Friday, January 9, 2009

FYI : From a Xerox blog

read more at The Future of Documents
"Colleges and universities have been slow in adopting energy-saving techniques, due to their decentralization, and lack of cohesive strategies. A survey found out that “higher-education institutions are less likely than businesses, the K-12 sector, and federal government, to adopt a formal policy to encourage energy efficient buying decisions”. Surprisingly enough, “researchers often resist plans for centralization because they want their servers just down the hall” - although this is usually a population which is quite sensitive to environmental concerns."

Erasable paper, anyone?

Where's the erasable paper?

Read at CRN
here's the important sentence:
“The paper used during printing causes 80 per cent of a laser printer’s environmental impact,” he said.
and then there is:
"Of the brands Printerland stocks, the ones that have especially convincing green claims in Kight’s view include Lexmark, Xerox and Ricoh.

“Ricoh has a very good offering with its wax-based print technology,” he said. “Although Xerox’s solid ink is compelling too. Both companies have unique propositions.”

Ricoh’s gel-based GelSprinters are said to emit less ozone and dust than usual. They also have a mode that reduces the amount of coloured ink used per page.

Xerox’s solid resin-based ink needs no plastic cartridge to contain it, saving on waste.

But it is not all about technology, Kight maintained, with some vendors helping customers reduce waste in other ways. Lexmark helped a bank adopt improved print
management, bringing that company’s cartridge use from 57,000 a year down to 45,600 by re-education."

FYI: Xerox Turnaround Provides Lessons for Obama’s CTO During Economic Downturn

read at techcrunchn
"The New York Times had reported that president-elect Barack Obama would announce a national CTO today, but no one has been named as of yet.

Also unknown is just how much power the new CTO will wield–don’t expect rumours of Steve Jobs to come true if it’s just a powerless propaganda role.

This morning I spoke with Sophie Vandebroek, CTO of Xerox about some of the lessons learned during the Xerox turnaround over the past seven years. (The company turned a net income loss of $300 million in 2000 into a $1.1 billion profit in 2007.)"
. . .
Dr. Sophie Vandebroek is Xerox’s Chief Technology Officer and the President of the Xerox Innovation Group. She was named to this position January 2006, and became a Corporate Vice President in February 2006.

Vandebroek is responsible for overseeing Xerox’s worldwide research centers and for maximizing the company’s returns on investment in research and technology.


Question: When does erasable paper scale? It could be a home run in large organizations. What's holding it up? How can we help?

FYI: Printer Ink Toner Cartridges Cost Rises 3% to 6%

Read PR release "Ink and toner cartridges have shown an increase in price over the past 6 months.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 8, 2009 -- Printer.com, the largest proprietary database of printer ink and toner prices, announced their price indices show most major manufacturers are increasing their retail pricing anywhere from 3% to 6%.

This effects not just one or two manufacturers, but appears to effect all manufacturers. As of September 2008, HP increased the list prices on all Mono and Color LaserJet Print Cartridges by 5%, as well as approximately 5-6% on Inkjet Cartridges. Lexmark and Xerox also raised their pricing on printer supplies in November 2008 with 5% across the board for Lexmark and 3% to 6% for Xerox. Brother, Canon and Oki soon followed suit."

About Printer.com

Websites such as Printer.com have created an online marketplace for consumers to find and compare TCO (total cost of ownership) on more than 1,650 ink and toner cartridges. Their large database does the testing and evaluating for the consumer helping them to make better selections and money saving choices. Free services such as these could be a lifesaver for those who have a large print output each month.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

FYI: Truly The Year of Managed Print Services

from Printer Industry News
-- by Jim Lyons, Senior Consultant, Photizo Group

Photizo Senior Partner Ed Crowley has a great article that appears in the December 2008 edition of The Hard Copy Observer. In the annual Year-in-Review issue, the article, 2008: Truly The Year of Managed Print Services, looks at developments in this fast-growing area of the printing and imaging industry.

