TOSHIBA DELIVERS THE DIFFERENCE AT DEALER MEETING
March 31, 2008 - With palm trees and golf courses
serving as a picturesque backdrop, The Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad, CA hosted the Toshiba 2008 National Dealer Meeting. The warm weather in the southern
part of the state complemented the company’s sunny outlook, as detailed by a
number of executives. Over three days, representatives from just under 200
authorized dealers and wholly owned subsidiaries learned how Toshiba will
“Deliver the Difference” throughout the next year and beyond.
One way was through several major announcements
regarding hardware and solutions that will launch in 2008. At the top of the
list is the e-STUDIO6530c series, which comprises three Toshiba-manufactured
high-end business color models—a groundbreaker for the company in a part of the
market it has always sold OEM equipment. Toshiba’s first-generation e-BRIDGE
Open Platform was also highlighted.
Mark Mathews, president and chief operating officer of
Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS), who BLI
interviewed when he was elevated to his position in January, gave
dealers reason to smile. “Without you there’s no us, and we’re
well aware of that,” he said. “Unlike many manufacturers and during any
economic trend, we remain highly committed to our independent dealers and
building our network in a sane and sensible manner.”
As evidence of what Mathews expressed at the meeting,
it was revealed that Toshiba took home three of the five Business Technology
Association (BTA) 2007 Channel’s Choice awards, proving that the company is a
paragon of support to its dealers. Toshiba won in the “Corporate Support” and
“Distribution” categories, but the highlight was claiming the prestigious
“Superior Performance” award for the ninth time since 1989. “This not only
demonstrates the hard work of all the people on stage and those behind the
scenes, it represents a vote of confidence from our dealers and we appreciate
it from the bottom of our hearts,” he said.
Sales
Mathews offered up some statistics to help put dealers
at ease, given the current
economic conditions. “Toshiba is growing and profitable despite a
market that’s relatively flat,” he said. “We’re all facing challenges, but in
the 2007 market share results our company was only one of three in the Top 10
that increased placements, while many of our competitors shrank at double-digit
rates. Our growth in color was more than twice the market rate, and color
devices now account for over 40 percent of our new product revenue.”
A crucial differentiating factor in Toshiba’s sales
strategy is that it doesn’t intend on pursuing an “over-distributed” system.
“We don’t think it’s the correct thing to do,” Mathews said. “We minimize
conflict by requiring our TBS (Toshiba Business Solutions) subsidiaries to
operate on a dealer profit and loss model so nobody has an edge and everyone benefits
from the greater exposure of Toshiba. We can’t eliminate all conflicts, but
fairness in our distribution is shown when we win BTA awards.”
TBS will continue to buy dealers and convert them to
subsidiaries. In February, Northcoast Business Systems and Northcoast
Duplicating in Cleveland, OH became the 53rd such acquisition since the
inception of Toshiba’s expansion plan. “Many of our top-performing and
fastest-growing dealers are co-located [same geographic area] with TBS
subsidiaries, so we won’t hesitate to add more if it makes sense,” Mathews
said. “Dealers [255 total, currently] account for 40 to 50 percent of revenues,
subsidiaries about one-third of the pie and the remaining lot is derived from
other distributors.”
Toshiba has long had a vertical market approach to
procuring business, and it’s now even more focused on perhaps the biggest:
enterprises. “Over the last few years we’ve made major investments in tools to
support this effort,” said Bill Melo, vice president of national accounts, marketing
and operations for TABS. “We’ve had sustained growth in this space, but we want
to make better inroads with Fortune 500 and 1000 companies.” In fact, Toshiba
recently won a hardware and managed print services contract with a national
financial institution, among others; all told, Toshiba manages over 30,000
devices for the organization and envisions an estimated 3,500 placements in
2008. More impressive, the account produces more than 35 million pages per
month.
Support
To supplement its award-winning level of support for
dealers, Toshiba offers programs it hopes will lead the company and its
distribution network to greater heights. “We believe in education because
change is taking place in our complex industry,” said Steve Rhorer, vice
president of marketing for TABS. “Simple training isn’t enough.”
For starters, the Toshiba Innovation Center at its U.S. headquarters in Irvine, CA features the company’s complete lineup. Although
this is Toshiba’s only such facility while some of its competitors have several
scattered across the country, Rhorer explained that dealers can use the center
by having live product demos broadcast over the Web.
The company’s new solutions selling system—dubbed
S4—is a “linear, four-part series of workshops and seminars to get dealers up
to speed with solutions,” Rhorer said. “SS1 is the foundation and provides the
knowledge necessary for successful engagements.” The online, self-paced module
teaches people about Toshiba’s history, products and technologies, as well as
customers and competition. SS2 delves into consultative selling, the entire
spectrum of the company’s solutions and how they can help businesses, while SS3
provides instruction about the hands-on skills necessary to sell color systems.
