From an opinion post on the Print4Pay Hotel Thursday, May 24, 2007 - Here are 15 points reflecting why Edgeline is not to be feared - remember, this is exactly one year ago, today. My responses in RED.
Who's Afraid of HP Edgeline CM8000 Series? ...
"1. No Offset Stacking: I can't believe they made this big of a machine with offset!
2. No 3 Hole Punch: Again WOW! - Big Deal.
3. Limited Card Stock: Only through the by-pass (I think this unit is rated for max 58lb only) - And? So?
4. 11x17: The trays are very slow on 11x17 and the by-pass seems faster! 11x17 is slower, but how often do you need 11x17 in business color environment?
5. Misfeeds: While it doesn't misfeed much at all, if a user leaves a misfeed in over the weekend it will dry out the print heads (ouch!) - Interesting, haven't heard that one.
6. Weight (725lbs): Can not use a stairclimber because there are no stress points! - not true
7. Black cpc: It's not the ink price that will get you but the cost of the maintenance kits! - LOL! service agreement covers that, but there are not any traditional "maintenance kits"
8. Availability for the next six months: slim enough that we are looking to pick up another line! - currently moot.
9. CPP for color: Business .05 and Professional .06 cents per page! - yup.
10. Strangely enough, the letter paper only runs thru the machine in landscape orientation from the LCT (can't even load portrait/speed). - this is true, see my post
11. Standard 1,500 sheet paper supply only! - LCT is 4k
12. VERY slow FCOT (First Copy Out Time) 12 seconds. - yup, 80-90% of documents are printed
13. Ink cartridges load from the bottom of the device (Oh my Back!) - LOL! give me a break
14. To protect the print heads from electrostatic discharge, be sure to touch the
horizontal metal bar to ground yourself before clearing jams that are near the print heads. The print heads are above the print-drum area. - Never heard of this.
15. HP recommends that you do not use this device for printing on sequential paper, such as pre-numbered checks or invoices." - OK, the Edgeline doesn't do MICR.
---
I guess I could further debate the above, but "facts are stubborn things" - it really does take 12 seconds for the first copy to come out. And there is not now, although I hear and friends of mine have actually seen, a three-hole punch option. I recommend pre-drilled paper. This reduces the environmental impact by eliminating "harmful" paper dust and litter(the little paper dots).
If we sweep all the technological advantages and perceived functional disadvantages aside what we have left is a product that is immediately familiar to IT directors. A product that fits quite well "within it's designed parameters".
I caution all my prospects right from the get-g0; "this machine is not designed for anyone who will make their living off of the quality of color output." If the prospect pulls out a "loop", I have failed in the qualification stage begin to pack my stuff and exit.
The point being, Edgeline fits in a specific business space. Not production. Not desktop. Business color - oh and the above points, although a year old today, smell of fear.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - for just 73 copiers **UPDATED***
The good people of the Mt. Vernon School District are the victims of a bad sales person and an ugly purchasing agent should go to prison. School Purchasing Chief Indicted For Bribe Receiving
Posted on Tuesday, 4 of March , 2008 at 9:11 pm
MOUNT VERNON—The former head of purchasing for the Mount Vernon City School District has been indicted for bribe receiving, official misconduct and larceny.
Rose, 49, of Pease St., was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of felony third degree bribe receiving, three counts of official misconduct, one count of receiving unlawful gratuities and one count of petit larceny, all misdemeanors.
The Westchester district attorney’s office says that between June 21 and July 13, 2005, Rose agreed to accept and accepted a bribe of $3,500 from a sales representative of Ricoh Americas Corporation for his assurance that Ricoh would receive a five year contract from the Mount Vernon School District for 73 digital copiers, support products and related services.
On Aug. 3, 2005, upon the defendant’s recommendation, the Mount Vernon City School District awarded the contract to Ricoh. The cost of the contract was in excess of $1 million.
Between June 1, 2006 and Sept. 1, 2006, Rose solicited and accepted a bribe in the form of a $10,000 donation to his church, Upon This Rock Ministries, from the owner of a Tri-State Supply Company, a custodial supply company, in exchange for future business which was subsequently awarded.
