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234 replies

Rumor has it.....

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ChuckChuckElite P4P'er
Rumor verified w/email from HQ. Also all Non-Sales will be asked to take unpaid five-day furlough. Not verified but heard reliably is RIF of 25% Production Print Sales Reps and 500 Gen'l Line Salesforce. This probably just make the IKON/Ricoh marriage easier although it also feed the ranks of Canon and dealers if they are looking at quality rather than quantity to shore-up their ranks.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
The inmates continue to run the asylum at Ricoh, Direct (IKON & RBS) is not profitable, Dealers are being squeezed instead of hugged, and general morale is at an all-time low over in HQ. Moreover, you now see talented executives, such as Ron Potesky, jumping ship to find safe harbor. If the axe must fall, I simply hope the correct heads get chopped (which has not happened over the past 6 months).
AP Art Post (Guest)
quote:
e

quote:
Also all Non-Sales will be asked to take unpaid five-day furlough.



I have heard that this is also true, but all of the will make Ricoh leaner and meaner, there are those that think Ricoh is on the downside, however thier equipment has never been better and they are hedging the future with hardware.

Let's see when was the last time you saw some like Quanp from the likes of Sharp, Canon, Xerox or KonicaMinolta?

Do any of these companies have anything closely related to Document Mall?

I could go on and on, but I've got to finishing posting items on other boards.

Cheers!
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
UPDATE: FRIDAY 9/25/09

IKON employees are not subject to the 'mandatory' 5 Day furlough, just the employees on the Ricoh side.

An announcement has also been made in regard to Ricoh's pension, wherein all activity will be ceased. However, any changes to the Ricoh pension do not apply to IKON employees.

As you could imagine, the Ricoh employees are not happy.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
In other news, Matt Espe (IKON) will be taking control of Ricoh, as President and CEO. I guess whoever said that IKON would begin to swallow Ricoh, was indeed correct. I once joked (April Fool's) that they were putting up an IKON sign at Ricoh HQ in NJ and taking down the Ricoh sign. They may not go so far as to make that cosmetic change, but the poloitcal change has just set sail. What will the Independent Rioch / Savin / Lanier Dealers think about this change? Time will tell.
T txeagle24Maven
quote:
Originally posted by Art Post:
Was told last week by a Ricoh employee that Ricoh will be offering the InfoPrint (Lexmark) A4 machines soon.


I heard this rumor as well and confirmed it with my Lexmark DSM. He said, however, that the Ricoh-branded products will be somewhat stripped down and will not have some of the Lexmark solutions that are available.
T txeagle24Maven
quote:
Originally posted by M138:
I wonder if that will work with reynolds and reynolds. Those bastards changed their print stream to only work with lexmark.


Reply from my Lexmark DSM regaring whether the BSD models are compatible with Reynolds & Reynolds and whether or not there would be embedded connectors available for RR:

"- There should be no compatibility issues with any of the BSD models
connecting to the R&R system. Their print streams are standard PCL.

- We have never done any work with any of the BSD apps and the R&R system.
While we have made numerous proposals to them over the years regarding a
variety of workflow solutions with MFP's, they have never moved forward
with them. I wish I could provide some helpful insight on this one, but
we really don't have any to offer."
M138M138Senior P4P'er
there is something not standard about that stream.I've tried it before w/ RPCS, PCL/Universal Print Driver, PostScript and all were complete failures. I put in another box w/ emulated postscript and had some better results but still the output wasn't right and the trays wouldn't switch.. had an SE d/l print streams and send them up the line, on and on.. The thing that is really frustrating about it is to put yourself in the customer's shoes.. they are being pushed around pretty hard right now by auto mfg's and paying thru the nose already to either R&R or ADP and now R&R is further tightening the noose
AP Art Post (Guest)
Two guys I know were let go in marketing. I think the total number was 50 or 60 from across the US, however keep in mind that Ikon, and Infoprint are slowing being merged in.

Heard this today that a RBS branch is closing and it will be replaced with an IKON branch......CRAZY huh?
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
Who posted this last September 2009:

"In other news, Matt Espe (IKON) will be taking control of Ricoh, as President and CEO. I guess whoever said that IKON would begin to swallow Ricoh, was indeed correct. I once joked (April Fool's) that they were putting up an IKON sign at Ricoh HQ in NJ and taking down the Ricoh sign. They may not go so far as to make that cosmetic change, but the poloitcal change has just set sail. What will the Independent Rioch / Savin / Lanier Dealers think about this change? Time will tell."