SS4 ties everything together so reps can make the most customized service sale
possible. Vertical markets and advanced color technology are also discussed in
S4.
Rhorer talked briefly about Toshiba Financial Services
as well. “In a tough economy where 70 percent of the products are leased, it’s
critical to have strong financial partners like GE Capital and U.S. Bancorp,”
he said. Additionally, the company has adopted a leasing Bill of Rights, which
includes portfolio protection, buyout security, a defined return program, no
long-term renewals and clearly stated end of lease information.
To further assist dealers with marketing and give
Toshiba more visibility, the company will roll out three advertisements that
will run in magazines such as Fortune and BusinessWeek, and one
new commercial. All will be launched in Latin markets too, and Toshiba’s Web
site will be updated with more content and colorful imagery.
Solutions
Mathews introduced the solutions topic by saying that
Toshiba will continue its aggressive investment in this arena. “Our e-BRIDGE
architecture is in its third generation and now includes an open platform,” he
said. “This will enable us to offer unique solutions and better capabilities.
We’ll exploit the possibilities of the platform both alone and with third parties,
and we’ll push everything toward enterprises and then scale them down to the
SMB space.”
Joe Contreras, director of product and solutions
marketing for TABS, elaborated on Mathews’ comments. “e-BRIDGE Open Platform,
which will launch in the late second quarter or early third quarter in
conjunction with our new color devices, is a Web-services architecture that
allows us to integrate with our solutions and industry-standard applications
like Microsoft SharePoint—right at the control panel.” The company will offer
two development tools: e-Connect is a special type of scan template that lets
developers create and customize solutions such as Re-Rite, DocuWare, FaxPress
and Questys, which is a data capture, storage, indexing, and search and
retrieval solution; the second method is via the e-BRIDGE Development Kit
(eDK), which is an application programming interface based on an open standard
that allows a developer to create an interactive interface into any type of
application. According to Contreras, Toshiba is taking a structured three-phase
approach to the development of Open Platform solutions. The first phase
is targeting solutions developed by Toshiba's current software partners.
The second will allow dealers, customers and developers to submit requests for
potential solutions offerings. And the last phase will allow for open
distribution of the eDK to developers interested in developing solutions to
work with Toshiba MFPs.
TopAccess is the company’s embedded Web utility, which
enables remote configuration of network and other settings. However, for larger
settings, Toshiba will soon offer its e-BRIDGE Fleet Management System (eFMS),
giving administrators the power of centralized monitoring while users benefit
from improved availability of devices. Key operators receive automatic
first-tier alerting, while second-tier alerting is available to service
organizations. Anybody with administrative access to the utility can clone
settings and view meter reads. Via eFMS, administrators can assign costs to
specific departments, as well as review device usage and consumables status.
Dealers can use the utility to create cost and device streamlining proposals.
eFMS can manage other brands’ devices, but only in a limited fashion. This
solution is still under development but should be available in late summer.
Melo also talked about Encompass, Toshiba’s five-step
program that assesses a business’ document management infrastructure and
identifies inefficiencies. The resulting analysis allows the company to offer
cost-savings initiatives through an efficient and effective fleet of new and
existing equipment. “Today, approximately 70 dealers are using Encompass as a
part of their sales strategy,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be a correlation
in size; dealers range in size from small to Fortune 1000 providers. Hagan
Business Machines comes across as a large dealer because of tools like this.”
Toshiba’s Global Services Portal (GSP), which is an
online supplies ordering system, was launched in July 2006 and “we continue to
invest in it and improve its flexibility to meet customers’ purchasing
requirements, allowing companies to enforce purchasing approval workflow
limits,” Melo said. “There are more than 85 customers using GSP, with more
coming on all the time. Typically, portal accounts are managed by TABS, but
dealers that utilize GSP are having tremendous success with it.”
Contreras gave a synopsis about e-BRIDGE Re-Search, which
was recently announced. In short, this solution auto-indexes content and
specifies the level of user access in real time, then tags things in various
formats such as Microsoft Office applications, e-mail, images, audio, video and
“literally any type of data on any network, with security of items that
employees are only authorized to look at,” he said. Toshiba views the legal,
financial, healthcare and education industries, as well as enterprises, as the
primary vertical markets for Re-Search, and the solution is currently being
utilized in governmental agencies, including the Pentagon.
