- Sharp of Japan announced that Samsung of South Korea will invest $110 million (10 billion yen) in the company:
- will give Samsung a 3% stake in the company
- “Sharp is in a very precarious situation.”; stated Sean Kim, analyst with Standard Chartered Bank of Seoul, Korea
- “Ten billion yen is too small to meet Sharp’s needs but it does send a positive signal to the market”; stated Hideki Yasuda of Ace Securities Co. of Tokyo, Japan
- will prevent Apple from having exclusive access to Sharp’s LCD screen for its mobile devices
- “Sharp’s decision to turn to Samsung – once its most feared rival….signals the desperate situation facing Sharp. It needs capital injections to secure its balance sheet.”
- “The next step for Sharp is bank financing, an executive at one of the banks and a separate source at Sharp told Reuters. Fresh loans could total around $1 billion, according to analysts, which would raise the cost of Sharp’s bailout to about $5 billion.”, according to Reuters News Service.
- “Sharp will need to raise at least $535 million from the sale of overseas factories and other assets to pay off the bond due in September.”; stated Yasuo Nakane, an analyst at Deutsche Securities.
- (Could Samsung consider taking over the Sharp copier division?)
- Sharp announced it has formed a Managed Print Services National Sales Program for its factory direct branches, and is now seeking to hire a Director to run the program, from Sharp’s Mahwah, NY office.
- Sharp’s Doug Albregts, President of Sharp’s division in the U.S., announced that the company will roll out 3 new series of products during a 6-8 city road show in June/July timeframe. The company’s next national copier dealer meeting is in November of this year.
- Hewlett Packard announced it sold a T410 Color Inkjet Web Press to Rotomail of Milan, Italy for print on demand work.
- Hewlett Packard announced management changes:
- Senior VP Eric Cador, who in charge of printer/MFPs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is replaced by Herbert Koeck, who was VP of Printing and Personal Systems division in the Americas
- Xerox’s CEO, Ursula Burns, won a $1500 shopping spree at Tops Friendly Market in Rochester, NY.
- Xerox announced it sold a D110 production b/w system to Rakmo, a digital book publisher in New Delhi, India.
- Xerox announced it sold a 550 Digital Color Press to RHI Printogrpahics of Gurgaon, India.
- Xerox announced it is raising prices on 80 different printer/MFP supply items.
- Xerox announced it is conducting a road show for customers, named “2013 Xerox Focus Forward”:
- keynote given by Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine
- testimonials also given by Xerox customers
- cities include:
- Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Fairfax, Denver & Cincinnati
- Topics include:
- managed IT services
- managed print services
- MFPs and connected apps
- business process outsourcing
- production print
- solutions on display include:
- NSi AutoStore
- Duplo
- EFI
- Nuance
- GBC
- XMPie
- RSA
- Solimar
- Plockmatic
- Judge Susan Souder ruled that Baltimore County’s (Maryland) contract with Xerox to manage its speed cameras is illegal, as Xerox is getting a cut of each speeding ticket citation issued.
- Xerox currently receives about $19 from each $40 ticket.
- Production inkjet technology to be showcased at the upcoming “Inkjet Summit 2013”:
- 4/9-11/2013
- Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in Ponte Vedra, FL
- Canon is main sponsor representing its Oce’ division JetStream systems
- Ricoh also participating with its InfoPrint systems
- After public pressure, Samsung’s CEO, Kwon Oh-hyun, issued a public apology for a gas leak at one of its plants in China in January that led to death of one worker, and hurt 4 others.
- Local police are still looking into the leak of poisonous hydrofluoric acid, according to The Wall Street Journal
- Quocirca released results of study:
- 87% of companies provide mobile workers with devices
- 50% of mobile workers still use their own devices for work
- 80% of mobile workers are or plan on using a tablet PC
- Most frequent use of tablet PC:
- 36% for email
- 35% for surfing web
- 7% to watch videos
- 12% to read
- 60% of mobile device users want to print from their devices
- 20% are currently able to print from their mobile devices
- 25% of companies plan on investing in mobile device print technology
- 5% of companies have ability to print from mobile devices
- Microsoft was fined $731 million by European authorities for breaching a settlement it signed in 2009, which mandated that it display a “browser choice” screen on all existing and new PCs in the region.
