CHICAGO, Jul 23, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Global Imaging Systems (GIS), A
Xerox Company /quotes/zigman/246904/quotes/nls/xrx XRX
+0.00% ,
acquired Illinois-based Martin Whalen Office Solutions, a leading provider of
office technology and software solutions for Chicago's southern and western
suburbs.
Further expanding Xerox's distribution in Illinois, Martin Whalen will
immediately add Xerox's full range of office and printing technology and managed
print services to its portfolio. The company has distributed Canon and Kyocera
copiers, printers and multifunction devices in addition to providing document
management and managed print solutions.
"Martin Whalen has an outstanding reputation as a customer-focused company
with strong ties to the community - an ideal fit to our growing nationwide
network of locally based companies that cater to their individual markets'
unique needs," said Michael Pietrunti, senior vice president, Acquisitions,
Corporate Service and Marketing, GIS.
"Our family business is built on providing the most comprehensive workplace
solutions for our customers," said Marty Whalen, Jr., president and CEO, Martin
Whalen Office Solutions. "By aligning with GIS and Xerox, we re-affirm our
commitment to better solutions, faster answers, superior technology and the most
responsive service available."
Whalen will remain as president and CEO; Daniel Whalen will remain as vice
president. The company has locations in Bradley, Tinley Park and Channahon, Ill.
About Global Imaging Systems
Global Imaging Systems, A Xerox Company, is made up of regional core
companies in the United States that sell and service document management systems
such as printers, copiers and multifunction devices; network integration
services; and electronic presentation systems. As an office technology dealer,
Global Imaging sells products from various suppliers including Xerox, Sharp and
Konica Minolta. Xerox acquired Global Imaging Systems in 2007 and operates it as
a wholly owned subsidiary within Xerox's North American operations.
About Xerox
With sales approaching $23 billion, Xerox /quotes/zigman/246904/quotes/nls/xrx XRX
+0.00% is the
world's leading enterprise for business process and document management. Its
technology, expertise and services enable workplaces - from small businesses to
large global enterprises - to simplify the way work gets done so they operate
more effectively and focus more on what matters most: their real business.
Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox offers business process outsourcing and
IT outsourcing services, including data processing, healthcare solutions, HR
benefits management, finance support, transportation solutions, and customer
relationship management services for commercial and government organizations
worldwide. The company also provides extensive leading-edge document technology,
services, software and genuine Xerox supplies for graphic communication and
office printing environments of any size. The 140,000 people of Xerox serve
clients in more than 160 countries. For more information, visit
http://www.xerox.com , http://news.xerox.com or http://www.realbusiness.com .
For investor information, visit http://www.xerox.com/investor .
Note: To receive RSS news feeds, visit
http://news.xerox.com/pr/xerox/rss.aspx . For open commentary, industry
perspectives and views visit http://twitter.com/xeroxcorp ,
http://realbusinessatxerox.blogs.xerox.com , http://www.facebook.com/XeroxCorp ,
http://www.youtube.com/XeroxCorp .
XEROX(R), XEROX and Design(R) are trademarks of Xerox in the United States
and/or other countries.
Prices, features, specifications, capabilities, appearance and availability
of Xerox products and services are subject to change without notice.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Printing: The energy saving blind spot for business
Printing: The energy saving blind spot for business
By Heather Wright, Tuesday, 10th July, 2012
 |
Managing a fleet of printers can involve significant electricity, high paper consumption and large quantities of consumables. It therefore makes practical sense for businesses to pay particular attention to their printing environments and assess where they could make more sustainable choices — whether those be regarding printing equipment or printing behaviour.
With the cost of electricity continuing to soar, the environment isn’t the only beneficiary of a greener approach to printing. Businesses which use more energy efficient equipment and adopt processes which encourage more conservative use of paper, toner and other consumables will realise significant benefits to their bottom line.
Although interest in green IT is growing, many SMBs are time-poor and unlikely to have any official policies in place, let alone consider the environmental impact of their printing environment. This represents an opportunity for resellers to add value to their relationships with end customers as they are well positioned to provide advice on simple ways to green up printing.
Audit checklist
SMBs are moving away from simply buying printers and are looking to invest in more efficient printing solutions. With this, and the growth of managed print services, channel partners are developing stronger, trusted relationships with their clients and stepping into a more advisory role.
In fact for end customers simply moving to a managed print services contract can help to green up their workplaces. By consolidating a printer fleet to include a smaller number of more productive machines, companies can reduce their energy consumption. Ordering only the consumables and supplies that are required will also result in reduced waste.
Partners can recommend simple practices to assist their customers in reducing their carbon footprint. One way of doing this is developing a checklist which can help customers complete an audit of their printing environments. This could include assessments of electricity consumption and paper usage, suggestions to set up a recycling programme or recommendations to consider environmentally friendly printing technologies such as solid ink printers.
This checklist does not have to be very complex — something as simple as turning off printers each night can result in significant energy savings. Here are some things that should be considered:
Paper consumption: When we think of being environmentally-friendly, reducing paper consumption is often one of the first things that comes to mind. Although many of us try to use as little paper as possible, the reality is that today’s office environments are a far cry from the paperless office that was predicted 30 years ago.
Partners should encourage their customers to be more aware of their paper consumption. They can advise on ways to assess their employee’s printing behaviour and where they can make valuable changes, for example encouraging double sided printing, if possible, or only printing important emails. A default can be set on printers so all printing is in duplex. Customers should also be encouraged to purchase recycled paper where possible.
N-up printing is another feature which can help reduce paper consumption as it enables users to print multiple pages on one sheet of paper.
