Kyocera Looks To Make Its Mark With Dealers At 2010
Dealer Meeting
By George Mikolay, Senior Product Editor, A3/Copier
MFPs, April 27, 2010
The theme of the Kyocera’s recent dealer meeting held
in Orlando, FL was “Building the Future…Together,” and with 85 percent of
Kyocera’s revenue coming from its dealers in North and South America, the
message is sincere. On the surface, it appears as if Kyocera’s dealer strategy
over the past 12 to 18 months, in which the company introduced more than 30 new
products to its Kyocera and Copystar dealers, as well as an industry-first
three-year dealer warranty to cover all new MFPs, is paying dividends. Kyocera
went from 23 single-line Alliance dealers in March of 2009 to 182 currently. The
company plans to keep expanding the Alliance program by doing more of the same,
announcing plans to launch 22 new product models this fiscal year. The company
is also implementing a strategy to support its dealers in developing Managed
Print Services (MPS) offerings, as well as a comprehensive HyPAS Developer
Support Program.
On The Hardware Side
Models introduced at the meeting included a series of
color and monochrome A4 multifunctional printers, eight new color A3 MFPs
ranging from 20 to 70 pages per minute (ppm) in color, seven monochrome A3 MFPs
ranging from 25 to 80 ppm, as well as color and monochrome ECOSYS printers. On
the A4 MFP front, the FS-3040MFP and FS-3140MFP are slated for a June launch,
as Kyocera looks to strongly position itself in the 40 ppm black-and-white A4
space. Designed from the FS-3920 printer engine, which demonstrated excellent
reliability in BLI’s lab testing, the FS-3040MFP and FS-3140MFP will feature
standard print, copy and color scan, as well as standard fax on the FS-3140
model. Both A4 models will also feature standard duplexing and Kyocera’s ASi
drum, with a PM cycle of 300,000 impressions.
Launching in July, the 3-in-1 FS-C2026MFP and the
4-in-1 FS-C2126 MFP will offer rated speeds of 28 ppm and incorporate Kyocera’s
micro-particle toner technology. Featuring standard color print, copy and scan,
as well as black-and-white fax on the FS-2126, these A4 color models will feature
a standard duplexing, along with a maximum paper capacity of 1,300-sheets. USB
host printing and scanning will also be available.
Seeing the migration of 25- to 30-ppm A3 engines to
the A4 space, Kyocera will be looking to bridge the gap between users who do
not want to give up A3 functionality, but want the lower acquisition cost and
convenience of A4 MFP technology, with the launch of four A3 models slated for
the January to March timeframe. With rated speeds of 25 and 30 ppm for the
black-and-white models, and 20 and 25 ppm for the color models, these A3
engines will feature standard print, copy and color scanning, as well as a new
4.3" color touch-screen control panel. The A3 11" x 17" engines
will also feature simplified network setup from the control panel, with a
click-through, wizard-like setup for IP address, network authentication and
other network-specific settings. The paper path will also be modified, as
misfeeds will be accessed and removed from the non-finisher side, allowing the
footprint to remain compact for tight quarters.
Also on the A3 front, to meet the demand of high-volume
workgroups and departments, Kyocera will be introducing two high-speed color
engines. With rated speeds of 75 ppm black/70 ppm color and 65 ppm black/65 ppm
color, these Kyocera-developed devices will feature standard print, scan and
copy, as well as optional faxing, along with full-bleed 11 x 17 printing on 12"
x 18" paper from the paper trays and 12" x 47" banner printing
from the bypass tray. Featuring a standard duplex single-pass document feeder,
the units will support paper weights up to 140-lb. index from the paper
drawers, and maximum paper capacity will be 7,650 sheets. The models will also
feature a 10.2" color touch-screen control panel and a standard host USB
interface for printing from and scanning to. An EFI Fiery controller will be
available as an option.
In addition, Kyocera will be launching the next
generation of its mid-speed color A3 MFPs in Q4 of this fiscal year (January to
March timeframe). Driven by a new engine, the four models will offer speeds of
55/50, 45/45, 35/35 and 30/30, respectively. The devices will feature many of
the same capabilities as their higher-speed counterparts will, including full-bleed
11" x 17" printing on 12" x 18" paper from the paper trays.
