Toshiba financial issues update

– Announced it will invest 110 billion yen ($980 million) to expand flash memory chip production at its Yokkaichi plant in Mie Prefecture, Japan

o Is asking Western Digital to participate in the investment

– Western Digital has filed petitions with the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration to stop Toshiba’s plans to invest 195 billion yen in the same plant and sell the NAND chip division of Toshiba to Bain Capital for $18 billion

– The Tokyo Stock Exchange stated it was taking Toshiba Corp. off a special watchlist, citing improved internal controls

o Lessens but does not completely remove the risk of a delisting

– ISS, a proxy advisory firm, stated it has recommended that Toshiba’s shareholders do not approve the firm’s earnings statements for the past financial year

– Toshiba will pay $3.68 billion toward the construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia to meet terms previous agreement according to Associated Press

Toshiba promotes new head of dealer sales

– Announced that Ted LeBlanc is new VP of U.S. Dealer sales for Toshiba America Business Solutions 

– Previously was Director of Eastern US sales for direct division

– Also spent time in past at Panasonic and Konica Business Technology

– Replaces Larry White who was promoted to Chief Revenue Officer

o In interview, he stated that the company will restart its efforts to acquire copier dealers in the U.S. (stopped acquiring dealerships at end of 2008)

HPE CEO discusses growth strategy

– Interview with Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in CRN magazine

– “I think our industry, and all of us collectively, need to move from being farmers to hunters”

– “I think all of us need to flip that model to be hunters”

– “By definition, hunting is harder.  Someone else is in there.”

– “You have to get yourself in there with a new set of technologies”

HP Inc. launch new security solution

– Unveiled the new HP Connection Inspector

– Designed to “detect and stop security threats to HP printers and MFPs”

– Can be embedded into new HP models, and monitors the printer or MFP’s outbound network connections

– Uses patterns to identify normal behavior, and then recognize and stop suspicious outbound requests

– If the solution detects malware-like behavior, the technology triggers a printer reboot, to initiate a self-healing procedure

– Will be built-in on new Enterprise LaserJet printers and MFPs to be launched in near future

Duplo to launch new UV coater

– To ship the new DuSense DDC-810 sensory coating system

– Is a compact embellishment inkjet system that applies clear UV spot varnish on output from production print systems

– Option of raised and textured finishes that resemble embossing

– Pricing not announced

Canon launches new solution

– Now offering eCopy ShareScan from Nuance as option for its imageRUNNER ADVANCE MFPs

– Includes PDF Pro Office

– The document capture/OCR solution features:

o Forms processing

o Barcode-based document routing

o Document encryption

o Job batching

o Zonal OCR

o Convert scans to PDF, MS Word, MS Excel

– Pricing not announced

Canon wins production print contract

– Award from Medius Corp. of San Jose’, CA

– Installed an Oce’ VarioPrint i300 production color inkjet system

Ricoh wins production print contracts

– Award from Orsery of France

o Installed 4 of the Pro C7100X production color laser systems

o 2 installed in Paris, one in Liel and one in Saint Jean de Luz, France

o Used for personalized print on demand book production

o Included clear toner option for spot gloss

– Award from Designtex of New York City, NY

o Installed a Pro 7210 color inkjet wide format system

Office Depot makes acquisitions

– Announced it has acquired Complete Office Solutions, with locations in Wisconsin, California and state of Washington

o Founded by Ted Nark and Rick Israel in 2003

o Annual revenue of $150 million

o Dealer of office furniture, office supplies, and printer/MFP supplies

o Also offers printing services

– Announced it spent $1 billion to acquire CompuCom

o Headquartered in Plano, TX

o Has 100 locations across the U.S., Canada, Latin America and India

o Offers managed IT services, cloud services, computer products, office products, and HP printers and MFPs

 

