Johannesburg, 28 Sep 2010
Bytes Document Solutions, authorised Xerox distributor to 27 sub-Saharan countries, has sold the first Xerox Colour Press 1000 in South Africa to Edu-Printers, the official in-house printer for Seyfferdt Publishers and OBE Publishers.
Edu-Printers purchased the Xerox Colour 1000 Press for a new printing contract with a large client in the mining sector, and will expand its new quality and service capability into other markets, most notably photo-books, once it takes delivery of the Xerox Colour 1000 Press mid-September.
“The Colour 1000 Press, together with our passionate staff, has allowed us to expand our service offering to current clients at unprecedented levels of quality. But we need good support to ensure that the machine is available and that our staff can make use of it. Without Piet Grobler's excellent service from Xerox East Rand, that simply wouldn't be possible,” says Sonja Groenewald, CEO of Edu-Printers, one of the six companies owned and managed by Groenewald.
“For a large client in the mining sector, we are printing some of their worldwide training material. All of our clients, though, demand exceptional colour quality and internationally competitive service levels that the Colour 1000 Press helps us to achieve.”
The press, which prints at 100ppm, produces high-definition image quality at 2400 x 2400 dpi, on a wide range of paper stock - from 55 to 350gsm. It has a clear, dry ink or toner option that Edu-Printers selected, that intensifies full colour jobs and allows images and text to be highlighted for enhanced, vibrant visual impact or digital 'watermarks'. Watermarks can be used for both artistic effect and security. The clear toner is also used to produce a clear varnish effect on prints which can be applied either as a spot coating or flood coating, even on a page-by-page basis, something that is impossible to do with an offset litho process.
The press is also FOGRA-certified, which demonstrates that a printer can consistently meet precise international standards using measurable criteria for printing and proofing to a stringent, defined tolerance.
“In some cases the press surpasses the quality of print we get off some offset jobs and the digital format means it's unbeatable by litho in print-on-demand applications,” says Groenewald.
“About 80% of Edu-Printers' business is in the education market,” says Barry Hasleham, digital print sales specialist, Bytes Document Solutions. “The curriculum changes all the time and Edu-Printers needs to be flexible to the needs of its customers in that respect, which only the digital format allows.”
Edu-Printers investigated other options before settling on the Xerox Colour 1000 Press. The nearest rival was HP's Indigo.
Operational considerations, service and finishing options were the deciding factors in Edu-Printers opting for the Xerox solution.
“With the Indigo you need a highly skilled operator, someone more akin to the litho environment,” says Groenewald. “Another consideration is that we know we can rely on the Xerox service. We've been a customer for 18 years and have always been able to rely on them. The Colour 1000's finishing options integrate easily while with the Indigo you need to rely on HP partners for the finishing options.”
“The Colour 1000 Digital Press offers a wide range of finishing options,” says Paul Haglich, marketing manager of the production systems group in the Xerox division at Bytes Document Solutions. They include a GBC Advanced Punch, High Capacity Stacker, single or dual, with removable carts, Xerox Standard Finisher with optional C-Z Folder or Booklet Maker Finisher and SquareFold Trimmer. Future options include the Xerox Tape Binder, GBC eBinder 200.
It also offers two 2 000-sheet trays positioned below the print engine, providing a smaller footprint compared with competitive systems and an optional High-Capacity Feeder with two additional trays that can increase capacity to 8 000 sheets.
Due to the numerous Xerox printers Edu-Printers uses, East Rand Document Solutions maintains an onsite technician at the customer's premises to ensure uninterrupted work in the 24 x 7 environment.
Groenewald says preventative maintenance is key to maximising machine uptime but that East Rand Document Solutions resolves any issues rapidly with as little interruption as possible to work.
“If ever we've had an issue in the past - of which there have been few because of the onsite technician doing preventative maintenance - East Rand Document Solutions and Bytes Document Solutions have ensured that we get the spare parts we need, even if they have to take the parts out of one of their own machines or even loan us a whole new press,” she says.
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