Tidbits

- Office Depot announced a partnership with Xerox to offer Managed Print Services to customers across Europe.
o Office Depot’s new Managed Print Services offering, which leverages Xerox’s expertise in solution design and service delivery, will enable Office Depot to assess, optimize and manage customer printing needs, resulting in lower print, copy and IT support costs, reduced environmental impact, as well as increased office productivity.

***********************************************************************************

- SmarTrend News Watch reports the top five companies in the Health Care Technology industry as ranked by gross margin:
o Cerner has gross margin of 81%, a sales growth of 7.3%, and trailing 12 months sales of $1.9 billion.
o MedAssets has gross margin of 76.3%, a sales growth of 16.3%, and trailing 12 months sales of $380.1 million.
o Vital Images has gross margin of 75.4%, a sales growth of 4%, and trailing 12 months sales of $59.4 million
o Simulations Plus has gross margin of 73.6%, a sales growth of 15.4%, and trailing 12 months sales of $11.1 million.
o Mediware Information Systems has gross margin of 67.9%, a sales growth of 22.4%, and trailing 12 months sales of $51.8 million.

***********************************************************************************

- Hewlett Packard officials are refuting a story being published in Asian newspapers that claims that the company is going to sell its hardware business to Samsung or Lenovo. HP executive, Bill Wohl said; “irresponsible reporting and should be dismissed as market rumor and speculation”

***********************************************************************************

- ECi, which makes software used by copier dealers to run their business (OMD, LaCrosse, NexGen, etc.) announced it has acquired FM Audit, which makes managed print services software. Purchase price not announced.

***********************************************************************************

- IDC reports that healthcare professionals spend as much as 70% of their time dealing directly with documents, nearly twice that of other vertical markets.

**********************************************************************************

- Ricoh announced it will channel roughly a quarter of its R&D budget into new areas like business-use image projectors, reports a January 25 article in The Nikkei
o The company plans to develop new businesses to replace copiers and printers as its key source of revenue.
o The firm set a target of earning about 25 percent of its overall sales from new businesses by fiscal 2014, up from the current 15 percent.
o The office equipment section accounted for 99 percent of Ricoh's overall operating profit for the April-September period, and this sort of reliance on one segment may make it difficult for Ricoh to grow its profit.
o The planned R&D investment will likely total about ¥30 billion ($367.3 million).
o Ricoh's overall R&D budget is seen growing to as high as ¥120 billion ($1.5 billion) from the ¥112 billion ($1.4 billion) the company has planned for the current fiscal year.
o The company also plans to raise the proportion of its R&D staff working in new businesses to about 25 percent, which is more than 900 people.
o Ricoh will also seek to raise sales in its projector business division and bolster its consulting operations.
o The company is shooting for annual sales of about ¥8 billion ($98.0 million) in this area in fiscal 2013 by exploiting its expertise in the production of office equipment.
o By nurturing its new businesses, Ricoh aims to improve its group operating profit margin to around 10 percent by fiscal 2014, up from 4 percent projected for fiscal 2010.

***********************************************************************************

- China Investment Corp., the country's US$300 billion sovereign wealth fund, is one of the parties behind an Australian-registered investment vehicle that bought stakes in Toshiba Corp., Kirin Holdings and Shiseido Co., the Wall Street Journal said.
o The same party also appears to have bought stakes in Sony Corp., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group, the newspaper said.
o The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages China's more than US$2.85 trillion in foreign currency reserves, is also probably behind the investment vehicle called SSBT OD05, the report said, citing advisory firms and people familiar with the matter.
o The Japanese companies know little about the investors, which use investment vehicles registered in Sydney at State Street Bank & Trust, the report said.
o The stakes held by Chinese state funds — worth 1.62 trillion yen — are below the 5 percent threshold that requires greater disclosure under Japanese securities law and appear to be passive, the report said, citing Japanese investment adviser Chibagin Asset Management.
o The figure does not include funds from other Chinese investors.
o CIC was established in 2007 to invest some of China's world-beating foreign exchange reserves overseas, partly in order to gain better returns.
o The reserves are mainly parked in safe but low-yielding instruments such as U.S. Treasury bonds, but since the global financial crisis a growing portion has been invested in euro and yen assets.
o China overtook Japan last year to become the world's second-largest economy behind the United States.

**********************************************************************************

- A survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) (Chicago, IL) found that hospitals and health systems in the United States are focusing more on renovation or expansion than new construction.
o Renovation or expansion accounted for 73 percent of construction projects at hospitals responding to the survey.
o A little over 26 percent of respondents reported that their organizations have building projects currently under construction.
o About 15 percent of this total involved new construction, 11.6 percent involved replacement facilities and the remainder covered expansion and renovation.

**********************************************************************************

- 76% of office-based physicians could quality for HITECH stimulus funds according to research published in Health Affairs magazine. Of those, 47% could qualify for Medicaid funds, and 14% could qualify for Medicare funds.

**********************************************************************************

- IDC reports that the worldwide printer and copier market grew by 7% in last quarter of 2010

**********************************************************************************

- ProSource, a Konica Minolta dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio, announced it acquired docuVision, a local document management systems dealer.

**********************************************************************************

- Lexmark is preparing itself to be sold, according to Frank Voisin, of iStockAnalysis. The company has taken following recent actions that are common when a company wants to sell:
o amended its employment agreements
o ensuring continued employment and benefits for senior executives in case of change in control
o providing bonus if terminated without good cause following change in control

**********************************************************************************

- 49% of patients believe that EHR software will have a negative impact on privacy of their medical records according to survey conducted by CDW.

