do you work for...

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Do you work for...

I am now totally independent. Been so since 5 years ago when I formed my own company in 2006. Business IS SWEET, NO REGRETS AT ALL ,the buck starts and end with me. My younger brother joined me in the trade as a young tech after completing college diploma in Electronics engineering and is helping on repair and services. MY eldest son is graduating next month from prestigious the MAKERERE university , with a Bsc. in information & communications technology, and has expressed desire & willingness to join us in the company,to strengthen the IT Department. WE ARE MAINLY DEALING IN CANON COPIERS,sales, parts & service,. OURS is not a large economy; there are many players in the industry but we dont look at competition, we simply operate in the CREATIVE PLANE. Started as a young tech in a telecomms co., in mid 80s, joined GESTENER in the 90s and ended my salary employment with CANON dealership in 2006. A TOTAL OF 25YEARS IN SERVICE, still growing strong, but this time on my own terms. it is indeed VERY REWARDING.

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Do you work for...

I am now totally independent. Been so since 5 years ago when I formed my own company in 2006. Business IS SWEET, NO REGRETS AT ALL ,the buck starts and end with me. My younger brother joined me in the trade as a young tech after completing college diploma in Electronics engineering and is helping on repair and services. MY eldest son is graduating next month from the prestigious MAKERERE university , with a Bsc. in information & communications technology, and has expressed desire & willingness to join us in the company,to strengthen the IT Department. WE ARE MAINLY DEALING IN CANON COPIERS,sales, parts & service,. OURS is not a large economy; there are many players in the industry but we dont look at competition, we simply operate in the CREATIVE PLANE. Started as a young tech in a telecomms co., in mid 80s, joined GESTENER in the 90s and ended my salary employment with CANON dealership in 2006. A TOTAL OF 25YEARS IN SERVICE, still growing strong, but this time on my own terms. it is indeed VERY REWARDING.

[NeoMatrix]

Two different service divisions in two cities.
Total of 9 staff in the two locations.
4 service techs.
2 salesman.
3 office girls...

[Desert Rat]

I'm an indy. Just me, and my wife helps in the office. We use to do pretty good, but the last few years have left me
wondering. I see opportunity and even manage to get in on some once in awhile. I really like what I'm doing. Making
more money at it would be nice. Wasn't always this way.
I work on a variety of machines. B & W and color. I like the Ricoh's for b&w and KMBH for color. But I work on just about
everything. My next adventure will be the Xerox WC5645 and 5665. Any advice?

DR

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

I feel the same way. There's a lot of penny pinchers here and we're very small as well. Ricoh and KMBH would both be good choices especially for parts/supplies availability. Their machines are really oversaturated in the overall market and a lot of distributors and dealers will sell parts and supplies.

My personal advice on the Xerox is stay away from them. But why you ask. Well, simply put, it's a matter of being at one suppliers (Xerox) mercy for parts and supplies. 99.9% of everything Xerox will most likely have to come from them. One supplier means they dictate price and availability and how long it will take for a part to get there. The only pro I can think of is they do a lot of module based or user replaceable things so you may have less calls for servicing. I don't know if they still do that authorized agent or reseller thing but I think they like to do their own servicing. Now Xerox office line of mostly printers are distributed through resellers and you can get parts/supplies from several distributors.

There's been several Xerox machines over the years that I wanted to maintain but it's a hassle. You might want to check with mcoxerox.com; I think that's a special little office in Xerox that sells to other copier places.

I'm an indy. Just me, and my wife helps in the office. We use to do pretty good, but the last few years have left me
wondering. I see opportunity and even manage to get in on some once in awhile. I really like what I'm doing. Making
more money at it would be nice. Wasn't always this way.
I work on a variety of machines. B & W and color. I like the Ricoh's for b&w and KMBH for color. But I work on just about
everything. My next adventure will be the Xerox WC5645 and 5665. Any advice?

