Printers Code of Ethics; an honorable business...

I was looking back at some old documents that I have collected over time and thought I would post the printers code of ethics. Here almost a 100 years later the same code is applicable today. I think that people's mindsets have changed but maybe not for the best.

Here is the code of ethics published by the Typothetae in the Typothetae Tickler of Kansas City Missouri - March 1915.



Declaration of Policy and Code of Ethics

Adopted 1914

Organized October 18th, 1887

The members of the Typothetae dedicate their best efforts to business uplift and social service, and to this end pledge to themselves.

1st. To give full value for every dollar received.

2nd. To charge fair prices, viz., known cost plus a reasonable profit.

3rd. To subscribe to and work for truth and honesty in business; to avoid substitution, broken promises, unbusinesslike methods.

4th. To co-operate in establishing and maintaining approved business ethics.

5th. To be original producers and creators not copyists.

6th. To be promotive, looking to the needs of the customer, analyzing his requirements and devising new and effective means for promoting and extending his business.

7th. To place emphasis upon quality rather than price, service to the customer being the first consideration.

8th. To merit the support of buyers of their product by living up to the spirit as well as the letter of these standards.

9th. To develop, by co-operation with other departments of the Association, an ever-strengthening bond of union to the end that the service rendered to advertising by the graphic arts may achieve its highest efficiency.

10th. To aid in securing just and harmonious relations between employer and employed by establishing honorable conditions of employment.

To learn more about the historic timeline of PINE and the PIA.

“The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, one sometimes forgets which” - James Matthew Barrie

There’s a new Sheriff in town; RiKON the saga continues…

Well right in time for the new fiscal year. Instead of trying to put together an article on the subject I will point you to someone that has done a very good job presenting the information for you.

 To get the scoop on RiKON the next generation and see who the new sheriff is go to...

Strategy Development's blog here:

Imaging Industry Information

IKON Executives Assume Responsibility for Ricoh Americas

You can also participate in the forum thread at the:

Print 4 Pay Hotel.

Now it will be interesting to see how quickly Rikon can connect the dots.

Pirate Mike

Canon U.S.A. Ranked Number - One in Total Copier Market Share in 2009

Here is an interesting Press Release:

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Mar 23, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in advanced digital imaging and office solutions, today announced that the Company has earned the top position for total U.S. copier/MFP market share for 2009 with 18.4 percent of the market, according to Gartner's Printer, Copier and MFP Quarterly Statistics Database for fourth quarter 2009.(1)

(1) Gartner, Inc. Printer, Copier and MFP Quarterly Statistics United States: Database, F. De Silva, C. K. Masaki, 17 February 2010.
 
It will be interesting to see how the landscape changes or gets better for Canon now with their new acquistion Oce coming into the fold and no longer having the distribution of IKON to help.

Ready, Set, INKJET! A look at this new innovative technology as it comes after traditional printing!

In the previous article, “Inkjet; the next generation of digital?” I introduced the idea that inkjet is being developed to be represented as a “Big Iron” player. As advertising agencies and marketing service providers prove to their customers that relevancy gets results and affects their bottom line that the amount of companies using these techniques will grow.

Even entire organizations like Alphagraphics are required to do cross media campaigns as part of their local efforts. From many of the shops that I have talked to these shops experience an average of 12% as compared to traditional direct mail of 1%-3% on a good day. As these technologies drive printers to have the capability to produce fully variable pieces in large quantities they will quickly outgrow typical electrophotography devices as we currently know them.

As copier manufacturers drive their toner based systems faster we see a convergence of technologies and at the lower end of the spectrum they are there with products like the HP Indigo 7000, the Xerox iGen4 and the Kodak NexPRESS 3600. But in the service bureau arena when looking at fully variable transactional or trans-promotional printing the volumes still push the limits of toner or toner suspended devices. When printers look to manufacturers to make this transition there are only a few choices as of today, but the competition is widening.

In a current article, “The jet set” Mar 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Denise Kapel of American Printer she touts the advances of digital inkjet web printing. This newly emerging technology is generating a lot of attention. Denise mentions, “Almost half of the respondents to our December 2009 “Web Offset Survey” believe high-speed inkjet presses are a threat to web offset volume.” The need for a technology to be able to produce large runs of variable pieces in an affordable and reliable manner is already here. Traditional methods do not afford a printer the ability to be competitive once the volumes get to certain levels.

We see every area of printing and publishing impacted by the advances of inkjet! In a recent article, Bill Esler, Editor in Chief -- Graphic Arts Online, March 23, 2010 "CPI Launches Inkjet Book Line." It goes on to say, "CPI, Europe's largest book printing firm, has formally commissioned a digital inkjet book printing system, which its has branded the Quantum, built around a 400-fpm HP T300 monochrome inkjet web press." CPI chairman Pierre-François Catté was quoted in saying, "Book printers have 30 to 40% overcapacity. If you are going to buy something, you better make sure you made the right choice." Catté also notes that compressed delivery schedules are changing customer expectations. "One and a half years ago, customers wanted five-day turnaround; now they want two days." Inkjet is here to stay and its making rogue waves!

