Ikon Puts Its Brand On New Printing Solutions

Document and imaging solution provider Ikon Office Solutions has rolled out a new line of branded printing solutions, working to fill a segment of the market it says is not covered by other vendors.

The Malvern, Pa.-based company, which is the largest solution provider for Canon USA and Ricoh, is shipping a new printer for the high-end graphics space as well as a color print-and-copy solution for the office.

Both devices, the Ikon CPP 500 and the Ikon BusinessPro 500c, follow Ikon's release last year of the 8050e. Konica Minolta, which was outsourced for production of the 8050e in 2003, was also tapped for the new Ikon systems.

"Canon and Ricoh are critical customers. I didn't [make the decision to] do this lightly," said Cathy Lewis, senior vice president of marketing at Ikon, regarding the new Ikon-branded products.

Ikon decided to begin branding its own systems after determining that other vendors--including its partner Canon--weren't in the specific niche that Ikon was seeking, Lewis said.

"Xerox was coming in and starting to take away key Canon customers that Canon and Ikon jointly own," Lewis said. "We went to our friends at Canon and described our business opportunity."

She said Canon gave Ikon its blessing.

Both the CPP 500, targeted at high-volume commercial print shops and similar businesses, and the BusinessPro 500c, with a smaller footprint targeted at office deployment, are 50-ppm color devices.

The CPP 500 with external controller is priced starting at $56,000.

The BusinessPro 500c has a lower list price of $39,995 because the system controller is embedded into the device. "At $40,000, you can compete very, very nicely in any color opportunity in an office where they are printing more than 7,000 to 10,000 color documents a month," Lewis said.

Konica Minolta, Tokyo, will also offer its own, branded versions of the new devices, and Lewis said the manufacturer has since become another significant partner for the solution provider.

Lewis said the Ikon products' controllers were developed by EFI, Foster City, Calif., which also produces controllers for Lake Success, N.Y.-based Canon and Stamford, Conn.-based Xerox, among others.