Toshiba financial issues update

– Announced it was being sued by another group of investors for $399 million in damages over its $1.3 billion accounting scandal
o Now facing 26 separate legal claims for a total of $900 million
– The Nikkei Asian Review newspaper claims that the company “has little chance of filing its annual report by the deadline of the end of this month”
o “given up on filing its financial statement  for the year ended this March in time for the regulatory deadline”
o “practically a certainty that its stock will be demoted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange”
– Still not announced who won the bidding for its NAND memory chip manufacturing division to raise much needed cash
o Western Digital, who is low bidder and is already part owner, is proving to be a 
o “difficult partner” as it has sued Toshiba to prevent division from being sold to anyone other than Western Digital
o Other possible bidders include Dell, Apple, Hon Hai Precision, KKR, Bain Capital, SK Hynix, etc.

Fujifilm financial issues update

(Fujifilm is maker of most of the products that carry the Xerox name)
– Fujifilm announced a cut in executive compensation and a revamp of its board structure after an investigative panel blamed lack of oversight and an ambitious sales drive for accounting troubles in its copier division
– The company’s net profit apparently was inflated by $340 million over a 6 year period
– Failed to properly account for the recoverability of receivables related to sales leasing contracts for copiers and printers
– Pay packages of executives that were linked to sales targets led to an overly aggressive campaign to boost revenue
– Will replace many of its board members
– Will reduce executive pay by 30% for 3 months, including compensation for chairman Shigetaka Komori and president Kenji Sukeno
– Executives of the office equipment division who lost their jobs due to above are:
o Tadahito Yamamoto, chairman
o Haruhiko Yoshida, deputy president
o Katsuhiko Yanagawa, director
o Jun Takagi, director
o New chairman will be Shigetaka Komori

– Fujifilm reported its FY2016 total company earnings:
o Total revenue down 5.6% to $21.1 billion
o Operating income down 1% to $1.6 billion
o

Document Solutions division (printers/MFPs) revenue down 7.2% to $9.8 billion

§

Office products (A3 MFPs) down 5.1%

§ Office printers down 15%
§ Production services down 10.5%
§ R&D budget is 6.7% of revenue

Xerox inventor passes

– Announced the passing of Charles Thacker, one of the lead designers of the Xerox Alto personal computer in 1973
o Had a windows-based interface, mouse and Ethernet, but was a failure
– The Alto supposedly inspired Steve Jobs to invent the Apple Macintosh computer in 1984

Xerox signs up new copier dealers in U.S.

– Memphis Communication Corporation (MCC) of Memphis, TN
o will take advantage of Xerox’s ConnectKey platform using the Xerox App Gallery to build customized applications
o “We’re looking forward to the ability to build custom apps that address workflow issues in healthcare and finance as well as those focused on the distribution industry in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi,” said Shane Berry, MCC co-chairman. 
– Standard Business Systems (SBS) of Little Rock, AR
o "We now have a hand in every aspect of the customer experience," said Tony Macia, vice president, sales, SBS. 
o "With Xerox’s support, our customers are being 100 percent taken care of by SBS." 

Sharp’s new parent wants name back

– During its recent financial difficulties that led to Sharp being acquired by Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan (aka Foxconn), it was forced to sell its TV naming rights in U.S. to competitor, Hisense.
– Hisense acquired the rights from Sharp for $27.8 million, and is selling TVs in the U.S. with Sharp name on them, even though they are being manufactured by their plant in Mexico.
– Hon Hai, which bought Sharp for $3.5 billion, has filed a law suit against Hisense, to get the naming rights back, claiming that Hisense is “sullying the brand with shoddily manufactured TVs and misleading advertising”
– Claims that the Sharp brand and trademark “are at risk of being destroyed” by Hisense
– Believes that the TVs violate the FCC rules on electromagnetic interference emissions
– Charges that Hisense is giving consumers deceptive info about picture size, brightness levels and the 4K resolution
– Hisense denies the claims and stated it “will continue to manufacture and sell quality TVs under the Sharp name”

Ricoh exec discusses company plans

– Interview with Glenn Laverty, SVP of Marketing
– “updated our sales engagement model”
– “building on our industry knowledge with additional experts and resourced of

healthcare, financial, legal and higher education…”

