is being sued by a company in southern California, who claims that the federal agency illegally seized PHIs on 10 million people in the U.S.

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