In a third incident, between March 1, 2006 and Sept. 1, 2006 Rose secured and used a school district gas card for personal use.
The Investigations Division of the New York State Comptroller’s office assisted in the investigation.
Bail was set at $25,000 cash or $100,000 bond. Rose’s next court date will be on March 25. He faces a maximum of seven years in state prison on the felony charge. 3-05-08 - The North County Gazette
This still happens - it's a shame.
UPDATE - ADDITIONAL STORY - IKON
Bad purchasing procedures and "...a trend where capital equipment is purchased or leased without any regard to the operating costs or ability to run the equipment (lack of adequate power capabilities). This is like the Dell computer purchase fiasco at Lake County where they bought Dell computers without including the cost of an operating system, and installing servers in schools that do not have adequate air conditioned rooms for them to run without burning out. School administrators seem to ignore consolidating total system costs into one purchase request for capital equipment. Capital is in one budget and expenses are in another, and total system cost (including a review of environment to ensure the equipment CAN be used as justified) is not combined so it is all researched and disclosed before any equipment or capital expenditure is authorized..."
Dead peoples forged signature, free flat screens, IKON, and no regard to operating costs - a very bad combination...
Posted on Tuesday, 4 of March , 2008 at 9:11 pm
MOUNT VERNON—The former head of purchasing for the Mount Vernon City School District has been indicted for bribe receiving, official misconduct and larceny.
Rose, 49, of Pease St., was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of felony third degree bribe receiving, three counts of official misconduct, one count of receiving unlawful gratuities and one count of petit larceny, all misdemeanors.
The Westchester district attorney’s office says that between June 21 and July 13, 2005, Rose agreed to accept and accepted a bribe of $3,500 from a sales representative of Ricoh Americas Corporation for his assurance that Ricoh would receive a five year contract from the Mount Vernon School District for 73 digital copiers, support products and related services.
On Aug. 3, 2005, upon the defendant’s recommendation, the Mount Vernon City School District awarded the contract to Ricoh. The cost of the contract was in excess of $1 million.
Between June 1, 2006 and Sept. 1, 2006, Rose solicited and accepted a bribe in the form of a $10,000 donation to his church, Upon This Rock Ministries, from the owner of a Tri-State Supply Company, a custodial supply company, in exchange for future business which was subsequently awarded.
In a third incident, between March 1, 2006 and Sept. 1, 2006 Rose secured and used a school district gas card for personal use.
The Investigations Division of the New York State Comptroller’s office assisted in the investigation.
Bail was set at $25,000 cash or $100,000 bond. Rose’s next court date will be on March 25. He faces a maximum of seven years in state prison on the felony charge. 3-05-08 - The North County Gazette
This still happens - it's a shame.
UPDATE - ADDITIONAL STORY - IKON
Bad purchasing procedures and "...a trend where capital equipment is purchased or leased without any regard to the operating costs or ability to run the equipment (lack of adequate power capabilities). This is like the Dell computer purchase fiasco at Lake County where they bought Dell computers without including the cost of an operating system, and installing servers in schools that do not have adequate air conditioned rooms for them to run without burning out. School administrators seem to ignore consolidating total system costs into one purchase request for capital equipment. Capital is in one budget and expenses are in another, and total system cost (including a review of environment to ensure the equipment CAN be used as justified) is not combined so it is all researched and disclosed before any equipment or capital expenditure is authorized..."
Dead peoples forged signature, free flat screens, IKON, and no regard to operating costs - a very bad combination...
HP Servers and Joshi - - -
HP now sells more servers then ANYONE ELSE -
From a WSJ blog:
" Joshi’s printing division brought in $7.6 billion for the quarter that ended April 30and now gets about 50% of its sales from its 2,400 biggest customers. He’s increasingly trying to associate H-P services with those machines–a timely theme in view of the company’s $13.25 deal to buy Electronic Data Systems."
While Joshi wouldn’t get into specifics of how his existing print services could be integrated with EDS (which has a long business relationship with H-P print rival Xerox), he said H-P salespeople are trying to show companies how they can save energy costs by getting all their printers onto a corporate network. And about 30% of the clients who have such networks want H-P to run them, he added. “EDS is going to be a big opportunity for us,” he said.
