InfoPrint Solutions Overhauls its Partner ProgramDigital Output Solutions Company Has Enhanced Its Solutions Partner Program to Help Grow Its Business
InfoPrint Solutions Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd., is a global provider of digital output solutions that's aiming to become the “go-to partner for partners,” to do business with.
Dan Boe, vice-president and general manager of InfoPrint Americas general office solutions, said he and his group is responsible for production print and associated software, consumables and maintenance services for the mid-market business space.
The company's solutions are delivered throughout North America using a two-tier distribution model. Today, approximately 95 per cent of the business' general offices sales flows through channel partners.
In addition to working with distributors Compu-Call, which is based in Providence, R.I. and Peak Resources in Denver, the company also has a network of about 90 active channel partners in the U.S. and Canada. In Canada, there are less than 10 partners, but Boe said the company wants this number to increase over the next two to three years.
“We see partners as an extension of our sales force,” Boe said. “We have approximately 14 territory managers throughout North America and a team of sales directors that work closely with our partners.”
InfoPrint Solutions Company Unveils Enhanced Production Monochrome Solutions
Boulder, Colo., May 10, 2010- InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced the availability of its newest InfoPrint 4100 T models. The latest additions to the InfoPrint 4100 Advanced Function Printing (AFP) System offer customers additional flexibility coupled with sustainable and cost-effective options for overall print operations, adding the latest technology innovations to this leading electrophotographic (EP) continuous-form platform.
The InfoPrint 4100 T model is ideal for service bureaus, direct mailers and transactional customers. The solution prints at speeds up to 280 linear feet per minute1 and supports AFP with color emulation functionality. Many customers today use the device to roll out TransPromo and Print-On-Demand applications in order to complement a digital color platform such as the InfoPrint 5000 inkjet printer or InfoPrint Pro C900 cutsheet models.
“With the increased interest of customers to migrate to full color, we believe that monochrome printing will be an excellent technology companion moving forward, especially with targeted communications or TransPromo applications,” said Winston Liu, Director, Production Solutions at InfoPrint. “These latest additions to our InfoPrint 4100 product line show our continued dedication to this space. By offering our customers more flexible, sustainable and cost-effective options, we are confident that our momentum in this market will continue further into 2010.”
InfoPrint Unveils Newest Version of Its Leading Workflow Software Solution
BOULDER, Colo. – May 10, 2010 – InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced the latest version of its award-winning InfoPrint ProcessDirector workflow software. This is a significant expansion of the product’s capabilities, with increased compatibility with Windows and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® platforms alongside a new command center feature, which allows for centralized management of multiple InfoPrint ProcessDirector systems and additional new usability features. These upgrades will allow even more companies to take advantage of the InfoPrint ProcessDirector solution to drive increased cost savings and productivity from their existing investments.
InfoPrint ProcessDirector is a flexible workflow platform that provides customers with the necessary foundation to develop customized solutions, such as Automated Document Factory (ADF), Print On-Demand (POD) and Precision Marketing. By adding optional features and extensions, InfoPrint ProcessDirector can be expanded to meet compliance requirements, provide business continuity and reduce costs in the postal and labor arenas.
“InfoPrint ProcessDirector is a key element of our solutions portfolio, bringing together hardware, software and services into one automated control point. These latest enhancements represent our ongoing commitment to our customers to expand our functionality and meet their specific requirements,” said Miranda Reeves, Product Manager, InfoPrint ProcessDirector, at InfoPrint Solutions. “We continue to work with our customers to strengthen their systems and scale them to meet their needs. And our strategy is working – over the past two years, we have significantly increased our InfoPrint ProcessDirector customer base, due largely to our ability to answer customers’ demands for workflow solutions that reduce cost and manage compliance.”
InfoPrint Solutions Launches New Inkjet Platform at IPEX
Boulder, Colo, May 10, 2010- InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced the addition of the InfoPrint 5000 MP (multi-purpose) platform to its extremely successful family of continuous forms inkjet printers, supporting three speed points for low, medium, and high volume printing systems needs. This will be unveiled at IPEX, Birmingham, UK, May 18 – 25, 2010 where InfoPrint Solutions is exhibiting alongside Ricoh at booth 12-D130.
The InfoPrint 5000 MP, a smaller footprint member of the InfoPrint 5000 family, complements and is compatible with the existing full color models of the InfoPrint 5000. It provides customers with a new level of modularity, flexibility and investment protection. The InfoPrint 5000 MP can run a variety of inks and fluids and be utilized in various configurations, including a twin-engine, or tandem, monochrome duplex and coupling it with the InfoPrint 5000 color system to optimize the production of documents with checks or coupons using Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR).
