@konicaminoltaau to host “Out of the Box” seminar

Konica Minolta is hosting a seminar on different ways printing businesses can increase productivity and profitability to ensure long term success, with a wide range of presentations from industry experts.

Presentations will inform the industry on how to make your business more accessible to customers to create growth, manage inventory and processes more efficiently, increase flexibility to protect your profits, create new business opportunities through personalisation, improve agility with the ‘Cloud’ an solutions and applications to drive productivity.

There will be a special guest speaker from the NBN providing an update on how the National Broadband Network and how it will affect your business.

The following industry experts will provide attendees with an insight on the following:

• Investec – ‘Finance in Todays Market’
• Adobe – ‘No more buying software in a box. Software As A Service (SAAS)
• Anitech – ‘Toner based wide format printing’
• BJ Ball – ‘Reduce your paper stock overheads’
• EFI – ‘Discover your benefits of web-to-print and what it means to your business’
• Kodak – ‘Understand what workflow and MIS systems can do for your business’
• Objectif Lune – ‘Can variable date grow your business?’
• Symantec – ‘The Cloud’
• Morgana – ‘All finishers are not equal’

 

To register click on the following link

Event Website: www.konicaminolta.com.au/outofthebox

MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES AND FUJI XEROX AGREE ON COMPREHENSIVE TIE-UP IN DOCUMENT SERVICES BUSINESS

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. have reached an agreement on comprehensive business alliance in document services to build a printing environment and optimize the document services operations in the MHI group. MHI is to establish a spin-off company by splitting the document-related business of its consolidated subsidiary, RYOIN Co., Ltd. Fuji Xerox will acquire shares of the newly established company and take over the business concerned from RYOIN.

Maximizing its accumulated knowhow on document services, Fuji Xerox will offer its services to the MHI group under the strengthened partnership established with the Group by succeeding the document-related business from RYOIN-aiming at further expansion of Fuji Xerox’s services business.

As one of the measures under its mid-term business plan, MHI is promoting corporate reform and streamlining. By jointly establishing the new company with Fuji Xerox, which will provide optimal services to the company, MHI aims to boost efficiency in its document-related operations and achieve a drastic cut back on cost.

Further details including the name of the new company and its management setup will be announced separately.

Companies concerned:
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Co., Ltd.
  President: Shunichi Miyanaga
  Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo 

Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
 President: Tadahito Yamamoto
 Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo
 
Overview of the new company
1. Name:                         TBD
2. Address:                      TBD
3. Capital:                        TBD
4. Shareholder status:       Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.: 80%
    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.: 20%
5. Date of establishment:   April 1, 2014 (scheduled)
6. Representative:            TBD
7. Business description:     Document-related business including print and copy services

Lexmark aquires medical software company PACSGEAR in $54M deal

 

Lexmark has that it has bought PACSGEAR, a medical information company, for $54 million.

PACSGEAR will report to the Lexmark stand-alone business unit Perceptive Software.

PACSGEAR works to help health care providers capture, manage and share medical images and related documents and integrate them with existing picture archiving and communication systems and electronic medical records.

Lexmark said in a press release that the acquisition will make Perceptive Software “uniquely positioned to offer a vendor-neutral, standards-based clinical content platform for capturing, managing, accessing and sharing patient imaging information and related documents within healthcare facilities.”

PACSGEAR’s customers include Kaiser Permanente, Henry Ford Health System, Hospital Corporation of America, Mount Sinai Hospital, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Paul Rooke, Lexmark’s chairman and chief executive officer, said that the acquisition of PACSGEAR “further differentiates Lexmark’s solutions by better enabling health care organizations to capture and process digital content, and then ensure it is connected with the applications and people that need it most so they can deliver the best patient care possible.”

Lexmark has spent heavily in recent years on acquiring software expertise and customers in world markets. In August, the company announced its $72 million purchase of the German company Saperion AG, a developer and provider of enterprise content management and business process management software with customers including the energy company E.ON, Lufthansa, Vodafone, Daimler and Siemens.

In 2012, Lexmark acquired ISYS Search Software, based in Australia; U.S. based-Nolij Corp; and Luxembourg-based Brainware.

In addition to Saperion, so far in 2013 Lexmark has purchased Twistage, a San Franciso-based company with a cloud software platform for managing video, audio and image content; Seattle-based AccessVia, which has software that prints on-demand in stores on printers, multifunction products or handheld devices in the aisle or in production facilities; and Acuo Technologies of Minneapolis, a leader in clinical management software and the medical imaging industry.

Read more: http://medcitynews.com/2013/10/medical-software-company-pacsgear-acquired-lexmark-54m-deal/#ixzz2hAIJ5XFq

Sharp discounts shares to raise up to $1.4B

Japanese firm seeks to rebuild balance sheet after losses

Sharp Corp., a supplier of screens to Apple Inc., will raise as much as 137 billion yen — $1.4 billion — by selling stock at a discount as the Japanese company seeks to rebuild its balance sheet after record annual losses.

Shares will be priced at 279 yen apiece, which is 4.1 percent lower than Monday’s closing price, Osaka-based Sharp said in a regulatory filing. Japan’s largest maker of liquid-crystal displays will raise as much as 119.1 billion yen from a public share sale and 17.4 billion yen from selling stock to Makita Corp., Denso Corp. and Lixil Group Corp., it said.