The Ricoh e-mail went out at 8:02 AM today.
AP Art Post (Guest)
confirmed MATT Espe is now CEO of Ricoh Americas Corp, thus having Control of Ricoh Americas which includes Ricoh Canada and LAD (Latin American Division), Martin Brodigan is now CFO of Ricoh Americas and Jeff Hicklin (former IKON) is now President of Ricoh US!

Ricoh also created Ricoh Americas Holding Company which incororates all od the above or so I'm told!
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
I think this serves as a wake up call to all RFG (Ricoh / Savin / Lanier) Independent Dealers. The 'Dealer Talking Points' suggest that the new leadership structure will continue to provide strong support for the Dealer community. Utilizing the experiences and expertise accumulated thus far by RBS and IKON, the new integrated management team will minimize conflict in the marketplace.

By the way, Kiyo Shimuzu will continue to lead Ricoh’s U.S. Dealer channel, and the current RVPs will also remain the same. So, anyone hoping that The Sheriff and the Deputy would slide into new roles at the top will be disappointed.

So, who's ready to call the new IKON guys (I mean Ricoh senior management) for help?
AP Art Post (Guest)
I heard this the other day at the AIIM/OnDemand Show in Phili, by a former Ricoh employee. Ricoh Americas Corp which is headquartered in West Caldwell will be moving to Malvern, PA!!!!!

Isaid no, no,......can't be...however reasoning was Ricoh Americas is out of space in NJ, operating inb three seperate building I beleive. Senior reps are from the Malvern area, and the Malvern facility is huge!!

I still don't beleive it,however as we've stated he, ya never know!
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
quote:
Ricoh Americas is out of space in NJ, operating inb three seperate building I beleive


This is very true, even though recent layoffs have freed up some space in the NJ buildings. Yet, with the IKON PA Army, they could never just utilize those three NJ buildings when IKON is integrated. I suspected this and do believe the 'rumor.' A lot of the rumors on this thread have come to fruition.
AP Art Post (Guest)
Ricoh A4 devices to hit market at the end of this year. Heard theat they are true MFP's and not combined printing and scanner. New engine design and corp is worried they'll damage A3 sales.

I made a comment that what's the big deal about hurting A3 sales, since all of the money is in the consumables? Seems now there is quite a bit of profit in the A3 devices as I'm told.

BTW new wide format to replaced the aged W3600 has been pushed back to November.
B badluck (Guest)
quote:
Originally posted by GMAN:
Ricoh (Rikon) will keep the two Headquarter locations (West Caldwell, NJ and Malvern, PA).

The Savin or Lanier brand will go away on or around 3/31/11.


Will be interesting to see how that affects the local dealers who carry Savin or Lanier???
C copymeMaven VIP
Actually I meant the rumor that the Savin and Lanier labels would be absorbed by the Ricoh label.

The article you referenced is about Ikon being absorbed by Ricoh in Canada only.

I am with a Savin dealer and have heard they will keep the name going forward, but you never know, that is why I want to find out if this rumor is founded in anything definite?
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
It was announced on Friday (10/1/10) that IKON will fold into RBS and that the IKON name will be eliminated, with additional layoffs on the horizon. This could be the first in a series of moves to place an even heavier focus on Direct operations, which could be followed by the Lanier or Savin brand also being eliminated by 4/1/11. Has anyone else heard that the IKON name is being eliminated and RBS will be the sole 'Direct' channel?
GIntelGIntelMaven
This makes sense.

When Ricoh Canada announced that it had integrated of all of IKON Canada's assets and liabilities in August, Ricoh Canada said that it was the first step in a worldwide integration of the IKON channel and the IKON brand, so the US is a logical next step.

I can't say if the rumors regarding the integration of the Savin and/or Lanier brands , but from a supply chain perspective, it makes more sense to me to only operate and supply on brand.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
More information...

If you are a Savin Dealer, you now have a DSM that will handle:

A. Savin Independent Dealers
B. Lanier Independent Dealers
C. Ricoh Independent Dealers

Same goes if you are a Lanier or Ricoh Dealer.

Mark Conant (RVP, South) and John Stewart (RVP West) are now the two (2) Regional Vice Presidents for Dealer Division, who will now be spread thin if you are trying to get in touch with them.

