Riso

Overview

We live in a world full of color. Research clearly indicates that color has tremendous power to add impact to communications, boosting recall and influencing opinion. Studies done by Pantone® and the internationally recognized Pantone Institute indicate that “consumers are up to 78% more likely to remember a word or phrase printed in color than in black and white… when color is combined with the written word, it impacts consumers with the triple whammy of greater recall, recognition, and attention.”

Other research backs up these findings. A study by CAP Ventures discovered that full color variable documents also enhanced customer loyalty and retention, generating 34 percent faster response rates, a 48 percent increase in repeat orders, and a 32 percent increase in overall revenues. According to the Institute for Color Research, up to 90 percent of subconscious judgments about a person, environment, or item are based on color alone.

Given these statistics, there is little wonder that, within the domain of copiers and printers, full color technologies offer significant opportunities for growth. Currently, there are 40,000 full color hardware placements and 20 billion copies being generated annually according to CAP Ventures, and these numbers are expected to grow significantly over the next two years.

However, the full color playing field has become crowded with a proliferation of players, prices, and products. This array of choices can make the decision on choosing the most appropriate full color technology a confusing and challenging assignment. continue reading...

Marketing executives and managers from various industry sectors in the U.S., including financial services, healthcare, banking, manufacturing, and others who received direct mail postcards with an offer to participate in
a brief online survey related to direct marketing responded equally to cards produced on a high-speed mid-volume cut-sheet inkjet device and cards produced on production class full-color toner-based equipment.

-More than 40% of the respondents believe that printing is the most effective media for business communications, and nearly 90% of all respondents prefer to receive full-color direct marketing materials.

-Above and beyond response rate, two-thirds of the respondents indicate that the cost of printing is the most important criteria of a direct marketing campaign.

-Inkjet produced cards generated about 4% fewer responses (or -.03% in response rate) than cards printed with color laser equipment—a difference that is generally considered statistically insignificant.

-For this mailing, based on the running cost of the equipment, the cost per response for postcards produced on the inkjet equipment is 62% less less than the response rate of cards produced on full-color electrophotographic equipment.

INTERQUEST, Ltd. was commissioned by RISO, Inc. to conduct a study comparing the response rates to direct mail postcards printed on a RISO full-color inkjet printer with the same cards produced on a production class
full-color electro photographic copier/printer. INTERQUEST independently managed all phases of the study, including the selection of respondents, the printing and mailing of the postcards, and the tabulation and analysis of the results. continue reading...

Danvers, MA – June 29, 2010 – RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, today introduced the MZ1090 two-color, single-pass digital duplicator, the latest in the MZ series of digital duplicators. Like its predecessors, the MZ1090 prints up to 150 ppm—the world’s fastest print speed for a two-color, single-pass digital duplicator—but also delivers true 600 dpi image quality, ledger size printing, a built-in GDI controller, and unmatched single-pass, two-color printing productivity.

“We are excited to introduce the MZ1090 which continues RISO’s tradition of offering high-quality and cost-effective solutions that help expand our customers’ printing capabilities,” Todd Deluca, President and COO of RISO, Inc. “With its advanced workflow features and simplified color separation processes, the MZ1090 will appeal to a wide variety of end users, including print service providers, in-plant print shops, religious organizations, and more.”

The MZ1090 features a wide range of new and powerful image improvement and workflow capabilities for runs between 20 and 4,000 prints. The MZ1090 digitally burns low-cost master plates in a process similar to CTP technology. Unlike offset presses, the MZ1090 burns, loads, and unloads masters automatically at the touch of a button, streamlining make-ready and maximizing machine availability for print production. With over seventy available ink colors and 2-color production costs as low as two-thirds of a cent per page, the MZ1090 serves a wide variety of printing professionals, end users, graphic artists, teachers, and office managers who require low-cost and desire the added impact of two-color printed materials. continue reading...

Danvers, MA – March 9, 2010 – RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, announced today that its ComColor® inkjet printers have been certified by Arcis Digital Security Inc. to print documents with its proprietary digital void pantograph (DVP) technology. DVP technology works with RISO’s high-speed inkjet printers in producing secure digitally printed documents with full color variable data.

With this newly developed digital print capability, users are no longer restricted to using pre-printed security paper stock when producing full color checks, licenses, transcripts, prescription pads, and other high-security documents. Documents can be printed in a single-step process at speeds of 450 three-up checks or 900 six-up prescription sheets per minute. In addition to standard security marks like “VOID” and “DO NOT COPY,” pantographs can also be customized to the user’s application.

