Toshiba financial issues update
– Announced it has completed the sale of its 70% stake in Mangiarotti Spa, a heavy equipment manufacturer in Italy
– In cost cutting move, launched new early retirement program
o Staff aged 53 or older who have worked for more than ten years at the company and are not active in new businesses will be offered early retirement
o part of its strategy to focus more on infrastructure solutions and particularly promising new businesses, such as IoT and AI, at the Digital Solutions unit
o Around 300 are expected to qualify
– feud between Toshiba and Western Digital over a planned $8 billion sale of Toshiba’s NAND flash-memory unit is being aired at a Tokyo court
o At the first hearing of the case Wednesday, Toshiba’s lawyers demanded $1.1 billion in damages from Western Digital for allegedly interfering with its business and hurting its credibility as a company
o Western Digital’s lawyers urged the court to throw Toshiba’s case out, saying it has filed a competing claim with an arbitration court in San Francisco, where the same questions are being addressed.
Hardware sales increase last quarter
– IDC published its Worldwide Hardcopy Peripherals Market report for Q3
– Total printer/MFP market grew 1.0% year over year
– shipments reaching nearly 25.3 million units
– laser-based products saw a decline of 1.2%
– shipment value declined 4.9% year over year to almost $13 billion
– HP had shipment growth of 3.3% with market share of 38.7%
– contractual segment (leases and/or MPS) growth of 3.6% to over 1.7 million units
– Business inkjet shipments also grew 3.3% to 2.5 million units
Tonejet launches new production print
– Tonejet now shipping the new Cyclone, which is designed to print on beverage cans
– uses electro-static drop-on-demand, production color inkjet print engine
– nozzle-less printheads with electrostatic jetting process of pigment inks
– includes integrated Rockwell Automation iTRAK transport system for the cans
– purchase price not announced
IDC publishes report on MFP security
– IDC unveiled its new MarketScape: Worldwide Security Solutions and Services Hardcopy 2017 Vendor Assessment report
– Named in the leader category were; Xerox, HP, Lexmark & Ricoh
– IDC claims it used following scoring methodology:
o qualitative and quantitative criteria
o Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short term
o Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a three-to-five year time frame
Xerox exec discusses security
– Techtarget magazine interviewed Alissa Johnson, Xerox CISO and former deputy CIO of Barack Obama’s White House
– “The same hacker methods and tools that they were using when I was in the White House are the same ones that they’re using against Xerox.”
– “But from a cybersecurity perspective, what I’ve learned is that the same hacker methods and tools that they were using when I was in the White House are the same ones that they’re using against Xerox”
Xerox wins production print contracts
– award from Qualvis Print & Packaging of England
o installed two Xerox-TRESU digital printing and coating lines
o will be used to produce packaging products for the food and personal healthcare sectors
o Comprised of Xerox iGen production color laser system and a Tresu Pinta flexo coater
o speeds of up to 2500 sheets per hour
– award from Martin’s Funerals of Randberg, South Africa
o installed Xerox Versant 180 production color laser system
o used to produce funeral programs and memorial booklets
o reasons for choosing the 180 included:
§ automatic color calibration
§ automated registration and image quality controls
§ automated image-to-media alignment
§ automatic job processing through pre-set queues or virtual printers that assign print parameters to files automatically
Xerox app builder program for its MFPs
– for its new ConnectKey equipped MFPs, Xerox offering ability for its dealers and customers to build their own apps for the control panel
– the Personalized Application Builder tools include
o Software Developer Kits for MPS
o FreeFlow (workflow software)
o Extensible Interface Platform (EIP)
– For partners who wish to develop complex solutions, but lack in-house software development resources, Xerox is developing a community of authorized developers
– The current list of Personalized Application Builder Authorized Developers is:
o Beltrão Coelho of Portugal
o e-dox AG of Germany
o Foxway of Sweden
o Process Fusion
o Southern Solutions of Maryland
o Vision-e of New Jersey and South Carolina
Solution vendors acquires another
– NetDocuments, headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, is a provider of cloud-based document solutions to the legal vertical
– Announced it has acquired ThreadKM of Santa Monica, CA, which is a provider of collaboration and project management software
Toner pirate identified
– Masters Law Firm in Charleston, SC is warning other companies of phony invoices for copier toner from IT Tech Products in Cosa Mesa, California
– The invoices ask the recipient to pay $1,676 for toner plus $14 shipping.
