Xerox to cut 275 jobs in upstate NY + some advice to PR

from Fox 44 -

"Associated Press - January 15, 2009 4:05 PM ET

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Xerox Corp. says it's cutting 275 jobs in the Rochester area.

The layoffs by the Stamford, Conn.-based office equipment maker are part of a restructuring announced last fall that includes trimming 3,000 jobs from its worldwide payroll of 57,000."

Are there any plans in place to help these folks make the transition? Maybe some support to help them start their own businesses. Or retrain them for teaching jobs or selling jobs? Or is it possible for the Xerox Foundation to create a work training program to help these folks. In addition to helping them, it would make a great story to add to "greening," which is losing its traction anyway.

Notice that the AP calls us "an office equipment maker". Little wonder the stock price won't budge. It's hard to love an office equipment maker. But we have an under appreciated advantage. I'm seeing the internet starting to get old. Print may turn out to be the next big thing. It you see evidence that this may be true. Consider:

Xerox is not copy. Xerox is Print.

Google it. Find it. Xerox it. Anywhere.

It's nasty out there: Xerox job cuts in Wilsonville Oregon

read at - OregonLive.com:

"Xerox has begun laying off employees in Wilsonville and at other U.S. sites this morning, part of a plan to cut 3,000 jobs companywide that Xerox announced last October.

At its Wilsonville campus, the company plans to eliminate roughly 50 jobs over the next two weeks from a work force that currently numbers 1,550. That's a little more than 3 percent of its Wilsonville jobs, smaller than the 5 percent cuts Xerox targeted overall.

'These are across the board as far as types of position,' said Xerox spokesman Bill McKee, speaking from the company's Rochester, N.Y. headquarters.

Engineering, training and finance positions are among those being eliminated. The company is not cutting any direct sales jobs, he said, nor any manufacturing jobs from the unionized work force at Xerox's color ink factory in Wilsonville."

XRX Could Be On the Move

Xerox (XRX) from Market Intelligence Center:

"Xerox (XRX) could be on the move today and is now at $7.41, down $0.51 (-6.44%) on volume of 2,193,950 shares traded. Over the last 52 weeks the stock has ranged from a low of $4.83 to a high of $16.00. Xerox stock has been showing support around $7.47 and resistance in the $8.55 range. Technical indicators for the stock are neutral and S&P gives XRX a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking. If you are looking for a hedged play on XRX the stock seems like it could be a candidate for an April out-of-the-money bear-call credit spread above the 9 range. [ABR-Seven Summits Strategic Investments NewsBite]"

So while we are waiting for the stock to recover, how about dividends, so we can not worry about what the Market geniuses predict will happen to the price.

The competition: Sharp Intros Next Generation Mid-Volume Color Document Systems

read the PR release at QuickPrinting.com

Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) announced the availability of three next-generation color workgroup series MFPs: the MX-4100N, MX-4101N, and MX-5001N"

The Competition:Kodak Announces Agreement to Acquire Scanner Division of BOWE BELL HOWELL

read at Digital Print 360:
"ROCHESTER, N.Y. & WHEELING, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Eastman Kodak Company and B�WE BELL HOWELL announced Kodak’s agreement to acquire the scanner division of B�WE BELL HOWELL. The scanner division is a leading supplier of production document scanners to value added resellers, systems integrators, and end users. Based in the greater Chicago area, the scanner division is a worldwide business with locations in North America, Europe and Asia."

This sounds very cool: Xerox debuts purchasing service - 1/15/2009 AM - Purchasing

read at Purchasing

"Xerox Corp. is launching a new service for those looking to source components from suppliers in other regions of the world but who may not have the resources to do so on their own.

Xerox Procurement Solutions provides a range of services that assist purchasing professionals with sourcing direct or indirect goods and services. These services range from consulting to Xerox’s procurement operation actually sourcing parts and components for the client. Fees vary depending on services rendered."

So if we price it just right, this could turn out to be a big thing. Can Igen manufacturers use the service to order toner and paper and other stuff from our team?

Further in the article was this:

The company already had been doing some print procurement for some of its customers.

