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Canon Using Kiwi Prisoners To Fix Printers

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It seems the Chinese are not the only ones using prison labour, for according to www.scoop.co.nz, Canon New Zealand has announced an agreement with the NZ Department of Corrections that will see prison inmates trained to assemble and dismantle its machines.


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Following a successful trial at both Rimutaka Prison and Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility, “workshops are being set up which will potentially employ up to eight inmates at each prison. It will provide training and up-skilling for the prisoners with the aim to increase their chances of gaining employment upon release”, according to the report.

The report notes over the past six years Canon NZ have supplied photocopiers, printers and scanners to the Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) scheme at the Wellington Prison Printshop and witnessed the employment scheme in action.

Currently, 135 new machines are being assembled per month. The initial target for refurbishment was set at 30 to 50 machines per month, however the workshops seem to be exceeding this by far.

Prisoners working within the Canon workshops are able to obtain NZQA credits towards a National Certificate in Electronic Manufacturing Level 3.

The report notes that, “Canon is faced with the situation where demand for services is outstripping supply in both the Wellington and Auckland regions, with technicians spending the majority of their time on site honouring the service agreements. This partnership will address the issue of the shortage of qualified workers within the market”.

Jaycar Opens New Store In The West

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Jaycar Electronics has announced the launch of a new store, located at Midland in Western Australia.


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The 260m2 open plan designed store has been completely fitted with a huge interior featuring interactive displays to reflect the Jaycar Electronics brand.

Midland Store Manager Jarrom Frazier, with over 11 years electronics experience says he is looking forward to developing the new store and working alongside his team of three customer-focused staff.

“Working for Jaycar Electronics enables us to interact with customers and pass on our own knowledge and ideas. It is satisfying to help individual’s complete do-it-yourself projects themselves and then see the results.”

The range of products are available at the Jaycar Electronics Midlands store includes quirky gadgets, electronic components, car and home audio, power products, automotive accessories as well as alternative energy, security, computer and outdoor products.

Amazon Checkout Set To Kill PayPal

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According to reports, Amazon.com has decided to take ecommerce by the horns with two new payment options– Amazon Simple Pay and Checkout were launched today and are designed to directly compete with both Google Checkout and eBay’s PayPal.


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According to the company, Checkout by Amazon is a complete e-commerce checkout solution, while Amazon Simple Pay enables payments, marketplace transactions and even donations.

Checkout by Amazon is designed to identify Amazon.com customers and offer the now standard Amazon 1-Click experience, and also designed for merchants to upsell their products through the checkout pipeline.

For transactions of $10 or more, the Amazon service incurs a 2.9% mark-up plus 30 cents per transaction; however transactions less than $10 will cost 5% plus 5 cents per transaction. By comparison, PayPal charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for monthly sales up to $3,000.

Furthermore Checkout allows customers to view, edit, settle, and cancel orders; search orders by date; download orders in a text file; and print shipping labels and packing slips, as well as allowing merchants to co-brand the checkout pipeline with their own logo.

Ingram Micro Enters The Unwired World

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Resellers of Ingram Micro will now be able to offer their customers an internet enabled consumer home and office solution after Ingram Micro has agreed to distribute wireless broadband products from the range available through Unwired Australia.


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Unwired’s wireless broadband products enable the use of an Internet connection, almost anywhere in the home or office, providing connectivity to any device with wireless capability – free of cables, telephone lines and costly installations.  The Unwired service enables customers to turn off the tired copper phone line and its ‘plug and play’ offering can be set up in minutes without professional installation.

It can even be taken outside the home or office, keeping the user connected and online, without the need for a telephone line, while they are mobile within Unwired’s coverage area.  Unwired’s network currently covers the majority of Sydney and 35 per cent of Melbourne, delivering speeds similar to ADSL, with the added benefit of portability. The company is continuing to upgrade existing coverage as its customer base grows.

Previously available from its own website and major retail outlets, the Unwired General Manger for Sales Richard Singh said “we have been looking to expand our distribution through a successful broad based distributor for Unwired’s products and the arrangement with Ingram Micro achieves this”.

Resellers can purchase the Unwired Ethernet Modem (K-ETH-UNW-10) which retails for $129 RRP and the Unwired Pre-Paid Ethernet Starter Kit (K-ETH-UPP-30) which retails for $169 RRP, for end users to sign up online for prepaid or contract plans.

Consolidated Media Gets A 211% Profit Explosion

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Consolidated Media Holdings has quadrupled its annual net profit in 2008 and surged to achieve triple figure growth most of which came from the sale of Ticketek and Sydney’s Acer Arena.


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The company, which owns 25 per cent of Foxtel, 50 per cent of Premier Media Group and 27 per cent of online recruitment service, Seek has posted a net profit of $AUD 6.08 billion, up some 210.8 per cent on the previous financial year.

The Executive Chairman of CMH, John Alexander said the past year has been a defining period for CMH.

He noted that highlights of the year included the “sale of Ticketek and Acer Arena to PBL Media for $210 million, completed in July and the completion of the sale of 25 per cent of CMH’s investment in PBL Media to CVC in 2007 for cash proceeds of $525 million, leaving CMH with a residual ordinary shareholding of 25 per cent of PBL Media”.

“FOXTEL and Premier Media group continue to enjoy solid revenue and profit growth from increased subscribers as the penetration of subscription television continues to grow, now reaching more than 30 per cent of homes in FOXTEL areas”, noted Alexander.

