Konica Minolta News Archive (2003)

Konica's ColorFORCE™ 8050 Delivers Immediate Results to Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina

Impressive Image Quality, Speed, Versatility, and Cost-Savings Lead Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina to Request a Second ColorFORCE 8050

RAMSEY, N.J. – December 9, 2003 – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announced that early results from customer implementations of the Konica ColorFORCE™ 8050 colour Imaging System are proving that this groundbreaking product is truly bridging the gap between the production colour print market and workgroup colour multifunctional devices.

As the first two months of colour production projects near completion, John Fabian, manager of printing services at Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, has been amazed by the performance of the ColorFORCE 8050. Having run more than 137,000 copies in 6 weeks, Fabian had only one request from Konica Minolta: "I want to order a second machine."

Fabian's request for another machine is based on early project success and the company's expected ROI. "We are producing an average of 35,800 colour covers for benefit books each month," said Fabian. "These covers currently cost $66,431 per year to produce. With the ColorFORCE 8050, this cost will be reduced by $24,987, and the covers will be produced in less time at a higher quality."

The first two projects completed with the ColorFORCE 8050 in Fabian's in-house digital print facility are indicative of the range of jobs that the device was designed to handle. The first job was 100 copies of a 242-page manual that included both colour and black & white (B&W) pages with 20 tabs. Fabian ran the entire job on the ColorFORCE 8050, receiving the completed, customer-ready manual out of the machine with tabs.

The second job was 200 copies of a sixteen-page signature booklet and the device's optional finisher made all the difference in this job. The ColorFORCE 8050 printed the job on 11 x 17 paper and then folded and stapled the paper, delivering a complete set of booklets. Fabian then simply trimmed to the bleeds to finish the job. In the past, Fabian would have had to use an offset press to handle this job at a cost of $842 for 200 copies. With the ColorFORCE 8050 the total cost for the job was $160.

"Never before has there been a colour machine that is versatile enough to handle both small jobs as well as complex production-level projects with such ease, efficiency and cost-effectiveness," said William H. Brewster Jr., vice president, marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, U.S.A., Inc. "After just a short time in the field, the ColorFORCE 8050 has received exceptional reviews from our customers and has delivered on our promise of providing a breakthrough in speed, performance, image quality and price."

Developed to maximize operator productivity as well as equipment productivity within the CRD, print shops and high-volume workgroups, the ColorFORCE 8050's features include: print and copy speeds of 50ppm colour and B&W, a rated monthly page volume of 150,000 pages, Konica's Simitri® colour Polymerized Toner technology, the Konica IP-901 Fiery® print controller and colour management utilities, and advanced finishing capabilities.

"I've been particularly impressed with the product's functionality across multiple job types, the ease of installation utilizing our intranet connection, and the Fiery System software and print controller," said Fabian. "In addition, the meter that tracks the individual number of B&W and colour images scanned, printed and copied has proved very valuable to me for billing purposes. Features such as these help me run Printing Services, our central reproduction facility, more efficiently."

About Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.

By bringing together the strengths of its two founding companies, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc., headquartered in Ramsey, New Jersey, is dedicated to providing its customers with complete solutions for their document creation, production, and management needs. Konica Minolta provides the essentials of imaging to companies and organizations ranging from the small office/home office to large production operations with its full line of digital colour and black & white printers/copiers, multifunctional peripherals, desktop laser printers, plain-paper facsimile machines, software and network solutions, and professional services.

An industry leader in image capture, output and management, Konica Minolta provides world-class service through its extensive network of direct sales offices, authorized dealers, resellers and distribution partners in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America. For more information, please visit Konica Minolta on the World Wide Web at konicaminolta.us.

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