– “investing more than 5% of net sales to research and development”
– “has inside sales group (telemarketers?) of highly skilled Ricoh sales professionals focused on the SMB market within key verticals”
– “we will continue to engage Ricoh (branch) sales reps for in-person meetings with customers when appropriate”

Ricoh wins production print contracts

– Award from 4-Print, a commercial printer in West Molesey, England
o Installed a Heidelberg Versafire CP production color system (which is a relabeled Ricoh Pro production color laser system)
o Nigel Fountain, owner, gave following reasons for choosing:
§ 330mm x 700mm banner format
§ Can handle 6ppm A4 or landscape A4 work
§ Handles wide range of media from business cards to brochures
– Award from MCA NetPub, a book printer in Poughkeepsie, NY
o Installed an InfoPrint 5000 production color inkjet system
o Will be used to produce books and manuals
– Award from First on Color, a commercial printer in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
o Installed a Pro C9110 production color system, a Pro C7110X production color system and a Pro 8100 production b/w system

Ricoh launches new A4 color devices

– Now shipping the SP C262SFNw color laser MFP and the SP C262DNw color laser printer
– Base MSRPs of $755 and $445 respectively
– Top speed of 21ppm
– Uses 4 tandem OPC drum design
– 2400x600dpi
– Document feeder on C262SFNw holds up to 50 originals
o Scans both sides of original at same time
– 4.3” full color touchscreen LCD control panel on MFP model
– Max monthly duty cycle of 65K pages per month
– Recommended max volume of 30K month
– Black toner yield of 6500 pages based on 5% coverage per page
o Color toners yield of 6000 pages
o Waste toner bottle yield of 25,000 pages
– Comes standard with 250 sheet paper drawer and single sheet bypass
o Can add 500 sheet paper tray
– Built-in print controller
o Actual maker unknown
o USB & Ethernet ports standard
o 802.11b/g/n wireless connectivity
o PCL and PS print drivers

Ricoh booth at the InfoComm 2017 show

– Held in Orlando, FL for the audio/video industry
– Will be demonstrating following in its booth:
o D2200 interactive whiteboard with 21.5” display and built-in camera for video conferencing
o Unified Communication System App to mobile video conferencing
o PJ WX4152Ni ultra short throw projector
o D5520 interactive whiteboard with 55” display
o Virtual Self-Service Hologram, or a projected hologram digital employee named Sharon

Ricoh agrees to resell 3D printers

– EnvisionTEC, headquartered in Gladbeck, Germany, announced it has signed a dealership agreement with Ricoh
– Beginning later this year, Ricoh Japan will begin selling 3D printers, materials, training and support in Japan through its agreement with EnvisionTEC
– Features high precision and smooth surface finish using the company’s patented DLP and 3SP technologies
– includes 3D printers such as the company’s 15-year-old Perfactory line, which is now in its fourth generation, as well as printers with large build envelopes such as the Ultra and Vector.
– Ricoh Japan is to exhibit at the 28th Design Engineering & Manufacturing Solutions Expo held at Tokyo Big Sight June 21-23, where EnvisionTEC technology will be on display.

Lexmark’s new CEO is gone

– Lexmark (aka Ninestar of China), announced that its new CEO, David Reeder, has resigned without notice
– Reeder was hired to replace Paul Rooke, who was the CEO of Lexmark before the acquisition by Ninestar
– The company announced a search is underway for a replacement

Lexmark responds to HP security claims

– Eric McCann, Lexmark product marketing executive, recently published whitepaper to respond to HP’s claims that it makes “The Word’s Most Secure Printers”
– Claims the following about Lexmark printers:
o Has offered comparable security features, including secure boot, and continuous monitoring, since 2010
o Digitally signed and encrypted the firmware since 2008
o Provides features comparable to HP SureStart and HP Runtime Intrusion Detection standard on all products
o Secure boot technology offered since 2008
o Continuous verification of the code on non-volatile memory since 2010

nQueue Solutions signs up large dealer

– nQueue Software announced it has signed up reseller agreement directly with Marco Technologies, which is headquartered in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and has offices covering Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota
– nQueue provides document capture and cost recovery solutions, primarily for the legal vertical
– (competes with Nuance, PaperCut, YSoft, etc)
– Select Marco personnel will receive training to become nQueue Certified Sales Personnel
– Claims to have integration with MFPs from Konica Minolta, Canon and Lexmark

