Ricoh Introduces DocuClass Document Management Solution

RiSVP Member Software to Streamline Business Processes

WEST CALDWELL, N.J., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced the release of DocuClass document management software - one of the first solutions to become available to the Ricoh Channel through its recently introduced Ricoh Independent Solutions Vendor Program (RiSVP).

DocuClass, a product of Cima Software Corporation, Inc., is a complete process-oriented, document management software solution that enables organizations to streamline their internal operations by dynamically controlling and organizing the capture, management, access, and distribution of documents and information within their business process. 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.

"We are delighted to partner with Ricoh in delivering world-class document management solutions to the marketplace," said Nelson Cano, vice president, Sales and Marketing, Cima Software Corporation, Inc. "Going forward we will continue to develop innovative solutions for Ricoh customers."

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."

For more information on RiSVP, please visit www.ricohalliances.com.

About Cima Software Corporation

Cima Software Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, is an information management organization, specializing in creating and delivering innovative and process oriented document management solutions. Information about Cima's complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at www.docuclass.com.

About Ricoh Americas Corporation

Ricoh Americas Corporation, headquartered in West Caldwell, N.J., is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd., the 72-year-old leading supplier of office automation equipment and electronics, with fiscal year 2007 sales in excess of $22 billion, a 7.3 percent increase over the previous year.

Ricoh Americas Corporation is a leading provider of document solutions. Ricoh's fully integrated hardware and software products help businesses share information efficiently and effectively by enabling customers to control the input, management and output of documents.

Ricoh Americas Corporation directly or through its network of authorized dealers markets and distributes products in North, Central and South America.

Information about Ricoh's complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at www.ricoh-usa.com.

All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies

Equitrac Announces Latest Version of Equitrac Professional

PLANTATION, FL, Dec 18, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Equitrac Corporation announced today the latest version of its Equitrac Professional print management and cost recovery solution for professional services organizations. The new release includes enhancements to increase productivity, speed scanning processes and expands support for major vendor partners. Equitrac Professional expands revenue, lowers network print operation costs and reduces print supply waste at professional services organizations by automatically capturing, easily importing and accurately billing for every client-related printing expense, matching equipment to specific business requirements and simplifying IT support of print operations.

Equitrac Professional 5.2.3 is the next version of Equitrac's market-leading enterprise print management and cost recovery solution for law firms, architecture and engineering companies, consultants and other professional services providers. In addition to expediting and increasing recovery of client billable expenses, the highly scalable software allows businesses to capture, allocate and accurately bill for any client expense generated anywhere in a professional service firm. Accessible through Equitrac's TouchPoint Console(R) or Equitrac Embedded(TM) software for leading multifunction devices, Equitrac Professional supports the networked printers and copiers from every major equipment manufacturer -- as well as leading document management systems and professional time and billing software.

Equitrac Professional 5.2.3

Equitrac Professional 5.2.3 builds upon the success of Equitrac Professional 5 by adding several key features to enhance print management, scan and document capture, workflow and integration with partners.

HP Invented e-paper

This caught my eye today when skimming my google alerts. I had remembered that I saw this technology somewhere, I remembered it was on a scifi movie.

Can't remember the name, however these three or four astronauts were stuck on Mars, with no food, no water, no air and a robot that went bonkers on them. The one scene in the movie shows one astronaut unrolling a scroll with two ends and in the middle was a plastic film that held and image and you could change the image.

Scifi stuff always comes true, right.

This snippet is from mobilewack:

How will the future touchscreen look like? What about the future paper? HP has an idea about that and more than that, it has a prototype. The e-paper display is said to use less power than the displays available today and, even better, it’s unbreakable. We don’t know when this screen will arrive but we’re sure anxious about using one. HP will surely continue its work with the Arizona State Flexible Display Center to improve the existing prototype.

Then I read this from SFGATE:

Nowadays, many of us read or listen to the news on computers. But there are still some things one simply cannot do with a laptop or a PC -- like stuffing it into your bag or spreading it out on the breakfast table.

That may soon change as companies close in on one of technology's holy grails: a highly flexible computer display that one can roll up the way one would a newspaper or a magazine.
A team of Hewlett-Packard scientists showed off their version of that future one recent morning at HP Labs in Palo Alto, as they stood next to a machine about the size of a large refrigerator. Ironically, it looks very much like a scaled-down version of a typical web press used to print daily newspapers.

"That kind of electric paper is something we have argued about," he said. "There is a question as to what the market is for that kind of reusable paper. We know that people are spending hundreds of dollars for laptop displays or tablet-type computers. We know that people are buying very large displays to hang on their walls or to stand up in their homes. ...

"But the electronic paper is a totally new thing. It has to compete against the economy of real paper, which is quite inexpensive. The question is how much do people need that, versus how much are they going to look at things on their tablet PCs or their laptop or their home 60-inch screen."

Maybe, just maybe, we'll have no more paper! Everyone will have a fancy scroll and be able to write, doodle, draw download and upload images from anywhere.

-=Good Selling-=

RICOH LAUNCHES THE AFICIO MP C2050/MP C2550 COLOR

New Series Offer High Quality Color at a Low Total Cost of Ownership

West Caldwell, NJ, December 3, 2008 – Ricoh Americas Corporation, the leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced the launch of the Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550 color multifunction products (MFPs). Designed for small and medium sized businesses, the MP C2050/MP C2550 Series provides the features typically reserved for more expensive MFPs at an affordable price.

Furthermore, the MP C2550 has gone through extensive testing at Buyers Laboratory and it was recently awarded the company’s “Highly Recommended” rating and Certificate of Reliability.

In today’s fast paced business environment, color documents are vital in obtaining a competitive advantage. The Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550 delivers 20 pages-per-minute (ppm) and 25 ppm for full-color and black & white output respectively, and offers resolution of up to 1200 dpi, giving organizations the boost they need in the marketplace. In addition, color documents look more professional with vibrant images due to Ricoh’s new PXP™ toner. Businesses can enhance productivity and reduce costs simultaneously with the Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550 Series as it saves paper by printing two-sided documents at nearly 100% of the simplex speed.

Smaller organizations and workgroups can reduce the costs associated with maintaining four separate devices by consolidating to these MFPs, which offer several document management functions and high-quality color output in one device. The Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550 Series also allows organizations to develop finished documents in-house, streamlining production expenses. An optional Internal Finisher with Hole-Punch capabilities enables users to tailor the Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550 to their specific needs without utilizing extra floor space.

“In today’s economic climate, businesses do not want to sacrifice quality for price, and with the Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550, they don’t have to,” said Michael Hunter, director, Product Marketing, Ricoh Americas Corporation. “The MP C2050/MP C2550 Series offers companies a secure way to produce high-quality color documents at a low total cost of ownership, all of which our customers have come to expect from Ricoh products.”

Organizations of all sizes must meet security standards and compliance regulations. Providing numerous levels of authentication that allow administrators to confirm user identity and control access to color printing, scanning and other functions, the Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550 helps businesses meet or exceed these requirements. Among the beneficial security features are Locked Print, which prevents confidential documents from unauthorized viewing, and the DataOverwriteSecurity System (DOSS) option that automatically overwrites the hard drive. Another option, HDD encryption, enables businesses to protect valuable data in the event that the hard drive is stolen.

The MP C2050/MP C2550 Series expedites important document communications with customers, colleagues and other business partners efficiently with several Scan-to functions, including Scan-to-Email, Scan-to-FTP and Scan-to-Folder. A new feature, the Scan-to-Media function, allows users to store scanned documents directly to a USB memory device or SD memory card, for instant portability.

