The Publishing Business and Convenient Statistics

Some say give credit to Mark Twain for saying there were three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.

http://printinthemix.com/fastfacts/show/403

On a website called Print in the Mix - A Clearinghouse of Research on Print Media Effectiveness, it is proclaimed that "Community Newspapers Continue to Show Strong Readership". I grew up in a small town, and weekly got the Messenger/Star-Forum to peruse. More on that, later.

There is a weekly community paper in my metropolitan area, and it likely covers 30,000 people. With an unscientific observation, the most readership it gets is the search for the 2-for1 coupon for The Prairie House restaurant.

Here are the leading points from the survey:

The early data indicate that the positive findings are consistent with the earlier surveys:

• 73 percent of those surveyed read a community newspaper each week.

• Those readers, on average, share their paper with 3.34 persons.

• They spend about 37.5 minutes reading their local newspapers.

• 78 percent read most or all of their community newspapers.

• 41 percent keep their community newspapers six or more days (shelf life).

• 62 percent of readers read local news very often in their community newspapers, while 54 percent say they never read local news online (only 9 percent say they read local news very often online).

What this study is intended to convey is that local community newspapers are healthy, thank-you-very-much. What it misses is found in the very small print at the bottom:

• interviews completed with residents that lived in areas where the local newspapers had a circulation of 8,000 or less
• the number of non-daily newspapers that have a functional website serving small towns and cities may be lower than that of daily newspapers
• the average age of the 2010 respondents (51.2)

It is very possible that most or all of the members of the "research arm of the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism" have never lived in a small town with a weekly newspaper. I have.

What are the dominant items in a weekly like the Messenger/Star-Forum ? Pictures. Photos of folks in town, winning awards and having events. Personal news of graduations and weddings. A little local news about the government. New business openings are there, but never the closings unless it's the big factory. It is a rare small paper that has a good online version of the weekly publication; it is hard enough to get the paper out on time with the limited advertising of a small town.

Where else do you see this same stuff? Facebook! The average age surveyed was over 50, meaning that half the folks are 50 and over. I would be very curious about the results for 39 and younger.

Advertise in the local paper, but do it soon, and aim for the 50+ crowd. The rest of the audience is going elsewhere and fast.

New IBM Software Built on the Great Work by Our Friends at Alphalogix

Alphalogix Workflow Server Powers New Release of IBM Forms with Workflow 4.0

See the Alphalogix Press Release here

IBM’s core electronic forms and process automation offering is updated to IBM Forms with Workflow 4.0. This new offering is powered by Alphalogix’s enhancements of the Tasica Workflow Server. Alphalogix, an Independent Software Vendor and IBM Premier Business Partner, announced that their Tasica Workflow Server, version 3.4.1 now powers IBM’s newly updated and released IBM Forms with Workflow version 4.0. IBM combined their electronic forms product, IBM Forms, with the Tasica Workflow Server by Alphalogix, creating IBM Forms with Workflow in September of this year.

IBM Forms with Workflow 4.0 now offers a combination of enhanced electronic forms with a modern look and feel, lower total cost of ownership and time to value.

Tasica Workflow Server adds tighter integration with electronic forms in addition to improved performance for installation.

IBM now sells IBM Forms with Workflow to their clients in addition to IBM Forms 4.0.

In late Q3, IBM signed an OEM agreement with Alphalogix to sell the Alphalogix product bundled with IBM Forms in a new IBM SKU number and offering called IBM Forms with Workflow to their clients.

In a recent Proof of Technology for IBM Forms with Workflow, Alphalogix CEO Bob McCandless, stated, “The Tasica Workflow Server and IBM Forms product are extremely integrated, so much so our [development] labs almost seem as if we are one team working together.

IBM Forms with Workflow is available through PCI Solutions, a unit of Printer Connection.

Intelligent Mail Barcode

Scattershooting while thinking about IMB...

Blog from the Ballentine Corporation

USPS video

Ricoh now selling InfoPrint's ProcessDirector?