A free PDF reprint of the article is available at Photizo's revamped web site, at www.photizogroup.com, or directly from the link above.

Sounds good: Channel-centric message abounds at Xerox annual event

read more at ArabianBusiness.com
"Xerox says that the number of partners that make up its Middle East channel ecosystem has rapidly increased over the last year and in the same period the company has delivered on the promise made to partners at last year’s conference to follow an indirect business model as opposed to a direct sales strategy."

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

To get on someone's radar

The Official Launch of Focus-global.com and 5 Affiliate Websites - The Most Informative Digital Marketing Service Websites in Asia:

"Focus Imaging announced the launch of its corporate website, Focus-global.com, and 5 product websites - Focus-VDP, Focus-EDM, Focus-Webdesign, Focus-SEO and Focus-VHDP, with the aim of providing a full knowledge of digital marketing to local and global enterprises.

Hong Kong (PRWEB) January 7, 2009 -- Focus Imaging, one of the leading digital marketing companies in Asia, today announced the official launch of the Company's new website, Focus-global.com (www.focus-global.com), together with its 5 other service websites, to deliver a full knowledge of digital marketing to businesses from different sectors and prepare them for the new digital era.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Focus Imaging also operates in New York, Taipei and Guangzhou. For more than 13 years, the Company specializes in variable data publishing, email marketing, web design and development, and search engine marketing."

Another voice heard from. . .

Certified HP Printer and Xerox Repair Service Provider Launches Blog - PR.com
"West Chester, PA, January 07, 2009 --(PR.com)-- DocuSense today announced the launch of their exclusive blog, Cost per Page Solutions, located at www.costperpage.com. This strategic internet marketing initiative follows the re-launch of their website, www.docusense.com, last month. The blog was created and launched in response to the growing industry demand for paper-reduction strategies and insight into better print cost management."

What exactly is the relationship between Fuji and the home team?

Fuji Xerox Launches Four New Laser Printers :: News :: www.hardwarezone.com
"Fuji Xerox Printers starts the new year with the launch announcement of its latest A4 monochrome laser printers, the Phaser 3124 and Phaser 3125/N. Intended for the budget-conscious home and SME markets, both printers are capable of printing up to 24 pages-per-minute and boast powerful yet user-friendly features.

The Phaser 3124 is a standalone desktop laser printer, whereas the Phaser 3125/N could be installed in a network environment providing excellent value for small workgroup use. The printers are ideal for individuals or organisations that intend to upgrade from an inkjet printer to a laser printer that will be a better partner at work.

“Given the current economic climate, individuals and/ or organisations are increasingly concerned and cautious in their IT spending yet hoping to achieve higher productivity. With the introduction of the Phaser 3124 and Phaser 3125/N laser printers, our customers can now enjoy printing on a low cost laser printer without compromising on print quality and features,” said Jeffrey Tan, General Manager/ Director, ASEAN, Fuji Xerox Printers."

One for our team: Nurturing the global network

read more at AME INFO
"Under the theme of 'Growth through Partnerships', The Xerox year start event was focused on growth opportunities through the adoption of creative and targeted strategies to market, Xerox & its partners also took the opportunity to celebrate successes and strong performances in 2008, growth in partner networks, and global leadership in the document management arena.

More than 120 Xerox partners from across the MEA markets took part in the conference to review the past year's milestones & market trends as well as hear strategies, focus areas and upcoming technology innovations for 2009. The event was held at the Atlantis Resort, the Palm, in Dubai, UAE."

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Competition: Oce in the UK

From The Print CEO Blog
Andy McCourt said:
If anyone still doubts that we have turned an important corner in the acceptance of high volume, web-feed digital inkjet in the traditional offset/gravure environments; this story just broke on UK’s printweek:
http://www.printweek.com/PrintWeekDaily/News/871167/Polestar-completes-4m-digital-spend-UKs-first-JetStream-2200/?DCMP=EMC-PrintWeekDailyBulletin"

The Competition:Kodak Names Oviedo GM for Worldwide Sales and Customer Operations

Read at QuickPrinting.com
"Kodak Press Release

Eastman Kodak Company has named Gustavo Oviedo as General Manager, Worldwide Sales and Customer Operations. In that role he oversees worldwide sales and customer support for the company’s Consumer Digital Imaging and Graphic Communications Groups. Oviedo is a Kodak vice president.

