Sharp’s president holds press conference:
- On 2/3/2015 in Tokyo, Japan, Kozo Takahashi bowed his head and apologized to investors for company’s poor performance
- Announced that company will slide back into the red
- Cut its full year earnings guidance for 2nd time in 10 months
- Forecasting a group net loss of $255 million for FY2014
- “I believe it is my responsibility to compile a new business plan as soon as possible”
- “We are aware that this is an extremely serious situation”
- The forecast loss will leave the company falling short on an earlier pledge to its creditors to remain profitable this year
- Company received a bailout in 2012 worth over $4 billion from banks
- According to Nikkei Business Daily, Sharp’s top executives would take pay cuts of as much as 55%, “a common act of atonement in Japan”
Judge rules against Ricoh settlement:
- According to Law360 magazine, Federal Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox of New York refused to sign off on $325,000 settlement proposed by lead plaintiff
- lawsuit filed against the copier maker by 400 of its technicians in regards to overtime pay.
- The judge stated that it “was substantially unfair and that not enough details were provided”
Ricoh reports on earnings:
- Reported on financial results for the past 9 months of its fiscal year
- Net sales up 3% to 1,629.8 billion yen
- Profit up 20.6% to 52.3 billion yen
- Production print unit sales up 6.6% to 137.9 billion yen
- MFP unit sales up 2.8% to 1,105.7 billion yen
- B/w MFPs down 18%
- Color MFPs up 6%
- B/w printers up 4%
- Color printers down 4%
- Network system solution sales up 1.9% to 208.7 billion yen
Ricoh wins contract from Madera County, CA:
- Originally had 400 standalone output devices
- Contract will save county $1.5 million per year
- Will save $41,753/year on equipment leasing costs
- $50,220/year on fleet maintenance costs
- Estimated yield savings of 34% over the cost associated with existing models
- Copy costs reduced 50%
- Contract included new Ricoh MFPs to replace printers
- Laserfiche ECM integration to MFPs
Ricoh claims it has first “Legal MFP”:
- At last week’s LegalTech show in New York, the company launched its “Legal MFP”
- Users can scan directly into DMS (document management system) such as iManage, WorldDox and OpenText solutions
- Automatically splits document files to court-specified file size limits and converts them into appropriate file format
- No other specifications or pricing published
Ricoh wins contract from Allegra:
- Allegra is a network of 270 commercial franchise print locations
- Contract won is for the Avanti Slingshot, a web-to-print and print MIS solution
- Ricoh is a reseller of Avanti solutions
Ricoh wins contract from Alphagraphics:
- Placed a Ricoh Aficio Pro C901 production color system
- Installed at Alphagraphics location in Kansas City, MO
Adobe Corp. completes acquisition:
- Acquired Fotolia, provider of stock photography
- Will incorporate into Adobe Creative Cloud subscription
- Purchase price not announced
OKI Electrics (aka Okidata) reports on earnings:
- Reported on its last quarter’s performance
- Net sales increased by 39.1 billion yen
- Net income up by 4.9 billion yen
- Printer/MFP sales up from 89.2 billion yen to 94.5 billion yen (now supplies product that Toshiba puts its name on)
- Operating income up from 1.3 billion yen to 5.8 billion yen
- Color LED based product sales up from 53.5 billion yen to 57.9 billion yen
- B/W LED based product sales totaled 23.6 billion yen
Okidata to showcase its MFPs at CEA show:
- At the Texas Computer Education Association, which is for the education vertical
- Will demonstrate products that offer optional white toner
- Show is in Austin, TX
School district trying to eliminate printers, caves in to teacher complaints:
- Orange County Public schools of Florida had originally ordered all desktop printers out of classrooms due to high cost per page (as compared to MFPs on campus)
- Teacher complaints resulted in a story about the removal order appeared in local newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel
- The school board then met and decided to provide 261 desktop printers to teachers who wanted them, and pay for the operational costs
Xerox fined $177,000 by State of Texas:
- The state of Texas Department of Transportation had awarded a $100 million contract to handle customer service and the TxTag website which manages the state’s toll roads
- The state imposed the fine after many residents in the state complained of receiving incorrect bills, and not able to resolve with Xerox customer service agents.
