The health of the environment is a pretty hot topic these days. Hybrid vehicles, biodegradable packaging and reusable grocery bags are just some of the ways society has been inundated by environmental friendly technologies.

It didn’t take long for companies to realize they need to reduce their carbon footprint, too. However, in today’s tight financial economy, it can be hard to adopt expensive albeit green technology. Luckily, designing and implementing a green printing strategy can help save the environment and save money.

A green printing strategy starts with the goal of reducing the carbon footprint of office printing by targeting paper usage and energy usage. When these areas are optimized, the combined environmental and economic impact is amazing.

Venlo, The Netherlands, 29 July 2010 - Océ stepped ahead of tough competition to be selected for a prestigious Ruban d’Honneur in round two of the European Business Awards. Receiving a Ruban d’Honneur is an impressive achievement and celebrates businesses who demonstrate exceptional performance within their sector. Océ will now compete as a finalist within the Environmental Awareness category and hopefully win the ultimate prize of a European Business Award.

Océ was one of only three Dutch companies to be given a Ruban d’Honneur. The Ruban d’Honneur is awarded to up to ten successful entrants in each category. Judges deliberate to select which individuals and businesses are awarded the Ruban d’Honneur, and it is from the Ruban d’Honneur recipients that the final winner in each category is decided.

Océ is the Netherland’s leading provider of document management and printing solutions for the professional business community. It has a broad portfolio of printing and related services designed to improve the efficiency of its clients. Its sustainability policy is embedded in everything it does from minimizing waste, reusing materials and components and working towards a ‘cradle-to-cradle’ closed loop supply chain. Through maximizing the life cycle of its machinery it is reducing its impact on the environment whilst using less raw materials.

Tokyo (July 29, 2010)- Konica Minolta Group will reform its organization in pursuit of further strengthening competitiveness and expanding applications in its production printing business - a segment positioned as our priority business.

Outline of the Reform

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. (Konica Minolta BT), and Konica Minolta Medical & Graphics, Inc. (Konica Minolta MG) have decided to spin-off graphic imaging business of Konica Minolta MG and transfer it to Konica Minolta BT as of October 1, 2010. Domestic sales companies, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Japan Co. Ltd-a subsidiary of Konica Minolta BT, and Konica Minolta Graphic Imaging Japan Co., Ltd.-a subsidiary of Konica Minolta MG, will integrate on the same day.

Purpose of the Reform

Konica Minolta Group is widely involved in various businesses including office equipment, optical devices, medical systems and measuring instruments. Among these business segments, the production printing segment, targeting commercial printing and in-house printing as its major markets, is expected to further grow in the future. In the MANAGEMENT POLICY <09 - 10> formulated last year, production printing is defined as a strategic field which supports one of the basic policies, “Achieving Strong Growth.”

FAIRFIELD, N.J. – July 27, 2010 – Kyocera Mita America, Inc., one of the world’s leading document solutions companies, is protecting sensitive and confidential corporate and government data that is printed, scanned, copied or stored with comprehensive security solutions for network printers and multifunctional products (MFPs).

Kyocera’s security solutions prevent unauthorized access to confidential information retained in the network printer or MFP’s internal memory, as well as by limiting access at the device. And with the growing requirements for security in devices for government, health care and financial industries, Kyocera is at the forefront of developing solutions that eliminate the threat of a security breach. Kyocera security solutions include data overwrite technology, manual and automatic deletion, password protection, Common Criteria Certification (ISO15408) with EAL3 Level Conformance and Validation.

Kyocera marked five years of security excellence and industry-leading certified and validated security solutions with the hiring of Peter Cybuck as senior director of security and software solutions. Bringing more than 25 years security experience to Kyocera, Cybuck manages the planning and marketing of security and advanced MFP software solutions for the Company. He is currently involved in additional Common Criteria evaluations and Protection Profile development projects, as well as in the planning, development and introduction of new security solutions for document imaging devices.

In the current economic environment, it is very difficult to grow your business. When looking to expand your services, the best place to start is with your current customer base. There are many cost-effective options to illustrate your new services and products that use resources that are already located in your office.

Newsletters: A monthly or quarterly newsletter maintains consistent communication with your clients. You can include informational articles, new services or special promotions. Easy print templates from Microsoft Word make it easy to create newsletters that you can either print or email.