Ricoh announced something called "TotalFlow". It appears to be a collection of internal and 3rd party solutions. "TotalFlow provides four fundamental document processes for customers: Capture, Manage, Produce, and Innovate. The TotalFlow concept is designed to help manage entire workflows, simplify workflow processes and expand access to a wide range of solutions."

See the Press Release here.

Buried down at the bottom, just before the "About Us" part of the press release, is this little jewel: "Additionally, InfoPrint Solutions Software Advantage, which includes the industry leading workflow solution InfoPrint Process Director, is a component of TotalFlow's open architecture."

Ricoh has InfoPrint's IPDS. Now they look like they are claiming to have the entire array of InfoPrint's software and professional services folks to offer. Ricoh has employees that service work group printers (and InfoPrint does not).

These are interesting days to be both an InfoPrint and a Ricoh reseller! Stay tuned...

COMMON Fall 2010

Here we are in lovely San Antonio, Texas for the EXPO at COMMON Fall 2010. It's the IBM User Group for POWER (the old iSeries AS/400 and the pSeries AIX machines - now running on one platform).

It's our first event without the IBM Logo anywhere on the signs. It will be curious to get the reactions and interactions at the show.

There is a BIG difference between a 10'x20' booth and a Six Foot table! WOW. A couple of stacks of brochures, one printer, a small monitor, and it is full.

InfoPrint's time to shine for the Business Partners

September 27, 2010 - Boulder, CO --- InfoPrint is holding "Partner Days" this week.

After a couple of months of independence from IBM constraints, and one heck of a September trying to steer the Oracle IT vehicle without the IBM systems structure, the new Ricoh InfoPrint Solutions outfit is taking the time to discuss today and the future.

We are most interested in the future - our future, and InfoPrint's view for our future.

The speed of the changes in our user world and the innovations around 'not-printing' has our intense interest at Printer Connection and PCI Solutions. We have a saying of "Print Less and Print Better" for our company's future.

We want to see how InfoPrint paints our future with their new software and hardware products, services, and offerings for our customers.

IBM Means Service -- and so does InfoPrint.

The InfoPrint group on LinkedIn provides a pretty good write-up on who InfoPrint is today.

When PCI tells the story, we don't miss a chance to talk about the Best In The Industry Service Delivery for Mission Critical Printer Maintenance. Our customers rely on Impact, Thermal and Laser Printers and from IBM / now InfoPrint, and the Customer Service Specialists (CSS) team for 24/7 coverage of those key pieces of their performance puzzle.

When the saying "When Trucks Don't Roll, Heads Do!" is true in your business, you can rely on InfoPrint Service on InfoPrint Printers.

This Service Team learned their trade at IBM. For those that may not know the founding principals of IBM as spoken by Tom Watson, here they are:

IBM'S Basic BELIEFS AND FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
Our beliefs, which should be well known to every IBMer, are:
1. Respect for the individual.
2. A desire to have the best customer service of any company in the world.
3. The conviction that an organization should pursue all tasks with the idea that they can be accomplished in a superior manner.

The folks in InfoPrint Maintenance Service learned their trade and pride while at IBM. We hope that as they work for the Ricoh company that they may never forget the valuable lessons of the IBM Company.



Here is the text of the InfoPrint description:

InfoPrint Solutions Company, a Ricoh company, is a leading provider of digital output solutions. InfoPrint became an independently operated, wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Company Limited on July 1, 2010. The company continues to apply its rich heritage and industry-recognized expertise to help customers increase revenue and reduce costs in highly complex, digital output environments.

Formerly a division of IBM, InfoPrint combines IBM's more than 50 years of enterprise innovation and experience with Ricoh’s office solutions and production printing expertise, placing advanced research and development capabilities at the heart of its solutions. The company’s solutions and professional services provide businesses with truly customized offerings to address unique challenges, increase cost savings and enable a higher and faster return on investment.

InfoPrint’s reach spans a wide range of technology environments, including general office, industrial, light production and production output solutions. InfoPrint offers solutions customized for, but not limited to, service bureaus, direct mailers, multichannel marketers, data centers, commercial and in-plant printers.