- Okidata announced it is the first vendor to offer computer dealers (VARs) to sell A3 color MFPs without territory restrictions:
- Models offered are Okidata CX3535 and CX4545, which are co-manufactured by Toshiba
- 35ppm and 45ppm floor standing models with optional finishing
- since VARs don’t typically employ copier technicians, the units offer 3 year service packages, which are fulfilled next day by Okidata subcontractor technicians
- Ricoh announced it is deploying a solution at Portland Public Schools of Oregon, to connect its existing fleet of MFPs to fax servers. Ricoh won the $6 million contract in 2010.
- Ricoh announced it will sponsor a 6 meter yacht in the Cruising Yacht Club Youth Sailing Academy of Australia.
- Ricoh, in a cost cutting move, announced it will merge its Pentax Ricoh Imaging Americas division and its Ricoh Americas Digital Camera division.
- Ricoh announced it sold an InfoPrint 5000 production color inkjet system to Frederic Printing of Aurora, CO for direct mail marketing piece production.
- The next production print trade show in the U.S., is the Print Expo in Chicago, IL, where Ricoh apparently plans to launch several new production color and production b/w systems. New color models might be called the Aficio PRO 5100 (60ppm) and PRO 5110 (80ppm)
- Canon announced that the U.S. International Trade Commission will institute an investigation regarding alleged patent infringement violations from dozens of providers of remanufactured toner cartridge vendors in the U.S. Canon’s goal is to prevent companies from marketing low cost generic substitutes to factory original print cartridges that Canon offers for Canon-branded and Hewlett Packard-branded printers and MFPs. Sampling of those being investigated:
- Clover Technologies
- Dataproducts
- Standard Image USA
- Nukote
- InkSell.com
- TonerZone.com
- Office World
- Canon announced it will join HP, Kodak and Xerox and pull out as an exhibitor at the annual IPEX production print show in England in 2014, in a cost cutting move.
- Canon announced it will now offer facilities management in the country of Singapore, to grow its branch revenues.
- Canon announced it will display its Dreamlabo 5000 production color inkjet system at the Wedding & Portrait Photographer International Convention in Las Vegas.
- Katun Inc. of Minnesota, maker of generic parts and supplies, for dealers who do not wish to use factory originals, announced it will be raising prices.
- Lexmark announced it spent $31.5 million on two acquisitions:
- Twistage Inc. of San Francisco, CA, maker of cloud-based video ingestion and management solutions
- AccessVia Inc. of Seattle, WA, maker of retail point-of-sale printing signage solution ftware
- PE International, a global sustainability software and services firm, announced it will be producing consensus-based rules for understanding the environmental impact of printers and MFPs. The rules will help device manufacturers achieve higher green ratings for their products.
- Kodak announced it sold four Nexpress SX3300 production color systems to Kaydee Color Lab of Lucknow, India.
- Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin and Rep. Mike Michaud of Maine introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to reverse recent federal initiatives to ban use of paper in federal government communications.
- Roy Morgan Inc. released results of study which found that more than 70% of consumers aged 14 and over prefer reading printed catalogs instead of online ads.
- West Bend, Wisconsin police announced they had arrested a 37 year old man, named Jarad S. Carr, at the Walmart in Lake Hallie, when he attempted to return a desktop color MFP he purchased there, and in box were 5 fake $100 bills he printed using the device.
- According to Jennie Fisher, Senior VP and FM of Great America Leasing, 35% of leases the company processes are now managed print services contracts.
- Hyland Software, maker of OnBase ECM solutions, announced it has acquired AnyDoc Software of Tampa, FL, which makes advanced document capture software.
- Kofax, maker of document capture solution software, announced it has acquired Altosoft Inc. of Philadelphia, PA, maker of business intelligence and analytics software. Purchase price not announced.
