Reprographics 101

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  • Information from Photizo Group about Transform 2012

    Before we all check out for the holiday season, I wanted let you know the Transform 2012 super early bird special ends next week.

    This is such an important time for our industry, and I love having the opportunity to bring together industry thought leaders and new entrants, to share their stories and network. This year’s event, Transform 2012, already has an exciting roster of sessions led by industry experts covering the latest key issues. We know that networking is an essential part of your time at the event. From the golf scramble to the networking receptions, we’ve designed great opportunities to meet new contacts and strengthen existing relationships, while experiencing some of the best Orlando has to offer.

    Here is a glance of a few of the sessions that will be presented at Transform 2012.

    Transforming the Customer’s Organization

    • Transformation: The SMB – Kevin Morris, OneDOC MPS
    • Developing a Print Policy Plan – Pravat Mazumdar, Preo Software
    • Moving Beyond the Printer: Engaging End Users Can Drive Value for MPS Providers and Customers – Kent Dunn, GreenPrint

    Transforming the Business Process

    • Targeting a C-Suite with Business Process Optimization – Dwight Moore, BMI Systems
    • Justifying Business Process Optimization – Justin West, Nationwide Insurance
    • Transforming Program Infrastructure to Protect MPS Profits – Sarah Henderson, WestPoint Products

    Transforming the Provider-Partner Organization

    • Focus on the Front Office: MPS Trends by Industry – Rob Sethre, Photizo Group
    • How do you Manage Through Transformation – Kevin DeYoung, QualPath
    • What are Barriers to Change and How to Overcome – Ken Stewart, Photizo Group
    • What Does Your Business Model look Like? – David Cameron, Cameron Consulting

    Beyond Print: Transforming the Market with Technology

    • Shark vs. Fish Bait: Who Wins, Who Survives, Who Thrives – Ed Crowley, Photizo Group
    • Mobile Workforce – Greg Walters, The Death of the Copier
    • Moving Management Infrastructure to Cloud-Based Management Tools – Henning Volkmer, Cortado
    • Cloud Based Document Managment – David Westlake, Print Command
    • How to Position yourself for Workflow Optimization – Ed McLaughlin, Sharp Electronics
    • Make Money and Differentiate Your MPS Offering with Enterprise Scanning – Steve Irons, DocSolid

    Register before Saturday, December 31 to take advantage of our largest individual savings. Register for $595 – that’s a 40% discount! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

    I hope to see you in Orlando this coming May. Have a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!

    Best Regards,


    Terri Crowley
    Director of Conferences and Events
    Terri@photizogroup.com

  • Housing starts jump 9.3% in November, building permits up

    An article from the on-line edition of USA Today, this morning, appears below.

    Over the past few months, we’ve posted at least two articles about renewed “apartment construction activity” in Boston, MA. That same type of activity is going on in several places in the U.S.

    2012 will be the beginning of what eventually will be a very robust recovery for the A/E/C Industry, and that recovery will benefit reprographers.

    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

    Housing starts jump 9.3% in November, building permits up

    A surge in apartment construction gave builders more work in November. But 2011 is still shaping up to be one of the worst years in history for homebuilders.

    And permits for future construction rose 5.7%, spurred by a jump in apartment permits.

    The rise in permits provides hope for the housing market, though 2011 is still shaping up as one of the worst years in history for homebuilders.

    The Commerce Department says builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 homes last month, a 9.3% jump from October. That’s the highest level since April 2010.

    Still, that’s far below the 1.2 million homes that economists say would be built each year in a healthy housing market.

    Building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose 5.7%. The increase was spurred by more apartment permits.

    Though new homes represent just 20% of the overall home market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

    In October, builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 628,000 homes. That’s barely half the 1.2 million that economists say must be built each year to sustain a healthy housing market.

    But building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose nearly 11%. The increase was spurred by a 30% increase in apartment permits, to the highest level in three years.

    Over the past year, apartment permits have surged roughly 63%. Single-family permits have increased just 6.6% in that time.

    Home construction and sales are in the midst of one of its worst years ever. Demand for new homes is weak. Record-low mortgage rates and plunging home prices have done little to help.

    Overall, homebuilding dipped in 2009 to just 554,000 homes, the lowest levels in 50 years in 2009. Last year the figure rose to roughly 587,000 homes.

    Builders are struggling to compete with deeply discounted foreclosures and short sales. Short sales occur when lenders allow homes to be sold for less than what’s owed on the mortgage. Few homes are selling.

    After previous recessions, housing accounted for at least 15% of U.S. economic growth. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, it has contributed just 4%.

