| The Origin
ESP technology was invented to solve a problem in the document imaging industry. Canon’s first entry into the “segment 5” copier market, then dominated by Xerox, Kodak, and IBM, was the 7550. Their strategy was to be the lowest priced copier in the segment, and to meet this goal the 7550 needed to yield 25,000 copies between calls (CBC). High CBC means low operating costs.
The copier employed a newly developed integrated circuit technology that was extremely high- end for the time – similar to what was being used in early computers. This allowed Canon to build a machine that was more electronic and less mechanical than anything else in the market. It made the 7550 smaller, less expensive to manufacture, and easier to service.
It looked like Canon had a winner! Lower selling price and lower operating costs meant Canon could become a formidable force in the segment. Canon dealers were very excited and the 7550 launched to great fanfare.
| The Problem
Soon after the 7550’s release, Copier Distributor in Vancouver received a call from their best customer Calgary Copier. They were field testing the Canon 7550 and rather than the expected 25,000 copies between service calls, the machines were only getting five or six thousand. With such a high frequency of service calls the machine would not be profitable and customer satisfaction would suffer.
Calgary Copier determined that the 7550 was performing poorly because of sensitivity to "dirty" electrical power. To correct the problem, they tried installing a large, heavy, $1,200 Tycor power filter on every 7550 sold. This was the only option available at the time and soon proved illogical.
Calgary Copier asked the owners of Copier Distributor to fly to Tycor’s headquarters in Calgary and sign a deal with them to distribute Tycor’s product to all Canon dealers in the country. In return, they were hoping it would reduce the price to make it cost-effective.
Copier Distributor became the exclusive distributor of Tycor in the Canadian copier market and eventually got the price down to $350. More importantly, the seed was planted for the development of a new power filter.
| The Solution
The Tycor power filter was still expensive, heavy, difficult to install, and only provided adequate protection. Copier Distributor saw an opportunity and formed Electronic Systems Protection (ESP) in 1985.
They enlisted the services of an electrical engineer to design a low-cost, lightweight device that could solve the power problems that were wreaking havoc on the newly computerized copiers. They called the breakthrough product the Digital QC. It offered advanced Multi-Stage surge protection and EMI/RFI noise filtration that was superior to anything in the market. Plus, it weighed only three pounds and, at approximately $100, had a much lower price. It quickly became a standard part of every new copier installation for Canon dealers.
In short time, the other copier manufacturers were introducing their own microprocessor-based copiers. With the same sensitivity to power disturbances, they also began installing the Digital QC to protect their copiers, improve service profitability, and customer satisfaction. The Digital QC was becoming a standard part of copier installations.
By the early 1990’s copier dealers and manufacturers were buying the Digital QC in large numbers, and ESP moved its offices from Vancouver to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park area to focus on the larger U.S. market.
| Raising the Stakes
Building upon the success of the Digital QC, ESP has taken power protection to the next level by including predictive analytics software in select products that monitor, identify, analyze, and provide solutions to resolve power issues that can cause equipment error-codes, malfunctions and downtime. The software gives visibility and control into the power conditions at a customer’s site by gathering and analyzing data to facilitate root cause discussions with affected customers. It interprets the data into key metrics and trends, and baselines the factors which influence equipment operation, damage conditions, and inefficiencies. It is the only software in the document imaging industry that identifies the potential cause of power issues and gives solutions to resolve them.
ESP also offers remote IP connectivity to the predictive analytical software, allowing service teams the ability to remotely monitor and diagnose power issues. It allows technicians to view the history of power events, monitor live data, download time-stamped reports, diagnose disturbances, and reboot/recycle power via any web or mobile device. They can instantly analyze and react to problems without having to make a costly service call.
In addition, ESP offers compact solutions for desktop devices, three-phase power protection for industrial equipment, step down transformers to quickly resolve power voltage issues, and sag elimination devices to supplement voltage during a sag.
| The Clear Leader
In the current power quality landscape, not many players can demonstrate the ability to render end to end solutions. ESP stands out in this aspect thanks to its complete line of power quality hardware, software, and 30 plus years of managed services that allow its customers to deal with a single supplier. In contrast to most players in the market who just focus on power protection devices, ESP goes beyond that by partnering with customers on an ongoing basis. To further strengthen this process, ESP has maintained an ever-growing library of analytics to help enhance their actionable business intelligence capabilities, thereby improving insights into power issues and giving them a strong edge over the competition.
ESP provides the highest level of power protection, analytical data, innovation, and client support to reduce equipment lockups, reboots, malfunction, downtime and service calls that can drain a company’s profitability.
In business and industry, ESP has been the clear choice to safeguard mission-critical electronic equipment since 1985.