Network management: For most companies, print and copy fleet needs have evolved over time. Machines have been bought as new needs have arisen. Old machines which have reached the end of their lifecycle have been replaced, or upgraded, as potential productivity gains from new technology became impossible to ignore.
Many of today’s offices have several printers on site, some with desktop printers for each individual office and several devices dotted around the office essentially doing the same thing. Multiple devices often mean more energy consumption and will also require the company to purchase more toner and consumables than actually required.
With a wide range of affordable, high performance workgroup printers and multi-function devices on the market, resellers can advise their customers on the printing solution that will best meet their needs while at the same time increasing energy efficiency and improving cost effectiveness.
Consumables: Depending on the individual device, most printers and copiers will need toner, ink cartridges, paper and perhaps laser drums. For a large business, or a company that has heavy volume printing, this can result in large amounts of waste.
To minimise the amount of colour printing, resellers can advise businesses to opt for mono printers or set a black and white default on their colour printers. Furthermore, partners can advise their customers on the various types of toner available, with some offering reduced power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
Partners can also recommend solid ink printers which can reduce a business’ landfill footprint. Solid ink is an environmentally-conscious way to print — with cartridge-free design and minimal packaging it is an almost waste-free printing process.
The wax-type blocks of colour which are used in a solid ink printer are shipped in a simple wrapper. There are no chunky cartridges full of plastic, metal moving parts or toners to dispose of or store for later recycling as a solid ink block is completely consumed. Solid ink printing has the added benefit of producing better quality colour and is quieter and faster than a colour laser.
Electricity: Printers, copiers and multi-function devices can consume varying amounts of electricity, depending on the model, how often they are used and whether they are in stand-by or print mode.
Channel partners should encourage their customers to consider the effect of having multiple printers and copiers turned on, particularly at night. They should consider the potential cost savings and benefits of consolidating their printing fleet into one or two more energy efficient, high-performance printers.
Companies should also take advantage of energy saving features that put machines to ‘sleep’ in idle periods. This can save hundreds of dollars each year on energy consumption and reduce a business’ carbon footprint.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Document-Related Risks Infuse the Entire Organization
Document-Related Risks Infuse the Entire Organization
Posted on June 19, 2012 by Dominic Keogh
Ineffective document processes have harmed three of four organizations in the past five years, as was detailed in last week’s post written by Joseph Pucciarelli. That’s the tip of the iceberg, however, so we’ll dig a little deeper into our findings here and in our next few posts. The goal is to help you successfully address document-related challenges in your own organization.
Documents, often overlooked, are really the lifeblood of the enterprise, the study affirms. Over 40 percent of business activities rely on information captured in documents, our research found. These document-driven activities span customer-facing processes in sales and marketing; non-customer-facing processes in HR, manufacturing, and other back-office operations; and processes that manage risk around business continuity and information security. Forty percent may even be a conservative estimate: “I don’t think there’s a process out there that doesn’t have some sort of document or documents attached to it,” the VP for Global IT at a large cosmetics manufacturer told us.
Many of these document-driven processes – between 31 and 39 percent – continue to rely on paper. Although that may sound like a problem in the digital age, the medium is not necessarily the problem. Paper-based processes in this study emerged as some of the most effective activities. Many electronically based processes turned out to be the least effective.
Whether paper or electronic, document processes generally need improvement, the study found. Consider these findings:
- 45 percent of respondents reported that their document-driven processes related to risk mitigation were inefficient or ineffective;
- 39 percent reported that non-customer-facing document processes were lacking; and
- 36 percent reported that customer-facing document processes were inefficient or ineffective.
“It only takes one mishap to damage a reputation,” in the words of one study participant, a VP with responsibilities for marketing/product management at a global financial services firm. Where are your vulnerabilities? Where is that one mishap most likely to occur? How likely is it? How serious would the impact be?
Monday, June 11, 2012
Memjet Continues Down Its Long Road to Legitimacy
Over the past couple of months, Memjet has been grabbing headlines—some good, some not so good. At first, it looked like the high-speed inkjet technology provider might be heading for the rocks, but subsequent news indicated that the company should not only survive but also thrive. It appears that Memjet is in fine form, maybe its best shape ever in terms of technology and new customers.
It all started back in mid-March, when word broke that one of Memjet’s key investors had initiated a lawsuit against the firm’s founder, Kia Silverbrook, as well as others alleging fraud and deception that resulted in the theft of millions of dollars. A couple weeks later, Memjet was back in the news when its customers began demonstrating new devices based on the next generation of its desktop inkjet technology. News from Memjet reached a crescendo at drupa, one the printing industry’s most important trade fairs, which was hosted in Dusseldorf, Germany in May. When the quadrennial event opened, we learned that the company had signed up some important new clients. Then, Memjet announced that it had settled the legal fracas started in March.
After years of being more than a little skeptical about the viability of Memjet, all the news is making me rethink the firm and its technology. It may just have a bright future after all especially in certain market segments.
Memjet 101
In case you haven’t heard of Memjet, it is a unique, high-speed inkjet technology. The print heads are fabricated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which allow nozzles, heaters, and firing chamber to be packed densely onto a metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Each 20 mm of a Memjet head contains 6,400 nozzles, and the heads can be ganged together to make page-wide arrays. Unlike conventional inkjet printers, Memjet heads remain stationary and the paper—or other media—passes by the head while printing. By packing thousands of nozzles onto the print head and eliminating it from shuttling back and forth, the technology is capable of achieving extremely fast print speeds.
