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University of Stellenbosch upgrades with Optio products from SPI

SPI, the sole Sub-Saharan distributor for Optio Software, today announced that the University of Stellenbosch recently purchased Optio e.ComIntegrate and Optio Design Studio from SPI to help reduce the printing costs associated with the university's administration.

"We have had many issues with our printing requirements over the past few years, especially with the use of overlays and/or pre-printed forms," commented Elizabeth de Beer, Head of Finance and Management Systems at The University of Stellenbosch.

"Historically, we used macros that had to be loaded on printer flash RAM, which was not only was a costly exercise but also had a negative impact on our productivity. The very nature of our business meant that we had printers at remote sites and when we experienced Macro problems, a skilled technician would have to drive out and reload or replace the flash RAM. This was extremely inefficient and unproductive, and, as more and more forms were being used, we needed to purchase additional flash RAM; a costly exercise."

"Optio e.ComIntegrate has given us the option of now selecting the appropriate means of delivery," continued De Beer." This has proved to be very effective, since on many occasions we are now able to utilise e-mail, thus providing documentation that is more professional and creating a solution that no longer requires user intervention.

"Utilising the software from Optio has allowed us to transform the way we do business," concluded De Beer.

"As a direct result, many of our existing documents and workflow processes will change, thus enabling us to benefit from the associated cost savings of both time and physical paper costs that were previously associated with our pre-printed stationary approach. In addition, delivery of relevant documents is almost instantaneous. We look forward to the next phase of the project, which is aimed at the student debit system, since this is where we expect to see our biggest savings. Being able to e-mail statements directly to students and/or their sponsors will have a major impact as no more postage and printing costs will be incurred. In addition, our cash flow should improve, as the statements will be delivered more timeously. All in all, Optio has given us a new and professional approach to the way that we do our printing and distribution."

"We specialise in the provision of utility software that can directly impact the effectiveness and efficiency of organisations," added Gil Bauman, Technical Director of SPI. "It's extremely gratifying to see real financial benefits being realised through the use of the software we have provided and look forward to the University of Stellenbosch seeing additional financial results being realised as they enter their next phase of operations."

For further information, please contact Chris Anderson at telephone +27 11 234 1560; fax +27 11 234 1387; e-mail chris@spi.co.za.

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SPI

SPI is a company that provides utility software products and services to the open systems segment of the IT industry. It is the sole sub-Saharan Africa distributor for US-based FacetCorp, US-based Innovative Routines, UK-based-Open Systems Management, USA-based Optio Software and UK-based Xi Software. SPI is also the sales agent for UK-based Metron and develops some of its own software utilities to complement the overseas products that it distributes.

SPI has a wide and varied customer base and includes organisations such as Aspen Pharmacare, Johannesburg Municipality, Johannesburg University, Metropolitan Health Group, Nampak, National Brands, Stellenbosch University, UCT and UNISA.

Editorial contacts

Paul Booth
Global Research Partners
(082) 568 1179
pabooth@mweb.co.za
Chris Anderson
SPI Group
(011) 234 1560
chris@spi.co.za