Ricoh launches new A4 color laser MFP

– Now shipping the SP C261SFNw color laser A4 desktop MFP

– Top speed of 21ppm

– Uses 4 tandem OPC drum design

– Designed for volumes of 700 to 1500 pages per month

– Base MSRP of $419.00

– Comes standard with one 250 sheet paper drawer and single sheet bypass

o Handles up to 160gsm

o Optional 500 sheet paper feed unit for $179.00

– Flatbed scanner with full color contact image sensor (CIS)

o Document feeder scans both sides of original at same time

o Holds up to 50 originals

– 4.3" color touchscreen LCD panel

– First Page Out Time of 14 seconds

– Warm-Up Time of 30 seconds

– Up to 2400 x 600 dpi

– Auto duplex up to 90gsm

– Fax board offers only 200dpi

– Built-in print controller

o Actual maker unknown

o 256 MB RAM

o 400MHz processor

o 10/100BaseT and USB ports

o PCL6/5e, PostScript 3 print drivers

o Scan-to-Email, SMTP, folder, FTP, TWAIN

Xeikon pulls plug on new PPS system

– Xeikon, headquartered in Eede, the Netherlands, announced that it has terminated its Trillium liquid toner development project

– first demonstrated at drupa 2016 in the Trillium One production color LED system

– apparently has encountered several challenges in bringing it to market as a commercial product

– decision has been made to re-focus resources and efforts

– “We continuously review our portfolio and we are confident the segments we operate can be well served with our current dry toner technology and the newly launched Panther UV inkjet technology. With our dry toner technology, we will continue our focus on both the packaging and document businesses, as well as specialty segments where we bring significant value including security printing and wall décor,” stated Benoit Chatelard, President and CEO

Samsung CEO to resign

– Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. of South Korea announced the resignation of CEO and Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, after 32 years with the company

– (The defacto leader, Jay Y. Lee, is still in jail on bribery and corruption charges)

– “The timing is nonsensical.  Samsung tipped record earnings, it is going to be better in the 4th quarter, and all that is been driven by Kwon’s components business”; staed Park Ju-gun of CEO Score.

– “I am worried about a leadership vacuum at a time when Lee is absent from management”; stated Chung Sun-sup, CEO of Chaebul.com, a research firm.

 

Large dealer opens new location

– LDI  (fka Leslie Digital Imaging Color Toolbox) held grand opening of new location in Parsippany, New Jersey

– CEO is Jerry Blaine, Coo is Paul Schwartz

– Canon, Sharp, Samsung and Toshiba dealership

– Has other locations in New York City and Jericho, New York, as well as Cranberry, NJ, Burbank, CA, Shelton, CT and Uncasville, CT

One dealer acquires another

– Budget Document Technologies (BDT) announced it has acquired Reliable Technologies, a HP/Xerox/Lexmark dealer in Manchester, New Hampshire

– BDT is dealer for Konica Minolta, Xerox, HP and Lexmark, and has offices in Lewiston and Bangor, Maine, plus Manchester, NH

Some toners cause health problems?

– From article published in Chemistry World magazine

– Harvard University has been studying health implications of breathing in toner that may become airborne from laser printers

– Due to small size of some toner particles, the nanoparticles can enter lung and bloodstream

– “assessing the nano-risk early on during product development while there is still a window to apply ‘safer-by-design’ approaches can maximize the benefits of using nanoscale materials while minimizing the potential health implications”; stated Philip Demokritou, researcher at Harvard

– Harvard University now partnering with Nanyang Technological University of Singapore to analyze biological samples from people working in photocopying centers

Xerox investors continue to dump stock

– 425 investment managers from various firms have now decreased their positions in Xerox

– Now own 29.05 million shares compared to 815.80 million shares in first quarter of 2017

– Xerox now has a market capitalization down to $8.29 billion

– Stock decreased to $32.61 per share

Flexprint adds two executives

– Owned by Oval Partners of San Francisco, CA

– Hired Mike Weetman as new CFO

– Hired Randee Manley as new VP of Human Resources

– Both will work in the headquarters in Mesa, AZ

EFI launches new wide format printer

– Now shipping the new EFI Pro 24f color inkjet wide format system

– Uses LED and variable drop grayscale printhead technology

– Has a 4’x8’ flatbed

– Handles media up to 2” thick

– Driven by EFI Fiery server

Heidelberg wins production print contract

– Award from Financial Data Management (FDM) of England

– Installed a Versafire CV80 production color laser system (relabeled Ricoh Pro C7100X production color laser system)

– Included 5th toner system with options of clear, white, neon yellow or neon pink toners

– Replaces Xerox DocuColor production color laser system

Two large PPS trade shows to combine

Two large commercial print industry associations, the SGIA and NAPCO Media, announced it will combine the annual Graph Expo show and the SGIA Expo and replace it with new PRINT United show