DR

[Desert Rat]

I got my start with Kodak in the 80's. I know what you mean as far as Xerox dictating what parts, how
much and when you get them. It seems the big guys can not compete with us without some type of
advantage. I guess that means they are to big and can't respond to the customers needs. To much
overhead or top heavy management payroll.

DR

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

I'm not sure what Xerox's turn-around time for service calls is anymore but I know back in the 90's it was supposed to be a few hours but sometimes was next day. Of course their was the slaughter of the technicians thing that occurred. I think their model is less techs and more user replacable modules; which would make sense since they do their own servicing and manufacturing and design. In an ideal world, as a tech. I would want to deal less with routine stuff and focus on more challenging issues. If things went to a module design that the user could replace, I'd want to spend more time training customers on the machines. That's def. an area of needed improvement. More users need mandatory training and testing or they can't use it. A tech. is better poised to properly train a user on the machine. Less problems in the future. Would you let an untrained person drive a fork-lift, or operate a new software program, or printing press? Why a copier then?

Places like Xerox are still making obscene money though despite overhead. They've essentially cut out any middle-men such as distributors, wholesalers, and independent dealers. They can either keep all the profit or reduce the profit margins and still be fiscally healthy.

There's a few models of Xerox I'd love to be able to service, but again parts are an issue. A bonus, is there are tons of leftover supplies on places like ebay but they become almost worthless b/c with limited parts availability, oh well.

I think canon is more reliable in general than ricoh but with the flood of all the ricoh brands there's tons of oversaturation out there for parts, extra machines, supplies, etc. Same with konica minolta, they're selling to other manufacturers quite a bit these days.

If parts and supplies were readily available I'd get into some docutechs and kodak and heidelberg digimasters but their distribution network is very limited and tight nit...even the canon branded IR series (110,125,150) you basically have to go direct or through an independant authorized on them since most of the typical parts distributors don't have anything for them.

I got my start with Kodak in the 80's. I know what you mean as far as Xerox dictating what parts, how
much and when you get them. It seems the big guys can not compete with us without some type of
advantage. I guess that means they are to big and can't respond to the customers needs. To much
overhead or top heavy management payroll.

DR

[slybot]

I feel the same way. There's a lot of penny pinchers here and we're very small as well. Ricoh and KMBH would both be good choices especially for parts/supplies availability. Their machines are really oversaturated in the overall market and a lot of distributors and dealers will sell parts and supplies.

My personal advice on the Xerox is stay away from them. But why you ask. Well, simply put, it's a matter of being at one suppliers (Xerox) mercy for parts and supplies. 99.9% of everything Xerox will most likely have to come from them. One supplier means they dictate price and availability and how long it will take for a part to get there. The only pro I can think of is they do a lot of module based or user replaceable things so you may have less calls for servicing. I don't know if they still do that authorized agent or reseller thing but I think they like to do their own servicing. Now Xerox office line of mostly printers are distributed through resellers and you can get parts/supplies from several distributors.

There's been several Xerox machines over the years that I wanted to maintain but it's a hassle. You might want to check with mcoxerox.com; I think that's a special little office in Xerox that sells to other copier places.

yeah the module thing does have its advantages BUT............ thats ALSO the biggest thing that gets up my nose about xerox (besides their crap firmware).... why the hell should my company buy a $400 part to replace a 30cent part that fails. And dont get me started on their parts manuals/service manuals and their crap speak

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Do you work for...

I recall in the in the mid 1980s when XEROX ( or RANK XEROX) was the dominant brand of both copiers and electronic typewriters in my country. They were headquartered, I think in Nairobi city, in a neighboring country KENYA, with a branch sales & service office here. Customers whose XEROX machines broke down and required spares , would have to wait for as long as 2 weeks for the spares to to arrive from LONDON, if it was not in stock in their Nairobi hqtrs. With the liberalization of our economy, in early 90s, more active players in the industry, like CANON and NRG ( Nashuatec, Gestetner, RexRotary & Mita), entered the market with a BANG !. Xerox's monopoly and influence began to decline. By the close of 1999, they had effectively been kicked out of the Ugandan market, by the dynamics of the market & due to their CONSERVATIVENESS. CANON is effectively the market leader here, with Kyocera mita & Ricoh in the tow. There are many unauthoized, independent dealers of canon and they are satisfying the market quite well. DUBAI ( United Arab Emirates) being the chief source of supplies for both the machines, parts & supplies.