The Aficio MP C2050/MP C2550 Series is equipped with an 8.5” full-color W-VGA display for easy navigation. In addition, the Series supports a number of third party
solutions, including GlobalScan NX and the Card Authentication Package, which enables users to efficiently and effortlessly complete tasks.

The suggested retail price for the Aficio MP C2050 and MP C2550 is $5,800 and $7,500 respectively. The Aficio MP C2030 will join this series in mid-January, offering a basic feature set that includes TWAIN Scanning, Faxing and Printing in Windows environments. To learn more about Ricoh’s full line of products, please visit www.ricoh-usa.com.

Particulate Emissions From Laser Printers

It's good to know that lasers printers are just as safe as cookin in the home. Laser Printers harmful, naw just as good as Mom's home cookin!

Do laser printers emit pathogenic toner particles into the air? Some people are convinced that they do. As a result, this topic is the subject of public controversy. Researchers have now investigated what particles the printers really do release into the air.

-=Good Sellin-=

Pre-Owned Wide Format Equipment

We have these systems available now for immediate delivery.

Ricoh 240w:
Single Roll Feeder
Plotbase Server
Scan Module
Print Module
(17,000LF on meter)

Lease for $180 per month (60 month lease)

HP Designjet Color 500:
Roll Feeder
USB
Extra Memory Card
HP Ethernet Card

Buy for $2,200 + Tax and Delivery

HP Designjet Color 500:
Roll Feeder
USB

Buy for $2,000 + Tax and Delivery

Ricoh RW770:
Sheet for Sheet
up to 36x48

Buy for $1,500 + Tax and Delivery

Send me and email if interested art@p4photel.com

Memjet "Coming To A Store Near You"

Memjet, I've seen the videos and they are awesome, from the information below it seems Memjet will only make the componets for another manufacturer. At this time there is no info on what manufacturer will hold the keys to kingdom.

My thinking is Epson, Canon or HP, or maybe all three, we'll have to see. You've got to check out the video. It's AWESOME!

- More details on Memjet Technology, the company that promised to revolutionize the industry with a low cost, high speed color inkjet system:
o was invented by Kia Silverbrook of Australia
o Company is backed by two wealthy investors:
 Ray Stata, cofounder and chairman of Analog Devices, a $2.5 billion Massachusetts-based semiconductor company
 George Kaiser, the twentieth-richest American, a Oklahoma oil, gas and banking mogul with assets of $12 billion
o First product will ship in late 2009
o Prototype shown to industry reporters offered:
o 60ppm top speed for low quality mode (1600x800dpi)
o 30ppm top speed for high quality mode (1600x1600dpi)
o Uses five rows of page wide inkjet printhead arrays
o Possible selling price of $499
o 2300 patents issued so far, with 2000 pending
o Plan is to sell low cost replacement ink rather than expensive cartridges, as inkjet heads have long life
o Memjet will make components only, and its OEM partners will actually make and market the printers (the identity of the electronics makers that will market Memjet is still being kept secret)

Ricoh Introduction of GlobalScan NX Office Edition (OE)

Ricoh Americas Corporation is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the New GlobalScan NX Office Edition (OE) and Serverless release of the Next Generation of GlobalScan. GlobalScan NX OE with Ricoh’s Aficio Multifunction systems allow users to scan and deliver documents through the network to email, network folders or any Enterprise Document Management system driving business processes and transactions supporting Extensible Markup Language (XML). GlobalScan NX is designed for businesses of any size, GlobalScan NX Office Edition and GlobalScan NX Serverless allow small-and-medium sized organizations to effectively manage document workflows to fulfill their respective business processes.

GlobalScan NX provides the following benefits for any company regardless of its size;
Easy to use graphical user interface
Simple and configurable/customizable user interface of MFP display
Intuitive user interface reduces end-user training
One-button scanning simplifies even the most complex business processes
GlobalScan NX is packaged with 3 Years of M&S for ongoing support to your customers

GlobalScan NX Office Edition and GlobalScan NX Serverless is a complement to the GlobalScan Workflow Suite 3.1, the GlobalScan NX Office Edition offers small-and-medium sized businesses (SMBs) enterprise level document management capabilities. By combining the unmatched reliability of GlobalScan v3.1 with new productivity enhancements (listed below) in GlobalScan NX, this powerful software enables users to deliver documents and related metadata to a virtually any line of business application.

Since GlobalScan’s first release in March 2002, it has been installed in more than 5,000 customers and is one of the leading capture solutions in the market to date for Ricoh Americas Corporation. Building on this success, Ricoh has added many new and improved features to GlobalScan NX.

Ecopy Desktop & "Eric the Office Worker"

"Eric the Office Worker" is now working at Acme Buy. "Eric the Office Worker" is a Customer Sales Rep, and helps customers fulfill their orders as the customers visit the Acme Buy Showroom.

Eric has no clue there's a better way to reduce paper and save time. Eric's current workflow is that he will print a sales order form (pdf) in color from a local color printer, he will then hand write the order information for the customer, when Eric is finished he has the customer sign the order, process payment. From there Eric will make a copy of that order for him self, a copy for the customer and hand over the original to order processing. Order processing will then enter the order, make another copy to forward to accounting. At this point the order that "Eric the Office Worker" filled out has been copied three times.

Now, did I tell you how "Eric the Office Worker" has a small issue with handwriting, although he enters all of the information needed, on many occasions "Eric the Office Worker" 2's look like 7's and some of his script needs to be deciphered. So, order processing will call him back about the order and verbally go over the numbers or words that are in questions. At times, Eric the Office Worker has even added sticky notes to the order to draw attention to a question on a model number the color of a specific item. Did I tell you that sometimes the sticky note never makes it to order processing? The last sticky note was found hanging off of Sally's shoe as she was entering the lunch room.

Eric is not the only sales person at the office, there are 9 more and each has the same workflow. Order entry spends countless hours questioning handwriting, additional notes, and if the order is misplaced there are additional hours spent each and every month.

So, where is the solution for "Eric the office Worker"? Acme needs to simplify the process and reduce errors in order to increase profit.

Ecopy desktop to the rescue! Ecopy desktop would be installed on all of the pc's, in additional we would add 10 USB signature scanners to all of the sales people. Now, "Eric the Office Worker" will pull up the sales order, from there he will edit the pdf form with Ecopy Desktop, that's right he'll be able to type all of the information on the screen. Once the order is correct, he will than have the customer sign the USB scanner and then import the signature to the form. Once completed, he will print one for the customer, then email the sales form (by, the way if Eric, needs to add anything additional to the form, he can add a "sticky note" to the electronic document)to order entry. From there order entry will view the order, enter the order in the system (order entry can also add notes at this time). Order Entry then emails the form to Accounting. Accounting then creates and invoice and files sales order electronically.

Using Ecopy Desktop has just saved three printed pages, seeing that there are 10 sales people that makes 30 pages saved, and then four orders from each rep per day now saves 120 pages a day, they're open 7 days a week, so that's a total of 3,600 pieces of paper saved. Monthly paper savings is $25.20.

We've also saved 3,600 copies at .0125 per page, there's another $45 per month. However the true savings is in productivity, the office now saves more than 7 hours per month due to the reduced paper based workflow. Documents are now clean and easy to read, everyone can keep an electronic copy if they need to along with the not every having a lost sales order ever again. At an average cost of $21 per hour, the company has saved an additional $147 in productivity.

End result is a monthly savings of $217.20 per month, cost to have ecopy desktop (15 seats) and scanners (10 USB scanners) and consulting equals $145 per month. Net savings every month equals $71.31 and a customer forever.

-=Good Selling=-

New Color System from Ricoh MPC2050/2550

I traveled to Ricoh's New York City portal for the BIG BANG LAUNCH for the Ricoh 2030/2050/2550. I must say that I was impressed with color quality of this unit along with some outstanding features and new solution software!