Sharp posted losses totaling 921 billion yen during the past two financial years amid intensified competition in LCDs and flat-panel TVs. The supplier for Apple’s iPhone and iPad is tapping into the Japanese equities rally after previously selling minority stakes to Samsung Electronics Co. and Qualcomm Inc.

Sharp last month said it would raise as much as 166.4 billion yen from the sale of stock. The company’s shares have slumped 23 percent since the plan was announced Sept. 18.

The stock dropped 8.2 percent to close at 291 yen in Tokyo trading before the announcement. Sharp shares have fallen 4 percent so far this year, while Japan’s benchmark Topix index has gained 33 percent.

In August, Sharp reported a net loss of 18 billion yen for the June quarter, narrower than the 138 billion yen loss a year earlier. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, totaled 3 billion yen for the quarter, compared with a loss of 94 billion yen a year earlier, the company said. Sales rose 33 percent to 608 billion yen.

The maker of Aquos TVs is forecasting net income of 5 billion yen for the year to March 2014, its first annual profit in three years, after job cuts. The company sold a stake in its largest LCD plant to Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou last year to boost sales through his Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of electronics.

 

By Grace Huang, Bloomberg News

North West Online Business Goes Pink For October

NetGiant Ltd, a Greater Manchester internet retailer, is donating 50p to Breast Cancer Care for every Magenta (pink) printer cartridge sold during the month of October.

The multi-brand company will use their printer consumables website, TonerGiant.co.uk, to head up the campaign. Besides the charitable donations, TonerGiant.co.uk will undergo a pink ‘makeover’ from October 1st, in an aim to spread awareness about breast cancer. The whole team will be involved and have been learning about the risks of the disease, as well as precautions and measures that can be taken against it.

In an aid to help the fund-raising even further, the team will be taking part in plenty of activities in October, using ‘Pink Fridays’ as way of raising awareness. The NetGiant team will be learning line dancing, baking cakes and wearing pink supportive t-shirts on these Fridays, in order to mirror the messages on their website.

Director Joanne Flynn said, “To be able to be a part of this month of fundraising is something that we, as a team, are collectively really proud of. Breast cancer awareness is becoming a much more popular topic in the media, but unfortunately it’s not as popular as we’d like it to be just yet.”

Managing Director, Gary Flynn, added “As an online business with a public front, we have a direct opportunity to raise awareness for this great cause. We’ve all been working really hard to think of ways we could support the charity, and hopefully, at the end of the month, we can say we’ve done our bit.”

TonerGiant.co.uk is one of NetGiant Ltd’s internet retail brands, and has been trading nationwide since 2006. Experiencing positive growth and expansion over the last decade, and being awarded the Bolton & Bury Business of the Year Award in 2012, NetGiant Ltd hopes to use this commercial success as an outlet to support Breast Cancer Care this October.

Gary Flynn’s final words were, “We’re all set up and on board now and we can’t wait to start seeing some of our sales go towards Breast Cancer Care. We must of course remember that this is just a start and we’re all really eager to see more of the same attitude to the charity across the UK.”

 

(PRWEB UK) 6 October 2013

Konica Minolta launches practical workshops to re-enforce industry and Ipex commitment.

Konica Minolta has announced a series of practical workshops – underpinning its commitment to the print industry and next year’s Ipex – to help printers grow their business in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Up to 20 free places are available to owners / directors at each of the five separate high quality support events that will be run by Konica Minolta in conjunction with Print Future.  The key focus areas will cover business planning, production efficiency, sales and business development, and adding new services.

Customer case studies and other testimonials featuring good business practice will also be part of the programme linking into Konica Minolta’s successful Digital 1234 initiatives.

The details of the events were unveiled at the Young Leaders in Print European Conference in Cambridge, which offers printers training and opportunities to discuss current industry trends. The workshops launch at St Brides, London, on 12 November, followed by events at Bristol on 19 November, Nottingham on 26 November, Warrington on 3 December and will be completed in Livingston, Scotland, on 11 December.

Mark Hinder, Konica Minolta’s Production Printing Market Development Manager, gave a keynote address to delegates from across Europe at Young Leaders in Print Conference, which was run jointly by and the BPIF (British Printing Industries Federation) and Intergraf.  The theme of the conference was innovation and Mr Hinder shared Konica Minolta’s thoughts on future developments.

He said: “This conference provided us with a perfect opportunity to announce a significant investment in educational programmes through our acclaimed Digital 1234 programmes that will be beneficial to printers going forward. These events will help enable printers to determine their future growth strategies and opportunities through identifying key priorities. This isn’t about investing in technology and solutions, it’s about knowing how the market will adapt and what to plan for.

“In the wider context, this is also further evidence of Konica Minolta’s unwavering commitment to the print industry in the run-up to Ipex where we are so proud to be the largest single exhibitor.”

BPIF Chief Executive Kathy Woodward said: “It is really positive to see the whole supply chain coming together to harness the undoubted opportunities of the quickly changing digital arena.”

To find out more and register to attend the events, please click this link

 

Originally published @ http://www.konicaminolta.co.uk