The Death of "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhnnnn...!"

Khan Noonien Singh and Corinthian leather...

Ricardo Montalban, TV Star and Chrysler Pitchman, Dies at 88-

Detroit - 30 below, 10 inches of snow, mayor in jail, Lions the biggest losers in NFL history, auto plants shuttering everywhere, GM "Generous Motors" begging the likes of Barney Frank for money, and now, Cordoba's biggest fan passes.

Forever aboard the Reliant surfing the Genesis Effect...

Konica Minolta Diving Head First Into MPS - Make that OPS

Press Release

ORLANDO, Fla. - (Business Wire) Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop, today announced its Optimized Print Services (OPS) program, an innovative new managed print services offering that saves customers time and money by revolutionizing how they manage their printers assets.

The fully customized one-stop print services solution – part of the Konica Minolta Business Intelligence Services initiative – is an effective strategy designed to help customers better monitor, measure and manage printers and Multifunctional Products (MFPs). The OPS program enables organizations to be far more efficient by:

* Fully controlling their entire printing environment
* Conserving resources and ongoing maintenance costs
* Streamlining unknown costs associated with all MFPs, All-in-Ones (AIOs), and printers throughout an organization

Historically printers have been viewed as an IT-sourced product while MFPs have been sourced through procurement or administrative functions within the company. This often results in higher costs and unnecessary strain on IT helpdesk.

Konica Minolta uses a range of assessment tools to fully understand volume, typical and peak usage patterns and sources of print within an organization, then develops a strategy to maximize the efficiency of print devices being used.

“At a time when organizations around the globe are tightening their belts and are faced with deep economic challenges, Konica Minolta’s Optimized Print Services program not only reduces total cost of ownership, but allows customers to get the most mileage out of each of their printing assets,” said Rick Taylor, Senior Executive Vice President and COO, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc. “With the introduction of OPS, we are making printing as seamless as possible so that our customers can focus on their core business goals.”

The OPS program, driven largely by customer demand, leverages the opt-WORKFLOW model to provide all necessary services required to control output costs based on business needs. The four modules that comprise opt-WORKFLOW are as follows:

* opt-MONITOR assesses your current printing environment, provides timely proactive maintenance and ongoing assessment and optimization.

* opt-ANALYZE creates a cost-per-print plan covering consumables and service;

* opt-VISUALIZE develops a road map to replace outdated or inefficient hardware;

* opt-MANAGE gives better control of print routing.

The OPS offering is geared toward organizations that use several printers and MFPs on their network. Managed completely by Konica Minolta, customers can choose to leverage part or all of the new program modules as Konica Minolta will service and manage printers both from Konica Minolta and other vendors. Konica Minolta’s OPS program leverages web-based management tools, automated supply replacement, customer support and service in one unified program. Proactive maintenance is delivered and supported by Konica Minolta’s team of certified technicians.

The OPS offering, a key initiative under Konica Minolta Business Intelligence Services (BIS) provides customers with a predictable cost structure for printing that assists organizations in making better business decisions. The BIS initiative, which consists of a broad range of professional services, hardware and software solutions, identifies and creates cost-effective solutions using both Konica Minolta’s own products and products from a range of solutions partners. Konica Minolta has a dedicated BIS team in place that offers innovative thinking to transform advanced technology into a simple plan of action.

Additionally, OPS makes conservation a top priority as it enables companies to use entire toner cartridges until empty, thus reducing the amount of waste. As part of its commitment to the environment, Konica Minolta’s recycling program prevents cartridge materials from ending up in landfills, recycling all of the returned cartridge.

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Welcome to the party.

Zogby Poll Shows People Think Printing Color is a Luxury

Duh...

In a very well crafted "Social Network Release"(here) from Xerox some of the results, in actuality four points, from a Zogby poll are embedded among marketing puffery.

Xerox doesn't come out and say that the Zogby poll reflects the Phaser as a cost effective alternative, but to the untrained or unaware eye, the post "feels" like Zugby respondents prefer the Phaser.

There is even a quote at the end of the post, praising the ease of use, excellent quality and crediting the color printer with "winning quite a few more bids" - I guess the Death of The Sales Person hit the catering business first.

Regardless, here are the stats from the Zogby poll, as filtered by Xerox:

-More than half of the 2,100 respondents (53%) said they think printing in color is a luxury.

