Toshiba financial issues update
– Toshiba TEC, the division that offers printers, MFPs and point-of-sales systems, published its last quarter’s earnings:
o Total sales down 3.8% to 115,7 billion yen ($1.06 billion)
o Operating profit up 123% to 3.4 billion yen ($31.2 million)
o Net income of 3.1 billion yen ($28.44 million)
o Predicts that total revenue for year will be down 1.5%
o Believes that net income will decline to 23.1 billion ($221.94 million)
– The Superior Court of California ruled that Toshiba must provide access to information on NAND memory chip division to Western Digital
o Western Digital is a partner with Toshiba in the NAND division, and is trying to prevent Toshiba from selling the NAND division to a competitor
– Toshiba impending sale of its NAND memory chip division is apparently being held up due a dispute over a payment schedule
o Toshiba’s preferred bidder, a consortium led by Bain Capital (which includes the Japanese government), is apparently requested to stage the payments, with most of the money paid out after Toshiba settles its dispute with Western Digital
o Toshiba is requested the monies ASAP, so it can avoid being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange before next deadline of 3/2018
– The Nikkei News is reporting that Toshiba’s main creditors have “urged the company to conclude its chip unit sale this month to have time to cross regulatory hurdles”
o “needs to erase negative shareholder equity before March (2018) or risk delisting”
Canon enters security awards program
– Announced that its imageRUNNER ADVANCE MFPs and security solutions are competing in the 2017 “Astors” Homeland Security Awards program
– For the MFP hardware, Canon is touting its hard drive security features, and authentication options
– Also touting its uniFLOW secure print release solution, as well as its imageWARE Secure Audit Manager solution which provides MFP audit logs
– The Astors program is designed to recognize the most distinguished technology vendors with slogan of “Keep our Nation Secure, One City at a Time”
Fujifilm embarrassed by revelations
– The company had as investigative report published regarding findings in its office equipment divisions in Australia and New Zealand, as reported by ProPrint magazine
– “run as a fiefdom, massive salaries and humungous commissions paid to top staff including family members”
– “fabricated sales, made up monthly numbers”
– “silencing of those questioning the recording of figures”
– “compounded by a head office in Tokyo that was focused on its own issues”
– “sales at any cost”
– 70% of the contracts having inappropriate revenue accounting
– $30 million of sales in 2015 “simply made up”
– Former division CEO had base salary of $740,000 with bonus of $420,000
– “regular $1000+ lunches”
– “family trips on $43,000 of company money”
– Salaries that were “triple the industry average”
– Top sales person made $1.1 million per year ($800,000 of commissions)
– Son of the CEO made $740,000 per year
– Losses to shareholder equity of $341 million after revenue was overstated by $450 million
RISO launches new production print system
– Announced that at the upcoming PRINT 17 show in Chicago, IL (9/10-14/17) will launch the new RISO T2 production color ink jet system
– Is actually two RISO inkjet engines bolted together, so that device can provide 320 impressions per minute (or 160 duplexed pages per minute)
– Uses piezo crystal print head technology developed by Olympus
– Aimed at the transpromo market for variable data production
– Pricing not announced
Ricoh to display at large legal vertical show
– Ricoh announced it plans for the upcoming ILTACON show for law firms, to be held at Mandalay Bay Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV
– Will conduct a breakout session entitled “Windows 10 Features to Love or Hate”
– Will have speakers from its managed IT services division, named “MindShift”
Ricoh sues former employees
– Filed lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Utah against former branch employees, Shelly Muller, Richard Muller and Todd Bennett
– The three apparently left Ricoh Salt Lake City, UT to form a new Kyocera dealership in Salt Lake City, Utah, named Associated Business Technologies LLC., and went after the local Ricoh branch customers and employees
– Claims that they formed new dealership while still working for Ricoh
o Falsely represented new dealership as an authorized Ricoh dealer
o Acquiring parts and supplies from Ricoh dealer in Colorado
– Hearing is scheduled for 9/28/17
Dealer makes two acquisitions
– Automated Business Systems, headquartered in Warwick, Rhode Island, announced it has acquired the following companies:
o DataNet, headquartered in Rhode Island, is a managed IT services firm
o Office Equipment Center, headquartered in Plantsville, Connecticut
o Will resell products from Canon, Kyocera, Lexmark & Sharp
Xerox to ship new color MFPs
– Launched the Versalink C7020, C7025, C7030 series
o All made by Fujifilm
o Top speeds of 20ppm, 25ppm and 30ppm respectively
o Use 4 tandem OPC drum design
o White plastic exterior with dark blue accents
o
All are color LED (light emitting diode) A3 devices
o Advertised as offering 1200x2400dpi
o Max duty cycle of 129,000/month on C7030
o 9 second first color copy out time
o Document feeder holds up to 110 originals
§ Scans both sides of original at same time
§ Top speed of 55ipm
o Comes standard with 100 sheet bypass and 520 sheet paper drawer
§ With options can increase paper capacity to 5,140 sheets
o Finishing options including stapling, hole punch and bookletmaking
o Optional fax boards with up to 3 lines
o 7” color touchscreen LCD display
§ Come equipped with “ConnectKey” ability for apps in the control panel
§ Comes standard with scan to Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and DropBox