February 4th, 2008 the Direct Group became the first in the US to install the Océ JetStream™ 2200 system, a very high-speed, fully variable, color inkjet, continuous press. Direct Group President and CEO Don McKenzie said, “The Océ JetStream 2200 system will enable our clients to leverage three significant and converging industry trends – the rapidly increasing adoption of trigger-based mailings, the availability of revolutionary digital printing technology, and the demand for more effective postal strategies to combat recent and future rate increases. The capabilities provided by the Océ JetStream 2200 system will allow us to deliver sustainably improved response rates for our clients, while significantly lowering total campaign costs for customer acquisition programs, including postal and logistics expenses.”

The world’s largest English language print show IPEX is held every four years in Birmingham, England, IPWX (www.ipex.org) is being held this year May 18 to 25. Ipex 2010 is looking like a repeat of Drupa 2008, as it is already being labeled “Inkjet Ipex.” This is where digital printing meets offset head to head. With the all of the new demand being variable print whether it is transactional printing, trans-promotional or one to one advertising companies want to do it and in color, and printers are looking for new ways to get it done! The Fujifilm Inkjet Digital Press is one of the newest innovations to be shown at the show. This new press will utilize single-pass piezo drop-on-demand inkjet head technology and will produce at approximately 180 A4 sheets per minute. From digital sheetfed to continuous web we will see inkjet technology as we have never seen it before!

There are draw backs to Inkjet; the systems are new, expensive and the quality is not where many printing professionals would like them but this technology is still building. The continuous inkjet process has been used for decades in monochrome addressing and imprinting. The first continuous inkjet (CIJ) presses were seen in the 1970s, and today, the process is universally used for wide-format graphics and offset proofing. At Dupa 2008 many of the industries brightest manufacturers came forward with the “next generation” of inkjet presses. “All areas of inkjet have changed,” says RIT's Frank Romano. “The fundamental principles [haven't], but there have been significant developments that make it a more viable process.” Now with On Demand less than a month away we will see what the America’s have to say in our largest exhibition of printing technologies.

I am not predicting the DEATH OF THE COPIER! (Shameless plug for fellow blogger Greg Walters) Toner based systems have rallied as well trying to keep up with the trends for larger runs of variable printing. Xerox uses non-contact flash fusing on continuous-feed, color Electrophotography devices such as its 650/1300 and 490/980. A high-intensity xenon light flashing more than 2,000 times per second gets the job done. Because no heat or pressure makes contact with the paper, the devices can print on a wider array of substrates. Xerox is not the only company to use xenon lights. Founded in 1992 Nipson a French based company located in Belfort also uses this technology. They state on their website, “Thanks to our proprietary dry toner magnetography technology and cool xenon fusing, our presses offer you a unique combination of flexibility, productivity and consistently outstanding quality.”

As inkjet gains popularity and attention we will see electrophotography manufactures turn up the heat as well fighting over their turf as we have already seen great examples of; or invest into this technology as product offering as Kodak and others have done already.

As a consultant to the printing and publishing industry I love to see new tools to bring to my clients to help them achieve their business objectives. There are a lot of good manufacturers out there that are bringing technology to bare at an intense pace. What we don’t realize is that the industry has never seen such a pace of innovation. The last 200 years of printing has not seen the changes that we have over the last 10-15 years. And what is a known is that it is not slowing down at all. As we sit at the edge of a global community we will see communication being more important than ever!

This “new world” helps to anchor the printing and publishing industry for another 200 years as we watch the chameleon change colors yet one more time. One thing about the printing and publishing industry is that it is full of innovators, and tough businessman that will not be left behind. In an industry that has been clouded with companies coming in and going out quickly we will see the “new age” printer become even more agile in a time where it is not just the printed piece that is under inspection but the ability to come up with a good message as well.


Happy Sale’ing…

Pirate Mike

On Demand; what’s next for 2010…

With less than a month left excitement is building for ON DEMAND.

ON DEMAND Conference & Exposition, the largest digital printing and automated production event in North America, is just around the corner. The 2010 show, taking place April 20-22, 2010 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA is sure to give us a little insight as to what our year has in store for us. In the electrophotography arena we are sure to see some new devices come to market.

The new Konica Minolta 8000 will be on display along with the rumored new Xerox digital press that will sit under the iGen The Xerox Color 800/1000 will also be in attendance. Canon has been very quiet but I am sure that they have the next series of imagePRESS coming around the corner and with the Oce acquisition well on its way they may use ON DEMAND to spring board some new ideas to the marketplace.

I am not sure if I will be going this year but as my employment search comes to a close I am hoping to be able to take the time to see a lot of these new innovations myself. I am curious what else may be on display if you have any ideas we would love to hear them!

Pirate Mike

RiKON; the end is near repent!

Ricoh merges its print businesses

 Barney Cox, printweek.com, 26 March 2010

 Ricoh has consolidated its UK production print sales organization in a bid to grow its presence in the commercial print market.

 Under the new structure, all of Ricoh's print business, aside from IBM joint venture Infoprint Solutions, will be integrated and headed up by Stephen Palmer in the new role of  Ricoh UK production print director.

Palmer said: "Historically, commercial print represented 10% of our production print sales and is the biggest area for growth.

 "Over the next three to four years, we plan to grow that to 50%. There's no reason why we can't grow very rapidly, we have the service and the infrastructure."

He added that 25%-30% of orders for the C900, Ricoh's first cut-sheet colour press, had come from the commercial print market.