More to come...
AP Art Post (Guest)
New Ricoh East Regio willlook like this:

Mark Conant, VP
Ginger Adams, Assistant

direct to Mark -

Dru Baker, Area Director South
Scott Kitchens
Kevin Doyle, area Director, East
Strategic Marketing Manager (open)

Dru Baker Reports

Gerry Davis M Spears
D Degner K Reidy
S COle G Powers
L Salazar F Rubino
S Ross Smith
open J Cannon
open


Scott Kitchens Reports

Meraviglia Cannon
J Moran Valdez
DiCarlo Macklin
Goldsmith L Stone
C Jacobs

Kevin Doyle Reports

D'Agastino J Palermo
T Zailo Gorman
Vitale open
Dudek J Tambone
Rantilla TBA
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
Dear Ricoh Family Group Dealers,

Thank you for your continued support of Ricoh. We truly appreciate your business. As you know, our dealer channel is a critical part of our growth strategy.

Our new integrated leadership team at Ricoh has been focusing on a strong growth strategy through our dealers, and increasing the level of support we provide to you. While we see many dealerships aggressively growing their business with Ricoh, we still recognize the need to further increase our financial and structural support to help expand and grow your business in the coming years. With this important strategic plan in mind, I have decided to make some changes to our internal dealer division organization, effective December 1, 2010.

Our new dealer division support structure is designed to best align our sales and support resources to continue providing you with strong sales coverage, while also helping you better respond to changing market and customer demands, as well as providing focused programs to help support your growth objectives. Our new structure is organized geographically, rather than by brand. Through this structure, we will provide strong coverage and support to all Ricoh, Savin and Lanier dealers in a given geography, with District Business Managers supporting all dealers in a geography, regardless of brand. Of course, our commitment to the three brands remains unchanged and we will still go to market through our dealer channel under three brands – Ricoh, Savin and Lanier.

Our new structure will have enhanced teams exclusive to dealers that you can call on to support you in key strategic areas, such as Managed Document Services (MDS). We will also utilize additional MDS resources within Ricoh to assist with your business growth in this area. Other dealer support specialists will focus on production printing and digital duplicators for the dealer channel, while Vertical Market Managers will help you leverage Ricoh’s relationships with group purchasing organizations.

Additionally, several other new functions and systems are being created to improve the general service level for our dealers. These include new marketing tools, web services, simple purchasing methods and inventory efficiencies, to name a few.
Lastly, as part of our new structure, the dealer service support team is now exclusively dedicated to the dealer channel
.
Our new Region structure for the dealer division now consists of two Regions, East and West, led by Mark Conant and John Stewart respectively, as Region Vice Presidents. In addition, reporting to Mark and John, we will have four Areas, with Area Directors leading a team of sales and support specialists to help you meet your business objectives.

With our dealer division changes, Art Mahony and Bill Corry will take on new responsibilities within Ricoh. I appreciate their hard work and excellent contributions over the years. Please join me in wishing them success with their future endeavors.
Your new District Business Manager and Region and Area leaders will be in contact with you to review the structure and support in more detail. I strongly believe that this new organization structure will enhance our capability to increase our support to our dealer community, while increasing your dealership’s capability to respond to new market requirements and growth opportunities. Should you have any questions about this announcement, please reach out to Mark Conant, John Stewart or myself.

Best regards,
Kiyo Shimizu
Vice President, Dealer Division
Ricoh U.S.
AP Art Post (Guest)
txeagle24

I agree, but what happends when you have two mamouth dealers in the same geo area, like ricoh and savin? Who gets the best support, the best pricing, the best deal making?

We lost three support people yesterday and they all did a fine job. I was told by someone else that at lease in the (old) East Region that almost 90% of the business business was written by 20% of the dealers. I'm thinking that maybe just maybe Ricoh is willing to part ways with the 80% or concentrate more on the 80% to bring their revenues even higher.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
Ricoh is prepared to lose revenue from Dealer Division, as a result of this change. Yet, they need the $5M cost reduction now and thus, more talented individuals lost their jobs. The revenue is big from IKON, but not the GP. Ricoh Japan took action to reduce costs...on the backs of Dealer Division and it's employees, where the profits has historically been made. When the Dealer revenue declines (along with Profit), this will be one big machine not able to look to IKON for profit. MDS ain't gonna get it done for them.
T txeagle24Maven
quote:
Originally posted by Art Post:
txeagle24

I agree, but what happends when you have two mamouth dealers in the same geo area, like ricoh and savin? Who gets the best support, the best pricing, the best deal making?
.