Memjet is the brainchild of the Australian inventor Kia Silverbrook, who founded Silverbrook Research “down under” in 1994. With the help of a team of engineers and scientists, Mr. Silverbrook has amassed an impressive patent portfolio with thousands of patents. Thanks to the support of a few deep-pocketed private investors, Mr. Silverbook’s eponymous named company managed to operate without generating any revenue for more than a decade and went largely unknown to the general public.
wide-format engine
I first encountered Memjet in 2007 at the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) International Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas. Mr. Silverbrook privately demonstrated a prototype of a Memjet desktop photo printer to various analysts, myself included. Delivering a snapshot every two seconds, the technology was incredible. Many analysts hailed Memjet as a disruptive force that would change the industry forever. Some predicted Memjet machines would soon dominate every product category and drive hardware and consumables costs to new lows.
Initially, it seemed that Memjet would conquer the world. Photo Me International, a European photo kiosk vendor, announced at the 2007 PMA show it would soon launch a Memjet device for processing digital snapshots. Within a couple of weeks, a representative from Memjet’s label unit told attendees at the Global Ink Jet Printing conference in Prague that industrial machines would be available shortly. Other devices seemed to be right around the corner. Silverbrook Research demonstrated a letter/A4-sized “reference model” with an estimated print speed of 60 ppm in color and black and white. It featured an 8-inch print head packed with 70,400 nozzles. The machine was expected to sell for under $200 and deliver a black-only page for 2 cents and a color page for 6 cents. The firm indicated that it was working on reference models for more machines including wide-format units and production presses.
Not So Fast
After PMA, I contacted various engineers at competing OEMs and told them about the ground breaking photo printer I had experienced. I asked them if this was the end of the world as we knew it. To a person, every OEM engineer I spoke with knew about Memjet technology and many had witnessed it in action. None seemed too worried that their respective companies would soon be consigned to the ash heap as Memjet units captured every segment of the digital imaging market.
For various reasons, OEMs declined to sign up for Memjet. One reason was Mr. Silverbrook had embraced a business model such that his firm would supply technology like the print heads, ink, and other systems and not the actual hardware. As a Memjet customer, some OEMs fretted in the future they’d be competing with machines based on virtually identical imaging technology. Another problem was the Memjet heads couldn’t fire pigmented inks and dye-based inks are not appropriate for certain applications because they can smear when exposed to moisture.
But the really big sticking point about Memjet technology was it had not been mass-produced. Many printer manufacturers expressed concerns about fabricating the print heads en masse. Many felt it would be difficult if not impossible to fabricate the heads by the millions. There was doubt that Memjet could reliably mass-produce arrays packed with thousands of nozzles. There seemed to be a consensus that there would be problems with the nozzles in Memjet heads, which may clog or misfire or just fail altogether.
labels printer engine
After hearing concerns from various sources, I began getting skeptical and adopted a “wait-and-see” attitude about the technology. And the longer I waited, the less I saw. No Photo Me International kiosk, or Memjet label machine, or any other device was released in 2007. Memjet remained the hot topic despite the absence of an actual product launch and rumors swirled that companies such as Dell and Sony would soon market devices with Memjet technology. Memjet fueled the rumor mill by promising that all sorts of machines would soon be available. The firm’s office group, for example, announced A4-sized units would be out by the end of 2008. Later, however, that launch date was pushed back to 2009 and then to 2010. But the products never came and the company began to resemble the fabled boy who cried wolf.
Memjet Stirs
But all was not quiet, either. After 2007, the corporate entity, Memjet, was formed to oversee the various groups entering different market segments. The firm attracted some with well-known senior managers. For example, Bill McGlynn, an ex-HP executive who helped develop the LaserJet MFP business, came out of retirement to head up Memjet Office, and David Clark, former director of integrated health systems for Eastman Kodak, was tapped to run Memjet Labels. In 2010, Len Lauer took the helm as the firm’s president and CEO. While Mr. Lauer was not from the imaging industry, he had an impressive resume. He was executive vice president and chief operating officer at Qualcomm prior to joining Memjet and before that served as Sprint’s president and chief operating officer before Qualcomm.
Hardware with Memjet technology also began shipping in 2010 but these were industrial printers not office machines. In 2011, the firm finally launched its first office desktop color printers. The year started with announcements that the company partnered with Lenovo to market a Memjet office device in China and struck similar deals with some smaller companies including WeP Peripherals in India and Kpowerscience in Taiwan to release machines in those respective regions. In the spring of last year, Memjet said that the UK-based compatible cartridge and specialty paper maker Lomond Trading Company would market its EvoJet Memjet-based desktop printer in Russia and Eastern European markets. In June, Memjet announced that LG Electronics had begun to market its Machjet LPP6010N in Korea.
In addition to all the desktop deals, Memjet continued expanding its footprint in the industrial printer market. Machines with Memjet technology for labeling applications was announced from such companies as Addressing and Mailing Solutions (AMS), Astro Machines, Impression Technology Europe, OWN-X Industrial, Rapid Machinery, and RENA Systems. Last September, Brookfield, WI-based Colordyne announced it would release a production unit powered by Memjet technology and a week later Xanté announced it, too, would release the technology in a new wide-format commercial printer.
Expandus Interruptous
With a growing list of OEM customers, Memjet began gaining some street cred. Despite the glacial pace of its customers’ initial product launches, the firm was poised for growth. Granted, it had not signed up any big name printer manufacturers, but the company was acquiring the much-needed legitimacy after all the missed deadlines and failed product introductions.