"Arcis’ unique patent-pending digital void pantograph technology will allow RISO customers to benefit from a well-recognized anti-copy measure," said Andrew McTaggart, Managing Director of Arcis Digital Security Inc. “Our technology is constantly evolving to meet the needs of newer digital print systems. For some time, we have been working with Océ, Kodak, and InfoPrint Solutions on DVP in the high-volume transactional printing environment and now we are pleased to be able to enter the mid-volume transaction market with RISO.”

Arcis’ security technology is a powerful complement to RISO’s MICR-Mate®, a full-color inline MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) check printing solution. This proprietary high-speed system prints MICR checks in a single simplified process, transforming plain white paper stock into finished, secure checks with an encoded digital void pantograph pattern in seconds. This replaces the traditional multi-step process in which security stocks are produced on offset presses and then digitally over-printed, effectively eliminating work-in-process inventory and reducing labor and overall production costs by up to 30%. continue reading...

Danvers, MA – February 23, 2010 – RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, today announced the results of a recent INTERQUEST SURVEY that compared the response rates of post cards printed with electrophotographic (EP) and inkjet printing technology. The study was underwritten by RISO, but was conducted entirely by INTERQUEST, a leading market research firm centered on digital printing and publishing.

A total of 10,585 direct mail postcards were mailed to marketing executives in a variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, banking, and manufacturing. Approximately half of the postcards were printed on a RISO full-color inkjet printer on non-gloss card stock and the other half were printed on a full-color toner-based (EP) production color printer on high-gloss card stock. The post cards offered recipients an Amazon.com gift certificate for responding to a brief online survey related to direct mail marketing.

When the responses were tabulated, INTERQUEST determined that the toner-produced postcards generated just 4% more responses (or 0.03% higher response rate) than the inkjet-produced postcards – a difference that is generally considered statistically insignificant. The study also showed that, while response rates for postcards printed by color inkjet and electrophotographic printers were nearly identical, the cost per lead generated from the inkjet-produced postcards was 62% lower than the leads generated from the EP-produced postcard.

“RISO was completely hands off in the execution and analysis of this study,” said Gilles Biscos, founder and president of INTERQUEST. “We selected the respondents, segmented the lists, contracted the printing and mailing, tabulated and analyzed the results. This was important for us in maintaining our credibility as a trusted source for the entire industry, and important to them in being able to cite an objective study. RISO is to be commended for the way they approached this study, which we hope helps advance a better understanding of direct marketing.” continue reading...

Danvers, MA – November 10, 2009 – RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, today introduced a new website dedicated to educating the document production marketplace about Mid-Volume Transactional Output (MVTO). RISO has defined the mid-volume transaction output segment as transactional printing (invoices, bills, statements, notices, checks, letters, etc.) in the range of 50,000 to five million pages per month.

Organizations routinely print and mail transactional documents to current and prospective customers, members, and stakeholders to generate revenue, communicate account status, and promote products and services. These documents can be produced at corporate data centers and in-plant print shops or from external print service suppliers such as service bureaus, commercial printers and fulfillment houses.

At the high end of the transactional printing space, documents are typically produced on roll-fed monochrome electrophotographic (EP) and full-color inkjet presses with system costs ranging from several hundred thousand to several million dollars. At the low end of this range, transactional documents are typically printed on cut-sheet electrophotographic (EP) printers and MFPs based on traditional copier platforms. In between these high volume and low volume segments is the mid-volume segment, which is a widely underserved market space for affordable, full-color document production.

“RISO has pioneered the Mid-Volume Transaction Output (MVTO) segment with an affordable cut-sheet inkjet technology that complements roll-fed inkjet technology,” said David Murphy, Vice President of Marketing for RISO, Inc. “Our systems are being installed across North America as both a primary device in mid-volume environments and as a secondary device in high-volume environments. For ultra high-volume users of the industry’s biggest names in roll-fed inkjet systems, RISO is serving as a simple and affordable solution for reprints, proofs and short-runs.” continue reading...

By Marc Bussanich, Assistant Editor, December 23, 2009

RISO is pushing forward with inkjet technology for the mid-volume transaction output market, which the company says ranges between 50,000 to 5 million monthly impressions. Believing that the mid-volume transaction output market is underserved, and to help spread the word among small businesses, in-plant shops, non-profits, and religious and education institutions about the value of high-speed, low-cost inkjet printing of transaction documents (invoices, bills, statements, notices, checks and letters), RISO recently launched “The MVTO Movement” Web site. Currently in BLI’s lab for testing, the 2009 launch of the ComColor Series, including the 90-ppm ComColor 3050, 120-ppm ComColor 7050, and the flagship 146-ppm ComColor 9050, is RISO’s strategic hardware offering for the MVTO market. Stay tuned to bliQ to review the final lab test results.

