Canon U.S.A. Acquires San Francisco-Based NEWCAL Industries

Wow...I was just talking to someone from NewCal last week in Napa...


LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Sep 23, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Expanding its support for business in the San Francisco Bay area, Canon U.S.A., Inc., today announced the acquisition of the NEWCAL Industries business.

The San Francisco-based NEWCAL Industries is an independent value-added reseller of document and print solutions, including document imaging hardware and software, printer fleet and facilities management services. Founded in 1991 by Steve Tarpley and Ken Wilkens, NEWCAL is a leading independent provider of technology solutions to businesses in the Bay Area.

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This strikes near to our heart - NewCal is a decent HP-SVIP/OPS, Edgeline dealer...the report goes on -

"We are thrilled to continue to offer our customers Canon products, considered by most to be among the best in the industry, and are pleased to be part of the Canon family," said Steve Tarpley, president of NEWCAL.

Ken Wilkens, chief financial officer, NEWCAL, added, "Our customers will continue to receive the outstanding service they have come to expect from NEWCAL."

According to Jason Montgomery, vice president, Strategic Development, NEWCAL, directed the acquisition for NEWCAL, and states, "NEWCAL is now positioned for continued growth in the Northern California marketplace with a wide solutions portfolio and a serve-centric reputation."

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This should be a good move for all involved.

Who in The World is "TeknoForce" from Ricoh/RiKON ?

Ricoh has hired an advertising agency, Gigante Vaz Partners, to create a brand and program to promote its service technicians. The brand is called; “Teknoforce”, and Ricoh is hoping it will boost its image with IT Directors in the U.S.

Johannesburg, 23 September 2008 - Ricoh expands Teknoforce

"Gigante Vaz Partners and Ricoh announced that Ricoh is expanding its Teknoforce programme in selected markets across the country, reports Marketwatch.

Teknoforce was created as a response to Ricoh's desire to find a way to monetise the skill and depth of knowledge of its sales and IT force.

The programme will also be used as a way of adding to Ricoh's awareness within the IT market."

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WOW -

It's like HP's strategy with printing only in reverse.

Ricoh, a traditional copier manufacturer is tip-toeing into the IT world...credibility is the issue.

Unlike HP stepping "down" into the copier/facilities world, Ricoh is trying to step "up" into the IT realm - and unlike HP getting into waters filled with "copier, sales, sharks" Ricoh is getting into a more sedate selling sea.

From Atlanta to L.A. -

I find it most interesting that the only returns on a Google search of Teknoforce are related to the advertising campaign. Apparently, the ad campaign tested nicely in Atlanta so Ricoh decided to roll it out in certain markets, across the US.

Part of the marketing campaign includes vehicles adorned with loud decals, a la 'Geek Squad' -



Just a little food for thought, as the two worlds, IT and "Facilities" continue to collide and converge.

Teknoforce

Canon Says Little Regarding RiKON

In response to the sale of its largest distributor, a Canon executive finally commented on the sale of IKON.

Off the Print4Pay Hotel site -

Canon’s managing director, Masaki Nakaoka, stated; “The acquisition (of IKON) will trigger a further reshuffle of sales agents for us and others. We will now aim to expand our sales network.”

Ricoh reported that if the acquisition of IKON falls through:

• IKON will pay Ricoh a termination fee of $66.7 million
• IKON will also pay $16 million to reimburse Ricoh for legal fees.
  

According to some reports, on 9/16/08, IKON conducted a conference call notifying its employees that Canon would cut off IKON from acquiring any new hardware inventory as soon as the Ricoh acquisition is finalized. IKON will however, still have access to Canon parts and supplies.

Because Ricoh does not offer high end production print equipment (as Canon did with imagePRESS color and imageRUNNER PRO relabeled Kodak b/w units), IKON may be in discussions with Xerox to market some of their equipment.

More details on what makes up IKON:

• Original company founded in 1928
• Formally incorporated in 1952
• Revenue peaked in 1996 at $11 billion
• Unisource, the paper distribution business, was spun off in 1996
• Has currently completed only 2/3’s of its “One Platform Conversion” program
• Copier division revenue peaked in 1998 at $5.5 billion
• Stock value peaked in 1996 at $65 per share, but declined to as low as $2.50 per share
• Has total of 24,000 employees in 400 office locations
• Canada & Europe account for 18% of revenue
• 6000 technicians
• 9000 are FM or professional services employees
• 500 work in the HQ located in Malvern, PA
• Has 500,000 customers
• Has 900,000 devices in field under service contract
• GE Capital provides most of leasing
• Includes 100 of the Fortune 500
• Sales and service of copiers accounts for 75% of business
• 50% of revenue comes from color and production print systems
• 20% was from professional services or FM
• B/W copier sales were declining by 7%
• 8% of service revenue was coming from color clicks

In contrast, when Xerox bought Global, it acquired 200 offices and 200,000 customers for $1.5 billion
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My reflections on the above:

• Canon is not going to bid for Ikon.
• Canon is out there expanding the "sales network" through purchasing some of the remaining independents.
• Ricoh may take a while to digest IKON but I do not think they will "choke" on IKON.
• We may see new product from RiKON as early as Q1, 2009 to fill the gaps in the product line or even see some short term partnerships with the likes of Xerox and Kodak.