o Built-in print controller (actual maker unknown)
§ 320GB hard drive comes standard with data security features
§ 4GB RAM
§ 1.05GHz processor
§ 10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports
§ Built-in OCR board
§ PCL and XPS print drivers standard
Optional PostScript print driver
– Launched the Versalink C605
o made by Fujifilm
o Top speed of 55ppm
o Use 4 tandem OPC drum design
o White plastic exterior with dark blue accents
o
All are color LED (light emitting diode) A4 devices
o Advertised as offering 1200x2400dpi
o Max duty cycle of 120,000/month
o 7 second first color copy out time
o Document feeder holds up to 100 originals
§ Scans both sides of original at same time
o Comes standard with 150 sheet bypass and 550 sheet paper drawer
§ With options can increase paper capacity to 2,700 sheets
o Optional stapling finisher
o Optional fax boards with up to 3 lines
o 7” color touchscreen LCD display
§ Come equipped with “ConnectKey” ability for apps in the control panel
§ Comes standard with scan to Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and DropBox
o Built-in print controller (actual maker unknown)
§ 250GB hard drive comes standard with data security features
§ 4GB RAM
§ 1.05GHz processor
§ 10/100/1000BaseT & USB ports
§ Built-in OCR board
§ PCL, PS and XPS print drivers standard
Xerox wins production print contract
– Award from Ithaca College of New York, for its copy center (CRD)
– Used to produce; course packs, postcards, name tags, recruitment materials, tuition billing paperwork and programs for football games
– Included Rochester Software Associates WebCRD, Xerox iGen 150 production color laser system, Xerox Color 800 production color laser, Xerox 125 production b/w
Xerox now offers white toner for PPS
– Announced new option for its iGen5 production color laser systems
– The 5th toner station can now contain white toner
– For use with colored stocks and transparent substrates
– Applications include brochures, business cards, greeting cards, invitations, point-of-sale signage, direct mail postcards, letters, book covers, packaging
Xerox exec discusses data security
– Interview Dr. Alissa Johnson, Xerox’s Chief Information Security Officer, by CSO (Chief Security Officer) magazine
– Formerly a member of the Obama administration
– When asked about the data security of its MFPs:
o Xerox’s “value proposition around security really is in 4 different areas; prevent, protect, detect and external partnership”
o “When you buy a Xerox device or buy into one of our offerings, we are bringing that partnership (with McAfee) with us”
o “We can detect when the configurations on the printer have changed”
o “We can detect when something has happened that does not look like the norm, that’s not baseline”
o “We can detect when something is heard, and then the device or offering will send us alerts or send the customer alerts”
o “We can whitelist and detect when malicious software is trying to be added into the system. This is all through our partnership with McAfee”
o “We have a very solidified incident response program”
o “We align to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISO 27001”
– When asked about threat of hackers and the Dark Web:
o “That is what the dark web is all about. It’s about ‘Hey, you don’t have to write this piece of code. Buy it for $2.99 or go to another site. It’s probably for free’”
o “Hackers don’t even have to know how to code. They don’t have to know much of anything, because the dark web has it all”
Flexprint hires former IKON executive
– Flexprint, a managed print services dealership (Lanier & HP), headquartered in Mesa, Arizona, announced it has hired Tom Callinan as president
– Mr. Callinan formerly had a regional executive position with IKON, before leaving to become a managed print services consultant to the dealer community, and author
– He will report to CEO, Frank Gaspari
– Flexprint, along with 4 other dealerships in Arizona, is owned by Oval Partners of San Francisco, CA
– Flexprint also claims to now have MPS contracts with 25 of the top AM Law listed law firms in the U.S.
Hyland Software wins ECM contract
– Award from the New Mexico Military Institute of Roswell, NM
– Installed its OnBase ECM solution in the admissions, registrar and financial aid departments
Mopria promotes printing from mobile
– The Mopria Alliance, consisting of all the major printer/MFP hardware vendors, launched a “Tap to Print” contest for developers of apps for Android-based mobile smartphones and tablets
– Purpose was to provide consumers with more reasons to print from these devices
– Apps that won prizes include; Business Docs Viewer, Floor Plan Creator, ImageMeter, MDScan, Zoho Invoice, Lifestyle, ArtFlow, Baby Daybook, Cookbook Recipes,, Offline Survival Manual and Sansaver Coupons
– The Mopria Print Service is available for download from Google Play
– Claims that it has more than 644 million installations and 378 active users
Copier dealer ERP vendor sells out
– ECi Software Solutions announced it was acquired by Apax Partners of New York and London, England
– ECi is provider of the popular eAutomate and FMAudit software for office equipment dealers in the U.S.
– Apax will merge ECi with another company it owns, Exact Software
– Headquarters of combined firm will be in Fort Worth, Texas
Kyocera offers new security solution
– Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company) launched new SecureAudit solution
– For its MFPs that are equipped with HyPAS capability (for integrated apps)
– Pricing not announced
– Scans device status against security benchmarked criteria
– Produces a diagnostic report:
o Open ports
o Protocols
o Default admin passwords
o Authenticated user accounts
o Job boxes
o Installed apps
o USB status
Production printing on wood?