“For the second year in a row InfoPrint Solutions is the market share leader in continuous-feed color inkjet systems installed in the United States and Western Europe. In 2009 InfoPrint Solutions held the number one position with over 30 percent market share. Since entering the market in 2007, InfoPrint Solutions has placed 35 percent of the systems installed in the United States and Western Europe. In that same time period InfoPrint Solutions and its partner, Dainippon Screen, have installed more than half of all continuous-feed color inkjet systems,” according to InfoTrends.*
“With the InfoPrint 5000 MP, a customer can easily reconfigure and re-purpose capital assets, protecting investments as needs change over time. It provides customers a new low level of power consumption and a significantly smaller footprint, with the same sustained high reliability and ease of use as all the other InfoPrint Solutions models,” said George Promis, Vice President of Production Inkjet Solutions and Technology Alliances, InfoPrint Solutions. “This is the next step in fulfilling our on-going commitment to customers to deliver technology that enables them to migrate applications to inkjet, while lowering costs and increasing revenue and profit.”
InfoPrint 6700 Saves Energy and Boosts Supply Chain Efficiency
BOULDER, Colo. – April 6, 2010 – InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced its rugged InfoPrint 6700 thermal printer family is now available with additional capabilities to lower costs and improve supply chain operations.
The upgraded InfoPrint 6700 R40, R60 and R80 models are among the first thermal printers to offer Energy Star® compliance, which can lower energy consumption across warehouse operations and reduce carbon footprint.
Also, the InfoPrint 6700 family R-models now includes no-charge Ethernet connectivity, a savings of up to $400. In addition, standard memory has been expanded to 16 megabytes for additional flexibility in managing printer resources.
“We have continued to upgrade the leading-edge InfoPrint 6700 thermal printer line since its launch five years ago,” said Doug Seitz, Worldwide Director, Industrial Solutions at InfoPrint Solutions. “Continuous improvement provides our customers with the latest media handling capabilities, additional datastreams and emulations, support for barcodes and RFID tags, as well as powerful remote management capabilities. These features are designed for reliable output in industrial environments, which is critical to supply chain efficiency.”
InfoPrint Printer Management Utility (PMU), powerful remote management software, continues to be offered as a free download to InfoPrint 6700 customers. It provides monitoring capabilities for printer activities and output processes. The printer control panel is displayed and is fully operational from a web accessible support desk. Technicians can perform printer tasks, such as configuration changes, microcode updates and diagnostics remotely. Technicians do not need to be on-site to troubleshoot printers, increasing productivity and lowering support costs.
InfoPrint Brings Increased Flexibility to Color AFP Environments with Latest InfoPrint Pro C900AFP Model
Boulder, Colo. – March 10th, 2010 – InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced that its InfoPrint Pro C900AFP color cutsheet printer is now available with support for PostScript®, Adobe® PDF and Personalized Printer Markup Language (PPML™). The InfoPrint Pro C900AFP is offered in addition to the award-winning InfoPrint Pro C900 printer and offers added flexibility for color transactional and Print On-Demand (POD) users in data centers, service bureaus and direct mail operations.
Customers can now use the PPML datastream to create personalized, variable content color pages to maximize the effectiveness of customer communications while PostScript and Adobe PDF are vital tools for POD jobs, such as manuals, booklets and presentations.
The InfoPrint Pro C900AFP is a full color device that can be used for both transactional and POD applications. It offers customers an easy transition to an environment that supports applications that expand the smart use of color. It replaces the traditional approach of combining monochrome output devices with offset printing to produce invoices, statements or direct mail pieces that are commingled and mailed.
This latest InfoPrint Pro C900AFP model also features the InfoPrint Job Ticket Editor, an external application integrated into Windows and Macintosh drivers. This robust, easy-to-use JDF-based job ticketing tool enables the end user to create simple or complex fully-finished PostScript or PDF documents. Set-up entries include the ability to add covers, insert tabs and select finishing options such as ring binder, perfect binder and booklet maker, all of which help avoid the need for offline finishing.
InfoPrint Brings Touch Screen Technology To Latest Workgroup Models
InfoPrint Solutions Company, the joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced the expansion of its broad portfolio of workgroup solutions. This latest launch brings a touch screen monochrome device for larger workgroups alongside a compact color multi-function device to its existing range.
