A recap of The Cannata Report’s June digital coverage.
Remember June?
It wasn’t that long ago. It only ended yesterday.
Because we are feeling nostalgic and because you may have missed some of the stories””big and small””of the past month, here’s a brief recap.
If you’d like more detail on any of the stories below, visit www.thecannatareport.com and click on “Latest Headlines” in the top menu.
June Acquisitions
Xerox acquired two dealers, Rabbit Office Automation (ROA) and Heritage Business Systems (HBS), to grow its presence in the San Francisco Bay area and the Delaware Valley, respectively. These acquisitions were significant in that they are indicators that Xerox is looking to expand its sales network.
The other three acquisitions included Datamax’s acquisition of the copier division of Texarkana-based Firmin’s Office City, expanding Datamax’s presence in Northeast Texas and Arkansas, Complete Mailing Partners acquisition of Advanced Business Automation Solutions (ABAS), and the acquisition of Power On Technologies in Kansas City, MO by Network Computing System, headquartered in Topeka, KS.
We’ve heard rumors of another acquisition by one of the industry’s most active acquirers of the past decade, and one that was recently acquired itself but we have not been able to verify.
Awards
Canon U.S.A. earned two Better Buys Editor’s Choice Awards, one for the imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5500 III series in the color MFP category and one for the imageRUNNER ADVANCE 4500 III series in the black-and-white MFP category.
Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises was awarded a Top Workplaces 2019 honor by The Cincinnati Enquirer for the third consecutive year.
The Star Tribune has named Loffler Companies one Minnesota’s Top 150 Workplaces for the ninth year in a row.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. and its IT Services Division, All Covered, were acknowledged by MedTechBreakthrough, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global health and medical technology market, with two awards in the 2019 MedTech Breakthrough Annual Awards Program: the “Best Healthcare Network Security Solution” award and the “Best Overall Healthcare CyberSecurity Company.”
CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, named Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.’s IT Services Division, All Covered, to its 2019 Solution Provider 500 list.
CRN also named Laura Blackmer, senior vice president, dealer sales, to its 2019 Women of the Channel list.
CRN also named Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America’s Saundra Merollo and Mehryn Corrigan to its 2019 Women of the Channel list.
The Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) announced its 2019 Global MPS Leadership Awards. The winners include:
- Best Independent MPS Provider – Scantron Corporation
- Best MPS Industry Collaboration – Epson America, GreatAmerica Financial Services, PrintFleet, Synnex Corporation, Simac
- Best MPS Infrastructure Provider – Supplies Network
- Best MPS Innovation Award – Ingram Micro
- Best MPS Professional Services Provider – GreatAmerica Financial Services
- Best MPS Software Provider – Tigerpaw Software
Events
The Cannata Report team, including contributors, have had a busy month attending the following shows and conferences:
- ITMA Barcelona ““ CJ, Frank, and Carol Cannata traveled to Barcelona to get a first-hand look at this industrial print show to learn more about printing on textiles.
- Ricoh Interact ““ Contributing Editor Noel Ward traveled to Denver, Colorado to cover this production print-oriented Ricoh customer event.
- Canon 2019 Roadshow- Contributing writer Carro Ford represented The Cannata Report at this Canon sales and technical conference in Atlanta.
- Canon Engineering Solutions Summit 2019 ““ Scott Cullen took a 20-minute drive to Princeton, NJ to attend this annual Canon conference aimed at service managers and service techs.
People on the Move
June saw four notable hires, including Natalie Cumberbatch as vice president of Human Resources at Kyocera Document Solutions America, Brian Murphy who joined UBEO’s San Antonio office as senior vice president of aftermarket field services, Keith Snyder who joined Square 9 Softworks as its new director of digital transformation strategies, and Stephanie B. Kennard who was hired by Y Soft as its new executive vice president of sales.
Cumberbatch’s hiring is notable because she comes from outside of the imaging industry and is representative of KDSA CEO Oscar Sanchez’s message and mission to recruit talent from outside of the industry. Similarly, the hiring of Murphy at UBEO is related to the company’s aggressive national expansion.
Technology and Innovation
Xerox unveiled the Xerox Baltoro HF Inkjet Press, a cut-sheet production press that reportedly enables clients to print high-volume, transactional work and direct mail and catalogs on a single press with superior image quality and productivity. The Baltoro HF is Xerox’s first product using this platform.
Greg Walters Inc. has launched ArcDrive is a self-contained, converged solution stack that will allow vendors to initiate or build out managed print services (MPS) engagements. The appliance is embedded with advanced capture, intelligent workflow, data collection, remote monitoring and automatic supplies fulfillment software.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. unveiled the new bizhub i-Series, the next generation IoT-enabled multifunction printer line.
Trends
There were three notable studies released in June that we found particularly enlightening. The first, the 2019 Technician Salary Survey from Copier Careers, revealed the tight staffing market for technicians. The issue Copier Careers’ Paul Schwartz sees is with the U.S. economy as there are more jobs requiring tech skills than people with the skills to fill them. For employers in the copier channel, this should be a wake call as should the survey findings that reveal 76% of survey respondents are looking for a new job.
The key takeaway for management is that businesses inside and outside the copier channel are finding fewer options to fill positions that require workers with tech skills. By contrast, Copier Careers maintains it’s a candidate’s market for skilled IT techs with high demand and a very limited supply.
In this age of climate-related turmoil and concern about the environment, HP Inc. released its 2018 Sustainable Impact Report, including a goal to increase recycled content plastics across its print and personal systems portfolio to 30% by 2025. The report documents the progress HP is making and the business benefits of investing in the planet, people, and communities. According to the report, Sustainable Impact programs drove more than $972 million dollars of new revenue for HP in 2018, a 35% year-over-year increase. “Companies have critically important roles to play in solving societal challenges, and we continue to reinvent HP to meet the needs of our changing world,” said Dion Weisler, president & chief executive officer, HP Inc. “This isn’t a nice to do, it’s a business imperative. Brands that lead with purpose and stand for more than the products they sell will create the most value for customers, shareholders and society as a whole. Together with our partners, we will build on our progress and find innovative new ways to turn the challenges of today into the opportunities of tomorrow.”
In a survey of 1,500 workers across the United States and Canada, Ricoh USA asked respondents how they felt about their intergenerational coworkers, technology, and the changing business landscape. Contrary to popular assumptions, 71% of respondents “find a cross-generational workplace an asset to a company,” while 76% of them “enjoy working alongside colleagues of different ages.” Not only are older and younger workers much happier to collaborate than pop culture would have you believe, but fears that older workers still struggle to adapt to new technology may also be unfounded. Fully 66% of the workers surveyed agree that “technology should play a central role” in helping them be productive, while an overwhelming 74% believe that “the best workplaces invest in digital technologies for upskilling staff.”
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