Then, just as Memjet appeared to be building a nice head of steam, one of the firm’s largest investors filed suit against Mr. Silverbrook and his partner Faye Lee, along with Silverbrook Research, casting a pall
over the firm’s future. The George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), a Tulsa, OK-based philanthropic organization, accused the defendants bilking it out of “tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars” through fraud and deception.
LG Matchjet 2
According to GKFF, Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee first met with the foundation in 2003 to fund the Memjet companies and commercialize the new inkjet technology. Silverbrook Research would provide Memjet with technical R&D services without profit and grant Memjet exclusive and perpetual licenses to all Memjet technology. Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee would make their money later when the Memjet companies prospered. As noted, however, it took much longer than expected to get the Memjet program off the ground. Lawyers for the foundation claim that in the interim Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee “drained as much value from Memjet as they could to feather their own nests” and make money for their own businesses such as Silverbrook Research.
According to the GKFF court filing, between 2004 and 2008, Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee collected a total of $75 million from the foundation, which explained, at least partially, how Silverbrook Research could go so long without generating any revenue. GKFF said it invested $150 million in 2009 and became the majority shareholder, and they put up an additional $230 million in equity and debt financing. In May 2011, the attorneys say GKFF loaned the Memjet companies $25 million followed by $130 million more between June 2011 and February 2012.
GKFF accused the defendants of other chicanery such as fraudulently executing deals to reach certain milestones that would trigger additional funding. In addition, Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee were accused of renting Memjet office space near Sydney, Australia at an inflated fee through a property management they co-owned. The court documents also contended that the pair failed to facilitate an audit of the company to determine “where money had previously been spent” and negotiated a secret settlement with DuPont, which required a $10 million pay-out to the chemical firm after a Memjet deal went awry.
Within days of the GKFF filing, Silverbrook Research vowed to defend itself “vigorously” against the “entirely baseless and inaccurate claims” made by the plaintiffs. The company characterized the lawsuit as a “hardball” negotiation tactic employed by GFKK to gain ownership of the Memjet printing technology. Mr. Silverbrook filed a witness statement with Britain’s High Court claiming GKFF had agreed to settle any legal disputes in the U.K. not the United States. He went on to deny the plaintiff’s allegations and disputed the amount of GKFF’s investment. Mr. Silverbrook asserted that the Memjet companies actually owed Silverbrook Research $22 million. He maintained that Memjet’s low sales and inability to commercialize the technology were due to the firm’s mismanagement, not because of Silverbrook Research’s short comings.
Printhead close-up
Growing increasingly entrenched, it appeared the litigants were destined to journey the long and costly path to trial. A glimmer of hope, however, flashed just a few days before drupa when Jeff Bean, vice president of brand and communications for Memjet, told my company Actionable Intelligence that, “Negotiations are ongoing and we are optimistic that a resolution can be reached between the parties.” He also hinted that Memjet may have big news at the drupa event, although he provided no concrete details.
Dispatches from Düsseldorf
It turns out that Mr. Bean’s optimism was well-founded. On the second day of drupa, Memjet announced that an agreement had been reached with the Silverbrook defendants. Although GFKK didn’t make a
formal announcement, on May 4 we noted an entry in the court record for the George Kaiser Family Foundation v. Silverbrook Research suit indicating the matter was settled.
Memjet printhead full shot
While full terms of the agreement were not available as of this writing, a Memjet statement released on May 4 said the company will assume direct ownership and control of the intellectual property portfolio related to Memjet technology including “some 4,000 issued and pending global patents.” It also will take direct control of all research, development, and commercialization activities of the technology. According to Memjet, Mr. Silverbrook “will continue to support Memjet as a special advisor to the Memjet Board of Directors and as an ongoing consultant.”
Word that an agreement had been reached between the warring factions followed just a day after Memjet announced some of its most important partnerships to date. On May 3, the firm said Océ plans to introduce a Memjet-based large-format color printer with print speeds of up to 500 A0 (33.1 × 46.8-inch) prints per hour. Dubbed Project Velocity, the machine was demonstrated at Canon Europe’s drupa stand. Memjet also announced that it is partnering with Toshiba TEC to develop an office MFP featuring Memjet print heads, controllers, software, and ink. A prototype of the co-developed three-function device, which delivers 60 color pages per minute, was on display in Memjet’s booth. Toshiba TEC is also evaluating Memjet technology for industrial and commercial applications.
Apparently, machines with Memjet technology were on display at various drupa stands. Delphax had its Memjet-powered elan 500 sheet-fed printing system for print-on-demand applications running in its booth. Operating in the Memjet and Xanté stands was the Xanté Excelagraphix 4200, a 42-inch-wide commercial printer for short-run and variable-data printing that is expected to ship in June. Several Memjet-powered industrial printers were also running in the Memjet booth including the Colordyne CDT-1600 PC Sprint from Colordyne Technologies and Astro Machine’s AstroJet M1 and M2 devices.
Memjet Unbound!
Coming out of drupa, Memjet has never looked so strong. If the agreement between GFKK and the Silverbrook defendants is implemented as it’s been described, Memjet now has complete control of its technology and it has managed to retain the brains behind the technology, Kia Silverbrook. The firm should be the master of its own domain.
The partnerships announced at drupa are also important. Memjet has at last struck deals with major global printer companies like Océ/Canon and Toshiba TEC. Of course, the deals are modest and involve only a few machines. Regardless, it appears that Océ/Canon and Toshiba TEC are willing to take a chance with Memjet technology. This offers Memjet a tantalizing proposition: if its newest partners are able to mass produce the new products, bring them to market, and they do well, perhaps that may mean more Memjet-based products to come from both Océ/Canon and Toshiba TEC. And, if that happens, you can bet more will follow.
