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GOLDEN, COLORADO (August 1, 2009) PENTAX Imaging Company, an innovator in the production of digital SLR and compact cameras, lenses, flash units, binoculars, scopes, and eyepieces, announced today ...(Read More)

GOLDEN, COLORADO (August 1, 2009) PENTAX Imaging Company, an innovator in the production of digital SLR and compact cameras, lenses, flash units, binoculars, scopes, and eyepieces, announced today that Camera Repair Instrument Service (CRIS), a leading provider of camera repair and imaging device maintenance, will partner with PENTAX to provide factory repair service for the PENTAX brand cameras and sport optics consumer products. In this agreement, CRIS will act as the "factory service facility" for dealers, and consumers in the United States.

"Everyone at CRIS is excited to expand our relationship with Pentax and their customers," said Mark Treadwell, President and CEO of CRIS. "We look forward to utilizing our customer oriented approach and focus on process and quality to offer a service and support system that is the best in the industry."

"PENTAX is equally excited about working with CRIS," said John Carlson, Manager of Product Marketing and Support. "We anticipate that this alliance will allow us to deliver the highest level of customer service."

More information is available at www.criscam.com or visit www.pentaximaging.com for CRIS customer service contact information.

About CRIS Camera Repair Instrument Service (CRIS) is one of the top photographic and digital imaging equipment repair facilities in the United States. The company started in 1984 as the exclusive U.S. distributor for Kyoritsu Electric Co., a Japanese manufacturer of precision camera test and calibration equipment. CRIS provides repair for camera manufacturers including Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Ricoh, Sigma, Fuji, Olympus, Sony, Kodak, Casio, and Panasonic. Located in Chandler, Arizona, CRIS is also the exclusive North American camera service center for Ricoh Corporation.

About PENTAX Imaging PENTAX Imaging Company is an innovative leader in the production of digital SLR and compact cameras, lenses, flash units, binoculars, scopes, and eyepieces. For 90 years, PENTAX technology has developed durable, reliable products that meet the needs of consumers and businesses. With headquarters in Golden, Colorado, PENTAX Imaging Company is a division of PENTAX of America, Inc.

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Contact: www.criscam.com sales@criscam.com (480) 940-1103

www.pentaximaging.com pentaxinfo@pentax.com (800) 877-0155

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C.R.I.S. Camera Services, a leading U.S. photographic and digital imaging equipment service company, had a Linux-based IT infrastructure that was hard to manage and could no longer satisfactorily s...(Read More)

C.R.I.S. Camera Services, a leading U.S. photographic and digital imaging equipment service company, had a Linux-based IT infrastructure that was hard to manage and could no longer satisfactorily support the 35-person company& growing business. By switching from Linux to Microsoft® software, C.R.I.S. is improving its business efficiency while at the same time reducing the effort required to manage the technology that supports the business. Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV gives the company a powerful business management solution that has improved technician productivity by 20 percent and will help the company to realize an expected 40 percent increase in annual revenues, providing a four-month return on the company& investment. At the same time, moving to the Windows® operating system has reduced the time and effort required to manage the company& IT infrastructure by 75 percent.

Situation

C.R.I.S. Camera Services is one of the premier photographic and digital imaging equipment service companies in the United States. The company was founded in 1984 as the United States distributor for Kyoritsu Electric Company camera test equipment. Although the company still sells some equipment, its business today is based primarily on film-based and digital camera repair.

Since its inception, C.R.I.S. has used several technology platforms upon which to run its business, starting with PC-MOS before moving to Novell NetWare, and later to the Windows NT® Server operating system version 4.0. In 2000, to avoid U.S.$11,000 in licensing fees associated with an upgrade to Windows® 2000 Server, the company decided to switch to Linux.

Since deploying Linux, C.R.I.S. has grown significantly. In 2002, the company was designated by Ricoh Corporation as the exclusive United States service center for its digital and film cameras. C.R.I.S. also provides extended warranty repair for one of the country& largest photographic equipment retail store chains, repairing a total of 3,000 to 4,000 cameras per month.

By early 2006, C.R.I.S. found that its Linuxbased infrastructure could no longer meet its current needs, let alone its plans for continued growth. At the time, its IT systems were based on Red Hat Linux 9, including a file and database server running Samba and MySQL, and a Web and e-mail server running Sendmail, Apache, and software from osCommerce for a small online store. A significant area of concern was the company& accounting system, which C.R.I.S. had paid to have customized to keep track of each repair order. Based on an older version of Visual AccountMate, the system utilized a file-based data store that resided on the Linux server and was accessed from Windows-based desktops using Samba. "Performance was slow, and the system was limited to 16 simultaneous users—we couldn't get any additional licenses without upgrading," says Mark Treadwell, Owner and President of C.R.I.S. "Most seats were used by accounting and customer support, which forced our 15 technicians to share one PC, often waiting in line to enter data instead of starting on their next repair. They were wasting an hour per day on nonproductive tasks because of the limitations of our old system."