Brother sues Cartridge World

– Claims patent infringement
– Apparently, when Cartridge World refilled spent Brother-made print cartridges, it failed to remove Brother brand markings
– (Cartridge World is owned by Suzhou of China, maker of compatible cartridges)

Survey on inplant CRDs versus FMs

– InPlant Graphics Magazine published results of survey, of how vendors offering facilities management have approached organizations in the U.S. that have their own in-house copy/print centers to take over the operations
– 79.4% = could not save the customer any money by outsourcing
– 55.9% = could not provide all the services that the customer required
– 13.2% = being challenged by the vendor resulted in the in-plant improving its service offerings
– 5.9% = in-plant manager now has more responsibilities
– Overall print sales have declined from $100 billion per year to $82.5 billion in 2016
– Most popular services being added are:
o Design
o Web to print shopping carts
o Large format printing
o Variable data printing
o Mailing
o In-sourcing

HP settles lawsuit

– The company’s ill-fated $10 billion acquisition of Autonomy Software of England is now going to cost the company even more money after it decided to settle a class-action lawsuit
– Investors had sued HP, after HP claimed it had been duped into overpaying for Autonomy, and did a write-down of $8.8 billion
– HP agreed to pay $100 million into a settlement fund

HP wins production print contract

– Award from Belmark, a commercial printer in De Pere, Wisconsin
– Installed an Indigo 8000 production color web system, with top speed of 262 linear feet per minute
– Used to produce pressure sensitive labels and packaging for the food and personal care products industries

HP’s CEO gives another interview

– CEO, Dion Weisler, gave commentary during recent Bernstein Research conference
– “parts of this market (consumer printers and MFPs) are indeed in secular decline”
o “I am not sure we can return that segment to growth”
– Trying to encourage consumers to print photos from their smartphones
– “number of pages being printed (by office laser printers and MFPs) is in the range of -1% to +1% – less than the rate of decline in paper volumes”
– working hard to make print relevant, to make it easier, and then to look for areas of growth through segmentation”
– Believes that print cartridge remanufacturers have 35% of laser printer toner market, as compared to genuine OEM makers
o Vows to continue to pursue toner cartridge patent infringers and counterfeiters
– “HP is open to making more mergers and acquisition”

 

 

HP to use recycled products

– announced that it is using recycled plastic from Haiti to manufacture select print cartridges
– The initiative is advertised as helping create jobs in Haiti and provide educational opportunities and scholarships for children
– teaming up with Thread, a company that already uses recycled bottles from Haiti and Honduras to create clothes

Nuance to offer solution for automobiles

– Announced new “Dragon Drive” for automakers
– Voice recognition to interact with passengers in each seat
– Voice biometrics
– Ambient wakeup
– Hybrid embedded cloud speech recognition
– Natural language understanding
– Text to speech
– For use in autonomous vehicles

Epson sues Amazon.com retailer

– Claims that Century21 Electronics, infringed on Epson’s patents
– Apparently was selling refurbished Epson projectors as new by putting deceptive labels using Epson logo over working stating that products were used

Okidata reports its FY16 earnings

– Shinya Kamagami stated that “top priority is to reinforce earning capacity in order to be a company that can secure stable profitability with a view to establishing a foundation for achieving sustainable growth and evolution”
– To improve its printer/MFP business it will “shift to niche markets and launch products that leverage the company’s strengths in media compatibility and design, retail and medical printing”
– Will reduce LED print engine costs
– Will narrow down the number of printer  products it offers
– Will expand number of “industry” printers it offers for specific vertical markets
– Total printer/MFP division revenue of 112.4 billion yen
o Operating income of 1 billion yen

OpenText signs ECM agreement

– OpenText, headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, announced it signed a global reseller agreement with SAP
– SAP, headquartered in Germany, is one of the world’s leading provider of ERPs
– SAP will resell OpenText Extended ECM as SAP SuccessFactors Extended Enterprise Content Management by OpenText
– Designed exclusively for SAP, the new cloud-based solution helps organizations manage human resources (HR) and employee documents from generation to disposition in a secure and compliant manner

 

 

 

