BOSS is at the h2o Hackathon. It is our third year in sponsoring this event hosted at the San Joaquin Office of Education. High school students are all in attendance to develop their app to help reduce water use in their schools by 20% by 2020. This initiative being a state sponsored program for all of California.

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Unprecedented 11 years leading in customer loyalty

Just 26 days into the New Year, Konica Minolta made an unprecedented announcement: For the eleventh consecutive year, we were named Number One in Customer Loyalty in the 2018 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index in the “MFP Copier” category. Eleven years in a row. What a way to begin a new year.

But what does this mean? And what are we doing so successfully to earn this amazing distinction?

Brand Keys is a research consultancy that identifies brands who best engage consumers by meeting or exceeding their expectations, creating great customer loyalty. Consider this: 68 percent of todays’ buyers said in a survey that they wouldn’t be loyal to a brand if it didn’t have a high loyalty following, while Elite Daily – a news platform preferred by Generation Y – noted that millennials are the most loyal generation to their favorite brands, with 50.5 percent saying they’re extremely loyal or quite loyal to their favorite brands.

That’s a tall order to create and retain such customer loyalty. We accomplish this major feat by continually striving to enhance the experience our clients have with us. Our goal is to be their long-term advisor and partner for their business. We don’t just “sell and run.” We’re there to not just assist them today, but to help shape their workplace of the future – and the only way to do that effectively is by being with them every step of the way.

Though Brand Keys still uses the term “customer,” there is a distinct difference between “client” and “customer.” That distinction is evident in the way our business is moving away from a more traditional, transactional product-focused relationship to one that, as I noted earlier, defines a more longer-term, contractual relationship that provides ongoing support to our clients. We do this simply by asking them, “Where else can we help you improve the efficiency, productivity and profitability of your organization?”

The breadth of our solutions – from multifunction printers (MFPs) to IT services to Workplace of the Future products – allows us to truly address many challenges that businesses of any size may face. Information management. Internal and external security. Managed Print Services. We’ve got it and we want to bring it to you so that your business can be as successful as possible.

That’s how you build the type of brand loyalty for which Brand Keys has recognized us. We’re partners with our clients and accompany them on their journey, ready to help them address any bump in the road that may surface. They appreciate that because, as we implement a solution, they can stay focused on running their company.

If you’re a current Konica Minolta client reading this, I thank you for your loyalty. If you’re considering our solutions and services for the first time, I thank you for that as well. I know there are many players competing for your business. While you’re evaluating them, ask yourself two questions: How many of them have the vast array of award-winning solutions across such a wide landscape of your workplace as we do? And how many of them have been recognized for their customer loyalty eleven years in a row?

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For 30 years, BOSS has been using and older industry standard software for managing copy machine dealerships, OMD.  While at the time it was released this was the best in the industry, it has recently been out-dated.  MWAi Intelligence, a long time copy industry software developer recently completed a modified version of the well known software, SAP Business One. (named FORZA)  Now BOSS has the best of both worlds, a robust ERP system with the particular features of a copy machine business built in.  BOSS customers can automatically report meter reads directly into the database making more accurate and faster billing.  In addition, the BOSS service technicians have a mobile application replacing all paper service tickets, etc.  This application also manages parts inventory, mapping for best route to each customer, and electronic signature at the end of each service call.  All of this adds more efficiency to the BOSS workplace culminating in a better customer experience.

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Samsung shared details on an upcoming deal closure of Samsung Printer division to HP at the 2017 National Dealer Meeting on Chandler Arizona.

Starting sometime in the 2nd half of 2017 the switch will be made.  However all support and brand identity will remain the same for 2 more years past the date of the deal being finalized.

BOSS Business Systems remains a partner with Samsung and will continue through the transition to become an HP partner, supporting our customer base.  The outcome is predicted to be an even more robust product line from HP.

The key technology that is driving the success of Samsung printer and copier line is the Smart UX interface.  A fully customizable Android tablet control panel allowing for very flexible software solutions being integrated directly at the copier or printer panel.  This lends to the future of IOT, AI and mobile and cloud printing and interactions.

Tuan Tran, head of global printer division for HP, said “Our vision is to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. The acquisition of the  Samsung printer division is to create new opportunities for technology in the workplace.”

Key to this new technology ended with the launch of a brand new A3 MFP from HP using the much anticipated PageWide technology.  An inkjet enterprise size MFP!  With print speeds of 60 pages per minute this is the slowest of an upcoming line of industry disruptive MFPs about to launch.

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BERLIN, Germany (24 March, 2017) – Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) has introduced Workplace Hub, an innovative new enterprise IT solution that unifies all of an organisation’s technology via a single centralised platform. Designed to future-proof workplaces of every size as they work towards digital transformation, version one of Workplace Hub, available from Autumn 2017, directly addresses growing IT complexity by providing more efficient and effective management of the disparate array of tools, services and devices used by modern organisations.

