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According to a press release, Ameritech Graphics, a New Jersey Kyocera copier dealer, will be donating a portion of proceeds from sales of all Kyocera copiers and printers towards Freddie’s “Ride for Hope.”
Ride for Hope will be a bicycle event, started by cyclist Freddie Hoffman, with the aim to raise money for leukemia and Alzheimer’s research.
Ameritech Graphics will be taking a part of this year’s event in a bigger way than usual. They will not just donate some proceeds to the event from copier sales, but also “match each portion to double the contribution dollars.”
The Commercial Appeal reports that Memphis City Schools will not be renewing a contract with copier distributors.
“Because the school board could not make sense of an amorphous proposal that essentially would let one vendor prescribe what the contract should be.”
Superintendent Kriner Cash was the man who pulled the proposal from the proposal drawing board due to disagreements with other members and vendors.
“Cash recommended the board give IKON/Ricoh a print management contract to assess the district copier fleet and streamline its efficiency. He also recommended that IKON get a separate contract of indeterminate amount as the district’s sole contractor for copier equipment, ending a hodgepodge of supply costs and maintenance contracts for a multitude of copiers principals have leased on their own.”
He wanted to give too much power to IKON, according to arguments from the other side.
“Vendors and board members told Cash they could not see giving IKON an inside view of the district’s need and then letting it lease it the goods.”
What does this leave contracts in school districts? It appears that competitors are more forward in securing their place in the copier industry and board members, at least in certain districts, do not want a single vendor to have a monopoly in academia.
According to Computing, the recently launched HP LaserJet Pro 100 Colour MFP M175 offers some great advantages for small businesses. It is a multifuction device that features copying services and is the world’s Smallest A4 colour multifunction laser printer.
Here are the copier specifications of this multi-function device (from Computing):
The copier function allows mixed, text and graphics to be processed with dedicated settings, and there’s also an auto select function for when quality is not that important.
Copy resolution is up to 300 x 300 dpi on both black text and graphics and colour text and graphics.
Copy speed is up to 16 copies per minute (cpm) for black A4 documents, and 4cpm for colour documents, with the maximum number of copies being 99.
The copier can resize documents to 25 per cent or up to 400 per cent of the original size.
The device also features wireless printing with support for Wi-Fi Direct and Apple’s AirPrint. It may be a great solution for those of you looking for a copier, and multifunction device, in an office or a small-business setting.
Metrofuser, a laser part manufacturer, has issued a press release that goes into detail about why laser printers or copiers should be power conditioned..
“The company’s research reveals a significant percentage of failures can be traced back to dirty power delivery to these devices. Metrofuser is launching a campaign to educate service providers on the risks of running printers, copiers and MFP’s without power conditioning devices and how to provide solutions.”
The press release explains that Metrofuser conducted extensive research showing how voltage inconsistencies can cause massive damage to hardware. Energy needs to be consistent and with voltage at adequate levels — for devices to function correctly and for long periods of time.
They also recommend companies to utilize power protection products like one made by ESP — called NextGen PCS.
“ESP’s latest Power Conditioning System, the NextGen PCS, records power events such as over-voltage, under-voltage, surge, and power outages occurring in your customer’s environment. Using the optional NextGen interface, technicians can connect their PCs to export the filter’s event history or view it onsite, allowing them to quickly diagnose and eliminate power quality issues affecting the dependability and reliability of the installed Copier, Printer, or MFP device.”
With so much paperless technology out there and many options in enterprise, at home, or in virtually any setting — will we ever walk around with our iPads in the office and never need to print anything onto paper? According to Chris Knowlton from Mortgage Professional, it certainly is possible, but won’t be happening anytime soon — at least not on a mass scale.
“There are two main things preventing you from going paperless. The first is your employees and the second is your customers. Pushing a paperless process on either of those groups if they are not ready will hurt your production.”
Knowlton points out that he has been having the same discussion about e-signatures and e-mortgages with people for 15 years. The process is happening slowly, but it is possible to be completely paperless, he says.
“Make no mistake, going paperless is entirely possible, you just have to do it slowly (and we sure have that mastered as an industry), and you have to do it on an individual basis. You need to gage the willingness of your employees, especially the sales and processing departments, to use the tools that make a paperless mortgage possible. Understand that you might be working against the muscle memory of a 20-year mortgage sales veteran who will only see this as something that slows them down.”
For most companies and industries, copiers and printers are still the way to go today. Although with tablets taking off, it is possible paper will be less of a necessity. Company heads may have plans drawn up on tablets; and copiers will be used to send these plans to lower-level employees for instance (thus in a smaller scale). Or who knows, everyone could be carrying a tablet and everything will be shown digitally.
