In the new Microsoft operating system, Windows 7, is placed a fully licensed copy of XP operating system running in a virtual machine, allowing any program that absolutely has to run in XP, to do so at near native speed.
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Former Microsoft executive, Michelle Hodges, has joined document management software company ReadSoft, as its Director of Channel Sales.
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Fedex Office (fka Kinko’s), the print for pay chain, announced its last quarter revenues were down 12%. It also launched a web-to-print solution, allowing end users to place their print orders on-line, called the Fedex Office Design & Print Center.
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Pantone, a division of X-Rite Corp, announced a new application for the Apple iPhone. Called, myPANTONE, end users can take a picture using the iPhone, and the software will match it up with the closest Pantone color. The company also confirmed that former Ricoh executive, Ron Potesky, is now Pantone’s Senior Vice President & General Manager. Prior to Ricoh, Ron worked 7 years for Canon.
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Another Canon attempt to diversify from copiers and cameras has failed? Apparently, Canon attempted to enter the high end lithography business for use in LCD and computer chip production. The company installed a $90 million 193nm immersion tool in 2007, and is reported to be having technical problems with the machine. It is trying to enter a market dominated by Nikon of Japan, and ASML of the Netherlands.
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Two former members of the famed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) were honored guests recently at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin, TX. UT alumnus, Bob Taylor, spoke to students about his work at PARC and how his team developed computer networking in 1970. UT President Bill Powers announced that one of Bob’s former employees had created a $100,000 graduate scholarship in his honor. The former employee, Charles Simonyi, took his work at PARC, and left to help Microsoft develop MS Word & Excel.
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When Xerox launched the ColorQube color wax copier, it engaged 30 employees to visit blogs to drive interest in the product. They also monitor negative comments about the device, and respond back on the web to counter the negative info, but do not identify themselves as Xerox employees.
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In an effort to cut costs, Xerox announced it is switching its auto fleet from 6 cylinder to 4 cylinder company cars for its technicians. It also will be giving them all GPS, as it found that using GPS resulted in another service call per day, and up to 30% increase in work volume, due to the knowledge that they were being monitored.
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Apple Computer is reportedly working on a product to compete with net book computers. The rumored new Apple Tablet, would possibly offer:
- price tag of $599
- resemble larger version of Apple iPod Touch
- surf the Web
- play movies
- Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, predicts Apple could sell 2 million of the new product
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Canon announced it will spend $270 million to steamline design and product data systems throughout the company in 2010, by consolidating its two 3D CAD systems and standardize those for managing product data.
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Treeno Software, maker of enterprise content management (ECM) software, announced a new module that allows it to integrate with Salesforce.com, a customer relationship management system.
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Dell Computer fights back against Hewlett Packard. Not to be outdone by arch rival HP buying Electronic Data Systems (EDS, founded by Ross Perot), Dell spent $3.9 billion to buy Perot Systems, which also was founded by Ross Perot. This will allow Dell to gain ground in the services businesses, including managed print services.
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Ricoh has filed a lawsuit against Okidata. Apparently, the two have been negotiating since 2006 in regards to use of patents that Ricoh claims are used in Okidata MFPs and printers. Ricoh claims that 8 of its patents are involved, and the lawsuit seeks to stop sales of Okidata MFPs and printers in the U.S., unless Okidata pays the license fees.
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Kodak announced that is Creo IC-304 Plus print server has been approved and licensed by Pantone Corp. for use with Konica Minolta bizhub PRO C65hc production color system.
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Kodak completed its acquisition of Bowe Bell & Howell (BBH) scanners:
- 50 employees were retained
- BBH had just released new scanners that use LED lighting
- One of BBH’s largest customers is Fedex, which has 2,000 of its scanners
- Kodak now has a product range from 20ppm to 400ppm
- MSRPs range from $495 to $99,995
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According to research firm, Qoucirca, only 20% of enterprises are using some type of managed print services.
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A leading healthcare industry supply contracting company awarded a 3 year managed print services contract to WorkflowOne of Dayton, Ohio. Novation has more than 2500 members, including VHA, Inc., University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) and connected to the 14,000 members of Provista, LLC. The contract is expected to produce $1.5 billion over the course of the contract. The contract also includes forms, labels and marketing collateral.
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Former Hewlett Packard executive claims his former employer spied on him. Karl Kamb Jr., formerly HP VP of Business Development & Strategy, claims that HP hired private investigators to impersonate him in order to obtain confidential home & cell phone records. He also claims that when he was at HP, the company ordered him to uncover details of rival Dell Computer printer products
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A survey conducted by AIIM revealed the following:
- 55% of companies set no guidance on dealing with important emails as records
- 26% have no electronic records management policy
- 38% conduct little or no enforcement of document management policies
- 44% have no procedures for freezing electronic records in the event of litigation
- 70% have made no plans for long term archiving of electronic records
- 50% admitted to printing Microsoft Office documents or email data and using them as paper records
- 70% reported an increase in volume of electronic records
- 13% were using dedicated eDiscovery tools
- 47% found managing electronic documents a challenge
- 22% said that their paper volumes were beginning to decrease
- 33% plan on transferring documents to PDF-A format in three years
- 33% would not be confidant that their electronic records had not been changed, deleted or inappropriately accessed
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A man who invented way to make an inkjet printer assemble living human cells into skin, is awarded $900,000 in a court case. Researcher, Robert Kiebe, won a trial that forces his current employer, University of Texas Health Science Center, after a jury found that UTHSC caused him mental anguish after it tried to push him out of the University and profit from his invention.
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According to Paystream Advisors:
- only 45% of Fortune 1000 companies have invested in document imaging systems for invoices.
- 44% don’t use OCR for invoices at all.
- Only 16% use OCR for more than 40% of their invoices
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The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced new reporting rules that may impact the industry:
- FASB changed its requirements concerning companies that report the revenue of hybrid products, or “vertically integrated stack of hardware, software and service to customers” over the life span of the product.
- Under previous rules, companies had to amortize hardware, software and services over eight quarters or a two-year period, which meant recognizing only 1/8 at a time (12.5%).
- Under new rules, hardware can be recognized immediately while software and service still amortized over life of product.
- Most firms will have to wait until fiscal years that start after 6/15/2010 to use the revisions.
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According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the high-tech industry shed 115,000 jobs between January and June of this year. From June of 2008, through June 2009, the total loss is 224,100 jobs.
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Kofax also announced a promo where it bundles itKofax, maker of scanning/document management software, announced it has purchased ISV 170 Systems of Boston, MA., which develops workflow software for invoice processing. Purchase price was $32.9 million, and the acquired company had 150 customers (i.e. ADT, Con Agra Foods, etc.), primarily those using Oracle or SAP.s entry level “Kofax Express” software with selected Fujitsu scanners.
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According to PrintAudit, the following is to be considered when selling managed print services:
- 42% of global wood harvest is dedicated to paper production
- 5.4 million tons of paper are consumed annually by U.S. companies
- Up to $1000 per year is spent per employee for printing/copying
- 10,000 pages per year on average is printed by employees
- It would cost $150,000 to fill your car’s gas tank with inkjet ink
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