This new platform represents the next phase of Konica Minolta’s long history in innovation, marking its position in the IT services market and perfectly placing the firm to meet the evolving needs of business customers. Acting as a central hub that simplifies IT for an organisation, Workplace Hub drives efficiencies by reducing the overall costs of IT management and service provision, and providing real-time data-driven insights that help to improve business processes. By creating an ecosystem to manage and coordinate the entire IT infrastructure and services across existing and future IT systems, devices and services, Workplace Hub provides users with a central dashboard showing 360-degree visibility of IT usage patterns across the whole business, allowing for simple management and optimisation of systems.

Moreover, the platform’s product roadmap includes future integration of IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Edge and Decision Support capabilities as they become more central to the business environment of tomorrow. Adding this cognitive layer of organisational insight unleashes an intuitive understanding of the world that empowers people to collaborate better and to make smarter, data-driven decisions more effectively and easily.

Global partnerships with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Sophos and Microsoft deliver best in class hardware, security and IT solutions. Additional services from Canonical and BrainTribe bring the power of open source and advanced data management, helping to facilitate effective digital transformation for any business.

Dennis Curry, a Vice President and Director of Business Innovation and R&D at Konica Minolta, said “Workplace Hub will evolve to become the most comprehensive platform for the services and capabilities demanded by the workplace of the future. It means businesses can grow and manage their IT in tandem with changing business needs. It simplifies IT operations today and paves the way for exciting new integrations, such as AI and intelligent edge computing, to become a central part of the digital organisation of the future.”

This strategic shift will allow Konica Minolta to deliver more comprehensive digital transformation solutions, while continuing its heritage of providing the very best products and services for the business market as a whole.

“The workplace is evolving at an unparalleled rate and digital transformation is becoming increasingly important to both survival and future prosperity,” said Shoei Yamana, CEO and President of Konica Minolta Inc. “Workplace Hub not only allows businesses of all sizes to achieve effective transformation, but future-proof themselves against the next wave of technology innovations already infiltrating the business environment.”

Workplace Hub version one will be available from Autumn 2017 to organisations looking for enterprise quality managed services at an affordable price.

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The 2017 h2o Hackathon got underway at 8 AM on 24 March 2017 at the San Joaquin Office of Education in Stockton, CA.   BOSS has volunteered for the last 2 years to support this effort to bring technology to the local area and into our schools.  Over 100 students turned out to develop their application to help improve the accountability of water use in California while also learning about this important topic.

IBM Bluemix was a main sponsor of the event and the application solutions were built primarily on their cloud platform.  The students competed for a 5k grand prize for the best application.  Also in attendance were major industry water experts from all over California.   BOSS with its partner company Media Creations created t-shirts, printed material and the Hackathon website to help promote this successful event.

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We occasionally receive calls from our customers that they have run a multiple page document from MS Word and are expecting it to click color pages as color, and black and white pages as black and white.

First off, many softwares deal with black and white as what is called “CMYK Black”.  This is mixing all four colors to make black.  When the copier receives this information from your computer program it then “clicks” you for a color page even though it looks black and white on your screen.  This also applies to Adobe Indesign and many other programs.  For example if you add a drop shadow to black and white text in Indesign it converts the page to CMYK Black.

Realize that there is nothing wrong with the machine.  It will correctly “click” what it is sent to it.  If your program sends CMYK Black you will be “clicked” for color as it has used all 4 colors to make your print.

How to solve this problem:

1.  Export your multi-page mixed document to a PDF Document from MS Word.  Usually this is a “print to pdf” function in word.
2.  Open your exported PDF in Acrobat Pro.  You can get your free trail by clicking here.
3.  Go to tools > production print > convert colors
4.  Select the page range which you would like to convert to black and white.  Located at the bottom of the screen.
5.  Then towards the upper right side select under  “Conversion Attributes” select the drop down “conversion profile” and select one of the gray gamma selections ( gray gamma 2).
6. Click OK.  It let you know that the conversion cannot be undone.  Tell it to proceed.
7. You can now print your document from Acrobat and it will click correctly on your bizhub or desktop color printer.

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Get your questions answered with hands-on training from our top technical and sales staff

Get an overview of bizhub functions you may not know you have

Learn how to customize complex job set-ups for fast printing

Find out about new technologies to make life easier in the workplace

See the latest offerings

And most of all, enjoy great food and meet new people!

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We have set up a full service system where customers can upload their 3D printing file and within 3-5 business days receive their 3D model.  The file type needs to be a .stl file which is a common format in the 3D printing world.

With this fast growing industry BOSS wants to offer this service immediately to their customer base.  In addition,  BOSS is also authorized to resell 3D Systems line of 3D printers and offer maintenance plans on these machines.

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