Users will also be able to upgrade to a duplex single-pass document feeder, and
an EFI Fiery controller will be supported.
Also launching in the January to March timeframe will
be high- and mid-speed black-and-white A3 MFPs. Leveraging the imaging
technology of their new color counterparts, the devices will offer rated speeds
of 80, 65, 55, 45 and 35 ppm. In addition to color scanning on all the models,
the 80- and 65-ppm devices will feature a 10.2" color touch-screen control
panel, while the 55-, 45- and 35-ppm models will feature an 8.5" color
touch-screen control panel. In addition to a standard duplex single-pass
document feeder, the 80- and 65-ppm models will offer a maximum paper capacity
of 7,650 sheets. The mid-speed models will offer an upgrade to a single-pass duplexing
document feeder, along with a 7,150-sheet maximum paper capacity. Similar to
their color counterparts, the paper path will be changed and all misfeeds will
be cleared from the non-finisher side.
Marketing MPS
Kyocera has committed significant resources to enable
and support dealers’ success in developing an MPS business model. “In the ‘new business
reality,’ managed print services is replacing the old cost-per-copy business
model,” said Michael Pietrunti, president and chief executive officer, Kyocera
Mita America. “Every one of your customers is looking for ways to streamline
their cost infrastructure and achieve cost elimination. Being able to sell MPS changes your competitive position in your local market.” To that end, Kyocera has put
together a team of business development managers whose initial role will be to
help its dealers understand and deploy an MPS business model, and to also make
end-user sales calls with dealers to help jump-start the process.
The company is looking to greatly expand the number of
certified MPS dealers it has. With more than 120 certified MPS dealers
currently, Kyocera will be expanding the MPS certification program to Copystar
dealers this year, and is aiming to push the number of certified dealers to more
300 by its next dealer meeting. To become a certified MPS dealer, dealers must
complete a sales and service training program, as well as acquire and install a
remote management system of their choice. Additionally, Kyocera is introducing
a Certified MPS Dealer Locator that will be available on Kyocera’s public
website. This MPS Dealer Locator will allow end-users to find and contact
Kyocera Certified MPS Dealers in their local market.
Further demonstrating its commitment to MPS, for
dealers who have yet to make the infrastructure investment needed for an MPS
program, Kyocera will be opening its MPS server to dealers looking for a
cost-effective, shared server program. Device licenses will be unlimited, and
if a dealership increases its printer and genuine Kyocera toner purchases with
Kyocera year-over-year, Kyocera will not charge for the device licenses.
Selling Solutions
On the software front, Kyocera introduced a number of HyPAS
integration tools and value-add applications available to dealers that can be
sold to customers as add-ons to a typical hardware sale. Chief among these is
My Forms, which provides users with on-demand variable data printing and
automatic population of form fields from the touch-screen control panel of
Kyocera MFPs. Information is loaded into the Active Directory and quickly
retrieved from the database once a HID Proximity card is swiped, for example.
Serving as middleware to connect an MFP and document management system, DMS
Link allows users to scan an image to a document management system using
Kyocera MFPs. Users can create index data in any file format supported by the
device, including XML and OCBC. DMS Link can also OCR documents as they are
being scanned to produce a searchable PDF. Both My Forms and DMS Link will be
available only to dealers who complete HyPAS training.
Available for free download are 2MyInbox, PaperTrail
and SharePoint Connector. 2MyInbox provides a simple scan-to-self application,
as users can scan and e-mail documents to themselves without entering an e-mail
address. PaperTrail tracks copies, scans, faxes and prints (including USB). It
also grants access control on the MFP, as well as Active directory
authentication. Also provided are detailed usage reports, secure printing and
the ability to release jobs from any Kyocera MFP. With SharePoint Connector,
Kyocera has not only integrated full scanning, but also the ability to browse
SharePoint and search and print the document at the Kyocera device panel.
