The agreement is for 15 duplex InfoPrint 5000 GP color inkjet systems and the first is already up and running at First Data’s Omaha, NE facility.

First Data serves more than 6m merchant locations, thousands of card issuers and millions of consumers worldwide and company officials said in a recent release that the new InfoPrint 5000 GPs will enable drop-on-demand color printing, eliminating the need to store pre-printed color stock or destroy obsolete stock and allowing First Data customers to tailor statements with customized messages and offers.

"As part of a planned migration, we asked to receive our first printers within four months from order and add the remainder over the course of about a year," Tim Rosenthal, First Data senior VP for Output Services told PrintWeek. "Operators have also had color management training, with access to a Ricoh expert along the entire migration path."

Ricoh has been working with First Data for years making this sale a large, but logical, next step. But Chris Cosgrove, VP/ general manager for Ricoh’s Central and Western US operation, suggested the impact of such a major sale could reach far beyond just the two companies.

"A deployment of this size will surely be a topic of conversation with other existing and potential customers moving forward," said Cosgrove.