The 22 Year Old Grudge - Randall, Wisconsin Population 3,510 - Snubs Toshiba

“There are questions of security involving this organization,” Randal town supervisor Robert Gehring said, referring to Toshiba,

“This outfit should not have been allowed to continue to do business in this country.”

Oh boy.

Small town. One Copier. Evil doings and politics...

Published September 12, 2009 | 11:07 p.m.

Randall dumps Toshiba copier in lease


BY JILL TATGE-ROZELL
jrozell@kenoshanews.com

RANDALL — It’s not the fact the town will get a new copier that is newsworthy. It’s why the town is getting one that raises eyebrows.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to lease a new color copier for an amount of money not significantly different from what it had been paying. While it does have some added capabilities compared to the copier it had been leasing, a need for those new features is not what prompted the town to get six different copier bids.

The town needed a different copier, supervisor Robert Gehring contended when he offered to explore other options, because the one they have was manufactured by Toshiba. As a matter of principal, Gehring disagrees with the lease or purchase of any product of Toshiba.

“There are questions of security involving this organization,” Gehring said when the product’s lease agreement came up for discussion last month. “This outfit should not have been allowed to continue to do business in this country.”

Gehring’s opinion stems from an incident in 1987, when Toshiba Machine, a subsidiary of Toshiba, was accused of illegally selling machinery used to produce quiet submarine propellers to the Soviet Union, which was allegedly in violation of an international embargo.

The Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal also involved the Norwegian company Kongsberg Vaapenfabrik, strained relations with Japan, and resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two senior executives.

Top government officials contended that providing technology to make the USSR’s submarines harder to detect created a significant threat to America’s security.

For Gehring, this is enough reason to boycott the use of any equipment made by Toshiba, which is also responsible for the invention of radar, microwave ovens and the technology used in MRI exams. It is why he voted against the copier lease under a different town administration and brought up the issue again.

This time he prevailed in his quest, though other officials cited the new copier’s functionality and price comparison as the reason behind their vote to lease a different copier.


Full article Here.

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Indeed, Toshiba Machines and two executives were found guilty of selling technology to the Soviet Union - violating Japan's Foreign Trade Control Law

From the L.A. Times, March 23, 1988 -

"...The court fined Toshiba Machine 2 million yen--about $15,700.

Ryuzo Hayashi, 53, former director of Toshiba Machine's foundry department, was sentenced to 10 months in prison and Hiroaki Tanimura, 51, former deputy director of the company's first engineering department, received a one-year sentence. But both sentences were suspended.

A Foreign Ministry official said the sentences appeared to be light because the violation was a first offense for the defendants. He added that Hayashi and Tanimura did not act for personal gain but in the interests of the company..."

22 years is a long time when grinding axes...

New Movie: "Surrogates"...TheMatrix Meets SecondLife Meets DieHard - A World For No Paper

What is the way to reduce paper output costs to zero?

No paper at all.

Paper is the perfect medium, for now. It's static, portable, abundant and common. Easy to use and universally excepted, paper is the ultimately simple, graphic user interface. The basic transportable transfer of information.

The "Holy Grail" - the Paperless society - will need to somehow transcend this basic need, the simple, constrained manner in which data and information is collected and presented to others - we would need to skip the solid medium all together.

Connecting directly into the mind.

Sure, just like Johnny Mnemonic, right?

In this movie, much like The Matrix, real humans are physically safe and sound at home, connected to the "machine". "Surrogates", extremely good looking and capable droids, live out their physical lives - much like Second Life.

Life controlled remotely, with the mind.

Enter some science fiction and some science fact.

Stay with me here, recently as seen on 60 Minutes, scientists have now been able to a) implant sensors onto the brain, reading electric impulses triggered by thought and b) manufacture a cap that detects the same type of brain/mind activity - the result - controlling a mouse or ANY OTHER DEVICE.

It's called BrainGate and it is just the beginning.

So I'm thinking, not only would we be able to program TiVo or order Chinese by just thinking - we will be MindFax'ing each other.

From text books to FaceBook - instantaneously and in hi-def.

No keyboards, no dual-monitors, no printers, ink cartridges or toner deliveries and no paper.

Yes, a fertile imagination...

Imaging Industry Information Looks at The Managed Print Services EcoSystem

One of my common themes with MPS is "how can any manufacturer get behind pure MPS when the goals of every engagement should be the reduction of both MIF and volume?

How can a dealer use MPS as a "marketing" scheme to leverage more hardware placements?

It just doesn't reconcile.

It seems GMTA - one of the Old Guard(no offense meant)Tom Callinan, has a great description on this subject. He says,

"...one of the long-term goals of MPS is to reduce the number of devices used by a company. What does this mean? It means that the industry players—those that depend on an already shrinking revenue pool—are going to deliberately accelerate that revenue decline..."

Tom has a good grip on the conundrum. Read the entire post here.

Oh No! Another Imaging Publication! Yeah, but, this ones got me in it. How bad can it be?

Imaging Solutions Reseller launched its site today.

Scott Cullen, the Editor, says, "...we like to think that Imaging Solutions Reseller is more than just another imaging publication.

We’re exclusively an online, interactive publication that is written, edited, and managed by industry insiders. Our audience is anyone who sells and services imaging solutions (hardware, software, parts, consumables), including independent dealers, VARs, and manufacturer direct branches.

Content is determined and created by our editors, bloggers, and an editorial board consisting of dealer principals and feet-on-the-street sales reps..."

Ok - should be interesting.

The Death of Managed Print Services : Photizo Identifies The Fourth Horseman

Sept, 2009

TheEndOfTheWorld as WeKnowIt 

It was a free Photizo webinar about vendor-provided MPS programs and how somebody looking to get into MPS could evaluate all the choices. 

