Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Carol Sabbagha with Lehman Brothers. Please state your question.
Carol Sabbagha - Lehman Brothers
Good morning. Thanks. Sort of quick question on the economy here in the US. What did you see in the quarter? Other companies in the sector are talking about weakness as the quarter progressed so the latter part was worse than the beginning part. Just your view of that and where you think it's going to go going forward?
Matt Espe
Good morning Carol. When we started our fiscal year in our first quarter we talked about getting ready for and planning for a challenging environment. It's proven to be challenging. We see it I guess in two ways.
Number one; we see the same trends in the second quarter that we saw in the first quarter, in terms of the lengthening sales cycles on large deals. So when we are talking about national account or major account deals, those sales cycles are extended as they were in our first quarter.
And I guess the second thing we look at as an indicator of the economy, is a slight decrease in output on our machines. So page volume down slightly. So those two things will tell us that the challenging environment we expected to see, we are in fact seeing.
Carol Sabbagha - Lehman Brothers
And my other question is, since the last time we had this call there has been some distributor consolidation in the industry. What is your current view right now on the landscape?
Matt Espe
Well, obviously, Konica buying Danke is a bit of news. We expect Danke to be a stronger competitor with the Konica investment. Konica continues to be a valued supplier and partner to us. So we think that we are uniquely positioned now as the only or at least the largest and strongest independent distributor.
Carol Sabbagha - Lehman Brothers
Does this bring your relationship with Canon any closer?
Matt Espe
Yes. We have a ongoing strong relationship with Canon anyway. And clearly, some of the channel dynamics can result in us even improving our integration.
Carol Sabbagha - Lehman Brothers
Do you think you can leverage your unique position right now for better pricing from Canon going forward?
Matt Espe
Well, I wouldn't want to comment specifically on discussions we have going on with Canon with respect to pricing. But I would tell you that the commercial integration between us and Canon, frankly between us and Ricoh are stronger than ever.
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