Old Genicom and Tally Line Printers and a New Replacement Path

Genicom 4490

Plenty of enterprises over the years have relied on impact line printers from Tally and Genicom.  As with many things (like owning a Saab car...), life is good with a product until you need to find the replacement part and the technician that has the skills on that machine, and you realize the company and the supply is gone. 

Lately we have had a surprising number of inquiries from customers searching for help with the old Genicom 4490XT printer.

Customers are just not aware that there is a splendid choice for a compatible printer to replace the old Genicom and Tally units - the TallyGenicom 6600 line matrix family from Printronix.

TallyGenicom 6600 Quiet Cabinet

The TallyGenicom 6600 line has been designed to be completely compatible with the TallyGenicom 6200 and TallyGenicom 6300 printers, which in turn were compatible with the legacy printers from Genicom and Tally.

Our friends at Printronix that are supporting and marketing the new line of their TallyGenicom printers have developed some points on the innovations and advantages of the new family of printers.  From their website on this topic:

 

TallyGenicom 6600 Comparison to 6300 & 6200 Series

TallyGenicom 6600 Open Pedestal

Innovations within the 6600 series deliver substantial gains in reliability, productivity and environmental responsibility. These benefits are providing compelling reasons for business or industrial customers to upgrade, expand or replace their current printers: 

Faster print speeds = increased productivity, better workflow and reduced waiting time for documents to print and choices of speeds up to 2,000 lines per minute
Improved print quality = crisper clarity in documents; a higher impact force improves printing on multi-page forms
Longer lasting ink = fewer ribbon changes which yields increased productivity and contributes to lower cost of ownership
Leading-edge ribbon technology = less IT interventions due to a patented feature that is only available with TallyGenicom consumables
Embedded microchip = precise, integrated control over ribbon life, print quality and operating costs
Reliable connectivity via Plug and Print = no down time. Intellifilter™ provides the widest possible range of emulations, configurability and tools at a user's disposal. Installation requires no host changes, allows for easy data stream substitutions, and is done without reprogramming
Robust remote printer management = option to control entire global printing network from anywhere.

For more information on the TallyGenicom 6600 line, contact Warren Neeley at 817-939-5614 or via email at WNeeley@PCIprinters.com.
 

Thermal Is About to Heat Up Around Here

Printronix has achieved some great growth in the industrial distribution marketplace with their midrange thermal product, the Printronix T4M. This sweet little T4M is a cutthroat competitor against the market leader Zebra. Customers that complete a head-to-head comparo with this engineering marvel are switching to the Printronix model in droves.

Source Technologies, the reliable provider of MICR laser printers, has now entered the thermal battlefield with an inventive line of thermal printers that, for the first time in the industry, print with the simple and standard language of PCL. The Source Technologies STp.1125, STp.1120n, and STp.1115 printers offer a very high quality output at 300 dpi and several new setup and calibration features to make the "care and feeding" of the unit more "knucklehead-proof".

We look forward to our vendors' help and our customer discussions to find opportunities for these great options in label printing.

Printronix Moves to Claim InfoPrint Industrial

Freshly back from the last rites and burial of the InfoPrint organization, Printronix made the announcement that for the last two decades, Printronix had been the sole OEM supplier of over 100,000 InfoPrint line printers and thermal printers.

In the Printronix press release, the company offers maintenance support and spare parts for the IBM and InfoPrint 6400, 6500, 4400 and 6700 printers.

From the announcement:
"Printronix provides a complete solution for InfoPrint Solutions customers, including a full line of printers, consumables and service offerings through the existing InfoPrint Channel Partner network which fully ensures uninterrupted customer support. InfoPrint end users can tap into the full product range offered by Printronix and its Channel Partners, who are trained and have the full backing of the Printronix global technical support team to ensure top tier customer support. "

In regards to Printer Connection, PCI is a Top Printronix (Platinum, one of <20) partner and was a Top InfoPrint partner (Premier, one of 10) until their tragic end.

A style of printer not sold or mentioned by Printronix is the 'Industrial Serial Matrix' printers known in IBM/InfoPrint customers as the 4247 and the previous 4230 and 4232. PCI is also a distributing partner (one of 4) for the Tally 4347 printer. This printer serves as a replacement and upgrade from the old 4247 and the new "Paint Shaker 4247-Z03". PCI can source the former InfoPrint 4247 as its OEM builder Compuprint is also coming out from behind the curtain. PCI strongly recommends evaluating the Tally 4347-i10 against the 4247-Z03 unit for any use on any printer stands other than a granite counter, as the Z03 can make many printer stands actually walk across the floor from the shaking.

Regarding maintenance service - the IBM and InfoPrint service was always and only offered as a 24x7 package, regardless of the customer's need or budget. The service norm in the industry is now 9x5 next business day and often with a spare printer as mission critical backup. PCI continues to offer and provide service and spares on all the InfoPrint and Printronix lines described in this Printronix action. For IBM/InfoPrint printers, service can be delivered by either PCI, Printronix, or a resale from PCI of Ricoh's continuing RPPS/contractor service arrangement for industrial printers.

For any information and discussion of future pricing and availability of service, parts and printers, contact Warren Neeley at 817-939-5614 or wneeley@pciprinters.com.

Happy Trails to IBM and InfoPrint Printers

For many people in the business workplace, December 30, 2011 is the end to a long era. It might have have actually been in the summer 2010. That's when the Japanese copier company Ricoh stopped putting "Ricoh | IBM InfoPrint Solutions" on printer products.

When Ricoh bought IBM Printing Systems, it was reported that IBM required Ricoh to use the IBM Global Services consulting group to manage the IT transition. Big Mistake. IBM and Ricoh chose Oracle as the platform, organized many too many committee meetings (if one committee is good then eight committees are better), spent three years and executed no parallel testing. Cut-over in September 2011 was Cold Turkey .... and it killed the bird. Major Big Mistake. InfoPrint instantly became blind. They could not see if customers were entitled to maintenance, see if they had repair parts inventory, see how to invoice the sales, and other minor little things like that about running a business.

Ricoh the copier company had also bought out Ikon the copier sales company. The two copier companies became occupied with letting Ikon take over the operation of Ricoh Americas.

In April 2011, Ricoh announced the transition of and end to the InfoPrint organization. The big roll-fed machines were headed to Ricoh HQ in New Jersey to be run in the same building with IkonRicoh, and any other product line, personnel and business partners were to no longer exist in 2012.

So now what?

Understand that InfoPrint did not build any printers.

Printronix made the line printers, and InfoPrint had a different control panel and different IBM IPDS. That now goes away. Test your IPDS print on any new Printronix machines. Most of it will work the same, but it is not true, full, true-blue-IBM IPDS. If you absolutely must have it, work with us on a refurbished IBM unit.

Printronix supplied the thermal printers, with no change but the label.

Tally has been an alternative in serial printers and provides the 4347-i models 8 and 10 for the IBM printer marketplace.

Compuprint built the 4247 serial transaction printer, and it will be now be sold as the Compuprint 4247 with the same IPDS as before.

Lexmark provided the workgroup lasers, and the ONLY change was the label on the front panel. IPDS was the same.

Toray built the InfoPrint 62 and IBM did have a unique IPDS controller. MicroPlex has a wonderfully compatible IP62/IPDS module that drives all of their continuous forms laser printers, from Toray and others. The InfoPrint 75 (now will it become Ricoh 75??) CF laser could potentially be available from us in a cooperative marketing agreement with RPPS - stay tuned.

For more information or help in making the transition to non-InfoPrint products, contact Warren Neeley at wneeley@pciprinters.com or 817-939-5614. Read more at Warren's website.