YSoft announces the launch of a new eLearning portal

YSoft announces the launch of a new eLearning portal offering some of the most advanced functionality and cutting-edge technologies available. The purpose of the site is to increase sales and technical capabilities employees and Y Soft Partners, empowering them with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful and to stay competitive in today’s rapidly changing market. This is just another case showing that we at Y Soft are continuously adopting and using modern technologies in all aspects of the business, including internal employees and partner education

Lanier integrates with Ricoh

Ricoh Australia announced today that Lanier Australia will be integrating with the company to unite their managed services and product offerings under the Ricoh brand. Lanier was acquired by Ricoh Group in 2001 as part of a global acquisition and the announcement today is a key milestone in the Ricoh Group/Lanier global integration program.

Lanier will bring with it 300 employees and 8000 customers Australia-wide. Ricoh’s global network operates across 200 countries with sales of $US23 billion. Already a leading player, this integration boosts Ricoh’s market presence in Australia under one brand.

“We are taking two strong, profitable organisations and building a new, even stronger business in Australia,” said Les Richardson, Managing Director, Ricoh Australia. “The integration also lets us align even more closely with Ricoh’s global programs around delivering managed document and IT Services to customers. We will unite our range of managed services and product offerings under the same brand, enabling us to provide even greater value to customers right
across the business technology landscape.”

 

Celebrating 10yrs with a great, focussed company

Yesterday I celebrated 10 years with a wonderful team at Konica Minolta.

Joining (from outside the industry) at the official merge of Konica & Minolta – 1st April 2004, it was a delicate path of moving forward and inclusion within the new company.

Yes, the challenges were great, but so was (and is) the opportunity and potential.

I thank my colleagues, and even my competitive counterparts, for their wishes.

I look forward to the next chapter in the Konica Minolta story….. which based on the developments in the last 10yrs, and IPEX that has just wrapped up for 2014, will be rewarding.

 

Cheers,

 

Byron

Print Mill offers digital print services with KM Bizhub C8000

Arpit Arya, a young entrepreneur, has kicked off his printing venture, Print Mill, with the installation of Konica Minolta Bizhub C8000 and other finishing equipment. The KM production engine was supplied by Monotech Systems.

The company caters to the commercial printing segment, especially the photo albums market. “We are targeting the photo album market, with the focus of establishing ourselves as a one-stop solution by providing services from photography to the final printed product, said Arya, CEO of the firm.

The newly established digital printing company has launched themed albums like Facebook albums and LinkedIn corporate profiles. Arya told us that he is in conversation with both the online giants for business partnership and license arrangement. Currently, the firm boasts of churning out five albums everyday; approximately 4000 prints daily.

Arya has brought to the firm his expertise and experience in the field of animation. The venture is co-managed by him and his father from a 1600 sq/ft facility in Naraina Vihar, Delhi.

 

 

Article by Rahul Kumar 

Konica Minolta’s Seven MFPs Win Globally Prestigious “Red Dot Award: Product Design 2014”

 

Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announced that the company has been awarded the “Red Dot Award: Product Design 2014” for its main products in the Business Technologies business: five models of the bizhub-series A3 color MFPs (multi-functional peripherals) and two models of the bizhub-series A4 color MFPs.

The Red Dot Design Award is an international design competition organized by the Design Center Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany, and reputed as one of the world’s most recognized design awards, along with the iF Design Award (Germany) and the IDEA awards (the U.S.).

The winners of the Red Dot Design Award have been chosen by the jury of international experts based on nine criteria including level of innovation, functionality, ecological compatibility, quality and ergonomics.

 

The bizhub C554e series

The bizhub C3850 series

Award-winning Products

1. The bizhub C554e/C454e/C364e/C284e/C224e
2. The bizhub C3850/C3350^*

The Design Center of Konica Minolta has been committed to contributing to the company’s growth and enhancement of brand values through continuous creation of design with greater values for society and the customers.