She Speaks - CEO Anne Mulcahy

X Woman, by Michael Fitzgerald, Q & A

I found this article and pulled out some interesting parts -

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You have things in your labs like invisible ink and erasable paper, which lets the print on the pages dissolve after a day or two so that they can be reused. Is part of your goal to reduce the amount of paper that companies use?

Absolutely. We want to help our customers print less. This is the information world, and content management is a very big deal. A lot of what we do in our services business is help people go from paper to digital, help people create content that’s searchable, help people really live in a world of smart documents versus dumb documents. Documents that actually have embedded intelligence in them.

You still sell copiers, but not very many of them.

We don’t sell any stand-alone copiers. Everything we sell is networked. Most of it is multifunctional. It copies, it prints, it scans, it faxes. So most of it is really part of the networked world. And almost half of what we sell is now full color.

You said that by 2008 you wanted 10 percent of the pages Xerox prints to be color, and right now you’re ahead of that. The company’s at 16 percent.

It’s going to be 100 percent, because the world we live in is in color. And color is growing by double digits right now. Also, digital technology is letting us do things like print-on-demand and one-to-one marketing. Offset printing, the method usually used for marketing materials, is a $400 billion market. Only a small slice of it has gone to digital. One of the things we’re starting to enter into is digital packaging for consumer-product companies. We recently did a demo for a gum wrapper. Consumers can create their own personalized packages, or companies can print regional versions or versions in different languages. It’s more flexible and it’s cheaper.

It looks to me—don’t get mad—I know that it’s supposed to be the globe, and that the soft X stands for Xerox, but it looks like a croquet ball to me. Was this a long process?

Well, there you are. It took longer than I thought it should have, because I tend to think that things should move pretty quickly. I mean, how tough is it? But the fact is that this is a corporate asset. You need to test it. You need to think about it. We wanted the logo to be more informal, and we wanted it to be more attractive in a three-dimensional world versus a two-dimensional world. We also wanted to make sure that the color palettes reflected the color business and the company.

Also, the new logo took a long time to roll out. The name is everywhere, so you have to transition everything. We immediately transitioned on the Web. But they were telling me it was going to take six months to get the logo on the outside of the headquarters building here. About two weeks after we made the announcement on the brand, I was in Egypt. And I’m coming out of the airport and there’s this huge billboard with the new brand on it. I was on the phone saying, “Guys, I’m in Egypt. [Laughs.] And there’s a billboard up. I think you can do better than six months on the headquarters building.”

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LOL! "...it looks like a croquet ball..."

RiKON To Work with Xerox

Ricoh/IKON/Xerox

How big of a shock would it be if Ricoh Japan allowed IKON to ink a deal with Xerox to provide product in the gaps created by the Canon fallout(de-certification)?

Read the above again.

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Well, get over your shock because it's a doozy and it is happening...

Also, seems Konica Minolta signed a five year with RiKON - it appears that KMBS needs the channel too...

Espe may have this all planned out quite well with much more to occur in the next few days - the excitement level "on the ground" is electric.


- nod to "Scorpio"...

Canon To De-Certify as Soon as Ink Dry

September 17, 2008

Another question answered and oh so many posed...

During an internal conference call yesterday, IKON explained to it's employees that Canon would indeed be de-certifying IKON as soon as the Ricoh deal is final.

Falling back on "Policy" -

Canon expressed that this action falls within their policy on not certifying "competitors".

Indeed, this action is in line with their previous movements after Xerox bought Global dealers who sold and supported Canon.

-- Let the feeding Frenzy begin...

HP to cut 24,600 jobs worldwide

US technology giant Hewlett-Packard has said that it will cut 24,600 jobs worldwide...over the next 3 years...

Ok, I don't remember hearing HP say that the aquisition of EDS would mean "business as usual" like the RiKON announcement spawned.

Still, can we see the future of Ikon in this announcement from HP?

Hurd Speaks -

"HP has a strong track record of making acquisitions and integrating them to capture leading market positions,' said CEO Mark Hurd. 'HP now has the broadest technology capabilities in the market to meet customer needs today and in the future,' he added."

September "Bump" - Hold on to your Hat

With the recent Ricoh/IKON (RiKON) news, copier sales people are now more globally minded...

From AP, World stocks soar after Freddie, Fannie bailouts

I personally do not participate in recessions. I don't like them.

I believe that as in sales, most "systems" built around humans are driven by as much emotional energy as cold, strategic planning.

So, even if I do not participate in recessions, my prospects and clients may succumb to the unfavorable economic, emotional bombardment - it's much easier to be negative.

Take this latest news article that explains world markets "soar" after the US government takes over Freddie and Fannie - some may explain this surge as an expected and temporary up-tic, I would agree. An emotions carry the surge.

The price of oil is falling - it may go below $100.00 per barrel this week.

This is good news and will affect business's purchasing mentality as people start to "feel" better.

This good news should effect the way YOU project your positive mentality as an Agent of Change.

