TCPglobal - news, views and issues on total cost of printing

Issue #1005/2 – Following the unrest and strike action by Hewlett-Packard Staff (EDS employees) in the UK and parts of Europe over recent months (see "Hewlett-Packard’s need to return profit is showing cracks"), it is now reported that Hewlett-Packard’s rejection from the public sector bidding list in the UK has been confirmed – despite appealing against the original decision.

Issue #0929/1 – IBM has provided conclusive proof that, in a harsh economic environment, it is those that have a sold services offering that stand the best chance of surviving and even flourishing. IBM posted net profit for the 3rd quarter of 2009 to the tune of $3.2bn, up 14% on Q3 of last year, while all indications so far are that IT hardware sales, and even sales of printer supplies are still flagging badly.

Issue #0925/1 – Making the most significant announcement in some time, Hewlett-Packard revealed plans earlier this week to enable a more thorough Managed Print Services (MPS) offering – through an extended alliance with Canon for use of MFP hardware, which finally plugs the yawning gap in Hewlett-Packard’s printer and MFP hardware line-up, and the creation of a range of on-board MFP solutions designed to streamline and enhance the digital workflow in the enterprise.

Issue #0923/1 – As we enter the ‘new year’, post summer holidays, businesses are still able to take advantage of a great opportunity to acquire a projector free of charge. Projectors are being used by Samsung as an incentive to buy Samsung printers and MFPs – not for much longer though – offer ends in the last week of September.

Issue #0922/2 – With the economy hitting the bottom lines of corporations and SMEs hard, large printer manufacturers are increasingly targeting the MPS arena as a means to build their own annuity revenues while companies look for ways to reduce costs. For instance, Hewlett-Packard and Oki Printing Solutions have recently announced measures to encourage new customers to sign up for their MPS offerings while Xerox has pulled its enterprise MPS offering down to be accessible to small and medium-sized companies.