I think that in that case, everything else being equal & assuming that both dealers only carry RFG gear, the nod goes to dealer that has the best relationship w/ the powers that be at Ricoh Americas, or to the dealer that is moving the most of what Ricoh considers to be the "flavor of the month" at that period in time.

For example, in my market, a Ricoh dealer that is new to our market but is one of the larger Ricoh dealers in the country is likely to get preferential treatment in our market. They came to our market when the largest Ricoh dealer in our market was acquired by Xerox as part of the Global takedown. The interesting thing is that one of the smaller RFG dealers in our market has been making some headway w/ incentives from Ricoh because their new owner was a principal in the former Ricoh dealer that is now owned by Xerox. Prior to the recession, we were the fastest growing Lanier dealer in our region, but now I wonder where we'll be on the todem pole since all brands roll up to one guy. We shall see.
T txeagle24Maven
quote:
Originally posted by GMAN:
MDS ain't gonna get it done for them.


You've got that right. One of my Lanier MFP customers has a Lexmark fleet running roughly 100k per month. Due to compatible cartridges not being available for the majority of their fleet, at $.0198 we would be at roughly half of our target margin. Ricoh (RBS) came in and wrote the deal at $.0170 (4% margin for us as a Lexmark BSD) across the fleet and stated that when they can get compatibles they should be able to reduce the CPP to $.0150. If MDS is their primary hope for remaining semi-profitable, they are already putting that at risk by doing the same low-margin deals in MDS that they've been doing for the last several years in MFP hardware & aftermarket.
JasonRJasonRMaven VIP
quote:
Originally posted by txeagle24:
stated that when they can get compatibles they should be able to reduce the CPP to $.0150.


It is highly unlikely the compatible market for Lexmark will ever be consistent enough to put in a compatible-only plan. Lexmark does a great job of getting their cores back in their warehouse and keeping them out of anyone else's.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
Posted by txeagle24:

"everything else being equal & assuming that both dealers only carry RFG gear, the nod goes to dealer that has the best relationship w/ the powers that be at Ricoh Americas, or to the dealer that is moving the most of what Ricoh considers to be the "flavor of the month" at that period in time."

You might also think that the RFG Dealer who had / has the best relationship with the DSM left standing in that area, will get the bexst treatment. For example, if the Lanier DSM remained employed in a certain area, the Lanier Dealer would receive the best support and financial benefits.

The game board has just cahnged.

Rules of Engagement are out the window.

The legacy IKON sales organization is loving the chaos within Ricoh Dealer Division and prepared to attack.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
Next steps in the transition:

1. Technical Service Representatives (TSR) may be eliminated or reassigned, such as Sales staff were this past week. IKON Service Technicians will begin to support RFG Independent Dealers. This is already happening in some instances, wherein an IKON Service Technical will act as the TSR for a Dealer and visiting Dealer accounts to help resolve technical issues with Ricoh equipment.

2. Malvern, PA to become Ricoh HQ in the long term. This is not happening until late 2012, yet it will happen. Announcements to close the West Caldwell building at 5 Dedrick and sell the building (that they own) to raise capital, will be made next fiscal year (FY2011). Ricoh has office space in surounding buildings in that area, such as Ricoh University, which may remain open.
B badluck (Guest)
quote:
So will the IKON name remain intact or will it change? How will Ricoh decide who to keep in the overlapped areas of the technical departments?



Word from inside is it's just a matter of time til the IKON name is gone..may be a few months, may be a few yrs..but it WILL happen
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
The IKON name will be gone, but their executives and managers will hold key spots in the organization, their Service Techs will begin to assist with Dealer accounts, their IT folks are running the Servers, their HR group just slammed some real talented Dealer Division employees, and their Sales Reps will be retained.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
What did they mention at Convergence about this...

Ricoh to cut 10,000 jobs out of 109,000 global workforce

Ricoh aims to triple op profit to 210 bln yen in 2013/14

Latest restructuring by Japanese firm after March 11 quake (Recasts with company confirmation)

TOKYO, May 26 (Reuters) - Japanese copier and printer maker Ricoh Co said it would cut nearly 10 percent of its workforce as it looks to boost its sagging profits and fend off competition from the likes of Xerox and Canon Inc .