Sophos To Buy German Encryption Firm

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Sophos has announced its attention to acquire German encryption specialist Utimaco, and by default has managed to move directly into the endpoint security space.


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The company is reportedly offering a total of $AUD 356 million in stock options and a 61 per cent premium on Utimaco’s 90 average trading price. Utimaco is touted as a global leader in the encryption of data on computers, disks and removable media.

Utimaco’s main focus is to develop software for data encryption. Data is encrypted for secure transmission from clients to and from servers. By encrypting client data, if a laptop is lost or stolen, the data on it becomes automatically useless.

According to the company CEO Steve Munford, this potential combination “allows Sophos to better address your data protection needs beyond anti-virus, anti-spam and web protection. Our future direction integrates information control and security compliance with existing anti-malware infrastructure to make security more manageable, and merging with the market leader in mobile data security provides a strong foundation for growth and leadership”.

Sophos says the acquisition process will take some months, adding that the deal is subject to a variety of EU approval hoops, but Sophos hopes to complete the merger by October of this year.

Its The JB Hi Fi Model That Delivers Profits Says Sony Boss

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Following this mornings 70 per cent profit surge from electronics retailer JB HiFi, one of its top suppliers are none too surprised at the results.


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As Sony CEO Carl Rose said, “I am not that surprised at the results as they have a good retail model, they are focused on what they are doing, they are very clear on where they want to be so I am not that surprised that they are doing well.”

Furthermore, notes Rose, “JB HiFi has built a great momentum in the home electronics market and unlike some other retailers it knows where it wants to be and where it is going”.

Moreover he says, “JB are very good in the audio space, and as you may be aware, there is a much higher mark-up in audio than on TV’s for example and after all they do have the word ‘hi-fi in their name, so again, they do this better than some other retailers”.

And in terms of end of year results for JB HiFi, Rose was optimistically cautious. “No-one can rest on their laurels, if you go back 10 years you would find that there were other retailers who were on top as this is a fast-changing industry, but as I said earlier, they [JB HiFi] know exactly were they are going so I expect they will be doing well for a while”.

 

 

Massive 70% Profit For JB Hi Fi

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JB HiFi Limited this morning reported a 43 per cent increase in sales, exceeding last years result by some 61 per cent, profits jumped 70%.

Bloomburg said that JB Hi-Fi Ltd., is now the best-performing retailer in Australia’s benchmark stock index this year and that the increased second-half profit 70 percent on sales of video-games and flat-panel televisions is record. 

 

The electronics retailer recorded a net profit of some $65.1 million from $1.829 billion in sales for the year ended on June 30, up from $1.282 billion at the same time last year and exceeding the company’s own expectations.

“We are extremely pleased with this very strong result having traded well during what is considered to be the weakest retail climate for many years”, said CEO Richard Uechtritz, adding that, “It shows the strength of our retail model”.

Uechtritz also noted that there were strong sales in games, movies, computers and AV products.

The group has 93 Australian and 12 New Zealand stores and is planning to open 24 new stores in 2009, which will be the largest number it has opened since formation.

“JB HiFi proved to be resilient with home entertainment become a staple category as consumers keep up with technology”, concluded Uechtritz.

More to follow.

Fuji Xerox And Iconiq Team Up For Retail Printing

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Fuji Xerox Printers has entered into a strategic partnership with West Australian company Iconiq, a provider of consumer messaging solutions for corporate retailers, to provide an Iconiq branded Managed Print Service (MPS) program to retailers.
Under this partnership, Iconiq will offer retailers its SignIQ in-store signage and labeling solution in conjunction with Fuji Xerox Printers PagePack MPS technology.


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Known as PageIQ, this customised MPS program provides customers with a fixed price per page cost model for printing in-house.  Customers are only charged a fixed cost per page, irrespective of how much toner or other consumables are used, making the cost of printing more predictable, visible to business owners and also easier to manage.

Tom Lewis, Marketing Manager of Fuji Xerox Printers said, “Our partnership with Iconiq means retailers can now enjoy the benefits of printing in-house with a Fuji Xerox printer at an affordable price.  Iconiq’s PageIQ provides business owners a competitive advantage as they do not have to worry about the capital investment associated with hardware purchases.  Retailers can now expand their printing fleet according to their business needs.”

Michael Ursino, Director of Iconiq said, “We partnered with Fuji Xerox Printers after a detailed consultative process where we worked together to develop a unique solution for the retail industry.  Iconiq chose Fuji Xerox Printers as they offer a full range of business-grade devices that produce high quality in-store signage and materials very quickly.”

 

Iconiq’s customers include Woolworths, Terry White Chemists, bottle shop chains – Celebrations and Bottle O, portofolio that Ursino is keen to expand.

He notes that this solution is all about is all about “helping retailers become cost-effective and will allow them to have total control of both quality and cost of their printing”.

Ursino added, “Having access to colour laser printers means retailers have total control over the speed and quality of print jobs.  While these have traditionally been the major drawbacks of colour printing in-house, the Iconiq PageIQ program addresses these issues while also offering many other solutions.”

In terms why Iconiq chose Fuji Xerox, Ursino was complimentary. “We found that Fuji Xerox was the only company that was able to provide an end to end solution. We have worked with other printing solution providers, but none were able to match what Fuji Xerox can offer”, noted Ursino.

And Fuji Xerox’s Lewis pointed out that, “What we are providing is a wholesale program for resale. This is a bundled solution for the reseller and the retailer will be charged directly by Iconiq on the basis of page counts”.