In terms of third-party solutions, Contreras
highlighted two that will play a big role for the company. The first is
SharePoint, which “has become the dominant tool in lifecycle document creation,
collaboration and management,” said Dave Healey, senior product manager for
SharePoint, adding that Toshiba has had a long relationship with Microsoft,
especially in the PC space, and was one of the first manufacturers to attain
Vista certification for its MFPs. “Businesses have more documents than they can
maintain: 20 percent in structured repositories, while 80 percent is
unstructured and 90 percent of that isn’t managed.” Moreover, he said that a
staggering 30 percent of a person’s time at work is spent looking for files.
“SharePoint is the single-fastest server product that Microsoft has ever
released. It’s a horizontal platform that delivers value from an information
management context across the enterprise. The market is expanding dramatically
for these solutions—it’s no longer a niche product.” SharePoint is a separate
application from Microsoft, and a license is included with MS Windows
Server. Toshiba isn’t reselling SharePoint, however it’s developing a
connector with the Open Platform eDK that will allow scanned documents to be
scanned directly into the application.
Another key solution is eCopy ShareScan and Desktop,
which have been updated to versions 4.2 and 9.2, respectively (see eCopy
Analyst Briefing Reveals News On Several Fronts). “ShareScan connects
the MFP to an organization’s e-mail, desktop and other networked enterprise
applications for low-cost and instantaneous management of paper-based info,
while Desktop is an easy-to-use PDF creation and image editing solution that
includes annotation, stamping and OCR capabilities,” Contreras said, adding
that ShareScan’s upgrades include four connectors, all of which are standard;
support for PDF/A documents (a subset of PDF that leaves out features not
suited to long-term archiving) and Microsoft Exchange 2007; and new maintenance
pricing for three, four and five years.
Toshiba positions its e-BRIDGE Re-Rite solution for
small and medium-size businesses. It’s a tool that allows scans from the
MFP to be directly saved in one of sixteen modifiable formats such as MS Word,
Excel and searchable PDF. According to Rhorer, the solution is bundled
with all color devices, while if customers use either GE Capital or US Bancorp
for leasing, they too will receive it for free. Re-Rite is sold for $2,695
MSRP.
Toshiba will offer Ringdale FollowMe once the open
platform is launched. This enterprise-based solution allows print jobs to be
sent to the FollowMe queue and printed on a networked device once an
authorization code has been entered, which could be useful if, say, an employee
sends a document to the queue from one city, then travels to another and
outputs it there. Information resides on a hold server, where the jobs can be
accessed. This solution also provides a Web-based interface for administrators
to monitor a fleet and assign costs to devices and departments.
Products
The product fair was set up as a “virtual
corporation,” cementing the company’s vertical market approach. Despite the
room being cramped, devices that were on display also showcased either
Toshiba-developed solutions or those stemming from third parties. For example,
logistics had the e-STUDIO500S—a Lexmark A4 OEM product—running with TypeHaus
BarCodeJet, while the e-STUDIO853 was configured to allow scanning of invoices
into DocuWare, as might take place in an accounts payable department.
Color is, of course, the most crucial subject
regarding MFPs these days. “Our color sales are at an all-time high, and as of
today our [previous] lack of breadth of color offerings is a non-issue,”
Mathews said.
Rhorer echoed those sentiments. “Color is the biggest
reason why Toshiba is the fastest growing manufacturer over the last five
years. “And with our new e-STUDIO6530c series, we’ve got the fastest color
machines positioned for the office.”
Rory Fox, senior product manager for TABS said about
the e-STUDIO6530c: “Make no mistake—this is different. It’s the newest gem in
our color lineup, with speeds of 65 ppm in color and 75 ppm in black.” The
e-STUDIO6530c can be configured with various paper supplies; the tandem version
has two 540-sheet cassettes, a 2,320-sheet large-capacity feeder (LCF), a
100-sheet bypass and an optional 2,500-sheet LCT for a total of 6,000 sheets,
while the four-drawer version has a maximum capacity of 4,760 sheets. The
drawers can accommodate up to ledger-size paper and automatically duplex on up
to 140-lb. index; the bypass can accommodate up to 13" x 19" paper
and automatically duplex on up to 110-lb. cover stock, while adding the ability
to print banners on up to 47" media, including Toshiba water-resistant
AquaAce paper, which is practically indestructible, according to Fox.
Additionally, users can open the left tray of the LCF and load paper while
paper is being drawn from the right side. Many dealers had asked for the
drawers to be equipped with paper sensors, which they now are.
