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EPEAT standard
extended to
printers
Printer resellers have a new green standard
to take note of following an extension
of the Electronic Product Environmental
Assessment Tool (EPEAT) to cover printers,
copiers, MFPs and scanners.
Originally introduced for PCs and displays,
EPEAT assesses the green credentials of electronic
products; awards qualifying devices a Gold, Silver
or Bronze rating; and publishes a registry of
compliant products at www.epeat.net.
At launch, the registry included equipment from
Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, Lexmark, Ricoh and Xerox.
Two other manufacturers – Konica Minolta and
Samsung – have begun the process of registering
products.
At the time of going to press there were183
EPEAT-certified imaging products for the US
market, but not yet any for the UK.
Since the EPEAT registry was set up in July
2006, more than 50 manufacturers have registered
greener PCs, monitors, copiers, printers and
scanners with EPEAT and more than 533 million
EPEAT-registered products have been sold in more
than 40 countries.
Apogee founders buy
back shares
Apogee founders Barry Ferdinand and Jason
Collins have bought back shares owned by
LMS Capital (Bermuda) Limited in a deal worth
£16m. LMS became shareholders in Apogee in
2010 when they acquired a minority stake in the
managed document solutions company.
As part of the transaction, new Non-Executive
Director Nigel Wray has acquired a 10% stake in Apogee,
leaving each of the founders with a 45% shareholding.
Wray is a well-known figure in UK business. He has
invested in a number of privately owned and publicly
listed companies, including Domino’s Pizza, and is the
Chairman and major shareholder of Saracens Rugby
Football Club.
He commented: “I am very impressed with both
Apogee’s track record and their modus operandi. It’s
an exciting time to get involved long-term with Jason
and Barry.”
Since 2009, Apogee has doubled its turnover from
£33 million to £65 million through organic growth and
acquisitions. It has made 17 acquisitions to date, with
further targets in advanced stages of negotiation.
Apogee was founded 20 years ago and is Ricoh’s
No. 1 Prestige Dealer in the UK and Canon UK’s second
largest independent partner. Operating across the
UK and in Europe, it specialises in MPS and also has
Production Print and Voice & Data divisions.
Cost savings
continue to drive MPS
Despite efforts by vendors to move discussions
around MPS to issues such as big data,
process efficiency and data security, European
businesses still view cost reduction as the
main benefit of a managed print service,
according to a pan-European study from
Kyocera Document Solutions
(Managed
Document Services in Europe)
.
Seven out of 10 IT managers surveyed by
Loudhouse cited lowering costs as the main benefit,
followed by speedier operating procedures (52%) and
better cost transparency (47%).
Almost two thirds (64%) of respondents say they
have optimised their print and copy processes within
the last two years: 12% say they did so to enable
them to implement software solutions. These are
becoming more important, with 38% of IT managers
regarding automation of business processes as having
the largest effect on cost reduction.
Environmental factors continue to influence IT
investment choices: 87% said they would like to lower
energy consumption; 70% want to shrink their carbon
footprint; and 81% want to reduce waste.
Westcoast to distribute
entry-level Kyocera range
Westcoast has been appointed exclusive distributor
of Kyocera’s five-strong entry-level mono printer &
MFP range. Steve Mitchell, Group Product Marketing
Manager, said: “This entry level range is something
of a departure for KYOCERA and lets us bring our
exceptionally low printing costs to SMEs, SOHOs and
the homework environment where reliability and
performance is required and space is at a premium.
We’re delighted to work with Westcoast as our
exclusive partner for this new range. We selected
Westcoast because the team shares our focus on
delivering the best possible results for our users.”
3
Apogee founders Jason Collins
and Barry Ferdinand
NewField says
Goodbye to Newry
Following year-on-year growth of 50%
in 2012, NewField IT is starting the
year with a new business structure
and without the services of co-
founder Robert Newry who left the
company in March. To aid innovation
and product development, NewField
IT is restructuring its business from
three lines of business (LOB) to two.
The Consultancy and Consultancy
Automation LOB will bring together
the company’s MPS specialists and
the developers of its Asset DB and
CompleteView products. The Systems
Integration and Support LOB will
supply, integrate and support imaging,
workflow and printing software from
third parties such as Equitrac, SafeCom,
RightFax, GreenPrint, EveryonePrint
and NSi AutoStore.
Balreed to sell and
service Xerox
Independent print technology and
managed print services provider
Balreed has become a Xerox Authorised
Service Provider and Reseller, allowing
it to offer an even broader range of
products and services to its customers.
Balreed Managing Director Robin
Stanton-Gleaves said: “We have built
our reputation on delivering the most
pro-active, accountable levels of care
to our clients. At every stage, from
installation and client training to on-
going support, toner supply, billing and
reporting, it is Balreed staff our clients
depend on. This is why the Authorised
Service Provider status is so important
to us and I am delighted we now have
Xerox in our office and production
portfolio.”
Digital filing
Filing specialist Docudex has been
made a Xerox Business Innovation
Partner (XBIP). Docudex solutions
enable users of Xerox’s DocuShare
content management system to
connect with hard copy retrieval
systems, such as the Kardex Lektriever
vertical carousel, bringing the benefits
of digital information storage to the
hard copy world.
In Brief...
Integrated HyPAS technology on Kyocera MFPs like
the recently launched FS-C8520/C8525 A3 models
enable users to implement Java and web-based
print solutions.