Ricoh said in a statement on Thursday it plans to reduce about 10,000 staff from a global workforce of 109,000, a move it expects will give a 140 billion yen ($1.7 billion) boost to its operating profit over the next three years.

Shares of Ricoh jumped 7.2 percent on the restructuring news, which was first reported by the Nikkei newspaper.

"We have become a big company and need to re-engineer our corporate structure throughout to become more muscular," Ricoh President and CEO Shiro Kondo told a news conference.

"We have done very little pruning of unprofitable businesses, and we need to pull out of some."

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi and James Topham in Tokyo and Maneesha Tiwari in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Nathan Layne)
JasonRJasonRMaven VIP
quote:
Originally posted by GIntel:
Any thoughts on why Canon released the engineers?

Is demand for this role down or are the sourcing this duty to CBS?


At our dealership at least, demand for this role has never been higher, and we've always been a big software/solution seller.

I could *guess* that they are combining roles with duplication across Canon/CBS/Océ, but I don't have any data to back that up.
VinceMcHughVinceMcHughMaven VIP
As far as Canon releasing Solutions Engineers...
Too often top management doesn't understand exactly what an SE does, because its hard to quantify their impact. A good pre-sales SE is to a Sales Organization like yeast is to bread, you only notice when its not there.

Several years ago I was hired by RBS-Boston to reconstitute the solutions team that they had disbanded two years earlier. Of course the branches sale tanked, and they finally figured out they needed Pre-Sales SEs. They brought me on as The Solutions Manager for the Branch and while it took a good year to build the right chemistry between my team and the sales team, by the end of our second year we had hit our triple crown numbers at RBS-Boston. No other direct Ricoh branch did it that year, and that branch (RBS-Boston) had never before accomplished it.

At the end of that year Ricoh merged with Lanier and we had a joint end of the year meeting where they informed me that they were moving my team of Pre-Sales SEs under the Service Department???? It was clear that top management at Ricoh did not understand what we do or the value of quality Pre-Sales SE. So I moved on to my current position. I did however get a phone call from a RBS Sales Manager six months later telling me that my name came up in a manager's meeting and they calculated that they lost one million dollars in sales since I left that (he said) they would have won if I was still there. His words not mine. I of course asked if I could get that in writing, on Ricoh letterhead... I am still waiting for that letter.:-)

So if we have to quantify the impact of a good Pre-Sales SE it can be as much as 2 million dollars of sales a year. It has shown me that the people who make the decisions at the top often don't understand the impact or contribution of their SEs. They long for the "good old days" when they simply moved boxes.So from time to time they get rid of their SEs and then they notice that their sales organization looks a lot like bread without yeast = flat!

That's my $0.02
Vince McHugh
JasonRJasonRMaven VIP
Great story!

Our dealership has done the exact same thing with similar results. Put SE's in place, experience growth. Cut SE's (hey look! here's a non-revenue producing position!), experience slump. Come to the realization you need them again and hire people who can't quite do what the experienced people you cut were doing.
GIntelGIntelMaven
GIS sure is expanding fast, so I can see where these rumors come from, but I dont see GIS becoming Xerox's only MFP sales arm. GIS is too independent and does not have the international coverage to support Xerox's international clients.

Xerox will continue to sell MFPs directly to the largest companies, but it will be a "solutions-led" sales strategy. They will continue to sell production directly too.

I could see Xerox relinquish mid-market accounts to the channel and/or agents. The margin on mid-market accounts is about 12% lower when vendors sell directly vs. through partners. This is the reason HP gave most of its smaller MPS accounts to channel partners in Europe a few years back. Global and its largest agents and dealers will handle the bulk of Xerox's mid-market business. XPPS will allow channel partners to better address the mid-market.

Xerox will exclusively sell to SMBs through Global, resellers, and agents.

I agree with GMAN that Global is positioned to make the bulk of Xerox SMB sales.. Consider this, three or four of the highest volume Sharp dealers are GIS companies. These guys can sell!
T txeagle24Maven
I know that in DFW all Xerox Direct accounts have been assigned over to the local Global branch. That Global branch was a massive Ricoh & Konica Minolta dealer prior to the Xerox acquisition, and they struggled at retaining that base over the past few years with RBS, IKON and 7 other RFG dealers chasing after their Ricoh placements. I wonder if part of this move is to further subsidize GIS with SMB accounts while conveniently allowing Xerox Direct to transition to selling solutions & services to larger organizations.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
This is just the first wave, with additional cuts coming at Christmas or soon after the New Year.