Color laser A4 unit growth projected

– InfoTrends published a forecast for A4 color laser MFPs and business inkjet shipments through 2021
– expects unit growth in A4 Color particularly within the 45+ppm MFP speed segment and Segment 3 Business Inkjet SMB
– believes the market will continue to shift from single function laser printers to multi-functional products and from monochrome to color engines
– in 2016 MFP printers represented 52% of all laser unit shipments by 2021
o forecast shows MFP devices will grow to about 58% of total unit shipments
o color laser devices are also expected to grow from 31% to 34% of total shipments in North America
§ office color laser A4 MFP shipments are expected to grow at a 3.9% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) through 2021
§ forecasts the majority of unit placements will be within the Laser Segments 2–4 (21-69 ppm) speed range as the shift to color and multi-functional devices continues in the office environment.
– forecasts continued growth in unit shipments within Business Inkjet Segments 3 & 4 in both North America
o shipments are expected to grow at 6.2% CAGR
o Shipment growth is being fueled by a new breed of high-end serial inkjet and page-wide models introduced over the last few years
o new breed of inkjet devices offers an attractive alternative to laser particularly within the SMB office environment with standard wireless connectivity, high yield consumables and in some cases, comparable cost per page to laser.

Hyland Software wins ECM contract

– Award from CROPP Cooperative, headquartered in La Farge, Wisconsin, is the largest cooperative of organic farmers and founder of the leading organic brands Organic Valley and Organic Prairie
– has selected OnBase by Hyland to optimize its Accounts Receivable (AR) order-to-cash operations
– will completely digitize its order-to-cash process, anticipating cutting processing times in half and improving customer service. 
– “We visited Hyland, spending the day in its solution experience center and obtaining hands-on training with the software prior to selection,” said Starr Janecek, order-to-cash manager at CROPP Cooperative. 
o “The software was so intuitive that we were building AR workflows almost instantly. We were able to see firsthand how the solution would help us digitize processes to become more efficient and effective.”

Hyland’s parent buy MIT firm

– Thoma Bravo LLC announced it has acquired Continuum Inc., which is headquartered in Boston, MA
– Continuum is an international form that provides MSPs (managed service provider dealers) with IT platforms, services, RMM (remote monitoring and management), backup solutions, disaster recovery and security solutions
o Employs 1400 worldwide
o Monitors 1 million endpoints for its 5800 dealers

 

IDC reports printer/MFP unit growth

– International Data Corporation announced that during first quarter of 2017, worldwide shipments of hardcopy peripherals grew for the 2nd straight quarter,
– Up 1.2% year over year to 23.4 million unit placements
o Inkjet-based products up 2.2%
o Laser/LED-based products up 2.1%
o Marketshare by vendor for units of all types:
§ (includes consumer, office and wide format)
§ HP = 36.9%
§ Canon = 19.4%
§ Epson = 18%
§ Brother = 7.6%
– In past quarter, shipments were up 0.6%

Canon wins production print contract

– Award from Avantika, a commercial printer in Delhi, India
– Installed an imagePRESS C8000VP production color laser system
– Reasons given for choosing include:
o “this machine helps us print on heavy textured paper”
o “focusing on wedding cards and notebooks to diversify”

DocuWare Software wins ECM contract

– Award from Rawlings Sporting Goods
– Implemented DocuWare Cloud document management system
– Integrated with existing ERP

Large copier dealer acquires another

– R J Young, headquartered in Nashville, TN, announced it has acquired ACS Technologies
– ACS is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and was owned by John Alfano, Kevin Coleman and Sammy Russo
– ACS, a Ricoh dealer, also had locations in Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and Selma, Alabama
– RJY is owned by Chip Crunk, and has 20 locations in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida

Auxilio wins another MPS contract

– Auxilio, of Mission Viejo, CA, announced it won the Managed Print Services contract from Vanderbilt University Medical Center of Nashville, TN
– Contract includes new MFPs sourced directly from Canon Solutions America
– Dedicated on-site Auxilio program managers will have VUMC Affiliate badges

Canon wins MPS college contract

– Award from Drexel University of Includes MFPs, printers and solution software

 

 

 

 

Survey of EHR interoperability

– Conducted by University of Michigan regarding ability for different EHRs to share PHI
– 49% = EHRs have limited interoperability
– 47% = high HIE (healthcare information exchange) fees
– 42% = 3rd party access to data difficult
– 31% = refuse to support some HIEs
– 28% = data export from EHRs is difficult
– 13% = HIE contract terms change after implementation
– 17% = unfavorable HIE contract terms
– 12% = gag clauses on speaking about issues
(by investing in bizhub MFPs with Kno2 connector, healthcare facilities can improve their interoperability capabilities)

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