According to Middle East Events, copiers, printers, and scanners are quite a lucrative market in the Middle East, a market that Brother Gulf is prospering from in a big way.
“Brother Gulf, a leader in home and business IT peripherals that focuses on the ‘Customer-First’ approach, has revealed its plans to grow by 22% by 2012 in the Middle East. The company’s confidence in driving growth over the next year complements recent industry reports showing that the region’s printer segment will reach USD 7.6 billion by 2012. According to Brother, the release of their latest lines of Digital Copier Printers (DCPs) and Multifunction Centres (MFCs) will act as key drivers in achieving the set growth target and are being packaged as perfect accompaniments for Small Office / Home Offices (SOHOs), Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) and Small Workgroups of up to 25 users.”
All-in-one printing, scanning, and copying devices are the big boom it seems. There is a need for all services in industry. Such products are causing international firms to drive into the region as well.
“The increased demand for printing products and technologies in the Middle East has stirred in an influx of opportunities for local and international suppliers and printer vendors like Brother. This vibrancy in the printer segment has allowed industry experts to predict a USD 7.6 billion increase in revenues in 2012. Looking to take advantage of the expected growth, Brother aims at consolidating its regional market presence with the eight new models that were launched this year.”
According to Market Watch, Canon U.S.A. has succeeded in cutting 2.7 million Kilowatt-hours and the digital-imaging company saved $300,000 in the process.
“Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announced the results of an aggressive office energy savings program conducted in five U.S. office locations, including its Lake Success headquarters, resulting in reported savings of 2.7 million kilowatt-hours of energy from 2009 through 2010. Initially conceived in 2008, the energy-saving steps implemented across the five locations is equal to approximately $300,000 in utility fees over the two-year period, saving enough energy to power its Lake Success headquarters for four months.”
This shows how copy, print, digital imaging and similar services do not have to pull an arm and a leg on utility bills. If a company like Canon can successfully run in an energy efficient manner, many other companies should take notice.
An interesting study would be which copiers run in the most energy-efficient manner and see how Canon’s copiers stack up.
A new allegiance has formed between N-able Technologies — a company focusing in remote monitoring and management for managed IT services — with International Business Products, Inc. (IBPI) — a company that focuses in purchasing copiers and printers, along with accessories and supplies, according to Sys-Con.
“As part of the new alliance, N-able and IBPI will provide the technology, resources and expertise required by IBPI members to establish recurring service revenue streams, help customers reduce IT service costs and increase customer satisfaction by offering proactive managed services in a cloud, SaaS (software-as-a-service) or an on-premise model.”
Randy Horshok, executive director of IBPI, pointed out how many copier services, or businesses focusing on copiers, are incorporating managed IT services into their workflows. This in turn generated new revenue streams for these companies and it strengthens customer relations, he said.
IBPI holds 300 independent commercial copier and print dealers located throughout the U.S., according to Sys-Con.
A humorous post at BerryReview, claims that a copier has jammed on the fourth floor of the company’s headquarters — located in Waterloo, Ontario — causing such a stir that RIM employees destroyed it.
They didn’t just throw it away, however, according to the report. The employees went to a field and destroyed it by taking part in a ritual ceremony. The technicians ran into some problems as a result of the copier fiasco as well.
“Compounding RIM’s difficulties, the technicians got all inky-black stuff on their hands, so that soap and water had to be applied, then rinsed off, followed by a drying procedure which is believed to have involved either toweling or one of those noisy air blowers,” according to BerryReview.
If you own or are part of a company who has a hard time managing effectively all your copying, printing and other devices, you may want to look into managed print services (MPS) as a solution.
According to Docusource, “A Managed Print Service Program enables organizations to streamline management and minimize costs associated with printing and imaging. And according to Gartner research, enterprises can save up to 30 percent on printing services by selecting the right partner.”
Zdnet points out that the service came together due to the convergence of print and copying and the ever growing demand for these service in the work place. They cite a source from PitchEngine when describing the benefits of MPS:
“The Managed Print Services industry is rapidly growing with businesses both large and small getting in on a piece of the pie. Over the past ten years the copier & print industries have converged, leading to innovative products including the multifunction printer. With these industry segments coming together businesses have found it more and more difficult to manage their output devices, which is why managed print services has been rapidly on the rise. By using managed print services, businesses are able to lower overall costs, improve productivity, increase efficiency and reduce burdens on internal staff.”
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