Graphic Arts Monthly Closed; what in the world is going on?

I have been hearing about the closure for a while but it just hit me how long I have been reading GAM. And really how much I learned by keeping in touch through the trade journals.

This memo was posted on their website

"Graphic Arts Monthly has closed


No additional print issues will be published, and this web site will close on April 30, 2010.


RBI Staff -- Graphic Arts Online, April 16, 2010
Our parent company, Reed Elsevier, announced in July of 2009 its intentions to substantially exit its Reed Business Information-US publishing business, while retaining specific businesses. Over the past several months, multiple publishing brands were divested. As of April 16, 2010, the remaining publishing brands and their associated products and services have closed.


As a result Graphic Arts Monthly has closed. No additional print issues will be published, and this web site will close on April 30, 2010.


For a full list of the brands that have been closed, the brands that have been retained, and the brands that have sold, please see the Reed Business Information-US corporate web site at http://www.reedbusiness.com/us.


We are proud of the role we have played in helping our loyal readers, advertisers and partners. Thank you for your support.


-- Reed Business Information-US"

I can remember when I was just getting started in this business, I signed up for everything. I was receiving 10-15 different trade journals a month and became a student of the business. It was a great way to see new products and equipment come out and a way to stay in touch with the industry from a national perspective. I do realize that there are plenty of online sources but many of them do not have the editorial content and journalists to keep up with the content collection and creation. It is a very sad day when we don't support our own industry. The magazines were created for us; they kept us in tune with what was going on. I for one am saddened to see so much turmoil in the printing and publishing industry. I guess all that will be left are a few national conglomerates, and handful of quick printers and a bounty of web programmers.


I hope that people can look forward and not lose hope as we move through a tough time in our economy and an awkward time in our industry. The digital age does not mean less print it just means we are creating it differently. As an industry we must keep on top of the changes and support those allied industries that do this "compiling" for us so that we can tend to the production work at hand. The shows, the magazines are all part of our industry we need to support them as they rely on us for their livelihood. Just as we rely on our customers to keep coming back and being loyal to us.


Pirate Mike

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

RiKON The Next Generation

It sounds a bit like an old Star Trek episode but really this is my life. With all of the instability in the world what could happen that would bring all the stars into alignment, fix the global economy and solve world hunger? How about Ricoh making a play for the largest independent distributor of office products and solutions maybe? Ok maybe not… So you think that you had it all figured out huh, Konica Minolta buys Danka, Xerox buys Global. And maybe since IKON was almost a billion dollars of Canon's yearly equipment revenue that they would forsake the path that they followed with Global Imaging and Danka; well you were wrong! I can remember it like it was yesterday, "No Canon will never cut IKON off, that is ludicrous." Much to IKON's and Ricoh's dismay, Canon did pull the plug and sent Ricoh (the father of a brand new baby) reeling looking for a new horse to ride for the high end color and black and white portion of IKON's production portfolio (a 25% share of IKON's revenue). Watching this unravel (from the inside) was enough to send you to the doctor looking for a well deserved prescription of Xanex. Well thank goodness for Ricoh's Kodak relationship now we can all rest easy right?


In a playing field that is less than well defined it is funny where new bed partners come from. Just picking up Kodak sounds good but is not that easy to implement especially over night. Kodak is a very high end and expensive digital press not just in up front acquisition costs but also in day to day operating costs not to mention that it requires a much more skilled operator to run and make repairs. IKON with all of its production experience isn't going to jump in and start doing service on the NexPRESS and service is where it is at in the business model of the office equipment world. So now what? Hmm, well maybe the new Hitachi technology that they have buried into their new flagship product the Ricoh Pro C900 (Digital Press, Production Copier – What do I call it?) will be enough to stave off the bitter reveling of Canon. Either way just putting the Kodak label on portfolio brochures is not going to stop the bleeding. Especially when you have cut a main artery like in the case of IKON and Canon. IKON sold about 60% Canon products in a very well defined market place where over the last years IKON went around buying up successful dealerships that were primarily Canon in nature.


