Noritsu America Corporation and Lucidiom Inc. recently announced a letter of intent signaling the first step in Noritsu’s official acquisition of Lucidiom. The announcement came the day before PMA 2009 opened, so throughout the show the Noritsu and Lucidiom booths were buzzing with questions from attendees, press and customers. In case I missed you at the show, here’s what the pending deal means for you.
Most simply put, Lucidiom will stay Lucidiom. This means we will stay the course as the industry’s most open, flexible and brand agnostic imaging solutions provider. Although we’ll be part of Noritsu once the deal is finalized later this spring, Lucidiom will continue to develop our full product line and will continue to support third party printers and other equipment. More than 55,000 Lucidiom APM licenses are deployed worldwide and we realize we’ve achieved this level of success in 8 years largely because of our willingness to work with each and every customer to find just the right solution for their particular business. We remain committed to these company ideals.
The Lucidiom team will remain intact as well, so the only noticeable change for our customers will be the expanded offerings, service and support made possible by our new affiliation with respected global leader Noritsu. Becoming part of Noritsu will allow us to deliver our company’s award-winning technology beyond where we could have taken it solo. We’re bullish about the possibilities now before us.
We at Lucidiom have always prided ourselves on pushing the industry forward – first with offering enlargements alongside standard print sizes, then with the “Beyond 4×6” Long Tail revolution and now with social picturing. Consumers have turned the imaging experience into a social phenomenon via the Internet and Lucidiom is busy building money-making technologies to help photofinishers capitalize on the experience.
Our latest photo kiosk software, APM version 7.0, is one such technology. This latest award-winning software version, which we demonstrated at PMA 2009, features connectivity between the kiosk and the customer’s Photo Finale Web account. From the kiosk, consumers now can upload photos to or download photos from, a Photo Finale account. As well, we have added an enhanced product finder and a helping hand for retailers in tough economic times – a unique up-sell engine at the end of each kiosk order that suggests complementary products.
But my favorite new feature is our new RSS feed. This means the customer updates his photos on Photo Finale Web, and any RSS device, like an iPhone, Facebook or even a digital picture frame, picks up that live link and shows the new photos. The best part about this for the retailer is a little Order button under each photo, that will link back to your PF site for easy ordering. This type of full circle access for customer and retailer alike is the key to the industry’s success going forward and we’re proud to be at the forefront of it all.
We’re the same smart technology company with the same people, entrepreneurial spirit and passion for the business of printing emotions. Lucidiom’s EQ (emotional quotient) remains our customers. We will continue to deliver the industry’s best in-store and online imaging solutions so that you don’t have to think twice about the technology driving your business. We understand your EQ is your own customers. So go get ’em – we’ve got your technology covered.