A few of the notes that I collected:

Ricoh 2030spf (Entry Level Color)
20ppm in color and monochrome at 600 dpi
4 line LCD Display
512MB Memory Max
Standard TWAIN Scanning
No Adavanced Architecture, meaning no Document Server, no HD available
10K Black
5.5K Color
upto 12x18 paper thru by-pass
no finishing options

Pretty much a bare bones color system built to compete against A4 color units. MSRP is $5,500

Ricoh 2050spf and MPC 2050 (scanner and printer)
20ppm in color and monochrome at 600 dpi
Large Color Display
Optional Internal Finisher staple up to 50 Pages and optional hole punch
WSD scanner, XPS Driver, Mobile Driver
500 x 1 Paper Feed Unit (with Caster Table)
Mail-to-Print feature (MP C2050/C2550)
Scan-to-Media (USB/SD Card) (MP C2050/C2550)
Advanced Architecture, full boat with scan technologies. MSRP is $5,800

Ricoh 2550spf and MPC2550 (scanner and printer)
25ppm in color and monochrome @ 600 dpi
Large Color Display
Optional Internal Finisher staple up to 50 Pages and optional hole punch
WSD scanner, XPS Driver, Mobile Driver
500 x 1 Paper Feed Unit (with Caster Table)
Mail-to-Print feature (MP C2050/C2550)
Scan-to-Media (USB/SD Card) (MP C2050/C2550)

Advanced Architecture, full boat with scan technologies. MSRP is $7,500

No Fierys will be available for these units, if you need a fiery you'll have to advance to the MPC2800. The Fiery for this unit is set as a post launch.

What I liked most:

Mail2print (Print an E-mail attachment directly to the MFP!)
CAP Card Authentication Package
Scan2media, USB and SD Card
Automatic File Naming
Global Scan NX
Previre before Tranmission

-=Good Selling=-

Embedded ECOPY & Ricoh MFP

What you want to reduce paper? Ricoh does have a solution that works. Meet embedded ecopy software on the Ricoh MFP. This software actually loads on an optional java card that is inserted in the MFPs.

As they say pictures speak a thousand words, off to the demonstration.

Ricoh Waterproof Printer 3050N

Check out the video on this awesome printer from Ricoh. What outstanding is the fact that this gelsprinter will duplex (two sided) print, print up 29ppm in color, envelopes, and photos. Standard issue is a network port along with USB.

Long life ink cartridges eliminates going to the store every month for ink. Large paper tray for 250 sheets of paper along with an option second tray and another optional by-pass tray.

We have 7 of these left for $169.00 plus tax, comes with one year replacement warranty from Ricoh.

If you're in need send me an email art@p4photel.com

What is a HotSpot Printer?

Ricoh is pleased to announce the launch of the new Ricoh Aficio SP 4100N-KP and SP C410DN-KP HotSpot Printers.



A Ricoh HotSpot Printer provides a way for users to print documents securely across the Internet from any Internet-enabled PC, laptop, PDA, or cell phone. Without the need for a driver…without the need for direct access to the network hosting the printer!

Printing to a HotSpot Printer is incredibly easy. Each HotSpot printer has a unique URL and E-mail Address.
1. Users can upload files to the printer’s webpage (URL), or forward E-mails – with or without attachments – directly to the printer’s E-mail address.
2. The HotSpot server assigns a unique Release Code for each print job.
3. The user simply inputs the secure Release Code at the printer and retrieves their print job.
HotSpot printing is convenient, secure, and easy-to-use.

ISO Page Yields

In December 2006, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) body approved new standards for ink (ISO/IEC 24711) and color toner (ISO/IEC 19798) printer cartridge page yield measurements. These new standards complement the ISO/IEC 19752 yield standard for monochrome toner printer cartridges published in June 2004.

The new ISO standards for ink and color toner cartridge yields clearly define the key attributes that affect yield and apply robust statistical analysis so all manufacturers can utilize the same methodology when measuring yield. Until now, printer manufacturers have not been able to use a uniform methodology to measure cartridge yields.

Details of the ISO/IEC standards are available on the Web site www.iso.org/jtc1/sc28.

What is page yield?

Page yield is the total number of pages that can be printed with a print cartridge. Until now, printer manufacturers have used a variety of methodologies to measure cartridge yields, making it challenging for you to accurately compare brands. That's why Lexmark, along with other printer manufacturers worked in conjunction with the ISO to create new standards for measuring page yield. On December 13, 2006, the ISO approved the new standard for inkjet (ISO)/IEC 24711) and color toner (ISO/IEC 19798) printer cartridge page yield measurements. These new standards compliment the ISO/IEC 19752 yield standard for monochrome toner cartridges published in June 2004.

Why are page yield standards important?

These page yield standards will help you make more informed purchase decisions by objectively and accurately evaluating print cartridge yields. The new ISO standards for inkjet and toner cartridge yields clearly define the key attributes that affect page yield and apply robust statistical analysis so all manufacturers can utilize the same methodology when measuring yield.

How are the tests performed?

The ISO/IEC 24711 and 19798 specifications stipulate that page yield is determined using a standard suite, printed in a controlled environment, with printer default settings. Because the printer environment can affect page yield, the testing environment is controlled at a temperature of 23.0C +/- 2.0C.

The test suite, specified in ISO/IEC 24712, is designed to work with either A4 or 8.5x11" paper. The suite is a PDF file consisting of four typical customer pages and one diagnostic page is to be printed using the most recent version of a PDF reader.

How many cartridges and printers are used in the testing?

A minimum of nine cartridges or cartridge sets are tested until they reach end of life. This allows reliable estimates of the average predicted yield within statistically defined boundaries. The standards recommend attaining cartridges from a variety of manufacturing dates and locations for testing.

A minimum of three cartridge sets are tested on three different printers to avoid bias due to printer variability. An equal number of cartridge sets are run on each printer.

Why are page yields listed as a cartridge and printer system?
ISO page yields are always listed as a cartridge and a printer system. Listing the page yields as a system best reflects the differences between printer speeds, color tables, maintenance routines, and firing frequencies in various printer models.

How are page yields calculated?
The reported ISO page yield must be at or below the lower 90% confidence interval of the mean. If there are 9 cartridges tested, the maximum ISO page yield is calculated as follows: ISO Page Yield = Average page yield - (1.86 * (std dev of page yield / 3))

Why isn't there a page yield listed for my specific printer?
Lexmark will publish ISO page yields for all future announced products.

How does this standard translate into 4x6" photos?
The ISO/IEC 24712 print suite is specified for A4 or 8.5x11" paper. There is currently no ISO page yield specifications associated with 4x6 prints. There is a new ISO committee that is starting to address this issue. It is estimated that the 4x6 page yield specification will be ratified in 2008 or 2009.

Times' power bill down 25pc

Here's an article I ran across on the web, the article details reducing carbon foot prints of hardware along with saving enormous amount sof electricty. More over it mentions that they replaced all of thier stand alone copiers, faxes, printers and scanners with multifunctional devices. (Art)

IN the space of one year, The Fiji Times Limited cut back the amount of electricity it used by around 25 per cent. This came off the back of sustained implementation of the principles of its 1 Degree environmental program over the year to June 2008. The savings in electricity consumption translated into a 17.4 per cent smaller bill over the year to June 2008 compared to the previous year.

A large part of the success of the program has been because of staff involvement in helping save energy to save the environment. "It's a great win for every person who works here who have taken the time to switch off lights, computer terminals and air-conditioning units whenever these are not in use," said Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika.