So . . .given that Distribute and Print is clearly the emerging model, what's the real story behind this. Ya gotta believe that if Xerox became a standards based process defined portal for global deliver and print that would work. Maybe the value of Premier Partners could be leveraged to give your manufacturers what they really need. More work.

FYI: Salesforce.com rolls out ‘Service Cloud,’ eyes social networking connections | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

read more at ZDNet.com:
"Salesforce.com has unveiled its Service Cloud, a customer service application that’s designed for cloud computing and plugged into conversations that occur on Google, Facebook and Amazon.

The effort (statement, Techmeme) is built on the Force.com platform. In a statement, Salesforce.com said that “two-thirds of all service conversations will take place in the cloud.”"

Circuits Assembly - Analyst: Weaker Global IT Spend in 2009

Read more at Circuits Assembly

. . .
IT hardware revenues are forecast to drop 8% year-over-year, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore wrote in a research note.

DB forecasts a moderate recovery beginning in 2010.

IBM is expected to remain the best-positioned player, with Sun, Xerox, Kodak and others in inferior positions.

IBM, Sun, Xerox and Kodak? Which two are not like the others? Wonder what Mr. Whitmore has in mind?

And some good news: Xerox WorkCentre 4150s

from mentoring-uk.org.uk
"The WorkCentre 4150 Series multifunction meets the challenges of today's non-stop business world. Its design started with the basic requirement of every office: powerful printing capabilities. Then an array of tools was added to create a reliable and convenient multifunction that is ready to handle the needs of your busy workgroup. As the multifunction system experts, Xerox understands how to streamline the way you work to help you get the job done."

It's nasty out there: Waiting for Intel...and Xerox?

read more at OregonLive.com
"Meanwhile, in Wilsonville, I hear employees are nervously awaiting details of how Xerox will implement big job cuts outlined last fall. Word could come as early as tomorrow, I gather.

Xerox has 1,600 employees at the former Tektronix campus just east of I-5.

In October, Xerox said it would cut 5 percent of its global work force. If applied evenly across the company, that would take the Wilsonville site down by 80 people or so.

Economic conditions have worsened since Xerox first outlined its cuts, but the Wilsonville site's color printing work is very important to the company's growth plans. So it's an open question how the cuts will play out in Oregon."

This sounds neat.

Visioneer Announces OneTouch Scanning to BOLT Bridge for:
"Using the Visioneer OneTouch Links Software Development Kit (SDK), BOLT developed a link that allows users to scan documents from a Xerox DocuMate or Visioneer scanner directly into Laserfiche with the touch of a single button. Demonstrations of the new link will be given at the Visioneer booth during the 2009 Laserfiche Institute Conference being held this week at the Hilton LAX in Los Angeles, California."

You have to love the Artists

See the image at NY Arts Magazine
"Marina Hanacek’s art is an extension/reflection of her passion for the city and the city life. She draws on her extensive knowledge of materials and textures to imbue her work with the energy and experience of urban life.

Using Xerox transfers, acrylic glazing and collage surfaces over a texture of primer, Marina is able to achieve multilevel imagery. Her latest abstract discovery - the 'Element' - is a symbolic ingredient in her creative process. The Element is pivotal in portraying the architectural and organic as well as ornamental aspects of the painting's composition and capturing a vision that is uniquely hers."

Heavy Chemistry helps Xerox Scientist reach Patent Milestone

read more at CNW Group


"Heavy Chemistry helps Xerox Scientist reach Patent Milestone

TORONTO, Jan. 13 /CNW/ - Many scientists claim to have 'eureka' moments,
but rarely at the age of 12. However that's when Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX)
scientist Peter Kazmaier first felt the thrill of creating new molecular
structures - while using his first chemistry set. This fall, Kazmaier
experienced another thrill from the scientific community: the receipt of his
100th U.S. patent, a rare achievement that puts him among the ranks of Xerox's
most inventive scientists, and only the fifth Canadian scientist at Xerox to
accomplish this feat."