Along with support for additional users, C.R.I.S. needed better visibility into its internal workflows. In the past, the only way managers knew the status of repairs was to inventory the work that each technician had done at the end of the day. "We've invested heavily in process reengineering over the past few years to improve our operational efficiency," says Mark Treadwell. "To realize further gains in that area, we needed more granular visibility into the flow of work through the company."

While those business system limitations were frustrating for Mark Treadwell, who was focused on business efficiency and growth, the company& Linux environment itself was troublesome for Josh Treadwell, IT Manager at C.R.I.S. Along with being the company& only IT person, Josh also assists with sales and marketing. The time he spent simply keeping the Linux systems running securely and

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: BJ Adams
C.R.I.S.
480 940 1103, 480 940 1329 Fax
info@criscam.com
www.criscam.com

Sigma Corporation of America ...(Read More)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: BJ Adams
C.R.I.S.
480 940 1103, 480 940 1329 Fax
info@criscam.com
www.criscam.com

Sigma Corporation of America Appoints C.R.I.S. Third Party Logistics as Supplier for Service Parts and Accessories Distribution in the United States

Sigma Corporation of America is assigning C.R.I.S. as the supplier for the U.S. market of parts and accessories for service facilities and consumers.

Chandler, Arizona -- August 14, 2007 -- Sigma Corporation of America, a leading supplier of Lenses, Cameras and Flash Systems, announced today that C.R.I.S., a leading Third Party Logistics (3PL) and Third Party Service Provider, will be handling parts and accessory distribution for consumers and repair facilities in the United States market.

In addition to providing service and repair for photographic and digital imaging equipment, C.R.I.S. provides 3PL services to companies for part or all of their supply chain management functions. These 3PL services are scaled and customized to the clients needs based on market conditions and include such tasks as repair service, parts allocation, pick and pack, warehousing, and distribution. "Finding solutions for partners is key to the success of our business," said Mark Treadwell, President and CEO of C.R.I.S. "We became an Authorized Service Center for Sigma Corporation early in 2006, and this felt like the next logical step for both companies."

Sigma has partnered with C.R.I.S. to further expand their capabilities for service, and now parts distribution. Sigma believes this partnership will benefit all parties involved in the manufacturer, distributor, and consumer equation. "This is a strategic solution which allows us to increase our capacity of customer service, as our share of the growing digital camera market continues to increase," added Osamu Arata, President of Sigma Corporation of America.

C.R.I.S. will begin supplying parts and accessories to service facilities as well as consumers beginning August 14, 2007. Information will be available on the C.R.I.S. website (www.criscam.com).The Sigma website (www.sigmaphoto.com)will reflect this transition by providing contact information for C.R.I.S. customer service.

About C.R.I.S.

C.R.I.S. is one of the leading photographic and digital imaging equipment repair companies in the United States with warranty authorization contracts for the majority of traditional film and modern digital cameras. Customers consist of camera manufacturers, photo retailers, schools, institutions, government entities and retail consumers. C.R.I.S. is also the North American distributor for Kyoritsu Electric Company a manufacturer of camera and video test instruments and the exclusive North American camera service center for Ricoh Corporation. C.R.I.S. also distributes Mercury battery adapters for classic and collectable cameras and accessories. The business was founded in southern California the fall of 1984 and strategically relocated to Chandler, Arizona in 1990.

About Sigma Corporation of America

Sigma Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a major manufacturer of high quality photographic equipment, utilizing many cutting-edge technologies. Since Sigma’s founding in 1961, they have grown to become one of the largest manufacturers of SLR lenses, cameras and flash equipment, in Japan. Sigma’s success is a result not only of their high tech and high value-for-price products. Sigma’s attention to good customer service is also instrumental to their success. Sigma constantly strives to improve both their products and services to customers, both consumer and retail.