Oviedo previously was Managing Director for Kodak’s Asia Pacific Region and Managing Director for the Graphic Communications Group for that region. He held the latter role since 2006, when Kodak acquired Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG)."

Xerox Corporation Q3 Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha

Read full Transcript at Seeking Alpha:
"Good morning and welcome to the Xerox Corporation third quarter 2008 earnings release conference call hosted by Ann Mulcahy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. She is joined by Ursula Burns, President, and Larry Zimmerman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

During this call, Xerox's executives will refer to slides that are available on the web at www.xerox.com/investor. At the request of Xerox Corporation, today's conference call is being tape recorded. Other taping and/or rebroadcasting of this call are prohibited without express permission of Xerox. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

During this conference call, Xerox executives will make comments that contain forward-looking statements, which by their nature address matters that are in the future and are uncertain. Actual future financial results may be materially different than those expressed herein.

At this time, I would like to turn the meeting over to Mrs. Mulcahy. Mrs. Mulcahy, you may begin."

Is our team really lean?

from Evolving Excellence
"The featured article on Superfactory in January is a piece by one of the heavyweights of the lean movement, Richard Schonberger, titled The Skinny on Lean Management. His primary point deals with how lean affects sales and marketing, and he decidedly takes traditional accounting to task as well.

Lean management doesn’t resonate in marketing and sales. Nor does it among boards, senior executives and investors. Reasons relate to where lean tends to do most of its work - in operations - and its usual presentation as an attack on waste. Obscured are its much greater potential in the distribution pipelines and its strong customer focus.
What lean does, above all else, is provide quick, flexible response to customer demand. But muddling that message are perverse accounting practices that discourage quick delivery well matched to customer usage.

It was one of his final statements that really surprised me.
Wal-Mart is the world’s grand champion of lean supply chains. While advanced IT gets most of the credit, collaboration is the foundation. Wal-Mart’s 2,000-odd suppliers near the retailer’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters maintain multifunctional teams on site. Daily, along with their Wal-Mart counterparts, they work out pricing, packaging, logistics, promotions, product options, product coding, weights and measures,"

Oops - from the blogosphere

Is Xerox this stupid…. Really???? � MFPs, MFDs, PRINTERs & COPIERs:

"Please confirm this with your local Xerox agent (I do NOT know this to be true, it is just a rumor as of now). I am asking for your help to either confirm or deny this information.

The Xerox MFD has an issue with Scan to email. The problem as I hear it is that the Xerox MFD can NOT change the name of the the attached file on the fly, and it always names the attached file the same name. It does NOT give it a unique name for each scan to email.

Normally you would not think this would be a problem, but we have a customer that found that it was a big problem for them. They purchased a number of Xerox MFDs and they primarily wanted to scan to email. Here is where the apparent problem arose. It seems that since the Xerox MFD can NOT change the name of the attached file on the fly, That when you run a MS Outlook email client, which so many of us do, once you hit 100 emails with the same name of the attached file that MS Outlook will not or can not open or save an attached PDF (I acknowledge that it is indeed a limitation of Microsoft Outlook).

Both Canon & Konica Minolta have fixed this issue by simply adding a date and time stamp to the scanned file name. Is it really possible that Xerox could be so dense as to not create a unique file name to each of their attached scanned to email files? This makes the Xerox scan to email all but useless as a true scan delivery system. Is this possible? REALLY? TODAY?