    In October, sales of new homes rose slightly, largely because builders cut their prices in the face of weak demand. Sales hit a six-month low in August. And this year is shaping up to be the worst since the government began keeping records a half-century ago.

    Renting has become a preferred option for many Americans who lost their jobs during the recession and were forced to leave their houses. Still, the surge in apartments has not been enough to offset the loss of single-family homebuilding.

    Another reason sales have fallen is that previously occupied homes have become a better deal than new homes. The median price of a new home is about 30% higher than the median price for a re-sale. That’s nearly twice the markup typical in a healthy housing market.

    The homebuilders’ trade group said this week that its survey of industry sentiment rose in December to 21, the highest level since May 2010. Still, any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market. The index hasn’t reached 50 since April 2006, the peak of the housing boom.

  • Banner Printing Machine installed at Airport in Europe (BannerXpress)

    I saw an article about this in the Travel section of the New York Times Sunday edition, the day before yesterday. Very cool idea! 10-1 that the guys who came up with this idea managed to figure out how to stuff a mini, roll-fed ink-jet printer and a midget with scissors inside the housing of their banner-printing kiosk!

    Custom welcome banners in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

    Sunday, 11 December 2011

    Schiphol, one of Europe’s busiest (and best) airports, is now offering visitors to print out their own welcome banners to meet friends and family. Dutch company BannerXpress recently unveiled there its new vending machine that dispenses canvas banners with customized “welcome home” messages.

    The kiosk, also called BannerXpress, enables airport users to choose a size – 40cm, 1.3m or 3m, a font and background design for their banners and write text via a touchscreen. They can pick their message, whether that is “Missed you Mummy”, “Will you marry me?”, or anything else that makes them stand out from the crowd. The machine then prints out the banner on a canvas material in around 90 seconds for the 1.3m option. The vending machine accepts credit or debit cards and charges from €3.95 to €14.95 depending on the size of the banner.

    The BannerXpress can be currently found at Arrivals Hall 2 but if it proves popular it will be expanded to more locations: airports and stadiums for sporting and music events.

    Thibaud Bruna, who began developing the kiosk with co-founder Olivier Janssen three years ago, explains that they came up with the idea after seeing people at the airport with their own banners made of bed sheets and they thought it would be easier to make the banner at the airport.

    I put up photos of the Banner Xpress Kiosk, and you can view them at this link:

    http://tinyurl.com/7fpwdtf

  • NRI Wins the ReproMAX Partner of the Year Award

    NRI has been named the 2011 ReproMAX Partner of the Year Award winner. More McCormack, Chief Technology Officer, accepted the award on behalf of NRI on October 20, 2011 at the 2011 Fall ReproMAX Partner Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

    NRI has been dedicated to the reprographic and digital color printing industries for over 100 years, bringing its services and technology to the New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Washington D.C. and San Francisco markets. In 1984, NRI became one of the founders of ReproCAD, today known as ReproMAX. Through the years, NRI has been actively involved in ReproMAX both as an innovator and leader. NRI has participated on numerous advisory boards and leadership committees and currently Doug Magid, President of NRI, is serving a three year term on the Board of Directors. “To receive this award from ReproMAX is truly the highest compliment to NRI. Being honored as a leader within an organization comprised of the best companies in the business, committed to improving our own companies’ and our clients’ through technology and best practices, is most gratifying to NRI,” remarked Magid.

    About the ReproMAX Partner of the Year Award

    The ReproMAX Partner of the Year Award winner is selected by a majority Vote from the ReproMAX members. All Current ReproMAX members are eligible for the award. The intent of the award is to acknowledge those industry leading firms for their contribution to both ReproMAX and the reprographic industry based on their demonstration of technical and process innovation, industry leadership, and generosity towards company employees, customers, and community.

    About ReproMAX

    ReproMAX is the world’s largest network of independent reprographers. ReproMAX works to provide superior advantages to its customers ranging from exclusive planroom technology to best-in-class hardware and supplies discounts from the largest vendors in the industry. ReproMAX is focused entirely on the premise of making our associated companies more successful in every market they represent than any other competitive institution. ReproMAX represents over 100 unique and elite companies and encompassing over 280 print locations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

    _____________________

    Blog-author’s comment:

    Until I found this information on NRI’s web-site this morning, I was unaware that ReproMAX had such an award,

    So, now, I’m wondering if RSA and The PEiR Group each honor a company with an annual “member of the year award”. If that is the case and if any of you know which companies RSA and The PEiR Group honored this year, please kindly jot me an e-mail.