In his new role, Palmer, who was previously Info-Tec UK managing director, will manage a 40-strong sales team combining staff from Ricoh, Info-Tec and Ikon.

According to Infosource figures, Ricoh was second to Xerox in colour digital press installations in 2009.
Funny enough some of my Anonymous comments have been spot on! Which is the only reason why I allow them. It seems that many were very well connected as they predicted this announcement weeks in advance!

Well IKON it is time to repent for the end is near!Good luck to all my old comrades!

Pirate Mike

Inkjet; the next generation of digital?

So now for many years we have been hearing about the evolution of inkjet technology. Not the inkjet that you have on the edge of your desktop, but the kind that could eventually take over the digital printing industry. As the need for larger formats and higher speeds increase so does the need for reliability. As every print center looks at the available technology to make their "go or no go" decisions they have to balance capacity, work load, cost, reliability and other risk factors in weighing their decision on what technology to invest in or which to use for a particular application. Technology is advancing at such a pace and the different factions of the production print market are converging at such a rate that these decisions which might have been easy at one point are not ever increasing difficult to parse.

Even during the 2008 Drupa many of the commentators called it "Inkjet Drupa" as many of the innovations that were on display were new Inkjet devices aimed at the trans-promotional space that would ultimately be aimed at another level of lithography. A couple years ago Frank Romano came to Dallas during a speaking engagement "Frankly Speaking" where he was talking about the "new kid on the block." He predicted that Inkjet technology would revolutionize the industry as he did some 20 years ago in his talks about "Desktop Publishing."

As the cost of the equipment gets under control and the quality gets better, high speed inkjet may upset electrophotography all together. There are gaps in traditional offset lithography and electrophotography's ability to fill every need do to the applications balance of speed, quality, print window, cost requirements that lend itself to the need of a new technology that seems to be filled by the new role of high speed inkjet systems.

In an article by Barney Cox, PrintWeek, 24 January 2008 titled "Inkjet technology to dominate Drupa with Kodak and Xerox launches" Barney talks about some predictions that Kodak made about high speed inkjet and its role in the industry by 2015. Now at this time digital printing comprises approximately 15% of all printing today, in Kodak's estimate they felt that their "Stream Technology" would comprise roughly a trillion pages or 1% of the global printing industry. This is a huge growth potential for such an emerging technology. In Frank Romano's model he showed digital printing "toner based" on a gradual slope to 2050 but showed digital printing "inkjet" on a sharp increase as the traditional methods of offset coming to about half of their current rates. The 3 largest and growing areas of print are: Advertising/Promotional 24%, Packaging 18%, and Direct Mail at 13% these areas all are having an increasing demand for a more increased level of personalization and relevancy. This can only be accomplished by digital print methods.

June 16th, 2009 Kodak came forward with this release in part, "The KODAK PROSPER S10 Imprinting System, which features flexible mounting options, integrates seamlessly with web offset presses and web finishing equipment to add variable data to offset printed materials. Operating at 1,000 fpm (305 mpm) with a resolution of 600 dpi, it allows users to print variable data inline, saving time and money over a traditional, two-step process that combines offset pre-printed forms and offline laser imprinting."

it went on to say, "Wilen Direct, which has installed four S10 Imprinting Systems, is outputting 80,000 pieces per hour, or 1.6 million pieces per day, on just one of its presses."

They said "This technology lets us create full variable data print through our offset presses, and it does it three to four times faster than a traditional high-speed roll-to-roll system. As a result, we can move faster than ever while increasing quality.”

Kodak is working hard to development and bring to market this new leader in digital printing, "Kodak is working with customers and prospects under two programs: PROSPER Press Market Pioneers and PROSPER Press Market Leaders. PROSPER Press Market Pioneers will be the first users of a PROSPER Press, with installation targeted between the first and third quarters of 2010."

And Kodak is just one example of a manufacturer working hard to develop this new technology. As the quality and substrate handling ability increases and the initial cost of the acquisition of such devices comes down we will see an increasing migration as we did to the digital cut sheet devices to roll fed, wide to super wide format inkjet. Reliability and cost effectiveness cannot be matched by other methods at this time. Inkjet has a lot of interesting characters in the playing field. Kodak, Xerox, IBM, Agfa, Oce, HP and others.

Interestingly enough Xerox has over 1,200 patents in this arena already. In an article that I recently wrote in April of 2009 "Amidst the slaughter rises Xerox Technology" I talked about Xerox's tenacity to continue their intense research and development plans. And again this month in "In Search of Innovation Xerox joins the gang; and builds a new research facility in India.” I quote a recent Xerox press release that stated this last year they increased their production of patents by 19%.

But in typical Xerox fashion they have been quite conservative in their inkjet direction "We believe inkjet has its place and is suitable for very high volumes," said Xerox production systems group vice president of marketing Valerie Blauvelt. – Barney's article stated. Valerie went on to say, "People have high-quality applications inkjet is not suitable for. These include direct mail and transactional."

At Drupa Xerox did showcase some of it's revolutionary inkjet innovations that they are working on but didn't give a release date. Xerox is advancing the technology with new modular print heads that are more reliable, low cost and scaleable. Xerox has also been developing next-generation ink in the form of "cured gel" ink, which offers more ways to print on many substrates - from coated paper to plastic to aluminum.