"MPS Insights" - Second Edition out today

9/2008

Ed Crowley and Gang at the Photizo Group publish another great issue of MPS Insights

Culture Does Matter -

The theme of this issue is "Culture" and "...how managing cultural change is an integral aspect of a successful MPS engagement..." An issue near and dear to my heart.

As a matter of fact, not only is business culture an important issues in MPS but as a true Agent of Change, our impact on every corporate culture we touch is profound. From Computerized Accounting, and Corporate Identity Programs(uniforms); from copier installs to Managed Print Services engagements - by just talking to someone, you effect change...

I recommend checking out the Photizo Group. Oh, and the folks over at Photizo have impeccable taste in editorial contributors...impeccable...

Canon Profit May Miss Forecast, Fall 12% in 2008, Nikkei Says

Wow...12%...

Bloomberg

By Jason Clenfield

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Profit at Canon Inc. will probably fall in 2008, missing the company's forecast and recording the first decline in nine years, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

The maker of cameras and copiers is likely to report earnings of about 430 billion yen ($4 billion) for the year ending Dec. 31, a 12 percent decline from the previous year, the Nikkei reported today, without saying how it got the information. Sales of office equipment have slowed in the U.S. and Europe, according to the report.

The company has forecast earnings will rise 2 percent this year to 500 billion yen.

Company spokesman Hiroshi Yoshinaga declined comment on the report when contacted by telephone.

Gartner - RiKON

Gartner, Inc., the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company - speaks:

"This acquisition deal helps Ricoh fortify its formidable distribution channel. Expect a minimal near-term impact for most customers, but watch for Canon’s distribution partnership with IKON to end after the deal closes..."

Gartner agrees with my analysis(RiKon - "Really, I Knew One Name...") and adds a few little tidbits .

First off - Capacity-

It is Gartner's belief that:

"...if Canon drops IKON, Richo's manufacturing plant in Japan will have to boost capacity to make up the volume..."

I had not thought of this, but I agree. I do not think that the "up-tic" in production would pose too much of a problem for Ricoh - and what a nice problem to have.

I wonder how the Ricoh plant in Costa Measa, California will be affected. From an article in the Orange County Business Journal, by Sarah Tolkoff:

"...Its(Ricoh's) presence here is huge: Ricoh has more than 1.4 million square feet of industrial space spread among eight buildings in Irvine, Santa Ana and Tustin.

The local operation also has factories in Lawrenceville, Ga., and Toluca, Mexico.

Ricoh's name has been a fixture along the 55 freeway for more than 30 years. Proximity to the Port of Long Beach brought it here, said Jeff Briwick, executive vice president and group manager of Ricoh Electronics' corporate strategy group.

"Back then, product could flow from the parent company in Japan into the West Coast and then be deployed across the country to the East Coast," he said. "More than 35 years later, it still works mat way. Orange County is perfect from a supply chain and distribution perspective."

In Tustin, Ricoh has three buildings with about 475 workers.

One building doubles as the administrative headquarters for Ricoh Electronics and as a manufacturing plant for digital copiers.

In another building, Ricoh assembles chips onto circuit boards that go inside its all-in-one machines, which are built in the other Tustin building..."

So increasing output could be a good thing for Orange County.

Secondly -

Gartner's observation,

"...Based on Canon’s past reaction to similar deals with its channel partners, Gartner believes Canon will ultimately end its formal relationship with IKON, but will continue to support its products and abide by existing contracts until the deal closes..."

Pretty much a "no-brainer" here.

Looks like "business as usual" for now...


- Source Gartner.

IKON to cut 250 jobs: "Business as Usual"

Words From IKON's Espe - Internal IKON Memo

Ricoh to Buy IKON - Shot Heard Around the World

IKON/RICOH/CANON - Could there be a THIRD Shoe to Drop?

Gartner Report

Copiers and Crime...The Blotter..It Grows...

I swear, I should start writing a screen play based on this stuff...victims include Applebee's, the YMCA and a catholic church.

The headline reads, "Raleigh, N.C. — An office supplies dealer has been charged with using bogus copier leases to scam area businesses and nonprofits." - it is never good when the words "bogus" and "scam" are in the same headline...

The crook even got time on the local TV news. By the way, check out the copy quality on the documents being printed, doh!

Apparently(or is it allegedly), this creep forged leases on non- existent deals for real companies and organizations. He was caught when the leasing company called one of his "customers" demanding payment on a piece of equipment that was never installed. The leasing company had not received monthly payments, but, obviously paid the perp.

Ten Years of Customer Service -

Yup, this guy had been working with his victims for 10 years. Selling supplies and even contributing to charitable events- some may have even considered him a "partner". I guess a lot can happen in Ten Years.

So this is how small, independent dealers compete with the "big, international, heartless, copier manufacturers..." eh?

Just kidding - this guy is scum and his disregard for others, his overwhelming greed, hurts all of us in the industry and all of us who sell.

Lock him up.

The lesson here?

Like I even need to say it, "know what the heck is going on in your business..." the left and the right hand should communicate through the brain.


Even more. Check these out.

Copiers and Crime...This Stuff Can Not Be Made UP

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - for just 73 copiers **UPDATED***