[Desert Rat]

Kingpd, in an ideal world, they would work and play well with others. But they are bent on world
market domination. As in the Ugandan market, they could have authorized a dealer to work with
and maintained more market share. I have often thought that a little bit of something is better
than all of nothing, as long as it is profitable. But that's just me.
And yes, parts are a problem as they are the sole source 99% of the time. The manuals are laid
out in a most unique manner. They do take some getting use to. I have worked on a couple
of models. The Doc 12 and the C3535 or was it a C5353. It was a few years ago. After the
guys laptop locked up, I decided to steer clear of Brand X.

DR

[slybot]

yep brand X should be renamed brand BS!

[slybot]

or better still 'POS'

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

It's hard for me to imagine a situation like that. Here in the states, at least where I am, there was always at least three brands to choose from and now they're all here. That would be very frustrating having to wait that long and have only one company.

The only problems I can remember was years ago and maybe some today in the real rural areas.

I recall in the in the mid 1980s when XEROX ( or RANK XEROX) was the dominant brand of both copiers and electronic typewriters in my country. They were headquartered, I think in Nairobi city, in a neighboring country KENYA, with a branch sales & service office here. Customers whose XEROX machines broke down and required spares , would have to wait for as long as 2 weeks for the spares to to arrive from LONDON, if it was not in stock in their Nairobi hqtrs. With the liberalization of our economy, in early 90s, more active players in the industry, like CANON and NRG ( Nashuatec, Gestetner, RexRotary & Mita), entered the market with a BANG !. Xerox's monopoly and influence began to decline. By the close of 1999, they had effectively been kicked out of the Ugandan market, by the dynamics of the market & due to their CONSERVATIVENESS. CANON is effectively the market leader here, with Kyocera mita & Ricoh in the tow. There are many unauthoized, independent dealers of canon and they are satisfying the market quite well. DUBAI ( United Arab Emirates) being the chief source of supplies for both the machines, parts & supplies.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

You made me think of something else about Xerox that really bugged me. We used to go after schools/governments years ago and despite the contracts being for brand new machines, Xerox would put things like used finishers and document handlers on their equipment and sell the whole thing as new. Obviously they should have been disqualified but they always won. It was a Xerox technician that told me about that too.

I guess one of these days I'll have to try and design my own ultimate copier.

Kingpd, in an ideal world, they would work and play well with others. But they are bent on world
market domination. As in the Ugandan market, they could have authorized a dealer to work with
and maintained more market share. I have often thought that a little bit of something is better
than all of nothing, as long as it is profitable. But that's just me.
And yes, parts are a problem as they are the sole source 99% of the time. The manuals are laid
out in a most unique manner. They do take some getting use to. I have worked on a couple
of models. The Doc 12 and the C3535 or was it a C5353. It was a few years ago. After the
guys laptop locked up, I decided to steer clear of Brand X.

DR

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

" It's hard for me to imagine a situation like that", wrote kingpd. Yes indeed my brother, we were in a difficult period. It all stemmed from the history of our country. The country had just emerged out of a 5year civil war which ushered in a new government and stability was not yet fully restored. In fact life itself was still generally hard for everyone. Basic essential commodities like salt & sugar were all scarce. It was like a " DOG EAT DOG", kind of situation, with the country's economy then still in shambles. But since then things have greatly improved for the better. The government worked very hard and with support from Donor countries like U.S.A, EUROPEAN UNION and others, the country was slowly brought back on the path to full economic recovery. But our citizens are not the type who easily forget if you give them a raw deal ! I recently saw Xerox's advertising posters etc, and I think they have been staging a COMEBACK bid, I wish them luck , but people already have a biased attitude towards them. " NATURE DOESN'T ALLOW VACUUM," when they left the market, other players filled in their places.