Based on the new-generation design concept “INFO-Palette,” the award-winning bizhub-series MFPs aim to meet diversifying office work style and create value for customers. As a result, the winning products have realized intuitive user interface design that is easy to operate multiple functions. The large, easy-to-see 9-inch control panel for the bizhub C554e series and the 7-inch control panel for the bizhub C3850 series adopt unified interface that seamlessly works on MFPs and mobile devices. The entire product design has pursued Konica Minolta’s design philosophy for Business Technologies products: Smart and Comfortable. The endeavors include Konica Minolta’s signature stylish coloring of black and white across the series models, aesthetic form factor that flexibly fits various types of office layout, and universal design with ease of use for a wide range of end-users.

The bizhub C554e series has also been awarded Good Design Award 2013 by Japan Institute of Design Promotion.

Under the communication message “Giving Shape to Ideas,” Konica Minolta will continue driving design development with enhanced capabilities for innovative proposals to respond to diversifying social changes and offering products and services with greater added values for the customers.

24/7 Wall St says: Time for Xerox Board to Fire CEO Burns

When Barclays cut its rating of Xerox Corp. (XRX) to Underweight from Equal Weight, just after the company reported 2013 earnings a few weeks ago, the bank’s research arm expressed anxiety about the cost of more restructurings at the failed tech firm. The problem is actually worse than that. Xerox management, particularly long-serving CEO Ursula Burns, has run out of cost-cutting tricks. Xerox has not grown for several years, and there are very few who follow the company closely who believe it can grow going forward. The only solution the Xerox board has, if there is one, is to bring in executives from outside the culture, which has been dominated by long-serving board members and top management.

Burns has done an excellent job keeping herself visible in the business and media worlds since becoming CEO in 2009, after the retirement of mentor Anne Mulcahy. Burns sits on the Forbes 100 World’s Most Powerful Women’s list, as well as the Fortune global list of the Most Powerful Women in Business. She also spends a great deal of time outside Xerox, sitting on other corporate boards, including American Express Co. (AXP) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM). Each of these board memberships pays her well. They do, however, keep her away from time that might be spent on her troubled company. Her visibility, both through public appearances and outside board meetings, has not done anything for shareholders.

Burns pitched the Xerox $6.4 billion buyout of Affiliated Computer Services, which closed in early 2010, as a means to diversify the parent company, thereby improving its chances for revenue growth. The money was wasted. Burns’s recent letter to shareholders showed just how badly the transaction had gone. Over the course of 2010 to 2013, revenue, net income and operating margins are flat to down. In particular, revenue fell 1% to $21.4 billion in 2013. In the fourth quarter, revenue dropped 3% to $5.7 billion. Net income was down 1% to $1.2 billion last year. In the fourth quarter, the drop was 4% to $311 million. Xerox management and its board made two other notable announcements with the release of 2013 data. The first is that the financial figures for 2014 may not be any better than in 2013, as measured by GAAP EPS. The other is that Xerox would raise its dividend by 8.75% to 6.25 cents a share.

What the 2013 Xerox financial report made clear is that the company has gone from a troubled, no-growth maker of low-end hardware technology to a troubled provider of no-growth business services as well. Affiliated Computer Services has done nothing to improve Xerox’s fortunes.

Aside from poor financial results and her public visibility, one other thing is sure about Burns’s recent tenure. The Xerox board has made her extravagantly wealthy. Burns made an average of $13 million a year from 2010 to 2012. Wall Street will carefully watch whether she does anywhere close to that for 2013 and wonder if, in the event that she is paid well again, how it could have happened.

Burns is fortunate. She has a friendly board. Most of its members have been on long enough to have elected Burns as chairman (May 2010, after becoming CEO in July 2009). The Xerox board is notable for being manned by two high-profile CEOs who were pushed out by their own boards due to poor performance — Charles Prince, formerly of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), and Robert A. McDonald, formerly of Procter & Gamble Co. (PG). Members also include the retired head of the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa and the Executive Director of the Center for Adoption Policy.

Finally, Burns’s visibility, the nature of the Xerox board and the terribly disappointing financial results are not the only measure of her performance. Shares of Xerox are up about 50% since Burns became CEO. The S&P is higher by nearly 100% over the same period.

Burns may get another tremendous pay day, but the Xerox board will be under pressure to make it her last one.

 

 

 

Article by:  Douglas A. McIntyre

Focusing on Print: Beyond Technology – by Kevin Kern

Our industry is rapidly evolving to a solutions and services business model that focuses on technology and business process optimization along with hardware. The graphics communication segment of our business is no exception and is one that will receive particular attention from Konica Minolta in 2014.