The InfoPrint 1892 is a ground breaking single-function monochrome A4 (8.5 inch x 11 inch) laser printer featuring a color touch screen control panel. The solution provides larger workgroups instant access to preloaded and customizable applications. Features include:
• Built-in duplex as standard, with print speeds of 55 pages per minute (ppm) and a wide choice of paper handling options
• Forms and Favorites, a selection of customer-specific forms accessible via the touch screen interface to enable instant printing of documents and Web pages, without using a computer
• Eco-settings that help conserve energy when in idle mode, while reducing wasted pages and toner on printed jobs
• Personalization options, to allows businesses to display a company logo or customize a background image, ideal for use in large multi-location businesses
• “Change Language” function, which can be enabled during setup, so users in multi-lingual environments can easily change the display language
• Optimized time-to-first-page for short jobs Extra input drawers can expand capacity up to 4,300 sheets, alongside finishing options such as a StapleSmart II™ Finisher and five bin mailboxes
InfoPrint Launches Latest Monochrome Multifunctional Workgroup Printers
BOULDER, Colo. – October 13, 2009 – InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced the further expansion of its workgroup line with the addition of new wide-format monochrome multifunctional printers (MFP). These latest solutions provide users with ongoing price and performance choices, with the comfort of InfoPrint’s dedication to sustainability at the heart each offering.
The new models – the InfoPrint 1948 MFP, InfoPrint 1968 MFP, InfoPrint 1988 MFP and InfoPrint 1985 – offer sophisticated networked printing for large workgroups, alongside innovative cost- and time-saving features. Their multi-function options remove the need for single devices such as fax or scanner, while high speeds and performance enable scalability and help reduce the total cost of ownership. Detailed finishing options make it easy to handle complex tasks such as booklet-making and hole-punching.
Consolidating multiple devices
"The new InfoPrint 1948 MFP, InfoPrint 1968 MFP, and InfoPrint 1988 MFP make device consolidation easy,” said Paul Preo, Vice President, Distributed Solutions, InfoPrint Solutions Company. "These MFPs can be placed in a central location to service multiple departments, and connect easily to a network allowing users to quickly remove underutilised, expensive single function devices such as fax machines, ink jet printers, and individual desktop printers.”
Arcis Digital Security Certifies the InfoPrint 5000 for Secure Document Printing
CHICAGO - (PRINT 09), September 8, 2009 –InfoPrint Solutions Company, the joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced an agreement with Arcis Digital Security Inc. to certify the InfoPrint 5000 industry-leading full-colour continuous forms production printing system for Digital Void Pantograph production.
With Digital Void Pantograph support, the InfoPrint 5000 is enabled to print secure documents like cheques, statements, rebates, gift certificates and coupons in high volumes on plain paper. This solution embeds hidden warnings, such as words or images, into the document background that will become visible if the document is copied, scanned, or viewed with a hand-held verifier to help prevent document misuse or forgery.
"Our patent-pending Digital Void Pantograph technology is unique to the industry and will allow InfoPrint customers to have access to a well-recognised anti-copy technology in a newly developed digital format as an alternative to buying pre-printed security paper stock," said Andrew McTaggart, Managing Director, of Arcis Digital Security Inc. “The InfoPrint 5000’s print quality is exceptionally positioned to produce secure documents with our one-of-a-kind Digital Void Pantographs.”
With the Digital Void Pantograph technology, InfoPrint 5000 customers can:
InfoPrint Launches Latest Monochrome Cutsheet Machines for Flexible Light Production Printing
InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced the addition of six new models to its monochrome cutsheet portfolio, bringing high performance solutions to transactional and Print On Demand (POD) customers.
The InfoPrint Pro 907, InfoPrint Pro 1107 and InfoPrint Pro 1357 printer-only models are designed for users in data centers, service bureaus and in-plant organizations looking to print and finish transactional documents. All three models support the preferred transaction print data stream, native InfoPrint IPDS (Intelligent Printer Datastream), to provide true page-level error recovery. At up to 135 impressions per minute (ipm), and duty cycles of 1.9 million impressions per month, they provide fast, dependable, high quality printing while protecting mission-critical variable data.
The new printer/copier models, designated by EX, are ideal for POD jobs. InfoPrint Pro 907EX, InfoPrint Pro 1107EX and InfoPrint Pro 1357EX are fast, powerful, versatile and compact models to handle multiple print applications and workflows, usually in quick turnaround situations. The standard hard drive on these three models can be used to store and manipulate jobs to expedite booklets, utilize variable data and change page order. The POD focused units offer versatile media support, including printing on tabs, coated stock and labels. The EX models also support an external EFI Fiery print server, offering complex job building and print queue manipulation.
All six models are modular and configurable to meet the needs of transaction and POD customers. With fast print speeds, high quality 1,200 dpi printing and robust finishing capabilities, there’s no need to outsource jobs any longer. The generous input and output capacities, media decurler unit, TCRU (Trained Customer Replaceable Units) service components and ultrasonic multi-feed detection sensor on all units increase up-time and enable long runs. All models can provide support for multiple datastreams, variable data printing, mixed-plex and mixed-media printing and multiple inline finishing choices to expedite job completion.