That’s my $0.02
Vince.Mchugh@NECS.BI

Competition: Soy Print Toner

read more at QuickPrinting.com
"via PRNewswire

PRC Technologies is now shipping SoyPrint cartridges, the first laser printer cartridges using toner powder derived from soybeans. Cartridges for the most popular laser printers are available under the SoyPrint brand at prices comparable to brand name versions currently available. Soy ink has been available for some time but this is the first soy toner cartridge for laser printers.

Debe Overhaug , president of PRC Technologies, reports 95% of soybeans are grown for livestock feed. Soybean oil is released during the process as a waste product. 'We're pleased to have found a use for this product,' Overhaug said. 'It takes about 2 liters of oil to product the toner in a single printer cartridge and U.S. businesses, schools, institutions and governments consume over 100 million cartridges per year. That means the United States consumes as much as 200 million liters of oil each year. Now every office employee can help reduce dependence on oil every time they put a toner cartridge in their printer,' Overhaug says."

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Competition: Ricoh and IBM Form Global Strategic Alliance

read more at QuickPrinting.com
Ricoh Corp. Press Release

Ricoh Company Ltd. announced a Global Strategic Alliance with IBM. The alliance will provide customers with comprehensive document solutions leveraging Ricoh and IBM’s vast capabilities to address customers’ complex business problems.

As part of the alliance, the companies will first launch a new Ricoh offering, Document Security and Management Services (DSMS) in the US. This solution builds upon Ricoh’s expertise in helping customers improve their document workflow, security and compliance, while reducing the total cost of ownership of office equipment investment and advancing environmental sustainability practices."

Just a little history

read more at Frontier Blog

It's always a good idea to take the long view.

In 1937 Bulgarian physicist Georgi Nadjakov found that, when placed into an electric field and exposed to light, some dielectrics acquire permanent electric polarization in the exposed areas. That polarization persists in the dark and is destroyed in light. Chester Carlson, the inventor of photocopying, was originally a patent attorney, as well as a part-time researcher and inventor. His job at the patent office in New York required him to make a large number of copies of important papers. Carlson, who was arthritic, found this to be a painful and tedious process. As a result, he was motivated to conduct experiments with photoconductivity. Carlson used his kitchen for his “electrophotography” experiments, and, in 1938, he applied for a patent for the process. He made the first “photocopy” using a zinc plate covered with sulfur. The words “10-22-38 Astoria” were written on a microscope slide, which was placed on top of more sulfur and under a bright light. After the slide was removed, a mirror image of the words remained. Carlson tried to sell his invention to some companies, but, because the process was still underdeveloped, he failed. At the time, multiple copies were made using carbon paper or duplicating machines, and people did not see the need for an electronic machine. Between 1939 and 1944, Carlson was turned down by over 20 companies, including IBM and GE, neither of which believed there was a significant market for copiers.

In 1944, the Battelle Memorial Institute, a non-profit organization in Columbus, Ohio, contracted with Carlson to refine his new process. Over the next five years, the institute conducted experiments to improve the process of electrophotography. In 1947, Haloid Corporation (a small New York-based manufacturer and seller of photographic paper) approached Battelle to obtain a license to develop and market a copying machine based on this technology.

Haloid felt that the word “electrophotography” was too complicated and did not have good recall value. After consulting a professor of classical language at Ohio State University, Haloid and Carlson changed the name of the process to “Xerography,” which was derived from Greek words that meant “dry writing.” Haloid called the new copier machines “Xerox Machines” and, in 1948, the word Xerox was trademarked. Haloid eventually changed its name to Xerox Corporation.

In the early 1950s, RCA (Radio Corporation of America) introduced a variation on the process called Electrofax, whereby images are formed directly on specially coated paper and rendered with a toner dispersed in a liquid.

During the 1960s and through the 1980s, Savin Corporation developed and sold a line of liquid-toner copiers that implemented a technology based on patents held by the company.

In 1949, Xerox Corporation introduced the first xerographic copier called the Model A. Xerox became so successful that, in North America, photocopying came to be popularly known as “xeroxing.” Xerox has actively fought to prevent “Xerox” from becoming a genericized trademark. While the word “Xerox” has appeared in some dictionaries as a synonym for photocopying, Xerox Corporation typically requests that such entries be modified, and that people not use the term “Xerox” in this way.