The company has also established a leadership role in the field of solutions and services, especially in the areas of precision marketing and workflow. Among the vast advantages of InfoPrint’s portfolio is its ability to empower companies to communicate to customers via valuable white space on trusted documents, while supporting their sustainability strategies. InfoPrint Solutions has also been named a leader in Automated Document Factory (ADF) by analyst firms Gartner and IDC, and they continue to gain market share in the Print-On-Demand (POD) solutions arena.

InfoPrint currently has more than 2,700 employees working around the world with it’s global headquarters located in Boulder, Colorado., Mr. Daisuke Segawa is President and Chief Executive Officer.

Remember "Toner Miser"? This is cool.

From ZDNet, By Doc | April 8, 2010, 5:26am PDT

"Believe it or not, a font switch can be a real money saver. Doc was intrigued by this recent post from my fellow ZDNet bloggers over at the “Between the Lines” blog, which reveals how making a simple switch from 11-point Arial font to 10-point Century Gothic font can lead to some significant savings. You see Century Gothic is a lighter weight font by about 30%, than Arial. The theory, then, is that less font equals less ink. Check out the post for details on other fonts for the frugal."

"Pondering this lead Doc to a commercial software product called Ecofont, which accomplishes the same goal by automatically putting “Swiss cheese-like holes” in your standard fonts. This, the company claims, saves on ink and toner but doesn’t affect legibility."

From ZDNet, By Sam Diaz | April 7, 2010, 2:15pm PDT
Here’s something interesting to ponder on a humpday afternoon: Does anyone ever really give much thought to the font that’s being used on the screen?

Oh sure, some fonts are more visually appealing than others but is there any real benefit of using one font over another - a financial benefit, that is? Apparently there is - and for companies with dozens of printers spitting out hundreds or thousands of pages per day, switching to another font could impact the bottom line

.

Some tests by printer.com, via a post on CNET’s Digital Media blog, found that the use of the 10-point Century Gothic font is 31 percent cheaper than using the default 11-point Arial font.

I kid you not, these tests were conducted and results calculated to come up with these conclusions. From the CNET post:

On a dollar basis, the company projected that the average person printing around 25 pages a week would save $20 a year by using Century Gothic for all documents. A business or heavy-duty user printing 250 pages per week would save around $80 for the year. And large companies with multiple printers could potentially save hundreds of dollars a year.

Don't call IBMSERV for printers after September 1

New Support Phone Numbers

There are new InfoPrint telephone numbers to be used to contact our InfoPrint Solutions hardware/software, service and support call centers.

Canada and the United States
EFFECTIVE September 1, 2010
New Toll-free Phone Numbers

Canada 877-318-8967
United States 877-318-8968

Goodbye IBMSERV(e)... The best I can make is 877-D1TTYOU. So I guess you need to think "Division One - Texas Tech - ... YOU". Simple!

I just couldn't get Texas A&M into that number. (I tried.)

InfoPrint and a new Board of Managers

"InfoPrint's three-year journey -- from the beginning of the Joint Venture between IBM and Ricoh in June 2007 until becoming an independently operated, wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh on July 1, 2010, ..." has been completed. Click here to read more.
From IBM to Ricoh....


InfoPrint has also posted a list of the "Board of Managers". It is interesting to examine the make-up of the Board to get a feel for the direction of the future. We welcome your own blog posting on this topic.

Board of Managers

Meet the InfoPrint Solutions Company Board of Managers

Norihisa Goto, Ricoh

General Manager, Production Print Business Group

Zenji Miura, Ricoh

CFO

Takashi Kawaguchi, InfoPrint Solutions

CFO

Kazuo Togashi, Ricoh Americas

Chairman and CEO

Daisuke Segawa, InfoPrint Solutions

President and CEO

Jeff Paterra, InfoPrint Solutions

Senior Vice President & General Manager

Paul Loftus, IBM Global Technology Services

General Manager, Maintenance and Technical Support

Now, I've never met this person, and I expect the very best, and I mean no harm, but I just can't leave this one alone.... Everyone knows that a good team needs a "Goto" player, and it looks like we have one as well!

