As a supplement to this month’s State of the Industry report on ancillary products, we canvassed leading manufacturers to provide a sampling of non-MFP products that dealers may find instrumental in garnering more market share within their end-user accounts or as a stand-alone offering that can help entice prospective clients.
From scanners to ballot printers, unified communications solutions to label printers, and content management software to interactive displays, these products offer another tool that can address both the general office and specific vertical markets. In an age when the decentralized workforce is reshaping the modern office, introducing added talk tracks can ensure sales representatives are maximizing the full extent of their OEM’s lines, thus leaving no profit stones unturned.
ACDI
Research indicates that by 2030, 50% of new car sales will be electric vehicles. And Terra Energy Services, a division of ACDI, focuses on clean, sustainable energy options. It seems only natural that Terra would find a perfect fit within the electric vehicle space.
The company’s commitment to supplying its partners with smart EV charging stations, professional services and software support services is part of its efforts to create a North American network. The ultimate goal: making electrification accessible to everyone and effortless for all environments via everything from infrastructure planning to installation.
Through a combination of hardware, software and maintenance offerings, Terra helps its partners capitalize on the accelerated demand for electric vehicles and the need for a sustainable infrastructure to support that growth. Along with government incentives and a shifting focus toward sustainability, infrastructure will need to follow the EV influx.
Terra Energy Services prides itself on providing solutions for the next generation of infrastructure. With a commitment to supply charging stations, software assistance and professional solutions, the company is excited to navigate the future of electric vehicles with its partners from across the country and work toward the goal of making EV charging a simple process for commercial, fleet and residential settings.
Avision
A ballot-on-demand printer is an important tool for ensuring the accuracy and efficiency of the modern voting process. This vital component of modern elections is used by election officials around the world to ensure that voters are able to cast their ballots quickly, efficiently and securely.
Avision’s BallotExpress on-demand printer line provides a secure, efficient solution for election officials who need to accommodate a fluctuating number of voters throughout election day. It prints provisional and duplicate ballots on-site whenever needed, saving on costs of overstock, pre-printed ballots and protecting against shortages. This is particularly useful in helping precincts eliminate the need to stock and pull absentee ballots.
The device is small enough to fit a voting booth station and capable of duplex printing ballots up to 22” that are high quality, accurate and readable for all tabulation vendors. It prints at 40 ppm with fast first page out and low power consumption due to its ceramic fuser. Additionally, two printers can be simultaneously connected to one UPS power module to print for hours, ensuring elections can continue even when there’s a blackout.
Brother
The Brother ADS-4900W Professional Desktop Scanner provides advanced security, easy integration with existing workflows and improved productivity for businesses and workgroups with higher scan volumes such as those in health care, education and financial services. Its two-sided scanning up to 60 ppm can help maximize workgroup productivity. Users can also quickly scan stacks of paper with various sizes and weights via the 100-page capacity auto document feeder.
As more organizations adopt a hybrid work model, the ADS-4900W can help streamline the process of digitizing, organizing, and sharing documents while making them accessible immediately. Features include the flexibility to integrate with current business processes and systems, and the ability to scan to a number of destinations—including cloud services, email and SharePoint—for collaborative purposes. Triple Layer Security features help to safeguard the network, keep the device secure and protect scanned documents.
An included software suite allows users to create, edit and convert scanned documents into a variety of file formats including searchable PDFs, secure PDFs, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Documents can also be scanned for mobile devices, and image optimization features help maximize output quality. Additionally, this Keypoint Intelligence Buyers Lab (BLI) 2023 Pick Award winner includes a three-year limited warranty and at-your-side support for the life of the product with each device.
Canon U.S.A.
Developed by Canon U.S.A. to help support high productivity and employee engagement, the AMLOS (Activate My Line of Site) solution is a software-and-camera product suite designed to support modern hybrid meetings. The AMLOS solution is an additional layer on top of an organization’s existing, compatible conference solution. It allows both in-person and remote participants to engage in meetings, providing an intuitive experience with hand gesture controls for in-person participants, and a user interface that can be customized by a remote participant to help promote collaboration. The AMLOS solution consists of software and a Canon CR-N300 or CR-N500 PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera.