In an ever changing business environment the needs of business dictate where research and development money will go. As the needs of business migrate toward the increasing sophistication of variable data to meet the "relevancy" needs of marketing applications and the fact that these applications demand high quality and substrate diversity so too we will see products come to bear that meet these needs.

Just like Plato said 400 years before Christ, "necessity is the mother of invention." In a free market society that economic gain will bring to bear solutions that solve today's critical business needs. In a soft or declining economy the need for relent marketing is increasingly important. Roger Gimbel and Associates,"an international management consulting firm working to ignite business growth through digital technologies" conducted a cross media marketing campaign in 2006 called, "Digitally Cool" which was geared at raising awareness of XMPie and Xerox digital printing technologies. The results were that they:

1. Produced and delivered more than 13,000 customized invitations in six languages, all on tight deadlines and fixed budgets.
2. Motivated 5,300 people, or 41% of invitees, to visit a personalized Web landing page for valuable information exchange. An impressive 26% of all Web page visitors pre-registered for the seminars.
3. Secured 40 - 200 attendees per seminar, adding 1,600 highly qualified prospects to the Xerox sales cycle.
4. Brought a 1000% ROI to Xerox's pipeline.

In the end Roger was quoted as saying, "In the future, we will not be measured by the quality of the output; we will be measured by the quality of the outcome."

Something that equipment reps forget when directing their commercial print clients. Many times all we talk about is speeds and feeds. Well my widget is 600x600 dpi well my widget is 1200x1200 dpi, well my color gamut is wider. In a world where most manufacturers are creating color equipment that produces very good quality color and is "good enough" for most purposes. We need to differentiate ourselves by the services that we provide and not just the hardware we push!

With competition becoming increasingly fierce it is more important that ever that we direct our commercial printing clients to becoming more of a "marketing service provider" and not just a provider of the deliverable. This "solution selling" allows them to hold better margins, buy more equipment and pay their bills. They become more of an asset to their clients thereby creating a barrier to exit for themselves.

By delivering a highly customizable and relevant message to our audience we create a bond that delivers action. This end result is what companies are looking for. This ability to deliver an actionable message also creates a "barrier to exit" as print providers try to deliver real value in retaining and developing their customer base. To that ends as high speed inkjet becomes more accessible I can see this technology giving print centers the ability to economically deliver complex and sophisticated messages that create a "call to action" for their customers. It may also change the way that we sell equipment as well and the pricing models that we use.

As the technology develops we will see presses much like the full sheet 6 color Heidelbergs and Kamoris that we are familar with today but producing fully variable digital printing at speeds we have yet to imagine. Right now most of the technology is aimed at web presses and wide format but surely we will ultimately see more cut sheet inkjet presses as well, like the Riso ComColor press that was unvieled at PRINT09.

The great thing for digital printing consultants is this new technology will give us one more tool in our bag to help our customers deliver their message and drive profitability. This ensures our lifecycle as well. Be watching for new comers to this arena as the economic gain becomes more of a reality to those that hold the keys to this new innovation.

You can read more about this case study at: American Printer's Website in an article self titled, "Digitally Cool."

Pirate Mike

Canon in the driver seat; what’s next? Delisting Oce?

Well the news is out Canon now holds 87.51% of the total issued share capital of Océ.

tradingmarkets.com posted the release:
In part, "The total number of shares held by or tendered to the Offeror (including Océ's financing preference shares) as of the Post-Acceptance Closing Date represents approximately 87.51% of the total issued share capital of Océ (including Océ's treasury shares)"
You can find the press release on Océ's website here: "CANON HOLDS 84.65% OF OCÉ ORDINARY SHARES"

In Canon's original press release on January 28^th, 2010 "Recommended cash offer by Canon for all the issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Océ N.V. to create global leader in printing industry"

Canon spoke about the details of the offer.

Under the heading: Liquidity and delisting it goes to say "Subject to the Offer being declared unconditional (gestand wordt gedaan) and in the event that the Offeror has acquired 95% of the Shares, the listing of the Shares on Euronext Amsterdam will be terminated as soon as possible. This may further adversely affect the liquidity and market value of any listed Shares not tendered."

I am not a stock broker but it appears that if Canon acquires 95% they can delist the stock and anyone left holding stock is out of luck? If they are at 87.51% now that would seem prudent to dump the stock so that your investment is not completely lost, except that the Post Acceptance period is over and I do not know how that may affect tendered shares now. It would seem that Canon has every intention to go through with the purchase and that the groups that wanted more for their stock didn't get their wishes.

In a Reuter's report they stated: that "Canon made their offer unconditional after a Dutch court on Wednesday denied a lawsuit by Hermes Asset Management and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) who opposed Oce management's handling of the offer and argued Canon's offer undervalued its target. Orbis Portfolio Management, which owns about 10 percent of Oce shares, had also opposed the deal."

It appears that we have now seen history strike four times in a row! Once with Konica Minolta's acquisition of Danka, Twice with Xerox's acquisition of Global Imaging Systems, Three times with Ricoh's acquisition of IKON and now for a Fourth time with Canon's acquisition of Océ.