The company also created an internal Carbon Council, driven by volunteers who consulted, collated and helped introduce new technology, ideas and initiatives to help the environment.
In its Suva headquarters, the biggest results were generated with a 25.8 percent fall in electricity consumption, which generated a 17.3 percent saving in costs. Its Lautoka office had an 8.36 per cent reduction in consumption, which translated into a 21.1 per cent saving in electricity costs. And while expansion of the Labasa bureau saw a 3.98 per cent increase in the amount of electricity used, this still saw an 8.5 per cent fall in costs.

The dramatic falls in electricity consumption proved that with a bit of effort, many people can help generate dramatic results, Mr Rika said. He said The Fiji Times wanted to lead by example, and was keen to ensure that more people embraced 1 Degree principles to help save the environment. "Together we can make a big difference to the type of environmental future we choose to have," he said.

1 Degree was launched in Fiji on June 25, 2007, with the goal of helping empower individuals, staff, families, and communities to take charge of the climate change issue and by doing so, change Fiji's collective future.

"Everything from the electricity we use, to the fuel in our cars, the carbon impacts of air travel, the heating and cooling of our buildings and the way we handle our waste and recycling affects what sort of carbon footprint we leave on our planet and what sort of impact we will have on global warming," the company says.

The Fiji Times, the nation's oldest newspaper, started its campaign to become carbon neutral by 2010 with an audit of power use. It recognised technological solutions such as the need to replace any CRT computer monitors with low energy LCD panels. Low energy LCD panels use 75 percent less power than CRT computer monitors.

It also replaced fluorescent tubes with "greener" triphospher lighting and put multi-function units in place of power-hungry stand-alone printers, faxes and copiers. By consolidating servers, printers and copiers, the company was able to cut the costs to run them by around 50 per cent.
Some of the measures the company is looking at over the following year are lighting timers for common areas and "green" cars including those run on electricity and bio-diesel.

Over the year to June 2008, the company cut its carbon footprint with various measures including minimising the use of urns and replacing them with kettles where possible, recycling paper that has been used on one side only.

Print Audit Green for "Eric the Office Worker"

So, you just bought a shiny new Color "Green" MFP. You know the system, your salesperson touted the "Green" features such as default auto off, default power save mode, default duplex copying, the small carbon foot print and scan2distribute.

So, what good is all of this if you can't control printing? Did you know that the average employee prints 34 pages a day and 17% of those pages are never used?

Do you think that "Eric the Office Worker" knows the cost per page of every MFP and printer in the office? What stops "Eric the Office Worker" from printing a 50 page color report to an ink jet printer (that can have a per page cost as high as 60 cents a page), just because he did not want to walk to the Color MFP that prints at .08 cents per page. Well, the idea of "Eric the Office Worker" not taking the short walk just cost you an extra $26 from one employee. Think of the abuse when you have 50 employees and this happens more than once a day.

Rules based printing, what does this mean to "Eric the Office Worker", well the next time "Eric the Office Worker" prints a report he will get a pop up alert on his pc that directs him to print green to this device (meaning the device with the lowest per page cost). Plus the fact that all of management will know when and where "Eric the Office Worker" is printing. So, if "Eric the Office Worker" does not print responsibly he could have a new "Green" job cutting the grass around the office!

Did you know that Print Audit Green on the average reduces your printing by 15%? Taking a closer look, I have a client who produces 200,000 prints each month on their MFP's. A 15% reduction would lower those pages to 170,000. So, that's 30,000 (that's more than 3 trees a day you are saving from the mill) less sheets of paper at .008 for a savings of $240. Then 30,000 less meter clicks per month at .01, this will be a savings of 300.00. Overall savings is $540 per month, cost to implement Print Audit Green in their environment (about 50 users) would be $146.25 per month. Savings WOO YAA of $393.75 per month.

Here's some more cool facts about Print Audit:

Understand your environmental impact

•Monitor 100% of the printing in your environment to spot abuse and waste.
•Learn who is printing to where and when.

Reduce unnecessary printing and waste
•Cut waste through the knowledge that all printing is being monitored.
•Decrease abuse by forcing duplexing, and restricting color printing.

Create green-friendly and cost-conscious users
•Utilize printing limits or redirect users to use more efficient devices.
•Educate users of the costs and environmental impact of each print job they print.

Not once in the last 10 years did a customer every present a print or copy report to me on an appointment. Thus, showing that the average company has no idea of how many pages are copied, printed, and scanned. Nor do they have any idea of the cost associated with their volume and hardware. How the heck can you be in business and not know this? Print Audit should be in every office, even if it's only used at the end of the year to review how many pages were used and what the cost was per page.

Did you know that you can enable Print Audit Green Software for less than 10 cents per day per employee?

-=Good Selling=-

Total Green Office Solution "Part V"

Regulatory Compliance/Air Quality Assurance

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines, green building standards and individual health concerns spark inquires into the safety of operating Ricoh products. We can offer assurance, since Ricoh goes beyond legislative compliance and has a strict management system that minimizes or completely prohibits environmentally sensitive substances. Many of our products meet standards set by the European ROHs directive. Additionally VOC (volatile organic compounds) such as dust, ozone and styrene fall far below EPA's recommended limits.

In total there are 66 substance groups controlled by Ricoh with 16 of those substances being totally prohibited from our products.

Internally many Ricoh products have achieved ISO 14024 certified third party labeling for environmentally-friendly products, including the European Blue Angel label and Canada's Environmental Choice. Not to mention complying with many United States federal, state and county environmental guidelines.

Recycling and End-of-Life Management programs that reduce, reuse and recycle end-of-life products, Ricoh allows customers to divert tons of resources from landfills each year. We work within a sophisticated framework in which repeated recycling reduces new resource consumption and waster generation to the furthest extent possible.

If discarded cartridges end up in a landfill, it can take centuries for the plastic material to biodegrade if at all. With Ricoh's Toner Cartridge Return Program, customers can return cartridges and toner containers. Depending on the model, cartridges with parts that meet new part standards are reused in manufacturing new cartridges, or reconstituted as alternative wood and fuel sources

Ricoh recovers 98% of material content from end-of-life equipment via our process of demanufacturing. Recovered resources are reconstituted into new parts or converted into energy. Ricoh demanufactures and average of 12 million pounds of equipment each year.

Note from Art: If you are interested in De-Manufacturing your Ricoh product, please email me or call me and I will quote on the project to make sure your old copier does not end of in the landfill.

PLOTBASE|PM certified for HP Designjet

Hamburg, October 2008: RATIO Entwicklungen GmbH with its PLOTBASEPM has been officially certified for the large format HP Designjet printer. HP's specially developed certification process appraises system compatibility with HP's own hardware.

With this elaborate certification program, HP ensures that the full performance of the printer is warranted and supported – this refers among others to high output quality and speed. PLOTBASEPM has fulfilled the requirements for HP Designjet certification.

PLOTBASEPM is a leading solution for efficient management of large-format output devices. Plotters, scanners, folders and copiers can be managed and activated easily in a PLOTBASEPM environment with the aim of increasing productivity and minimizing printing costs.

In view of the fact that large-format printing is always a very cost-intensive process and high printing costs are frequently not transparent, RATIO's PLOTBASEPM offers the market software that covers not only the hardware management but also the consumption costs of every single printing job. An add-on cost analysis module allocates all incurred costs to individual projects, cost units, customers and departments, etc. This prevents any nasty surprises when the annual accounts are presented; costs can be simply and reliably calculated, thanks to PLOTBASEPM.

The HP certification program confirms that RATIO Entwicklungen GmbH has developed PLOTBASEPM as an efficient, precise and user-friendly product.

Note from Art: We are a certified Plotbase distributor, please give me a call or email if you need additional information.