Xerox wins PPS contract:
- places two new iGen150 production color systems
- also Nuvera 314 and 4112 production b/w systems
- sold to Potts Print, a commercial printer in England
- will be used to produce variable data direct mail and on demand books
Hewlett Packard moves customers from direct:
- HP’s security solutions division announced it has reviewed the account list that was assigned to its direct channel
- It has decided to move 4,500 accounts from direct to the VAR channel, allowing independent dealers to work the accounts.
- “The mindset here was to go it alone and not give any points to partners. We are eliminating that” stated HP executive.
HP has employee strike overseas:
- More than 3000 employees at Hangzhou, China plant went on strike
- Employees are opposed to plans to restructure the division
- The division makes servers for enterprise market
HP increases pay of its CEO, Meg Whitman:
- First two years as CEO, she was paid $1 per year
- Last year paid a combined $19.6 million in stock, salary and bonuses
- Base salary $1.5 million
HP wins PPS contracts:
- Sold an Indigo WS6600 production color system to Alpha Labels of Sydney, Australia
- Will be used to produce flexible packaging, sleeves and folding cartons
- Sold an Indigo 10000 production color system to Omega , a commercial printer in new Jersey
- Will be used to produce variable data direct mail, personalized pocket folders, brochures, posters and books
ARC Document Solutions wins MPS contract:
- Won a managed print services contract from Gensler Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, CA
- One of the world’s largest design firms
- 5 year contract
- Includes locations in U.S., Canada, England, UAE and Hong Kong
Xerox agent wins MFP contract:
- Copier Plus, a Xerox agent, announced it won contract from Pulaski County of Indiana
- 5 year contract
- Reason given to not go with past vendor was “experienced hefty overcharges”
Xerox launches new solution:
- Mobility Analytics Platform (MAP) can provide a city-wide picture of transportation operations, including adherence to schedules, passenger loading levels and car park utilization rates
- Will be marketed to city governments
- Pricing not announced
Xerox announces new location:
- Will open a 4,374 square foot location in downtown Detroit, MI
- Will be part of Michigan Office Solutions, a Xerox/Global division, headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI
- MOS president is Ralph Slider
Xerox wins PPS deal:
- Sold a Color J75 production color system to Vale Offset, a commercial printer in South Africa
- Will be used to produce output for hospitality and pharmaceutical vertical customers
- Will print business cards, booklet, and brochures
- Richard Baker, managing partner, stated he chose J75 for its color stability, accuracy and repeatability
Epson to partner with Print Audit:
- Will allow copier dealers who use Print Audit softwaret to connect to some Epson inkjet products
- Will allow dealers to add Epson products to their MPS contracts
Commercial printer changes its name:
- Thomas Reprographics now known as Thomas Printworks
- Headquartered in Dallas, TX
- Has 25 locations in TX, AZ, FL and MN
- “to better describe the complete range of services we offer our clients”
Kodak wins inkjet system contract:
- Sold Kodak Prosper S20 inkjet system to American Litho of Carol Stream, IL
- Commercial printer will use to produce direct marketing, direct mail and packaging output
Kodak announces it wins film contracts:
- Makes motion picture film for entertainment industry
- Contracts won from 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures
Kyocera launched new solution:
- Kyocera DMConnect for its HyPAS equipped MFPs
- Allows MFPs to be onramp for document management solutions
- Apparently is actually a relabeled Nuance eCopy product with OCR
- MSRP of $1219 per device license
EFI wins wide format contract:
- Sold VUTek GS5500lxe Pro LED to Hatteras Printing of Tinton Falls, NJ
- A wide format color UV ink printer
- Up to 5 meter wide output
Toshiba announces management change:
- The Business Solutions Division (BSD) of Toshiba America Information Systems announced that Richard Vaughn is new Director of Channel Sales
- Reporting to CEO, Mark Simons
- Will focus on “customized programs for resellers in segments such as education, healthcare and enterprise”
- This division of Toshiba sells notebook computers, tablets, storage, etc.