From a WSJ blog:
" Joshi’s printing division brought in $7.6 billion for the quarter that ended April 30and now gets about 50% of its sales from its 2,400 biggest customers. He’s increasingly trying to associate H-P services with those machines–a timely theme in view of the company’s $13.25 deal to buy Electronic Data Systems."
While Joshi wouldn’t get into specifics of how his existing print services could be integrated with EDS (which has a long business relationship with H-P print rival Xerox), he said H-P salespeople are trying to show companies how they can save energy costs by getting all their printers onto a corporate network. And about 30% of the clients who have such networks want H-P to run them, he added. “EDS is going to be a big opportunity for us,” he said.
Friday, May 23, 2008
All Print Jobs To Go .PDF
Print system turns everything into PDF
I saw this opinion by By James E. Gaskin -
He describes a product from Ingenica that converts a print stream into a PDF's and the PDF "...becomes a print job that works on just about any Windows-supported printer. Still, have ink-jet printers on every desk, but can't convince your 5250 terminal emulation program to upgrade the driver and support those inkjets? UniPrint makes it happen..."
This piece of information struck me because of a complicated implementation I recommended less than a year ago. When installing a "mini-fleet" of Canon devices( a few 5020i's, 105's, c518i 's, and some 5570's) we ran into some difficulty printing AS400 streams on the Canons. Yes, it can be done and was being done on one of the older Canons but we could not get consistent performance out of one of the newer units.
I think we could have used this product.(maybe)
Anyway, what I find interesting is the ability to change any print stream or print job into a PDF. I do not know that much about the difference between printing a job out of Word vs printing to a .PDF format and printing the PDF but this sounds to me to be akin to a "universal print driver".
More from James,
"...Print streams, designed for locally attached printers, look pretty bloated compared with PDF print jobs. UniPrint says a one-page document may be 1MB of normal print-control language stream, but only about 100KB as a PDF file..."
And now, all is clear to me. What was hanging my Canon up was the copier's inability to consistently interpret the print stream control characters; the copier would hang and wait for end-user intervention. Usually waiting for a paper tray selection.
And something more -
"...
Pricing will seem high for those companies that have never priced "grown-up" printing support: $3,999 for one Windows server for up to 60,000 printed pages per year. Those companies used to fighting ornery print streams and a lack of printer drivers for AS/400 systems will realize the price becomes an investment in better printing. And if the company has AS/400s or the like, "cheap" as a product description disappears.
It seems odd to charge for pages printed because computer people in small and midsize companies don't see that pricing model often. Yet those same companies pay for copiers on a sliding scale based on copy volume, so it won't be a total surprise..."
Now doesn't the above statement sum up one of the current issues in MPS?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
More Green from HP
Carbon Footprint Reduction..."
In an article, "HP takes steps to reduce carbon footprint" HP's plans to help it's customers reduce their Carbon Footprint.
Excerpt, "...The company has set its sights on its printing group in an effort to give customers more choices to limit their environmental impact. Similar programs will come later this year to HP's computer and server business groups.
Looks like programs and labels.
And from this blog off ZDnet, a post by Heather Clancy:
"...New HP ECo Highlights labels, which simply summarize the features in a particular product that could be consider “green.” Think of this like the label you find on pretty much everything you buy at the grocery story. Right now, at least, the criteria for this labeling is pretty arbitrary and it will depend on the product category, Coughlin admits. The labels will show up first on LaserJet printers: The HP LaserJet P4051x, LaserJet P4515x and LaserJet P4515xm models. One thing that is kind of cool about these new printers is the packaging, which mimics what consumer electronics companies have been doing for years with appliances to cut down on waste.
- Through HP Auto-On/Auto-Off features that enable a printer to go into a deep sleep mode in which it uses only 1 watt of power. (Kind of like an induced coma, only the printer wakes up a whole lot quicker than you would.)