  • U.S. Homebuilder Confidence Rises to Highest Level This Year (December 2011)

    Blog-author’s comment:

    I’m just glad that the author of this article did not say that the index “soared” to 21. Perhaps rather than saying that the index “climbed” to 21, it might have been better to say that the index “inched up to 21”. After all, even though the index has moved up for three consecutive months, the index is still far, far, far below 50! Well, I guess that anything that appears to be “positive” news warrants mentioning as positive news. I guess.

    U.S. Homebuilder Confidence Rises to Highest Level This Year

    December 19, 2011, 10:22 AM EST

    By Timothy R. Homan

    Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) –

    Confidence among U.S. homebuilders rose in December for a third consecutive month, a sign of stabilization in the housing market.

    The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence climbed to 21, the highest level since May 2010, from a revised 19 in November that was lower than first reported, the Washington-based group said today. Economists projected an index of 20, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Readings below 50 mean more respondents said conditions were poor.

    Borrowing costs near a record low are attracting some prospective home buyers. At the same time, another wave of foreclosures, which would put more existing homes in competition with new ones, means a sustained housing recovery may be years in the making.

    “We’re just seeing some incremental improvement,” John Herrmann, a senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston, said before the report. “It’s too early to say that the worst is over. It’s too early to say that we’re pulling ourselves out of the morass of housing.”

    Estimates in the Bloomberg survey of 44 economists ranged from 18 to 23. The gauge, which was first published in January 1985, reached a record low of 8 in January 2009 and averaged 54 in the five years before the 18-month recession began in December 2007.

    The builders group’s index of current single-family home sales increased to 22 this month, the most since May 2010, from last month’s reading of 20.

    More Traffic

    A measure of sales expectations for the next six months advanced to 26, the highest level since March, from 25 in November. The gauge of buyer traffic increased to 18, the highest since May 2008.

    Builders in the South led the increase, with the index jumping 4 points to 25 this month. The West reported a gain to 16 from 15, while the Midwest held at 24. Confidence in the Northeast dropped to 15 from 16.

    “This is the first time that builder confidence has improved for three consecutive months since mid-2009, which signifies a legitimate though slowly emerging upward trend,” NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in a statement. “Builders are reporting more inquiries and more interest among potential buyers than they have seen in previous months.”

    The confidence survey asks builders to characterize current sales as “good,” “fair” or “poor” and to gauge prospective buyers’ traffic. It also asks participants to gauge the outlook for the next six months.

    ‘Pockets of Recovery’

    “While builder confidence remains low, the consistent gains registered over the past several months are an indication that pockets of recovery are slowly starting to emerge in scattered housing markets,” Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders and a home builder from Reno, Nevada, said today in a statement. “However, the difficulties that both builders and buyers continue to experience in accessing credit for new homes are holding back potential sales even in areas where economic conditions are improving.”

    Some companies are seeing signs of improvement on the horizon.

    Potential buyers “are aware of the tremendous affordability of homes and the record-low interest rates,” Robert I. Toll, chairman of Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder, said on a Dec. 6 conference call with analysts. “However, a lack of confidence in the direction of the economy is perhaps the biggest impediment to releasing what we believe is significant pent-up demand.”

    The housing market has been slow to strengthen more than two years after the recession ended in June 2009. Purchases of new houses rose 1.3 percent in October as lower prices attracted buyers. Sales of previously owned homes, which make up about 94 percent of the market, climbed 1.4 percent that month.

    –Editors: Carlos Torres, Gail DeGeorge

    To contact the reporter on this story: Timothy R. Homan in Washington at thoman1@bloomberg.net

    To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net.

  • Wide Format Printer Market – Prices Dropping (?????)

    This morning, I noticed a posting in the “Reprographics Group” on LinkedIn, which, apparently, has something to do with demand/supply and prices for wide-format printers. I’ve not edited this person’s posting; you’ll notice that the use of the English language and phrasing is unusual, but that could well be because the person who posted it is not very fluent in English, which is very understandable for people to whom English is a second (or third, or fourth) language. (I’m not so fluent in English, and English is my first language!)

    Here’s what this poster said:

    Wide Format Printer Market – Prices Dropping

    Hello, the word fro here in China and the reason the your prices are dropping is that the Chinese have stopped buying. There are two reasons for this, Customs is going through a major personnel changeover causing containers to be held up in the ports of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. This will be reflected in brokers lowering their prices or not buying from you at all. The Wide Format Printer Market is crashing, not good news for many of us. Your brokers are going through a very tough time at the moment and will be having a difficult time just staying in business and keeping their doors open. 