Now the stage is set; 4 Global Mega-Manufacturers are on the starting line prepared to make an Olympic 100 yard dash! With the proving grounds in the areas of Managed Print Services and Production Print it is anyone's race. This is a very scary time for anyone in this industry as the list of refugees grows! Be watching for upsets in the Fabulous 4; there are still competitors lurking in the shadows that could at any time appear as a newly positioned contender for the crown!

Happy Sale'ing…


Pirate Mike

Xerox – Next to reign in their rogue warrior?

Out of respect of the below comment I have removed this blog as it was written.

What I would say is from an industry perspective does Xerox intend to always have a wholly owned entity selling multiple brands?

That is the reason why I moved to IKON was I loved the idea of having a complete set of tools and not being locked in to one manufacturer. This "best of breed" concept gives a saleperson a lot of flexibillity. If this is the case then Global will be the only show in town with the ability to pull from the expansive "soup to nuts" portfolio of Xerox with the help of an inexpensive fleet line like Sharp or to meet some special interests or needs with the sometimes very unique offerings of Konica Minolta.

It will be the only time in recent history where a manufacturer was ok with running like this. Canon would rather cut their arm off then let one of their businesses sell another manufactures product. In fact I have spoken to people at Canon that have been planning for months on what they are going to do with their new tool "Oce/Imagistics"

Look how they delt with IKON, they didnt take any time at all to cut IKON off and they were just a distributor. Ricoh was the same way but used a little better judgment in their timing and transition. We are seeing different leadership styles coming from each of the manufactures it will be interesting to see how it all plays out over time. From what I had heard the acquisition of Global was the only one where they increased their market share during and shortly after the acquisition. If true this shows strong leadership and good planning on both sides. The question still remains how long will this relationship continue and how will that play out for the folks at Global.

For now they run on their own P & L and to the beat of their own drummer. Only time will tell if this is a permanent arrangement or not.

Pirate Mike

In Search of Innovation Xerox joins the gang; and builds a new research facility in India.

Mar 17, 2010

Xerox Launches Innovation Hub in India

CHENNAI, India – A central concept behind "open innovation" is not only to have ideas yourself, but also to know where and when to learn from someone else. Xerox Corporation's (NYSE:XRX) new research facility – the Xerox India Innovation Hub – will bring together Xerox scientists and engineers with leading Indian academic institutions, research labs and industry partners. Its initial mission: develop document management solutions that are relevant to emerging market countries and contribute innovation to solutions and services delivery.

"The Xerox India Innovation Hub exemplifies our continued commitment to customers in the emerging markets," said Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group. "Creating a research facility in India allows us to make use of local knowledge and to extend that expertise to our global initiatives.""What is interesting about this is that outsourcing to India has been a common theme for quite a few years now. A highly educated workforce with a very low labor cost. We have seen our fortune 1000 outsource their IT to India, China, and the like; now even our greatest companies are sending out their research facilities. Now I don't think that Xerox has forsaken anyone at this juncture. They strategically need facilities all around the world to cover all of the areas that they serve this is just the newest one.

Both China and India have vied for US company's affection relative to outsourcing. In a very recent Forbes article, "China: $1 Billion And Ambition" by Rebecca Fannin, 03.19.10, 06:00 PM EDT What China is doing to become the world's outsourcing giant? She goes on to say in her commentary some of the efforts and hurdles that China has in their way. She mentions, "China's disadvantages compared with India are real, though. First, India has a natural advantage with English-language skills. Second, India is typically considered less risky when it comes to intellectual property protections. India also has an edge in managerial skills to tackle more high-end, technical projects." You can find her article at the above link.

Even with China's efforts and challenges India has been a first choice for outsourcers. Jack Welch opened a $130 million technology center in Bangalore India, which is GE's largest research and development center outside the US. "IBM Opens New Autonomic Computing Technology Center in India" ; as IBM joins the crowd and moves a research facility to India. IBM has research facilities all over the world, in their press release they state," The Autonomic Computing Technology Center is part of IBM's globally integrated approach to innovation -- a network of 63 major software development and research labs worldwide that develop, test and support a wide range of emerging and established technologies that span software and services."

As the world "shrinks" we will see the one world economy become more of a reality. As travel has become more efficient companies are quick to look outside of their bubble to see what new lands there are to conquer. Companies gravitate to emerging markets hoping to corner their share of the new found wealth and expansion.

Xerox is not new to building research facilities and collaborating with global academic institutions. Xerox produces a lot of patents. In my article "Amidst the slaughter rises Xerox Technology" I talk about Xerox Innovation which is well documented. It is one of the things about Xerox that that has always amazed me. This devotion to invention goes back to the acquisition of the discovery of the photo copier.

Chester Calson, "So who do we blame for this?" who was the one that started this "E Ticket" ride for us in the first place.

In 2009 Xerox brought the game to another level which I think we will see some of the fruit of that very soon. With On Demand and Graph Expo coming we are sure to see Xerox innovation first hand. Xerox patents were up 19% over 2008 which that had a staggering 600. In 2009 they logged in at 706 new patents. You can find more about 2009 accomplishments at "Xerox Patents Up 16% in 2009" Innovation is the key to survival in this industry. With companies pushing hard on companies like Xerox it has become a battle in the cage like we see in the ultimate fighting challenges.

2010 will be a very telling year for the office equipment industry. I think we should get a snapshot of what we are in for in the coming years. I am hoping this is a turning point for many of us. As the refugees start to find homes and things start to return to normal.