Clearly, the final chapter in the Memjet story is still to be written but it looks like the tale may not end tragically—as it once did. When the lawsuit was announced in March, it seemed like the beginning of the end for Memjet. All the news out of drupa, however, changes all that and suggests Memjet is nearing the end of what has been a very long beginning. Still, there is a ways to go before Memjet can be declared a “success.”
It all started back in mid-March, when word broke that one of Memjet’s key investors had initiated a lawsuit against the firm’s founder, Kia Silverbrook, as well as others alleging fraud and deception that resulted in the theft of millions of dollars. A couple weeks later, Memjet was back in the news when its customers began demonstrating new devices based on the next generation of its desktop inkjet technology. News from Memjet reached a crescendo at drupa, one the printing industry’s most important trade fairs, which was hosted in Dusseldorf, Germany in May. When the quadrennial event opened, we learned that the company had signed up some important new clients. Then, Memjet announced that it had settled the legal fracas started in March.
After years of being more than a little skeptical about the viability of Memjet, all the news is making me rethink the firm and its technology. It may just have a bright future after all especially in certain market segments.
Memjet 101
In case you haven’t heard of Memjet, it is a unique, high-speed inkjet technology. The print heads are fabricated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which allow nozzles, heaters, and firing chamber to be packed densely onto a metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Each 20 mm of a Memjet head contains 6,400 nozzles, and the heads can be ganged together to make page-wide arrays. Unlike conventional inkjet printers, Memjet heads remain stationary and the paper—or other media—passes by the head while printing. By packing thousands of nozzles onto the print head and eliminating it from shuttling back and forth, the technology is capable of achieving extremely fast print speeds.
Memjet is the brainchild of the Australian inventor Kia Silverbrook, who founded Silverbrook Research “down under” in 1994. With the help of a team of engineers and scientists, Mr. Silverbrook has amassed an impressive patent portfolio with thousands of patents. Thanks to the support of a few deep-pocketed private investors, Mr. Silverbook’s eponymous named company managed to operate without generating any revenue for more than a decade and went largely unknown to the general public. wide-format engine
I first encountered Memjet in 2007 at the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) International Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas. Mr. Silverbrook privately demonstrated a prototype of a Memjet desktop photo printer to various analysts, myself included. Delivering a snapshot every two seconds, the technology was incredible. Many analysts hailed Memjet as a disruptive force that would change the industry forever. Some predicted Memjet machines would soon dominate every product category and drive hardware and consumables costs to new lows.
Initially, it seemed that Memjet would conquer the world. Photo Me International, a European photo kiosk vendor, announced at the 2007 PMA show it would soon launch a Memjet device for processing digital snapshots. Within a couple of weeks, a representative from Memjet’s label unit told attendees at the Global Ink Jet Printing conference in Prague that industrial machines would be available shortly. Other devices seemed to be right around the corner. Silverbrook Research demonstrated a letter/A4-sized “reference model” with an estimated print speed of 60 ppm in color and black and white. It featured an 8-inch print head packed with 70,400 nozzles. The machine was expected to sell for under $200 and deliver a black-only page for 2 cents and a color page for 6 cents. The firm indicated that it was working on reference models for more machines including wide-format units and production presses.
Not So Fast
After PMA, I contacted various engineers at competing OEMs and told them about the ground breaking photo printer I had experienced. I asked them if this was the end of the world as we knew it. To a person, every OEM engineer I spoke with knew about Memjet technology and many had witnessed it in action. None seemed too worried that their respective companies would soon be consigned to the ash heap as Memjet units captured every segment of the digital imaging market.
For various reasons, OEMs declined to sign up for Memjet. One reason was Mr. Silverbrook had embraced a business model such that his firm would supply technology like the print heads, ink, and other systems and not the actual hardware. As a Memjet customer, some OEMs fretted in the future they’d be competing with machines based on virtually identical imaging technology. Another problem was the Memjet heads couldn’t fire pigmented inks and dye-based inks are not appropriate for certain applications because they can smear when exposed to moisture.
But the really big sticking point about Memjet technology was it had not been mass-produced. Many printer manufacturers expressed concerns about fabricating the print heads en masse. Many felt it would be difficult if not impossible to fabricate the heads by the millions. There was doubt that Memjet could reliably mass-produce arrays packed with thousands of nozzles. There seemed to be a consensus that there would be problems with the nozzles in Memjet heads, which may clog or misfire or just fail altogether. labels printer engine
After hearing concerns from various sources, I began getting skeptical and adopted a “wait-and-see” attitude about the technology. And the longer I waited, the less I saw. No Photo Me International kiosk, or Memjet label machine, or any other device was released in 2007. Memjet remained the hot topic despite the absence of an actual product launch and rumors swirled that companies such as Dell and Sony would soon market devices with Memjet technology. Memjet fueled the rumor mill by promising that all sorts of machines would soon be available. The firm’s office group, for example, announced A4-sized units would be out by the end of 2008. Later, however, that launch date was pushed back to 2009 and then to 2010. But the products never came and the company began to resemble the fabled boy who cried wolf.