– “I came to the conclusion that the invoice was a scam,” the firm’s IT director stated
o “I’d be willing to bet they’re just sending out invoices hoping people will pay them without really looking at them.”
HP launched new inkjet wide format
– Will ship the new PageWide XL 5100 on 1/31/2018
– intended for repro departments, enterprise print rooms, architectural or engineering firms and commercial printers for POS (point of sale) applications
– runs at speeds of up to 20 A1ppm
– 1200×1200 dpi resolution
– eight print cartridges and four (CMYK) pigment-based inks.
– standard with two-roll capacity
– can expand to four rolls
– maximum 1m roll width
– maximum 200m roll length
– thicknesses of between 70gsm and 200gsm.
– finishing options include high-capacity stacker, top stacker and folders
– pricing not announced
Sharp to promote hiring of veterans
– announced an initiative aimed at helping its authorized dealerships across the United States hire veterans of the Armed Forces
– for jobs in tech or sales positions with Sharp dealers
– will be actively promoting on websites for veterans and through communication with outreach programs
– applicants will be guided through a process to apply, demonstrate proficiencies and share their interests with dealers
– Once hired by the dealership, Sharp will reimburse the dealership for any training costs incurred on Sharp products.
Hyland Software wins ECM contract
– Hyland of Cleveland, Ohio announced it won contract for its OnBase ECM from the University of Colorado
– across 4 campuses, beginning in financial aid and extending to more than 120 additional offices
– 15 million documents were converted when switching over from Singularity, the institution’s former content management system
– multitude of document types, keywords, workflows, scripts and electronic forms were recreated during the yearlong project integrated with existing PeopleSoft, DocuSign and Salesforce Systems.
Sharp shows new product at annual show
– hosted its Pulse 2017 National Dealer Meeting at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, AZ
– New MFPs listed have top speeds which is the first 2 digits of the model number
o new b/w A3 Advanced Series MX-M3070, MX-M3570, MX-M4070, MX-M5070 and MX-M6070 MFPs
o new b/w A3 Essentials Series MX-M3050, MX-M3550, MX-M4050, MX-M5050 and MX-M6050 MFPs
o two new 26 ppm A3 entry-level MFPs, one color model available in December and one b/w model, which will be available in the spring
o new A4 b/w MX-B355W and MX-B455W Advanced Series
o new Pro Series MX-7090N and MX-8090N A3 production color systems
– launching network storage devices from Thecus
o Embedded with an Intel® Celeron processor J1900 Quad Core 2.0 GHz SoC and Mini-UPS battery
o 12 bay network-attached storage and offers scalability
– showcased line of professional displays including a 8K technology, featuring 16 times the pixel resolution of 1080p
– launched Skywell Atmospheric Water Generator
o collect moisture from the air through condensation and then use a six-stage water filtration system to create drinking water
YSoft claims to be first with Mopria
– Y Soft, provider or secure print management (aka follow me) solutions, claims that it is the first Mopria-certified enterprise print server.
– The Mopria Print Service enables Android mobile device to more easily print to any Mopria-certified printer with no additional setup
– Mopria Print Service is available as a free download in the Google Play Store.
– enables wireless-printer discovery for any Android mobile device user
– YSoft claims to connect to products made by Canon, HP, Samsung, Xerox, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, Kyocera, Toshiba, Brother, Epson, Xerox
Ringdale wins award from BLI
– Ringdale, maker of FollowMe print management solutions, receives a 2018 Pick award from BLI as the Outstanding Data Loss Prevention Solution.
– ability to set and enforce policies, preventing confidential information from being printed and adding relevant watermarks to documents based on content
– claims to connect to hardware from Brother, Canon, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Konica Minolta, Kyocera Mita, Oce, OKI, Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba and Xerox
Biscom launches fax replacement solution
– Biscom is a fax server software firm, headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts
– announced the availability of Biscom Digital Fax, designed to replace faxing over phone lines
– delivers high-speed, encrypted, point-to-point connections to securely transmit high-resolution, color documents and images
– available as a standalone solution, or as an integrated solution with Biscom FAXCOM solutions
– cloud solution allows access across multiple devices including computers, mobile phones, tablets, and MFPs
– ction peripherals (MFP).
– complies with HIPAA, SOX, and FERPA regulations
– Transmission of custom metadata with images, barcode, and OCR features
– built-in image viewer with mobile signing
– pricing not announced