From Industry Analysts:

"220 employees from Ricoh will be officially laid off as of today. Although still unconfirmed, sources that wish to remain anonymous within the organization have told us that an announcement will be made shortly. We’ve been told a mix of 220 IKON and Ricoh employees at the director level and above will be affected.

The move does not come as a surprise as earlier this year Ricoh announced massive layoffs. Ricoh is in the midst of a major worldwide restructuring, as evidenced by the recent news they may close their UK toner division, announcements last week they had cut headcount at their InfoPrint Solutions Plant, and even the elimination of US President and CEO Jeff Hickling.

It appears that Ricoh is consolidating redundant positions in the field and possibly at Malvern PA and West Caldwell locations"

The move helps accelerate the transition of HQ from West Caldwell, NJ to Malvern, PA by April 1, 2012.
Y yetiDocusultant P4P'er
any dealers get this letter?

http://industryanalysts.com/IA...Field_Structure.html

Dear RFG Dealer Principals,
Yesterday, Ricoh announced a new District field structure for our direct channel in the U.S. that will bring a stronger alignment of growth initiatives to the field. While this change does not directly impact the dealer channel, I wanted to share some details with you about how this change will help strengthen our dealer/direct relationships and collaboration. As a valued partner we want to keep you informed of the exciting changes taking place within the direct channel.
Over the past decade, Ricoh has invested in a broad portfolio of products and services and has gained market share in the industry through its strategic acquisitions and vision of growth. This has included a focus on both our direct distribution and dealer channels, as well as improved collaboration between the two channels. Over this time, we have made investments to expand our services business model as a key growth strategy, including a focus on IT Services, expansion of our production print portfolio, and the ongoing development of the ChaMPS program for our dealers to leverage Ricoh’s services resources.
To further integrate and align our direct channel for growth and services, we are introducing a new streamlined District field structure in the U.S. for our direct channel with 10 geographic Districts, which replaces our former Region and Area structure. Under this new District model, District Vice Presidents (DVPs) will drive our sales execution in the field, supported by a national model for technology services delivery and enterprise services operations. Dave Greene, Vice President, Direct Sales, will have continued responsibility for direct channel sales under this new structure.

As part of this announcement, we also announced a future step in our direct channel integration as it relates to aligning under a unified brand. In April 2012, we will leverage the strength of a single brand, transitioning the IKON brand to Ricoh in the U.S. This does not impact the Savin and Lanier brands in the U.S., and we will continue to align our dealer channel under the Ricoh, Savin and Lanier brands.

Our dealer channel support structure remains unchanged and we look forward to providing the same strong support for our dealer community that you have come to expect. Under the leadership of the District Vice Presidents (DVPs), the direct channel will continue their collaboration with dealers. The District model also provides for a single point of contact for dealers into our direct channel through the DVPs.
We will continue to provide the tools and strategies to help you grow your business as you remain a critical part to Ricoh’s business strategy. If you have any questions, please contact me or your Region Vice President.
Thank you for your continued commitment.


Jim Coriddi
Vice President, Dealer Division
AP Art Post (Guest)
Lets see IKON brand is now gone...(good), however does "not directly impact the dealer channel" mean no impact at all or there may be some impact?

I heard that there were 220 layoffs, however no one has been able to confirm this, I'm thinking this is all on the direct side of the channel?

Seems to me Ricoh has concentrated on Production systems and MDS (Champs), and have left gaping holes in the product line. Since most dealers don't or can't afford to carry the Production Units and most dealers are not doing the Champs program. I see this as a benefit for the Direct more than dealer.

We (Dealers) still don't have the A4 blacks systems, seems now that there was never a low end wide format LED device, and we have no A3 Black product except for the repositioned MP2500B (which is 3 years old).