So now the acquisition is over and we approach the first milestone. What is that you say? Well since you asked it is the beginning of Ricoh's new fiscal year of course. Here comes 2009 fast and furious. So what is in store for IKON in this broad new world of opportunity? Will they remain ran as an independent subsidiary? Will they get quickly absorbed into the belly of the beast? With the changing of the guard from a political standpoint and the evolution of our economy it is anyone's guess. As companies draw lines in the sand and build alliances with other competitors either by acquisition or by contract we start to see the battle grounds becoming more defined. Now that the great expansion is over and we see the number of competitors collapse into a 3 or 4 player race; we now are starting to see the mystery unfold.


The new mission of RiKON is to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations. In my humble opinion this new world of RiKON is very well positioned for the midterm play. Why midterm you ask? Because RiKON is a large organization and they really cannot move and adapt that quick. I watched the launch of the Canon imagePRESS both from the outside (small Canon dealer that was first to market with the imagePRESS in the country's 7^th largest print market and from the inside as a newly head hunted acquisition of IKON to their newly formed commercial print initiative (which was 6 months late to market) and watched IKON take quite a bit of time ramping the program up to the monster that it became. Between defining the goals of the organization and the tools to hand out along with push back from local operations and management it was amazing that the program lifted off at all. IKON has a way of taking strong salespeople and administrating them to death. I wonder daily how I ever find time for sales activities in the midst of my spreadsheets and conference calls. But they do have the momentum of figuring out how they want to position their "go to market strategy" though which still makes them very dangerous; much like a wounded water buffalo one must be ready to pull the trigger or get out of the way.


The imagePRESS's successor the Pro C900 is a Hitachi engine (obtained from the Ricoh purchase of Hitachi Printing Systems) with a Ricoh wrapper (fast plastic B2C look and feel). It has obvious Ricoh influences though, odd finishing configurations and odd substrate limitations that are very familiar with typical B2C products. Without time to finish the development Ricoh opted not to use a polymer toner but to use the old fashioned fuser oil process and the slow down the engines speed capability to build it to a price point. This fusing process is the one that we have over the years come to know and love. For the old timers this should bring back fond memories, as many have come to love the glossy, greasy get out your shammy cloth and buff the proof look. Outside of that, the engine has a very good color gamut (very similar to the imagePRESS) and has 8 bit color depth at the 600X600 dpi setting. (Unlike Canon's "multi bit" technology) The engine has remarkable front to back registration and clearly shows that Ricoh is "on to something." A very strong competitor to the Xerox Docucolor series it will challenge and even beat the imagePRESS where its few obvious weaknesses are not the main consideration. Upon a more detailed look the Hitachi influence is pretty obvious. The registration system is something that closer resembles something off of an offset press not a copier, and the systems that monitor quality are obvious improvements "not Ricoh." From beefed up rollers and mechanisims inside the outer wrapper is purely cosmetic. With expanded controller options in the near future and the ability to incorporate all of Ricoh's finishing options this will be a horse to ride in an economy where people want more for less and sellable is good enough.


With Ricoh moving into the production arena full steam, backing this movement not just with the acquisition but in a total refresh of IKON demo floors, infrastructure, finances and personnel. With strong incentives to stay and see the changes through RiKON is positioned themselves to make strong moves on Canon and Xerox as the new product takes hold in the market place. Also for those elite customers that need NexPRESS or Digimaster they will have that to choose from as well as the IBM infoprint roll to roll systems that at the moment is a joint venture soon to be another wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh are also on the menu. Now with their PPBG (Ricoh production print business group) and IKON (a real production print equipment and solutions distribution system) Ricoh for the first time has some products to sell and a way to market and support them on a global basis.


How long will this take? My guess after watching the launch of the imagePRESS and seeing the state of the C900 today I am thinking that things will be in place to move forward for a strong play by Q3 or Q4 of Ricoh's 2009 fiscal. Also watch for a faster and a slower C900 along with firmware coming shortly to integrate all options on their mid volume line to fit the C900. This will give the C900 a dominant opportunity in the in plant and crd space given its specs and price point.