**********************************************************************************

- Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company) announced the formation of a new Global Services Division:
o mandate to drive growth by optimizing operational and product synergies between the market and various functions of the company.
o “This new division is step change advantage in ensuring our company is ideally aligned to meet evolving market needs, and, to enable our professionals and product experts to fuel true industry innovation.”
o focus will be to enhance and expand the Kyocera brand promise by actively seeking innovation and growth opportunities that create tangible product differentiation in such areas as document capture, document management, job accounting and managed document services.
o David Factor has been appointed as Director, Global Services Division. All changes will be effective March 1.
o “GSD will serve as a vital point of contact between globally based companies who procure products and services on a worldwide basis, and our internal product, services and application development teams,” said Michael Pietrunti, President and CEO, Kyocera Mita America. “This new division is step change advantage in ensuring our company is ideally aligned to meet evolving market needs, and, to enable our professionals and product experts to fuel true industry innovation.”
o Within this operational framework, the company expects to bring new solutions to market faster

**********************************************************************************

- The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has started its roadshow to go across the country and train State Attorneys General how to enforce HIPAA laws.

**********************************************************************************

- ADP announced it has acquired AdvancedMD from Francisco Partners.
o The 200-employee, Salt Lake City-based AdvancedMD is a leading provider of practice management, revenue cycle, and electronic medical records systems.
o It has more than 10,000 physician users in 4,100 practices.
o In the announcement, ADP positions itself as “an integrated, single-source provider of Medical Practice Optimization” for small- to mid-sized practices.
o The company’s Small Business Services group provides HR, payroll, and benefits services to 45,000 physicians in 13,500 practices.

**********************************************************************************

- According to Ponemon Institute:
o 70% of hospital’s total data footprint is DICOM medical images
o 30% of all of the world’s digital storage is now dedicated to healthcare data
o Hospitals require 60 gigabtyes (GB) of data storage per licensed bed per year
o For a typical 100 bed community hospital, 6 terabytes of storage will be needed per year
o The above does not include storage of scanned data

**********************************************************************************

- Xerox to Stop Selling Wide-Format Products US and Canada by the End of 2011
o According to Scott Frame, vice president, Wide Format, Xerox Corporation, "Xerox will stop taking orders for wide-format products in the US and Canada in 2011, with specific timing based on inventory levels. Xerox’s European and Developing Market operations will continue selling wide-format products and will source new products.
o "Xerox prioritizes each investment, allocating research and development dollars to areas where the company can deliver the best value to the marketplace. As a result of this practice, Xerox has opted to not invest in wide format product engineering in 2011.

**********************************************************************************

- One copier dealer buys another. Marco, Inc., headquartered in St. Cloud, Minnesota, announced today it has bought the copier, printer sales and service division of Office Enterprises in Eau Claire, Wisconsin:
o The purchase is the latest acquisition for the business services company as it continues to expand in the Midwest.
o “It is a nice fit for us as we move into Wisconsin,” said Jeff Gau, chief executive officer of Marco. “It is really an effort to continue expansion into the Upper Midwest.”
o Marco already owns offices in Bemidji, Brainerd, Detroit Lakes, Mankato, Rochester, St. Louis Park, Thief River Falls, Worthington, Fargo and Grand Forks, N.D., Sioux Falls, S.D. and Decorah, Iowa.
o Marco carries Konica Minolta, Sharp, HP & Canon products
o The Office Enterprises purchase is Marco’s first move into Wisconsin. Marco will take over the client list and the service technicians. Office Enterprises, a Konica Minolta dealer, will continue to operate in Superior and Wausau, Wis. and will provide mailing products and services in Eau Claire.
o “It is not a large acquisition but it is important. It gets us into the marketplace.”
o Marco, Inc., which provides data networking and security, converged voice applications, print and document management, and audio and video for training rooms and meeting rooms, digital signage and video surveillance, does about $80 million in sales annually and has 365 employees.

**********************************************************************************

- The average cost of a HIPAA data breach has risen to $345 per record in 2010 from $301 in 2009.

**********************************************************************************

- Police in Rome, Georgia arrested Christopher Shane Vasser for allegedly making fake $100 and $20 bills using a color copier. Apparently, the money was being used to fuel a crystal meth addiction.

- A Chester, Ill. man who used a color copier to turn $5 bills into $100 bills was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $1,500 restitution, the U.S. Attorney's office said Friday. Raphael J. Solomon, 25, pleaded guilty Nov. 5 to one count of manufacturing counterfeit currency.

- Kendall Ray Gray, 23, allegedly made his own money using a color copier in his apartment on Elizabeth Street. Count 1 of Gray’s indictment alleges conspiracy to pass the bogus bills. Gray allegedly gave a fake $100 bill to someone to pass Nov. 18 at an E-Z Mart in Texarkana, Ark.

**********************************************************************************

- Even though it has been over 10 months since CBS News ran a TV report warning businesses about problems with copier hard drives, local media outlets continue to repeat the story.
o This time it is WGEM Channel 13TV of Portland, Maine, which stated;
o “Identity theft is still the number one complaint with Maine's attorney general. And, most of us have been warned to watch how we use our personal information online and shred personal documents once we're finished with them. And now, 13 is on your side with a warning about a security risk you might not have thought of. Copiers and fax machines are now the latest method crooks are using to steal your information. When you use each machine, your personal information is actually stored on the hard drive.”

***********************************************************************************