The copier industry is constantly evolving, and staying up-to-date with the latest news and information can be crucial for businesses and professionals who rely on these machines for their daily operations. Here are the latest headlines from the Copier Industry:
Will Feds ban Lexmark products in USA?
- Lexmark (which has 63.04% of its shares owned by Ninestar of China) published official statement about federal ban on some Ninestar products
- “As a global manufacturer that utilizes a multi-source strategy and regional manufacturing facilities, only a small portion of Lexmark manufacturing comes from Ninestar and its affected subsidiaries. We do not anticipate significant business disruption from this order”
- According to ProductFrom.com, Lexmark sources products (MFPs, printers & supplies) made in following countries:
- China = 545 products (how many of these are made by forced labor and affected by US DHS ban?)
- Japan = 23 products
- Mexico = 141 products
- Philippines = 16 products
- Poland = 3 products
- Taiwan = 6 products
- Thailand = 7 products
- USA = 34 products
- VOA News is reporting that artificial intelligence tools are now being used to identify products made with forced labor by the Uyghur population in northern China
- Reuters News Service reports that the Chinese government (aka CCP) “strongly opposes action taken last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ban Ninestar imports of products into the U.S.”
- Datamyne reported that recently a container of laser print devices from Ninestar of China arrived in the Port of Los Angeles, CA bound for Sharp Electronics.
Clover makes acquisition
- Clover Imaging Solutions announced its new name is Clover Environmental Solutions
- Announced it has acquired all operating assets of America’s Remanufacturing Company of Augusta, Georgia
- ARC is a returns-management and remanufacturing solutions company
- Purchase price not announced
Document management solution growth
- Research published by ReportLinker
- Document management solution market expected to reach $11.3 billion by 2029
- CAGR (cumulative annual growth rate) of 10.7%
Ricoh reports on new loan agreement
- Ricoh and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank of Japan announced that they have concluded a “Positive Impact Finance” loan agreement that is in line with the Principles for Positive Impact Finance
- A United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative
- Intended to support vendors activities related to environment, society and the economy
Ricoh launches new surveillance camera
- Now offering the SC-20 “work inspection smart camera”
- Uses image recognition technology
- Enables real-time confirmation of proper manual work process performance
- Goal is to prevent work errors by automatically checking status of manufacturing operations
- 8 megapixel resolution
- Barcode and OCR scanning
- Interchangeable lenses
Ricoh wins production print contract
- Award from Balaji Digital of Delhi, India
- Installed new Pro C7200X production color laser system
Epson wins design awards
- Won several iF Design 2023 awards for following products:
- SL-D500 color inkjet photo printers
- SureColor SC-T7700 large format color inkjet printers
- Surecolor SC-P8500 large format color inkjet printers
- TM-P20II and TM-P80II mobile receipt printers
- TM-L100 compact label printer
- EH-LS800W and EH-LS800B home projectors
Epson launches new scanner
- Now shipping the Expression 13000XL large format document scanner
- Base MSRP of $3699
- Scans originals as large as 12.2” x 17.2”
- 2400x4800dpi
- 48 bit color
- Includes LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast AI software
- Optional transparency/slide scanner attachment
Xerox to hold national dealer meeting
- Will hold its annual “Xerox Partner Summit 2023” in Miami, FL
- Theme is “Forward Together”
- Includes a “Voice of the Partner” dealer panel
- Keynote speech from Louella Fernandes of Quocirca on “Race to Relevance in Era of AI”
- Will launch new printers and MFPs and the FreeFlow Vision PPS solution
Xerox wins production print contract
- Award from Vanderbilt University of Tennessee
- Installed new Iridesse production color laser system
- Used to produce food service booklets among other products
Riso wins production print contract
- Award from EMC Insurance of Des Moines, Iowa (in-plant print shop)
- Installed new ComColor GL7430 production color inkjet system
- Used to produce envelopes
Equipment leasing increases
- Report published by Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA)
- U.S. companies borrowed 1% more in May, 2023 YoY
- Credit approvals down from 77.3% to 76.4%
- Confidence index up from 40.6 to 44.1 (rating above 50 indicates positive outlook)
Commercial print sales down
- Report from US Commerce Department
- April, 2023 printing shipments were down from $7.58 billion to $7 billion
- January to April shipments were down from $28.92 billion to $28.56 billion
Survey of in-plant print shop managers
- Published by Printing United Alliance
- Applications printed in house:
- 100% = booklets
- 100% = brochures
- 100% = business cards
- 97% = stationery
- 91% = envelopes
- 90% = direct mail pieces
- 88% = newsletters
- Who do they buy equipment from:
- 62% = local dealer
- 30% = from direct branch
- What do they plan on buying in next 24 months;
- 40% = production color laser
- 17% = color laser envelope printer
- 19% = roll fed wide format color inkjet
- 25% = production b/w laser system
- 16% = production color inkjet system
- 18% = flatbed wide format color inkjet system
- 10% = color label printer
Younger office workers like paper documents
- Research published by Keypoint Intelligence was results of survey of office workers under 35 years old
- 63% admitted to having a preference for working with paper documents
- Reasons for preferring to work with paper:
- 34% = retain information better
- 37% = easier to focus
- 14% = easier to edit or comment
- 12% = easier to proofread
Signs of recession?
