News on 2 August 2011
The following is an excerpt from an email sent to Infoprint/Ricoh Partners."In our increasingly competitive marketplace, companies need to regularly update their portfolio of solutions and programs to maintain a highly cost-effective and efficient operation.
Earlier this year, Ricoh Company Ltd. announced an internal realignment and reorganization of its production print resources and formed Ricoh Production Print Solutions (RPPS).
RPPS is a component of the companyâs new strategic focus on the production print marketplace that combined InfoPrint Solutions with elements of the Ricoh Production Printing Business Group (PPBG).
Through this transition we have affirmed our commitment to delivering exceptional innovation in print production technology.
In order to better focus on that strategy, there are some additional actions we are taking in the workgroup, industrial and cutsheet product segments and with regard to our Solutions Partner program.
Today, we are announcing the withdrawal from marketing (WFM) of workgroup, industrial and cutsheet machines and the termination of the InfoPrint Solutions Partner Program, effective December 30, 2011 for the US. This WFM includes all RPPS (formerly InfoPrint Solutions) workgroup, cutsheet, industrial machines, features and associated Maintenance Packs. All existing maintenance contracts will continue to be honored through the expiration of the contract. New or extended maintenance contracts will still be available for withdrawn machines after December 30, 2011; however customers must contact RPPS directly.
In addition, InfoPrint 75/100 machines will be available through Solutions Partners only through December 30, 2011. After this time these machines will only be available directly through RPPS or Ricoh.
This WFM announcement does not affect our supplies. We will continue to support the sale of our supplies for the workgroup, industrial and cutsheet segments, as well as all our other machines.
Solutions Partners and customers can be assured that supplies will continue to be available for purchase through current sales channels for the foreseeable future.
Between now and December 30, 2011 we will continue to sell workgroup, industrial and cutsheet machines and support our Solutions Partners. Orders will be subject to machine inventory availability.
After December 30, 2011, we will continue to provide supplies, spare parts and maintenance services, but will not accept orders from Solutions Partners.
Our Solutions Partner and Solutions Specialist Incentive Programs in the U.S. will stay in place through December 30, 2011. No Solutions Partner incentives will be available in 2012.
The Public Sector Fee Program will be terminated effective December 30, 2011 and the announcement will be posted on MarketPlace at www.infoprint.com/marketplace.
The U.S. Trial and Workgroup Evaluation Program in place for industrial, workgroup and cutsheet products will end on September 30, 2011. Machine trials must conclude and machines be returned no later than December 15, 2011. Solutions Partners should work with their Solutions Partner Distributors to complete outstanding trials by that date.
Weâre working with our suppliers and our distributors to make supplier-branded industrial and workgroup products available to customers in the U.S., in an effort to make this transition as seamless as possible.
RPPS is working closely with these organizations so that they may be able to supply comparable alternative products and maintenance services to you after December 30, 2011.
To best help you prepare your business for this accordingly, we wanted to provide this information to you as early as possible.
We are in the process of communicating this strategy to our customers so they are fully aware of this as well.
We remain committed to supporting our Solutions Partners and customers to the best of our ability during this transitional period."
Bummer, huh?