Staples announces plan to buy Office Depot:
- The office supply superstore company will pay $6.3 billion
- Combined company will have $39 billion in annual revenue
- Last year, Office Depot had merged with OfficeMax
- Headquarters in Framingham, MA
- Ron Sargent is CEO
Apple may unveil new tablet:
- According to industry observers, Apple will be launching a new product called the Apple iPad Pro
- Will be a larger iPad tablet, and have a stylus
- Aimed at gaining more sales in enterprise applications
- Pricing and launch date not announced
American Express publishes results of survey:
- 45% of consumers said they would pay more if they could be guaranteed better service
- 59% of customers would try a new brand or company for a better service experiences
Radacti Group predicts ECM market:
- ECM stands for Enterprise Content Management solution
- Predicts that market will grow from $5.1 billion in 2013 to $9.3 billion by 2017
- Also projects that cloud resource spending will grow 36% CAGR to reach $19.5 billion by 2016
Police in Ohio on lookout for counterfeiter:
- Chillicothe, OH police received a number of complaints about a man attempting to use fake $20 bills made with a color MFP
- Currency used a local Subway, Tim Hortons and Big Lots locations
Tulane University awards contract:
- University Services, in Louisiana announced it would refresh its fleet of output devices
- Winning vendor unidentified
- b/w printing prices for students to drop from 10 cents per page to 3 cents per page
- Color pages to drop from 70 cents per page to 20 cents per page
- Students would start with $25/month printing allowance, and have option to add more funds
- New devices offer wireless printing
Best Buy to add in-store camera centers:
- A store within a store
- Will be called the “Camera Experience Shop”
- Focus on high end digital cameras with interchangeable lenses
- Products from Nikon, Canon, Sony and others
BLI gives out “Pick” award for cost recovery:
- Winter 2015 award given to SafeQ, the cost recovery solution from Y Soft Inc. of Brno, Czech Republic
- Competes with Nuance Equitrac, Pharos, etc.
- BLI found it to offer an outstanding print management solution
Radio Shack declares bankruptcy:
- Cited debts of $1.39 billion
- Founded in 1921, and has 4000 locations in U.S.
- General Wireless announced it will buy between 1500 to 2400 of the locations
- Sprint will create 1750 stores that will sell combination of Sprint products and Radio Shack goods
JC Penny changes its mind on print:
- Company announced it will return to a printed catalog after a 3 year hiatus
- Realized that online marketing alone was not cutting it
3D Systems wins multi-million dollar contract:
- Award from the Air Force Research Laboratory
- 3D printers will be used to develop advanced aerospace and defense manufacturing
Selling strategies for 3D printing discussed:
- According to ENX magazine, at recent BTA (business technology association), copier dealers discussed how to be successful selling 3D printers
- Speakers included dealer principals who have experienced success and shared their best practices
- Comments included:
- “compared to selling traditional office technology, selling 3D printers requires a different skill set”
- “what is critical is a different level of people for service, including high-level engineers who can talk about the various 3D printing processes”
- “people are excited about the technology, want to talk about it, but most are not going to buy one”
- “There are some who will buy, and what they do buy will be very expensive.”
- “You can have high revenues, but a lower amount of transactions.”
- “It’s prospecting intensive”
- “get rid of the people who aren’t going to buy as soon as possible”
- “It’s a technical sale, which means you must understand materials, CAD, and the vertical you are selling to.”
- “A customer with engineers on staff doing CAD work is your target”
- “There are 20 million CAD seats worldwide with 35% of those in U.S.”
