Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Tidbits

- Toshiba released results of survey on office stress: o 40% cite malfunctioning technology as their number one office complaint (such as laptop that freezes, print that refuses to print, etc.) o 62% find office work stressful o 52% believe that dealing with malfunctioning technology takes away from other work responsibilities o 25% say they missed deadline due to technology failure o 57% believe that boss would accept a technology failure as a legitimate excuse for missed deadline o Tablet PC user are the least likely to “cut the cord” after work hours, and most likely to be stressed ********************************************************************************** - According to survey conducted by Lyra Research, last year MFPs captured 63% of the print volume in the office environment, with the remaining 37% of the volume produced on print-only devices. ********************************************************************************** - According to Gizmodo magazine, HP is putting in less ink into their inkjet cartridges. Apparently, one of its reporters took three cartridges, dated 2010, 2011 and 2012, hacksawed each one open, and the hydrophobic ink sponges inside are significantly smaller in the 2012 version as compared to previous years, even though the exterior of the cartridges are the same size. ********************************************************************************** - Panasonic reported a $5.49 billion fiscal fourth quarter loss. ********************************************************************************** - Sharp announced it is replacing its U.S. CEO, Kozo Takahashi, with Toshiyuki Osawa. Mr. Osawa previously was in charge of operations in China. Mr. Takahashi has been reassigned to role as Executive VP in Japan. ********************************************************************************** - Toshiba’s CEO announced a 63% drop in net profit. According to some industry authors, this may result in layoffs this year. ********************************************************************************** - According to Research & Markets Inc., the global document management solutions market will reach $2.4 billion by 2015. ********************************************************************************** - Healthcare GPOs pass audit again. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its latest analysis of the healthcare group purchasing organizations and found: o “found no evidence of anticompetitive GPO behavior” o the GPO model delivers significant annual cost savings to American hospitals, Medicare and Medicaid, and taxpayers ********************************************************************************** - Results of data security survey conducted by Symantec: o 81% increase in malicious attacks o number of vulnerabilities fell by 20% o number of unique malware variants jumped to 403 millioin o number of web attacks increased by 36% ********************************************************************************** - Billentis Research published results of a survey: o 45-65% of all companies supply goods or services to the public sector (government agencies) o electronic invoicing will be up 30% in 2012 o only 18% of invoicing is electronic o globally, only 5% of invoices are sent electronically o 10-15% of invoices require a reminder o 10% of manually entered invoice data contains an error o the average invoice is copied 6 times **********************************************************************************

Monday, May 7, 2012

Tidbits

- Standard Register announced that its seven regional printing centers have received G7 Master Printer Qualifications. G7’s goal is to provide consistent, high quality color output. *********************************************************************************************** - Heidelberg’s CEO, Bernhard Schreier, in an interview, stated that the offset press industry decline is over, and that the industry will be able to defend marketshare from digital competitors. “Digital print makers now have about 10% of the market by print volume, and this shouldn’t rise to more than 20%.” *********************************************************************************************** - According to Futuresource Consulting, worldwide tablet PC sales will reach 232 million units in 2016, up from 64 million units in 2011. *********************************************************************************************** - Sharp’s stock price fell 9.3% to its lowest in 33 years, after forecasting a wider than expected net loss of $376 million. *********************************************************************************************** - Kodak, as part of if bankruptcy plan, announced it will eliminate another 140 workers in Rochester, NY. o The company has already spent $94 million on severance packages this year. o Mr. Pradeep Jotwani, president of the Kodak consumer division, has left the company *********************************************************************************************** - Nuance, maker of eCopy, announced management changes: o Michael Rich now SVP and GM of Document Imaging Division (was CEO of Equitrac, before it was acquired by Nuance) o company claims to have 50,000 Equitrac customers o Robert Weideman is now in charge of Enterprise division o both report to Paul Ricci, CEO *********************************************************************************************** - WebMD announced results of a survey of physicians in the U.S.: o 52% believe that ACOs (accountable care organizations, which will be required by Obamacare) will cause them to suffer a decline in income o 12% believe that ACOs will not have an effect o 3% currently participate in an ACO o 66% are not impressed with the law’s goal of reducing “unnecessary care” -have no plans on reducing number of tests, procedures and treatment they perform as they feel need to practice “defensive medicine” due threat of a malpractice lawsuit o 46% will discuss issue of costs of treatments if patients ask o 38% regularly discuss costs with patients o 16% never discuss costs because they think it is inappropriate ************************************************************************************************ - Health Affairs magazine research finds that small, non-teaching, and rural hospitals are slow to install EHRs: o only 26.6% of all hospitals surveyed had EHRs ************************************************************************************************ - Medscape published results of study of how many hours per week is spent on paperwork by physicians: o 53% say 1-4 hours - 5% say 20-24 hours o 13% say 5-9 hours - 13% say more than 25 hours o 10% say 10-14 hours o 5% say 15-19 hours ************************************************************************************************

