Nikkei Sees 40% decrease in combined Profits:Canon, Ricoh, Fuji, Konica Minolta

Profits Fade At Top Copier Makers As Toner Sales Thin

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Japan's four leading precision machinery makers -- Canon Inc. (7751), Ricoh Co. (7752), Fujifilm Holdings Corp. (4901) and Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. (4902) -- are expected to see their combined operating profits sink 40% in fiscal 2009 as sales of toner and other high-margin office supplies languish.

Couple this report with information back in May from Erupoe:

"...British companies selling and leasing Japanese manufactured goods have been forced to up their prices after negative GBP to Euro and Euro to Yen exchange rate trends worsen, forcing­ an ­inc­rea­se in cost prices..."

And...

"Genuine parts?­­­-

The cost price increase inclu­des all genuine parts and toner supplied by the photocopier manufacturers. This means businesses offering leasing of copiers are suddenly seeing substantially increased costs to replace toner and service these devices. Some companies might be tempted to use sub-standard parts and toner to try to keep costs down.

Many of the parts and toners that are not genuine brands are manufactured outside Japan and so do not have the same problems of negative exchange rate trends. These products therefore remain cheap to purchase. However,­ most reputable and reliable photocopier companies would only ever use genuine parts and toner.

Non-genuine parts and toner can not only make the manufacturer's warranty invalid but are often of sub-standard quality meaning that the prints they create are of a poor standard and they may ruin the device or decrease its lifespan.­.."

Managed Print Services Assessments - They Do Not Work, Stop Doing Them

2/2009

My first assessment was for 1,100 units. The next one was for 823. And my third assessment was for 523 devices.

A 25 machines assessment took 30 days.

That was over a year ago.

Insanity.

You would think I would have learned.

An early Photizo study revealed that doing an assessment gave you a 50% chance of closing the engagement.

While at the Managed Print Services Conference in San Antonio I agreed with this statistic and mentioned that I closed 50% of the studies/assessments that I performed.

I neglected to say that after no longer doing Assessments, my closing rate went up to 94%.

Interesting, eh?

With just about everybody pitching MPS and free assessments - one needs to ask how much value can something that is free honestly carry?

And let me tell you this, if I do get into a position to be the "second" one in a deal, I get all the data that the person before me obtained - all of it, the spreadsheet, costs, and everything.

So what to do, what to do...

Ask questions, don't do an "assessment".

Take a tour of the complex, don't perform a "survey".

Install your "Supplies Monitoring" software, not your "Data Collection Agent".

Write your findings down and discuss them with your client, in two pages or less; don't let your software generate a stodgy, canned, boilerplate with spreadsheets. Run from PowerPoint.

Use your brain. Use your mind, not a spreadsheet. Present ideas, not proposals.

Just my 0.020 worth, but after all, it is my blog.

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