In addition the 1,500 HP 5500s that I bought from Tom McNew last year have hit the market place through Shenzhen and Xinjua (bad decision on my customer’s part) and the big buy made from Federal Express two months ago have both saturated the marketplace. 

That is the report for over here in China. I would like to hear about your experiences in the United States. 

Bob Aspland in China.

    Joel’s further comments:

    Most reprographers in the U.S. know Tom McNew, the owner of Digital ES, Inc., based in Oklahoma. Tom has long been involved in the purchase and sale of used reprographics equipment. In short, he’s a very credible guy. Perhaps he’ll comment on what the poster said. If he, in fact, sold 1,500 HP DesignJet 5500’s in China last year, that’s great. Younger reprographers might not even know the HP 5500 DesignJet (it’s an older model, for sure.)

    Everything I’ve read the past year indicates that the wide-format printer market is not, as the poster put it, “crashing”; at least not here in the U.S. But, if there are customs issues in China, that could have a negative affect on import into, and distribution in and around, China, but that sounds like a very temporary problem. But, who am I to say anything about the Chinese market for wide-format equipment. A couple of years ago, one of my friends at OCE said that China is still very much a diazo market; those in China that do purchase wide-format toner-based systems use them as copiers, rather than as “plotters.” And, none of that had much to do with wide-format ink-jet.

    Reprographers in the U.S., in the U.K. and in Europe; have you seen prices for wide-format ink-jet printers crashing recently? Prices dropping?

  • Patrick Chapuis Appointed President and CEO of Océ North America

    Our hearty congratulations to Patrick !!!

    TRUMBULL, CT. – December 16, 2011 – Océ, a Canon Group company and an international leader in digital document management, announced that Patrick Chapuis has been appointed President and CEO of Océ North America effective January 1, 2012. Mr. Chapuis succeeds Joseph Skrzypczak, who has informed the Océ Board of his intent to retire in 2012. Mr. Chapuis will also retain his current responsibilities as President of the Wide Format Printing Systems division of Océ North America.


    Patrick Chapuis

    In his new role, Mr. Chapuis will have responsibility for the Océ North America sales, marketing, service, operations, finance and support functions. Océ North America is comprised of the Document Printing Systems division, which serves the office, education and government markets; the Production Printing Systems division, which serves the transaction and graphic arts markets; and the Wide Format Printing Systems division, which serves the architectural, engineering, construction and display graphics markets.

    Mr. Chapuis has extensive experience in the printing industry. He has been responsible for successfully leading the Océ North America Wide Format Printing Systems division for the past eight years. Before coming to the United States, Mr. Chapuis managed the wide format business of Océ France. Prior to that, he managed the sales and operations for France, Belgium and Holland for Kodak Office Imaging and the French operating company for Danka Office Imaging. Earlier in his career, he held a number of sales positions for Gestetner and was part of the IBM France controlling group.

    Mr. Rokus van Iperen, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Océ N.V., said, “Patrick Chapuis is well qualified to lead Océ North America, the largest operating company of the worldwide Océ Group. He has decades of experience in both wide and narrow format printing in North America and Europe, and has consistently delivered outstanding results. I am confident that under his leadership Océ North America will continue to prosper. On behalf of the Board and the entire company, we express our gratitude to Joe Skrzypczak for his outstanding performance during his tenure over the last seven years. We wish him great success in his future endeavors.”

  • AEC Exhibitor Highlights from Autodesk University 2011

    Dr. Lachmi Khemlani, owner/publisher of the very popular web-site, www.aecbytes.com, just posted a new article reviewing “AEC Exhibitor Highlights from the most recent Autodesk University”. For those of you who like to keep informed about what your A/E/C customers are looking at, software, technology and functionality-wise, I’d encourage you to visit aecbytes.com to read the complete article Dr. Khemlani just posted on her site.

    Here’s how she begins her review-article:

    As mentioned in my article published earlier this week on the general session keynote and the new cross-industry innovation forums at the recently concluded Autodesk University 2011, there were many more exhibitors in the Exhibit Hall this year than I have ever seen in the past. It seems like the universe of Autodesk solutions continues to grow exponentially every year. This article captures the highlights of those products that were exhibited that are relevant to the AEC industry. Because there were so many exhibitors, it is possible that I may have missed some—therefore, this is by no means an exhaustive listing of all the AEC technology vendors who were present. Also, I was not able to spend as much time at each exhibitor booth as I typically do, therefore this article summarizes the main developments that I saw and does not delve too deeply into the details of the individual products.

    Here’s just a few “snippets” from her review-article (there’s a whole lot more in her very detailed article):

    Interspec used the event to announce a major upgrade to its popular e-SPECS specification management system.