Our Customer Runs with the Bulls!

Often we 'shoot the bull' with our customers. However, we don't remember having a customer that 'runs with the bulls' - until now!

Article from the Waco, TX paper.

Congratulations Raymond and Ana on your 10th Anniversary and your great trip to Spain!

Pro MICR Printer Series from InfoPrint by Rosetta

InfoPrint Solutions Company and Rosetta Technologies have joined forces to bring you the InfoPrint Pro 907 MICR, InfoPrint Pro 1107 MICR and InfoPrint Pro 1357 MICR cut sheet printers. The InfoPrint Pro MICR printers take production MICR printing to a new level. With a choice of three speeds, from 90 to 110 to 135 ipm, they are designed for high-volume check and IRD printing environments with the tightest print windows. These powerful printers deliver duty cycles to support your volume requirements, up to 1.9 million images per month. They offer superior MICR output quality, high speed, reliability and finishing capabilities, at an exceptionally low cost-per-page.

With Intelligent MICR™ features like a programmable online dashboard, robust user and administrative controls and highly-configurable alerts, the Pro MICR printers offer complete oversight to your production printing environment right from your desktop. The printers are available with Rosetta’s state-of-the-art Promark MICR toner, which virtually eliminates item rejections in the most demanding check and IRD processing environments.

To go to the Rosetta web page covering these new MICR Printers, click here.
For InfoPrint's site on the Pro 907 MICR, this should do the trick.

For more information, please contact Warren Neeley at 817-430-6202 or wneeley@pciprinters.com

InfoPrint folks and an exciting future

Let’s consider the here-and-now of Ricoh’s newest ‘shiny penny’, the new InfoPrint Solutions.

InfoPrint now has the ability to be a great printer and solutions company. At IBM Printing, we used to talk about how our profits had to be sent to IBM, while our competitors were printer companies. They reinvested in print, not computers and software and services. Meanwhile IBM was sending us management challenges in order to drive the Big Blue profit train. Ricoh ‘gets’ us – they get printer people - in ways that I believe IBM did not for a very long time, and now the printer profits get to stay with the printer people.

InfoPrint, once shed of the labyrinth of IBM computer systems, should have so much more flexibility in designing and implementing integrated customer offerings. I’m hopeful to see some great new programs.

Ricoh’s InfoPrint Solutions could provide us a broader sales kit. Ricoh already has a large number of alliances and software solutions, and a larger line of color printers and MPF devices.

To contact Warren Neeley, call 817-430-6202 or write wneeley@pciprinters.com.

InfoPrint Solutions Company Receives Multiple Industry Awards for Its Workgroup and Cutsheet Solution

InfoPrint release available here.
Recognition from BERTL, Better Buys for Business, Buyers Lab Inc. and Wirth Consulting


BERTLs Best Fall 2009 Awards
BERTL Inc, a leading source of objective, independent product evaluation reports and comparative analyses on digital imaging devices and workflow solutions.
Best Feature Rich Multi Function Printer (MFP) Range for the Midrange Color MFP Series
InfoPrint Color 1846
InfoPrint Color 1856
InfoPrint Color 1866 MFPs


The Better Buys for Business 2010 Office Printer Guide Editor’s Choice Award
Better Buys for Business, the leading independent buyer’s guide for office imaging equipment
2010 Editor’s Choice Awards:
InfoPrint 1822
InfoPrint 1823
InfoPrint 1832
InfoPrint 1852
InfoPrint1872
InfoPrint 1892
InfoPrint 1985


Buyers Lab Inc Outstanding Achievement Award
Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging products and solutions. BLI announces its “Outstanding Achievement Award” winners each year.
InfoPrint 1892


The Fall 2009 BLI Pick Awards for Monochrome Printers and MFPs
The InfoPrint solutions to win Pick Awards are:
InfoPrint 1988 MFP
InfoPrint 1880 MFP
InfoPrint 1892

Wirth Consulting, well known for their testing and evaluation of digital-imaging systems in order to provide timely and independent overviews of devices for their customers.