RICOH INTRODUCES THE AFICIO MP C2800/C3300 AND MP C4000/C5000 SERIES

Advanced Color Multifunction Products Deliver Improved

West Caldwell, October 15, 2008 — Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, today introduced the Ricoh Aficio MP C2800/ C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Series. These versatile color multifunction products (MFPs) offer enhanced productivity and improved image quality for businesses of any size, all with a low total cost of ownership (TCO).

Designed with the end-user’s workflow in mind, the Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 are able to meet the demands of any business and workgroup. To enhance productivity, the Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Series boasts output speeds of 28 pages per minute (ppm), 33 ppm, 40 ppm and 50 ppm for both full color and black and white, respectively. In today’s business environment, developing professional color documents is vital, and the Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Series offers benchmark image quality via the latest version of Ricoh’s patented PxP™ Toner technology, and print resolutions of up to 1200 x 1200 dots-per-inch (dpi).

It is essential for companies to continually prove return on investment, and this Series enables them to complete more jobs in-house, and reduce the need to outsource color projects. With a low total cost of ownership, these new models make it affordable for businesses to bring color into their workflow. And with various methods of user authentication, administrators can control access to color in order to manage costs and prevent abuse.

With a variety of paper tray, finishing, and networking options, the Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Series can be configured to meet diverse customer requirements. Users can run paper stocks up to 140lb. index through any front paper tray, allowing for simple production of postcards, covers and other documents that require heavy-weight media. Multiple finishing choices, including the ability to fold and saddle-stitch booklets in-line, offer additional flexibility to get jobs done quickly and cost-effectively. Standard Ethernet and USB 2.0 connectivity, along with several wired and wireless networking options, allow these new models to integrate seamlessly into any environment.

Ricoh makes document and device management simple with a variety of easy-to-use tools and utilities. Various Scan-to functions let users share information at the touch of a button. These include Scan-to-Email for rapid delivery, Scan-to-Folder for automated archiving, and Scan-to-URL to minimize network traffic. The new Scan-to-Media option lets a user scan a document to a USB clip drive or even an SD card for instant document portability. The Document Server is a repository that allows documents such as forms, brochures, etc. to be printed on demand, without having to connect through a computer. In addition, Web Image Monitor lets users and administrators remotely access jobs, system status, and even configuration settings, all without having to leave their desks.

Meeting security standards and regulations is a crucial part of any organization, and the Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Series helps companies meet these requirements with the latest security features. Various levels of user authentication, data and password encryption, secure printing, and many others are part of a long list of standard features. Additional security choices include the DataOverwriteSecurity System (DOSS) option, which overwrites hard drive data after each copy, scan, fax and print job, and the optional HDD encryption unit that protects data in the case that the hard drive is removed or stolen.

Continuing Ricoh’s commitment to environmental sustainability, the Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Series has superior energy and supply-saving features, which include fast warm-up and first copy out times, duplex and combine copy modes, energy-saving PxP Toner, low noise levels, minimal ozone emissions and is restriction of hazardous substances (ROHS) compliant.

“We are happy to introduce both the Ricoh Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and the MP C4000/C5000 Series, which offer improved image quality and a low total cost of ownership,” said Chris Markowski, product manager, Color Systems Marketing, Ricoh Americas Corporation. “At Ricoh we understand our customers’ challenges and continually strive to develop products and services that enable our customers to streamline their document management needs.”

Building on the phenomenal success of the Series’ predecessors – the Aficio MP C2500, MP C3000, MP C3500 and MP C4500 – the Aficio MP C2800/C3300 and MP C4000/C5000 Series is the next generation in Color MFP technology, and is available at the suggested retail prices of $10,750, $12,550, $13,995, and $17,250, respectively. The Aficio MP C2800, MP C3300 and MP C5000 are available immediately, and the launch of the Aficio MP C4000 is scheduled for late November.

To learn more about Ricoh’s full line of Aficio color products, please call me at 732.977.1211 or send me an email art@p4photel.com

Total Green Office Solution "Part IV"

Greening Paper Intensive Workflows

The environmental impact of mismanaged document output can reach farther than many people imagine. Being paper-waste conscious is more than a matter of saving a few trees. The entire environmental footprint of paper intensive offices includes the water, energy and tree pulp used in paper manufacturing, and the fuel consumed when transporting paper. Mot to mention the energy needed to recycle the paper, assuming it avoids landfill. Even maintenance of physical storage spaces for files has environmental impact.

Ricoh's device and software capabilities such as default to duplex printing, rules based printing, scan2distribute, and e-storage can work together to customize paper-reducing solutions. For instance, @ remote has the capability of assessing the percentage of duplex use within an office. These metrics add value to businesses who wish to report their environmental accomplishments and manage change within their offices.

Total Green Office Solution "Part III"

Device Optimization/Fleet Consolidation

Desktop printers, scanners, faxes and old analog copy machines--business often has far more than they need. There are ways to add value to Total Cost of Operation and device optimization assessments by emphasizing the considerable residual benefits of energy savings and CO2 reduction.

For instance by replacing three sets of the latest standalone copier, printer and fax with a single MFP, and by multiplying the ratio by 25 machines, a customer can save anywhere from $4,500 to more than $6,000 in annual energy costs.

Total Green Office Solution "Part Two"

Optimizing Energy Efficiency

Reducing energy is a universal concern from our workplace to our homes. Being more energy efficient can mean significant reduction of utility costs, and the net result is a reduction of CO2 emissions, the leading cause of Global Warming.

At the basic level, when a customer chooses a Ricoh ENERGY STAR qualified equipment, they can be assured of using the most energy efficient equipment on the market. 100% of Ricoh's multifunctional products and most of our printers and faxes are qualified for the recently revised ENERGY STAR program.

A green feature in many of Ricoh's multifunctional devices, Quick Start-up technology significantly reduces energy consumption while a system is in the sleep mode, yet starts up quickly to maintain office productivity. This lessens the likelihood that customers will override or lengthen the low-power mode default, reaping the maximum amount of energy savings without disrupting workflow.

Total Green Office Solution "Part One"

Ricoh Products Are Cradle-to-Cradle Green

More now than ever, business and consumerism ar driving the quest towards a more environmentally responsible society. Global Corporations, and mid to small-sized companies have joined government agencies in making "going green" a top consideration, rapidly incorporating stringent procurement polices to reduce environmental footprint. Green attributes have become a key deciding factor in choosing an office equipment provider.

Using the Total Green Office Solutions as a road-map, Ricoh addresses all of the components that customers desire in a 360 degree eco-friendly office. With Ricoh, customers can be assured that their document management and imaging systems will:

• Optimize energy efficiency



• Maximize recyclability



• Use materials resourcefully



• Control environmentally sensitive substances



• Maintain air qulaity

Green Lifecycle Analysis and Product Design

Did you know that many Ricoh products and supplies contain recycled plastics? For instance the MPC3500/MPC4500 can contain 21 percent recycled plastics, the weight of which equals 150 plastic soda bottles. In fact Ricoh sets annual targets to continually increase the amount of reused parts in our equipment.

Ricoh products are cradle-to-cradle green. At the onset of the production design stage, Ricoh contains a life cycle analysis to identify ways to minimize material and energy resources in every process associated with the design, manufacture and distribution of our products. This often results in innovative product design that makes efficient use of energy during use with parts and plastics that are standardized to ease the demanufacturing process at its end-of-life. Additionally, Ricoh products are manufactured in zero-waste-to-landfill plants, and product innovations a such as our PxP toner produces 35% less CO2 in the manufacturing process.

Xerography Turns 70

Who woulda thunk that 10-22-38 Astoria would go down in history. Just yesterday Xerography celebrated it's 70th anniversary. I can remember my first technicians class where we learned f Chester A. Carlson' Invention. Here's the history of Chester, Haliod and Xerox.