Hopefully the painful changes will be made at the begining of the year Q1 and we won't have any more scary announcements for the remainder of the year. After the initial round of annoucements I am hoping that all of the news will be about innovation and success stories and not about layoffs and more mergers.

I think that they may be a few surprising innovations that come from some forgotten players, but that is another article.


Happy Sale'ing…

Pirate Mike

11 days till… David meets Goliath; a fight that may define the end of IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS

In 11 days I will get tons of calls and emails from around the country on what new changes are being made inside of the Ricoh / IKON group. I have been listening to both sides of the house and have been hearing similar stories.


Unfortunately for those employees that still work there they do not sound good.


There have been rumors of huge layoffs and mass firings in store. It appears that these decisions are being looked at on an area by area basis. IKON has not been keeping up with the "Welch Way" of differentiation so there is bound to be more firings than layoffs. 

From what I'm being told there have already been some location closings/mergings in certain areas where it made sense. Some branch locations have scaled back or quit seeking new people all together. These have been kept very quiet as the worst has yet to come.

So what do we know so far of the story as it is unraveling? We know that there have been many "engagement issues" in which Ricoh sided with "Cain" We also know that the April 1st deadline (fiscal year) is coming upon us soon and Ricoh will not wait to "kill" IKON like they did with Lanier.

This is not a 5 year process!

The process is to merge the top level execs (already done and it appears that many of them came from IKON) and then to merge the back end processes (done) then to merge the sales forces and remove the chaff. (Starting to happen!)

What will we see?

Meetings with sales managers and local leadership on a market by market basis (Already Done) I am sure that they will dress it up as a "let's meet our neighbors" visit. I am sure that it will be very cordial. But what it really will be is a public display much like a title fight between heavyweight contenders! They will weigh in face each other and pose for a picture before the real Day of Atonement. I am sure they will make their merge decisions on an area by area basis.

There is a lot that is unknown, Ricoh has a lot of "purchased entities" in their back pocket and a lot of "intellectual property" that it has yet to release. One thing we know for sure is that they (Ricoh) has yet to make a unified group out of their acquired companies and has yet to create a soup to nuts product portfolio out of them. So anything can happen; so everything that we talk about here is just speculation.

In the end their can only be 1 Ricoh and 1 Ricoh Business Solutions and IKON which now is more of a RiKON than what people remember as IKON will soon be no more! Eventually Cain will kill Abel as he did more than 2000 years ago and the story will relive itself again.

I was miss-quoted the other day so I am making a re-post so that there is no misunderstanding.


If you look at my blog post which was posted at 9:05pm 01-13-2010 it clearly indicates that I am "on the market looking for a job." That blog can be found here: Pirate for hire! 


I am no longer in any way associated with IKON/Ricoh group.

If you are a shop owner or production manager and are seriously interested in the limitations that I ran into while placing this equipment I would be glad to answer your questions.

There are many successful C900 installations and soon to be C720 installations as well. But there are some limitations that need to be understood or your experience with this gear like all gear could become a nightmare.

There are many variables to consider when getting a production copier or digital press and I think I will dedicate an article specifically to that end.

This industry is where I make my living so I will keep some of my personal feelings to myself.


Pirate Mike

Mega Manufacturers – Canon and Oce; one more day, one step closer…

The office equipment industry has gone through several iterations of how they wanted to go about distributing their wares. From a simple direct from the manufacturer through an owned distribution and sales force to a myriad of convoluted multi-level channels and VAR's through a complicated series of licensing agreements.

Many times looking for partners that were not interested in selling their goods as a primary source of income as they didn't want to give deep enough discounts to actually compete in the market place against their direct organization or to create a newly formed competition in their industry. These "Value Added" partners were given the right to purchase product at a slight discount (like 15-20%) and were left to basically "throw in" the goods to create more impactful solutions with their core product. Many times the reseller doesn't even service or support the goods much like many of the resellers of bindery and finishing equipment.

 Although these arrangements sound great for both parties it eventually waters down the market with disenfranchised dealers of products they work twice as hard to find business for which in the end pay less than have as much. Since they are not on the same buying schedule as "Fully Authorized Sales and Service" dealers they do not get the same discounts and incentives to market the merchandise and in many cases the same level of support (if any). These arrangements do nothing but ultimately take the VAR's focus off of their core product.

The office equipment industry has tried this many times a notable agreement of this nature was the "On Demand" dealer program that Konica Minolta launched. The "On Demand" program was launched to dealers of other products say a Fully Authorized Canon Dealership to fill a hole in the product line that Canon didn't have which at the time was the "light production color" arena. The dealer would not have high capital investments to get started which appealed to dealers that didn't want to be a full line dealer but needed a quick shot in the arm in one area. These dealers jumped on the 'light requirements' only to find out that they would not have the proficiency to sell and service the product and truly be able to compete against the "real dealers" and the direct outlet and win. These "On Demand" dealers were buying relabeled Konica Minolta equipment and selling directly against Konica Minolta Direct and Dealers that were far better suited to market the product. This arrangement was quickly cancelled by Konica Minolta once they realized that this was not the way they wanted their product sold and serviced.