Invoice Inserts: When sending invoices, you are already paying for postage, so why not create an insert to inform current clients of new products or promotions? They can be small and cheap, but will still make a lasting impression on your clients.

Canon Australia today announced the latest additions to the PIXMA range with the multifunction MG5250, MG5150, MP495 and MP280 offering all-in-one photo printer solutions for the home and the single function, iP4850 providing vibrant photo and document printing.

“The new PIXMA range offers improved useability with its enhanced user interface and array of innovative features,” said Beryl Thomas, Brand Manager – PIXMA, Canon Australia. “The outstanding feature for the new PIXMA range is the Full HD Movie Print, a brand new Canon-to-Canon solution. This technology allows users to capture and print their favourite moments from Full HD movies shot with a Canon digital camera.”

So often, those important special moments, such as a child blowing out candles on their birthday cake, can pass more quickly than you can capture them. Now users can capture those memories in video, so that they never miss the moment, and with the new PIXMA Full HD Movie Print feature, will still have the ability to print and share it in a high quality still.

In addition, all five printers boast new and improved features resulting in better print quality and ease-of-use.

With enhanced Easy-PhotoPrint EX software, images can now be searched for and used from Flickr, providing further flexibility to users interested in printing high-quality photos, albums, calendars and layouts from PCs without having to launch their internet browser. Auto Photo Fix II, which helps correct common photo errors, has been improved as well with enhanced light source recognition and colour cast correction, resulting in increased image quality and more true-to-life colours of printed images.

Ramsey, N.J. – July 22, 2010 – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop announced today that the Sir Speedy of Nashville, Tenn. (Sir Speedy) has chosen Konica Minolta’s award-winning bizhub PRO® 1200 Monochrome Digital Press, which is providing its customers the perfect balance of price and performance while allowing them to successfully and cost-effectively grow their businesses regardless of the turbulent economy.

Personalized Campaigns Across Verticals
With the addition of the bizhub PRO 1200 system, Sir Speedy is delivering turn-key, customized campaigns to its customers through services such as creative design, variable data printing (VDP), data management and direct marketing response metrics. In addition, Sir Speedy is enhancing its ability to personalize products such as manuals and training booklets in several important vertical markets including Manufacturing, Utilities, High-Technology and Government.  Sir Speedy selected Konica Minolta from among multiple solutions due to its ability to balance high-quality digital imaging with an excellent price point. In addition, Sir Speedy did not have to incur the cost of additional software while increasing output rip speed and solution flexibility.

"Our challenge was to maintain high quality digital imaging with a capital expense that allowed competitive pricing for our clients," said Charlie Brown, President and Owner, Sir Speedy Nashville. ”With the bizhub PRO 1200, we have been able to reduce digital monochrome expenses by 27 percent without any impact on quality or productivity while helping our customers grow their businesses, which is the ultimate sign of success.”

In today’s work environment, expenses rarely go unchecked. It is very common for a department of a company to be required to create monthly or quarterly expense reports. However, tracking printing costs can be quite the task. Therefore, many companies simply lump the expense in with other various office costs such as supplies or furniture. Although this may seem like the easiest way to complete expense reports, it may also be the most expensive.

Print management software is an easy way to control, monitor and report the printing done by your company. Not only will your monthly reports be made simple, but you will become more aware of where your budget is spent. You will also be able to use access controls to limit printing to certain departments and set up defaults to save ink and paper.

FAIRFIELD, N.J. – July 21, 2010 - Kyocera Mita America, Inc., one of the world's leading document solutions companies, today announced that Better Buys for Business, a leading independent authority on document imaging equipment, has recognized Kyocera’s TASKalfa 552ci color multifunctional product (MFP), with a 2010 Editor’s Choice Award. The TASKalfa 552ci was recognized for its ultra-reliability, highly productive output speeds and flexible output capabilities.

Better Buys for Business noted the remarkable speed of the Kyocera TASKalfa 552ci color MFP, printing at speeds of 55ppm (pages per minute) in black-and-white and 50ppm in color. The TASKalfa 552ci also received high marks for its fast warm-up speed, 225,000-page monthly duty cycle and long-life components. Kyocera was also noted for its powerful and scalable software solutions platform, Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions (HyPAS), designed to extend the value of Kyocera’s MFPs through both Java and Web Service applications.