Nick Booth (CRN)

11 Jan 2008

The Slough-based printermanufacturer teamed with two of its key resellers, the F1 Group and theLandscape Group, at last week’s British Education Training Technology (Bett)show to highlight ways in which schools and colleges can benefit fromhigh-quality printing.

“Schools are becoming power users in terms ofdesign and graphics and our solutions all come with a free Oki Template Managerthat covers many eventualities,” said Oki communications manager, Nadia Nizar.

The key platforms Oki used to show off these capabilities at Bett werethe Oki C5950, C8800 and C9650 products.

According to Ewa Johnson,marketing director at Oki, schools stand to benefit more than any other sectorfrom efficient printing solutions. Johnson told CRN: “The ability to outputhigh-quality colour documents on demand allows schools to save money, whileengaging and inspiring pupils and helping teachers to plan class work moreeffectively.”

However, sources at Oki’s top reseller - Manchester-basedPrinterland, which has recorded a £15m turnover - believes this may notnecessarily be the vendor’s top selling point.

James Kight, managingdirector of Printerland, said: “Schools do not have support staff, so they aredesperately grateful for equipment that is reliable. I would say thereliability, service and performance are major selling points and havecontributed to our success.” A good printer sits quietly in the background anddoes not consume the user’s time and money, keeping costs to a minimum, Kightadded. The strengths of the Template Manager software should not be underplayedthough, cautioned Kight. “It takes all the hassle out of printing and design andit has helped us thrive in the education sector,” he added.