July 29, 2009 - It may sound too good to be true, but it's not: Toshiba America Solutions (TABS) announced free B/W copies/prints for up to a year under a new equipment-leasing program called “Back in the Black.” Under the program, customers who lease a new eligible Toshiba MFP through Toshiba Financial Services between August 1 and October 31, 2009 will receive free B/W prints/copies for up to a year. TABS, which is headquartered in Irvine, California, and is an independent operating company of Toshiba Corporation of Japan, made the surprise announcement at its 2009 Regional Summit in Jersey City, NJ, July 27-28, which was attended by Wirth Consulting.
View of the Manhattan skyline from the Hyatt Hotel in Jersey City, where TABS held its 2009 Regional Summit.
Here's how the new "Back in the Black" program works: customers leasing a color Toshiba MFP will receive one year of free B/W prints and copies; customers leasing a B/W Toshiba MFP will receive up to six months of free B/W prints and copies. The upper limits of both plans are based on an analysis of the customer’s current network usage.
Eligible color MFPs include the e-STUDIO2830c/3530c/4520c/5520c/6520c/6520ct/6530c/6530ct. Eligible B/W MFPs include the e-STUDIO305/455/555/655/755/855. The promotion is available through participating TABS dealers and Toshiba Business Solutions outlets. More information cam be obtained at the TABS Web site, www.copiers.toshiba.com.
TABS Not For Sale
At its conference in Jersey City, TABS executives took some pains to make it clear that it is not being sold, noting several incorrect rumors that it was being purchased by other office-imaging vendors such as Canon Inc. TABS says the rumors are completely unfounded, with TABS President and COO Mark Mathews even poking fun at some of them, noting, "The only thing worse than two teenage girls at a sleep-over is two copier dealers in a room. We're not for sale, we're investing in this business."
TABS President and COO Mark Mathews.
Mathews noted that (as is the case with most other vendors), the freezing of available capital markets has affected TABS' leasing programs, with the result that, "We've seen a slowing down of leasing approvals."
TABS Chairman and CEO Matt Yamada, echoed this, also noting that TABS' business has been affected by a number of factors, including: a significant decline in revenue in sectors such as consumer products and semiconductors; negative exchange rates; and the capital-intensive nature of several manufacturing operations, such as semiconductor and nuclear. In response, Toshiba Corporation has raised $5 billion in equity with stock offerings, and has also appointed a new president and CEO of Toshiba Corporation.
President and COO Mathews also took a hard look at the nature of the beast, citing statistics that bluntly show that as the U.S. unemployment rate increases, page volumes--both B/W and color--decrease with almost 100-percent correlation. The good news is that industry market-research firms are reporting that sales of color office systems have remained level from 2008 to 2009, are rising in 2009, and are projected to increase at an approximate 6.5 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2009 to 2013.
This chart shows that page volume for Segment 4 B/W office systems (red line) has declined as the U.S. employment rate has declined (black line).
However, Mathews noted that color office-imaging systems represent the bright spot in the market. "For customers willing to invest, they want high-end, they're willing to step up and take on that color MFP. Color's doing very very well for us. The other bright spot is MPS (managed print services). This is the one thing that will get you in the door."
Mathews notes that while many other vendors are just now beginning to offer managed print services, TABS has been providing it for five years, and under its "Encompass" program, services some 1 billion pages--mostly generated by non-Toshiba systems.
Version 3.0 of TABS' Encompass managed print services program features:
- eCommerce cost-per-page management utilities;
- Automated supply reordering, as well as new "Encompass Impressions" toner;
- Integrated national dispatch for both Toshiba and non-Toshiba products;
- Integrated meter read collection;
- An expanded national service network.
Under TABS' program, dealers purchase the Encompass managed print service from TABS as cost per page/copy. They then can mark it up and sell it as a cost per page/copy program to enterprises. New partnerships for TABS' MFP program include Depot America (parts), IBM (Websphere Commerce), and Hewlett-Packard (see below).
Partnering With Hewlett-Packard
As part of its managed print services program, TABS is partnering with HP, so that eligible TABS dealers will be able sell HP hardware (printers, A4 MFPs), service, and supplies, and conversely, HP will be selling Toshiba imaging devices to their accounts.
"HP is using MFPs in order to fill some holes in the HP product family. The idea is to work with HP, not try to fight it," says Mathews.
As Bill Melo, Vice President of Marketing and Enterprise Services and Solutions notes, "It's very difficult to dislodge HP out of IT... Our approach is to work with the customer's installed HP printers and MFPs." This includes Toshiba products' compatibility with HP's Web Jetadmin network-management, the traditional preferred IT management solution.
Current Strategy
TABS' current strategy includes the partnership with HP; promoting MFP and document security; promoting Toshiba devices' eco-friendliness; and encouraging dealers to sell its Encompass MPS program.
Security: New security provisions include protecting documents stored and processed by the Toshiba device, as well as protecting the document itself. This includes hard-drive erasing, various network security protocols, and network authentication,as well as document-distribution rights protection.