Congrats to the PR team!

read at MSNBC Wire Services - msnbc.com:
"SOMERVILLE, MA - AMES On-Demand is please to announce that it has the first North American installation of the Xerox 490/980 system, the industry's fastest continuous feed 4-color printer. Xerox's choice of AMES demonstrates its commitment to our business model and the work we do for our many clients."

Now if Bloomberg picks it up . . .

Schools Failing, Money Needed

read more at OpEd News.com:

"It has replaced textbooks with Xerox copies."

So why not turn this bug into a feature. And replace all textbooks with open source content, text book publisher's content, newspaper content, and revolutionize the entire textbook industry? Let them worry about the content, and get clicks either in the school district, at a Premier Partner, or in the classroom.

Google XML Sitemaps for WordPress Plugins

WordPress › Google XML Sitemaps � WordPress Plugins: Author: Arne Brachhold

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update."

This could be a big deal. The easier it is to get from wiki's and blogs to the web, the better life will be for all of us.

Google launches Quick Search for Mac | Googling Google | ZDNet.com

Read more at ZDNet.com:
"Google launched an experimental application that can basically be used in as a replacement for Spotlight. Is it better? Well, it does seem speedier to me, but it’s not a huge improvement in that sense — the improvement comes in the quality of search results. Spotlight results do show up in the Quick Search Box results if you want them too, also — that should make people a bit less nervous about trying to use this exclusively.

Currently, it doesn’t search your Gmail account, but don’t expect that feature to be too far down the road once they determine if people like the new application."

Google Apps Reseller Program Could Become Biggest Affiliate Program - Search Marketing News Blog - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

read more at : "January 14, 2009

Google is building a reseller program for its apps and training future affiliates to build up their market share of email, calendaring,project management and team site creation, as well as documents, video sharing and collaboration.

The program will give resellers 20% of each $50/user/year they sign up, as well as any other service fees they may charge for implementing them to a company's specifications or continued maintenance or service. This could mean a large amount of money for people able to convert companies with large user bases.

After completing a test - not unlike the one for Adwords Professional - the resellers/affiliates will be able to use the Google Apps badge."

It's about Harvesting the Data

read more at Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog
"In the offline world, publishers market their own subscriber lists. But online that data is harvested by a host of third parties such as Google’s DoubleClick, Microsoft’s Atlas and vast ad networks such as Platform A’s Advertising.com. “People are stealing from the media companies who have lost control of their data,” said Operative CEO Mike Leo. “It doesn’t make sense to me that the people creating these valuable audiences aren’t getting paid for it.”

Before going any further, let’s get this out of the way: The problem that media companies are just waking up to is that we have given away this user data without remuneration, because we were too preoccupied to investigate what was really taking place in the back end of the Web. Media folks are front end people. We look at the finished product, but the Web is all about the back end. This has to change, folks, or we’ll just continue to get hammered by people who know what it’s all about."

This one is cute..

There is a someone tweeting as a Xerox 914. Here's the link to see what the machine is up to:
http://twitter.com/Xerox914

Roots: Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age

read at Books:
"In the bestselling tradition of The Soul of a New Machine, Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires"

One for our team: Massachusetts Printer Installs First Xerox Color Continuous Feed Printing System in North America

read more at Die Welt:
"Massachusetts printer Ames On-Demand is making publishing history in North America. It will be the first company to provide its customers with the fastest and most advanced toner-based, full-color, high-speed continuous feed technology available today.

Ames, which prints textbooks, lab manuals and other books for higher education publishers, will now benefit from the innovative flash-fusing technology on its newly installed Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) 980 Color Continuous Feed Printing System. Flash-fusing is a process that only heats the toner not the paper. It does not use pressure rollers or make contact with the paper, allowing the device to print on a wide array of paper stocks and specialty media."

Competition: Ricoh Expands Into Online Document Sharing and Management

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

"Ricoh Americas Corporation, the leading provider of digital office equipment, announced today the availability of an improved Dataworks3 ARCHIVE module for seamless integration with its award-wining DocumentMall solution for on-line document sharing and management. Combining a variable data printing middleware and a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution provides customers superb automation capabilities and streamlines the collection and storing of important transactional and promotional documents, eliminating time-consuming and error prone manual intervention."