As we witnessed during Print 2013, graphics communication customers are demanding increasingly sophisticated, comprehensive solutions to enhance performance and productivity, as well as to improve the competitiveness of their business.  Whether in commercial print or in-plant print shops, there is a major drive to increase internal process efficiency and expand offerings into new market segments.  The effect of this trend is that increasingly we are playing a consulting role with our customers to help identify opportunities to enhance their business process and generate new offerings for their end users.

Consider this recent example from the education vertical market. A large school district in western Massachusetts installed our digital print production systems to enhance the capabilities of their in-plant production facility. However, it was not the superior value that our hardware offered that closed this sale; instead it was the approach taken by the Konica Minolta team to go beyond the hardware and work with the customer to understand their need to optimize workflow and better serve their internal customers.  Through this process of discovery, a strategy was developed to streamline their workflow and enhance job submission through web-to-print technology.  The outcome was a new business process that simplified print submission and workflow management, reduced costs to the district, increased volume into the shop and increased customer satisfaction.

All organizations in today’s business environment must constantly work to leverage efficiencies.  As seen in this example, while the hardware was important, our understanding of how to help the customer improve their business process made all the difference.  Gaining customer intimacy and taking the time to understand their business is the hallmark of a value-driven, services and solutions based approach that is the future of our industry.

In 2014, we will continue on our journey to transform our business.  We are fortunate to have invested in our managed IT, solutions, vertical market expertise and print production capabilities so that we have a comprehensive suite of offerings to support this value added business strategy.

 

Konica Minolta launches its first label press, the bizhub PRESS C70RLC, at Ipex

The press has been designed to fill the gap between those entry-level and higher end label printing presses currently available, according to the manufacturer.

Konica Minolta has launched the bizhub Press C70RLC label printer at Ipex 2014

The C70RLC is based on a prototype shown at LabelExpo, Brussels last year, and runs at 18m/min, where configured as a roll-to-roll printer, and 9m/min as a roll-to-laser die cut configuration.

The roll-to-roll configuration has been launched first, with the roll-to-laser cutting model to be released at a later, still to be decided, date.

“We are still facing some challenges with that model,” said business development manager of Konica’s international marketing division Edoardo Cotichini.

“That’s not specific to Konica Minolta, that’s down to the known limitations of laser die cutting in general.”

He added: “The main interest is currently around the roll-to-roll model anyway.” The target market for the new printer is established converters and conventional label printers wanting to print shorter run and variable data labels.

“Some of our potential customers have told us the quality of the print could compete with the higher end digital label printers,” said Cotichini.

“The quality is definitely higher than the average inkjet printer. And in reality the roll-to-roll model’s speed is more like 18.9m per minute.”

He added: “There are two reasons for launching this now. It’s clear to everyone that what we were seeing happening in commercial printing years ago is happening in the label market now. That’s what customers are telling us.”

Though the press can print on film substrates, Konica said 90% of applications would be on paper as the machine is currently designed as a four colour model and so does not have white ink.

The C70RLC will be commercially available at the end of this year, with Cotichini reporting “several” sales in the pipeline. “Interest in the machine is global,” he said.

Konica has also launched higher quality versions of its 60 and 71ppm C6000 and C7000 models at Ipex, in the form of a bizhub PRO C1060 and C1070, and bizhub PRESS C1060, C1070 and P.

Also on its Ipex stand is the new KM-1 B2 sheet fed UV inkjet press due for full launch in 2015, when it will have a guide price of 1.5-1.6m euros. It is aimed at commercial printers wanting to expand into larger sheet sizes for 3-panel and 4-panel brochures, pocket folders, posters, POP, wrap-around book covers and light packaging applications

The machine has a 585x750mm sheet size and top speed of 3,300 sheets per hour with paper transport developed by Komori. 

“I have no intention of competing with Komori offset UV technology,” said Akiyoshi Ohno, executive officer division director of Inkjet Business Unit at Konica. “In the current market some conflict is unavoidable, but I think we can expand the market coverage.”

“We want to make this into an industrial revolution,” he added.

“A KM2 is planned. That could be an increase in heads, speed or colour or paper size. We have a lot of ideas.”

