Johannesburg, 05 May 2005
With a strong focus on the sale of prepaid airtime for the cellular telephony market, Smartcall Cellular last year custom-built a solution that allowed its customers throughout SA to print prepaid vouchers on-demand, using multi-part stationery and dot matrix printers.
While this move allowed the company to make massive savings in the production of prepaid vouchers (vouchers were previously bought directly from the telco), the tremendous growth in the cellular telephony market meant that demand for prepaid airtime also increased. Consequently the majority of Smartcall`s customers quickly outgrew their dot matrix printers, which were struggling to cope with the increased workloads.
Kees Snijders, systems architect at Smartcall, says: "The current dot matrix printers were producing 2 000 vouchers per hour, per customer. In terms of current workload, our customers produce anywhere between 5 000 and 20 000 vouchers per day, making the use of dot matrix printers a time consuming exercise," says Snijders. "With the implementation of the custom-built solution we are able to print the vouchers at 10% of the original cost supplied by the telco."
The solution was built to use multi-part stationery and therefore it was clear that the company needed an impact printer that could meet its requirements for performance and volume. "The best route forward appeared to be replacing all the dot matrix printers with line printers. This way we would meet the volume requirements and at the same time benefit from the most competitive cost per printed page," says Snijders.
The company decided on a line printer strategy, and went in search of a single brand to standardise on. "We needed to ensure our custom-built solution could work with the brand selected and that our customers would have a single point of contact for all of their printer-related support issues.
"Our investigation into the market revealed TallyGenicom as the most reliable, cost-effective and respected brand in the market. One of the key deciding factors was also the speed with which Tallycom, local brand representative for TallyGenicom, responded to our request for a demo unit in the space of a day," Snijders explains.
After testing the TallyGenicom line printer with the Smartcall solution, Snijders says no modifications to source code were necessary and their customers could switch to using a line printer without undergoing any reconfiguration or hassle.
"Straight away, the TallyGenicom T6100 became our line printer of choice. The production capability of each customer has increased tenfold and many now have the ability to print 20 000 vouchers in the space of an hour," Snijders says.
"Eight TallyGenicom printers were supplied to Smartcall customers nationwide," says David Terry, general manager of Tallycom, "resulting in a big win for the TallyGenicom brand and the line printer market in general."
Sales, installation and support was handled through various Tallycom partners in the local market.
"It`s clear that more and more customers are realising the benefits of the line printer being the fastest and cheapest way of putting ink onto paper. For Smartcall and their customers, this has meant a massive reduction in cost of sales and a tangible difference to their bottom line," adds Terry.
"While market commentators keep spelling the death of impact printing, line printers are achieving good growth rates and unseating laser printers at the high-end. Whether it`s in the financial sector, retail sector or cellular airtime market, it`s clear that the TallyGenicom line printer range has become the most sought-after brand and one that truly delivers on its commitment to quality, reliability, lowest TCO and above all, performance," Terry concludes.
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