Toshiba wins contract for nuclear reactor:
- According to Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Toshiba beat out Russia to win the contract to supply an AP-1000 advanced pressurized light water reactor to Kazakhstan.
- It will be placed at the site of the now closed Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site in the city of Kurchatov, and turned on in 2016
Toshiba may exit the HDTV business in U.S.:
- Organizers of the large annual Consumer Electronics Shows (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, were surprised to learn that Toshiba will not be displaying any flat screen TVs at the event.
- “Toshiba is currently evaluating the business model for the U.S. consumer TV market as part of the company’s measures to reform its Visual Products business worldwide”; stated a company spokesperson.
Toshiba set to relabel Sharp PPS units.:
- Since it has no production print technology of its own, the company announced it will relabel 2 year old b/w units from Sharp.
- The Sharp MX-M904, M1054 and M1204, will be rebadged as the Toshiba eSTUDIO 907, 1057 and 1207. (90ppm, 105ppm and 120ppm)
- Toshiba has never invested R&D into production systems, as it previously relabeled units sourced from Ricoh.
- The new units will not support the Toshiba eBRIDGE software platform for embedded/integrated solutions
- Some industry analysts believe that Toshiba will launch a new A3 b/w engine design for the workgroup segment, as current product line is based on a 10 year old engine design.
Toshiba wins Editor’s Choice award:
- Better Buys for Business (BBB) magazine have out the award for the Toshiba eSTUDIO 557/657/757/857 series of A3 b/w MFPs
- “we were particularly taken by the products’ Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) that meets the U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2”; stated Meilissa Pardo-Bunte of BBB.
- (the magazine does not perform actual lab testing as compared to Buyers Lab Inc.)
Xerox claims success with new Versant 2100:
- The company advertised that it has now placed 11 units in commercial printshops in the country of India
- Reason cited for beating out competition was the production color unit’s ability to print on 350gsm stock at 100ppm, and offers 10 bit processing.
Xerox launches new DAT solution:
- DAT stands for Digital Alternatives Tool
- PDF centric, Xerox-developed solution for making document searchable and shareable
- In future, will accept scans from Xerox MFPs.
- Software also tracks users and document movements
- Current version loads and stores documents on customer’s server
- May offer a cloud-based version in 2015
- Customer pays a monthly usage fee
- Competes with similar offerings from Adobe and Nuance
Xerox launches new PAT solution:
- PAT stands for Print Awareness Tool
- Was developed by Xerox research center in Grenoble, France
- Leverages “gamification” to convince end users to reduce printing
- Uses on-premises server and a MS Windows desktop client app
- Can link to a 3rd party cost recovery solution (i.e. Equitrac, etc.)
- After users fill out an online self-assessment of their printing habits, software provides a report showing “their self-estimated and their real and observed behavior”
- User’s desktop has an ever present widget that looks like a daisy in upper left hand corner, and petals fall off as user prints pages
- Xerox charges a per user fee for the solution
Xerox details its past 9 months of financial performance at investor meeting:
- Services revenue (fka ACS) has grown only 1%, and margin is stuck at 8.7%
- Revised its targets for services division to 2-4% growth and operating margin of 2-4%
- Technology Business (MFPs, printers, etc.) revenue is down 6%, even though the total market has only declined 3%.
- Document Outsourcing revenue is up 3%, even though the total market is up 7%
- Global Imaging division, which Xerox purchased in 2007 with $ 1billion in revenue, now has $2 billion in revenue (based mostly on continuing acquisitions)
- Total equipment installs (MFPs, printers, etc.) are down
- Production b/w printing installs down 13%
- Forecasts that total Technology Division revenue will be down 4-5% in 2015.
- “We are no longer interested in ‘take your mess and do it for less’ opportunities. We want to change the way you do business for the better.”; stated Ursula Burns, Xerox CEO.
Xerox renews pricing program for PIA members:
- The Printing Industries of America, (PIA) which offers memberships primarily to the commercial print industry, has exclusive contract with Xerox to provide special discounted pricing to its member.
- PIA claims to have 8000 members currently
Canon claims success with new imagePRESS C700 & C800 models:
- The company advertised that it has placed 25 units in commercial printshops in the country of India.