– SGIA is the Specialty Graphic Industry Association (large format and other)

– NAPCO is the North American Publishing Company

– First event will be held 10/23-25/17 in Dallas, Texas in 2019

Kyocera to increase drum production

– Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company of Japan) announced it will increase the production capacity of laser printer/MFP photoreceptor drums by 150%

– Will invest $22.3 million to expand existing plant in Guangdong Province, China

– Will use a new automated process that will require 90% less workers than existing facilities

Hyland Software wins ECM contract

– Award from Portland State University of Oregon

– Installed OnBase enterprise content management system (ECM)

– Won Hyland’s 2017 Education Peer-to-Peer Award

– Departments using ECM include accounting, admissions, financial aid, human resources, institutional research and planning and information technology

– Integrated with Ellucian Banner student admissions software

Cartridge World new printer/MFP promo

– Claims that 40% of printer sales occur in the 4th quarter of the year

– New trade-in promo called the “Printer Exchange Program”

– Businesses can obtain a new laser printer or MFP for free by trading in their old printer or MFP and committing to buying toner only from Cartridge World

o Uses auto supply replenishment program

– Also receives complimentary maintenance if printer is leased

– Promo ends on 12/31/17

– Cartridge World personnel will review each business and its printing needs individually to ensure they receive the right printer

– Claims to offer products from HP, Lexmark, Xerox, Okidata, Dell, Epson, Canon & Brother

– Has over 350 retail locations in the U.S.

– Plans on adding 3,000 new locations worldwide by 2019

DocuWare reports software sales growth

– The document management solution software company reported that last quarter its sales grew 30% to $42 million total for past 9 months

– Primary driver was volume of cloud-based solution customers

– Now has 39,000 active cloud users processing 40 million documents online

Growth in document capture revenue

– Digital Imaging Report newsletter reports on growth in document capture in the cloud solutions revenue

– Total revenue up 150% in past year to $150 million worldwide

– Total market including on-premise solutions equals $3.6 billion

Survey on employee digital proficiency

– Survey of employees published by Censuswide

– 70% believe that younger employees are better suited for working on new types of technology

– 66% want more training in digital technologies

– 36% feel  that their businesses will fail within 5 years if the right investments in technology are not made

– 72% believe that senior business management will only introduce new technology if it helps cut costs, rather than empower employees

– 33% are worried that they will soon be out of a job due to lack of proficiency in digital skills

– 40% admit they lack digital tech skills

– 46% feel their competitors already have technological edge

– 65% say automated technology will enable them to be more productive

– 52% believe that AI will have positive impact on their role

Okidata offers MFP option to print DICOM

– Launched the new option for its existing ES9476 color LED A3 MFP that allow the MFP to print images from X-Ray, MRI, CT and ultrasound scans

– Includes DICOM (digital imaging and communication in medicine) RIP Pro software

– Provides up to 25 booklet design options

– Pricing not announced

Dealer principal discusses selling to healthcare 

– Interview of Jim Collins, owner of Datamation of Willowbrook, Illinois in Channel Executive magazine about how to be successful selling to IT in the healthcare vertical

– “Find a niche, be patient with long sales cycles, know what you are up against, and make sure your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed when it comes to security”

– “The big software (EHR) players, however,

usually do not know the first thing about scanners and hardware.

– “Our best play is to find a niche in healthcare”

– “paperwork exists for many……and this disparate data can cause real pain point”

– “not as simple as cold calling (VP of IT) within a healthcare facility”

o “engage prospects with outbound marketing campaigns at least quarterly”

– “copier companies are not programmed to sell solutions and be consultative….they want to sell clicks, they want to sell leases”

– “Datamation charges clients for on-site workflow studies”

o “send someone on-site for upwards of 5 hours who is tasked with identifying pain points and meeting with department heads”

o “Datamation then presents a flow chart to the client with a new, more efficient way of handling data capture”

– Datamation made investment to become SOC 2 (service organization control) compliant to handle any HIPAA security concerns

o Had to rewrite 70 policies during SOC audit

o Does not allow employees to have smartphones in scanning areas

o Invested $10,000-$18,000 in new firewalls

o “necessary evil if solutions providers want a piece of the $100 billion health IT spending pie”

o 68% reported one or more breaches in past year

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