InfoPrint 1968 MFP

InfoPrint ends product eligibility for Solutions Partners

Here's a recent email we received...

June 17, 2010
Dear InfoPrint Solutions Partner,
The InfoPrint^® Solutions Company is providing the following Continuous Forms Production Print related announcements with this communication:

• Withdrawal of the Authorized High End Continuous Forms Channel Program
• Continuous Forms Production Products are being withdrawn from the list of eligible Printer Products under the Public Sector Fee Offering

Our Translation?
In regards to "Production Printers", InfoPrint is 1) "taking it all direct" and canceling all Production-Print-Selling-Reseller contracts that once existed for Business Partners to sell the Production line of printers, and 2) InfoPrint is ending the "finder's fee" once available to Non-Production-Print- Selling-Resellers that could turn over leads for Production Printers to InfoPrint and earn a fee upon the InfoPrint sale of the account.

Printers involved in this announcement? High End Continuous Forms Printers consisting of the InfoPrint 3000, 4000, 4100 and 5000 families of printers.

Options now available for customers?
1) New InfoPrint Production Printers, direct and only from InfoPrint.
2) Refurbished, InfoPrint-Maintenance-Available Production Printers (InfoPrint 3000, 4000, 4100) from Printer Connection or our friends - knowledgeable, experienced resellers with many production customers.

For more information, contact Mike Walker at 877-430-6202.

Quick Printing Magazine Article: The Monochrome Monologues

Quick Printing Magazine Article: The Monochrome Monologues

Enjoy some Q&A with Eric Staples, Product Manager, Light Production Cutsheet Solutions, with InfoPrint Solutions

Eric is a good friend of Printer Connection, and we appreciate his work.

Intelligent Mail Barcode; the savings behind the change

REF: Blog by Don Dew of InfoPrint

Print customers will focus on the "click charge" for a change to their sheet-fed printers, and totally miss the impact of the change to the barcoding of the address.

Implementing the Intelligent Mail Barcode can save $0.003 per mail-piece.

Not every impact printer supports the new barcode. Neither does every output software.

MAPPING Suite can generate the IMb without any changes to your current application software.

A workflow implementation like InfoPrint ADF very often achieves an ROI in 18 months or less, even if it includes full service Intelligent Mail.

If you were receiving automation rates in the past by using a POSTNET barcode, then you’re performing all the right steps to generate a basic IMb. The IMb contains the ZIP+4+destination point data that was embedded in POSTNET, plus your mailer ID number and service type.

For more information, contact Warren Neeley at wneeley@pciprinters.com or 866-430-6202.

Launch of our PCI Solutions YouTube Channel

Join us on our new YouTube channel, PCIsolutions.

Impact or Laser?

I had a great visit today with the InfoPrint call center staff in Austin. There was discussion about customers being convinced to move away from impact printers and toward laser printing. This is typically by people prejudiced against impact, or those that are only selling lasers. It reminded me of my write-up on the subject, found on my website. Here it is for your convenience:

Use IBM InfoPrint Impact Printers
or Migrate to Laser Printers?

If your old impact printers are not becoming to you -

you should be
coming to us!

Covered Below:

Issue Examination

Marketplace Facts

Are we Impact-Biased?

Options are Available

Are Any of These Silly Issues True?

Have CUSTOMERS STOPPED TAKING SHIPMENTS because the documents are in dot matrix output?

Will no A/P clerk PAY YOUR INVOICE due to the fact that your company uses an older style of printing?

Are vendor salesreps, ISV advisors, consultants and staff telling you to move to LASER PRINTERS?

Are you ready to SPEND MORE MONEY?

Ready to be LESS ECONOMICAL?

Is there NO OTHER WAY to make the printout work better?

Want to SPEND 10X TO 20X ON PRINTING SUPPLIES?

Then by all means, MOVE TO LASER PRINTING!

Impact Printer Facts

Pretty much every laser printer rep has no impact offering (or even any personal experience) with a high volume mission-critical business-level impact printer.