Monday, April 30, 2012

Tidbits

-Sharp posted its biggest-ever annual loss of $4.67 billion for last fiscal year. o expects to earn operating profit of $248 million in 2012 o “The tough environment will continue for us” said Tetsuo Onishi, Sharp’s GM in charge of finance. o hopes to offset continued losses with earnings from selling washing machines and other household appliances ************************************************************************************************ - Xerox gave out details of its first quarter’s financials: o total revenue up 1% to $5.5 billion o first quarter net income fell 4% o earned $269 million, down from $281 million a year earlier o total costs and expenses rose 1% to $5.19 billion o gross margin fell to 31% from 33% o services revenue up 10% o document outsourcing (FM) revenue up 7% o copier/print hardware, service & supplies revenue down 5% caused by “weak macro environment” o services revenue now represents more than half the total revenue IT services now 51%, copier/printer division = 45% Ursula Burns said; “We’re making a seismic shift in our business” from selling hardware to offering services o plans on buying back $900 million of its stock o spent $22 million on severance packages for 500 laid off employees ************************************************************************************************ - Canon’s EVP and CFO, Toshizo Tanaka, gave out details of its first quarter’s financials: o Total sales down 1.2% (all division, including cameras, LCDs, etc.) gross profit as a percentage of net sales declined 1.2% operating profit up 0.2% net income increased 11% o net sales of copiers decreased 1.8% printer hardware unit sales decreased 13% print consumable sales decreased 9% net sales of other printing devices decreased 14.9% MFP/printer division net sales decreased 8.9% • operating profit decreased 16.2% • operating profit ratio declined by 1% “we will further strengthen our product lineup and enhance our sales network boosting our corporation with leading IT vendors, and further accelerating synergies with Oce’” net sales of copiers are projected to increase 7.8% in 2012 “we lowered our full year projection for printer units sales from flat to minus 4%” operating profit projected to decrease 6.3% ************************************************************************************************ - Ricoh announced that it fell into a net loss in the last fiscal year for the first time since the company was listed. o reported a net loss of 44.6 billion yen (had a profit of 19.6 billion yen the year previous) o operating loss of 18.1 billion yen o revenue down to 1.8 trillion yen o predicts new fiscal year will produce net profit of 33 billion yen o Currect CEO of Ricoh Americas, Kevin Togashi, is returning to Japan, and replaced by Martin Brodigan, formerly CFO. ************************************************************************************************ - Lexmark gave out details on its first quarter financials: o total revenue down to $992 million from $1.034 billion last year o GAAP (generally accepted account principles) revenue of $992 million, down from $993 million a year earlier o hardware revenue down 9% o inkjet revenue down 34% o supplies revenue down 4% o gross profit margin was up to 38.4% versus 37.6% last year o operating expense up to $292 million o operating income margin of 9%, down from 10.9% o software revenue up 10% o net income fell to $61 million from $83 million o net cash was $92 million o expects revenue to decline 7-9% o will lay off 625 employees in 2012 o claims to have 16% of the worldwide A4 laser market ************************************************************************************************ - Kyocera made following announcement during its recent national dealer meeting in Las Vegas: o will focus on offering solutions for the Education, Healthcare, Financial Services vertical markets o total company’s net profit fell 32.3% to 82.9 billion yen during last fiscal o operating profit fell 32.3% to 105.58 billion yen o total sales down 6% to 1.19 trillion yen o copier division had 10% higher sales in U.S. than previous year, which is 50% less than forecast oforecast for 2012 is 15% more sales than 2011 o will launch 16 new printers and MFPs this year o within next 36 months, will launch 56 new products total o will launch an “app store” for offering embedded applications o First MFPs using biomass based toner will launch in June, 2012 o promoted that its new color MFPs have 3 meters (one for b/w, one for full color and one for only 2% color), and claims that this will allow its dealers to market a 2 cent per page color click charge ************************************************************************************************

