First Océ Prémia Class in South Africa sold to corporate identity specialist

Founded in 2004, The Design Oriented Team (DOT) has been concerned about the environment from the outset. In line with the firm's ongoing commitment to being green, DOT recently acquired the first Océ Prémia Class wide format machine to be sold in South Africa.

“We were looking for a wide format system that was sustainable that would contribute towards reducing our carbon footprint as a company. Océ was able to supply us with a TDS400 wide format printer that has been remanufactured from recovered parts and modules,” explains DOT's Dherendra (DJ) Komal.

DOT is also considering changing to recycled paper, as the TDS400 is able to print on a wide range of media.

Océ products are designed for years of disruption-free operations, and are usually in good condition for a second life, which they embark upon as part of the Océ Prémia Class. They are also an environmental choice for the working environment, because they use less energy, produce less waste, produce virtually no ozone emissions and run very quietly.

DOT provides a project management and professional consultancy service to company with geographically dispersed outlets. The primary goal is to assist companies to establish and maintain a uniform corporate identity at all of their outlets. DOT operates in an extremely niche market, focusing primarily on financial institutions, the petroleum industry and telecommunications operators in Africa.

Komal adds: “We take the client's existing corporate identity and implement it, ensuring that it remains consistent across all of the client's operations countrywide.”

DOT's offering to its clients includes three-dimensional graphic and industrial design, detailed engineering design, site surveys, contractual documentation and tendering, design application and costing. Each stage requires the production of documents, usually within a tight turnaround time, which means that speed, quality and productivity are of utmost importance to DOT.

Once DOT has received a design brief from the customer, the team produces a working print pack, which is essential to the project's success. This pack then has to be replicated so that each participant in the project can have a set of drawings. The type of detail that such a pack typically entails includes the wet works, dry walling layouts, furniture colour, type and placement, electrical and mechanical detail and other technical specifications. They also indicate floor and wall finishes, ceilings, and where relevant, the positioning of safes and ATMs.

DOT's detailed drawings also address fire compliancy, signage and branding – the latter both inside and outside the mall or shopping centre – ensuring that it is compliant with the client's brand identity.

According to Komal, DOT has received outstanding service from Océ. He says: “Although we have a relatively small operation, Océ immediately realised the importance of our print room.”

The Océ TDS400 requires no warm up time, contributing to DOT's efficiency in getting client documents out on time. A consistent print speed of three metres per minute, and a two-roll capability means that DOT can print high volumes without changing rolls, and that the customer can print different sized prints in a single run.

Furthermore, the documents produced by DOT include large amounts of fine detail and various line types, and therefore, good quality scanning is vital to DOT in order to accurately reflect all of the fine detail. The TDS400's reduction type scanner gives DOT the ability to scan this detail and have a clean, small archive file with no loss of detail, Komal explains.

An Océ supporter from the very beginning, the DOT print room boasts the newly acquired Océ TDS400 Prémia Class, an Océ TDS300 and an Océ 7056 analogue copier that can take two paper rolls. The latter is purely used to make copies of council plans, while the TDS300 still works perfectly and has the capability to scan to file. DOT is in the process of archiving its documents in an attempt to move away from paper as part of the company's green drive. Digitising the paperwork will also reduce the amount of storage space required for archived documents.

Komal explains that one of the things that particularly appeals to DOT about its dealings with Océ is that the relatively small company is treated as though it is a large client and part of the greater Océ family. He further notes the fact that Océ has a dedicated wide format division, enabling it to offer outstanding service. The division is staffed by people who understand how important it is for the client to keep their plans going out.

Looking forward, Komal says that if the need arises, DOT will migrate to colour should customers start demanding colour plans and plots.

Océ South Africa's Chris van Breda concludes: “In summary, the Océ Prémia Class TDS400 is a cost-effective, energy-saving product that is sustainable in every way possible – from the recycled components within the machine itself, to the fact that it can print on recycled paper and is energy efficient. We hope that more of our customer follow DOT's lead and turn to Océ's second-life range as an environmentally-friendly solution.”

Notes to the editor

There are numerous photographs specific to this press release. Please visit http://media.ngage.co.za and click the Oce South Africa link. The photographs are listed underneath the heading 'First Océ Prémia Class in South Africa Sold to Corporate Identity Specialist'.

Océ South Africa

Océ is one of the world's leading suppliers of systems and services for digital printing and document management - from document creation and design through to distribution and archiving. Owing to their high quality, productivity and durability, Océ products are particularly suitable for environments where large numbers of documents are produced. Océ South Africa is the sole importer and distributor of the Océ product range.

Océ South Africa enables people to share information by offering products and services that are characterised by their productivity, reliability, durability and ease of use.

Source: Press release issued by Ngage Public Relations