The e-STUDIO6530c has convenience features such as
Toshiba’s Easy Replaceable Units; the four toner bottles, which include
developer, are examples of this. The device also has the scan to/print from
feature via a USB port. The e-STUDIO6530c copies, prints and scans right out of
the box, while fax capabilities are optional. PCL 6 and PostScript 3 drivers
are therefore standard; users can print at the unenhanced resolution of 1200 x
1200 dpi—new for Toshiba—and the system can eliminate black borders around
pages when copying from books. The saddle-stitch finisher is another
interesting item as it has what the company labels an “avalanche system”: as
booklets are created and the first “tray” gets full, booklets fall down into a
second tray as the first starts collecting more, doubling the output amount.
The newly designed 10.4" super VGA control panel,
which can tilt and swivel, and move via an extension arm, features an
icon-driven full-color touch-screen LCD. By pressing the MyMenu key, users are
shown what they can and can’t access via icons, and they can set up the control
panel with the icons that they most frequently use. Users can build jobs that
have up to 1,000 pages. Additionally, dealers were ecstatic that the control
panel now has paper gauges for all sources, which they’d been clamoring for.
Another key feature of the device is its trickle-down
developer technology—Self-Refresh Development System. When the unit is
installed, the technician adds developer to the system. Because developer is 11
percent of what’s in the toner cartridges, the system feeds developer along
with toner, thus eliminating the need for developer to be added during PM
intervals or service calls; excess developer is sent to the waste toner bottle.
The device comes with toner preinstalled, and “because of this system and
constant replenishment of developer, image quality can be maintained at a high
level,” Fox said. Furthermore, e-FINE toner and developer will improve
production of secondary colors, thus extending the color gamut, according to
Toshiba.
There are two additional devices in this series. The
e-STUDIO6520c has a rated speed of 65 ppm in color and black, while the
e-STUDIO5520c has a rated speed of 55 ppm in both modes. All models in this
family will be released in late second quarter or early third quarter, and will
feature e-BRIDGE Open Architecture.
For businesses that don’t require such high-speed
devices, Toshiba will also launch the e-STUDIO4520c series around the same
time. This family of products is based on the same engine as was employed in
the e-STUDIO3510c series, but will be open-architecture enabled. “Designed for
demanding mid-volume offices, these products have it all,” Rhorer said. “This
is a compact, color MFP. Developer comes in the box and will reduce setup costs
by 70 percent versus our existing devices. The control panel is bigger and
easier to navigate, and it has a new scan preview.” The e-STUDIO4520c has a
rated speed of 45 ppm in color and black, the e-STUDIO3530c has rated speeds of
35 ppm in color and 45 ppm in black, the e-STUDIO2830c has speeds of 28 ppm in
color and 35 ppm in black and the e-STUDIO2330c has speeds of 23 ppm in color
and 28 ppm in black. These four devices will serve as the replacements for the e-STUDIO3510c,
3500c
and 2500c,
the first of which won a BLI “Pick of the Year” award in Spring 2007.
In the fourth quarter of this year, Toshiba will
release the e-STUDIO455, 355, 305, 255 and 205L, direct replacements—with
slight modifications—for the current e-STUDIO453,
353,
283,
233
and 203L;
either later that quarter or in early 2009, the company will add the
e-STUDIO855, 755, 655 and 555 to the mix. “We haven’t given up on monochrome
and it’s still the solution of choice for many companies,” Rhorer said. “All of
these products are perfect for small, medium-size and large workgroups and
departments.”
“When it makes sense to partner with companies to
bring a full spectrum of devices and solutions for you, we’ll do so,” Rhorer
continued. “Not all of them have the e-STUDIO brand. This year we’re pleased to
announce a partnership
with KIP for wide-format printing of technical documents. We’ll offer a
wide range of configurations to please everyone.”
Fujitsu, which is the market leader in standalone
scanners, will provide Toshiba with five products; these won’t be rebranded.
Dealers will be able to sell any of the models through Toshiba, which will in
turn use Tech Data as the VAR (value-added reseller) for distribution. The
fi-5120C sheet-fed scanner and fi-5220C flatbed scanner offer a rated speed of
25 ppm (simplex) or 50 ipm (duplex) in color, monochrome and grayscale; 600-dpi
optical resolution with dual-color scanning to capture minute details; and a
50-page ADF for hard and embossed card scanning. The fi-5650C scans at 57 ppm
(simplex) or 114 ipm (duplex) in color and monochrome; it offers 300-dpi
optical resolution with dual-color scanning, corresponding left- and
right-handed control panels to give equal access to all users, and a duty cycle
of up to 8,000 documents per day. The fi-5900C scans at 120 ppm (simplex) or
240 ipm (duplex) in monochrome and color; it offers 300-dpi optical resolution
with dual-color scanning in letter and landscape formats, a 500-page ADF and a
space-saving design. The fi-6000NS is a color duplex network device that scans
at 25 ppm (simplex) or 50 ipm (duplex) in color, monochrome and grayscale; it
offers 600-dpi optical resolution with automatic image-quality adjustment,
automatic color detection, image deskew, automatic paper-size and blank-page
detection, and removal; a small footprint with an integrated touch-screen
display and built-in keyboard; and a 50-page ADF for hard and embossed card
scanning, as well as long document scanning.