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Konica Minolta Wins Green Apple Award


Konica Minolta Wins Prestigious Environmental Award in UK
- Green Apple Award in Recognition of Innovative Program to Assist Environmentally Considerate Offices -

Tokyo (November 28, 2011) - Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd. (Konica Minolta UK) located in Basildon, Essex, the UK office equipment and production print system sales subsidiary of Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. (Konica Minolta BT), has won the prestigious Green Apple Award in recognition of its innovative environmental project, "OPS* Green Audit Process."

The Green Apple Awards are organized by the Green Organisation, an independent, non-profit environment group dedicated to promoting environmental conservation. The aim of the Green Apple Awards is to recognize, reward and promote environmental best-practice. Konica Minolta's awards submission for the OPS Green Audit Process was considered by a panel of judges against criteria including environmental benefit, innovation and economic benefit. The Award was presented at a recent ceremony held in the House of Commons, Westminster, London.

As part of the OPS Green Audit Process, Konica Minolta aims to reduce customer print fleets and volumes by installing improved efficiency devices, to reduce the environmental impact of customers' document production, with the consequent benefit of reducing operating costs. Customer businesses typically do not have the in-house skills or knowledge to ascertain their current environmental performance. Following a successful OPS Green Audit Process, Konica Minolta UK can calculate the amount of energy, paper and toner used by customer devices. From this information, Konica Minolta UK is able to determine the amount of carbon dioxide generated. The project is a holistic approach to the customers' document workflow needs, encompassing every facet of the process, including environmental impact, as part of the company's customer intimate approach.

In 2009, Konica Minolta UK received the Green Apple Award for its efforts with local communities on an educational program to enhance environmental awareness of children in the region. Additionally Konica Minolta UK was chosen as a "Green Hero 2010" by the Green Organisation, the special honor reserved for previous Green Apple Award winners that go the extra mile for environmental commitment and awareness.

The Konica Minolta Group's long-term environmental vision, Eco Vision 2050, declares the Group's intention to reach certain goals by the year 2050 to fulfill its responsibility as a global corporation by contributing to a sustainable earth and human societies. Aiming to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through the product life cycle by 80 percent compared to 2005 levels, the Konica Minolta Group has been implementing innovative initiatives worldwide.

To learn more about Konica Minolta's environmental initiatives, please visit
http://www.konicaminolta.com/about/csr/

*OPS (Optimized Print Services): Konica Minolta's service set in which we undertake the comprehensive operation of the customer's office equipment and deliver printing optimization solutions that result in the best technology deployments for the conditions at hand and increase operation efficiency.