For More information www.criscam.com or www.sigmaphoto.com or

Contact info@criscam.com Phone: (480) 940-1103

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MEDIA CONTACT: BJ Adams, 480 940 1103, badams@criscam.com FIRST-EVER LIST OF THE 5,000 FASTEST-GROWING BUSINESSES REPORTS TOTAL REVENUE OF $194.5 BILLION C.R.I.S. Ranks No.3848 on the 2007 Inc. 5,0...(Read More)

MEDIA CONTACT: BJ Adams, 480 940 1103, badams@criscam.com FIRST-EVER LIST OF THE 5,000 FASTEST-GROWING BUSINESSES REPORTS TOTAL REVENUE OF $194.5 BILLION C.R.I.S. Ranks No.3848 on the 2007 Inc. 5,000 With Three-Year Sales Growth of 68.7%

NEW YORK, August 23, 2007 – Inc. today ranked C.R.I.S. No.3848 in its first-ever Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. The Inc. 5,000, an extension of Inc. magazine's annual Inc. 500 list, catches many businesses that are too big to grow at the pace required to make the Inc. 500, as well as a host of smaller firms. Taken as a whole, these companies represent the backbone of the U.S. economy.

"The Inc. 5,000 provides the most comprehensive look ever at the most important part of the economy – the entrepreneurial part," said Inc. 5,000 Project Manager Jim Melloan. "The expansion of the list has allowed us to tell the stories of larger companies, older companies, and a wealth of companies in industries like Manufacturing and Construction that are underreported in the business media."

C.R.I.S. (www.criscam.com)is one of the leading photographic and digital imaging equipment repair companies in the United States with warranty authorization contracts for the majority of traditional film and modern digital cameras. Customers consist of camera manufacturers, photo retailers, schools, institutions, government entities and retail consumers. C.R.I.S. is also the North American distributor for Kyoritsu Electric Company a manufacturer of camera and video test instruments and the exclusive North American camera service center for Ricoh Corporation.

C.R.I.S. also distributes mercury battery adapters for classic and collectable cameras and repair parts and accessories for Sigma brand lenses. The business was founded in southern California the fall of 1984 and strategically relocated to Chandler, Arizona in 1990.

"The imaging industry is evolving; consumer demand and new technology have pushed traditional service businesses into uncharted areas. By investing in technology and creating new processes, C.R.I.S. became an innovator in managing service and repair," said Mark Treadwell, President and CEO of C.R.I.S. "Even though we are recognized for revenue growth by Inc., where we've really grown is in our ability to change as fast as our industry".

The 2007 Inc. 5,000, as revealed online at www.inc.com,reported median revenue of $9.4 million and median three-year growth of 140 percent. Complete information on this year's Inc. 5,000, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.The list features a profile for each company, almost all of them written as a result of Inc. interviews with management. In addition, the list is searchable according to numerous criteria, including industry, city, state, region, and year founded.

Hottest Regions for Fastest-Growing Companies Leading the list of the fastest-growing companies in the nation is the Midwest region with 1,046 of the fastest-growing companies, followed by the West with 884 companies. The Southeast comes in a close third, with 872 companies, followed by the Northeast with 782 companies, and the Mid-Atlantic region with 606 companies.

Hottest Industries for Fastest-Growing Businesses The largest business category is Construction, with 561 of the fastest-growing companies in this category, followed by Manufacturing with 515 companies, IT services in third with 466 companies, Business Services with 377 companies and Advertising & Marketing with 349 companies round out the top five industries ranked on the 2007 Inc. 5,000.


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First we need to look at the definition of Grey Market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_market. Now that we know al...(Read More)

First we need to look at the definition of Grey Market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_market.Now that we know all of the details of Grey marketing, let’s start.

If all is fair in business as long you don’t break a law, then Grey market products don’t hurt anyone. Everybody wins! The dealer gets a better margin, the frugal consumer gets lower than ‘street’ price, even the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) wins because their product was sold in the first place. What’s better, the regional authorized distributor (many times the OEM subsidiary) is blissfully unaware that the sale even happened! What can go wrong with this sweet deal? A few things at least…Buyer Beware!

In today’s world of cutting edge digital imaging technology, many products share resources, connectivity and interaction. Because of this a myriad of issues regarding technical support and compatibility come into play regularly. Many times these issues require manufacturer authorized support. What if just a few months after purchase the product fails to operate or begins to function incorrectly? Once again, requires authorized support for warranty repair or technical support.

What is authorized support? Services that the authorized distributor has the internal resources for or has contracted out to an independent service center that then is designated ‘Authorized’. Authorized support can mean registering at the OEM website for firmware upgrades and/or voice technical support all the way to repair of the product even for a known production defect. This in essence is the entire ‘Authorized’ product: Camera/Device, advertisement, packaging, accessories, warranty, technical information & support.

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