History of The Copier

Chester Carlson, the inventor of photocopying was originally a part time researcher, inventor and patent attorney. His job at the patent office in New York required him to make a large number of copies of important documents. Carlson started to find that this became a painful and tiresome procedure. This encouraged him to carry out experiments with photoconductivity and electro photography in 1938.

Carlson made history when he created the first "photocopy" using a zinc plate, covered with sulphur. He used a microscope slide with the words "10-22-38 Astoria" written on it. He placed the slide on top of more sulphur and under a bright light. After the slide was removed, a mirror image of the words remained.

Carlson tried to sell his invention to a number of companies, but he failed because the process was still underdeveloped and multiple copies were made using carbon paper or duplicating machines, and people didn’t feel the need for an electronic machine. Between 1939 and 1944, Carlson was turned down by over twenty companies, including IBM and GE. They believed that there was no major market for the technology.

In 1944 a non-profit organization called Battelle Memorial Institute, signed up with Carlson to improve the process of electro photography. In 1947, a small New York photographic paper company called Haloid approached Battelle and obtained a license to try and develop a new market based on the technology. While Haloid and Carlson were working on the development, they decided that the phrase "electro photography" was too mind blowing and didn’t have a good remembrance value, so they consulted a classical language professor at Ohio State University and later changed the name to Xerography, which meant "dry writing" in Greek. Haloid called the new copier machines Xerox, which were later trademarked in 1948.

Xerox introduced the first xerographic copier in 1949 which became so successful that photocopying became popularly known as Xeroxing. As the technology started developing, a new process of copying was discovered, which produced a copy of an electrostatic image by transferring a drum and a plastic powder called toner onto paper by being heated and fused. During the extensive adoption of the xerographic copier technology, Kodak's Verifax photo-direct copy machines were being used.

In 1969 Verifax prints required supplies costing 0.15 dollars, where Xerox prints could be made for 0.03 dollars including paper and labour. At that period, thermo fax photocopying machines where very popular in libraries and resource centres. The minimum wage for a US worker was 1.65 dollars and thermo fax photocopying machines produced letter-sized copies for around 0.25 dollars. Xerographic copier manufacturers took advantage of the high perceived value situation and by the early 1970s they marketed specially designed paper for only xerographic productivity. By the end of the 1970s the xerographic procedure was one of the known requirements for most paper producers and office paper brands.

In the 1980s, Xerox’s ability developed into allowing colour photocopies to be made. Around this time, some copier machines started to be replaced from the older drum-based procedure to a new technology using a transfer film or an inkjet. They also gradually become more advanced by being able to use untreated plain office paper for copying. As the copier technology progressed further, photocopiers were capable of printing duplex, two sided documents and the ability to sort and staple documents.In recent years, photocopiers have replaced the older analogue process to the latest digital technology.

With digital copying, copiers now effectively include a laser printer with an integrated scanner. This provides the copier with many capabilities such as automatic image quality enhancement and the ability to scan documents while printing them independently. Several digital copiers can function as high-speed scanners and can send documents via email or to a local network. When copying a set of twenty pages twenty times, a digital copier scans each page only once and then uses the stored information to produce twenty sets. This process is called automatic digital collation and is one of the greatest advantages of digital copiers. When trying to do the same with an analogue copier, each page will need to be scanned twenty times, which will generate one set at a time, or by alternatively using twenty separate output trays for the twenty sets.

Low-end copiers also use digital technology and tend to consist of an ordinary scanner with an inkjet or a relatively inexpensive laser printer. These are much slower than a technical sophisticated office machine, but they are built in at a lower cost. Some low-end copiers also provide all-in-one solutions allowing colour copying combined with a printer and fax machine which is a great advantage for someone with a low budget.

Coloured toner became available in the 1950s, however full colour copier machines were not commercially available until 3M released the Color-in-Color copier in 1968. The Color-in-Color copier used a dye sublimation process instead of the previous electrostatic technology, although the first electrostatic colour copier became available when Canon released it in 1973.

Ricoh Announces New Universal Print Driver

The Ricoh Universal Print Driver uses bidirectional communication to connect with and determine the capabilities of the printing device. For newer devices, the Universal Print Driver provides the full functionality of the device including advanced features and finishing capabilities.

Ricoh Corp. Press Release

Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced the latest release of its PCL6 Driver for Universal Print designed to expand the versatility of an organization’s printing network. The Printer Command Language (PCL) driver enables users to print from a wide range of systems without downloading separate drivers for each output device, reducing a company’s total cost of ownership. It is compatible with a wide range of PCL printers and multifunction products (MFPs) from Ricoh, as well as other major manufacturers.

Ricoh’s PCL6 Driver provides a single, flexible driver that eliminates the need for product-specific drivers in order to operate print devices in one network. Time-consuming tasks such as analyzing driver compatibility, installing drivers at individual workstations and retraining users on how to access specific print features are no longer necessary, streamlining the printing process throughout an organization. In addition, the PCL6 Driver shortens the certification process for new print devices and enables administrators to integrate new machines onto the network without installing any new drivers.

“The versatility Ricoh’s PCL6 Driver provides to a business’s printing capabilities truly simplifies operations, both for IT administrators and regular employees,” said Hede Nonaka, executive vice president, Ricoh Americas Corporation. “Managing multiple print drivers is a constant battle for an organization, particularly for companies with multiple printing devices and employees working remotely. We are excited to introduce the PCL6 Driver, as it increases workflow efficiency by enabling seamless printing from anywhere in the network.”

The PCL6 Driver for Universal Print is available as a free download from Ricoh’s website. For more information on all Ricoh products and solutions, please visit www.ricoh-usa.com.

Former Mount Vernon Purchasing Agent Convicted of Aceepting bribe from Ricoh Americas Corp

We at the Ricoh Family Group P4P Hotel have followed this closely and posted many comments, since it hits so close to home. A former head of purchasing for Mount Vernon School District has been convicted for accepting bribes, below is the press release from the local Mount Vernon paper. I don't know the law, but I feel that the sales rep and Ricoh Americas Corp should also be held accoutable for offering the bribe, right??

WHITE PLAINS – The former head of purchasing for the Mount Vernon City School District was convicted Friday of bribe receiving, official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities.Arthur Rose, 49, of Mount Vernon, was convicted in Westchester County Court on two counts of bribe receiving as felonies, three counts of official misconduct as misdemeanors and one count of receiving unlawful gratuities as a misdemeanor.

Between mid-June and mid-July 2005, rose, the former head of purchasing at the school district, accepted a bribe of $3,500 from a sales representative of Ricoh Americans Corporation for his assurance that the company would receive a five year contract from the district for 73 digital copiers, support products and related services.On August 3, 2005, based on Rose’s recommendation, the school district gave Ricoh the contract which exceeded $1 million.

Between June and September 2006, Rose solicited and received a bribe in the form of a $10,000 donation to his church from the owner of Tri-State Supply Company, a custodial supply company, in exchange for future business, which was later awarded.When sentenced, Rose faces up to seven years in state prison.

Ricoh Launches New A4 Color MFP

Awesome, to say the least, I haven't been very patient waiting to have our own A4 devices. To tell you the truth I would have been satisfied with monochrome devices, however to have three different COLOR models the MPC2030, MPC2050 (20ppm) and MPC2550 (25ppm) is a stunning addition to the Ricoh lineup of MFP's!!!