- “80% of the service calls are related to the print process”
- Market is expected to grow between 25%-50% over next 5 years
- Market value to grow to $22 billion in 5 years
- Target vertical markets are:
- Corporations
- education institutions
- government agencies
- healthcare
- Manufacturing
University researcher working on reusable paper:
- Conducted at University of California, Riverside
- The Yin Group and Je Feng of chemistry department
- New paper, either green, blue or red, is comprised of cellulose, titanium and redox dye
- The paper reacts to ultraviolet light by becoming clear
- Allows writing and erasing multiple times using heat
- Can not be used for permanent record as it fades over time
- Focus on high end digital cameras with interchangeable lenses
- Products from Nikon, Canon, Sony and others
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Athenahealth partners with IDN:
- Athenahealth is traditionally known as provider of cloud-based EHRs for ambulatory market
- Now will enter the acute care market (hospital) by partnering with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) of Boston, Massachusetts
- Will also acquire BIDMC’s webORM, a web-based EHR
Cerner completes acquisition:
- The EHR maker announced it has completed its acquisition of the EHR division of Siemens
- The total amount paid is $1.3 billion
- Cerner stated that its 2015 total revenue will be $5 billion
- Has 21,000 employees
- Has budgeted to spend $650 million on R&D
Frost & Sullivan published results of research:
- The total health information system market is valued at $11.1 billion in 2013
- Total market is expected to reach $17.6 billion by 2020, up 58.9%
- Administrative information systems will grow 10.4%
- Financial information systems will grow 9.7%
- Clinical information systems will grow 0.6%
Apple has success with HealthKit:
- Company announced that 14 of the top hospitals have already launch first stages of using the software
- The programs will allow doctors to monitor patients with chronic medical conditions and alert them of first sign of problem
- Will use data from wearers of Apple iWatch, which will launch later this year
Big GPO news, VHA to combine with UHC:
- VHA Inc. (Volunteer Hospitals of America), based in Irving, TX, announced it will combine with UHC (aka University Health Care) of Chicago, IL
- VHA is owner of Novation, one of the country’s largest healthcare GPOs (group purchasing organizations)
- MFP vendors historically on this contract are Ricoh & Xerox
- UHC is an alliance of academic medical centers
- The merger will serve 5,200 hospitals, or 30% of all hospitals nationwide
- $50 billion in purchasing volume
- Serves 118,000 non-acute health care facilities
HIPAA/Data Security update:
- Anthem Insurance (fka WellPoint) announced that hackers broke into the company’s network and accessed the PHI of 80 million individuals, the largest healthcare breach in U.S. history
- University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Group notified 14,000 patients that their PHI was exposed due to hacker breach.
- Harel Chiropractic Clinic of Hudson, WI notified 3000 patients that their PHI was exposed after an employee illegally accessed their info
- Premier Home Health of New York notified 2,700 patients that their PHI was exposed after a laptop computer was stolen from home of a nurse.
- According to research published by the Institute for Health Technology Transformation:
- 39% of data security breaches are caused by lost or stolen mobile devices
- 78% of PHI compromised is from mobile devices
- 41% of healthcare providers do not encrypt their endpoints
- 100% of healthcare providers use laptops
- 86% of healthcare providers use smartphones
- 53% of healthcare providers use tablets
- 32% of healthcare providers work outside of their offices at least once per week
- 80% of healthcare providers use mobile devices to facilitate patient care
- 89% of hospitals provide laptops for their employees
- 47% of hospitals provide tablets for their employees
- 75% of hospital administrators plan on expanding use of mobile devices
- $1 is average selling price on Internet for stolen credit card
- $10-$12 is average selling price on Internet for stolen identiry
- $20-$50 is range of price paid for PHI
- $500 is average price paid for dossier of driver’s license, PHI
- The University of Oregon reported that 22,000 pages of archived records were illegally downloaded by former employees at the library, and some of which landed online.
