Tidbits

-Cause of data theft named after Greek god. The Zeus malware program is being blamed for many thefts of customer information. The computer virus first appeared in Europe in the mid-90s. and the makers continue to modify it to circumvent whatever security measure are put in place. It is a keylogger software, meaning it affects a PC, and then tracks keystrokes, making it ideal for tracking bank account information.

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-HIPAA data security breach. Keystone Mercy Health Plan and AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan, insurance providers in Pennsylvania, reported the loss of an unencrypted portal flash drive that contained patient data for 280,000 members.

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-Siemens, maker of EHR system and other technologies, announced it will layoff 17,000 people worldwide due to slow sales.

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-Loffler Companies, a Konica Minolta dealer in Minnesota, was named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in the U.S.

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-CVision of Queens, New York, announced it won research grants from the National Science Foundation to develop new JBIG compression technology to increase speed of OCR scanning. The company’s goal is to allow copier companies to have built-in OCR that can make a searchable PDF as fast as the copier’s scan speed

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-Adobe announced it will ship a new version of Acrobat software, called Acrobat X, featuring:
o rebuilt scanning and OCR engine
o scanned files are 50% smaller
o automatic color and grayscale detection
o uses OCR software from IRIS of Belgium
o integration with MS SharePoint
o ability to export files to MS Word or MS Excel
o basic commenting functionality

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-Hewlett Packard sued by some of its shareholders. The lawsuit claims that HP permitted or encouraged illegal kickbacks and bribes to government agencies to win bids. In August, HP had agreed to pay a $55 million fine to settle a U.S. Justice Dept. probe over alleged bribery.

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-Xerox reported financial results from its last quarter:
o Includes ACS, which Xerox acquired for $6.4 billion
o Total revenue of $5.43 billion, up 48%
o Profit of $250 million, up 103%
o Laid off 100 employees during quarter
o Projects spending $400 million on restructuring, as it will lay off 2,500 more employees
o Has 133,000 total employees currently (76,500 in the ACS division)
o Paid off $1billion in debt, with $9.5 billion remaining
o Predicts debt will be reduced to $8 billion by end of 2011
o iGen3 & iGen4 production color installs up 54%
o Nuvera production b/w installs up 2%
o 13% increase in equipment sales
o 5% increase in supply sales
o Finance income dropped 10%

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-Hewlett Packard is threatening to cancel a large number of resellers for failing to sell enough HP maintenance and warranty service contracts (HP CarePacks), according to Computer Resellers News magazine.

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-Dr. Kenichi Okada of Keio University in Japan announced that he has developed a “smell-o-vision” TV using Canon inkjet printer technology. “We are using the inkjet printer’s ability to eject tiny pulses of material to achieve precise control”. The prototype TV can squirt scents that resemble mint, grapefruit, cinnamon, lavender, apple and vanilla. Unknown if it will actually come to market.

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-EFI announced a new version of PrintMe, that will allow users of Apple iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Google Android cell phones to print to an Internet enabled device.

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-Sharp announced it will scale back its laptop computer operations and instead focus on making the new Sharp Galapagos tablet PC. Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported that Sharp will cease all PC desktop and laptop manufacturing due to declining sales.

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-Samsung of Korea filed suit against Panasonic over patents in the manufacture of secure digital memory cards.

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-IKON/Ricoh and GE Capital were sued in Florida. Apparently, customer Kenneth Hackett & Associates is trying to get out of their lease due to a dispute over click charges.

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-Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the next version of Macintosh computer operating system will be called Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

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-According to Steven Waldren, director of AAFP’s Center for Health IT, the fed government payments for EHR installs is taxable.

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-Katina Candrick was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and a $163,000 fine for stealing information on 1,200 patients while working for MedAssets.

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-Cerner announced it will build a new 600,000 square foot office at Village West in Kansas City, Kansas that will employ 4,000 personnel. Total investment of $16.5 million.

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-Cerner wins customer award. Ovum, a division of DataMonitor, announced that based on a survey of the ambulatory healthcare market (not hospitals, which are acute care), that Cerner’s EHR software is number one. More details:
o “Cerner is the most versatile and multi-faceted”
o eClinicalWorks in second place
o GE Healthcare in third place

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-Hewlett Packard announced it has appointed Gail Galuppo as new Senior VP of Worldwide Strategy & Marketing for the printer/MFP division. Ms. Galuppo was hired from Western Union, and will work from San Diego office, reporting to Vyomesh Joshi, executive VP.

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-Xerox announced it has developed a video camera that could be installed on school buses to catch bad drivers. The “CrossSafe” cameras would take high quality images of vehicles that could be in violation of traffic laws by passing the blinking stop sign arm on buses. Xerox’s ACS division announced it won a contract to install them on street sweepers in the City of Chicago.

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-Kodak an acquisition target? That is the opinion recently published by George Conboy, President of Brighton Securities.

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-Gregory Lavallo and Amelia Abdulmagid were arrested for using a color copier to make fake $100 bills in Amsterdam.

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-Athennhealth, maker of EHR systems, announced that its revenue has grown 33% this past quarter to $63.1 million

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-The Hospital Corporation of American (HCA), headquartered in Nashville, TN, with locations across the U.S. , is apparently testing Cerner’s EHR. This is significant as its current system is from Meditech.

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-The Ottawa Hospital of Canada announced it awarded a contract to Telus Inc. for software system to run 3,000 Apple iPads on a wireless network, with access to its database.

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-Hewlett Packard won a managed print services contract from large law firm, Allens Arthur Robinson:
o locations across Asia and Australia
o 3 year contract
o Also includes document management system (DMS)
o Replaced 408 printers with 206 MFPs
o Reduced page volume from 61 million pages to 24 million
o Claims will reduce costs by $3 million over life of contract
o Help desk calls about printer/MFP issues down from 30% of total to 3%
o Attorneys no longer have a personal printer

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-Street pricing seen recently in the print-for-pay marketplace:o Hewlett Packard Indigo 5500 production color system with Pantone mixing station = $299,000.00
o Xerox 800 Digital Color Press with clear toner/bookletmaker/Fiery = $225,000.00
o Xerox 700 Digital Color Press w/Fiery/LCT/stapling finisher for $49,000 with color clicks @ $0.049 and b/w clicks at $0.0129. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Used Canon imagePRESS C7000VP w/Fiery/LCT/booketmaker/cover inserter/hole-punch for $79,900. Color clicks @ $0.057 and b/w clicks @ $0.013. 11”x17” billed as one click.
o Canon imageRUNNER 8105 w/Fiery/LCT/booketmaker/cover inserter for $32,000 with b/w clicks @ $0.0042. 11”x17” billed as one click.

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