-More than one third of respondents said the expense (35%) is the main reason they did not print more in color, and four out of five (82%) said they would be somewhat or very likely to print in color if it cost the same as black and white.

-Two in five respondents (39%) did not recognize the ROI value of printing in color – they strongly or somewhat disagreed that they spend time thinking about the places in their documents where color would give them more of a ROI.

-About one-quarter of respondents said they most frequently print presentations/PowerPoint documents (28%) or those with graphs (25%) in color.

Ricoh and DocuClass - "...Solutions Driven by Customer Need and not Industry Hype..."

First Copy Out Time's and Scan Once, Print Many are Phrases of the Past...

Ricoh introduces DocuClass-

DocuClass, is a process-oriented, document management software solution that enables organizations to streamline internal operations by organizing the capture, management, access, and distribution of documents and information.

Enhanced for Ricoh, the DocuClass MFP Link ties the software directly to most Ricoh multifunction products (MFPs), offering a simplified method of document indexing, archiving, document processing, workflow routing and full version control directly from the MFP control panel.

What About the Channel -

One of three Ricoh Alliance programs, RiSVP, developed in cooperation with Ricoh solution partners and Ricoh's direct and dealer channels, focuses on two key areas: expansion of channel marketing opportunities for RiSVP members and simplifying solution access for Ricoh sales channels.

By providing RiSVP member products directly from Ricoh, the direct and dealer channels have more opportunities for new revenue growth combined and simplified sales operations.

In turn, RiSVP members enjoy faster and greater financial return on the investments they have made in developing solutions that when combined with Ricoh's award-winning product portfolio address customers' key concerns. Cima Software is a Platinum Plus member of RiSVP.

"Together with Cima Software, we will continue to provide customers with real enhanced value by delivering a broad set of capabilities designed to improve business processes and reduce operational costs," said Hede Nonaka, executive vice president, Ricoh Americas Corporation. "Both organizations are committed to developing solutions driven by customer need and not industry hype."

"Form Follows Function": Is Samsung Positioned in HP's Blind Spot?

"You can have any color you like, as long as it's black..." - Henry Ford

Jim Lyons picked up on Samsung and the possibility of them nudging into the office MFP market as reflected in an article over at Business Week, Samsung:Rethining the Printer Business, by Cliff Edwards.

Additionally, Robert Sethre from the Woodford Group goes on to analyze the article in his contribution at GLG, The Expert Network.

In the past 60 days, I have heard more about Samsung as a printing/MFP provider, than I have in the last 20 years.

First off, Samsung is well known for its line of consumer electronics especially for their attractive and sleek design of everyday, mundane household appliances.

The thought, and the practice, can be seen in the above laser printer. The design is completely different from any other output device. "Lacquer" finisher, touch controls interesting shape.

And as Jim poses in his article, what if Samsung applied this style to "higher end departmental printers". I have often wondered who decided office machines needed to be drab and unattractive - disengaging.

From the "big green" Oce's, the "blue hooded Xerox's", the Ricoh/Canon sorta-beige and the battleship grey of Konica/Minolta and HP - couldn't we just spray paint some flames on the side?


The closest thing to an exciting, eye-catching application is from Panasonic with their colorful, color MFPs. Is that like coffee flavored coffee? (ADULT LINK)

Though one could make the argument that the Panasonic resembles the Daleks on Dr. Who, and I have yet to see one in the field. I imagine a real estate office or small advertising agency may find the physical color of the unit part of their buying criteria.

Samsung printer designer Bong Uk Lim is promoting something new- a printer that doesn't look like one.

"Most companies ask people to adapt to the product instead of the other way around," Lim says. "As you see with Apple, design is more important than ever before for most products. The same can be made true for printers."

Regardless, is Samsung looking to step into the office printing niche?

Samsung is the second largest manufacturer of laser printers in the world - next to that "other" company - but manufacturing prowess may not prevent them from "stepping into it" when they take on HP, Canon, Ricoh/IKON, et el.

And in typical, HP, battleship gray style, upon hearing of a possible Samsung insurgence, David Murphy, head of HP's LaserJet imaging business, says most of the industry's profits come from selling to businesses ...

"For them, it's about the whole value proposition of having a product that does the tasks you want it to,then, form follows function."