- McAfee, maker of data security software, released results of survey:
- 50% admit that they have used an MFP to copy/scan/print confidential information
- 6% are aware that MFPs are a security threat
- Nuance Corp. announced that Nuance PaperPort Anywhere, a cloud-based document management system, was shut down by the company that was hosting it, OfficeDrop Inc.of Waltham, MA, due to poor subscription sales.
- Compass Sales Solution announced it won a CRM contract from Sumner Group, which owns several copier dealerships in the Midwest, including DataMax locations, and Copying Concepts.
- NEC, which relabeled Konica Minolta and Kyocera-made MFPs, and marketed them through small independent dealers in the U.S., announced it is closing the MFP division down.
- Memjet, maker of desktop color inkjet technology, announced it is laying off 1/3 of its staff at its Australia product design facility.
- According to Gartner’s “Technology Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore” report, on average 80% of healthcare information captured is in unstructured, paper-based forms/input.
- Ricoh now shipping 4 different desktop MFPs specifically designed for healthcare market.
- SP 5200SHW and SP 5200SHT offer:
- A4 b/w laser engine with top speed of 47ppm
- base MSRPs of $3499 and $3699
- 1200x600dpi
- document feeder scans in color and b/w
- 2,300 maximum paper capacity
- built-in print controller
- hard drive includes data security kit
- paper drawers have optional lock with key
- SP 5200SHW model will handle wristband media from drawer
- plastic is Teflon coated, to handle specialty media
- SP 5210SFHW and SP 5120FHT are same as above, except have top speed of 52ppm
- base MSRPs of $4719 and $4519
- Ricoh announced it won contract from University of Louisville Hospital of Kentucky:
- document management system
- electronic forms software solution
- fax server solution
- managed print services
- FM for copy center
- claims contract will save hospital $1.6 million over life of contract
- Ricoh announced it will offer a new optional solution for its MFPs for the healthcare vertical:
- product is “ChartMD”, from Inofile Software
- allows end users to scan documents using MFP, and index them into a EMR-ready format
- additional optional connectors to integrate into EHRs
- Activated ChartMD costs $20 per month
- Toshiba announced it has acquired 70%, or controlling interest in TI Medical Systems Co. of South Korea, a reseller of medical imaging systems in the region.
- Westbrook Technologies, maker of Fortis and FortisBlue electronic content management software, announced it is partnering with IQ-EQ Systems, maker of Simplicity EHR software, to offer package for ambulatory healthcare market. (Ricoh branches market Fortis ECM, via acquisition of IKON)
- Aetna Insurance, headquartered in Hartford, CT, announced it is creating a new division, called “Healthagen”, which will offer health and technology services to employers.
- eClinicalWorks announced EHR contract from Coastal Medical Inc. of Providence, RI.
- According to Hyland Software, more than 25% of patient information is left out of an EHR, if it is not complimented by an integrated ECM solution. Examples of how electronic content management (ECM) compliments EHRs:
- Help meet federal government’s Stage 7 threshold of converting critical documents into electronic format within 24 hours of creating or receipt, by providing a point of care scanning solution for all clinically relevant documents, and making them immediately available to the EHRs.
- Reducing amount of time manual indexing documents by implementing automatic processes, using patient level barcodes to scan and capture data.
- EHRs usually do not capture information from ancillary applications, such as EKG results, digital photos, reports, etc. ECM integrates with virtually any system, and connects them to share information.
- Xerox announced it won a $76 million managed IT services contract from New Jersey’s Department of Human Services Medicaid Division.
- Aloft Group published results of study of healthcare organization’s ability to meet 10/1/2014 deadline to implement ICD-10:
- 75% say their implementation process of ICD-10 is 25% or less complete
- 33% have not started yet
- 55% have confidence they will meet deadline
- 71% say they do not have enough time
- 41% say they are frustrated with their EHR vendor’s lack of guidance
- 44% believe their vendor don’t have adequate schedule in place
- 61% want their vendors to run parallel systems before go-live
- 75% say coding education is biggest gap
- 51% believe that federal government will not change deadline
- The American Medical Association stated that a survey of doctors who work for the VA, that 30% admit that they missed EHR notifications of test results that led to patient care delays.