Toshiba also announced that later in the year it will
introduce two additional Lexmark A4 MFPs, thus building upon its relationship
with the company to provide more printer-centric products for customers
that are looking for an alternative to copier MFPs.
Dealer Reaction
Pacific Office Automation
Founded in 1976 and with 15 locations throughout Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, it’s obvious that Pacific Office
Automation (POA) has deep roots in the West. Moreover, it’s one of the world’s
largest dealers for Toshiba, Konica Minolta, Ricoh and Sharp products. The
company also sells Muratec faxes and specific Xerox, Lexmark and KIP devices,
as well as offering services, support and supplies to a wide array of clients.
Doug Pitassi, vice president of sales for POA, thought
that the meeting was a success. “Toshiba did an outstanding job of
communicating its results from last year, its strategy for this year and its
new products,” he said. “Their agenda was smooth and to the point. The company
executives indicated a strong commitment to its independent dealers, telling us
how valuable we are to their growth. This is not only reassuring but also gives
us more confidence for the future of Toshiba.”
“It’s good to see that Toshiba is staying in the ring
and consistently developing new products and technologies,” Pitassi continued.
“Open architecture is a great feature that will appeal to many of our
customers, and the e-STUDIO6530c will help them compete in the market in terms
of higher-end color devices. Toshiba is more desirable to certain customers
because of what their new products offer. The controllers are made and manufactured
by Toshiba, thus support for all equipment comes from the dealer and
manufacturer and it’s not third-party supported. Their equipment has a certain
ease of operation, and our technicians find it more desirable to work on
Toshiba products because they’re more service friendly. Finally, the company is
constantly making firmware changes and enhancements that help to keep the
customer up to date.”
Office Systems, Inc.
Joel Vockrodt, co-owner and vice president of Office
Systems, Inc. (OSI), was pleased with the new color MFPs that were announced at
the meeting. “It’s what I wanted to hear about,” he said. “I’m excited about
the e-STUDIO6530c series, especially because they’re developed by Toshiba, but
am equally ecstatic about the lower-end devices like the e-STUDIO2330c—those
will fly off the shelves.” Vockrodt, who’s been with the company for seven
years, told BLI that OSI primarily sells color devices, “and now we’ll be even
more successful with converting businesses from black to color.”
“Toshiba’s open platform will truly make the
copier the center of the office, and the possibilities seem endless,” he
continued. “I’m also impressed with e-BRIDGE Re-Search and feel as though it’ll
be a nice solution for some of our clients.”
Vockrodt believes that by selling Toshiba products,
OSI has a strong advantage over its competition. “They’re the easiest devices
to use,” he said. “Plus, we’ve been in business since 1985, and Toshiba has
always provided excellent support, which has helped us take great care of our
customers and their equipment.”
OSI is located in South Dakota and is also a Konica
Minolta dealer. Additionally, it sells office and janitorial supplies, as well
as furniture and design services. There are 35 associates in the company.
Copiadoras y Tecnología Láser
“I’ve been selling and servicing Toshiba equipment
since 1992, so I’ve seen the whole transfer from analog to digital,” said
Carlos Corredoira, director of operations for Copiadoras y Technología Láser
(CTL) in Monterrey, Mexico. “We’re an exclusive Toshiba dealer and for us,
there’s only one way to go—the Toshiba way. The professional training our sales
reps and technicians receive at the Toshiba Digital University is a huge
advantage for us.”
Corredoira is also very happy with the new color
devices that will launch in a few months. “We can now compete a lot better with
both the e-STUDIO6530c and 4520c series, particularly because they can print on
up to 47" paper,” he said. “These special products are going to be a boon
for us this year. We’ve been waiting for Toshiba to manufacture its entire
color lineup, and the international market will benefit from this as much as
dealers will in the U.S. As for the new e-BRIDGE Open Platform, this is the
future for developers and will be a huge boost to us down the road.”
According to Corredoira, CTL has one of the largest
demo rooms and training facilities in Mexico. The company covers 22 states and
more than 300 cities, which has translated into lots of major accounts:
impressively, the smallest one is 35 devices that range from 20 to 85 ppm,
including color, while its biggest client has a total of 239 devices.