- Northwest Mutual Insurance published report on Americans saving for retirement:
- Average American only has 7% of their 401K target saved
- People believe they need average of $1.27 million for retirement
- 48% say they will not have adequate savings
- Average of only $89,300 in 401K
- Most believe they will have to work full time until at least age 65
- 29% are on track to cover all expenses in retirement
- OANDA senior market analyst, Kelvin Wong, interviewed by Market Insider
- “Overall, a higher for longer interest rates environment is likely to further increase the costs of funding coupled with an impending global recession that may put downside pressure on corporates’ profit margins”
- Bloomberg News reports on commercial real estate (CRE) market:
- Tens of billions of dollars worth of assets slipping into distressed category as high interest rate squeeze borrowers
- Amount of troubled CRE assets (properties that are forced to be sold as owners can not afford to pay the mortgage) jumped by 10% in first quarter to $64 billion
- Another $155 billion of assets may be at risk
- CRE mortgage delinquencies rose to 3%
- JPMorgan Bank published report:
- US is most likely headed for a “boil the frog” recession
- Central bank tightening will spark a synchronized global downturn 2024
- US has a 23% chance of avoiding a recession altogether
- 36% chance that US will tip into recession at same time as rest of global economy
- “Broad-based developed-market tightening points to a more synchronized global downturn sometime in 2024”
- Giving USA reports that in 2022, charitable giving by US taxpayers dropped 3.4% to $499.2 billion
- Equates to 10.5% when adjusted for inflation
- Bloomberg News published article on average taxpayers’ incomes:
- By 2048, the top 1% of Americans will account for 22.5% of the nation’s total income
- Median annual income will rise a mere 0.3% in inflation adjusted terms, from $67,000 to $72,000 by 2048
- Income of poorest 10% will actually decline
CYBERSECURITY & HEALTHCARE VERTICAL NEWS
Oracle to lay off Cerner staff
- Has reportedly laid off hundreds of Cerner EHR employees (as many as 1,200 affected)
- Has also pulled job offers
- Report published by Computerworld magazine
- Oracle reported that during last quarter, revenue was up 17% and profit up 24%
eClinicalWorks wins EHR contract
- Award from Northwest Pain Care of Spokane, WA
- Includes PRISMA, aa health information search tool
NextGen wins EHR contract
- Award from Haymarket Center of Chicago, IL
- Includes practice management solution option
CliniComp wins EHR contract
- Award from Oroville Hospital of Oroville, CA
Vyne Medical Solutions launches “Fax Complete”
- New solution for the healthcare vertical
- Claims that 70% of healthcare workflows still involve fax in US healthcare facilities
- Solution offers a touch-free workflow with automating, indexing, integrating and outsourcing incoming PHI fax documents
- Goal is to take healthcare employee intervention out of the fax transcription and handling processes
- Workflows managed directly in customer’s EHR (electronic health records system)
- Pricing not announced
Australia to ban fax in healthcare
- New rule automate referral process
- Extended care facilities are sending out notification that they will no longer be using fax
- The Department of Health and Aged Care will be decommissioning its fax service
- (The U.S. may soon follow suit when it starts enforcing provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act)
- (Konica Minolta Healthcare MFP, powered by Kno2, allows healthcare providers to wean themselves off of fax)
Premier GPO gives Sharp an award
- Won a “Supplier Horizon Award” for customer service and engagement
- “Given the current economic times and post-pandemic supply chain challenges, we are honored to recognize Sharp”
Ricoh wins healthcare contract
- Award from Eastern Health of Canada for managed print services contract
- 110 locations across Newfoundland and Labrador
- Automated processing of 150,000 invoices with implementation of LaserFiche ECM and OCR
- Claims to have saved $232,000 per year
- Eliminated 900 fax lines with install of OpenText RightFax
- 30% reduction in overall spend on print
- Reduction of 2.8 million pages
- Includes 1,610 MFPs and printers
HIPAA/cybersecurity breaches in the news
- The US Department of Agriculture notified an unknown number of employees that their info was exposed during recent MOVEit ransomware attack.
- The Oregon Department of Transportation notified 3.5 million people that their info was exposed during recent MOVEit ransomware attack.
- The Louisiana Department of Transportation notified an unknown number of employees that their info was exposed during recent MOVEit ransomware attack.
- The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a recently declassified document that confirms that US intelligence agencies have been buying America’s personal data.
- Bryan Cave Law Firm, headquartered in St. Louis, MO, notified 51,000 people that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
- ChatGPT announced that 100,000 users had their info exposed after ransomware attack.
- Reddit notified an unknown number of users that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
- Vitagene Inc., aka 1Health, headquartered in California, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
- Vermont Blue Advantage Insurance notified 16,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
- Des Moines Public Schools of Iowa notified 6,700 students that that their info was exposed in a ransomware FERPA breach.
- Stephen F. Austin State University of Texas notified 11,600 students that their info was exposed in a FERPA breach caused by cyberattack.
- California Public Employees Retirement Systems of Sacramento, CA notified 769,000 people that their info was exposed after Russian ransomware attack.
- Atlanta Women’s Health Group of Georgia notified 33,839 patients that their PHI was exposed after cyber attack.
- The federal government sent out bulletin to healthcare industry, warning them of “search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning”
- Kaiser Permanente Health was fined $450,000 by the state of California regarding a HIPAA breach of the PHI of 300,000 patients due to a direct mailing error.
- Kannact Home Health of Albany, Oregon notified 103,547 patients that their PHI was exposed after cyber attack.
- University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after cyber attack.
- Vincera Institute Healthcare of Philadelphia, PA notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after cyber attac.
- Diogo Santos Coelho of London, England is fighting extradition to face charges in the U.S. that he assisted in creating the RaidForums hacking site.
- If convicted, faces 52 years in prison.
- The site supposedly stole over $400 million from people