RISO ComColor 9050

At the PRINT '09 event in Chicago in September, David Murphy, vice president of marketing at RISO, said that while the main vendors, e.g., HP, Xerox, Océ and Canon, are targeting the High Volume Transaction Output market with high-cost digital presses, he was surprised that the competitive vendors seem to be overlooking the opportunities in the MVTO market. RISO claims to have an install base of 10,000 “light production inkjet printers, and a 2009 report cited during a recent Webinar sponsored by RISO indicates that inkjet printers account for approximately 33 percent of placements in the MVTO market. In addition to the new MVTO Web site, RISO is utilizing social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to convey the attributes of color inkjet printing at the cost of black-and-white.

According to Corey Reid, product marketing specialist at RISO, the ComColor Series will expand RISO’s capacity to compete for customers that print transactional documents (such as invoices and statements), personalized direct mail pieces and books. “There could be no better time than now to launch a series that offers users communication color that is affordable, fast and reliable, and features a low TCO,” she said.  continue reading...

Danvers, MA – October 8, 2009 – RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, announced today that its suite of high-speed ComColor inkjet printers and digital duplicators are featured in BC Hydro’s e.Catalog. The catalog showcases RISO’s entire ComColor series (9050, 7050, 7010, 3050 and 3010) along with its five duplicator models (MZ790, RZ990, EZ590, EZ390 and EZ220). As the third largest electric utility in Canada, BC Hydro serves customers in an area containing over 94 percent of British Columbia’s population.

BC Hydro’s e.Catalog is a resource for businesses to find equipment that is energy efficient and environmentally friendly and includes products from multiple manufacturers. All printers that are chosen to be included in the e.Catalog must meet specific energy efficiency standards, used by the US Department of Energy (DOE) known as ENERGY STAR or the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP).

“We are so pleased that our ComColor inkjet printers and digital duplicators have been selected to be included in BC Hydro’s list of energy efficient technologies and we are thrilled that ours are the first printers of their kind to be featured there,” said David Murphy, vice president of marketing for RISO, Inc. “This list reinforces other tests and studies including the third party validation from Buyers Laboratory that RISO printers are energy efficient, environmentally friendly and use less energy than comparable models.”

A study from Buyers Laboratory Inc., (BLI) measured RISO digital duplicators and inkjet printers against competing MFP models. The results proved that RISO’s digital duplicator models and the inkjet printer consume up to 95 percent less energy than conventional printing equipment and offer energy costs that are considerably less than the comparable model. Thus, providing users with potential cost savings of thousands of dollars in energy consumption over a five-year lease. continue reading...

DANVERS, Mass.-- RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, today introduced the AR9100 high-speed envelope feeder. Designed for use with RISO’s ComColor® and HC5500 inkjet printers, the AR9100 offers high-volume color printing and variable addressing of envelopes and card stock. This is RISO’s second envelope feeder introduction this month. On September 8th, the company launched its KR324-R, a heavy-duty envelope feeder for higher volumes.

“As demand for our ComColor series grows, we are offering our customers more accessories that extend the capabilities of inkjet,” said David Murphy, Vice President of Marketing for RISO, Inc. “The AR9100 envelope feeder is ideal for printing and addressing envelopes with personalized color messages.”

By connecting the AR9100 envelope feeder to RISO’s ComColor and HC5500 inkjet printers, users can continuously feed envelopes, invitations, and postcards without interruption. The AR9100 handles hard to-feed stocks and requires only minimal setup time. The AR9100 accommodates envelope sizes ranging from 4” x 6” to 10” x 13”, and card stocks ranging from 8.5” x 5.5” and smaller, up to 110 lb. index. Plus, RISO’s high-speed inkjet printers utilize a heatless printing process that allows the system to accommodate window envelopes, and alleviates the stress of flaps adhering during printing or problems with pressure sensitive envelope stocks. The suggested retail price of the AR9100 is $6,295. continue reading...

Danvers, MA – September 14, 2009 – RISO, Inc., a leader in digital printing technology, today announced that its high-speed ComColor® 9050 has received new industry awards and exemplary testing reports highlighting its superior performance.

The ComColor 9050 was one of only 22 products to be honored with a Must See ’em Award, announced during the Print ’09 conference in Chicago, IL. Also, based on results from comprehensive and independent testing, BERTL has recognized the ComColor 9050 with its prestigious “Five-Star, Exceptional” rating, finding that the model performed flawlessly. In addition, RISO’s ComColor 9050 has been awarded a BERTL’s Best award in the category of “Innovation.”

“We are energized by the higher than expected market demand for the RISO ComColor inkjet series,” said David Murphy, Vice President of Marketing for RISO, Inc. “These awards underscore that ComColor is ideal for customers in production environments who need performance and affordability in a high-speed color printer.” continue reading...