Just wish they would get their act together....
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
Ricoh laid off roughly thirty (30) employees in their IT Department last week and they were legacy 'Ricoh' folks. Meaning, IKON IT personnel were protected and are still employed. I think I mentioned this before, but a friend of mine stated that Ricoh Inventory Control / Logistics / and Administration are moving to Malvern, PA. They were given 18 months to decide if they will relocate or take packages to leave. My money is on Malvern becoming Ricoh HQ during the FY2012 fiscal year. The focus at Ricoh Corporation of Americas right now is COST-CUTTING.
Y yetiDocusultant P4P'er
New Chief Operating Officer Role

As we close out FY11 and complete our strategic planning for FY12, we will
continue our focus on expanding and strengthening our services business,
solutions portfolio and go-to-market strategy. It will be a continuous
journey to evolve our business model to services-led and
technology-enabled. Today's customer is looking for integrated solutions
to their business problems. They want technology innovation in hardware
and software combined with the expertise of a services team that can
integrate those solutions to best meet their workflow and business process
challenges.

We have made significant investments this past year in our services
business, including our global Managed Document Services (MDS)
infrastructure, a focus to IT Services, expansion of our production print
portfolio, as well as our vertical markets and 3-D selling approach. To
fully leverage our resources, we are announcing a change to our executive
leadership structure, effective April 1, 2012, that will provide an even
greater focus on our services transformation.

New Chief Operating Officer Role
I am pleased to announce that Martin Brodigan, Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer, will take on a new role as Executive Vice
President and Chief Operating Officer, Ricoh Americas Corporation, to focus
on our sales and services delivery and ensure that we are providing
customer-focused, integrated solutions to drive our continued
transformation to a services-led organization. In addition to his
continued responsibility for Canada and Latin America, Martin will have
oversight for sales in our U.S. direct and dealer channels, as well as our
delivery of services and integrated solutions. Martin will continue to
report to me.

With this new role, our U.S. sales leaders for the direct and dealer
channels, as well as our Technology Services and Enterprise Services
Operations leaders will report to Martin. This includes our leaders in
Technology Services, IT Services, Professional Services and Managed
Services, to help ensure that we have seamless services delivery across all
channels. Martin's sales, solutions and services direct reports will
include:
Frank Borovsky, Vice President, IT Services
Jim Coriddi, Vice President, Dealer Division
Dave Greene, Vice President, Direct Sales
Glen Mandernacht, Vice President, Technology Services
Dan Nero, Vice President, Ricoh Technology Center
Kathy Weeks, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions Delivery
Allyn Williams, Vice President Enterprise Services Operations

As part of our sales and services delivery our lease financing strategy
remains critical, and Martin will continue to have responsibility for
leasing.

Chief Financial Officer Responsibilities
I am also pleased to announce that Gary Crowe, Vice President of Finance,
has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for
Ricoh Americas Corporation, reporting to me. In this role, Gary will be
responsible for all Ricoh Americas Finance teams in the U.S., Canada and
Latin America. In addition to his current direct reports, Dennis
Dispenziere, Chief Accountant and Vice President, Planning & Reporting;
Tina Johns, Vice President, Internal Audit; and Vince Roma, Vice President,
Business Development will report to Gary.

Gary has been a key member of the finance team for over 11 years. He
joined IKON in the internal audit department, and was quickly promoted to a
Regional role as Vice President of Finance in the West. He then led the
internal audit department as Vice President, before taking on his current
role as Vice President of Finance for Ricoh's U.S. operations. He brings
strong experience and leadership to this role, and I'm looking forward to
working with him in this new assignment.

With the alignment of Enterprise Services Operations under Martin's new
role, we are eliminating the position of Vice President, Enterprise
Solutions. After 23 years, Vic Rainsford will be leaving the company to
pursue other opportunities. Throughout his career, Vic held various roles
of increased responsibility in the audit and finance departments, and
played an important role in the many strategic acquisitions that helped
form IKON. Most recently, Vic has been instrumental in building the
Enterprise Services organization and creating a synergy between
Professional and Managed Services. Vic will help transition our Enterprise
Services operations teams over the next 60 days. I would like to take this
opportunity to thank Vic for his many contributions to the organization and
to wish him well in his future endeavors.

I am confident that these changes will help provide even greater focus on our services-led transformation. Martin will
concentrate on the customer, and the related sales and services activities, which will allow me to more closely focus on our operations, integration and global alignment. My oversight will include supply chain, IT, legal, HR, finance, marketing, as well as strategy and operations. This is an important step as we continue our investments to expand our services
business and bring stronger alignment of growth initiatives to the field.