A simple, straight forward, easy to understand theme. Attending would be a good way of keeping up with what others think. 

Besides, I could work some spreadsheets and email while keeping one eye on the slide deck. The presentation was interesting, the questions posed engaging - the answers even more gripping. 

For instance, when asked about the future market growth for MPS, Ed responded by saying copier sales may increase by 3% by 2013, contrasted against a 28% growth in MPS. 

More importantly, of the 80% of dealers NOT providing MPS, 50% will disappear. 

 Ominous? Yes. 

But there is something more - a darkness slowing creeping over the MPS Ecosystem. 

At first, it's just the feeling that someone is watching you, then that slight prick at the back of your neck, the sudden chill - a kick in the breeze, movement at the edge of your peripherals - are those...hooves...I hear? 

---------------- 

A question was posed by somebody trying to reconcile the "box moving" mentality with this new MPS paradigm; Transactional vs. Relationship. And Ed hit it, 

"...whoever owns the service levels, owns the customer..." - makes sense and is self-evident. 

But then the question turned to the future of MPS - I think somebody actually asked Ed to define the 3 Stages, Control, Optimize, Enhance - "what would be the fourth stage?" was the follow-up question, it seemed to be a rhetorical one. 

But Ed has an answer. The Fourth Stage. 

The first board meeting of your Managed Print Services Association was held this past Friday. This is a significant event and trumpets in MPS as a real, defined philosophy and business niche. In order for the MPSA to begin, MPS needed to have some sort of definition - vague or otherwise, there had to be a common idea to rally around. 

Part of the definition formed around the three stages of MPS, observed by the Photizo group. To be certain, HP, Xerox, and all the other players in MPS either had or developed their own definition in "stages" or "phases" - but the basic 3 stages, Control, Optimize, Enhance apply to most MPS programs. 

As observed here on DOTC, the first two stages are sufficient and fall nicely into the traditional copier, office equipment model. The Third stage, Enhance, is a bit more advanced and demands more expertise. But the Fourth Stage is purely mind-blowing. 

Ed defined the fourth stage a managed print services Practice, managing the entire network. 

Imagine your remote monitoring software reading supply levels, meter reads, service events as well as network traffic, power consumption, and desktop PC usage. Imagine being hired by your client to optimize the network completely. Asset management, service calls, data flow - everything - managing the dynamic IT infrastructure. 

Yes, the Fourth Stage will take the "P" out of MPS - or will it? It is my opinion, that the Fourth stage will see the end of MPS. Hybrid firms swallowed up by the likes of EDS/HP, IBM, InfoPrint, and print devices showing up on Tivoli, UniCenter or MainView not PrintFleet, or Print Audit. The Fourth Stage is the Fourth Horseman - you know who rides and you know what follows. 

Have a nice day.

Ricoh can monitor Copier Power using IBM software

Ricoh's Embedded Intelligence System works with IBM's Tivoli Monitoring Networked Multifunction Products- And Why is This Important?

HP, Xerox, Ricoh and Dell: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Toshiba Announces Elite Partnership with Hewlett-Packard

It's official.

One more arrow in the Toshiba MPS quiver, this alliance let's Toshiba dealers sell HP laser printers directly to customers.

This should fill some of the A4 gaps in TABS hardware line. And HP opens another channel for it's IPG.

I wonder if Toshiba will maintain MPS agreements with genuine HP toner or it's Encompass brand?

And I wonder if now all Toshiba dealers will be sending technicians to the HP site for laser training?

The complete press release:


New Agreement Enables Toshiba to Sell HP Laser Jet Printers Direct to Customers
IRVINE, Calif.--(Business Wire)--

Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS) today announced a strategic agreement with Hewlett-Packard (HP) that allows Toshiba to sell HP`s laser jet product line to customers. This agreement expands and strengthens Toshiba`s overall product offering while also meeting the needs of HP-loyal customers.

Toshiba`s elite partnership benefits both dealers and their customers, with dealers receiving pricing discounts that translate to cost savings for the customer. Additionally, access to HP`s line of laser jet products allows dealers to further strengthen their Managed Print Services (MPS) program offerings for customers who already have HP as their single-function printer provider.

"Hewlett-Packard is without question the preferred printer provider for a large
number of the companies we do business with, and by bringing HP to the table
along-side Toshiba`s line of award-winning multifunction products, Toshiba has
succeeded in establishing a competitive advantage that will have a significant
and positive impact on our dealers` ability to succeed in this competitive
market,"

said Mark Mathews, president and chief operating officer, TABS.

Managed Print Services

This agreement extends the benefits of Toshiba's MPS, which helps dealers develop additional revenue streams while simultaneously helping customers decrease inefficiencies and reduce costs. The program helps dealers reduce and sometimes eliminate the need for new equipment while simplifying service contracts and decreasing imaging consumable costs.

With its elite partnership with HP, Toshiba can now provide dealers with more options for their customers in both the areas of service and product offerings. The HP laser jet line will be available through dealers to all Toshiba customers, not just those utilizing the Managed Print Services program.

About Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc.

Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. (TABS) manages product planning, marketing, sales, service support and distribution of copiers, facsimiles, multifunction printing products, network controllers, and toner products throughout the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., TABS has five divisions: the Electronic Imaging Division; the Toner Products Division; the Document Solutions Engineering Division; the International Division; and TOPAC U.S.A., Inc., dba Toshiba Business Solutions (TBS), a wholly-owned subsidiary corporation of TABS, that operates a network of wholly-owned office equipment dealers throughout the United States.

Rueters

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