Where will it all fit in commercial print? We will have to see how everyone perceives the C900. With open houses going on around the country, and very critical trials being pursued as we speak; some of the country's largest buyers of digital printing equipment are trying this new Hitachi technology out. Once they make their decision we will have a clear idea of how well we are going to fare this round. Ricoh with enough stamina and finances to get through several boxing rounds gives me the impression that they will get to see the fulfillment of their new objective. "Become a player in the print for pay and high volume market." With Konica Minolta running tight on Ricoh's heels and niche players poised to be gobbled up by someone for example like Oce it is still anyone's race. And what if Xerox decides to drop this AP platform that is just an extension of worn out technology the race could renew yet again. Although pay close attention though as IKON restructures it may take the focus off of those that understand the production world (those that sold and serviced the Canon's) and replace them with new inexperienced followers of the Ricoh line (mfp, fax and b2c color devices) as part of a realignment that might make sense to someone that has been staring at spreadsheets too long.


It is hard to say how long Ricoh will allow the rogue IKON to continue selling multi brands and non focus products but it clear that nothing drastic is going to change in the short term. Everyone is still trying to convince themselves that it is "business as usual." And in an economic and political time like this makes this whole discussion even more interesting. Canon is still dizzy from trying to figure out how they are going to replace 400 locations and how much they are willing to drain out of their large cash reserves to "buy back" customers that chose Canon products and specifically picked IKON as their service provider; they have a tough row to hoe. If one looks at other mergers to glimmer a bit of history one remembers that Global did not lose the farm but instead grew their market share and did quite well after the Xerox acquisition. RiKON could very well come out stronger than ever. Unlike the Danka purchase by Konica Minolta. (I would guess that the danka.konicaminolta.us will quickly change to kmbs.konicaminolta.us as they have no need for the extra dead weight and reputation that Danka has earned over the years.)


I was there for the Minolta and Konica merger and survived it (2 President's Club Trips and 1 Circle of Excellence Trip) so I know how step children are treated. They are managed to success or simply managed out. With mostly the "Minolta Management Style" left they are a very shrewd and focused group led by a Konica visionary (Jun H.) they will drive hard till they reach their business objective which is to become a "Tier 1 Player." Konica Minolta will press on till they move over one of the Gartner's "4 leaders" or knock one out of the game completely. That was their new mantra as I left to chase the Canon imagePRESS product which now has done a vanishing act from my portfolio.


Gartner has Konica Minolta as a challenger and that they truly are. With a very different "to market approach" they are not part of the "leaders" group of thinking (Canon/Xerox/Ricoh/HP). They are very much out of the box and are non traditionalists that could become a wild card in this program; they are not to be taken lightly. With their 90 ppm engine to be out soon the playing ground will level once again and they will be competing from a position of strength stepping up from their current production platform which has done very well in office, in plant and print for pay markets (both commercial print and franchise print).


As I look at my options which are still considerable (enough to keep me with a headache all the time) I am not sure that I see a clear leader to "jump" to. I suspect that as I look at the different organizations that no one has a truly superior program to the one that IKON has put together and the one that RiKON has adopted. What I have seen is a clear indication from Japan that they intend to move into this brave new world that their direct group was unable to accomplish. Now with IKON in hand they can boldly go where they have never gone before.


So what does the future look like?


Muddy and troubled for everyone in this industry. But for those that are brave enough to stick out this new world of RiKON they will be quick to learn the new vision; we are on a 5 year mission to travel out to distant zip codes, and to seek out new customers, and to boldly sell what no one has sold before. We tip our hats to you Mr. C900 may your silicone oil flow through our veins and your "green" pulverized toner sustain us, and your plethora of finishing options take us to the promised land.


Amen


Just another personal opinion from Pirate "Big Iron" Mike…


(May the rate factor be with you and your credit analyst be "on vacation")

Of Pirates and Digital Printing…

Of Pirates and Digital Printing you say, well that is the story of my life; this I make a conscious decision to unravel for you. Though there are many that would try to convince you otherwise the question still remains is the industry that surrounds document imaging equipment a noble profession? Every day I watch salespeople draw their swords and banter back and forth over territory squabbles, commission debates and the prospects in their pond. For the love of money this too is the reason that technology has overtaken such a noble industry like commercial printing. From what was once a simple and majestic art, created by the skilled hands of artisans taught by their fathers and their fathers alike. Now just the hum of electronic circuit boards and the flow of powered ink that spills upon blank pages are monitored by the children of a new generation. Pulverized, polymerized, organic, chemical, toner now called by many "dry ink" comes in many shapes and sizes but one thing remains the same; we will charge you many ways for it to lie down on your beautiful blank pages.

