Article courtesy of Sign Africa.com 17 January 2012

 

 

Nicola Bisset, Group Managing Director, said, ‘Optimus Cloud was borne
out of extensive research and demand from different Print Sectors
worldwide. We are entering a new age, whereby a seamless and intuitive
approach to simplifying and automating print purchasing and having
instant access to information, is increasingly being considered by print
buyers as mandatory. Equally, print providers continue to look at
finding solutions to assist them in cutting unnecessary costs through
automation, plus finding ways of keeping customer loyalty.’

The product has been designed to combat issues faced by Print Providers
using traditional on-line ordering tools which are largely used in
isolation. Although a good experience for the buyer, the Print Provider
incurs enormous hidden costs in unnecessary administration and
duplication which is error prone and costly. Optimus Cloud seamlessly
integrates with Optimus dash and Optimus 2020, eradicating these issues.

The product takes a holistic approach to viewing stock availability and
ordering stock items, the raising of fully specified production jobs,
the automated production of fast quotations and the automatic receipt of
orders. It also allows customers to view previous jobs and invoices,
plus the status of active jobs. This all adds up to an automated system
for the Print Provider with significantly less drain on staff resources;
and for the printers’ customer, a completely transparent and fully
functional system that covers every aspect of their dealings with their
Print Provider.
Optimus Cloud is the next generation of complete on-line trading for Print Providers and their customers.

Optimus Cloud Suite of Modules includes:

Optimus Cloud Variable Data Orders powered by NxPublisher

 

Going far beyond business cards and stationery products, the product
offers seamless integration with Adobe InDesign by using idml, the
xml-format of Adobe Indesign. Ordered products can be downloaded as
PDF’s or Adobe Indesign files, ensuring that the Print Provider can
post-process with Adobe Indesign. The intelligent image server can
handle most formats; gif, png, jpeg, bmp and even vector based eps.

Print Providers are able to import and export their customer specific
Indesign templates into Optimus Cloud Variable Data Orders Module. The
customer can access the templates and directly edit, save, delete and
order their products. Copy, paste and undo/redo, make the editor
suitable for complex designs with all changes being immediately visible
in WYSIWYG.

Optimus Cloud Variable Data Orders editor’s possibilities are almost
limitless and support editing of: text, polygons, transparency,
alignment, rotation and a lot more.

 

 

After the customer has completed modifications of the template, they
simply click the order button. The product is then ordered and moved to
their shopping cart for final order submission. The order is then
automatically converted within Optimus dash into a full production job. A
print ready PDF file is also generated and is submitted to the Print
Providers pre-press system or digital press; the customer then receives
notification that the order has been received. All processes are
completed with no intervention from the Print Provider.

Optimus Cloud Fast Orders

 

To unify and give customers complete control of their branding, the
product allows Print Provider to ‘post’ thumbnails of standard static
products. The customer can search and identify the products they wish to
order, complete the number required and click to order, these items
will then appear in their shopping cart for final order submission. Once
submitted, the order is then automatically converted within Optimus
dash into a full production job. The customer then receives notification
that the order has been received. All processes are completed with no
intervention from the Print Provider.

 

 

This has been specifically designed to enable Print Providers to offer
finished goods available to order on-line. The customer is able to view
stock levels to ensure there are sufficient finished goods available for
their order, if not; the customer can simply re-order the items
required. Again, the items will appear in the customer's shopping cart
for final order submission. Once ordered, the requirement will appear
within Optimus dash or Optimus 2020 with an order confirmation going
back to the customer. A sales order will then automatically be raised
within the Optimus systems ready for fulfillment. All processes are
completed with no intervention from the Print Provider!

Optimus Cloud Fast Quotes

 

The award winning attributes of Optimus dash have been incorporated into
the user experience for the Print Buyer. Harnessing the power and
unrivalled flexibility of the dash Sales Enquiry System, Fast Quotes
provides instant, accurate and consistent quotations of products
specified within Optimus dash, to the Print Buyer.

It provides the Print Buyer with a price on screen; the Print Buyer can
request a hard copy or place the order with a simple click. The order
will then appear in the customer shopping cart for final submission.
Once submitted, the order will automatically appear in Optimus dash as
either a full production job or can be held in an order queue for a
final check. All processes are completed with no intervention from the
Print Provider.

 

Optimus Cloud Customer View

All information available to the customer is a filtered and controlled
view of the information which resides within Optimus dash or Optimus
2020.  All customer views and access are completed with no intervention
from the Print Provider.

Optimus Cloud has been built as a modular system, in keeping with the
Optimus ethos that one size does not fit all. However Optimus has
ensured that in designing the system, the end user experience is
completely seamless. This means the Print Buyer is able to complete
multiple tasks and order multiple products from each part of the system
easily and intuitively, all within one order.

 

 

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