CHICAGO (PRINT 17, Booth 2022), – Ricoh USA, Inc. today announced an expansion of its partnership with Idealliance, a nonprofit that serves thousands of members worldwide and strives for a more sustaining, competitive and compelling graphic and visual communications industry. As part of its ongoing commitment to empowering digital workplaces, Ricoh will offer Idealliance's G7 Master Qualification, Online Certification Training and Curve4 Software, as well as an option to join Idealliance itself through Ricoh. This collaboration demonstrates Ricoh's continued commitment to push the print industry forward by making expertise and mastery more widely available. Ricoh experts will be on hand at Booth 2022 at PRINT 17 in Chicago, September 10-14, where attendees are invited to "Take a look at Ricoh" and learn more about these offerings, and much more.

"A strong, capable print industry fosters the kind of competition where stakeholders are motivated to innovate, pushing the industry even further forward," said John Fulena, Vice President, Commercial & Industrial Printing Business Group, Ricoh USA, Inc. "Idealliance's training and certification work goes far in helping individuals work smarter, a global mission for Ricoh. In talking with our customers, it has become clear that better training is an important issue to them. Those conversations inspired us to work with Idealliance to help printers gain the skills and implement the best practices that help Idealliance-trained organizations succeed."

These four offerings are an exciting next step in Ricoh's work to leverage its expertise to the benefit of its customers:

- G7 Master Qualification helps operators ensure color consistency throughout jobs and campaigns at a time when the need for consistent branding across multiple channels has never been more important to attract and retain customers. This qualification helps print operations learn how to implement ISO printing standards and achieve color consistency across different hardware, systems and locations. The program highlights best practices to help reduce waste, increase uptime and drive efficiency. Ricoh's own experts on the Color Management Services team walk customers through the certification process. This team leverages years of experience identifying and remedying color "gaps" and helping produce high-quality color across channels and devices to bring users up to G7's high standards. The resulting color consistency and improved efficiency can help streamline and enhance production, growing and strengthening customer relationships.

- Idealliance Online Certification Training represents an extensive portfolio of online training resources, enabling print operations to work with a world-class organization to put growth in motion. These certifications and programs demonstrate Ricoh's commitment to partnering with customers to develop skills and implement best practices that help businesses grow. Programs include Color Management Professional Certification and MailPro Certification, along with other media production and business development skills training. Certification is for two years, and it includes a printable certificate, program logos and listing in Idealliance's Official Online Certification Directory, helping end-users find competent, certified companies.

- Curve4 Software is a software tool that helps calibrate print systems to G7 to deliver consistent color, verifying prints and proofs for conformance and quickly and easily evaluating and preparing control strip and test charts. Complex and cross-channel color demand continues to grow, and Ricoh has taken notice and made sure to partner with Idealliance to make color consistency simpler. By combining this powerful software with the insights from the G7 Master Qualification program, users can help ensure color consistency and quality at high levels.

- Idealliance Membership allows organizations, including enterprises, service providers, academies, dealers and consultants, to join the association. Organizations that join Idealliance are invited to benefit from and participate in the group's work to formulate solutions, business practices, guidelines and standards, all of which greatly benefit visual and graphic communication companies. Idealliance members' access to discounts, training and tools combined with the association's reputation can help drive business.

"Ricoh continues to help customers uncover their true business challenges and deliver a customized, strategic solution that addresses them," said Timothy Baechle, Vice President, Global Print Technologies & Workflows, Idealliance. "That's a commitment we share. We are glad to partner with this major industry player to help bring the benefits of Idealliance's collaborative efforts to an even larger audience. This new chapter of our partnership will certainly help our industry grow."