Konica Minolta also announced Ikuo Nakagawa as its new president of business solutions Europe at Ipex. Nakagawa started at the company in 1982 and was previously president of business solutions China.

Konica Minolta brings dinosaurs to life at Ipex

Konica Minolta and Nova Direct are using augmented reality to bring dinosaurs to life at Ipex 2014

For the Inspiration Avenue at Ipex 2014, commencing this week, Konica Minolta and its customer Nova Direct will project a dinosaur onto the screen of an iPad or iPhone by identifying an image in a printed page. The companies hope that this is the start of visitors finding everyday uses for augmented reality.

Combining software normally reserved for children’s games with traditional printing, Konica Minolta plans to apply AR to everyday life, giving customers a more accurate picture of how a given object – or, in this case, a dinosaur – would fit in to their perspective of space.

“Typically, people can see a 3D photograph online of an everyday object, but they’ve no way of easily knowing how it would fit in to the exact space at their home,” explains Andy Fry, managing director of Nova Direct. “By taking a printed sheet home, they can then put the sheet in the exact space they want the TV to go and then see it in the exact size and spot as it would appear in their home. The potential is enormous.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article by:Hannah Ormiston originally published @ outputmagazine

Canon Subsidiary (wholly owned) files for bankruptcy

Notice Regarding Petition for Commencement of Bankruptcy Proceedings by a Subsidiary for its Subsidiary (Sub-subsidiary) and Order of the Commencement

As Tsuhan Koubou Inc. (hereinafter “Tsuhan Koubou”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canon Electronics Inc. (hereinafter “Canon Electronics”; Securities Code: 7739, Tokyo Stock Exchange first section), which is a consolidated subsidiary of Canon Inc. (hereinafter “the Company”), filed a petition for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court on March 20, 2014 and an order of the commencement of bankruptcy proceedings was made on the same day, the Company announces as follows.

a. Profile of Sub-subsidiary (As of the end of February 2014)

Trade Name: Tsuhan Koubou Inc.

Location of Head Office: 3-5-10 Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Name and Title of Representative: Shinichi Fukushima, Representative Director

Business Activities: Mail-order business

Amount of Stated Capital: 30 million yen

Major Shareholder and Share Holding Ratio: Canon Electronics (Consolidated subsidiary of the Company (54.1%)) 100%

Credits and Debts Relationship with the Company: None

b. Background that led to the filing of the Petition

reported his own acts which were in breach of duties as an officer to Canon Electronics, the parent company of Tsuhan Koubou. Acting on this report, Canon Electronics established an internal investigation committee on January 7 this year. Through the investigation, it turn out that the Former President, s Board of Directors, repeatedly had carried out the illegal activities such as debt guarantees and draft endorsements in the name of Tsuhan Koubou

Despite efforts to clarify facts on this matter through hearings with the Former President and his lawyer, Canon Electronics was unable to gain a complete understanding of a whole scheme of the illegal activities and the facts, including how funds were actually used. Faced with a risk that Tsuhan Koubou’s debt would increase due to the illegal activities of the Former President, there was no choice but to file a petition for bankruptcy proceedings in order to confirm the facts through the bankruptcy trustee, specify the amount of debt, and equitably distribute residual

c. Complainant

Tsuhan Koubou Inc.

d. Petition Process

Petition for commencement of bankruptcy proceedings prescribed in Article 18 of the Bankruptcy Act

e. Net Debt

Although the amount of debt has not been fixed due to the illegal activities of the Former President, Canon Electronics currently estimates Tsuhan Koubou’s net debt to be approximately 2.4 billion yen.

f. Impact of Bankruptcy and Other Related Issues Concerning the Sub-subsidiary

The Company has judged that there will be no impact on its business results.

g. Valuation Amount of the Sub-subsidiary

Tsuhan Koubou shares held by Canon Electronics are estimated to have no value.

h. Future Prospects

Although the confirming of facts and other related matters concerning the illegal activities of the Former President has been entrusted to the bankruptcy trustee, Canon Electronics, Tsuhan Koubou’s parent company, will strive to investigate the shortcomings in its internal checks and balances function that led to this situation and prevent its recurrence, and has indicated its intent to pursue the liability of the Former President, including criminal charges.