- A new HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for Printing: This provides a way for companies to compare the environmental impact of their existing printers and imaging technology against new options. It looks at paper usage, power consumption, ink and other things that might affect a product’s overall carbon profile. There’s also a specific calculator for LaserJets. The company’s Eco Printing Assessment looks at a company’s entire printing consumption footprint, not just what it’s doing with just one printer.
- Also being introduced this week is the HP Deskjet D2545, a $49 printer that HP touts as being made almost entirely from recycled content (83 percent of the system). The printer uses HP 60 cartridges that also were made from recycled plastic.
- And what eco-announcement would be complete without the requisite corporate green pledges? As it relates to printers, HP has promised to improve energy efficiency by 40 percent by 2011, relative to 2005 levels. It will triple the amount of recycled materials that go into its inkjet printers by 2010, relative to 2007. It will continue its long-time printer recycling push, aiming for 2 billion pounds of computing and printing equipment by 2010. It will also put a big emphasis on making sure that the photo paper it sells is made from materials that are harvested under certified forestry program. Here’s more on its developing paper policy ..."
In an article, "HP takes steps to reduce carbon footprint" HP's plans to help it's customers reduce their Carbon Footprint.
Excerpt, "...The company has set its sights on its printing group in an effort to give customers more choices to limit their environmental impact. Similar programs will come later this year to HP's computer and server business groups.
The environmental effort includes the introduction of an HP Eco Highlights label that will appear first on two LaserJet printers and a new inkjet printer made almost entirely from recycled material. The label will list a product's environmental attributes such as its energy savings or Energy Star rating."
HP also is starting an Eco Solutions program that it hopes will allow companies to reduce their environmental impact by 30 percent. The program includes a carbon footprint calculator and a printing assessment that measures a company's impact and costs from its printing work."
Looks like programs and labels.
And from this blog off ZDnet, a post by Heather Clancy:
"...New HP ECo Highlights labels, which simply summarize the features in a particular product that could be consider “green.” Think of this like the label you find on pretty much everything you buy at the grocery story. Right now, at least, the criteria for this labeling is pretty arbitrary and it will depend on the product category, Coughlin admits. The labels will show up first on LaserJet printers: The HP LaserJet P4051x, LaserJet P4515x and LaserJet P4515xm models. One thing that is kind of cool about these new printers is the packaging, which mimics what consumer electronics companies have been doing for years with appliances to cut down on waste.
- Through HP Auto-On/Auto-Off features that enable a printer to go into a deep sleep mode in which it uses only 1 watt of power. (Kind of like an induced coma, only the printer wakes up a whole lot quicker than you would.)
- A new HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for Printing: This provides a way for companies to compare the environmental impact of their existing printers and imaging technology against new options. It looks at paper usage, power consumption, ink and other things that might affect a product’s overall carbon profile. There’s also a specific calculator for LaserJets. The company’s Eco Printing Assessment looks at a company’s entire printing consumption footprint, not just what it’s doing with just one printer.
- Also being introduced this week is the HP Deskjet D2545, a $49 printer that HP touts as being made almost entirely from recycled content (83 percent of the system). The printer uses HP 60 cartridges that also were made from recycled plastic.
- And what eco-announcement would be complete without the requisite corporate green pledges? As it relates to printers, HP has promised to improve energy efficiency by 40 percent by 2011, relative to 2005 levels. It will triple the amount of recycled materials that go into its inkjet printers by 2010, relative to 2007. It will continue its long-time printer recycling push, aiming for 2 billion pounds of computing and printing equipment by 2010. It will also put a big emphasis on making sure that the photo paper it sells is made from materials that are harvested under certified forestry program. Here’s more on its developing paper policy ..."
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Life-threatening ailment didn't derail the Danka Konica deal
Wow
It was a healthy negotiation, Frazier said. "I won't let anything like that get in the way of getting a deal done,"
Here
It was a healthy negotiation, Frazier said. "I won't let anything like that get in the way of getting a deal done,"
Here
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Speaking of Getting New Equipment and The Economic Stimulas
The Economic Stimulus Plan and Your New Edgeline in '08
Get a bunch of Edgelines this year, and write 50% more off!
Get a bunch of Edgelines this year, and write 50% more off!
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