Names, logos, brands and other trademarks referred to in this release are the property of their respective trademark holders.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Back after a brief hiatus

It's been a little over seven months since my last blog of any sort and frankly I am glad those seven months are behind me. A lot of things have happened over those seven months that have kept me very very busy and unable to have much time for much else. But now, the dust has settled and it's time for a refresh. I've changed responsibilities at Konica Minolta and while I will once again start up my "Tidbits" segment, as the new Optimized Print Specialist for the Auburn Hills, Michigan branch there will definitely be a more focused look at managed print services and it's benefits and more news of this segment of the industry. So with that said, Hello all! It's good to be back!!!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Tidbits


- Secret Service agents arrested 8 people in Minnesota for making fake $100 bills with color copier and attempting to sell them to an undercover agent. The ringleader was Vincent D. Tampio.

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- Xerox announced it won a contract from Cisco Corp.
o managed print services contract
o 460 locations
o Goal of 20% cost reduction
o Implemented automated behavior modification popups
o Includes proximity card authentication

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- DocuWare, maker of document management software, announced that they are moving to a cloud-based product only.
o This means that their goal is to only market their product as a monthly subscription, and support would be on-line and/or over the phone from DocuWare Corp..
o Some dealers have complained as this business model greatly reduces profits, as compared to a large one time sale of software and possibly hardware
o Instead of on going revenue stream from on-site support from dealer service technicians/specialists, the DocuWare captures aftermarket revenue, and only pays a spiff to dealer

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- Kodak, which announced that last quarter it lost $179 million, is suing Apple and Research In Motion for $1 billion. Kodak hopes to secure a $1billion licensing deal regarding a patent it owns that it claims is used illegally in the Apple iPhone and the RIM Blackberry cell phone.

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- Lexmark reported its last quarter’s financials:
o total revenue up 1% to 1.04 billion
o Net income declined 0.9% to $344 million
o Debt climbed 44% to $649 million
o Gross profit margin was 39.6%
o Operating income margin of 13.2%
o Supplies revenue up 3%
o Hardware revenue declined 9%
o Software revenue up 33% (result of acquiring Perceptive imageNOW document management software company)

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- Canon gave out more details on its inability to supply some models due to impact of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami:
o 2000 and 5000 series of color imageRUNNER ADVANCE models in short supply
o 6000 series of b/w imageRUNNER ADVANCE models in short supply
o 1025 desktop model in short supply
o Biggest challenge is the third party company which made ASICs (applied set instruction chips) which are the “brains” of the above models, was severely impacted by the earthquake in northern Japan
o Canon’s leasing division, called Canon Financial Services, is now selling used models from lease returns to Canon dealers to help fill demand

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- Xerox announced that it has hired former President of Kyocera Mita USA, Mike Pietrunti, as VP of Acquisitions for its Global division to replace the retiring Paul Schulman. Mike will report to Tom Salierno.

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- According to a survey conducted by PC Advisor magazine, the number one use for color printers at home is to print out photos/posters, or 88% of respondents.

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- Hewlett Packard announced that it is exploring either a spinoff or the sale of its personal computer division. IT will also apparently abandon efforts to sell tablets or smartphones that compete with Apple.
o The PC division has revenue of $9.59 billion, but not very profitable (only 5%) as it struggled to compete against Asian manufacturers
o Will take recently spent $1.2 billion to buy Palm Inc. to add to this division
o Had grown the PC division in the past by spending $25 billion to buy Compaq

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Monday, August 15, 2011

Tidbits


-According to Coopers & Lybrand study:
o U.S. businesses generate more than 4 trillion paper documents
o Documents are proliferating at annual rate of 22% or 880 billion per year
o Out of every 100 documents created per week, 7.5 of them will be lost
o Average cost to recreate document, primarily payroll cost, is $220 each
o Average misfile rate of 3.5%
o Average cost per misfiled document of $120 to find them

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- A former employee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mr. Marque Gumbs, was sentenced for up to 7.5 years in prison for ordering $1.2 million worth of printer/copier toner cartridges, stealing them, and then reselling them over Internet.

