Last month at Graph Expo Ricoh Americas Corporation introduced the Ricoh Pro 8100e series of monochrome production printers and the Ricoh Peripheral Interface Port (RPIP), which reportedly bring new capabilities to automate commercial, data center, and corporate production tasks more efficiently while enabling more options for in-line finishing.
The Ricoh Pro 8100e series includes the multifunction Ricoh Pro 8100se series models and printer-only Ricoh Pro 8100e series models, operating at speeds up to 135 pages per minute. The RPIP allows end users to expand their in-line finishing options and increase the speed and flexibility of their operation. According to a Ricoh press release, RPIP aids printers in reducing manual touch points and wait times between printing and finishing, which can lead to fewer errors, faster turnaround times and, by extension, more business.
Other notable characteristics of the RICOH Pro 8100e series printers include:
- The ability to print up to one million impressions per month
- Nine paper trays with capacity for up to 12,650 sheets
- A comprehensive list of in-line finishing options, including compatibility with CP Bourg, Duplo and Watkiss, printers for creating professional-grade booklets, reporters, brochures and more.
- Automation of tasks such as automatic stapling, hole-punching, saddle-stitching, de-curling and cover insertion.
- Integration with Ricoh TotalFlow® Prep, Print Manager, Path and BatchBuilder, which allows printers to streamline the output and workflow processes.
- The ability to print on stocks up to 350 g/m and can transition to textured, coated or specialty stocks automatically without slowing down job flow. MICR capabilities are also available for check printing.
A few weeks after the launch I spoke with Jim Coriddi, vice president Dealer Division, Ricoh Americas Corp., to discuss what this introduction means to the Ricoh dealer community.
The new products are an enhancement of last year’s introduction of the Ricoh Pro 8100, a product that Coriddi describes as “a true production product put out at a light production price.”
According to Coriddi, Ricoh has sold quite a few of these products, but not just in traditional production print environments.
“This product represents where Ricoh is with its dealers right now,” says Coriddi. “What I mean by that is our 8100 launched about a year ago was an exciting product in and of itself. It was a true production type of product that was put out at a light production price. We sold a lot of them, but what we found was our dealers were placing it in the education [market] in a lot more of a walkup production [environment].”
Seeing and seizing on that opportunity, the new Ricoh Pro 8100e incorporates various technological enhancements to make it a better fit in those types of markets.
“That’s why it’s so exciting, particularly from a positioning standpoint,” emphasizes Coriddi. “It’s a high volume black & white device when you’re in a one million [impression] a month volume environment.”
Among the enhancements that he expects will resonate with dealers selling to that market segment is the enhanced paper handling, a simpler and easier interface and now with the RPIG, an interface that allows users to use a wider range of third party finishers as well as an improved design that makes it easier to service from a preventative maintenance standpoint.
“When you look at that, even having the interface for third-party finishers and adding flexibility and being able to get to market faster, those finishers speak to how we’re working so much closer with our dealers,” states Corridi, especially that enhancement is based on dealer feedback. “It’s not just talking about strategy and what you do in your market, now it’s being influenced by our dealers to very quickly turn around new technology to better fit the markets where they play. That’s the story here more than anything.”
This unit is more of a true production type of unit.
“The thing we were not sure of was, was this going to expand and have the dealer into more of the true production type of environment or was this going to maintain itself in the more traditional environments the dealer plays in like the educational environment?” asks Coriddi. “Ultimately the enhancements allowed our dealers to get more aggressive in those traditional markets.”
It also enables the dealers who take this product on to be placed in a position, because of the price point, to expand their footprint with certain types of customers—those that play in the state and local government and education environments, for example.”
Initial feedback at Graph Expo was positive, but that was to be expected considering the source of the enhancements. Another plus is the pricing and flexibility of the product.
“One element as exciting as any is the flexibility on finishing side, and with dealers we spoke with before Graph Expo we explained to them we’re exploring ways to continue to improve the dealers CPP and certainly they’re excited about that,” adds Coriddi.
I concluded the interview by asking Coriddi if I were to run into him a year from now, what would he be saying about the performance of the Ricoh Pro 8100e?
“Our dealers were able to secure a wider range of placements than we had with the 8100 alone and along the same line, more dealers will be interested in this product because some dealers thought the 8100 was too oriented towards traditional production,” he responds. “Dealers will sell more into more markets and we’ll get interest from other dealers who want to carry it who were not initially carrying the 8100 because it has more flexibility in a light production environment.”
The Ricoh PRO 8100e should be available in mid October.