Memjet Stirs
But all was not quiet, either. After 2007, the corporate entity, Memjet, was formed to oversee the various groups entering different market segments. The firm attracted some with well-known senior managers. For example, Bill McGlynn, an ex-HP executive who helped develop the LaserJet MFP business, came out of retirement to head up Memjet Office, and David Clark, former director of integrated health systems for Eastman Kodak, was tapped to run Memjet Labels. In 2010, Len Lauer took the helm as the firm’s president and CEO. While Mr. Lauer was not from the imaging industry, he had an impressive resume. He was executive vice president and chief operating officer at Qualcomm prior to joining Memjet and before that served as Sprint’s president and chief operating officer before Qualcomm.
Hardware with Memjet technology also began shipping in 2010 but these were industrial printers not office machines. In 2011, the firm finally launched its first office desktop color printers. The year started with announcements that the company partnered with Lenovo to market a Memjet office device in China and struck similar deals with some smaller companies including WeP Peripherals in India and Kpowerscience in Taiwan to release machines in those respective regions. In the spring of last year, Memjet said that the UK-based compatible cartridge and specialty paper maker Lomond Trading Company would market its EvoJet Memjet-based desktop printer in Russia and Eastern European markets. In June, Memjet announced that LG Electronics had begun to market its Machjet LPP6010N in Korea.
In addition to all the desktop deals, Memjet continued expanding its footprint in the industrial printer market. Machines with Memjet technology for labeling applications was announced from such companies as Addressing and Mailing Solutions (AMS), Astro Machines, Impression Technology Europe, OWN-X Industrial, Rapid Machinery, and RENA Systems. Last September, Brookfield, WI-based Colordyne announced it would release a production unit powered by Memjet technology and a week later Xanté announced it, too, would release the technology in a new wide-format commercial printer.
Expandus Interruptous
With a growing list of OEM customers, Memjet began gaining some street cred. Despite the glacial pace of its customers’ initial product launches, the firm was poised for growth. Granted, it had not signed up any big name printer manufacturers, but the company was acquiring the much-needed legitimacy after all the missed deadlines and failed product introductions.
Then, just as Memjet appeared to be building a nice head of steam, one of the firm’s largest investors filed suit against Mr. Silverbrook and his partner Faye Lee, along with Silverbrook Research, casting a pall
over the firm’s future. The George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), a Tulsa, OK-based philanthropic organization, accused the defendants bilking it out of “tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars” through fraud and deception. LG Matchjet 2
According to GKFF, Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee first met with the foundation in 2003 to fund the Memjet companies and commercialize the new inkjet technology. Silverbrook Research would provide Memjet with technical R&D services without profit and grant Memjet exclusive and perpetual licenses to all Memjet technology. Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee would make their money later when the Memjet companies prospered. As noted, however, it took much longer than expected to get the Memjet program off the ground. Lawyers for the foundation claim that in the interim Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee “drained as much value from Memjet as they could to feather their own nests” and make money for their own businesses such as Silverbrook Research.
According to the GKFF court filing, between 2004 and 2008, Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee collected a total of $75 million from the foundation, which explained, at least partially, how Silverbrook Research could go so long without generating any revenue. GKFF said it invested $150 million in 2009 and became the majority shareholder, and they put up an additional $230 million in equity and debt financing. In May 2011, the attorneys say GKFF loaned the Memjet companies $25 million followed by $130 million more between June 2011 and February 2012.
GKFF accused the defendants of other chicanery such as fraudulently executing deals to reach certain milestones that would trigger additional funding. In addition, Mr. Silverbrook and Ms. Lee were accused of renting Memjet office space near Sydney, Australia at an inflated fee through a property management they co-owned. The court documents also contended that the pair failed to facilitate an audit of the company to determine “where money had previously been spent” and negotiated a secret settlement with DuPont, which required a $10 million pay-out to the chemical firm after a Memjet deal went awry.
Within days of the GKFF filing, Silverbrook Research vowed to defend itself “vigorously” against the “entirely baseless and inaccurate claims” made by the plaintiffs. The company characterized the lawsuit as a “hardball” negotiation tactic employed by GFKK to gain ownership of the Memjet printing technology. Mr. Silverbrook filed a witness statement with Britain’s High Court claiming GKFF had agreed to settle any legal disputes in the U.K. not the United States. He went on to deny the plaintiff’s allegations and disputed the amount of GKFF’s investment. Mr. Silverbrook asserted that the Memjet companies actually owed Silverbrook Research $22 million. He maintained that Memjet’s low sales and inability to commercialize the technology were due to the firm’s mismanagement, not because of Silverbrook Research’s short comings.
Printhead close-up
Growing increasingly entrenched, it appeared the litigants were destined to journey the long and costly path to trial. A glimmer of hope, however, flashed just a few days before drupa when Jeff Bean, vice president of brand and communications for Memjet, told my company Actionable Intelligence that, “Negotiations are ongoing and we are optimistic that a resolution can be reached between the parties.” He also hinted that Memjet may have big news at the drupa event, although he provided no concrete details.
Dispatches from Düsseldorf
It turns out that Mr. Bean’s optimism was well-founded. On the second day of drupa, Memjet announced that an agreement had been reached with the Silverbrook defendants. Although GFKK didn’t make a
formal announcement, on May 4 we noted an entry in the court record for the George Kaiser Family Foundation v. Silverbrook Research suit indicating the matter was settled. Memjet printhead full shot
While full terms of the agreement were not available as of this writing, a Memjet statement released on May 4 said the company will assume direct ownership and control of the intellectual property portfolio related to Memjet technology including “some 4,000 issued and pending global patents.” It also will take direct control of all research, development, and commercialization activities of the technology. According to Memjet, Mr. Silverbrook “will continue to support Memjet as a special advisor to the Memjet Board of Directors and as an ongoing consultant.”