AMLOS generated wide industry acclaim for its efforts in helping hybrid work teams stay engaged with one another and well-connected despite being in different locations. Keypoint Intelligence, a global market research firm and independent evaluator of print and smart workplace technology and services, named AMLOS a winner of its Buyers Lab (BLI) 2023 Outstanding Innovation Award, which followed an April announcement from ProductionHUB, a leading entertainment and media industry publication, which named it an Award of Excellence winner. AMLOS also won the InfoComm Best of Show Award after Canon’s presence in the show in June.
Most notably, AMLOS won a 2023 CES Best of Innovation Award in the Software and Mobile Apps category, one of 17 honorees out of a record-high submission pool of over 2,100 products at CES 2023.
Epson
In an effort to expand the company’s commitment to providing a breadth of digital imaging solutions, Epson added A3 document scanners to its commercial scanner portfolio. This was the company’s direct answer for customers who wanted high speed at an affordable price point.
The Epson DS-32000 large-format document scanner is designed for high-volume workloads and includes productivity features that can help increase efficiency and streamline workflow. Print speeds clock in at up to 90 ppm1 with a peak daily duty cycle of 40,000 sheets,2 and it accommodates sheets up to 12×17”, folded pages, plastic cards, sealed envelopes, and passports.3 The DS-32000 features a compact footprint for the modern workspace and has a flexible design, providing vertical and horizontal feed options as well as easy rotation for convenient storage.
Designed for a wide range of industries including finance, insurance, legal, government, postal and health care, the DS-32000 is equipped with productivity tools that include a 120-sheet auto document feeder, dual-sided scanning, a programmable 2.7” touchscreen and paper-protection function. Additional technologies include Slow Speed Mode for delicate sheets, Double-Feed Detection and Paper Protection for preventing misfeeds or damage, and Dynamic Skew Correction for detecting and correcting skews. The device is also equipped with advanced TWAIN and ISIS drivers for seamless compatibility with document management systems.
- Based on 300 dpi, letter-size, landscape orientation, black-and-white, color or gray.
- Peak daily duty cycle is the highest recommended number of scanned sheets per day. For best results, do not exceed the peak daily duty cycle. Calculations based on maximum scanning speed and an assumed daily use time.
- Optional carrier sheet required.
Konica Minolta
For companies whose business continuity relies on calling capability, the shift to hybrid and remote work styles creates challenges as they struggle to emulate their in-office systems for remote employees. Eliminating the need for physical phones and seamlessly deploying a business phone system through always-available devices reduces the complexity, time to deploy and overall cost, allowing businesses to run smoothly from anywhere.
In response, Konica Minolta recently expanded its unified communications (UC) offering. The Direct Routing for Teams solution provides a cloud platform as a service (CPaaS) to support the entire calling lifecycle, including migration, deployment, capacity management, support, analytics and integration. Simple automation allows users to be up and running with full calling capabilities in minutes.
Direct Routing for Teams automates direct routing capabilities while solving for carrier-hosted SBCs, on-premises SIP trunks or bring-your-own SBCs. It delivers a secure and reliable solution by creating a more streamlined and robust user experience to collaborate, interact and manage ongoing communication projects from anywhere. Konica Minolta expects that Direct Routing for Teams will be the fastest-growing SaaS solution ever sold by the company.
Lexmark
According to the U.S. Census, 21.5% of people in the United States speak a language other than English at home. Organizations, regardless of industry, are more often finding a need to communicate with people who speak different languages to bridge linguistic barriers.
To assist dealers with this challenge, Lexmark offers real-time document translation services via the Lexmark Translation Assistant (LTA). It provides real-time document language translation via a Lexmark MFP. Customers can scan documents in the original language, select from several output languages and receive a translated copy within minutes. The translated documents can then be printed or emailed directly to recipients, helping to streamline and improve communications with customers, students, parents and constituents.
LTA is designed to help dealers offer their customers an easy-to-use solution that:
- Translates printed documents in English into one of several languages within minutes.
- Allows them to print or email translated documents and send directly to recipients.
- Provides a convenient subscription service.
For more information on Lexmark Translation Assistant, contact your Lexmark sales representative.
Ricoh
Ricoh has prided itself on building a stable of solutions that remove workplace bottlenecks, helping to optimize efficiency and service for customers. For example, XM Fax assists businesses in adapting their fax systems to the ever-growing reality of remote and hybrid workforces. This cloud faxing solution lets users securely send and receive faxes from anywhere using a laptop, tablet or smartphone, eliminating the need for fax hardware and infrastructure along with their associated costs.