- Reason cited for success was the production color systems’ small footprint and ability to print up to 13” x 24..8”, up to 300gsm.
Canon launches new production color system:
- The new model is the imagePRESS C60, a slower, less expensive version of the C700 and C800 models
- 60ppm top speed
- 4 tandem OPC drum design
- Based on engine from the imageRUNNER ADVANCE C9280 color workgroup MFP
- Intended to replace the 14ppm imagePRESS C1+ color unit
- Black toner yield of 44,500 pages based on 5% coverage
- Color toners have yield of 27,000 pages
- Black drum yield of 380,000
- Color drums have yield of 240,000 pages
- Base MSRP of $41,000
- Does not come standard with a print controller
- Optional print controllers are EFI Fiery models
- Comes standard with three 550 sheet universal paper drawers and 100 sheet stack bypass and auto duplex
- $5200 option provides platen scanner with document feeder
- Holds up to 200 originals
- Scans both sides of original at same time
- Top speed of 100opm for b/w and 70opm for color
- Option also comes with 10.4” color touchscreen LCD control panel on armature
- $10,320 for 6000 sheet multi drawer paper deck
- $4600 for 3500 sheet paper deck
- $5200 option provides platen scanner with document feeder
- Finishing options include:
- $3450 for 50 sheet stapling finisher
- $5865 for booklet making finisher (up to 25 sheet booklets)
- Optional hole punch kit
- $13,000 production stapling finisher
- $16,400 production booklet maker
- $17,500 for production punch unit
Former typewriter manufacturing plant may have caused deaths of 14:
- Prosecutors in Ivrea, Italy, have requested that a court indict 33 people over deaths linked to asbestos at a former Olivetti typewriter plant.
Laserfiche reports success of dealer ECM sales:
- Milennial Vision Inc., a Salt Lake City, UT dealer that specializes in selling Laserfiche ECM (enterprise content management solutions) to credit unions in the U.S., reported sales in 2014 of $1 million
RISO launched yet another new duplicator:
- The new model, the SE9480 Digital Duplicator, is advertised as offering a top speed of 185ppm
- Prints at 600x600dpi
- Optional color cylinders include gold, and other metallics
- Large color LCD touchscreen control panel.
Sharp appoints new president of its Consumuer Electronics division:
- Jim Sandusky, who also worked for Panasonic, Hewlett Packard and Samsung, is new President of Consumer Electronics, Health & Environment Business.
- Replaces John Herrington, and will report directly to Toshi Osawa.
Hewlett Packard sells off the Palm brand:
- HP paid $1.2 billion for Palm Computing in 2010
- Buyers is Wide Progress Global Limited, a shell company financed by Chinese investors, who own Alcatel OneTouch.
- Purchase price not announced
Hewlett Packard reportedly forces holiday leave:
- According to The Register newspaper of England, HP closed offices and required employees to take holiday leave over the holidays, until 1/5/2015, to cut costs.
3D Systems posted video goes viral:
- The company announced that a YouTube video of Derby the dog running for the first time after being fitted for a 3D printed prosthetics, has received 6.8 million views.
3D Systems launches food printer:
- The company announced a partnership with The Culinary Institute of America to beta test the ChefJet Pro, which will make edible confections, like custom candies and ornate cake toppers.
Iron Mountain pays $44.5 million to settle lawsuit:
- Iron Mountain, headquartered in Boston, MA, paid the amount to settle allegations that the company overcharged federal agencies for record storage services under GSA contract.
Okidata clarifies its new COREFIDO 5 year MFP warranty program:
- Available only on the MB760 (49ppm b/w), MB770 (55ppm b/w), MC660 (35ppm color) and MC780 (42ppm color) models, that are sold primarily via online retailers.
- All use LED engine that is also used in some Toshiba-branded MFPs
- C711, B721, B731 print only devices, which use same engine, are not covered by this warranty
- MPS3537, MPS5252 and MPS5502 MFPs, that use same engine and are sold by dealers, are not covered by this warranty.
- The COREFIDO warranty begins when customer registers their product online with 90 days of purchase, and then Okidata will provide onsite service, including all parts and labor.