This is a story of the death of a noble art and a young man's desire to learn to harness the power of the printed word and to capture the impact of color and visual symbology. This young man was Pirate Mike and this is his story...

It was the summer of 1990 and we had recently moved to Oklahoma from Bellingham, Washington. My mother was volunteering for a local church that was lightly staffed and was looking for any and all help to help spread the good word. With an X386 computer, a 300 dpi laser printer and a $29 copy of print shop deluxe or something similar they had to find a way to create a church newsletter.

My mother had been a part of the high school newspaper and had done some free lance writing for a local paper back home, but putting together a church newsletter was not really her expertise. With most of the material being written by church staff what she did know is that it was going to involve that X386 PC and that she did know; she knew nothing about.

When questioned my mother boldly said, "Well if it involves a computer I'm sure my son can figure it out." I can still remember the day when I was handed about 5 type written pages that had been typed by an electronic typewriter and was sat down in front of was at the time a behemoth of a personal computer. Approximately 48 hours later, 4 clip art books, 1 floppy disk full of 5 or 6 fonts and the use of a flatbed scanner at a local print shop the first issue of the church newsletter was almost complete.

After a marathon of sweat, blood and tears I was then given the task to get this grand publication printed and in 2 color no doubt (black and an odd pms color). After about 50 phone calls and numerous visits to local print shops a deal was struck and a deadline given we were well on our way to having a finished product. The church was awakened by this new communication that had been handed out that morning before service. And somewhere before the "you are released" and after the offering it was mentioned that we have Sandee's son to thank for the newsletter. It wasn't but several weeks later that I started to get a bit of attention over the work being done on the church newsletter.

I can still remember one Sunday after service when a man walked up and asked me if I could do some business cards for him. Design, print and deliver was the task he needed me to complete. At the end I handed him 500 business cards and he preceded to hand me some money, I told him that I really wasn't a graphic designer and didn't feel comfortable taking his money. He said, "You did the job that I would have given to another and this money you deserve." I graciously took the money, and inside was very grateful as at the time I had no gainful employment.

It was not long before I really didn't have time to get a job I was way too busy doing design and brokering print to several local print shops. Business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures and marketing pieces; little did I know that this new found skill would carry me over the next couple of decades. I finally went to a local technical school and took some adobe classes and an offset printing operations class so that I would have a stronger foundation for working with printers and be able to speak their new found language.

Eventually I did leave the world as a print broker and designer to work behind the presses in print shops all over Tulsa Oklahoma. Old beaten down equipment I had run it all; from setting lead type in chases for a 100 year old windmill letterpress to stripping up negatives with rubylith for exposure plate making. I received a lot of practical experience in the darkroom shooting halftones and line work, and in my off hours would practice at a friend's shop just paying for the materials that I used. After several years doing paste up and every menial job that can be found in a print shop I got my first break. I had worked through most of the small format duplicators (AB Dick, Hamada, Chief, Multilith, Ryobi, Davidson to name a few) and had worked my way up to a second pressman working on a 40" 6 color Kamori learning the art of high end color work for Roger's Lithographic when I got a call from my placement service. They needed to place a temp to perm spot in a small town called Dewy Oklahoma about an hour north of Tulsa.

It turns out that this new process had just come out this new thing called "digital printing." And this new company Indigo has created one of the first digital presses the E Print 1000. Now considering that only about 400 of these presses had been sold worldwide it was going to be a challenge. One I had to move to Dewey, then I had to learn the electro-mechanics of a copier as this was the basis for the platform. This small format press had to have sapphire coated papers and at the time there were about 6 papers that we could use. The company was Central States Business Forms and was the 17h largest continuous forms printer in North America. They were getting ready to try their hand at Digital Printing and I was chosen to learn the madness.

After 6 months of training and many months of trials and tribulations they disbanded the project all together and sent us all home. I don't know what happened to the 2 Indigos that they bought but it was a turning point in my understanding of printing and the future possibilities of digital printing. I came home and started to work for ABC Printing in Coweta. Over time I had gained some respect with the owner and we had even talked about setting up a second shop in Tulsa that someday I could own through "sweat equity." This had always been my dream to have my own shop and to further my knowledge of printing.