Xerox aims to challenge HP with new color printers

read more at Reuters
This was published Sep 24, 2007. How's it working out?

Maybe it could go faster by going back to the "razor/razor blade model." Put some of the advertising?/marketing? or x? budget into subsidizing the cost of the hardware until it gets to critical mass and then see what the market can bear.

Or maybe this could be bundled with an offer for erasable paper?

Then include a communication method from the printer to the web. It should be pretty easy giving wifi networks in most business and a growing number of home environments. I would think the information gathered from use patterns could be a sustainable advantage going forward. Infrastructures that generate information is the ultimate logistics business. Think Google.
"'If you compare HP color toner to what our inks will be, we will be one-fifth the price. We think it's going to help us grow our market share and attract a lot of customers who maybe don't consider Xerox today,' said Jim Rise, a Xerox vice president.
. . .
Xerox says the printers cut the cost of printing a color page to about 5 cents a page, a fraction of rival systems, which analysts peg at between 8 cents and 13 cents a page.

Yet to stay profitable, the Xerox printers are priced higher. The strategy is similar to Eastman Kodak Co's (EK.N) consumer inkjet printers unveiled this year. Both represent a shift from the so-called razor/razor blade model -- selling hardware at little or no profit to encourage sales of more profitable replacement ink and toner."

Xerox researching 'erasable' technology

read more at printercomparison.com
When does this turn into a product and bring some money into the house? This should be a very big deal.
"Xerox has many ideas for the possible use of their erasable paper. Originally, it was to be used in an office environment as a part of one of Xerox’s popular Multifunction Centers. A worker could print out e-mails, memos, to-do lists, etc. in the morning and use the paper all day. The next morning the paper would be “colorless” again; the cycle could be repeated.

Mr. Smith has said the technology could be potentially used in a mobile device since the actual print bar is less than 10 centimeters in both length and width. He also said it might be possible for Xerox to make different types of erasable paper that would keep images longer than a day before erasing."

One for our team: Cloc spends 'half a million' on digital kit to meet demand

read more at printweek.com

Cloc is targeting a 3m turnover after investing in a quartet of Xerox digital machines to help serve its burgeoning educational client base.

The commercial printer, which has its main facilities in London and Southampton, has outlaid 'around half a million pounds' on DocuColor 242, DocuColor 8000AP and mono Nuvera 288 and 4112 machines.

It opted for the new digital presses to complete work for its customer base, 90% of which operate in the educational sectors.

Cloc's DocuColor 242 and Xerox 4112 will run from the company's site at Southampton's University of Solent, where it produces on-demand educational books and collateral for many of the university's bodies.

Longer-run work comes back to the London facility, which houses the Nuvera 288 and DocuColor 8000AP, among other digital and litho kit.
Is this happening anywhere in the States?

The Competition: Kodak Must Look to the Long-Term

read more The Print CEO Blog
This came from a comment in an interesting discussion at Print Ceo Blog.
"Kodak DOES need to restructure. Their licensing is a bureaucratic mess, divisions can’t get internal PO’s through to other divisions in order to get their customers a product, and there is very little coordination between sales, customer service, and application specialists. If they could streamline their internal processes instead of running as a giant lumbering beast, perhaps they wouldn’t anger their customers at every turn."

Sunday, January 4, 2009

One for the team: Xerox Leads Worldwide Market Share in Managed Print Services

read the press release here:
"ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 18, 2008 -- According to a new report from Gartner, Inc., Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) ranked as the worldwide market share leader in Managed Print Services (MPS) based on revenue. Xerox believes this data further validates its approach to provide services and solutions that deliver business value1.

Xerox/Fuji Xerox captured 53 percent of MPS revenues worldwide in 2007; and in North America alone, Xerox accounts for 56 percent of the MPS market."