Solution software vendor invests in 3D vendor:
- YSoft of Czechoslovakia, maker of cost recovery solutions (competes with Equitrac), announced it has invested $2 million in cash for a 51% controlling interest in Czech-based BE3D, maker of 3D printers that use fused deposition modeling technology.
- BE3D will receive an additional $900,000 based on achieving certain growth targets.
API Technologies wins MFP contract from federal government:
- Company relabels products sourced from Lexmark, HP and others, and alters them with electromagnetic shielding to make them compatible with the TEMPEST Level 1 security level to protect them from electronic eavesdropping
- Contract was for $1 million for 65 A4 color MFP devices
Kyocera launches its own cost recovery solution:
- Named “CentraQ” and “CentraQ Pro”
- Only works with Kyocera made MFPs that support the HyPAS platform
- CentraQ offers user authentication and secure job release for $277 per device
- CentraQ Pro adds ability to restrict function access, and more detailed job and user cost accounting for $362 per device
Technology firms complain about talent shortage:
- The Technology Councils of North America (TECNA) reported in its recent survey that 74% of executives say there is a shortage of tech talent to fill critical jobs.
- 63% report intention to add more employees in 2015
- “The skills shortage issue is one that affects technology companies from coast to coast and border to border”
InfoTrends published forecast for production color systems:
- US and Western European digital production color volume totaled about 265 billion impressions in 2013, and will surpass 500 billion in 2018
- Production color inkjet accounted for 31%
- By 2018, production color inkjet will account for 59%
- Production color inkjet system unit sales up 20-25% from 2013 to 2014
Screen announces production color inkjet sale:
- Bradford and Bigelow, a on demand book publisher/printer, announced it has acquired its 2nd Screen Truepress Jet520 for its plant in Newburyport, MA.
Ricoh now shipping new b/w A3 MFPs:
- New models are the MP 2554, MP3054 and MP3554
- Base MSRPs of $6400, $8350 & $9880 respectively
- Top speeds are 25ppm 30ppm and 35ppm respectively
- Replace the MP2553, 3053 and 3353 models
- Fax board is $1530 option (only 200dpi standard)
- $205 for 64MB to improve to 400dpi
- $910 each for additional fax lines
- Toner yield of 24,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page
- Drum and developer yield of 120,000 pages
- 100K/mo maximum duty cycle
- 14 second warmup time
- 7 second recovery time from sleep mode
- All come standard with an 8.5” color LCD touchscreen
- Optional is the 10.1” color LCD touchscreen control panel that runs on the Google Android operating system for $380
- The optional LCD panel upgrade also provides an embedded NFC chip, allowing Near Field Communication wireless printing and scanning with an Android based mobile device
- Finishing options include:
- $960 for staple-less finisher
- $1580 for internal stapling finisher
- $983 for hole punch kit
- $1930 for multi-position stapling finisher
- $4040 for booklet making finisher
- Paper supply options include:
- Comes standard with two 550 sheet universal drawers
- Comes standard with 100 sheet stack bypass
- $1910 for side mount 1500 sheet deck
- $1910 for letter size 2000 sheet paper deck to make MFP floor standing
- Comes standard with document feeder that scans at a top speed of 79opm
- Does not scan both sides of original at same time
- Scans in b/w or color
- Built-in print controller
- Actual maker unknown
- Smart Device Connector app allows an Android or iOS based mobile device to have a remote control panel operation, but requires that customer has purchased the optional 10.1” color LCD touchscreen control panel
- (Ricoh sales reps are being taught to use the app on their mobile device when conducting demonstrations on the new MFPs to impress customers)
- $270 for USB device server option, allowing MFP to have a second IP address to support two networks
- 2 GB RAM standard
- 320GB hard drive comes standard with data overwrite, but Common Criteria certified data security is a $530 option
- $817 for File Format Converter option, which is required if user wants to store scans on HDD
- 10/100/1000BaseT gigabit Ethernet ports standard
- PCL print driver is standard
- $111 for XPS print driver
- $740 for PS print driver
- 533MHz PMC-Sierra MIPS processor
- $116 for web browser option required for using optional cloud-based solutions
- $961 for optional Samsung PrinterOn HotSport mobile print option, also requires the web browser kit
- Scan to OCR kit is $340 option
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Hospital demands price cuts from vendors:
- Peter Geier, CEO or Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, announced he is demanding that current vendors of the hospital provide a further 20% discount according to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.