Just think about it .... Ricoh? HP? Xerox? Lexmark? Konica/Minolta? Brother?

None of them sell impact line printers.

Only Lexmark have anything with a ribbon in it, and theirs are serial printers for light transactional duty only.

Do any of them sell thermal barcode printers. Nope. Not a one.

Are you taking your printing advice from reps and company staff that can't remember a world without web browsers and pocket cell phones? What do they really know about impact printers anyway?

So We Try to Keep You on Impact?

No, not at all! We think laser printed output is great. For years, we have helped customers make that move and enhance their print.

We think impact is great too, and can be made modern and even more cost-effective that it is today.

You know how many doctors and chiropractors bad-mouth each other? One value we have for you - we can diagnose, devise a remedy, and write a prescription without an entire printer transplant. We do not have a built-in bias AGAINST impact printers, OR FOR impact printers. We love 'em both, but we especially love showing customers how to transact their business at the lowest costs - it wins us long-term customers, and we feel those are the best kind.

How Can GLM Help Me Affordably?

We call it "Print Less and Print Better". Why move only to laser? Maybe you could move to less printing.

Let us help you leave the three-part-forms behind. Is the "pink" copy simply headed to a filing cabinet? Put it there electronically. Could the customer choose to receive the bill in an email? We do, and we are in the printer business!

One of our suppliers switched to e-distribution, and their invoice printing dropped by 75%. We can provide the same software and consulting solution to make that happen for you.

Some output is absolutely better on laser! Bringing photo half-tone images, tight logo graphics, and small barcodes on your printing are all reasons to move to laser. If you merely want to move away from pre-printed forms, we can likely design the form and the data onto your old or new impact printers and keep the expenses low.

Maybe you have a workflow issue with your printing. Do you generate invoices with one job and picking slips with a separate job and printer, and then have experience errors and rework when you try match them to pick and pack the box? We can help you consolidate that effort, with no change to your application programming.

Is Impact bad?

No.

Is Laser always better.

No.

Are you stuck with the output you have because it is too complex to change the programs?

No, not at all.

Switch a Line Printer to a Fast Serial Model?

How is the Infoprint 4247-Z03 like a Southwest Airlines plane?
They are both 737's!

The Z03 at 1100 Characters Per Second (CPS) equates to 737 LINES PER MINUTE. Impact print users can consider the Z03 as an affordable alternative to a 500 LPM InfoPrint 6500, or a new upgrade from the older IBM 6400 line printers.

It's 40% less money than an InfoPrint 6500 LPM Line Printer, 30% lower for maintenance service (even less with 9x5 coverage, unavailable on InfoPrint line printers), can sit on a table or desk, and it's nearly 50% faster!

Pictures and details are available here - my website.

How Companies Are Focusing On Printing Less

From Madison Advisors’ Industry Defining Print Suppression Market Study, by Kemal Carr; found on DocumentMedia.com

http://documentmedia.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=Articles+%26+Archives&type=Publishing&mod=Publications::Article&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=2E1BF301C56C4454AFEA260F895DAB59
Madison Advisors surveyed 27 Fortune 500 firms to understand their print suppression strategies. While the majority of firms surveyed identified print suppression as a focus area, they lack the ownership of a C-level executive. Only 14% of them answered that a Chief was looking at e-delivery and printing less. In those large companies, 63% responded that they had budgeted specifically to paperless or e-delivery initiatives.

"Organizations need fully developed stategies with executive support, metrics for measuring success and the right practices in place" to shift to paperless communications. Without them, "customers ofter revert back to paper once the initial thrust has passed."

Even if your company has not made it into Fortune's big list, what are your plans? Do you have the tools in place to enhance, electrify, and e-warehouse your customer and internal communications?