Word that an agreement had been reached between the warring factions followed just a day after Memjet announced some of its most important partnerships to date. On May 3, the firm said Océ plans to introduce a Memjet-based large-format color printer with print speeds of up to 500 A0 (33.1 × 46.8-inch) prints per hour. Dubbed Project Velocity, the machine was demonstrated at Canon Europe’s drupa stand. Memjet also announced that it is partnering with Toshiba TEC to develop an office MFP featuring Memjet print heads, controllers, software, and ink. A prototype of the co-developed three-function device, which delivers 60 color pages per minute, was on display in Memjet’s booth. Toshiba TEC is also evaluating Memjet technology for industrial and commercial applications.
Apparently, machines with Memjet technology were on display at various drupa stands. Delphax had its Memjet-powered elan 500 sheet-fed printing system for print-on-demand applications running in its booth. Operating in the Memjet and Xanté stands was the Xanté Excelagraphix 4200, a 42-inch-wide commercial printer for short-run and variable-data printing that is expected to ship in June. Several Memjet-powered industrial printers were also running in the Memjet booth including the Colordyne CDT-1600 PC Sprint from Colordyne Technologies and Astro Machine’s AstroJet M1 and M2 devices.
Memjet Unbound!
Coming out of drupa, Memjet has never looked so strong. If the agreement between GFKK and the Silverbrook defendants is implemented as it’s been described, Memjet now has complete control of its technology and it has managed to retain the brains behind the technology, Kia Silverbrook. The firm should be the master of its own domain.
The partnerships announced at drupa are also important. Memjet has at last struck deals with major global printer companies like Océ/Canon and Toshiba TEC. Of course, the deals are modest and involve only a few machines. Regardless, it appears that Océ/Canon and Toshiba TEC are willing to take a chance with Memjet technology. This offers Memjet a tantalizing proposition: if its newest partners are able to mass produce the new products, bring them to market, and they do well, perhaps that may mean more Memjet-based products to come from both Océ/Canon and Toshiba TEC. And, if that happens, you can bet more will follow.
Clearly, the final chapter in the Memjet story is still to be written but it looks like the tale may not end tragically—as it once did. When the lawsuit was announced in March, it seemed like the beginning of the end for Memjet. All the news out of drupa, however, changes all that and suggests Memjet is nearing the end of what has been a very long beginning. Still, there is a ways to go before Memjet can be declared a “success.”
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Samsung enters corporate printer market
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Managed Print and Trickle-down Economics | Channelnomics
Managed Print and Trickle-down Economics
Hewlett-Packard is making a big deal out of recent customer wins in its managed print services (MPS) division, presumably because these new subscribers are very large organizations with diverse printing and document management needs.
These are big wins, indeed. And HP is not alone in the win column. Xerox recently announced aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing signed on for its Enterprise Print Services to consolidate and optimize the use of fax machines, printers and copiers in its fleet. Lexmark, too, had a big MPS win earlier this year when brewer Anheuser-Busch signed a deal to overhaul its printer fleet and get managed print support across the U.S. and Canada.
Vendors like talking about their big customer wins, especially when they have household name recognition. It exudes confidence to other would-be buyers and helps justify adoption. It’s a classic move right out of the pages of “Crossing the Chasm.”
Here’s the thing about managed print services: It’s still in the early-adopter phase of market acceptance, and it’s taking an excruciatingly slow time to mature. Printer vendors have been playing the role of Sisyphus in pushing managed print services to a reluctant and skeptical market. While vendors will point to substantial MPS gains and growth, these impressive numbers are often the result of the law of small numbers: It’s easy to show big gains when the base is so small.
No doubt these MPS wins by HP, Xerox, Lexmark, Ricoh and others are good for the cause, as they validate the model. But there’s something more to these announcement that should not be understated: a need to validate the managed print model.
Business customers remain skeptical because they see a recurring expense that actually reveals costs they never knew they had. Resellers and managed service providers have been cool to the model because it doesn’t necessarily fit into their current network and endpoint support. Worse, managed print requires MSPs to get into the consumables reseller business, something that’s a bit foreign to them.
Managed print, as a model and technology, is literally a license to print money. MSPs that have adopted it say it’s generating profits they could never get from printer sales alone. Customers who have managed print experience revel in its efficiency in performance and cost understanding.
Printer vendors should do a better job of promoting their reseller partners in these managed print announcements, as many of them omit that part of the sales equation. And, yes, some vendors are selling managed print direct; this is to seed the market and to recoup development expenses.
Promoting sales wins, especially among large business, will eventually validate the model and have a trickle-down effect to get small businesses to buy managed print rather than the conventional printer paradigm.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Getting started with Google's Cloud Print
Google makes printing to faraway printers easy in all sorts of situations
Sometime soon, you'll likely have something to print—and there's no guarantee you'll be at your home or office when the need strikes. You could make a reminder for yourself to print that e-mail or document the next time you're at your Mac or PC, or you could harness the power of the cloud to remove those traditional workplace boundaries and bring the printer to you.
Cloud printing has been around for a few years now, and it's actually very easy to set up. Google is the reigning champ in this space, with a product aptly named Cloud Print. With a few minutes of setup, you can have your Android, iPhone, Mac, or PC printing to printers in faraway places—even FedEx offices—from wherever and whenever you wish.
But what about AirPrint? Apple's wireless printing platform, first released in 2010 with iOS 4.2, is unfortunately limited to local networks. Even when connected to a home or office network over VPN, networked AirPrint-capable printers simply fail to identify. Perhaps, eventually, that will change. For now, Google is running the show.