Here's a few specs for ya:

An internal finisher with optional 2/3 hole punch
Standard duplexing at nearly 100% of mainframe speed.
Scan to email (w/LDAP), scan to folder (SMB, FTP, NCP), Network TWAIN and Scan to Media (USB/SD Card)
Full color VGA/touch panel monitor
1,200 dpi
Super G3 fax modem with JBIG compression, LAN fax, Internet Fax and auto Fax Forwarding to email/folder
Secure Print, DOSS and HDD Encryption
PxP supplies and a fast warm up time of 26 seconds

These systems are slated launch on December 1, 0f 2008. I'm hoping that these do not have AIO devices and they are similar to all of our other MFP's when it comes to toner cartridges and drum cartridges. I really like the internal finisher, the 2/3 hole punch and the fact that we can scan2usb and SD card. At first glance it seems like the Document Feeder is from the MP161SPF, you can also pick out the USB Slot on the left side of the system.

As of right now I do not have any reports of the MSRP or the estimated CPP. More on this in a few days!!!!

Wide Format Stacker Increases Productivity!

Do you have the blueprint(blackline)copying or printing blues?

What's the biggest issue with the low volume multifunctional wide format systems?

The Ricoh, KIP and Xerox are all fine systems, especially the Ricoh 240W, 2470 and W2400 (Ricoh has two outputs paths for prints and copies, while the Kip3000/3100 and the Xerox 6204 only have one output.

So, what's needed in order to have uninterrupted printing or copying?

Tameran Corporation offers such a device, the SureStak300 or SureStak1000.

I have a few of these in current accounts and can attest that the systems work day in and day out. The systems are also constructed to last probably longer than the wide format system you bought or leased.

These systems were designed to streamline workflow and increase productivity in the office. Each of these systems will accommodate "A" thru "E" size, along with 300 pages for the SureStak 300 and 1,000 pages of output for the SureStak1000. Eliminate awkward retrieval of large documents from the floor or the inadequate output trays. Having prints fall on the floor or getting jammed is not efficient and too much time is wasted.

If you are interested or in need, please feel free to shoot me an email art@p4photel.com

Lease Stimulus Information

I'm going to re-post this for all recieved this in an email from a P4PHotel member.

Now is the perfect time to lease!

Recent legislation enables businesses to acquire equipment more affordable during 2008. This is great news for companies that want to obtain new equipment and technology to support their business goals and maintain a competitive advantage! You may be able to combine the many benefits of leasing with special 2008 tax incentives.

The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 includes provisions that enable businesses to take additional deductions for accelerated depreciation and immediate expensing of capital purchases.

What are the requirements?

• Taxpayer must purchase the qualified property during the 2008 tax year, subject to a binding lease or purchase contract signed in 2008


• Property must be placed in service in 2008


• Property has MARCS recovery paid of less than 20 years

The time to lease/purchase is now!

Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
Title I – Recovery Rebates and Incentives to
Business Investment
Section 102 – Increases in 2008: (1) the expensing
allowance for depreciable business assets to
$250,000: and (2) the maximum investment
phase-out threshold for such expensing allowance
to $800,000
Section 103 – Increases to 50% the amount of the
adjusted basis of certain depreciable property that
may be claimed as a deductible expense in 2008.

We do not offer or provide tax or accounting advice. For details
on the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, please consult your
financial advisor and/or tax and accounting professional(s).

-=Good Selling-=

Muratec 4550 "The Biggest Little MFP"!

Well, sold another one of these today a Muratec MFX 4550, and another A3 system bites the dust!

I'm so impressed with this system from the ability to faxforward2email as a pdf, the speed of the unit @ 45 pages per minute and the sleek touch screen. The Muratec 4550 does have a few cool features also, such as the ID copy that allows for seem less copying of divers licenses and Medical ID cards. This feature is great for those in the insurance and medical industry. The system will copy the front side, hold the image in memory and then you flip the card on the glass and what you get is a copy of both sides of the card on the one side of the paper. No need to refeed the paper or make wasted copies trying to figure out where to place the card! One more thing to add, copy and print quality is AWESOME!

Each paper cassette can hold 520 sheets, such a plus when compared to 500 sheet cassettes or 250 sheet cassettes. Document Feeder is good for 50 originals and will recirculated for auto two sided copying. I have also have had some time to work with the print drivers and find them easy to use and very productive. You can send documents from the PC and store them on the hard drive of the 4550, great for forms, spec sheets, and address book management.

As of right now, I think I have ten of these Muratec MFX4550's in the field (8 of them replaced A3 systems) and all of the are performing like champs while running 5,000 to 10,000 pages per month.

My belief is A4 machines will take the market by storm, there is already talk of a 75pp and a 95 ppm device being released by the first quarter of 2009. These devices will lower your ongoing lease costs and not affect print or copy productivity~~~~

So, make the call, call me as soon as you can!

-=Good Selling=-

Unplug Your Cellphone Charger

This is very usefull and I for one have always left my cell phone charger plugged it, as a matter of fact I may have three or four of them plugged in around the house! Shame on Me! Enjoy!


If you have a cellphone, have you ever noticed that your charger stays warm even when you are not charging your phone with it? That's because it is still draining electricity. "According to Future Forests, only 5% of the power drawn by cell phone chargers are actually used to charge phones. The other 95% is wasted when you leave it plugged into the wall, but not into your phone.



The lesson? Unplug your charger when you are not using it [or plug everything on a power strip and use the switch to turn it off instead of manually plugging and unplugging things. -TH]. If you don’t, it’s just wasting your money and adding to the pollution created by burning fossil fuels." We're fairly certain that there are no major engineering challenges that keep charger-makers from building in a feature that keeps the charger from using electricity when not in use; it's probably just cost-cutting. Of course, this advice about cellphones applies to everything that uses a vampire-like "wall wart" charger that doesn't turn off and keeps sucking juice for no reason .

Duplexing Duplicators, Rise of the “Green” RICOH DX 4640PD Duplicator.

Duplexing Duplicators, Rise of the “Green” RICOH DX 4640PD Duplicator.

Death of Duplicators was an article I read many years ago. I too thought the technology was dead. However, it seems “Green” Duplicators are now the “in thing” . You may ask how the heck can a duplicator be Green? Well, they can and I’ve outlined one particular system in this blog. Others may ask what is a digital duplicator? If, so you can go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_duplicator .

Ricoh introduced a Duplexing Duplicator (RICOH DX 4640PD) a few months ago, that’s right it will print both sides of the paper (letter size) in one pass, thus saving paper and trees. In fact this “Green” Duplicator can print 240 images per minute (ipm), which almost doubles the speed of any current duplicator on the market today.

The RICOH DX 4640PD also utilizes these “Green” Features Quick Start Up Technology, Power Saving Sleep Mode and uses NO HEAT to fix the image onto the paper! In fact this system uses a “cold process” to dry the ink. Thus electric consumption is decreased which enables a cost saving to the customer. Think of this, this system is ready to make prints after only 15 seconds, about the time it take too put on original on the glass or send a print job to the system.

So, who the heck needs a “Green” Duplicator? Schools, Large Churches, Health Care Providers, Faith Based Organizations, Colleges, and Hospitals can benefit from using less paper! That’s right two bring home flyers can now be printed on the same piece of paper in a single pass. How about forms, tests, charts, NCR forms and reading material they all work too right. How about companies that need thousands of bi-lingual forms or instructions? Can you image having an old duplicator that did one million pages a year can be cut to five hundred thousand, that’s a savings of 100 boxes of paper and a heck of a few trees.

If you have an old duplicator that can print up to 11x17, and you only print letter size documents, did you know that you are wasting half of the plate material? By acquiring a new “Green” Duplicator such as the RICOH DX4640PD you could cut your plate costs in half and help save resources!

Duplicators can also print in single or dual color and print onto virtually any type of media, so if you didn’t think a duplicator was for you, think again.

-=Good Selling=-

Gestetner Digital Duplicator DX Series - The most amazing home videos are here

New from Ricoh 1356EXPRO

Making speed work

At 135 pages-per-minute, the Ricoh Pro 1356EX is the world’s fastest multifunctional system. These new systems provide a perfect blend of advanced technology, exceptional reliability, and extensive finishing options that can handle volumes of work with ease.

