PRINT.IT
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PRINTERS
Lexmark has announced a
strategic partnership with Nuance
to sell and distribute its Document
Imaging solutions worldwide,
including AutoStore, Equitrac
Office/Express and SafeCom.
News of the announcement
comes at a time when Lexmark
is reversing its previous strategy
to become a solutions leader
through the acquisition of software
companies, focusing on developing
partnerships with software leaders
instead.
In May, the company’s new
owners Apex Technology Co Ltd,
PAG Asia Capital and Legend Capital
Management Co, LTD signalled
this by selling Lexmark’s Enterprise
Software business (Kofax, ReadSoft
and Perceptive Software) to private
equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Just before that announcement
sister publication
PrintIT Reseller
caught up with Danny Molhoek,
Lexmark General Manager for North
West Europe.
When asked about the company’s
future growth strategy, Molhoek
said: “I don’t believe we’re going
to acquire any additional software
companies in the near term. We
have gained a lot of knowledge and
a lot of capabilities with our software
products, but we also see that there
are some excellent companies out
there, providing some very good
products. Sometimes it’s better
to have this knowledge in-house;
sometimes it’s better to join a
partnership. Software is absolutely
a key item going forward, but I don’t
expect us to acquire new companies
in the near term.”
He added: “Software has been a
key part of our strategy for the last
20 years. From when we announced
Markvision, we’ve always been
developing those kind of tools and
products. What we have done over
the past few years is to strengthen
that proposition with software that
you can’t develop from scratch.
In certain cases you need to work
together with other companies and
in others it makes sense to buy
these companies. In the last couple
of years, the tendency has been
more towards acquisition; I think
the tendency today is to look for
partnerships.”
Molhoek suggested that there
would be much more focus on
hardware sales in the future,
as Lexmark started to address
opportunities in the Chinese
market and took advantage of
Apex Technology’s manufacturing
capabilities to bring new products
to market more quickly.
New offering
This summer, Lexmark
unveiled a 23-strong range
of B&W and colour
laser printers for
Lexmark partners with
Nuance and announces
new A4 and A3 printers
New and improved Eco Copier
Toshiba TEC made headlines a few years
ago with the launch of the e-STUDIO
306LP Eco Copier, which uses heat-
sensitive toner that can be erased on a
separate unit, enabling a sheet of paper
to be re-used up to eight times.
The environmental qualities of this
ground-breaking solution garnered the
company a lot of column inches and
positive PR, but it was not a big seller.
Now, Toshiba TEC has revisited
the technology, introducing three
monochrome MFPs with a hybrid printing
system that combines conventional and
erasable printing in a single device.
In this way, the e-STUDIO5008LP
series can be used to print permanent
documents with conventional black toner
and temporary documents with erasable
blue toner.
Once they are no longer required,
temporary documents that would
normally be thrown away after a few
hours can be erased using the device’s
erase function and the paper re-used.
The ability to erase pages in the
e-STUDIO 306LP Eco Copier itself is a
new feature – before it could only be
done on an external eraser unit. However,
Toshiba is still offering an optional eraser
unit, the e-STUDIO RD301, which also
provides scanning to business workflows
and Document Management Systems.
The e-STUDIO5008LP series consists
of three models with print speeds of
35, 45 and 50 pages per minute (ppm)
for permanent prints and 35ppm when
printing with erasable toner.
Users can select the print mode
they want at the time of printing or
use a rules-based printing feature to
automatically switch from one mode to
another depending on the application
being used.
small and medium-sized businesses,
from entry-level mono printers to
workgroup MFPs. All come with a
four-year guarantee, which includes
free 24-hour online support and
access to technical support over the
phone during work hours.
It also announced a new
generation of A3 colour laser
printers and MFPs, the Lexmark
CS920 and CX920 series.
The nine new products –
Lexmark’s fastest colour models
to date – have print speeds of up
to 65ppm, scan speeds of up to
80ppm, a maximum paper capacity
of 6,650 sheets and monthly duty
cycles ranging between 200,000
and 275,000 pages.
Allen Waugerman, Lexmark’s
senior vice president and chief
technology officer, said: “The Lexmark
CS920 Series and the Lexmark
CX920 Series were designed for
high usage, demanding workgroups
that require fast, efficient and
intuitive devices. These new devices
marry high-end large workgroup
colour A3 with all the features and
functionality of our colour A4 device
line-up, complementing our award-
winning colour portfolio of laser print
devices.”
These include a 10-inch colour
touchscreen featuring Lexmark’s
icon-driven e-Task interface;
Lexmark’s Print Release and Mobile
Print apps; fleet management,
proactive diagnostics and remote
firmware upgradeability; built-in
security; and compatibility with
Lexmark Managed Print Services.
I don’t
believe we’re
going to
acquire any
additional
software
companies
in the near
term
Toshiba TEC
e-STUDIO5008LP
Issue 46
2017