Another solution, Ricoh Hybrid Mail, addresses remote work for businesses that need to mail to individuals. By replacing onsite departmental printers and pre-printed stationery with a secure web-based print driver, Hybrid Mail enables users to submit jobs to a remote print room where the documents are printed, inserted and mailed based on pre-established workflows.
To bolster its digital workplace services capabilities for enterprises around the world, Ricoh acquired Cenero—a service-focused audio-visual technology, unified communications, and IT solutions provider—in September 2022. Cenaro’s suite of solutions includes systems design and delivery as well as managed services that complement Ricoh’s portfolio of remote and hybrid business services. This allows Ricoh to offer a range of flexible solutions that drive productivity by empowering collaboration and improving communication.
Additionally, Ricoh helps distributed/remote teams increase their business agility with DocuWare, its document management and workflow automation solution. DocuWare saves, stores, manages and shares documents in the office or at home, regardless of format or source. This ensures documents are secure, accessible, usable and compliant while offering application integrations that keep processes moving and productivity high.
Sharp
When creating its signature AQUOS BOARD interactive display systems, Sharp aimed high—the company wanted to change the way users communicate. It aimed for a solution that could motivate audiences to get involved while also improving images and intended messaging all around.
To that end, the system’s built-in screen sharing application enables multifaceted wireless communication while the responsive touch pens allow several people to write on the same touch screen at the same time, increasing collaboration and efficiency. Advanced optical detection technology and infrared dual touch help ensure greater accuracy to increase usability and precision.
AQUOS BOARD interactive display systems come in a variety of sizes up to 86” class (85.6” diagonal) with HD clarity. Users can create work plans, highlight key topics, annotate files and more, and then share the marked-up documents or print hard copies. Documents and images scanned from a color-scan-capable Sharp MFP can be imported directly to the pen software for display on the AQUOS BOARD. For added convenience, image data shown onscreen—including notations—can be saved to a PC or sent directly to an MFP for printout.
Toshiba
Toshiba’s latest creation, the Duplex Linerless 4” Thermal Printer (DL1024) is designed to simplify everyday packaging applications for modern shipping and logistics operations. It not only streamlines everyday tasks for warehouse professionals, but also offers the added benefits of reducing costs and boosting productivity while helping organizations operate more ecologically.
The DL1024 combines two separate labels—such as shipping and packing lists—into a single, two-sided, linerless label, eliminating the plastic pouch and label liner as well as the need for a second label. This enables organizations to function more sustainably for the life of the printer.
Utilizing Premier Print & Services Group’s Linerless DuplexPackSlip label, the DL1024 reduces up to 40 percent of labeling cost by reducing the consumables for an extra label as well as the materials necessary for attaching a packing list to a parcel. The printer also helps minimize labor time for applying package labels.
Delivering up to 24 labels per minute at 203 dpi resolution, the DL1024 features a 3,000-media-roll capacity for increased speed and efficiency when preparing parcels for shipment. A vibrant, intuitive 10.1” LCD touchscreen control panel enhances the user experience for logistics personnel, while rugged components help it withstand the often-inclement conditions many warehouses and distribution centers experience.
Xerox
The Xerox DocuShare content management solution provides dealers with a method for bundling software offerings with their hardware to capture recurring revenue.
They can combine it with multifunction printers (MFPs) to offer customers a comprehensive content management solution that helps them capture, store, collaborate, manage and automate business documents, processes and systems. This enables dealers to provide another way to differentiate from competitors while increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
DocuShare solutions integrate with existing systems, such as email, document scanners and MFPs, to facilitate document capture, storage, and retrieval, opening opportunities beyond traditional MFPs and allowing dealers to build a new customer base. Dealers can provide solutions to customers looking for more than hardware, allowing a more comprehensive range of solutions that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of their customers, including document management, workflow automation, cloud solutions and secure printing.
DocuShare’s featured solutions include:
Xerox DocuShare Go
(Lite Content Management)
- Team collaboration and connectivity.
- Low-touch IT out-of-the-box.
- Secure, anytime, anywhere access.
- Workflow automation approval.
- Faster content discovery with AI, ML, and Advanced OCR/ICR.
- Low cost of entry.
- High scalability.
Xerox DocuShare Flex Digital Mail (Digital Transformation for Mailrooms)
- Efficient content management.
- Increased productivity.
- Accelerated mailroom processing and distribution.
- Digitization and routing of physical mail.
- Simplified compliance.
- Secure access to mail and correspondence.
- Mailroom optimization and consolidation.