- The discount must be provided by 6/30/2015, and if vendors do not comply he will “look into contracts with other vendors”
- The IDN spent $700 million last year with 3,400 vendors
State of Massachusetts requires EHR proficiency:
- The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine announced a new state law requiring that physicians who renew their license must demonstrate proficiency in the use of EHRs, as well as the skills for achieving meaningful use.
Accenture wins $563 million contract:
- Federal government awarded the 5 year contract to the company to provide 500 workers to improve the ObamaCare website.
Doctors facing big pay cuts in Medicaid pay:
- ObamaCare’s pay rate expired on 12/31, meaning that doctors who see Medicaid patients will have a fee reduction of 43% of average across the U.S., according to The Urban Institute. (average pay will go from $75 to $50 per visit)
- Experts fear that many doctors may refuse to add more Medicaid patients in 2015.
EHR vendor CEO is profiled:
- Fortune magazine recently published article on Jonathan Bush, CEO of Athenahealth
- Recently purchased a 387 acre resort in Maine for $7.7 million, for use by company, and is a 4 hour drive north of company headquarters outside of Boston, MA.
- Uses resort for annual conference event, entitled; “More Disruption Please”
- He is cousin to former President George W. Bush.
- Published a book entitled; “Where Does It Hurt? An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Fixing Health Care?
- Athenahealth has seen average revenue gains of 32% a year by selling cloud based EHRs to doctor’s offices.
- Has added a Frisbee golf course and beer garden to the company headquarters.
“Cromnibus” bill causing controversy with EHRs:
- President Obama just signed the $1.1 trillion federal spending bill, which included directives for the Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of the Naitonal Coordinator for Helath IT
- Will decertify EHRs that prevent the electronic exchange of health information, or are not working on interoperability
- Several EHR makers are reporting banding together to create a new technician standard called HL7-FHIR, based on JASON technology to improve compatibility between competitive systems.
HIPAA/Data Security update:
- PacSec security conference in Tokyo had researchers demonstrate that roughly half of the USB devices available worldwide have unpatchable security flaws.
- This apparently includes memory sticks, hubs, keyboards, webcams and mice, as well as USB ports used by many MFPs
- A warehouse owner in Houston, TX, according to KTRK News, found thousands of abortion clinic records and is fearful of HIPAA fines:
- Esmeralda Cedillo, warehouse owner, wanted to shred the records, but Texas law requires that records must be retained “for 7 years past the last date on which service was given or until the patient’s 21st birthday, whichever occurs later”
- The United States Postal Service announced that network hackers illegally accessed the PHI of 800,000 USPS employees.
- Rachel Seeger, senior advisor for the HHS Office of Civil Rights, stated that USPS, like other federal agencies, is not covered by HIPAA
- Anita Chanko has filed a $5 million HIPAA lawsuit against ABC TV, claiming that during an episode of “NY Med”, the reality show televised her husband, Mark Chanko, dying in the New York Presbyterian Hospital emergency room, as surgeons tried to save him after he was wounded when he was hit by a sanitation truck.
- Due to HIPAA fears, 2015 New Year’s Day editions of newspapers did not have the usual listing of babies born at start of new year.
- Mercy Medical Center Redding Oncology Clinic of California notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed when a physician inadvertently posted physician progress notes on a public website.
- Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital of Illinois notified 3,000 patients that their PHI may have been exposed after a laptop computer was stolen from an employee’s vehicle.
- Amedisys Hospice of Tennessee notified 23 patients that their PHI was exposed when paper records fell off of a truck on its way to a shredder.
- Fairfax County, Virginia officials notified 595 individuals that their PHI may have been exposed after it was discovered that the MFP they were using to scan paper records had its data exported by a copier vendor’s technician to an Internet accessible server owned and maintained by the copier dealer.
- Reeve-Woods Eye Center of California notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after their computer were discovered to be infected with malware that captured screenshots of patient info.
- The Kirkbride Behavioral Health Center of Florida notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed when a former employee was arrested in possession of paper records from the facility.
- Experion Inc. research predicts that the cost of healthcare data breaches will be $5.6 billion in 2015.
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