Unisys uses 600 Oki printers for rollout of PIT programme

In a move that brings government closer to its ideal of delivering services electronically, Unisys recently announced that it successfully rolled out 600 Public Internet Terminals (PITs) to post offices throughout the country during the course of 2004.

"The PITs, designed by Unisys following the successful rollout of a similar project in Brazil, feature e-mail, Internet access, a fingerprint reader, touch screen, smart card reader, video camera and microphone," explains Tony Volker, area sales director at Unisys Africa.

"Users are identified through either biometrics or using a smart card and are able to use the smart card to pay for services, access government forms online, print them for completion and submit them to government offices," Volker says.

At this point, Volker says that although the technology solution has been delivered to the South African Post Office (SAPO), the final deployment is at the sole discretion of SAPO. Plans are however afoot to get the solution up and running in the near future and for more of the same solutions to be rolled out to prospective sites," Volker says.

Because of differences in terms of voltage between the Brazilian and South African power systems however, some peripherals and components needed to be sourced and replaced locally, including the PIT`s internal power supply and printer units.

"Oki printers were selected for the rollout because of the quality and reliability they have become well known for. We found the Oki printers to deliver on all of Printacom`s promises and were the only units that fitted perfectly into the PIT units` form factor."

Peter Vieira, manager of Printacom`s Oki Corporate Solutions Division says that other factors that supported Unisys in the selection of the Oki B4300 as the printer of choice centred on tight delivery deadlines, a good form-factor and features that correspond with the original Oki Page14EX printer used for the Brazilian PIT rollout.

"Our recommendation of the Oki B4300 was to a great degree swayed by the fact that its paper exit path was a direct match to the paper exit path of the Page14EX, an important consideration in light of the fact that the PITs are enclosed in a Kiosk environment and deigned to be compact," Vieira says.

Managing the delivery of 600 of these printers in a little over a month and a half was no mean feat however. Vieira says that meeting Unisys` delivery requirements meant air freighting the units to South Africa at substantial additional cost to Printacom.

"At the end of the day, it boils down to commitment to our customers` needs," Vieira continues. "We had made a commitment to Unisys and sticking to our promises is something that we hold core to our company culture."

With this programme due to continue during the course of 2005, Vieira says Printacom is sure of the fact that its partnership with Unisys will continue.

"By showing our commitment to Unisys, I believe we have set the stage for a long and healthy relationship. The programme also ties in with many of Printacom`s aspirations for community development and transformation. Being involved in a programme such as this has been a truly rewarding experience," he concludes.