 In the end it only served to water down the market places with inexpensive deals sold as the newly formed "On Demand" dealers had inventory that they needed to turn and were not savvy enough to sell with margin so the local Direct and Dealer Channel ended up getting hit in the head with inappropriately priced deals by a desperate channel. This was during the great expansion when each manufacturer had many channels and multi level agreements and heavily weighed these channels against their direct operations.

 Now we have the pendulum swinging the other way where Ricoh went back to huge dealer channels and bought them back to be able to shore up the level of service and support that their customers were getting. The Lanier purchase was an example of this "channel repurchasing." Canon which lived by the dealership channel has taken some serious blows to the head and pocket book and is now "joining the club" in respect to being more responsible for their own success. The level of support they have dedicated to their own group has doubled or tripled compared to the level of support that they give their best and largest dealers. Minolta didn't have much of a dealer channel but Konica did so the merge of Konica-Minolta added hundreds of new "competitors" to markets that only had one source of "micro toner." This created new issues for reps that walked up to signing tables and had to answer why the 3 bids came back for the same product and all the prices were different!

 Now manufacturers want to control their own destiny and are bringing full line solutions to the table themselves cutting out as many VAR's and alternate channels as possible so that they can have a tight grip on the bottom line and ultimate control of the customer's destiny. These relationships are hard to manage when there are so many partners involved that no one wants to take ownership of an incompatibility. No one wants to go back to the drawing board and rewrite firmware.

Canon took its first step by making their offer for Oce. This was first announced January 28^th 2010 with a public press release.

"28 January 2010— With reference to the joint press releases of Canon Inc. (trading symbol CAJ) ("Canon") and Océ N.V. (trading symbol OCE) ("Océ") of 16 November 2009 and 14 December 2009, Canon Finance Netherlands B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon (the "Offeror") and Océ hereby jointly announce that the Offeror is making a fully self-funded, public cash offer for all the issued and outstanding ordinary shares with a nominal value of EUR 0.50 each in the capital of Océ (the "Shares") at an offer price of EUR 8.60 in cash per Share (the "Offer").

• Canon made this offer unconditional with its press release March 4^th and set a time limit for the "post-acceptance period" which ends March 19^th.

 Canon has been making plans on what to do with this "new acquisition" rumor has it they will stay in their normal form and immediately cut off all sales of other manufacturers products which adversely affects Konica Minolta being an OEM for sister company Imagistics for some time now. Konica Minolta has already terminated their relationship with Oce for the Black and White "big iron" and has moved forward with their own platforms. Rumor also has it that Konica Minolta has been working on an IBM relationship for roll fed devices. It will be interesting to see how Canon divide up their new purchase and how much "Oce" do they keep for themselves and how much do they let sit as acquired "intellectual property."

• Either way they will be on their way to becoming the next Mega-Manufacturer.

Happy Sail'ing

InfoPrint introduces a the new InfoPrint Pro C900AFP color cutsheet printer; Ricoh is full of surprises and names... What will happen to AFP and those that live by it?

I ran into an interesting press release:

Boulder, Colo. – March 9, 2010
InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh today announced that its InfoPrint Pro C900AFP color cutsheet printer is now available with support for PostScript®, Adobe® PDF and Personalized Printer Markup Language (PPML™). The InfoPrint Pro C900AFP is offered in addition to the award-winning InfoPrint Pro C900 printer and offers added flexibility for color transactional and Print On-Demand (POD) users in data centers, service bureaus and direct mail operations.

In the press release they go to say:
"Customers can now use the PPML datastream to create personalized, variable content color pages to maximize the effectiveness of customer communications while PostScript and Adobe PDF are vital tools for POD jobs, such as manuals, booklets and presentations.

The InfoPrint Pro C900AFP is a full color device that can be used for both transactional and POD applications. It offers customers an easy transition to an environment that supports applications that expand the smart use of color. It replaces the traditional approach of combining monochrome output devices with offset printing to produce invoices, statements or direct mail pieces that are commingled and mailed.

This latest InfoPrint Pro C900AFP model also features the InfoPrint Job Ticket Editor, an external application integrated into Windows and Macintosh drivers. This robust, easy-to-use JDF-based job ticketing tool enables the end user to create simple or complex fully-finished PostScript or PDF documents. Set-up entries include the ability to add covers, insert tabs and select finishing options such as ring binder, perfect binder and booklet maker, all of which help avoid the need for offline finishing."

What is great about this new front end is it is now "plug and play" into a lot of transactional environments. This really has been missing in many "light production" or "fast plastic" models. And I am sure that this front end can inter operate with InfoPrint's other cut sheet/roll fed models that may also be in the same organization giving them precise control on how to distribute the workload. Having the ability to "cluster print" and "load balance" has been attempted by a lot of front ends but many times goes under utilized in most organizations. This can be especially critical in print environments that have "short print windows." Say in the example of billing statements.

It will be interesting to see what Ricoh does come June 1st when IBM leaves the partnership! How well with everyone get along? Will Cain and Able get to work with Infoprint and sell the "big iron?"

They are not far away from having total control over InfoPrint so it will be interesting to see how much development they do with this part of their business and how to they market it on a go forward basis? Do they merge the PPBG with IKON's Production team and put them all under InfoPrint? Or do they create a new production organization all together and move the tools into that basket. I doubt that they want to loose the brand equity that they have in InfoPrint as it took a while to build it.