Perfect for any environment—from Central Reproduction Departments to Data Centers and Print for Pay—the new Ricoh Pro 1356EX production printing systems provide fast efficient workflow with superior dependability at production-level print speeds—moving your organization to new levels of productivity and effectiveness.

General Features
Print speed of 135-ppm
Dual 160GB hard disk drives (320GB)
True 1200 dpi resolution
Network Scan-to-Email and Scan-to-File with printer and scanner kit option
Large, user friendly, dual language color touch panel display for simple access to all functions
Large standard memory of 256MB RAM
Dual toner bottles allow change-on-the-fly, uninterrupted output
Connect Copy option allows the linking of 2 Ricoh Pro 1356EX's to double your output to 270-ppm
Dual tray Interposer option provides ability to insert color or preprinted sheets

Copier Features
Scan black & white or color images at 80-ppm
Scan Once, Print Many with fast, clear output at 135-ppm, with 1200 dpi resolution
Full finishing capabilities including covers, chapters, tab extension copying, printing, stapling and user selectable 2 and 3 hole punching
Seven paper trays with total paper capacity of up to 8,050 sheets
Enhanced Document Server allows you to easily retrieve, merge, and edit files in thumbnail format for enhanced productivity

Printer Features (optional)
Print Resolution PCL5e 300/600 dpi, PCL6 600/1200 dpi, RPCS 200/300/600/1200 dpi, PS3 600/1200 dpi
Perfect for local or network printing with either PC or Mac
PCL6 enables it to work with all popular applications
Works with Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003 and Macintosh 8.6 or higher

Ricoh Introduces Wide Format Color Scanner for Rapid and Accurate Scanning

It's finally here!!! This scanner is awesome from the bit depth of color to the touch screen monitor.

Ricoh finally got it right with this one. If interested please give me a shout. -=Art-=

WEST CALDWELL, N.J., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh Americas Corporation, the leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced the availability of the Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner. Designed to work with Ricoh's line of Wide Format products, the new Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner handles both high-speed full color and monochrome scanning for businesses in large format printing environments.

The Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner provides users with great image quality at rapid scanning speeds of 12 inches per second (ips) for monochrome scans and 0.6 ips for color scans. In addition to its fast scanning rates, the Wide Format Color Scanner cuts down on work processing time enabling operators to edit and crop images before sending the image to its final destination, either printed or electronically stored. The device also comes equipped with an All-Wheel Drive Paper Transport System that eliminates image distortion frequently caused by erroneous paper alignment and ensures that images are accurately reproduced.

The Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner enhances workflow efficiency by combining multifunctional software flexibility with user-friendly controls. The scanner allows users to program and select job parameters through an intuitive LCD touch screen display and is paired with JETimage multifunction software allowing operators to create programmable icons to scan, copy, print, and track projects. The Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner also allows for Scan-to-Net operability making it possible to scan documents directly to network storage.

When paired with the Ricoh Wide Format Printer and imaging software, the Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner provides users with high-speed monochrome and full color scanning and printing for an array of original documents ranging from architectural drawings to oversized posters.
"The Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner is a welcomed addition to our growing line of wide format devices that help businesses do their jobs more effectively and efficiently," said Jason Dizzine, director of Product Marketing Ricoh Americas Corporation. "Products such as this demonstrate Ricoh's continual commitment to streamlining the workflow process for businesses around the globe."

The Ricoh Wide Format Color Scanner is available at the suggested retail price of $6,500. For more information on all Ricoh products and solutions, please visit http://www.ricoh-usa.com/.

About Ricoh Americas Corporation

Ricoh Americas Corporation, headquartered in West Caldwell, N.J., is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd., the 72-year-old leading supplier of office automation equipment and electronics, with fiscal year 2007 sales in excess of $22 billion, a 7.3 percent increase over the previous year.
Ricoh Americas Corporation is a leading provider of document solutions. Ricoh's fully integrated hardware and software products help businesses share information efficiently and effectively by enabling customers to control the input, management and output of documents.

Ricoh Americas Corporation directly or through its network of authorized dealers markets and distributes products in North, Central and South America.

Information about Ricoh's complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.ricoh-usa.com/.

All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

Ricoh MPC Series "Turbo Charge Your Ricoh MFP"

How can you get the most out of your new Ricoh MP Series Multifunctional Device without breaking the bank and getting the best bang for your buck?

By adding the these three Ricoh solutions you can enjoy increased productivity, reduce paper, reduce costs and reduce down time. Along with knowing that you are doing your part to conserve resources.

The solutions that I've outlined will add less than $100 a month to the typical 5 year copier lease, and depending where your companies workflow and volumes stack up, the savings could be well over the investment.

Our first solution is to add Document Mall 3 year/1GB Solution with the MFP browser. Document Mall is a robust off-site Document Management Software SAS (Software as a Service) that can enable your Ricoh Multifunctional Device to push documents to an off-site Document Repository. From the LCD screen of the MFP, any user can see the file folder structure and then select where the paper documents need to go. Document Mall will then organize documents by type, using indexing and full search. Document Mall can also be used as a collaboration tool, where you can work on documents together, edit documents and create markups. What I like most about Document Mall is the ease of use, along with the ability to access documents where ever there is an Internet connection. You don't have to have a degree in order to enjoy the benefits of Document Management and you don't have to have an IT infrastructure to keep the system updated and running. This package can be leased for under $60 per month.

Moving on to Embedded Print Director, all Ricoh MFP's now have the ability to embed software on a Java card, thus enabling features that can be used through the MPF's LCD display. Embedded Print Director will monitor every copy and print on Ricoh MFP's. The long and short of is that every print and copy can be tracked for charge backs and accountability. At the end of the year the system can provide a full report on what was printed, copied, identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies on the network and can help IT maintain a balanced budget for Total Cost of Ownership. A single MFP package can be leased for under $20 per month.

Over the last few years our industry has moved away from yearly service contracts. More and more dealerships are offering a monthly cost per page billing that includes all consumables (toner, pm parts), labor and parts. This allows the customer to pay as they use and eliminates that once a year high contract cost for high volume users. In most cases its a good thing for both the customer and the dealership. What is required though is the constant contact with the customer for reporting of meter reads. The dealership must call on a monthly basis and or have a service engineer drop buy to access the meters and report back for billing purposes, all of this takes alot of time on the customers part and the dealers resources. Enter @ Remote.

@ Remote will eliminate the need for meter reads. A Remote is a network appliance that will communicate with your networked multifunctional systems and printers, the appliance will then report back to the secure @ remote hosting facility. This feature will then eliminate the the process of calling for meter reads and will enhance productivity for the clients core business. @ Remote will also identify problems with connected units and will automatically update firmware as needed for every device. Cost for at remote is under $18 per month for the appliance, some dealers will charge a monthly access for this device. Best bet is to ask ahead of time.

For a review Document Mall will save paper, file folders, pendaflex folders and file cabinets by utilizing the off-site document management software. Documents can then be downloaded, reviewed, and or forwarded in an electronic format. Embedded Print Director will allow users to "charge back" for copying or printed pages and redirect printing to a lower cost MFP and provide a comprehensive report on Total Cost of Ownership. @ Remote will increase your companies productivity by concentrating on your core business and not baby sitting MFP devices for meter reads. @ Remote will also provide the latest firmware updates at a moments notice.

All in all these three solutions will Turbo Charge your PC into a cost saving solution from day one, all for under $100 per month. Not bad eh? I've included links for all three of the devices so you can learn more. Choosing the right MFP will go a long way with easy cost saving solutions.