{"id":9067,"date":"2013-12-01T17:20:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-01T22:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=9067"},"modified":"2014-11-01T17:21:56","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T21:21:56","slug":"ricoh-heats-up-with-ice-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/enx-features\/2013\/12\/ricoh-heats-up-with-ice-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricoh Heats Up with ICE and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

I attended the Ricoh dealer show Oct. 28 \u2013 30 and my head is swimming.\u00a0Held at the beautiful Aria hotel in Las Vegas, Ricoh had about 1,200 attendees at this show from over 800 dealerships.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some of my initial thoughts on the show after the first day:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dealers experienced 10% YOY growth in a flat market.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They addressed their \u201cstreamlining\u201d and while it was painful and difficult, they have eliminated a lot of redundancy and made themselves much more efficient and easier to do business with. \u00a0Dealers are now sharing the same programs and support system as the branches.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh is openly calling on their dual line dealers to become single line.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019re launching a new competitive training program called Monster in a Box (just in time for Halloween) and it promises to be very popular based on the reaction from the dealers.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh\u2019s new user interface looks great and while it took forever to upgrade the UI I sold back in the \u201990s, the new 10.1\u2033 WSVGA 1024 x 600 screen is customizable and so simple even my dad can use it!<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh\u2019s lab, one of the few competitive testing labs in our industry, is becoming a resource for dealers and helped Ricoh grab a 6,000 unit deal at a major hotel here in Las Vegas. \u00a0They customized a printer solution where several other vendors failed. \u00a0Ricoh\u2019s use of their test lab is a huge advantage and their ability to customize so quickly is impressive considering how hard it is for companies this large to make changes to hardware.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh is making a major push on services, despite the fact that they keep reminding us they\u2019re still a Japanese box manufacturer.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CHAMPS is finally ready and they have an actual playbook (more on this to come).<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 White boards and displays are a new opportunity and Ricoh is coming out with (and already has) some unique products in this area.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ICE cloud services will be a major opportunity for Ricoh dealers and they\u2019re targeting medium size businesses with offerings that will firmly address mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh is entering the sub $100 printer market to go after SOHO customers. Printers will be sold by dealers and through alternative channels.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh printers will soon have AirPrint and many are going to be WIFI enabled.<\/p>\n

This was the first dealer show for the new Ricoh executive team and the changes are refreshing. The new team is forthcoming and approachable and the 3+ hour analyst session was highly interactive. \u00a0Executives were candid and the panel was great. CEO Martin Brodigan no longer sits in the background. \u00a0He was up front with his team and fielded a great number of questions himself. \u00a0I always thought of him as more focused on headcount and the bottom line, but he clearly understands the business and he\u2019s really turned things around.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ricoh has a ton of new products I\u2019ll be writing about shortly. While the show has been a bit light on numbers and performance targets, there has been a great deal of discussion on strategy and I have to say I\u2019m excited for the direction they seem to be heading in.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I attended the Ricoh dealer show Oct. 28 \u2013 30 and my head is swimming.\u00a0Held at the beautiful Aria hotel in Las Vegas, Ricoh had about 1,200 attendees at this show from over 800 dealerships. Here are some of my initial thoughts on the show after the first day: \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dealers experienced 10% YOY growth in a flat market. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They addressed their \u201cstreamlining\u201d and while it was painful and difficult, they have eliminated a lot of redundancy and made themselves much more efficient and easier to do business with. \u00a0Dealers are now sharing the same programs and support system as the branches. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh is openly calling on their dual line dealers to become single line. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019re launching a new competitive training program called Monster in a Box (just in time for Halloween) and it promises to be very popular based on the reaction from the dealers. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh\u2019s new user interface looks great and while it took forever to upgrade the UI I sold back in the \u201990s, the new 10.1\u2033 WSVGA 1024 x 600 screen is customizable and so simple even my dad can use it! \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh\u2019s lab, one of the few competitive testing labs in our industry, is becoming a resource for dealers and helped Ricoh grab a 6,000 unit deal at a major hotel here in Las Vegas. \u00a0They customized a printer solution where several other vendors failed. \u00a0Ricoh\u2019s use of their test lab is a huge advantage and their ability to customize so quickly is impressive considering how hard it is for companies this large to make changes to hardware. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh is making a major push on services, despite the fact that they keep reminding us they\u2019re still a Japanese box manufacturer. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 CHAMPS is finally ready and they have an actual playbook (more on this to come). \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 White boards and displays are a new opportunity and Ricoh is coming out with (and already has) some unique products in this area. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ICE cloud services will be a major opportunity for Ricoh dealers and they\u2019re targeting medium size businesses with offerings that will firmly address mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh is entering the sub $100 printer market to go after SOHO customers. Printers will be sold by dealers and through alternative channels. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ricoh printers will soon have AirPrint and many are going to be WIFI enabled. This was the first dealer show for the new Ricoh executive team and the changes are refreshing. The new team is forthcoming and approachable and the 3+ hour analyst session was highly interactive. \u00a0Executives were candid and the panel was great. CEO Martin Brodigan no longer sits in the background. \u00a0He was up front with his team and fielded a great number of questions himself. \u00a0I always thought of him as more focused on headcount and the bottom line, but he clearly understands the business and he\u2019s really turned things around. Ricoh has a ton of new products I\u2019ll be writing about shortly. While the show has been a bit light on numbers and performance targets, there has been a great deal of discussion on strategy and I have to say I\u2019m excited for the direction they seem to be heading in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1649,1814,1865],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9068,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067\/revisions\/9068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}