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A young woman is working on a digital printing machine.

Case study: Alta Systems

Reinvigorating digital business, customer confidence and employee morale.

Alta systems logo
 
 

Challenge

 

Challenge

 
Man working in printing factory
Alta Systems could no longer suffer their printers being down anywhere from several days to several weeks, putting the digital side of their business at risk. With the leases on their two monochrome printers set to expire, Alta Systems was ready for replacement production units.

However, we knew that just replacing the monochrome printers wouldn’t completely solve Alta System’s issues. There was another key problem: disjointed workflows. The controllers installed on all of their digital presses couldn’t talk to each other, and there was no way to easily transfer files from system to system.
 
 

"The real difference between Ricoh and everyone else is the astounding service level we receive."

Rick Nesbit
Owner
Alta Systems

 
 
 

Solution

 

Solution

 
 

We knew that Alta Systems could soar with the right technology and support.

 
 
Our team replaced Alta Systems’ problem-prone monochrome printers with a pair of RICOH Pro 8100se black-and-white production printers. This system produces crisp, clear images at 1200 x 4800 dpi resolution and can output 95 pages per minute (ppm).

But hardware was just one part of the solution. To improve the workflows throughout its digital shop, we installed Fiery® SeeQuence Suite and Fiery® JobMaster™ PDF-based makeready software on the new digital production printers. SeeQuence integrates intuitive tools for document imposition and composition, automating and simplifying preparation tasks while reducing job set-up times.

We were able to deliver redundancy, higher productivity and a common, centralized workflow at a significantly lower cost than Alta Systems had been paying to lease the competitor’s systems. In fact, we even bought out the remaining leases so Alta Systems could get the new printers in place quicker.

The savings brought by our solutions encouraged Alta Systems to add a RICOH Pro C7100X colour production printer to its digital fleet. The Pro C7100X prints up to 80 colour ppm with up to 1200 x 4800 dpi resolution, offers a fifth colour station and can print on a variety of media, including synthetics, envelopes and textures.

After installation, we conducted lunch-and-learn training sessions with Alta Systems’ staff to show them the new way to design jobs for the new digital presses. Alta Systems’ sales staff also attended the training sessions to learn about the new products they could offer customers and grow their digital business.
 

About Alta Systems

Alta Systems, Inc. in Gainsville, Florida was founded as Southern Press by Rick Nesbit in 1983 with a single-color press and a vertical camera. Today, the organization has evolved to specialize in marketing and communication needs including fine printing, digital printing, graphic design, direct mail campaigns and book publishing.

 
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Download PDF
 
 

Result

With reliable printing technology and a unified workflow solution in place, Alta Systems has grown their client base and digital printing volume. In fact, their digital business is now growing faster than their traditional offset base.

The new Pro C7100X has introduced many new capabilities for Alta Systems to showcase and sell. For example, they can now print business cards on linen stock with digital technology, rather than the more expensive offset presses. They can also go after the five-color market, using the fifth station to print white or clear. Covers can be printed in color on the offset press with aqueous coating and then shifted to the Pro C7100X to print text with no bleeding. The possibilities are seemingly endless.

“We’re not afraid. We’ll print anything now,” said Nesbit. “As our customers learn about our new capabilities, they are creating new uses for us.”

Alta Systems’ employees took to the new technology right away. Designers were eager to learn the new way to design for the Ricoh systems and operators were equally thrilled by the user-friendly, unified workflow and reliable printers that made their jobs easier and improved their productivity.

“Getting rid of the negativity has been the best part of this whole thing,” said Nesbit. Alta Systems’ cut-sheet sales staff has also been invigorated by their new digital capabilities. They no longer have to explain delayed or missed deadlines. Customers are eager to learn what Alta Systems can do to make their information shine — at a fraction of the cost.

“Our sales team is so happy showing off our work and talking up our company now,” said Nesbit. “We even had one customer who hadn’t used us in eight years come back.”

Since installing the new Ricoh production printers, Alta Systems has had virtually no production problems and the systems run as promised. Now equipped with a unified workflow for all its digital systems, operators have one central location to pull jobs from and conduct pre-press steps.

As someone who values service above all else, Nesbit gives Ricoh the highest marks. In fact, he has shared his experiences with his printing peers and he says everyone he talks to is installing Ricoh systems.

“I do believe the Ricoh printers are awesome, but the real difference between Ricoh and everyone else is the professional service. It’s astounding the difference in service level we get from Ricoh compared to other vendors. And I’ve had every vendor there is in here.”