– A company named Masterpiece Graphix, headquartered in Fenton, Missouri, launched new products for use in production print systems
– The sheets are made from real wood and available in13”x19” size
– Sheets are 14 point thickness and white backer
– Available in light maple or cherry wood
– Claims the media is compatible with the following presses:
o HP Indigo select models
o Xerox iGen and ColorPress 800 or 1000
o Ricoh Aficio Pro C910, C7100 series and C9100 series
Industry consultant firm/publisher turmoil
– The Recycler magazine is reporting that Meritus Ventures will “repossess and sell the assets of the Photizo Group following defaults on loans and interest payments of more than $4 million leaving former employees and the owners of Lyra Research high and dry”
o Photizo is a publisher for the office equipment industry, as well as a analyst and consultant for managed print services industry
o Was founded in 2004, and in 2012 acquired Lyra Research
o Apparently, Meritus plans to sell the assets of Photizo to Virtulytix Inc., a new company set up by Photizo Group founder and CEO, Ed Crowley and employees of Photizo.
o Other current and former Lyra employees are said to stand to lose more than $2 million and “are seeking to get an injunction filed to prevent the repossession and sale”
– Virtulytix stated the following will be new management:
o Scott Hornbuckle = president
o Mario Diaz = VP
o Ron Iverson = VP
o Nameeta Raj = analytics
o Allison Zhang = analytics
o Mike Huster = Project Management Director
o Eric Crowley = Senior Data Engineer
EFI is subject of lawsuit
– Law360 magazine reports that a shareholder class-action lawsuit was filed in New Jersey federal court against Electronics for Imaging
– The lawsuit claims that EFI “deceived investors by failing to inform them of faulty accounting practices”
o “deceived investors by not disclosing problems with EFI’s tally of certain large print sales, leading to a 45% drop in the company’s share price after news of the internal investigation became public”
o “certain transactions where a customer signed a sales contract for one or more large format printers and was invoiced, and the printers were stored at a third party in transit warehouse prior to delivery to the end user”
Managed print services market growth
– Report published by MarketsandMarkets
– Claims that the total managed print services market will grow to $50.78 billion by the year 2023
– Claims total value of MPS market in 2016 was $28.40 billion
– CAGR (cumulative annual growth rate) of 8.51%
– Cloud based deployment will hold the maximum market share
3D printers vulnerable to hackers?
– According to Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Georgia Tech, these devices are being accessed by hackers to cause defects when printing drugs, auto parts and infrastructure
o “They (3D printers) will be attractive targets because 3D-printed objects and parts are used in critical infrastructures around the world, and cyberattacks may cause failures in health care, transportation, robotics, aviation and space,” said
Saman Aliari Zonouz, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
– University engineers announced they have devised 3 ways to combat cyberattacks on 3-D printers: by monitoring printer motion and sounds and using tiny gold nanoparticles.
– The researchers observed the motion of the extruder, using sensors, and monitored sounds made by the printer via microphones.
– Tiny gold nanoparticles, acting as contrast agents, are injected into the filament and sent with the 3D-print design to the printing facility. Once the object is printed and shipped back, high-tech scanning reveals whether the nanoparticles (a few microns in diameter) have shifted in the object or have holes or other defects.
HP wins huge production print contract
– Award from Shutterfly, one of the largest online commercial printers in the U.S.
– adding a second phase of 20 HP Indigo 12000 production color systems on top of the 25 already installed
– named HP as its “preferred digital press provider”
– will use to produce photo books, calendars, custom stationery, cards and keepsakes
– reasons given by Dwayne Black, SVP and COO of Shutterfly include:
o “HP Indigo digital presses set the industry standard for quality, and after our successful HP press installs last year, we’re delighted to complete the second phase of upgrading our printing fleet. Through this initiative we’re further raising the quality we deliver to customers in time for the holidays this year, helping us deliver on our happiness guarantee.”
Brother launches auto fulfillment program
– Unveiled new “Refresh” program to provide replacement ink cartridge or toner cartridge to consumers’ doorstep
– Especially equipped Brother printers and MFPs detect when device is running low on supplies and automatically ships replacement item
– Consumer sets up subscription online for autobill when item ships
– Offers free shipping on orders over $20, and 10% discount off Brother’s online “Mall” pricing.
IDC study on fax usage
– 88% of business executives expect fax usage to grow or remain steady for next 12 years
– 50% expect fax usage to grow
– 38% expect fax usage to remain steady
– Healthcare vertical executives expect that fax usage will grow 25%
Another MFP patent troll?
– OpenPrint LLC announced it filed 3 patent infringement claims in the U.S. District Court of Delaware
– Companies sued include HP, Okidata and Panasonic
– OpenPrint, headquartered in Texas, is run by Adam Baumli and Jason Bourgeois
– Claims that patents infringed upon include inkjet print technology and fax-to-email features