I have always been a rebel and found myself taking unusual paths to follow my dreams. A pirate if you will. The word Pirate comes from the Greek word peira. The Greek word πείρα (peira) means assay, trial, attempted, or experienced. Pirates were and are entrepreneurs. They lived very democratically and paid close attention to their crews. They lived by "articles" or rules, many of which we have adopted today. They offered workers compensation should they get injured while following the common goals of the ship. I have always followed my heart and a day came when I got the opportunity to work for a wildlife sanctuary that lured me away from my dreams of printing.

After about a 4 year sabbatical from printing taming the likes of Tigers and Bears Oh My, (Another story entirely) I came back to printing but in a different capacity, "Equipment Sales." My first job would set me up for what would become an infamous ride and new career beginning. Now while apprenticing at Minolta I was to truly learn the art of piracy and what it meant to be truly a corporate pirate. While under the tutelage of Zack Jones, sales manager for Minolta soon to become Konica Minolta I was to learn the art of sales and the 7 deadly sins of a copier salesman, up front, close and personal. Here is where I made my first 6 figure income. No education, No experience, just the drive to make things happen and enough common sense to listen and learn a new way of living.

Konica Minolta had 2 branches Dallas and Fort Worth; I worked for the Fort Worth branch and quickly learned that we were a merry band of "thieves." Not allowed to pirate in the building, but was given free rein on anything and anyone that was not "in the building." This is where I learned my art; this is where I earned my title. Stealing business from competitors became the battle cry. Never left behind we all made our president club trips and even set sail on the high seas on a circle of excellence trip on the Royal Caribbean ship "enchanted seas." Konica Minolta had been a good master and provided me more than just an education they had provided me a strong 6 figure income and a pirate's home.

Digging for pain and anything else that we could add up to create a compelling business reason to buy, buy now and buy big! Here I learned the art of piracy! Over the years at Konica Minolta I quickly learned that big copiers hit quotas quicker and were the "sexier" of sales. I quickly went to selling what I knew, "printers." I moved into the production print specialist role which was a new position with the company and then after my promotion I came to an impasse. I had made more money as a down the street rep then fighting the good fight with printers for large sales with low margins. Becoming the hunter I had given up a gravy customer base and large MIF to take on the impossible and sell entry level production color and black and white copiers to printers that would ultimately destroy the equipment and push it way beyond what anyone at Konica Minolta thought it would do. Dealing with hard to get credit approved and very high maintenance customers became my passion. Keeping a cell phone close and answering at 8pm or on a Saturday afternoon became a way of life.

From the Minolta C900, to the 3102 and the C5001/8050 soon to be a force in the light weight production equipment Konica Minolta was quick to learn from mistakes and reengineer what had to be done to garner a position with the big boys, Canon and Xerox. Needing a stronger income and more opportunity I kept my eyes open. I was passed up for an entry level sales management position and was refused a transfer to keep up with my mentor Zack and his career progression (Branch Manager of the Austin Branch). I left Konica Minolta to take a Color Systems Specialist position with the 2^nd largest independent Canon Dealer Datamax to sell the soon to be released imagePRESS and the Konica Minolta production equipment as a newly formed On Demand Publisher Dealer. Well I started at the end of 2007 the imagePRESS hadn't been released and Datamax was not yet authorized to sell the Konica Minolta equipment. As a result I wasted a lot of time and energy while waiting for these 2 events to happen. Thinking in error that they would have an established production base I again was fooled into the lure of "Big Iron" and "Big Money." 10 Months of struggling and with the new understanding that I could not be competitive in the Commercial Printing market at such a small dealer with very ridged ways I had to again make a choice.

What lured me to Datamax was the idea that a smaller company could react quicker to a local market and be more competitive as we could make decisions "on the ground." What I found out is that as a smaller company they did not have the resources to support such complex solutions and high volume clients. I found that it is much more about power and control as there is little to go around. Things were not as they seemed and they proved to be ineffective with inappropriate margins in a vertical market that demands the best price and the most labor intensive service. With 4 other Canon Dealers in the market selling the same product and a dozen Konica Minolta dealers differentiation was almost impossible unless you truly could talk the talk and come up with business solutions that addressed production problems and enabled printers to make more money and quicker. Unable to compete I started to get nervous, should I have left Konica Minolta? Maybe I should have taken the income hit and just waited things out; surely another promotional opportunity would have come my way if I had stayed.