InfoPrint Wins ON DEMAND Best of Show Honorable Mention Award

InfoPrint press release

InfoPrint TransPromo Whitespace Manager Recognized as Powerful Tool Combining Company's AFP and Production Workflow Leadership

PHILADELPHIA, PA, Apr 20, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, has been recognized at this year's ON DEMAND Conference & Exposition with a Best of Show Honorable Mention award in the 1:1 Communications category for its TransPromo Whitespace Manager solution. InfoPrint TransPromo Whitespace Manager won an honorable mention as a compact, flexible and cost-effective solution that enables users to easily enhance unused space on a document with rules-based, relevant messaging, leveraging InfoPrint's AFP and production workflow leadership.

InfoTrends, a leading market research and consulting firm in the digital imaging and document solutions industry, partnered with the ON DEMAND Conference & Exposition to produce the awards program. ON DEMAND, the digital printing & automated production event, is the largest conference and exposition dedicated to the technologies that personalize, manage, print, and deliver content.

InfoPrint Whitespace Manager can manage whitespace on an AFP file in two ways: either through a user-assigned space or space found in a search. Once this space is found, a convenient rules builder allows the user to add messaging, based on information that can be found in the document -- such as address, account type or balance information. InfoPrint TransPromo Whitespace Manager is available as a standalone product, or can be integrated with InfoPrint's leading ADF Workflow solution, based on InfoPrint ProcessDirector (IPPD). This allows a set of rules to be established once, and to be repeated every time the job is run again in the future.

"We are delighted to receive this prestigious commendation. InfoPrint has already showcased our leadership in the Precision Marketing, TransPromo, and Workflow spaces. With this tool, we enable marketers, direct mailers, data centers and service bureaus to provide added value to their communications without going through the expense of document re-engineering," said Don Dew, ADF Solutions Manager at InfoPrint.

"This award is meant to recognize exceptional innovation in the digital printing industry," stated Jeff Hayes, President, InfoTrends. "InfoPrint is one of the leaders in our industry, and we are pleased to acknowledge their accomplishments."

Would you rather have prints or e-docs?

Don Dew, ADF Solutions Manager at InfoPrint wrote in the InfoPrint ADF Savings blog:

I returned home from work last night to find a letter from the State of New York, where I lived 3 years ago, stating I was “selected for review for possible audit.” Yay. Now I need to dig out old returns, brokerage statements, info about the house we sold, and most likely jump through hoops to see if I can prove to them why they should get another couple of bucks out of me.

That’s a lot of personal info. With spyware, keyloggers, viruses, and hackers – why would I want that on my computer? It screams “steal my identity”! An alternative is to save everything to a secure USB drive, and access it independent of the Internet when you want to file or review highly sensitive personal information.

I work in an IT world for a living. The last thing I want to do when I get home is be "Director of MIS" at the house. How well are all my systems backed up, firewalls, virus scanners, redundant systems, photos, purchased iTunes safe (and on and on)?

Sure. Makes sense. Simply put it on a USB thumbdrive and save it. And don't misplace it. And don't let the kids use it for that oh-so-critical file that just-has-to-be-moved right now.

Anyone still have VHS tapes around? Did you ever tape over them for another show? Do you have them all labeled and cataloged and easy to find? Did you capture miles of presents being opened on the kid's tapes, and why do we ever tape what was in the presents?

How easy is it now to find important 'things', and how are you going to manage the really important e-files that much better?

If I handle my bank and investment documents like my iTunes and photos, I'm in trouble.

Convert Microsoft Templates and Files with MAPPING Suite

Roanoke, Texas - March 16, 2010

Many companies took advantage of the familiarity and ease of Microsoft Word or Excel to develop productivity tools. Unfortunately, those tools have accumulated for years and the company is captive to its function and its output. The task to update these files becomes daunting as one became ten, and ten became dozens and dozens of files.

When changes in business call for an update to those files, how do you find the time and the budget to make it happen? When an improved process can help, where do you look for help with all those templates, documents, and spreadsheets?

Microsoft created XPS (XML Paper Specifications) as its basis for output support going forward from Vista and Office 2007. Microsoft also published the standards as Open Source and urged ISVs to explore its values. MAPPING Suite has fully embraced the strengths of XPS, and has re-written the entire engine of MAPPING by using these standards.

