Відео

Great discussion! Thank you. As the song goes “to everything there is a season.” 23 years ago, when the bottom fell out of the film market, and Fujifilm had been locked in battle for years, Fujifilm, unlike KM and Kodak, made the transition thanks in large part to Xerox’s selling down their interest in the joint venture (which I negotiated), which, by consolidating Fuji Xerox revenue and profit, gave them breathing room for reinvention in other fields, .Six years ago when I first broached the prospect to Fujifilm of FF buying KM, it was still to early - unthinkable in the Japan business environment at the time. Well, now here we are!

Why can’t these guys use their camera technology and look 👀 down that spread sheet and find the answers to these problems??

Not a surprise, I was there 1st half & understand why.

Fake news

I don't see them making certifications "easier" so people pass them more often then not. that makes 0 sense, if anything they'll make certs harder to pass to make the customer pay the retake fee. maybe they'll add a yearly subscription to keep your cert active or a maintenance fee of some sort. I can see a 5%-10% raise in each cert tho 100%

Let’s not forget Lexmark acquired Kofax in 2015 for $1 billion in cash, total disaster…

Yes Ray and yet HP continues to make it harder for the print dealers ..constantly on us with amplify reporting…constantly increasing ink and toner cost.

They have completely forgotten how to take care of their customers and employees!!! They have become obsolete in the office environment!!

As an old 30 year service technician, I have seen how the new generation of copier technicians like to take a hands off approach to service. I couldn't wrap my mind around this concept. So I got the hell out of the way and retired. Good luck to the new generation of service techs. 🤣🤣

As a current employee of POA I can tell you they have yet to address any of this to their staff, like how to respond to questions, etc. I found out by putting two and two together and googling why Doug stepped away... not resign, just take a break... when I shared one of the articles with some coworkers I was simply reprimanded with no further guidance. I understand them not wanting to advertise this to customers but to not advise its employees on how to address this is very strange but honestly par for the course. I'll check back in if they're monitoring these comments and I get terminated for sharing my concerns...

I work for Ricoh. 👀

Thanks Ray, nice job. Xerox acquiring more revenue, to offset the declining print. I'm thinking it will be in the execution to see if they can grow a 400 million dollar company to a billion or multibillion dollar segment, in a highly fragmented it services industry. As you stated time will tell.

It makes you wonder who did what for promotions or additional accounts... The CEO seems like he is a master manipulator.

Never seen a print company succeed in IT. Every acquisition I have seen gets devalued through poor management and loss of customers. Confluence bought and sold. It’s all ground hog day.

Glad you got to see the GIH Ray!

Finally someone who fully appreciates that the substrate has a vital part to play in the print process. 👏👏👏👏

This is your best company breakdown yet Ray !! Good job

Great Job Ray! Your doing a great service to our industry! We need more people like you, Jimi at Toner News and Actionable Intelligence! Keep up the great work!

Great job Dan!

Culture

The printing industry knew there would be a decline for more than 20 years. They captured the market in many instances with a fine product. Management downsized the "IKON" marketing machine. Covid came along and they eliminated the entire service sector expense. Their business model in North America collapsing. Their digital footprint is largely supported by foreign entities. They still make a fine product and are likely looking for a North American vendor.

It looks like the ban is on Ninestar imports. If Lexmark manufactures state-side is that OK? It reminds me of how knife companies like CRKT started importing Chinese made parts and doing final assembly in the US for the sake of labelling. It fells too early to call for a Lexmark boycott.

Epson made terrible desicion.

The stuff that happens behind closed doors at POA has been widely known in the industry for many years.

bump

Lots of dealers selling cyberfluff in Australia these days.

Barnum and Baily were two different people. They owned a circus called, oddly enough, Barnum and Bailey's Circus. It is P.T. Barnum who is credited with the quote "There's a sucker born every minute".

Just look atLexmark’s BOD and you know why Bloomberg and others have whitewashed and “bad” stuff on Lexmark…

Again Ray on point on fire 🔥

Batting 1000 on this one

Ray. Canon has its own DFE called PRISMA SYNC. It’s a solid front end that is being used by both toner and inkjet. Customers are very happy with it and it has a long track record going back to the oce days. Keep up the good work sir.

Toshiba Tec gave up on Fiery many years ago. Has not been much of a problem in the SMB and light production space. Toshiba Tec does not really compete in the overcrowded Production space.

I am wondering why KM didn't buy Fiery 🤣

Xerox had a great DFE platform and sold it to EFI some years ago ... FreeFlow Print Server aka DocuSP ... and EFI killed it.

One of the strangest acquisitions ever

I am really wondering, what's in for Epson to buy Fiery ... 🤔

At first I was worried but then I looked at how many laser based oems sell Fiery solutions on their midrange MFPs. Sure there will be a disruption but for most companies the impact will be small. I also think this will push more companies to further develop their own solutions.

Great insight Ray… FujiFilm certainly aim to disrupt the industry! I for one would look forward to this prophecy being fulfilled!!

Appreciate the synthesis, Ray, some great analysis, the industry lion is on the hunt, and beginning to disrupt the status quo. Keep up the great work, bringing real business analysis to the industry.

Mr. Ray, many thanks for those insights which are the answers to my last week's question to you. What's coming tomorrow? Fiery acquisition by Epson? Really waiting for that to hear from you Sir🙏🏽

A solid theory, but I wouldn't spend the money on Marco when I can on-board even more of KM's dealers, choke KM further, and make the KM acquisition even fewer pennies on the dollar... all while my new dealers are just cranking out boxes. However, in KM fashion, Marco could expand by picking up some of the direct branches. Marco has grown quite a bit by acquisition. Everyone wins.

I do believe it's time you also put a Fujifilm Coffee cup on your display...seems to be missing

Just a crazy thought... Fiery owns FreeFlow PS.... Fiery drives the lion share of the industry... Now Epson owns Fiery.

Australia needs Baltoro.

What's the deal with Sharp? They're selling rebadged FFBI production equipment.

Always insightful- Beyond the press release! 🙌

Saw Katun launching office color machines. Looked like Fuji Xerox engines. Is it true Mr. Ray?

Thanks Ray, it is fantastic to see you interacting with the OEM's and asking good questions. In addition, conversation does surface great insight; for instance, the case study of the printer, whose print jobs have doubled, but volumes dropped off a bit in the last 6 years, and at the same time his operating and labor costs increased, to manage the shorter runs. Automation has to be the answer to a more efficient workflow to reign in the operating and labor costs and meet production and profitability objectives. Looking forward to more industry insight in future episodes.

Very interesting!

Interesting, thank you.