Spending many hours every day working with the new Canon imagePRESS that we had on our demo floor I was beginning to build up my skill set for the next level in my production sales career. Now hitting the ground running I was making my way around town with this new challenger to the world of production "big iron." I could see that the imagePRESS was my future; now I just needed a company that I could sell for that could support it and be competitive in a market that IKON proved that commoditization was just a good place to start.

Quickly making an appearance on the commercial printing scene soon I became a recently acquired asset for the newly created commercial print initiative for IKON Office Solutions. Now selling the Canon imagePRESS, the Konica Minolta production equipment relabeled as IKON gear and the Kodak Digimaster black and white production gear relabeled as Canon IR 110/125/138/150's. I had truly made it. Selling the "Big Iron" to big companies with the knowledge that I wouldn't be beat on price. Bringing with me my well refined pirate ways now with one more shtick in my repertoire I came on board and started down a long road. Now divorced from my wife and companion for 10 years, and living aboard a French Sailing Vessel I had about created enough "unusualness" to make anyone nervous. Now the new guy again, Pirate Mike came aboard the IKON ship and started to do damage. Getting involved in the PIA and participating in every training session that came along I prepared to do battle with HP, Kodak, Xerox, Oce and Konica Minolta. Along with the normal cast of Offset characters that now were fighting for floor space in the print shop in this new age of digital printing. We sponsored the 2008 Dallas Digital Printing Conference, the Nolan Moore Golf Tournament benefiting the PIA educational scholarship fund, we showed up anywhere people would let us. Banging our chests and beating our drums we walked to the beat of a different drummer.

Starting a new company with new products I went to work. Having to start from scratch, creating my own list and fighting for any printer that might have potential I had to fight local account executives as well as major account reps. No one wanted to give up anything, keeping anyone that had ever mentioned that they might buy from IKON I ended up with whatever everyone wanted to discard. Selling into the Franchises and Commercial printers was not going to be an easy task even with a company as big as IKON. After about 10 months of taking names and placing many imagePRESS units, we heard the news. IKON was to be acquired by Ricoh and the imagePRESS would be shortly going away. My now well developed pipeline started to look like a white elephant. With this knowledge I stood and stared at the wall of my cube. Do I just jump ship? Or just jump out the window of our 3^rd story floor? Do I run as many have and will? Should I quickly look at my options and find a new master?

Ricoh knew what she was purchasing; pirates are what she needed and pirates are what she got. Now with new bounties in place most of the experienced sailors stayed aboard and paid respect to a new captain. New ship, new crew and new guns we went to war under a new flag. Ricoh did not have the footprint that IKON had, nor did she have the production experience or talent in sales, service or professional services to do service to any new innovations that she would bring to market. Without a way to sell and market such new inventions they would be rendered useless and of no effect in such a competitive landscape. Their own PPBG (Production Print Business Group) had been in existence for several years with no justice being served. It was now IKON's chance to shine and shine she will.

Well the merger came and went and the "business as usual" statements got quite old but everyone's fears that IKON would fall apart and that people would move to CBS or another Canon dealer quickly faded. As crew we just kept tabs on what was going on and just made sure that we "held on tight" as this was going to be Mr. Toads wild ride for sure. Trying to learn about our new master and the products which we were surely going to half to sell the job became learning the Ricoh story and taking a close look at the products that they have brought to bear.

Now we stand before the door with swords drawn and with a new tool of destruction and we are ready to wield it. The Ricoh Pro C900 Color Production System new to the market and a new name all together in the production print arena. Loaded with goodies from another (Hitachi Printing Systems – designer of many production print engines) this newly Ricoh wrapped treat has to earn its place in the production world along others that have been doing this for generations. So what does the future hold for the pirates of digital printing? Keep reading to find out only time will tell…

"Our voyages are very short in comparison to the time we spend telling the stories that come from them." – Pirate Mike