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- Even though KPMG just won a $9.2 million contract from the federal government to conduct 150 HIPAA audits at unsuspecting healthcare facilities in the U.S. by end of 2012, KPMG itself apparently caused a HIPAA breach.
o A KPMG employee lost an unencrypted flash drive while working at Saint Barnabas Health Care System of West Orange, NJ
o The breach may impact over 4,500 patients
o Also includes patients from Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey

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- A federal judge refused to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed against Hewlett Packard. Lead plaintiff, Chaim Kowalsky, claims that HP knowingly markets desktop MFPs that have defective document feeders. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh found that the plaintiff raised a “plausible interference” that HP knew about the defect, rejecting HP’s motion to dismiss.

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- Business Solutions magazine gave out its annual Best Channel Products awards, based on feedback of VARs (computer valued added resellers):
o DMS category:
Computhink ViewWise
Hyland OnBase
o Document capture software:
AnyDoc
Kodak Capture Pro 2.5
o Desktop AIOs:
Canon imageRUNNER 1023
HP LaserJet Pro CM1415
o Desktop Scanners:
Canon imageFORMULA ScanFront 300P
Fujitsu ScanSnap fi-6010N
o Production Scanners:
Canon imageFORMULA DR-7550C

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- Hitachi Chief Executive, Hiroaki Nakanishi told issued a statement denying that the company was in talks to merge with Mitsubishi. Hitachi has annual revenue of 9 trillion yen, while Mitsubishi has revenue of 3 trillion yen per year.

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-Quark Inc., maker of the popular QuarkXPress digital color page layout and design publishing software, announced it has been purchased by Platinum Equity. (Quark’s main competition is Adobe inDesign)

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- Buck Consultants, a division of Xerox, announced results of survey of impact of upcoming new healthcare legislation:
o 75% believe healthcare costs will rise
o 43% expect a significant rise in healthcare costs
o 90% will pass increased costs on to their employees
o 28% are considering eliminating healthcare benefits for their employees due to rising costs

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- Hewlett Packard won a dismissal of a lawsuit filed against the company by some of its former sales people who claimed that were denied thousands of dollars in commissions due to a faulty billing system. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that the reps did not have sufficient evidence that HP’s Omega system caused the company to deny commissions or pay them late.

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-According to data security survey of IT managers conducted by Somaini Research:
o 82% feel culture change is most important part of data security plan
o 67% feel that they do not currently have a culture of security
o 86% believe that they do not have enough funds and/or staff to accomplish security
o 67% believe their people do not have skills to get security job done
o 33% have not created a formal report on security risk to C suite
o 53% have not had security level goal conversation with C suite
o 55% do not communicate monthly with employees about security
o 48% see malware as a significant threat

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- In a recent article, Larry Dignan of Ziff Davis Publications, predicts that current stock market issues will negatively impact spending on IT hardware:
o “Juniper Networks seeing economic hiccups”
o “Cisco seeing warning signs amid its own execution issues”
o “Forrester Research was ready to cut its IT spending forecast”
o Qualcomm has 50.9 days of inventory
o AU Optronics, maker of LCD panels, has 45.9 days of inventory
o Contract equipment manufacturers, Flextronics, Sanmina-SCI, Jabil and others all have high inventory levels
o Retailers and distributors – Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Best Buy all have inventory levels that are “lofty”
o Cell phone makers, Nokia, RIM and Motorola have high inventory levels

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- Copier data security in the news again. The National Retail Federation magazine published an article stating:
o “nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive, much like the one on your personal computer….these drives store images of every document copied, scanned, or emailed from the machine…add the network component and now your current systems may be exposed?
o “millions of copiers and printers in thousands of companies worldwide are ripe targets for cyber-thieves”

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- Monroe, Michigan police arrested two men in their 20s, 18 year old woman, and a 16 year old boy, for allegedly making fake $20, $50 and $100 dollar bills using a color copier.

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