Please join me in congratulating Martin and Gary on their new roles.

Kevin Togashi
Chairman and CEO
Ricoh Americas Corporation
L Laxfan25Senior P4P'er
The message is clear -that Ricoh gets the message that it is a services-led world now, and this restructuring is a step in the journey to this new model.

Ricoh appears to be doing this primarily as an internal initiative, rather than acquisition. Xerox bought ACS, Konica bought All Covered, etc. As we know, there are many challenges involved in integrating acquisitions that come along with the benefits of aquiring an active organization, so perhaps an organically grown model may work.

The biggest challenge is changing the mindset of an organization that has been focused for 30 years on moving boxes, since at the end of the day that is what keeps the factories humming. Until the revenue stream from services comes anywhere close to that of hardware it will be an "investment" by Ricoh in that area with the hope of dividends in the future. In the meantime - "what are you gonna sell this month?"
AP Art Post (Guest)
quote:
Originally posted by fisher:
This was interesting: The other day I called Ricoh (totally useless) Tech support and when the emailed me the service ticket the email address was as follows: globalhelpdesk@ikon.com


kinda makes you wonder right, if you see little cracks like this, I can think are many more that we don't see. I'm thinking Ricoh is well oiled machine like it was from ten years ago. But, I have hope that things will change for the better.
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
I'll say it again, "Perpetual change is not good."

Please see the latest in the continuing adventures of Ricoh:

Rotation continues !!!!!!

After three years in the U.S. I will be returning to Japan in June to assume the role of Chairman, Ricoh Leasing Co., Ltd., subject to the approval at the shareholder's meeting in June. The last three years have been filled with a great deal of challenge, but the solid foundation that Ricoh has built over the years has allowed us to manage through the challenges and position Ricoh well for the future and our transformation to a services-led organization. I am proud of the progress we have made in our integrations efforts given the challenges in our market, and in responding to the natural disasters we faced in the last year. I thank you all for your efforts.

With my transition I am pleased to announce that effective May 1, 2012 Martin Brodigan will become Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ricoh Americas Corporation. My direct reports will now report to Martin in addition to his current reports.

I am also pleased to announce that effective May 1, 2012 Jim Potter will become Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In this role Jim will have oversight of Ricoh Canada and Ricoh Latin America in addition to his current responsibilities.

I am confident that with Martin, Jim and the RAC leadership team members, Ricoh will transition to the top services-led organization in our industry.

Please join me in congratulating Martin and Jim on their new roles.

Kevin Togashi
Chairman and CEO
Ricoh Americas Corporation
C copierdudeDocusultant P4P'er
Just recently heard from our sales division that Ricoh sales is telling customers with legacy Canon equipment that July 1 service will increase 25% on any Canon devices still with Ricoh *Ikon* service contracts. Any truth to this?

I realize this may be a good sales tactic to upgrade the base or flip it but is this a system wide announcement of fact or just a savvy sales person?

Thanks
C copierdudeDocusultant P4P'er
quote:
Originally posted by copierdude:
Just recently heard from our sales division that Ricoh sales is telling customers with legacy Canon equipment that July 1 service will increase 25% on any Canon devices still with Ricoh *Ikon* service contracts. Any truth to this?

I realize this may be a good sales tactic to upgrade the base or flip it but is this a system wide announcement of fact or just a savvy sales person?

Thanks


Other markets have informed me that this is only occurring on service contract expiration/renewal. Just curious what others are hearing or seeing.
AP Art Post (Guest)
During the MPS Photizo Conference there were rumors that Ricoh was going to launch another massive wave of layoffs. I stated this was probably from April 1st and both people commented that this is going to happen within a couple of weeks or less. Anyone else hear anything in reference to this?
G GMANDocusultant Elite P4P'er VIP
Ricoh usually waits until AFTER they hold their Dealer Sales Meetings to implement layoffs, which history has proven.

Since Convergence is on June 10th and runs through the 13th, I believe the layoffs aimed at continued cost cutting will come at end June 2012.

Even if these new layoffs impact the Direct side to a greater extent, they do not want the Press and Media to make any mention in the articles that will be written around this Dealer Event.

Remember what I told you about Marty, he cuts like a knife, but he is also media savvy. He'll enjoy the red wine and toast the Dealers at the WYNN, while soon after...others will LOSE.
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