Kyocera sets to expands its product offering with the acquisition of Germany-based data management specialist Alos-- a move the print vendor describes as a step towards transformation into a "complete solution provider."

"As a company we are focused on driving forward the advancement of document solutions to meet our customers modern business needs, both physical and digital, to ensure safe, effective and high quality management of processes," Kyocera says. "Alos will form part of our approach in providing tailor-made, cost-effective solutions that will complement our range of quality products and services."

Lexmark announces a next generation of mid-range monochrome products-- a single function and MFP series aimed asmall and medium-size workgroups promising an "unparalleled combination of reliability, productivity and security."

“This new generation of Lexmark mid-range monochrome products brings the power and durability of a departmental printer or MFP to the desktop,” the company says. “The devices include powerful multi-core processors that enable speedy, convenient performance, plus the reliability and security features that customers across the globe expect from Lexmark. In addition, new productivity enhancements help organisations get more done.”

Two Epson scanner series-- the WorkForce DS-770 and DS 575W Wireless-- are now certified to work with Digitech Systems content management applications, providing means for customers to further organise their paper workflow.

The certification comes as part of a partnership between the two companies, and covers Digitech information management software and cloud services. Thus, resellers can take advantage of special combined solution packages to solve more complex information challenges for businesses.

Digitech offers two applications compatible with Epson scanners-- Paper Vision Capture (advanced capture) and PaperFlow (desktop scanning). Paper Vision Capture allows customers to easily upload scanned documents to the on-premise PaperVision Enterprise Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system or to the cloud-based ImageSilo ECM service. Meanwhile the PaperVision AI-enabled classification and data extraction tool automatically identifies and extracts key data.

According to IDC global 3D printing spending (including hardware, materials, software and services) will reach $12 billion in 2018-- a 19.9% increase over 2017-- before growing to $20bn in 2020.

Together 3D printers and materials will account for around 66% of global spending throughout the forecast period, reaching $6.9bn and $6.7bn respectively in 2021. Services spending trails slightly behind, reaching $5.5bn in 2021 as led by on-demand parts service and systems integration services. 3DP software purchases show less growth than the overall market, with a 5-year CAGR of 18.6%.