You can take your file “AS-IS” with MAPPING. You determine the changes, math, database calls, output looks, and distribution paths (e-files and/or print) on our WYSIWYG tool, save it for execution, and you are DONE.

For more information, Click HERE for a description of MAPPING V7 with XPS, call 817-430-6202 or contact Warren Neeley at wneeley@pciprinters.com.

PCI: The Newest MAPPING Suite Distributor

ROANOKE, TX - March 10, 2010

Printer Connection is proud to announce its newest business partnership. MAPPING Suite, an independent software vendor headquartered in Lille, France, has chosen Printer Connection as a Strategic Distributor for its suite of products and consulting services. More information on MAPPING Suite can be found at their corporate website: http://www.mappingsuite.com

PCI will continue its valuable MAPPING sales relationships with InfoPrint Solutions and Compu-Call. As account opportunities arise with those sales partners, PCI will engage with their teammates and continue to work with customers within those channels.

PCI is now enabled to recruit sales partners to expand the success of MAPPING Suite on the North American continent.

For more information, please contact Warren Neeley at Printer Connection, 866-430-6202 or wneeley@pciprinters.com.

The Award-Winning InfoPrint 1892

The new InfoPrint 1892 printer has recently won two industry awards.

The Better Buys for Business 2010 Office Printer Guide Editor’s Choice Award

Better Buys for Business is the leading independent buyer’s guide for office imaging equipment, including printers, copiers, multifunctional devices, faxes, and scanners. Each year, the publication evaluates hundreds of models from all major manufacturers, but selects only the top printers in each category to receive the coveted "Editor’s Choice" award, given only after rigorous analysis of functionality and ability.

• The InfoPrint 1892 – more efficient printing for large print jobs with customizable operator features including a 7” color touch screen

Buyers Lab Inc Outstanding Achievement Award

Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI) is the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging products and solutions, with more than 30,000 users of their online and print reference services. BLI announces its “Outstanding Achievement Award” winners each year.

The InfoPrint 1892 monochrome printer has been recognized by BLI for this award, for incorporating a touch-screen interface and embedded platform from its MFP line into its single-function printer line. The InfoPrint 1892 is also the company’s first single-function printer that allows for the implementation of software applications.

For more information, please contact Warren Neeley at Printer Connection, 866-430-6202 or wneeley@pciprinters.com.

IBM InfoPrint flash fusing printer line is dropped

InfoPrint is dropping their maintenance support on the IBM InfoPrint 62.

InfoPrint Solutions Company [the former IBM Printing Systems Group] has officially announced the End of Maintenance Service for ALL InfoPrint 62 printer models in their United States Services Announcement 609-049, dated June 16, 2009. The InfoPrint 62 [the IBM 4370 Machine Type] Maintenance ends 06/30/2010. Read more details on this site: http://sites.google.com/site/ibminfoprint62/.

InfoPrint has a replacement alternative with the InfoPrint 75 and 100, two models with a hot roller fuser technology. Printer Connection helps customers evaluate their transition needs with the 75/100 and with other options.

For more information, please contact Warren Neeley at Printer Connection, 866-430-6202 or wneeley@pciprinters.com.

InfoPrint sunsets older 2060ES and 2075ES laser printers

The InfoPrint 2060ES and 2075ES printers will be dropped from maintenance support.

InfoPrint Solutions Company [the former IBM Printing Systems Group] has officially announced the End of Maintenance Service for ALL InfoPrint 2060ES and 2075ES printer models in their United States Services Announcement 609-049, dated June 16, 2009. The 2075ES Maintenance ends 06/30/2010; the 2060ES Maintenance ends 12/31/2010. Read more details on this site: http://sites.google.com/site/infoprint2060es/.

InfoPrint has already dropped a large number of workgroup network printers. Printer Connection has helped many customers transition with other options. One company in Dallas had no budget to replace the printers, and needed help to guarantee service. PCI has them covered with a six month service plan at the same rate they paid InfoPrint until the service dropped.

For more information, please contact Warren Neeley at Printer Connection, 866-430-6202 or wneeley@pciprinters.com.