Canon is to acquire the Belgian I.R.I.S. Group. The takeover is seen as a milestone along the path which Rokus van Iperen, European President and CEO, hopes will lead to the world of digital document management. As it so happens, he will have to be patient, as the takeover is not going according to plan.
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Perceptive Software is continuing on its course of expansion. Since the beginning of this year, the Lexmark subsidiary company has bought up three software companies. The question remains on how it intends to earn money in Europe. While European CEO Kevin Goffinet remains silent, the German branch with its manager Stefan Welcker continues its path into direct sales – much to the displeasure of those German dealers who had already put their own money into this business area.
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Preliminary figures for the past financial year released by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG show signs of the company being back on the path to profitability and their self-proclaimed goal. The new CEO of the world’s largest printer manufacturer will be measured on whether he can reach the target. One of the deciding factors must be their new digital business area, which at least in part seems not to be running as smoothly as planned.
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With several acquisitions and product launches, the Canadian software service provider OpenText has continued its strategy of expanding its traditional Enterprise Content Management (ECM) offering into Enterprise Information Management (EIM). After the company announced record operating margins and declared to pay a dividend for the first time, investors will probably be satisfied. At the same time, not much development can be seen on the European market.
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According to research conducted by the EU statistics agency Eurostat, small to mid-sized companies are more likely to neglect ongoing IT training for their employees. The statistics show the greatest lack of training opportunities in some of the former Eastern Bloc countries and in Italy where in 2012, not even one in ten small companies gave their employees any IT training. It is the larger companies and northern countries in Europe that fare much better in the Eurostat survey.
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3D printers have reached the mass markets – and even President Barack Obama is already dreaming of a revolution in production. However, this is still a long way off, and the path is not just long, it is covered in shards.
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3D printing is now possible through various technologies, which vary in both quality and cost: Here an overview.
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Konica Minolta considers sustainability rooted to the very core of the company. This concept is reflected in medium and long-term ecological plans, various activities in the company’s subsidiaries as well as in the recent formation of a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) organisation reporting directly to the CEO. Nevertheless, Konica Minolta was not able to achieve all targets as the latest CSR report 2012 shows.
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Mobile printing plays an important role in an application of the software start-up company Ezeep, based in Berlin and supported by some well-know venture capital. It might seem surprising that the young entrepreneurs from Ezeep are taking an interest in the ‘old’ print technology. Even more surprising is the product launch process in slices: While the mobile print function made its public launch a few months ago with much ado, the company is very cagey on some additional new features.
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Ricoh has launched the first black-and-white printer based on its Liquid Gel inkjet technology. With the new device, the company is targeting price sensitive customers and intensifying its engagement in the office inkjet segment. The latter is getting more and more hard-fought, with new and established manufacturers competing for market shares.
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When it comes to communication strategies, Europe seems to be a rather difficult terrain for many printer manufacturers. While some of them virtually hide important news by communicating success stories only in their smallest subsidiaries, others flood the whole continent with reports that are only relevant for selected industries. Both strategies do not seem very effective in raising public awareness for a company and its products.
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Theoretically, printing is already possible from most mobile systems and devices but in most cases, mobile printing is far more complicated than the traditional printing from a PC. Only one of the four major mobile operating systems has an integrated print function that is compatible with devices from various printer vendors. But even this system still lags behind when compared to the options offered by conventional PC printing.
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At the start of their new fiscal year (through March 31st 2014), Oki chief Hideichi Kawasaki announced a reorganisation programme for the current Oki printer subsidiary Oki Data Corporation. He aims at a turnaround into the profit zone within the next three years. His targets do not seem very realistic considering the many mistakes made in the past – and under which the company is still suffering.
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Trying to increase its international relevance, the officials of the German eco label Blue Angel have presented two important IT companies willing to use the label for advertising in selected countries outside Germany. At the same time, internationalisation of environmental standards in the printing industry is promoted by a new EU Ecolabel for printed papers that might eventually also affect printer manufacturers – the more so as the Blue Angel is also working on a label for printed products.
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Normally, manufacturers are not too unhappy when their competitors begin to weaken, but with Canon and Lexmark this is currently not the case. The reason being that both suppliers have been unable to sell units to their OEMs in the quantities they did in the past.
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