    VIMtrek is a 3D video game-like modeling program that allows architects, designers, and contractors to navigate around in the building and collaborate on details and edits.

    There were several other third-party Revit developers showing the latest updates to their solutions including CADworks, which showed the progress it has made with its Cloud-based Revit MEP content tool; Ideate.

    Bluebeam Software demonstrated the latest version of its Revu PDF solution (see the recent review of version 9 in AECbytes), showing how it could increase productivity and save time and money for its users. Specifically, PDF Revu CAD can improve communication and collaboration on projects by enabling digital processes from design through bid and build.

    HP exhibited its newest workstations and printers, as well as updates to its new ePrint and Share application that it exhibited at the AIA this summer (see AECbytes Newsletter #52). The application is now available on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch in the form of a cloud printing functionality for AutoCAD WS, allowing design professionals to print, access and share their large-format plans wherever the job takes them, without installing drivers or opening applications.

    Contex, a leading developer of wide format scanning and imaging solutions, showed the next version of its Nextimage imaging software, which makes scanning, copying, and printing easier and more productive. The upgrade includes new accounting capabilities that allow users to track and report on scanner activities by department, project, and user name.

    HERE’S A LINK TO THE FULL ARTICLE:

    http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/AU2011_Exhibitors.html

    About the Author of the article I’ve mentioned:

    Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.

  • Bankruptcy Court Approves Sale of Nova Blue to ABC Imaging (Part 3)

    In the “Part 2” post we did on Reprographics 101 (on Dec 13th) about the Bankruptcy Court’s approval, on Dec 6th, of ABC Imaging’s offer to purchase *Nova Blue (collectively, Nova Blue, Inc. and Nova Blue Reprographics, Inc.) we pointed out that there’s a waiting period involved in a deal of this sort. Here’s what I learned from the Purchase & Sale Agreement: From paragraph 1.5, “Closing”, in the Purchase & Sale Agreement: “The consummation of the transaction contemplated herein shall be as soon as practicable following the grant of judicial approval for this agreement and the expiration of all appeal periods for any such order and in any event by December 23, 2011.”

    *(Note, ABC Imaging is buying assets, not stock, and ABC Imaging is not assuming any of Nova Blue’s liabilities. Just wanted to clarify this.)

    One major flaw in the write-up I did about ABC Imaging – – I failed to point out that ABC Imaging is acquiring Nova Blue’s “Accounts Receivable”. I would imagine that the Trustee agreed to include Nova Blue’s A/R in the ABC deal “simply because” that will avoid him from having to collect Nova Blue’s receivables; as you all well know, that sort of activity is a huge pain in the ass; that’s doubly the case for a company in bankruptcy, where the company no longer conducts operations. I doubt that any outsider will ever know the total amount of A/R that ABC ends up taking over or the total amount that ABC actually ends up collecting, and I’m not going to take a stab at estimating those numbers, because doing that sort of research would be a waste of my time. But, do realize that the actual amount of Nova Blue A/R that ABC Imaging does eventually collect will, for all intents and purposes, reduce the “net effective” purchase price ABC Imaging paid for Nova Blue. (e.g., ABC Imaging is paying $430,000 cash for Nova Blue’s assets, and, if ABC Imaging eventually collects $100,000 from Nova Blue’s A/R, ABC’s “net effective” purchase price will end up being $100,000 less than the $430,000 initially paid by ABC. Even a better deal for ABC Imaging than I previously wrote in Parts 1 and 2 of our coverage of the deal.)

  • REPROGRAPHICS 101 blog-author’s request for input re: Survey(s)

    I’ve been asked by several reprographers to put out another survey, and I’m now in the process of putting together two different surveys – one for “Reprographers only” and one for “all Reprographics 101 visitors”.

    Before I complete the list of the questions that will be included in each of these surveys, I’d like at least two currently active reprographers to be my “sounding board” for the survey questions I’ve already come up with …. and to suggest to me additional questions that should be in the Surveys.

    If you are willing to assist me (be my sounding board and provide input), please e-mail me to let me know, and I will then forward to you a document that contains a draft of the Survey questions.

    Thank you,

    Joel

    joel.salus@mac.com

    One comment about the Surveys I plan on conducting: Like I’ve done in the past, I plan on using Survey Monkey for the survey process. Because of the way Survey Monkey works, I have no idea who participates in the survey. In other words, even though a survey may include questions that some participants might feel ask for confidential information, there’s no way for me to tell who is participating in the survey, meaning that none of the responses participants give can be associated with a particular individual or company.