It is interesting to see how many flavors of the C900 that will come out before fixing what is broken! The C900 is better suited to the datacenter environment where unusual substrates are not used. This is the only place that I had success with this engine. In environments where the substrates are limited and controlled this device makes a lot of sense.

Would it make sense to merge IKON under InfoPrint? InfoPrint has support for the true data center environment and has the respect of the industry as a trusted leader not a rogue pirate like IKON?

Keep Tuned...

InfoPrint Solutions Company, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, brings to market the advantages IBM and Ricoh have in the development, manufacturing, marketing and building of strategic solutions for customers, creating a growth-oriented global enterprise that is strategically focused on the output market. For more information go to www.infoprint.com

Ricoh – IKON; Canon – Oce; Konica Minolta – Danka; Xerox – Global Imaging; Can You Say “World of Uncertainty?”

In an industry that is collapsing into a few very powerful mega manufactures it leaves an uneasy feeling in the minds of many salespeople that call this business their own. With the Canon-Oce purchase moving forward this brings some "heavy iron" that Canon desperately needs in its arsenal. The Kodak relationship with Canon surely is being undermined by the Ricoh – IKON acquisition. IKON was 60% of Canon's distribution network and placed most of the KODAK "heavy iron" and has been able to keep that piece of the business intact. Kodak at least locally has let go almost all of their sales force. In a market segment that is not conducive to "over the phone" selling; Kodak doesn't have the bandwidth to really market their big iron Digimasters/NexPresses. I think it is hard to believe that with such a coverage model that they can be successful. It almost appears that they are hoping that the Ricoh – IKON relationship will move the hardware for them.

I could see in the very near future Kodak divesting from their Digimaster and NexPress technology and selling that portion of the business to Ricoh. Canon will soon move away from their platform as they develop their own hardware that meets the higher end of the spectrum anyway. Now with the Oce B/W heavy iron they will no longer need the Digimaster technology in their portfolio. This will leave KODAK very vulnerable and weak with no way to move their hardware. What makes sense is that KODAK deal with the software and solutions end (which is the most profitable) and leave the hardware up to Ricoh they have a distribution network for their products that they cannot afford to create themselves. I think KODAK will retain the patents and continue to manufacture the hardware but I do not think they are being very successful moving it. Or maybe they sell off the entire division to Ricoh. Ricoh has deep enough pockets to take it over and the economy of scale to actually make money with the science. They will revamp the lines and come up with a new pricing structure that will give the NexPress some teeth.

With Black and White volumes decreasing the need for Digimaster type products is declining as the fast plastic gets more reliable and "self serviceable. " Xerox and Ricoh have perfected the art of getting the user to replace the majority of the simple parts. Digimaster type products require very skilled and expensive technicians. The Digimaster may go away completely not handing the substrates that are required today and never developing their image quality over 600 x 600 dpi. It will be interesting to see if Ricoh just takes the NexPress and leaves the Digimaster to die a slow death as they have some high speed black and white technology that will handle these volumes. Surely it will save them money if they can just purchase the piece that they need (high end color) and leave the black and white to their developers/engineers as they already own some of the technology to do datacenter printing. Konica Minolta is quickly developing their own "Black and White Big Iron" as they have no choice.

Xerox is the only manufacture that has the whole thing covered soup to nuts. Canon & Konica Minolta will come in second place with a close fit for most applications. Ricoh still has some terrible gaps in the mid and production color. With the C900 being only 2 bit color and the fact that many stocks won't even allow the toner to fuse to the paper it just isn't a very good option for anyone that wants better than mediocre business color at high speeds. IKON has done a great job trying to convince people that it is "ok" to be average. Talk tracks of close registration (which it will do) and productivity (only if you can get the toner to stick) are their battle cries. Now with a Creo controller and a robust Fiery Q-Series server only adds to the anguish of how much can you do with so little? I do believe that the kinks will be worked out in the second round of the machine which promises to be built around a new engine that will not use pulverized toner and fuser oil as its base technology but come up to this century with an engine that can use a polymerized toner like its slower office counterparts.

Once the Mega-Manufacturers settle down the rest of the Sharps, Toshibas etc will either go away mad or just go away! I do not think that they have the ability to rush into the market with robust product lines. Maybe I'm wrong and there will be a place for the Kyocera fleet machines. I just see leaving the production equipment an opportunity to lose the fleet. I was once told "own the head and the body will follow." If you have a Kyocera or Sharp fleet but use Canon in the marketing department and in the print shop and probably in billing and statements or the datacenter how long will it take for them to undermine your position in the fleet? More than likely not long…

Now that we have the newest "Gold Rush;" MPS is providing dealers and manufacturers alike a new toy to play with for a while until it becomes the next new commodity on the block. I am interested to see how this all pans out. Everyone is in turmoil. Xerox is trying to figure out how to "eat the elephant" that they bought both in ACS and Global, while Ricoh takes their medicine trying to keep down the sour grapes that they got with Ikon. Konica Minolta has survived the arsenic that they consumed with their acquisition of Danka, and we have yet to see how Canon will do trying to control the mad house that is Oce/Imagistics.

Wow a 4 ring circus now all we need is a master of ceremonies or a ring leader! What fun it is to be a big iron salesman these days!

Pirate Mike