With document-distribution rights software from third-party partner Fasoo.com, users can prevent unwanted distribution of documents, as they can create documents that can only be opened by authenticated recipients. Users can also specify that documents be automatically erased on a specified date.
TABS is also announcing what it's calling its "Encompass Security Vulnerability Program." Under the program, TABS dealers will assess the security of an enterprise's imaging fleet, noting whether security such as hard-drive erasing, network authentication, etc. is provided. Then (borrowing from the U.S. Homeland Security's color-coded "warnings guide"), they can issue one of four assessments: red (no security), orange (basic security), yellow (enhanced security) or green (optimal security). Those enterprises receiving a red warning will be encouraged to upgrade to more-secure Toshiba devices.
Eco-friendliness: Several new Toshiba systems (see below) feature a new one-watt sleep mode (compared to approximately 25 watts among competitive devices), as well as compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency's new ENERGY STAR Tier II standard for lower energy consumption.
ebridge Open Platform, New Software Solutions
TABS says it will continue to expand the number of connectors (software solutions) for its eBridge Open Platform. eBridge Open Platform enables integration with external software applications, as well as with fleet-management software, variable data printing (VDP) software, and document-management and distribution software. TABS launched its first connectors for eBridge Open Platform in 2008. Current connectors include Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, eBridge Re-Rite and DocuWare CONNECT. TABS will also be adding FollowMe Embedded Hybrid, as well as DocSystem and DocRecord.
Overall, TABS will will continue to focus on marketing software for document capture, managed print, security, and document workflow. It'll be adding software from third-party Pharos System for print/copy accounting and tracking, as well as software from Fasso.com for digital-document rights management (Fasoo Secure Document and Fasoo Secure Exchange). Also new is e-Bridge Color Tools Suite color-management software for TABS systems equipped with either Toshiba or EFI Fiery print controllers.
Toshiba's new Color Tools Suite software for color management and matching.
New e-STUDIO Families
TABS also discussed its new e-STUDIO monochrome MFPs that are based on two new print-engine platforms and consist of nine MFPs. The low- to mid-range print volume series consists of the e-STUDIO205L/255/305/355/455, while the e-STUDIO 555/655/755/855 are for higher print volumes. All systems feature standard print and scan, and incorporate eBridge Open Platform.
Following is a brief rundown on the new systems:
- All systems feature full-color touch-screen, and front-mounted USB convenience port for scan-to and print-from USB memory cards.
- All systems provide B/W scanning, except for the e-STUDIO455, which provides standard color scanning.
- The e-STUDIO205L/255/305/355/455 are rated at up to 20/ 25/30/35/45 ppm respectively, with maximum monthly volumes of 80,000/100,000/120,000/ 125,000/150,000 pages respectively. For less downtime, they feature "easy replaceable units" (ERUs) so that service personnel can replace parts faster, and also feature a 30-percent longer preventive maintenance (PM) interval.
- The e-STUDIO555/655/755/855 are rated at up to 55,/65/75/85 ppm respectively, with maximum monthly volumes of 460,000/515,000/540,000/600,000 pages respectively. The new MFPs also feature high-yield toner cartridges rated to yield up to 62,400 pages, and users can change toner while the system is running. These new MFPs utilize feature re-buildable service modules, which TABS says enables periodic maintenance to be carried out "in minutes rather than hours." With re-buildable service modules, MFP parts are built prior to service, so that service personnel simply replace them--instead of tearing down and rebuilding the system (which often takes hours and interrupts office workflow). These re-buildable service modules are also available for the e-STUDIO455.
- Both the e-STUDIO455 and e-STUDIO855 comply with the EPA's ENERGY STAR Tier II standard for lower energy consumption, and both consume only one watt of power in sleep mode.
- The e-STUDIO455 features "outside edge erase," so that the system detects and erases the dark outside edge of copies and scans to reduce consumable usage. When printing or scanning, the e-STUDIO455 also automatically identifies blank pages in the original document, and omits them, reducing paper consumption. This system also incorporates a zero-waste toner recycling system.
- The e-STUDIO455 and e-STUDIO855 now feature a standard Scrambler Board, which was previously an option. The Scrambler Board provides 128-bit AES encryption for all data stored on the MFPs' hard drives. Also included is network authentication, as well as hard-drive erasing, the latter of which TABS says exceeds U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) security standards.
All of the systems incorporate Toshiba's TopAccess and e-BRIDGE Fleet Management solutions for device and network management.
New Social-Business Networking Site
TABS is also promoting "Exchange," a social/business networking Web site that's similar to Facebook.com, Linkin.com and myspace.com. On the Exchange Web site, TABS personnel and dealers will be able to post a personal workspace page, and will be able to communicate more easily. For instance, if a dealer has a product or service question, he or she can contact the product's TABS product manager. TABS expects to have the site up and running in August.