- Reason given for missing alerts is they are receiving too many, an average of 63 alerts per day.
- AllScripts, maker of EHRs, announced it has made two acquisitions:
- dbMotion of Israel, maker of health information exchange technology for $235 million
- Jardogs, maker of patient engagement solutions
- Epic and McKesson settled their patent litigation over MyChart, with McKesson granting Epic a license for its technology.
- Epic announced it will use Nuance’s Clinical Language Understanding solution.
- Cerner announced it won a revenue management services contract from Adventist Health.
- The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center reported that it had to go back to paper records for 3 hours when its patient care systems went down due to human error.
- Cardinal Health filed a lawsuit against AllScripts, claiming it pre-paid $5 million for 1,250 MyWay EHR licenses for resale, and is stuck with 994 of them that it cannot sell, since Allscripts announced it is not continuing the product.
- SRS announced it won an EHR contract from Advanced Orthopedic Center of Port Charlotte, FL.
- Several EHR vendor rivals are teaming up. CommonWell Health Alliance was formed to provide ability exchange data between competing systems:
- Members include:
- Cerner
- McKesson
- AllScripts
- Athenahealth
- Greenway Medical Technologies
- noticeably absent is Epic
- “We did know about it. We were not invited. It appears on the surface to be used as a competitive weapon and that’s just wrong. It’s wrong for the country.”; stated Judy Faulkner, CEO of Epic.
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released results of a study:
- 20% of Medicare patients are readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of discharge
- 80% of hospitals lack direct post-discharge contact with patients
- IBML announced it won contract to supply its ImageTrac high speed desktop scanners to Memorial Hermann Healthcare System of Houston, TX to scan paper records into the hospital’s Sovera health information management system.
- Health Affairs magazine released results of study on EHRs in ambulatory market:
- average physician will lose $43,743 over 5 years on their EHR implementation
- 27% of practices will achieve a positive return on their EHR investment
- 14% will have positive return only after receiving the $44,000 federal government stimulus
- 50% saw no reduction in use of paper records
- Health Level Seven International announced that on 4/1/2013, it will make much of its HL7 intellectual property available via a free license. This will accelerate the development of interoperability and connectivity between competing EHRs and ECM systems.
- According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for medical coders (ICD-10) will increase by 21% from now until year 2020.
- The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced results of first wave of audits for healthcare facilities attesting for meaningful use and HIPAA compliance:
- audits conducted by subcontractor, Figliozzi and Company
- 47% failed the audit
- Accenture released results of survey of U.S. doctors:
- 82% wants patients to actively participate in their own healthcare by updating their EHRs
- 31% believe patients should have full access to their EHR
- 47% don’t want patients to update their lab test results
- 4% don’t want patients to have any access at all
- 21% currently provide patients with access
- Iatric Systems announced it won a Security Audit Manager solution contract from Iowa Health System.
- Why should healthcare facilities be concerned about data security and protecting PHIs?
- “Why is there so much fraud? It’s easy money.”, stated Michael L. Nelson, VP of Equifax, a national credit bureau.
- Lexmark announced it won a managed print services contract from Markham Stouffville Hospital in Ontario, Canada.
- hospital had 256 devices, representing 68 distinct models from 7 different manufacturers
- only 60% were connected to network
- 6.5 million pages per year
- Now has 13 different Lexmark models
- 58% are MFPs and 100% are connected to network
- print volume reduced 18%
- contract included Lexmark’s Perceptive imageNOW electronic content management solution
- included fax server solution
- HIMSS announced that through Thursday morning, total HIMSS 2013 show attendance in New Orleans, LA was 34,696.
- According to MediScripts, handwritten prescriptions continue to outpace eprescribing by more than 60% in 2012.