Cloud Print can be set up in one of two ways. A number of manufacturers, including HP, Kodak, Epson, and Canon, already sell cloud-ready printers that "connect directly to the web and don't require a PC to set up." But what if you have a so-called "classic" printer, one that can't go online? You can still set that up too.
Because Cloud Print was initially conceived for use with Chrome OS, the setup process is handled entirely in Google's Chrome browser. To enable Cloud Print, head over to Chrome's Settings page, and select "Under the Hood." From there, you should see the option to enable Cloud Print from the bottom of the page.
The process is relatively painless from here. If you already have a printer installed in Windows or OS X, Cloud Print is smart enough to identify the device and prepare it for remote printing. You don't even need to keep Chrome open. A helper process runs in the background and listens for new print jobs. The only caveat, of course, is that both the printer and computer must remain on for cloud printing to work.
From here, you're probably going to want to, you know, print something. If you're using Chrome on any other Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, this too is easy. Any Chrome installation synced to your Google account has the ability to print to your cloud printers. If a friend or coworker has an existing Cloud Print setup, they can share their cloud-enabled printer with you, too. This can be useful in small business or team scenarios where multiple people can be given access to a shared printer in a remote location that is managed by someone else.
To print, simply select the Cloud Print option from Chrome's print page dialog. Doing so will open a browser pop-up that lists all of your cloud-enabled printers, in addition to any other printers that friends or co-workers have shared with your Google address.
Of course, you're not just limited to printing from Chrome (though this is the simplest way to get going). OS X users can use a third-party app called Cloud Printer to print a variety of documents from a local machine—and, with a few extra steps, can set up Cloud Printer to act as a virtual printer in any Mac app. Windows users can download a similar app called Paperless Printer. Both are free.
Mobile use is, admittedly, a little more difficult. Unlike a desktop OS, mobile applications on Android and iOS require printer support to be included on a per-application basis, and every implementation is a little different. In other words, you won't necessarily be able to use Cloud Print with every application that also supports printing.
On Android, you'll be able to print from Google's mobile Chrome browser, for example, or within the native Google Docs app. There are also other capable apps listed on Google's website, as well as on the Play store. On iOS, however, native options are slim. Google says that the in-browser versions of its mobile apps support Cloud Print, and some websites apparently feature a Cloud Print button. However, perhaps the best approach is to use an alternative to remote printing all together. An app available for Windows and OS X called WePrint can monitor an e-mail address for new file attachments and print them using a local printer when received. Or, if you're a Dropbox user on OS X and feel more comfortable setting things up yourself, you can use Automator to automatically print any file synced to a local Dropbox folder.
It's not quite the same as having native print support in a given application, but it beats not being able to print at all.
Cloud printing has been around for a few years now, and it's actually very easy to set up. Google is the reigning champ in this space, with a product aptly named Cloud Print. With a few minutes of setup, you can have your Android, iPhone, Mac, or PC printing to printers in faraway places—even FedEx offices—from wherever and whenever you wish.
But what about AirPrint? Apple's wireless printing platform, first released in 2010 with iOS 4.2, is unfortunately limited to local networks. Even when connected to a home or office network over VPN, networked AirPrint-capable printers simply fail to identify. Perhaps, eventually, that will change. For now, Google is running the show.
Cloud Print can be set up in one of two ways. A number of manufacturers, including HP, Kodak, Epson, and Canon, already sell cloud-ready printers that "connect directly to the web and don't require a PC to set up." But what if you have a so-called "classic" printer, one that can't go online? You can still set that up too.
Because Cloud Print was initially conceived for use with Chrome OS, the setup process is handled entirely in Google's Chrome browser. To enable Cloud Print, head over to Chrome's Settings page, and select "Under the Hood." From there, you should see the option to enable Cloud Print from the bottom of the page.
Setting up Cloud Print requires you to go under the hood.
From here, you're probably going to want to, you know, print something. If you're using Chrome on any other Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, this too is easy. Any Chrome installation synced to your Google account has the ability to print to your cloud printers. If a friend or coworker has an existing Cloud Print setup, they can share their cloud-enabled printer with you, too. This can be useful in small business or team scenarios where multiple people can be given access to a shared printer in a remote location that is managed by someone else.
To print, simply select the Cloud Print option from Chrome's print page dialog. Doing so will open a browser pop-up that lists all of your cloud-enabled printers, in addition to any other printers that friends or co-workers have shared with your Google address.
Of course, you're not just limited to printing from Chrome (though this is the simplest way to get going). OS X users can use a third-party app called Cloud Printer to print a variety of documents from a local machine—and, with a few extra steps, can set up Cloud Printer to act as a virtual printer in any Mac app. Windows users can download a similar app called Paperless Printer. Both are free.
Google Cloud Print's Web-based queue. Everything printed successfully.
On Android, you'll be able to print from Google's mobile Chrome browser, for example, or within the native Google Docs app. There are also other capable apps listed on Google's website, as well as on the Play store. On iOS, however, native options are slim. Google says that the in-browser versions of its mobile apps support Cloud Print, and some websites apparently feature a Cloud Print button. However, perhaps the best approach is to use an alternative to remote printing all together. An app available for Windows and OS X called WePrint can monitor an e-mail address for new file attachments and print them using a local printer when received. Or, if you're a Dropbox user on OS X and feel more comfortable setting things up yourself, you can use Automator to automatically print any file synced to a local Dropbox folder.
It's not quite the same as having native print support in a given application, but it beats not being able to print at all.
Photograph by Google
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)