It would be cool to know how much of the worldwide share was Fuji Xerox and how much was the home team.

One for our team: Mail Shop in a Box program |

XeroRead the full press release:
Xerox Corporation unveiled its Mail Shop in a Box program

The new Mail Shop in a Box program by Xerox Corporation is a hit with all clients. It is one of the easiest ways to update the commercial and quick printers and add mailing services to them. Along with this Xerox has come up with more innovations like the web based sales trainings and the very much in demand Webinars on the changing trends in the industry.
. . .
If one wishes to have an over view of the mailbox all one has to do is to register as a participant in the Graph Expo at Chicago on Tuesday, Oct. 28, noon - 1:15 p.m. in the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Conference Center. To register, visit http://www.xerox.com/buildyourbusiness.
Sounds great. I'm a little nervous about getting an "overview". That sounds like this is going to cost $$$. My question is since the investment has already been made to put this together and since the name of the game is clicks and paper, is this being sold? given as a benefit if you buy a box?

I'm hoping not. How about forget about monetizing intellectual property by selling it. The new rules of the Google-Mart economy is "it's sometimes better to give to receive, because you will receive a lot more over the long run.

Competition or One for Our Team or both

Read at Beyond-Print -
"Gerhard Martterer, AlphaPicture CEO, was watching attentively when Xerox CTO Ursula Burns presented the Xerox 980 Color Continuous Feed Printing System, the world’s fastest digital xerographic toner-based full-color continuous feed printer of its kind, at the Ipex South Asia in New Delhi. The printer is capable of an amazing 980 full-color DIN A4 pages per minute. “When I saw this,” remembers Martterer, “it was clear that we had to accelerate our high-speed image personalization generators to 1,000 AlphaPictures and more per minute.” The task was formidable, but AlphaPicture accomplished what they had set out do right in time for the Drupa. In the case of large volumes, the “Optimized PDF” option is capable of reducing the data bulk of image-personalized AlphaPictures to a tenth of its original size – without having to compromise on quality."
Is the real fight going to be toner vs inkjet? What's the plan for this one?

The Competition: Inkjet does MICR

read more at The Digital Nirvana

Beyond the questions about money and the economy we have been fielding a lot of questions about our MICR ink jet announcement on the OceJetStream. Over and over I’ve heard the customers say how other vendors claim it could not be done, insisting that MICR had to use dry toner. I’m sorry to disappoint them, but we have done it and it does work."

Score one for our team: Sheffield rationalises printing with Xerox

read at E-Health Insider
"Sheffield rationalises printing with Xerox
19 Dec 2008

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has signed a �6m agreement with Xerox, which will take control of its printing processes.

The trust is one of the largest in the country and has more than 3,200 output devices for printing, faxing, copying and scanning. Xerox analysed the trust’s usage of these devices and found that it was “costly and inefficient” with a ratio of workers to devices of 3:1.
Here's the good part:
Rather than installing all Xerox products, our role is to optimise and then manage the existing fleet of devices. The trust will see significant sustainability and cost improvements.”

The competition: Swedish Company Locking up MFP Deals in Europe

read more at Copies, Copiers, Printing and Online Data Backup

"Carl Lamm has entered into a renewed agreement with Vaxjo Municipality as exclusive supplier of multifunctional printers (MFPs) and related software, service and support. The contract is valid for a three-year period. Carl Lamm demonstrated strong public sector sales in the July-September period, which has continued in the current quarter. The agreement with Vaxjo Municipality is further demonstration of Carl Lamm’s strong position in the public sector.

Vaxjo has been named the greenest city in Europe by international media and environmental factors carried great weight when Vaxjo Municipality was choosing a supplier for its printers. The choice fell on Carl Lamm’s environmentally certified document management offering. Official statistics for the third quarter show that Carl Lamm has increased its market share within the sector with Verva’s framework agreement , encompassing printers, copiers and services. Carl Lamm continues to be the largest supplier with 33.3 percent of the value for the quarter."