NOW, THE PIECES FIT

At the end of July, Ricoh Americas officially launched their Pro C900 Color Production System – a full-color digital press operating at 90 ppm in both monochrome and full-color applications.  This product was first seen at last year’s Graph Expo show in Chicago.  There, it was behind a curtain and under guard.  Unfortunately, when it came time to actually reveal the system, no one bothered to tell the guard who kept doing what he had been told to do for the entire show – keep people away.  He was really good at that.

On a serious note, the C900 was only part of Ricoh’s production color announcements.  The core of their production strategy was revealed with the formation of their new Production Print Business Group, or PPBG (say that 10 times fast – or even one time fast).  At the same time, Ricoh announced their newly formed alliance with Kodak to market that company’s NEXPRESS production color products.  Finally, Ricoh solidified their joint venture relationship with IBM’s InfoPrint, giving them access to a high-speed, roll-fed ink jet color production system.

The next sighting of the Pro C900 was at this year’s Drupa2008 show in Germany (May/June).  No guards this time.  But, no pricing or availability either.

Finally – New York City on July 23 – the official release about the soon-to-come official release with a projected date of 10/27 at this year’s Graph Expo (no guard this time) was announced.  Ricoh seems to have found a market opening for this device – 250,000 - 300,000 impressions per month with a 400,000 impression per month (80%) color print duty cycle.  The
estimated cost for the product will be in the $125,000 range. 

The system will offer consistent speed – 90 ppm – regardless of the paper stock (16 lb. bond - 110 lb. cover).  Duplexing will not slow the system.  An embedded EFI controller is standard.  Of special significance for the commercial print market is the fact that 11” x 17” pages will generate only a single “click.”  Commercial printers will, no doubt, print letter-sized documents, 2-up, resulting in a color cost of about $.035 per page depending on both final pricing and page coverage.

As interesting as this device might have been, I think the real significance was in the organization Ricoh has quietly been building to capture a larger share of the production print market – both monochrome and color. 

 

Consider:

·  u The purchase of Hitachi Print Systems that gives Ricoh access to high-speed print technology resulting in products offering monochrome speeds up to 156 ppm and now, color products up to 90 ppm, given that the Pro C900 uses technology included in the Hitachi acquisition.

·  u The alliance with Eastman Kodak‘s Copy Products Group that lets Ricoh partner with Kodak sales reps to sell Kodak’s NEXPRESS production print systems.  This series of full-color digital presses offers speeds of up to 100 ppm, certainly competitive with many of Xerox’s iGen 3 and iGen 4 applications.

·  u The joint venture with IBM allowing that company to jointly market InfoPrint systems with speeds of up to 916 letter-sized images per minute in full color.  These are roll-fed, ink jet systems designed for super high volume trans-promotional and production print applications.

·  u  The formation of PPBG now boasting 90 sales specialists embedded in Ricoh’s direct branch operation (RBS).

·  u  Of course, the company continues to refine their workgroup systems such as the MP C6000 and MP C7500 offering full-color speeds of up to 70 ppm.

Suddenly, all the pieces seem to have fallen into place.  Can Ricoh take full advantage of these opportunities?  It’s perhaps too soon to tell but the potential is certainly there.  What about their dealers?  Most of them do not “play” in the production print market space.  For most, the benefit of these actions is the credibility it brings to their efforts to sell into the light production and workgroup print arenas – still the fastest growing segments of the still profitable color market. 

For those dealers not currently selling Ricoh Family systems (Ricoh, Savin, Lanier), this might be a good time to meet with your own vendors in order to discuss their plans for the production print market.  Opportunity is out there pounding on the door.  Don’t you think you and/or your vendor should answer the call? 

Lou Slawetsky, CEO - Industry Analysts, Inc.   u  www.industryanalysts.com